Shellac Review

I've been meaning to write a final review of my Shellac manicure for a few days now.  Sorry for the delay. So, if you'll remember, I had the Shellac polish put on my nails on a Friday, right before Jenny's wedding.  After the weekend's activities, they were still chip-free and shiny.

Eight days after the manicure, I spent the whole day painting furniture.  Here's how my nails looked right before I hopped in the shower - keep in mind that they had already been washed while I was rinsing out paint brushes.

Please excuse my horrible cuticles.  The picture above is just to show how much brown paint I had on and under my fingernails. Grody.

After some good scrubbing in the shower, they came clean! And were still chip-free!

The polish stayed shiny and chip-free the whole time.  The only bad thing was my nails grew out so much and you could tell at the base.  I finally decided to take the polish off on day 18.  You can see here how the base of the polish had just begun to loosen up (bubble up?).

Now, I will say taking the polish off was a tad harder than I thought it would be.  In my head, I thought I could just soak my nails in the acetone polish remover for ten minutes, pull them out and voila! It'd all be gone.  That's not exactly how it worked.  I did soak them for ten plus minutes and it did become soft, but I had to use a cotton ball and work to get the polish off.  Not a terrible amount of trouble, but still more work than I had imagined it being in my head. 

I'm pleased to say it did all come off and my nails were totally fine.

Don't worry, I have since cut and shaped my fingernails.  Long nails = ew.

So, final verdict? I loved it. Worth the extra money? Totally. Would I do it again? I'm going to next week. :)

Phantom

This morning, when Doc took Minnie out bright and early to go potty, he found something on our front porch.  Sometime during the night, a Phantom visited our house.

(Cell phone pics. Sorry.)

With the Phantom was a note.

And a bag of goodies, too!

I love the bobble-head witch that came in the bag-o-goodies.

Back to the note. On it was this poem, entitled "Good Evening."

Since this is the time for goblins and bats, Halloween spirits and ghosts and cats, Weird happenings and witches brew, These are the things I wish for you:

May the only spirit you chance to meet, Be the spirit of love and warm friends sweet. May the only goblin that comes your way, Be the Neighborhood Phantom, whom you'll want to give away.

So by tomorrow, pick three friends sweet And give them all a Halloween treat. You only have one day so hurry!!!

The note also gave instructions for us to make three copies of the Phantom and note and leave them, along with treats, on three more neighbors' front door steps.  We're also supposed to hang our Phantom in a front window so it doesn't come back to visit us again.

Looks like a quick trip to Walgreens for some Halloween treats is on my to-do list now. And luckily I remembered to grab the Phantom and the note as I ran out the door this morning so I can make copies.  The hard part is deciding who should get a visit from the Phantom!

ILLOTF: Sex Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Sex Edition] [Yes, the sex edition.] [Find a tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.] [Find the Chicken Edition here.] [Find the Fishing and Canoeing Edition here.] [Find the Food Edition here.]

Warning: this blog is about to get X-rated.

Remember back in the Barn Animals Edition when I was out in the pasture feeding the alpacas and I said we'd revisit that in another post? Well, this is that post.

So, there I was, just feeding the alpacas,

when this alpaca decided to climb up on top of one of her buddies.

"She must be really hungry," I thought.

And so I just kept right on feeding them.

Then I started hearing the alpaca making some weird sounds, which I later learned was "orgling," basically a mating call and what gets things going, if you will.

I was a little shocked at the lack of modesty with these alpacas. I mean, we just met!

Before I knew it, another alpaca had gotten down on the ground and it had a buddy climbing on top.

"Please tell me you're getting this on camera."

"Is this really happening? This isn't normal is it? Does anybody else see this?"

And they just kept on doing it.  No matter how many times I laughed or turned away or said "seriously?" the orgling would not stop.

So, you know what they say....if you can't beat 'em, feed 'em?

Some things just make you work up an appetite.

Have you ever been photobombed by frisky alpacas? Doc has.  Please note that the alpaca he's trying to take a picture with below is being mounted by another orgling alpaca.

So it's safe to say that no matter the time or place, alpacas like to do it.

But, you know what? Ducks like to do it, too.

ILLOTF: Food Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Food Edition] [Find a tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.] [Find the Chicken Edition here.] [Find the Fishing and Canoeing Edition here.]

This food post is presented to you with limited commentary.

