Happy 2014!

*Polishes in this post were paid for by me, friends or family.  They were NOT sent for review or as compensation of any kind.*


Hello ladies (and gents)!  Long time no see!  This might be sort of a long post, but it actually has pictures!  YES!  I'm posting a mani!  Amazing, right?  First, I'll let you in on exactly what was going on last year.  I missed you SO much!

Some of this may be new information, but I'm sure I've told you all most of it before.  I just want to go over everything so you know I'm back.  Plus, as bloggers, we don't always share things about ourselves.  It's usually just about the product.  This isn't going to be one of those posts.  You are going to get it all!  haha  Sorry ;)

I'm going to go way back to summer of last year.  In June I got all four wisdom teeth and another infected molar removed.  That was a six week ordeal with dry sockets (twice!), a root canal because the extractions destroyed a molar, and all around feeling crappy because my face was swollen for over a month, nor was I able to eat.  Shortly after all that got sorted out, I started to get really sick.  I was going to work 5-6 days a week and almost spending more time in the bathroom than working.  I started slacking off my duties and being an all around bad employee because I couldn't handle working 9 hours at the pace required (sorry to anyone at work reading this!).  I got required work done, but most days extra just wasn't going to be possible.  Despite all of that, I applied for a second position in the kitchen at the care facility where I worked.  In August, I started training as a cook.  It was a lot more tolerable than what I was doing before.  But still, I was sick.  In September, we started testing to find out what was wrong.  Maybe it was the antibiotics from my extractions?  No.  The disease it causes was not present.  We tested for everything imaginable.  We did radiology testing, blood tests, parasite testing-- everything.  We never found out what was wrong.  We still don't know, I'm just not sick ALL the time now.  I have stretches where it happens, but not constant for months like it was.

Now, I had mentioned that I started working in the kitchen.  As we all know, that means no polish!  Yay.  :/  I was working there four or five days a week starting at 5am.  That didn't really leave enough time for nails, or pretties, or really anything except sleep and work.  I would do them on the rare weekend that I didn't have to work, but those were becoming few and far between.  This leads us to the next issue.  Working in a facility with all women... is hard.  Working in close quarters with them is even harder.  We had to have weekly meetings at one point to "hash out our issues."  I'm told that it wasn't uncommon to have problems like that.  Kitchen workers are usually more stressed than other workers in facilities like these.  I don't handle stress like other people.  I am a very private person.  I don't like raising a fuss, I don't like people seeing me upset, I don't like confrontation.  This could be why I have problems with issue #3: depression.

I'm not going to go a lot into my history with depression, it's not relevant right now (though, if you are curious, I may later on).  But, that stress started to pull me down.  I lost all my inspiration, I wasn't able to see my friends, and I really had no time for me.  That's when a hole started opening and I just didn't care anymore.  This brings me to recently.

I handled all of this for almost a year.  Finally, the feeling unappreciated, the stress, the anxiety and the darkness got to me and I quit.  I gave a 30 day notice, and in August, I was done working.   Unfortunately, when I gave my notice in July I was feeling like blogging... and my camera broke.  Awesome.  It just, won't turn on anymore!  What a thing to happen right before you cease to bring in income.  I tried to blog a couple of times from my phone, but I just wasn't feeling it.

This brings us to the present.  I still don't have a "real job."  In this area, that's extremely hard to manage, believe it or not.  It's a lot about who you know, not what you can do.  So while that's gotten me down, most days I'm a lot happier than I was.  I'm babysitting during the week for an amazing family, and I have so much fun!  I love those kids :)  I got a new camera for Christmas, too!  It's a point and shoot, but it's also a "semi" SLR, if that's a thing.  I'm having a lot of fun playing with the settings and everything!  So, I am VERY excited to get some posts up!  I'm going to bring the light tent and lights out tomorrow and do some swatching.  WOOHOO!

Lastly, I'm going to tell you a little about this coming year.  Hopefully, you're still with me!  :)  I am feeling a lot more motivated these days.  I am going to try to be healthier, mind, body and soul.  I am going to actively keep my mood up - there is no reason to sit in the house in sweats and no makeup all the time (again, depression.  old habits are hard to break, I guess!).  I'm going to try to save some money!  Oh goodness, this is hard for me!  I will also be doing a 365 photo challenge.  Would you be interested in seeing those photos everyday?  I haven't decided if I am going to blog them or not.  Opinions would be awesome!

In the coming days I will also have a new look for the blog.  I want it to be redone top to bottom.  I'm not sure if I want it cleaner, or more me or what yet... But expect everything from new themes to new watermarks, signatures, etc.

Finally--- On to the polish!  I didn't go out for NYE this year.  I did, however, want an icy, blinged out  mani to feel like I was celebrating!  I wore four coats of Rainbow Honey Heisenberg, and it looks amazing!  I probably could have been fine with three.  I just had to overkill, though :)


With flash:

These are without flash:

Last but not least, a video to show how amazing this polish is!  My camera work sucks and I get out of frame a little, but no worries.  LOL  

Here's to a great year!  I can't wait to share all my adventures with you!  It's been WAY TOO LONG!! Thank you so much for sticking around!  Love you all!  :) 

*Polishes in this post were paid for by me, friends or family.  They were NOT sent for review or as compensation of any kind.*