Blog Giveaway! and Essie Polishes

If you've read this blog at all, you know that I LOVE nail polish.  I like looking at the colors and the styles and consistencies.  My favorites are China Glaze, but there are SO many other brands.  I read Kronicles of a Konader quite often, and right now, she's having a giveaway with Apothica for the ESSIE brand.  I don't use Essie too much.  I have Funky Limelight, which is a bright neon yellow you can see at right.  It's a little on the thin side and requires a few coats, but it is very bright when you get it on. 

Essie is one of the higher end brands, I've found, and they carry lots of shades of pink, purple, and red.  My favorite colors right now are "Damsel in a Dress," "Tart Deco," and "Martini in a Bikini." 

Apothica carries all these colors and more and can be found at the link above.  They have decent prices and a great rewards program.  I have to look through later today and see if I can decide on some colors, even if I don't get Essie, I know I'll get some good deals.  Kronicles of a Konader is having a giveaway in conjunction with Apothica, so be sure to stop by and leave her a comment and follow her blog.  With all those car engines and power lifting, she shows women that you don't have to have "girly girl" hobbies to look and feel like a beautiful woman!

It's That Time Again

If you know me at all, you know that November for me means 30 days of insanity.  November 1 through November 30 are what is not-so-commonly, but becoming more so, known as 

NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH!

You see, the goal is to write 50,000 words in one month -- it boils down to 1,667 words per day.  You start at 12:01 am November first and you don't stop writing until you reach 50 THOUSAND words or 12:00 midnight on November 30.  I'm not going to lie -- it's a huge undertaking and I've never reached the finish line.  I've gone half-way, but I still have a long way to go.  So far this year, I'm doing good.  I'm using the same story as last year, BUT, I'm retyping and adding to all of it as I go.  As of today, the 3rd day of the month, I'm 1,111 words AHEAD of schedule.  That's more than 8 times more than I was ahead last year at this time.  But, I can't slack now.  I'm ahead in the count, so I have to keep it up so that I don't fall behind if I get busy -- or worse, WRITERS BLOCK!  I know, it's enough to make me want to crawl under the bed and hide with the cats.  You can keep up with my statistics here:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/244761

And I'm going to try to update my blog from last year with the new chapters and totals, so be sure to stay tuned HERE as well.

http://katsnanowrimo10.blogspot.com/

AND:  A brief description editted from the Nano Site:  NanoWriMo is a seat-of-your-pants approach to novelling. We begin writing Nov.1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by Nov. 30. Valuing enthusiasm over craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel writing program for everyone who has thought about writing a novel but has been scared away. Because of the limited writing window, the ONE thing that matters is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, & write on the fly.

I'm still working out, as well -- except for a week last month when I was pretty damn sick,  but I walked on the weekends (13.5K) to make up for it.  Here are my totals for last month:

October 12 - 30 minutes;  October 13 - 8 flights of stairs; October 16 - 5:; 1 hour; October 18 - 3 flights of stairs; October 23 - 3.5K: 45 min; October 30 - 5K: 1 hour

My total for the entire month was 32.50 toward my supplies.

My totals for November so far:  November 1 - 8 flights of stairs;  November 3 - 3 flights of stairs;

So, blog o'sphere -- how is your writing coming??

Dirt Cake Cupcakes?

Today was an experiment in turning two different objects into one delicious dessert.  As you well know, I love cupcakes, but every Halloween, I make a dirt cake.  And I love dirt cake, it's gelatinous and sugary and diabetic coma inducing.  All my friends will eat until they're sick if I let them.  So today, after finding NO help on the inter-nets finding a way to make my dirtcake into cupcakes, I decided to try to make it on my own.  I had all the regular dirt cake ingredients on hand since I'm going to make a dirt cake next week, so I started with that and some Devil's Food cake mix I had in the cabinet.  Here's what I did:

1. Split about 24 oreos, (enough to line the bottom of your cupcake tins.  I made 24 from one box).
2. Use the half with the icing and line the bottom of your cupcake tins.  Crush the other halfs in a food processor or smashed in a plastic bag.
3. Mix the cupcakes according to the box, but before pouring it into the cups/tins, I mixed in about half of the crushed crumbs into the batter and mix well.
4. Divide into the cups and cook according to the box's instructions.  Once cooled, trim the tops of the cupcakes to a flat top for icing.  Afterward, cut holes into the top of the cupcakes.  I used a size 12 icing tip and punched holes and then used a 1/4 tsp scoop to take out the centers. (These make great snacks!)
5. Meanwhile, prepare the mixture for the centers:

