500th Blog Post!

This is the 500th  article I have written since starting this blog a bit over a year ago now.  Excuse me for a moment while my mind boggles.

I’ve written about chickens, food, children, lyricosis, autism, photos, makeup, ethics, and many many words on nail polish.  I’ve ‘met’  like minds of all kinds while doing this, and I truly treasure you all – you know who you are, I hope! I’ve had my love for nail polish explode into a near obsession, and through that have been privileged to work with the  piCture pOlish team, especially Jules, and that has been a major highlight for me. I, and my mother, have also made quite a few polishes of our own, and have enjoyed that process too.

So, for this milestone post, I think I just want to say thank you – to everyone who has read this, to everyone who has commented, to everyone who has supported by their presence or words: thank you. I appreciate it more than I can say; I started this for myself, but I would never have continued without you.

And because I feel strange if there are no photos – here is a completely unrelated photo of a very beautiful myth (a myth is a female moth, right?!) I found – she hopped straight onto my palm and wanted to stay there

Have a lovely day

Ami

Merry Happies, Everyone!

Wishing everyone a very merry happy – whether you have a special day to celebrate or not, whatever you call any celebrations, and wherever you are.

Please be safe, and have an enjoyable, exciting, relaxing, amazing time free of drama (as much as possible) and full of merriment.

It’s also my birthday today! 35 years old today, and loving it.

Love to you all, strength to get past the silly parts of the season, and looking forward to hearing your stories!

Have a great day/holiday!

Ami

Gritter Rescue with Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food. Features Indie Polishes :D

Remember how I mentioned that Ador Beauty’s The Universe polish was a gritty glitter? Or gritter, as I want to call it? This is what The Universe looked like the next day, after it had merrily eaten my Kleancolor top coat:

The Universe… pretty gritty glitter!

And lets be fair to this gorgeous polish; it’s not the only glitter polish I own like that. In fact, so many China Glaze glitters are gritty that Sister V calls them China Graze. heh heh heh. But, fear glitter no more! Introducing, again, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food. In the bottle it looks like milky gel. But what a difference this makes to a gritter polish!

Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food. I love the brand name, too. Makes me grin

Here I have one coat (it’s thick, but goes on very smoothly) over The Universe, on my ring fingernail (one the left!). The little fingernail is as it was… can you see the difference in texture? Click the pic to see better!

Glitter Food dries satiny – not matte, but not shiny. You do need to put a top coat over this for shine. But, super bonus, it dries super fast. Then, when you add the shiny topcoat, which I did to all nails, its super pretty, and they all come alive again, but the one with the Glitter Food is glass smooth, and the others are not. Smoother, yes. Slippery smooth, no.

And to test it Glitter Food’s other use (except I just read you can use it as a base for Holographic polishes! I’m so DOING that soon) – which is to add to glitter polishes with sunken glitter, and resurrect it. I chose Pretty & Polished Hearts & Daggers, added a few drops, and it did work!
Before:

Hearts & Daggers – such a pretty polish!

After – 30 mins after! Much easier to shake up, and I didn’t even use as much Glitter Food as recommended (because I’m stingy, ok?!)

Then, I used Hearts & Daggers on top of The Universe.. one coat is all I needed because I could GET the glitter out now! YAY!

LOOK at THAT!

These photos show one coat of Glitter Food and finished with one coat of Kleancolor Fast Dry. This did dry fast (thanks, Glitter Food!) and was as smooth as a very, very smooth thing.

LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I can see myself buying backups of this polish, it’s blimmin incredible. And if it DOES work as a base for the amazing but evil super-holos, I can see me buying backups like RIGHT NOW.

Macro to show it off.. I love that it really shows why Pretty & Polished called it Hearts & Daggers

Have an exceptional day!
Ami

Diary of a Hatching Chick – contains real hatching photos.

This morning, I was fortunate enough to have another chick hatch while I was holding it. It’s always a special time, the beginning of life – and sadly with chicks, very often it’s the end of life too. Birthing is always the cusp between life and death, which is one reason it is so sacred, I think. However, I also thought I might be able to share it with you, as I was sitting reeeallly close to my camera.

