Messy Mansion MM06: Damask

I was excited to try out my other Messy Mansion stamping plate, MM06. I tried the damask pattern this time. It's a little tricky to center on the nail, but I still think they turned out pretty.

I used China Glaze Flying Dragon for my base. I got a mini bottle on eBay. I'm glad I did get a mini and not a full size, because it takes longer than usual to dry, even with Seche Vite fast dry topcoat. I did 3 thin coats.

I've never had a problem with China Glaze's formula before... but this one was tricky to work with. It's a royal purple color with blue & pink micro glitter. It dries gritty & matte, so you need a topcoat to make it shiny. I stamped with Maybelline Color Show Metallic's in Bold Gold.

Left Hand no Flash:

Right Hand No Flash:

Right Hand Flash:


Messy Mansion Stamping Plates MM14 & MM06

Disclosure: The products above were purchased with my own money. I was not asked to blog about them.

P.S. I also did a little video showing how I paint my nails. Mostly because I get asked a lot how do I keep my nails so neat when painting. It's not really a tutorial, it was mainly to show people after painting my nails for 3 years straight every 1-2 weeks, I've developed a steady hand- so it is rare that I ever have to do more than swipe of a q-tip if I do get paint on my skin.

Now.... the only exception to that is doing a gradient or stamping... those are messy and you will get paint on your skin, I do! I don't have a tripod, so I balanced my camera on a book, lol. There's no sound... but you get the idea!


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Those Boy Rats!

The boy rats have kept things interesting here over the past few weeks. (I have 4 boy rats. Templeton, Teddy, Remy & Emile). First Teddy came down with a respiratory infection and had to be treated with antibiotics and separated from the other boys.

When Teddy finally rejoined the other guys, he decided he wanted to torment Emile (as usual), chase him around & fight him. Only this time their fighting got out of hand. The day after they had fought I picked up Emile to notice a scab on his one finger. At first I thought he had just torn off a fingernail fighting. But when I looked closer... he was missing half his finger!

Surprisingly, there was no blood anywhere in the cage, which is crazy. Because when a pet rat just pulls off a nail it bleeds like crazy. There was just a scab. I decided to separate Emile while his finger healed so he wouldn't pull the scab off accidentally. Less than 2 weeks later he is doing just fine, just missing part of his finger... though he doesn't seem to notice.

The 1st two pictures were right after it happened. He had a scab on the tip of his knuckle and it was a bit red & swollen:


The picture below was taken yesterday, (what's left) of his finger... is all healed.


Then... Saturday. A little after my husband had filled all the rat's food dishes up. We noticed Templeton was heaving/gagging and drooling. He must have choked on something, most likely a lab block. He gave us such a scare because the choking went on for at least 30 minutes. He would heave and gag and drool. It was terrifying. I would pound him light on his back and sides, we tried giving him an oral syringe with water. Eventually he started to regurgitate this food colored... drool... (gross I know, sorry- but may be helpful to another rat owner out there). I kept wiping it away with a tissue. He really gave me a heart attack.

About 40 minutes later he was doing much better, though sleepy. I got this cell phone photo of him napping in our emergency rat towel. I didn't want him to have anymore solid food that day so we gave him baby food sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner. Today he his back to his normal self, thank goodness!


Here are all of my boys. Photos I took today. :-)

   
Templeton. And Templeton below yawning... check out that crazy tongue!


Emile:

Teddy:

Remy:

And speaking of extra adorable things... check out Templeton sleeping on his back, on me the other day! The photos are from my Instagram: @tunaynamahal82




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RIP Belle: 12/25/11- 08/16/13

Just two weeks after Cherry passed away... we woke up Friday morning to find Belle had passed away during the night. When I woke up Baby Rat (Violet) was cuddled up next to Belle. Belle was our last little dumbo eared girl and the last of our adopted rats from Star's Rat Rescue.

We only had the girls a year. Cherry & Belle were born in the same litter at Star's Rat Rescue on Christmas day in 2011. They traveled 1,500 miles from South Dakota to Philadelphia when we adopted them last August.

Belle was always petite, she would run on the wheel a little bit. She was very spoiled in her elderly years always popping her head out of her hammock for a treat before any of the other girls got one. Belle was very frail and had one small mammary tumor on her chest in her old age.

 
 

We now currently have 4 boys and 4 girls, you can find their pictures on 'My Pet Rats' page. My Rainbow Bridge Angels are here.

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Messy Mansion Stamping Plates: Bird Cages

Two posts in one day! I couldn't help it... I really wanted to try out my other Messy Mansion stamping plate! I found Messy Mansion on Etsy, they make indie nail stamping plates. Messy Mansion is located in Australia, but it only took less than 1 week to get my order here in the USA. 