• 4 oz. of cream cheese
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 confectionary sugar
• 1 3 oz package vanilla pudding mix
• 1 3/4 cups of milk
• 6 oz of Cool Whip or other chilled whipped topping (needs to be chilled and not canned)

1. Cream cream cheese, sugar, and butter.
2. Mix pudding, milk, and cool whip in another bowl, then add into the first mixture.  Continue mixing until it is a pudding type consistency.
3. Spoon this mixture into a piping bag and then pipe into the center of the cupcakes.
4. Afterward, pipe frosting onto the top of the cupcakes and then sprinkle the rest of the crushed oreo over the top.  I used store-bought butter cream frosting and colored it with gel food coloring to make them green. 

I decorated these with some candy bones I bought from Target just to give it more of a graveyard feel.  They aren't exactly like dirt cake, but it's really good and creamy in the inside with a crunch on the bottom.  If you bake them up, drop me a line and tell me what you think -- or if you have any tips for fixing the flavor, let me know!

Ja ne!

Leaping into Fall

I really need to stop using "okay" to start my blogs. I have a better background than that, and while this blog isn't professional or trying to be, starting 75% of my posts with the word, 'okay,' is not.  It's almost the end of the month and it's finally starting to feel like autumn.  Since the Autumn equinox was on the 23rd of the this month, it's about time.  I like summer, but I think that's more along the lines of the fact that I used to be off.  I'm not anymore and this 110 degree weather at 6 pm is for the birds!  The last two days, it was around 60 degrees when I left the house, so I brought out my pediatrics jacket.  I like it, since I don't have another zip up jacket in brown and it's comfy jersey knit without being too heavy.  I've been trying to look for sweater dresses too and I'll have to do more shopping this weekend -- maybe check out Dillards, Sears, and Target before Ross and Marshalls.  I've looked at Penney's briefly and Kohls didn't have anything like last year, but it's been so abnormally humid that I don't think they wanted to put out long sleeves too soon.

I've been playing a new game on Facebook called Cupcake Corner, which is a lot like all the other café games, except this one is little desserts and I love cupcakes, so I joined.  It's kind of cute, but I don't like that it runs all the time.  I like games that when I leave, I don't have to worry about things going bad or losing all my money.  I'm not all about the real-time.  I have enough real life. I don't want to have to devote more to the games on facebook.  Am I not on that soul-sucking website enough?  I'm still trying to work out and I've re-cast on that pair of socks from hell and I'm working on the stockinette stitches before starting the pattern back up.  For those of you who don't knit, that's the part where it looks like just rows and rows of the same stitch.  When you do straight knitting on two single sided needles, that's accomplished by one row of knit stitches and one row of purl stitches, which alternate to give you this pretty flat fabric of little 'v's.  On socks, and other "knitting in the round" projects, you knit every stitch on the circle, because you always knit across from the same side instead of turning your work back and forth.  Some knitters get really bored with stockinette stitch, because it's the same two stitches over and over, but really, all knitting is the same two stitches over and over, it only matters if you do them in a different order or if you twist stitches to make new patterns.

This week, I hope to bake a loaf of homemade bread -- yum yum -- perhaps bake some cupcakes as well.  I'm thinking about cheesecake cupcakes or dr. pepper cupcakes.  Both sound really promising.  I'm also almost ready to tally up all my workouts for the next month.  I've got to subtract the money for the Halloween polishes from China Glaze and I needed to buy a new needle, because Lislis destroyed one of my cables last weekend, so I ordered two balls of Pirate King from Knit Picks to make the shipping worth while.  That will either become socks for Aaron or my brother.  I think that's it for today.  If I think of anything else, I'll do edits later.

Totals since my last post:

September 23, 2010:  Nothing.  I was going to workout with Aaron, but did not feel well.

September 24, 2010: 8 flights of stairs (30 minutes)

September 25-26, 2010:  Nothing, I went home for the weekend.