This is how it looked when I took it out of my incubator. It had made the air hole, and started to open the shell (this takes thousands of teeny pecks by the chick to do, they are incredibly strong animals). Sometimes they seem to peck a trapdoor, and they tend to be slow hatching. Ones that do the flip-top shell thing like this one did can arrive in a big hurry. Perfect!

Once the shell is mostly pecked through, the chick starts pushing up with it’s head, to lever the top off.

You can see it’s wing poking out here…

Wing!

And now it’s made a big enough gap that it has a wing out, and it’s foot. MUCH more leverage this way. You can also see that in the shell, there’s not a lot of space left, and it grows for the last week or so with it’s head tucked under it’s wing.

Then, pop! Top comes off, and its head and neck start to straighten. It’s a really good idea to be as hands-off as possible. I do tend to pick mine up once they are at the flip-top stage, but only for a few reasons: my incubator has no humidity, I get around this by squirting the eggs a few times a day when I turn them. In the last 3 days before hatching the eggs need about 80% humidity to hatch, and I try to replicate this roughly by wrapping a warm wet tissue around the shell, but ONLY when the airhole is present, and I keep about 1/4 unwrapped to try not to change the tensile pressure of the shell. So, once it’s at the stage in the first photo, if I can I take off the tissue and hold it to keep it warm and humid. (plus, you know, baby!)

Another important point: chicks are designed to have to fight their way out of the egg. It’s hard to watch, but necessary. They have a complicated network of blood vessels, and the fighting to hatch closes these off. I have read of horror stories of people trying to help a chick hatch, only to pull off a piece of shell and have the chick bleed to death. Yuck. Poor chick, poor people. You can see a vessel here, on the chicks back. This was severed by it wiggling while in my hand, and obviously a shut down one, anyway. Hard as it is to watch, let them be.

blood vessel from the top of the shell to it’s back – this was fine, but its a VERY good idea to be as hands-off as possible. Lots of information on the net for the more curious

Then, out of the bottom of the shell with one big kick, and there it is, in my hand. Hello, chick!

 

Hello, world.

(Important! I didn’t have my hand open for the duration, keeping birds warm is VITAL. I was being an honarary hen, and keeping it in the warm and dark of my cupped hands until I took a quick photo.)

Back in the incubator to fluff up and warm up a bit more… which also makes them look cuter

And after 20 mins or so… it’s silver! This is my first silver chick – not sure of it’s parentage, dad is Blue Orpington, mum may be Light Sussex, but I’m not completely sure.

Then, my patented ‘being a mother hen and still having a life’ trick – I tuck the end of a bandana down my top, and fold the rest up and over the chick. So chick is now tucked up against the skin of my throat, warm and dark, and I can use both hands.

I know, taking a photo like this is dorky, but it’s for a good cause, right? And I didn’t go get dressed up for ya all, so you’ll have to take me as I am

I make sure there is plenty of air for the chick though!

And then, once I’ve carted it around for a few hours it’s cute, strong, fluffy, steady on it’s legs and ready to go under the heat lamp in the box with my other chicks that have no mother hen. Of which I have 12 now. Holy Moly. *quiet panic attack*

Have a lovely day
Ami

Blue for Diabetes Day

So here’s the deal, right? By the time I hear about a ‘day of some import’ happening in the Northern Hemisphere, that day has gone for me. I read this morning about Nov 14 Diabetes Day, and the request for nail bloggers to show a blue mani. So, fair enough, it’s a good reason -but it’s the 15th for me. Ah well, here’s one I created this morning, just for this

This is L.A. Girl Disco Brites polish in Turntable, and its a quite green leaning blue polish. Or blue leaning green. More blue, to my eye. My camera would NOT pick up the green in it, and showed it as turquoise. So this first photo I changed the colour to try and show it close to true colour.

Turntable, colour adjusted to show the green tone in the teal blue more accurately

This is two coats – it’s quite runny, but covers well in two layers. Self levels well.

And then I added a coat of L.A. Girl Glitter Addict in Animate:I wanted red for blood. Diabetes is a huge disease – called, in the hospital system, the silent killer. It affects all areas of the body, and unstable blood sugar levels  (hence the red for blood) can affect all other  body systems. Some people I met during my nursing student days, especially those with Type 2 diabetes, took it lightly and didn’t try to control their blood sugar. I know it’s hard, but it’s imperative to do so; to eat well and check your levels - especially if you want to live a nice, long, happy healthy life with all your toes attached. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

One coat of Animate, I do like this red glitter!