Farm-grown strawberries:

Huevos Rancheros (Mexican for breakfast? Yes.)

Eggs from the farm:

Wonderful cooks:

McDonald's, pay attention. This is what an egg mcmuffin should look like.

None for me:

My personal bartenders:

My first fig. Sweet.

Toppings:

Gourmet pizza:

Cook time: four minutes.

To melt the cheese:

That's all of my pictures, but only half the food eaten.

To sum it all up? I'm ready for seconds.

ILLOTF: Fishing & Canoeing Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Fishing and Canoeing Edition] [Find the tour of the grounds here.] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find the Barn Animals Edition here.] [Find the Caves and Cows Edition here.] [Find the Chicken Edition here.]

During our driving tour of the grounds on Friday, we stopped at a river bank to check out the water.  It was so peaceful there, with the sound of rushing water in the distance and birds flying and the occasional fish making bubbles in the water.

Hold that camera tight!

Jack told more stories about how he originally wanted to build the farm house where they'd have a view of the water.

We took a few pretty-background pictures before heading back to the house for the pool table delivery.

We decided to come back after lunch to try to catch some of those fish we kept hearing.  Chris got the rods set up for us.

And then Chris, Doc, and Allison waded out in the water to have a go at catching fish.  I sat on the bank and took pictures.

Things were kinda slow going.

At least I had entertainment on the bank with me.

Finally, after not much happening at all, Doc reeled in a fish! A tiny one, but a fish nonetheless.

Satisfied, we called it a day with the fishing.

Saturday, the plan was to get up and head out canoeing around 9:00 or 9:30.  Around 1:00, we finally made it to the load-in area of the river.  That's one of the things I love about the farm - there's really no reason to hurry.

The guys carried the canoes out to the water and got us all loaded up.  Jack made sure we had everything and sent us on our way.

We put all the manpower in the back of our canoe.

And I just enjoyed the ride up front.

Allison rode up front in the other canoe.

Chris did all the paddling in the back.

We quickly canoed to an area deep enough for fishing.  We hadn't even had our poles in the water for five minutes before Doc reeled this in!

And then about two minutes later he had another one, and it was big! Why do fish like him so much?

I demanded that he hand me the pole so I could get in on the action.  It was super exciting when I hooked my first fish! It tugged and I reeled and it swam and I pulled and I finally got it up to the boat so Doc could pull it up.  It was pretty big! And my first caught fish in my adult life.  Doc took it off the hook for me, and just as I was getting my camera ready so he could hand the fish over for a picture, the little sucker bit him and hopped back in the water.  Darn.  Lesson learned: always hold your fish over the boat, not over the water.

We stopped down the way to get out and do some fishing.  Chris taught Doc how to use his fly rod.  That's pretty fun to watch.  Of course, with Doc having the magic touch that day, he had a fish on that rod in no time.

Doc wasn't the only one catching fish, Chris had several too.  I guess it's not as exciting for him, though, since he fishes all the time.  He kept throwing them back in the water before I could get a picture.  Allison managed to get a photo of one of his catches.

We moved on along the river.  This was my view from the front seat...so pretty!

Chris and Allison sailed ahead of us while we hung back to do more fishing.  At this point, I was determined to get my picture taken with a fish. Doc kept offering to let me hold one of his for a picture but no, that was not going to do.  I would catch my own fish and I would get a picture with it, dang it.

I finally caught another one.  Reeled it in from far away and just as I pulled it out of the water it jumped off my line. 

Rinse and repeat.  The next fish I caught did the same darn thing. 

Doc told me I needed to pull hard when I felt a nibble so that I'd hook the fish really good.  Oh, it was on.  We were in the last bend of the river before getting out when I felt my nibble.  I yanked my pole back HARD!  Got 'em!

I was excited.  Such a thrill.  I could get into this fishing thing, but only if it's guaranteed that I'll always catch something.

You want to know the coolest part about my fish? As I handed him over to Doc to unhook him, we saw that he didn't even bite my hook. I hooked him through the nose!  The hook wasn't in his mouth at all.  Oops.  The absence of the hook in his mouth did not mean his mouth was empty.  As Doc laid him in the boat to grab some pliers, the fish coughed up another fish that he had in his mouth!  Oh yea, my fish counted as two!

It was ok for us to end our canoe trip then.  I was happy.