September 27, 2010:  Nothing.  My out-of-town doctor and the nurse returned and I was swamped all day.

September 28, 2010:  8 flights of stairs (30 minutes).  I usually work out tonight, but Aaron won't be staying to workout cause he doesn't want to miss Glee so I won't get the chance. 
Complete total so far:  71.5 -- I think I'll need to reevaluate my minutes for next month and cut down on the amount for stairs. *nods*

That's it for now.  Okay bloggers -- what's your latest purchase and are you super happy about it?

Sock Woes

Okay, so the day I'm having hasn't been the greatest, but Mom was able to find me a ticket to Hope's play this weekend, and I'm going home so I'll get to see the family, which is awesome!  Hope will be in Bull in a China Shop at Le Petit Theater this weekend, and all the reviews so far have been great!  I'm really looking forward to a little bit of theater with my mommy.

However, my sad news is that the socks I've gotten a good section finished on will have to be frogged back to before the pattern work.  There's several reasons for this.  One -- I miscounted the number of rows I needed in the length, and subsequently forgot to accommodate the extra length of the foot in rows of plain stockinette stitching.  Two -- I misread the pattern when I transcribed it from cuff-down to toe-up and I've been doing a single cable twist over two stitches instead of a double over four stitches, which changes the look of the pattern.  Normally, I would just leave this and keep going anyway, but as these socks are supposed to be a test knit for someone else's pattern, I'll have to go back and fix the error.  At least I'm only about 22 rows into the pattern, which is where I was supposed to start the heel, but am not ready, so I'll just undo those rows, add the extra stockinette rows and start the pattern over.  It's not an outrageous amount of work, but I really hate frogging those little stitches.  Maybe I'll move my Addi Turbo needle to the front side while I work up the pattern and move it back for the heel.  I'll be sure to take a picture before the frogging and after, so I can post them both on here and you can see the difference.  The only thing really making me frown about this is I'll be pulling out the lime green stitches, which have been giving me no end of grief, and putting them right back -- yes, it's still cute, but the other sock is SO much cuter for not having a HUGE break in the color.  You'll see when I put the pictures up.

Workouts have been doing well though, and we're getting closer to the end of the month! Yay!

September 18-19, 2010:  I don't work out on the weekends, because I try not to do much and relax.

September 20, 2010:  8 flights of stairs (up and down, remember) (30 minutes)

September 21, 2010:  8 flights of stairs; 30 minutes of DVD workout.  (60 minutes)

September 22, 2010:  8 flights of stairs (30 minutes)

I'm supposed to be working out with Aaron tomorrow since W will be gone and getting ready for his trip to France.  Let's see how that one goes!

Oh, as promised, here are the pictures of the Soft Rose Wave Socks!

Woot woot!

So, it's finally Friday -- this week has just drug it's feet on some days, and a couple of others, I looked at the clock with a double take that it was already 2 or already 3 (Then the rest went backwards. . . *HMRPH*

Yesterday, I got home from work and picked up the towels -- after stopping by Target and buying way too much stuff, including cake mix, so I can bake cherry coke cupcakes this weekend.  (They had some really cute Halloween cupcake papers and bone sprinkles, but I didn't buy any of them!  I stayed with the plan.)  What I did get, however, was some 1lb wrist weights because with the stairs I've been climbing at work, I'm not doing much for my upper body.  That's what yesterday's workout was all about.  I did the cardio and the upper/mid fix workouts on my Carmen Electra DVDs, to add another 30 minutes to my 8 flights of stairs (That's 8 down and 8 up.)  That means, I got a full hour.  I'm a little on the tense and sore side today, but I have to go get the mail in a few minutes, so I'll try to keep it up.  I've done it 3 days already this week.  I'll also try to get a little exercise besides walking the mall or Boardwalk this weekend -- maybe I'll take a brisk walk around the neighborhood.  I should also probably get on a scale Sunday.