And one coat of Daring Digits Mango Square – the yellow for the liver, sending healing thoughts to all those livers! And the white for strength and hope – it is a disease that can be controlled. A happy, healthy, long life with all digits attached is achievable. Stay strong, you are WORTH the effort.

Thoughts to all those who have, or are affected by diabetes.
Ami

November 8: NO HATE

“Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay.

Most of us are, thankfully, residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color…even to our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people’s view of “normal” dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.”

What a great idea/cause/stand to take. I believe the quote above was origingally started by Nails By Ms Lizard (AMAZING blog, check it out! http://nailsbymslizard.blogspot.co.nz/). The thing is, there’s a wee bit of drama that happens in the nail polish world – and it’s not cool. Neither is the bullying and meaness anywhere. There’s no real need for being mean, we can all adult up, be polite, hold our own boundaries firm without picking fights or being nasty. Right? Sometimes? It’s a goal, anyway. SO, I’d like to support this – I’m in this for the solidarity, the community, and the pretty colours, glitters, and textures.

Here’s my ‘from the already posted’ photo list: my Purple for No Hate (I can’t do the letter/number thing too much, makes me think I’m back in algebra class, shudder) – with accents of pearls, tape, and Sticks ‘n’ Stones. Appropriate, huh. I thought so

Have a great day!

Ami

Chicken and Chick update!

So, Spring has sprung with a noise  somewhat like SPRRROOIIIINGGG…cheep!

Feral hatched her six eggs with no help required, as per my earlier post here, and has kept them all alive and happy. She’s a legend. Brave (the chicken who used to sit on my head when I went out to feed them) did similar, but with eight chicks.

Now they all hang out together, and there is a fluffy river of chicks in the yard.

Then the fun started in earnest – with somewhere between 4 and 8 chickens deciding to go broody in the shed, pinch each others eggs, steal new eggs that were being laid, abandon newly hatched chicks… argh. I ended up implementing a ‘first to hatch a chick and be an actual mother gets ALL the chicks for awhile’ policy, which (touch wood) is working: We now have Buffy (a Buff Orpington cross, NOT for the vampire slayer) with 5 chicks, and Jet (my huge black and brown Orpy) now with 8.

These vary in age, because some of the chicks were abandoned by their stoopid broody mothers and there was no adoptive parent available at the time, so I’ve also had various numbers of chicks inside under lamps.

Two Orpington Crosses (look like penguins), two Old English Game Bantams (look like bumblebees)

Luckily, since the first one, Cornelius, I havent had to sleep beside any and pat them all night to keep them happy. He had a semi-hernia, but he survived. I also found two so close to frozen that I thought they were dead, but once I noticed they had a slight pulse I tucked them up against me until they warmed to body temp and started moving, then put them under the lamps, and they’ve both made it. YAY!

Cornelius – from the shell I’m guessing he’s purebred Orpington

 

Note on the strange naming system: I name my birds by the year they hatch, now. All chicks bought/born last year have names starting with B, they were my second year birds. This year they have to start with C. Let me tell you, that leads to temptation when you’re a potty mouth like me, and they’re peeping in the middle of the night :D

My first ever photo of a chick yawning… this is Chaos Chick, one of the almost-frozen-to-death chicks, 1.5 hours after I found him. The strongest chick I’ve EVER seen. Possibly half Orpy, half Rhode Island Red – or Hyline.

Have a great day!

New Nail Polish Rack!

I am so happy about this! Yesterday I built a new nail polish rack – I used pulled apart pallet wood and two right-angled bits of wood, pulled all the staples and nails out of it, laid it all out and then Mr Husband Man and I drilled holes and screwed together all the bits. And LOOK! It holds all my polishes! Ok, this isn’t all of them, but it’s MOST of them – and I’ve still built in a space for polish remover and the stickers/bling/nail files etc that go with it.

I love this. I gaze at it and sigh happily. I’ve organised by colour shelf, then on those shelves alphabetically by brand name, and within those groups by shade – light to dark, left to right. I know I don’t have a huge range of polishes compared to a lot of people, but there’s plenty for me The bottom shelf is uneven along the bottom, so it looks bowed, but hey it still works so I’m haaapppppyyyy!