I ordered two stamping plates. MM14 has bird cages, birds, peacock feathers. And MM06 has Damask pattern, Chandeliers, Fleur di lis, etc. The plates are just a tad bigger than Konad or Winstonia Store plates. The engravings are nice and deep and transfer perfectly.

(You can click on the photos to enlarge them)
 I think MM14 is one of my most favorite stamping plates ever. So gorgeous!!!

Base is Philly Loves Lacquer: Adrian.
(In the setting sun)

 (In the shade)
I will definitely be ordering more Messy Mansion stamp plates in the future! 

Disclosure: The products above were purchased with my own money. I was not asked to blog about them.

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Philly Loves Lacquer Nail Polish!

While browsing photos on Instagram one night looking under different hash tags for nail polish, I came across Philly Love's Lacquer. A Philadelphia Indie Polish maker. Being a fellow Philly girl I was so excited! I don't know of any other indie polish makers in my hometown! (Philly Pride!)

I ordered the duo of Rocky & Adrian. Adrian is a sky blue with shimmer and Rocky is a gorgeous glitter, packed with blue, white, silver and holographic bar, stars & micro glitter. (Sadly they are out of stock at the moment. I hope she restocks the holo top coat 'It's Always Sunny'... sometime soon! I want!)

When my order arrived it was in such cute packaging! Shipping only took one day... but that's because I'm local and only a few zip codes away! :-p


Adrian is a bit thick, so I used 3 very thin coats and then I topped it with Seche Vite fast dry top coat. It's a very pretty sky blue! Rocky is awesome, the glitter comes out easily and you don't have to go digging very much at all to get a few stars out. I added a few fleur di lis from my new Messy Mansion stamping plate MM06. (More on these soon!)


 My new Messy Mansion nail stamp plates. Birds, Bird Cages, Fleur di lis', Damask... love these! I will have another blog post about these soon.


Disclosure: All of the products above were purchased with my own money. I was not asked to blog about them. 

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L.A. Girl DIY Nail Kit & Stamping.


After seeing swatches of this kit on Oh Three Oh Four blog, I had to have it. The colors are very me. And the price was right. You get four colors, a nail art brush and some chevron stickers for $3.99. There are actually 4 different kits, with different color combinations. You can find them online here at Cherry Culture, in stores at Rite Aid, or on eBay. I ordered mine from this seller.


 Nude, Brown, Gold Glitter & Aqua.


How Did They Apply?
  • Aqua was thicker but a bit streaky. I needed 3 coats. (It also stained my nails during removal.)
  • Brown was a bit runny, but I only needed 2 coats. 
  • The Gold Glitter is nice and thick, I only needed 2 coats. 
  • Nude was runny and took a bit longer to dry. I needed 3 coats. 

 These are my favorite colors out of the whole kit! The dark rich chocolate brown and the gorgeous gold glitter with holo sparkles in it. I love both of them! This was also my favorite design and one I've been wanting to do for awhile, I just never had the right colors. Winstonia Store stamping plate W113 & I used Maybelline Metallic's in Bold Gold to stamp with. Topcoat of Seche Vite.

The Aqua was hard to capture on camera, it's so bright in person. It was  overcast and rainy here today. I wish the stamping showed up a bit better, it's seashells from Winstonia Store stamping plate W108. I stamped with Maybelline Metallic's in Bold Gold. And a topcoat of Seche Vite.

I stamped with Winstonia Store stamping plate W108 and used Konad Special White Polish for the feathers. The nude is pretty, but I don't like it so much with the gold. The nude also takes the longest to dry, even with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

All in all, I really loved the colors in this DIY kit and price can't be beat. The quality of the polish is not bad either. I'm very happy with my purchase!

If you haven't already. Check out my Complete Nail Polish Collection!

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Cherry: 12/25/11 - 07/29/13

Cherry, one of my dumbo eared girls passed away this past Monday. When I woke up, she had already passed sometime during the night.
 
Cherry & Belle were adopted from Star's Rat Rescue of South Dakota last August. The girls traveled 1,500 miles to reach Philadelphia PA, thanks to a lot of great people that volunteered for the rat train. Cherry & Belle were born in the rescue on Christmas Day 2011.


Both the girls are elderly now, and both had mammary tumors. Cherry had two tumors, the one on her hip was getting quite large. But she was too frail and old to survive a tumor removal surgery. She was getting around okay on their one level cage, until she passed away the other morning.

Belle is now living with Buttercup, Baby Rat, Pumpkin, and Toffee after some intro's this past week. Buttercup was very territorial and that is why the dumbo girls never lived with her before.

♥♥♥ RIP Cherry ♥♥♥
 
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