When I checked the mail after my workout, however, my order from 8ty8beauty had come in!  That's right, China Glaze's Awakening Halloween Polish set.  Here's the display image:  

Aren't they just to die for?  I love the purple one (Mummy May I) and the Orange-y one (Ick-a-Body) Ya know, like Sleepy Hallow?  I think they have great names.  The Green one is Zombie Zest and the other polish is a clear top coat, although a moon light white would have been cool too.  I'll post swatches after I paint with them this weekend, although, there are lots of swatch posts all over the web.  (It took my forever to find someone selling these.  I've searched Ulta, Sally's, and all the mega chains -- I finally found them on one of my e-tailers, but the other is still sold out!)

Anyway, I finished the "Soft Waves" sock, (pictures later) and I've got almost two inches of the "Sherbet Socks," so I hope to add to that too, and I need to fix that last image set from the Northwestern game last weekend, and I want to do some more scrapbooking on my Disney Halloween scrapbook, so I've got a lot to do this weekend.  I hope I can get at least some of it done before it's over.

September 16, 2010: 8 flights down stairs and 8 flights back to the office. Then cardio, upper/mid fix from Carmen Electra  [60 minutes!]

September 17, 2010:  8 flights down, 8 flights up, then 3 more down and 3 more up. [40 minutes]

Have a great weekend, mina-san.  And if you'd tried these, or you're doing your own workout plan, leave a comment and tell me about it!

Chugging

. . . and not the beer kind.

I have been trying really hard to get into workout mode lately, but being alone most of the time makes it really hard.  Aaron works out at school with W and keeps saying that I could come too, but they mostly do weight training and I'm not into that sort of thing.  Plus, I don't want to interfere with their 'bro' time.  I've been doing my Carmen Electra dvds at home, but although fun, it can be quite boring without someone to share it with.  I know it's hard to talk while working out, but I want someone to collapse with after and smile and think -- yea, that was a great workout.  Not a cat that sniffs my face while I'm doing pushups. It's not so cute, and cat hair is really hard to dislodge from sweat-soaked skin.  I won't enumerate what I see in the mirror these days, since it's too depressing, I guess I just have to take it a little at a time and hope it all works out. (No pun intended).

September 11, 2010:  Sweated my butt off in 100 degree weather in an open-air stadium at Northwestern, which would count if I hadn't eaten Popeyes for supper and shared nachos at the game. [0 --boo!]

September 12, 2010:  Nada. Blah! [0 minutes]

September 13, 2010:  3 flights up, none down.  [5 minutes.]

September 14, 2010:  6 flights up, 8 down and 8 more up.  [45 minutes] [so far.  Workout night!]

September 15, 2010:  Didn't work out -- instead went to academy and school with Aaron, who needed to see if he had closed his lab. Today -- 8 flights up and down. [30 minutes.]

On the up side:  I finally found someone who had the China Glaze Awakening Halloween set on sale and ordered them immediately before they sold out.  Aaron says that counts toward my total for next month, but I have to argue, because I was lemming them and looking for them WAY before I started my work out regimen.  Maybe I'll take half the price from my total in compromise.

Keep on burning . . .

Okay Day 4, September 10, 2010.  Aaron didn't work out yesterday with Walter, cause he's headed out of town for a concert this weekend, so I didn't get much of a work out either.  Went down 8 flights and up 5, and I realized that each flight is 24 steps, not 20.  That's a whole nother 4 steps!  WOOT!.  Wish me luck!!

September 10, 2010: [25 minutes] (so far!)

Being Resolute

As much as I hate to admit it, I've put on a few pounds -- it's not like a ton, or even really like 20 pounds, but I am getting heavier and I need to get off my fat butt and work out again.  So, with the idea from flinty over at Polish or Perish,  I'm going to start an incentive program for my work outs.  For every 10 minutes that I work out, I get 1 dollar to use on nail polish or cupcake items.  She has hers set up that the longer she works out, the more expensive of a polish she can buy, but since I rarely have days that I can workout for 90 minutes or longer, I'll just use the dollar increments and they only last for the next month.  No roll over to get something really expensive, so I have to work out for it in that month.  At the end of the month, I'll tally all the times and that's how much I can spend in October.  And to keep my honest, I'll try to post all of the totals here.  We're at the beginning of September, and I know I've done some stairs in the past week, but since I can't remember exacts, they don't count.  Here's the total so far:

September 7, 2010:  30 minutes of intense cardio;  3 flights of stairs (that's 72 up and 72 down, which is 10 minutes, as agreed upon by Aaron.) [Totals: 40 minutes]

September 8, 2010:  Nothing yet today, but I'm going to take the stairs down this evening and back up to get my things for class, which should count as 192, plus the 60 steps back to 5th floor, which is not working out for 30 minutes, cause it only takes about 15 minutes total but as 72 steps is 10 minutes, 192 steps should be just over 30, but I will count it as 30. (Okay -- so I didn't make it up all 8 flights, but I made 6.) [20 minutes]

Wish me luck on keeping up with it, since my thighs are a little sore today.