I made that photo huge – so if you click on it you can see all the details

Have a great day!

CR Nail Polish…

I had a query a little while ago about where to purchase CR nail polishes online … it actually took me a little while to answer, because I had to discover web translation sites; as I don’t speak Spanish. I’d love to, though. Anyway, while searching for where to buy CR nail polishes online I found a few websites that say that some of the CR polishes have been recalled due to toxic levels of phlathates – NOT GOOD!

http://recalledproducts.org/recall/view/crname-nail-polish-classic-fashion-nail-polish

http://unsafeproducts.eu/2012/03/09/nail-polish-super-ultra-brillant-nail-polish/

http://unsafeproducts.eu/2012/08/03/nail-polish-nail-polish-classic-fashion/

http://www.cosmeticobs.com/news/recalls-of-products/recalls-of-products–august-3,-2012,-2012-1308.html

 

I’m not sure about the legitimacy of the websites, but I feel I should definitely let people know. I get my CR / Color Cosmetic nail polishes from $2 stores etc, and they do smell pretty nasty so I use them outside, but now I think I’ll move them outside permanently, and only use them on my toy insects and things. I’ll have a think about it. But, if anyone knows about this and can set my mind at rest, let me know! Alternately, if you have these and use them… perhaps it might pay not to.

Goodbye Fabio, Hello Bruce, and Rooster Wars with Rico

I finally managed to find a good home for Fabio and Goldie, my Gold Spangled Hamburg breeding pair. Fabio was my flock rooster, he was pretty much big daddy of all last summer’s chicks, and he is a great rooster. I’ll miss him! He was very kind to his girls, always gave them a dance and looked out for them, but… his offspring are, obviously, at least half Hamburg. This means they are pretty, intelligent, and excellent fliers. They roost 20 feet up in a tree, they fly over any fence and hide their eggs, they’re light bodied and they scream like a hawk should scream. In other words, fantastic birds; pretty crap chickens. So, as I don’t want a repeat of this whole scenario, I reluctantly sold Fabio and Goldie to a breeder who should take great care of them.

Why Fabio? Look at those long flowing locks! He needs a white ruffled shirt and a painted sky backdrop, and he could BE Fabio.

This left Rico, my teeny weeny bantam Old English Game roo as Mr Man of the Flock. He was quite confused, but seemed ok with this , although he did seem to be looking for a ladder. When I brought him into my flock I was a little concerned with how Fabio would react, but Fabio was fine. (This from a rooster that kicked the stuffing out of my dominant Silver Spangled Roo, Flash – hence my trepidation – but all was well).

Rico Suave

So, today, I bought home my new rooster – Bruce, a purebred blue Orpington. He is very dark blue on his back, and light blue on his tummy, and about the size of 6 Chihuahua’s. I have 8 Orpington hens, and am keen to breed more, and most of the rest of my flock now are either a handful of bantams incl Rico, and dual purpose larger chickens. I thought there shouldn’t be an issue. I mean, look at the size of Rico up there next to an Orpy hen.. and Bruce is twice the size of those hens, easily.

Big Blue Bruce. Who would call a rooster Bruce, anyway?!

Can you tell from the title I was wrong about that assumption? Bruce was integrating nicely, when next second – and it was about 5 seconds after I let Bruce out of his cat cage – Rico attacks him at eye height from the flax, and the fight was on like donkey kong. Holy moly. I chased them around, I tried to stop the fighting, but in the end it was easier to seperate them. Bruce is now out the front, by the porch, with 4 hens, Rico is in the main part of the chook area with 33. Somewhat unfair…

I think they’ll sort it out, but they were fairly intent on the fighting, and the size discrepancy is enormous. They’d better sort it out, and nicely, or else I’ll put them both in time out…

Hope everyone is having a sunny, uneventful day!

Ami

p.s. these roosters are all crowing in these photos because I like photos of roosters singing They are also doing it a lot today, trying to vocally sort out the dominance thing. Rico sounds like a cricket cross chicken, and Bruce sounds a bit like a big truck rumbling past. Love the contrast.