Michaels Mini-Haul and Cupcakes (PIC Heavy!)

Konnichiwa!


As I’ve mentioned before, I am a major sucker for cupcakes. I really like trying new recipes – although I won’t be using any more Martha Stewart for a while – her last cupcake recipe I used didn’t rise at all! And her caramel recipe was completely not right to fill the cupcakes – it was kinda runny and poured right out the bottom, even after I let it cool in the fridge. And the peanut butter frosting was far too rich and just wanted to slide right off the cupcakes. Oh well. Since then, I’ve done fun-fetti cupcakes with rainbow chip icing for the Grad Student Council bake sale and helped raise over $1000 for two Gulf Charities. SO YAY!

Funfetti Cupcakes with Toppers

I’m planning on making some Mountain Dew cupcakes from the Confessions of a Cookbook Queen blog this weekend and Paula Deen’s Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf to go with them since we have to stop eating out so much.  I even bought some really cute cupcake liners to put them in! Look -->




I finally found some Mary Engelbright Cherry Berries too so that I can use them on the mini cupcake and mini cake toppers for my cupcakes! They should be so cute! Here’s what else I found while I was perusing my local Michaels. . .

 

Martha Stewart CupCake Punch

Cupcake Corner

Yep! That’s a Martha Stewart item – I said I wasn’t using her recipes.  I didn’t say anything about her craft items. And it makes a really cute little corner punch.

Cupcake Brads

Candy Stickers

 I found these really cute cupcake brads and stickers while looking for metal findings to do some pressed penny jewelry.

Pumpkin Patch

Autumn Sprinkles

I also found these really cute buttons that will be adorable in my Disney scrapbook with all the Halloween pictures

Tink Stickers

And that wonderful boyfriend of mine got me these really cute stickers for my fairy obsession.



 

Tokidoki Stationary

Cute Food Stickers

 And last, but not least, I found these stickers and stationary that were just too cute not to get. I got the stationary when our local Borders closed and the stickers were from Michaels.


Anyway, that’s it for now – so bloggers, have you found anything cute lately??

 (WHEW!  That post took a lot out of me -- blogger really needs to find a better way to insert pictures without minute HTML changes!)

Blog Giveaway!

Mon Coin a Moua  is having a giveaway on their blog for subscribers.  Just look at all the stuff you could win!  Now, I admit, I just found this blog, but they have some great information about polishes and makeup for all you pretties out there!  Make sure to stop by and give them a few more followers -- Just click the link in the title, or in my side bar -- and the contest is open until August 31, so that only gives you a few more days!!

Catching up. . .

Lately it seems as if that's something I just can't do.  Granted, I'm kinda lazy.  I do my work -- I just do it in my own time.  As long as I have patients scheduled for a few weeks in advance, I don't see the need to panic and schedule every chart on my desk.  However, they continue to pile up.  As soon as I think I've got the schedule set and ready to call the 40 something people for the next month, I get told that she needs another vacay and I'm moving everyone around.  I mean, it's her prerogative.  She can take a vacation anytime she wants. That's why she's the doctor.  I just wish it wasn't so last minute that I'm shuffling the same patients further and further back.  I think I have enough patients on my desk to schedule into next year.  And don't even get me started on the ones that call like 10 times in the week I get the referral, but when I try to call them to schedule closer to their actual appointment, forget it.  I might as well try to reach Santa Clause.  At least he has a stable address that doesn't return to sender 3 times. 

But I digress.  I've been meaning to blog lately, but I haven't been able to f ind something to blog about.  In the meantime, I've started writing on some of my stories a little more and I'll try to post them and the prompts I've been working with on my Teases blog.  In the meantime, YOU could head on over there and tell me what you think . . . or even leave me a message here with something you'd like to see me blog about -- maybe something you'd like to see researched more?

Anyway, that's all the time I have for this minute, kiddos, so I'll catch you on the flip side.

SO BLOGGERS, WHAT ARE YOU BLOGGING ABOUT TODAY?

Leave your interesting or creative responses in the comment section BELOW!  (Thanks Ray!)

CUPCAKES

For those of you, who know anything about me, you know that I am an avid baker, who has an undeniable love for cupcakes.  And I'm not the only one.  Lately, cupcakes have been popping up EVERYWHERE!  I've seen jewelry, t-shirts, socks, shoes, folders, nail accessories, and even scrapbooking items.  There are yarns with cupcake names and my favorite lipgloss is a shimmery purply pink called "CupQuake" from Victoria Secret, that tastes like icing.  Here are some of the newest and cutest cupcake items I've found.

Bake it Pretty                   
                 Bake it Pretty Blog
Bake it Pretty has cup liners, sprinkles, toppers, packages, and everything else you need to make your cupcakes the cutest EVAR!  They have a store and a blog, where they can give you recipe ideas and the shop to get all your ingredients.  My favorite are the shaped sprinkles and colorful nonpareils with the unique cupliners -- Like these: 



Cupcake Cupcake Toppers
Confessions of a Cookbook Queen is a blog by a self-professed cookbook and cake decorating collector.  Not wanting to part with her cupcake toppers, she set about making her own.  I first learned about her blog from EpiCute, but I just couldn't pass up copying down her idea to try it on my own.  Here are her cupcake cupcake toppers:



Cupcake Yarn
Cupcake is a yarn line by Lion Brand.  It is a medium worsted-weight afghan yarn, which means it's on the thicker side, but not too bulky for slipper socks.  It comes in 8 colors, with cute names like "SugarPlum" and "Marshmallow."  Here's my favorite, "Pink Lemonade."




All Things Cupcake
All Things Cupcake is another blog about cute things: Cupcakes.  They feature the best of everything cupcake, from tv shows with cupcakes to reader tattoos.  It's updated daily and has been running since 2007.  They have recipe book reviews, pictures, ideas . . .if it has a cupcake, they have it. And if not, send it to them and they'll be happy to add it to the site.


EpiCute
Epicute is a blog that's part of the famous Cheeseburger Network, which includes LolCats, GraphJam, and FailBlog.  They feature cute food and food items, be it savory or sweet.  Updated daily (or close to it), there's usually some sort of cute cupcake to get the ideas flowing.


Cupcake Nails
So the latest craze in nail art in Japan has been to add bulky acrylic decorations to the acrylic nails before gluing them on.  There are lots of different designs with bows and Hello Kitty and just about everything, but the ones I think are Supa Kawaii are the cupcakes, of course.  I found these on Etsy:  (note: these exact ones are sold out, but she might have more.) 


Then I saw these, and I'm not sure where to get them, but they are so cute.  A little too expensive for these types of things since I'm sure they wouldn't last a week on my beat up hands, but they are really cute anyway.  And I found the last ones a while back and saved them because I wanted to try to paint something similar on my nails so I wouldn't have spent so much money.  The last ones are from the Tokyo Fashion Expo and I think they're the cutest.

I also bought some nail polish called Cupcake by ORLY when I couldn't find the Sprinkles color from China Glaze.  I think they would be very pretty together, what do you think? 








I'll leave you with some random cupcake images I found on Epicute and Etsy.  A quick search on either site will give you the cutest things from jewelry to food boxes to ornaments.   The first two are from Epicute, the second an Etsy vendor.

 

 

 

So forum:  What's your favorite cupcake?

My socks.

Okay, I've been working on my hand-knit socks, and actually making some progress now. I think I have a couple of inches left before I can start the ribbing on the first sock.  The next pair will be knit two-at-a-time in some hand-spun wool that my sister-in-love got me from her trip to Alaska, but those will have to be after the entrelac scarf I'm gonna knit for mom.  It will be my first time trying entrelac and I've heard at the beginning it seems like you're doing everything wrong and all of a sudden it's like magic and beautiful.  Okay -- I know most of you out there don't know what entrelac looks like, so here's a picture of it.

I really like the woven look of this design.  I'm going to do it in variegated yarn with a brown and blue color-way.  My socks are in Schoppel-Woole's Zauberball.  I've heard a couple of different names for this.  The first was Tropical Fish, and more recently Rich Jewels, but the rainbow effect is beautiful for socks.  It's a little expensive at about $20 per ball, but I can get a pair of knee high socks from a single ball, so I think it pays off for this type of work.  I have a couple of little holes in the sides where I transferred from one needle to the next on the circular, but I think it adds some character to my first pair of hand knits.  I knit some baby socks before, which can be seen on my facebook page, but those were simple on size 8 needles.  This is yards and yards of knit on size 1 needles.  They're only 2.25 mm around. 

You can buy Zauberball in several places around the net, but here's the best two sites I've found:

Webs: Yarn.Com http://www.yarn.com/webs-knitting-crochet-yarns-weight-sock/webs-knitting-yarns-schoppel-wolle-zauberball/

Paradise Fibers http://www.paradisefibers.net/Zauberball-Sock-Yarn-p/472458.htm

In looking for some more Zauberball colors, I ran across a new yarn that I might have to try out called Flying Saucer -- it makes ring patterns like space particles when knit at the right gauge, which is perfect for socks.  I'm just having trouble finding someone besides a wholeseller that has it for sale.  Even the Schoppel-Woole website is not helpful.  The wholesale site says that "Knitting Under the Influence" here in Shreveport shops from them, I'll just have to find out if I can get it from them and make a trip sometime since their website does not exist.  Here's some of the Zauberball colors: 

Oh, and before I forget, I posted these on FB, but here's the "so far" pictures of my socks.  They fit well and feel good, so that's all that matter. 

So forum,  "What's on your needles?"

Nails

So today, I wanted to talk about something that goes along with socks, but isn't necessarily sock related.

Nail Polish.

There I said it. 

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately.  A LOT.  Most of them have been comics like

• Girls with Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto (Yay Sprinkles!)
• Something*Positive by Randy Milholland (Yay Choo-Choo Bear crossovers!) and
• XKCD (Have to love geek comics with stick figures)

But I've been looking at a lot of makeup and nail blogs too.  While looking for new polish designs and ideas lately to remove the Bahamian Escape (China Glaze) and Snow (China Glaze) from my toenails and replace it with something else.

 Don't get me wrong, the colors are brilliant in the blue with white polka dots, but I love to change it up.  Today, for instance, they are Snow with Significant Other Color (OPI) over the top, which partially makes them look dirty and partially gives them a pretty pink/orange/green shimmer.  The color is very pretty by itself, even if it's a bit translucent after 2 coats and you can still see a nail line.  I might try it over a more muted color than the Snow.  I've also got a few more colors on the way that I'll have to swatch up and post, but here's the Significant Other Color.
   

I've also got the For Audrey (China Glaze)  that I ordered a while back.  I'm really digging the China Glaze colors, although the formula seems almost different for each one.  Some are very smooth and thin and some are really gloopy, but dry nice without streaking in two coats.  I don't like to put more than that, because it tends to get too thick and chips super easy.  Here's the For Audrey.

Please excuse the horrible images, but my phone doesn't take the best images in bad lighting.  These are both one coat of NailTec Maintenance Plus with two coats of polish and one coat of China Glaze Holographic Top Coat.

Anyway, I started this blog with the intention of giving you two of the new blogs I've been reading a lot.  The first is The Daily Nail (http://daily-nail.blogspot.com).  She is trying to do 365 different designs in 365 days and so far, she's doing well.  I don't have the patience to change my polish every day, but she's got some great designs and I've gotten to see some of the Konad plates from her.  The second I want to share is Polish or Perish (http://polishorperish.blogspot.com)  She's got some great swatches of color and I suggest checking her out before buying because she gives a good detail on how it applies and how many coats they need to make it opaque.  The third, is Dr. Frankenpolish (http://drfrankenpolish.wordpress.com/) and this one is all about showing you what mixed polishes look like.  It's got some pretty colors and it's another good way to see what colors go best with others.

I think that's it for today.  If you have a favorite blog or site you look at for polish, just leave your response below.  And to borrow from Ray William Johnson,  "So forum," What color are your nails?