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Lookie lookie, cute nails!

Look what I did! Cute nails, yes? I could do this all day, come up with new things, new designs trying out new polishes. Very addictive.

For this not-very-classic French manicure I used Barry M's grey and pink polish and some cheap-ass flower nail stickers. Me very happy.

Close up time!

Not very Christmas-y but that's ok, it means I get to try something else soon. The boyfriend is pondering if he should get me some professional help for this addiction of mine...

Vegan nail polish search continues: Nubar

I’ve been reading a lot of nail blogs and I found out that I have been a bit of a negative nelly when it comes to finding vegan, cruelty-free nail polishes. I began with the assumption that all the big (and interesting) brands like OPI and China Glaze are a definite no-no. Wrong! OPI actually belongs to the same company as Sparituals that I mentioned earlier. I couldn’t be happier. Not all colours are vegan, though, so I’m staying away from all reds and purples. Same thing with China Glaze and Essie; not everything is vegan, or at least I couldn’t find that information on their websites, but the products are cruelty-free. Good news indeed.

Now then, can’t remember which blog it was but seems that Nubar that makes absolutely stunning nail polishes is, in fact, all vegan, it says so on the website even. Hurrah! The collections sets that they make look really good. I’m absolutely strapped for cash right now, so new polishes are out of the question. That doesn’t stop me from dreaming, though…

Which one should I get when I have the chance, hmm…

Chocolate Truffles, maybe?

or perhaps Going Green?

Pastel Fever?

Royal Gem looks good too.

And Get Hot with Nubar seems lovely.

So many options, how to choose, how to choose.

(All pictures from http://www.bynubar.com)

Operation “Long Nails”

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I decided to start growing my nails. Yes, very silly but I want to. I haven’t ever tried to do it before, so this might be a complete failure. As I have understood, it’s pretty much about one’s genes but taking care of my hands is probably not a bad idea, anyways.

Here’s where I’m starting from:

So it’s not entirely hopeless. Don’t know if you can see but the tips are pretty damaged. However, my cuticles are in tact and I don’t have bad nail habits such as biting them, so I’m kinda hopeful. The problem that I’ve been having is that when the nail grows out of the nail bed, the layers start splitting.

Here’s what I’m going to do:

Stop using your nails as tools, you dummy
Obviously, if you’re going to use your nails as a screwdriver or open up things with them, it will weaken your nails and they will break. I’m not doing that anymore, promise.

Use nail polish.
Always. It will protect the nails.

Moisturise every day.
Yup, and not just the nails, the hand too. So far so good. And my hands look really good at the moment, another bonus!

Manicure once a week.
Yay, more me-time! A good chance to experiment with all those nail polishes that are collecting dust in our bathroom shelf. Honestly, I don’t even have that much, you know, if I compare them to my collection of yarn, for example. But then again, how many different shades of pink does a girl need?

Start by using a super-duper strengthening treatment.
Did this already. I used Protein Boost Nail Fortifier from SpaRitual for a week, as it says in the instructions, and now I’ll switch to Nutri-Thick Calcium Nail Builder that can be used as a base coat. Hard to say if the treatment did any good, though.

There’s my plan and here’s an extra picture of SpaRitual’s “Solitude” on my nails. Really pretty, dark purple, perfect for the season. Oh, and best of all, the SpaRitual products are vegan. So there, a complete vegan, cruelty free high-end nail care and colour collection, how cool is that. Vegans, getcha nails did!

How you doin'?

So hi, haven’t been here for a while. My life goes on as normal, with sad and happy times, and I haven’t felt the need to share everything. Still… maybe a quick update would be in order.

Bunnies:The good news: We finally decided to get Tessa a friend and got a new bunny in September. His name is Aku and he is from the local animal shelter. Aku’s mom was a pet bunny and dad a wild bunny (!), so he is a really careful and shy fella. He doesn’t hop like normal pet bunnies do, he walks and runs. It looks hilarious. He is really fast and a good climber. Yeah. Big trouble for us, I know. But look… he is soooo cute.

The bad news: Around the beginning of October, Tessa starter looking first really fat and soon alarmingly bloated. Aku was fixed so we were pretty sure that she wasn’t pregnant. When we took her to the vet, we found out that something was badly wrong, liquid had started gathering in her stomach for some reason. Several vet sessions later it was clear that the only chance to find out what was wrong was to open her up and see if it was a tumour causing all the trouble. It was but unfortunately it had spread everywhere and could not be removed. She was never woken up from her sleep, next spring she will be put to rest next to her brother in my mom’s beautiful garden. So yeah, another Christmas time spent missing a bunny friend.

Knitting:
I’m knitting all kinds of things at the same time, meaning I’m getting nothing done. :D I’ve probably mentioned this before but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m definitely more into the process than the finished product. Not that I don’t love my knitted things but the act of knitting seems to be important to me for some reason. And I love yarn, lovelovelove it! Just ordered some Kraemer Tatamy Tweed and Saucon Sock from Discontinued Brand Name Yarn.
Well that’s all about bunnies and knitting, as the name of my blog indicates. Here’s a short list of other stuff that’s going on:

1. I’ve been changing my hair lately. Last spring and summer it was like this:

Now it looks like this:




I’d love to dye it some utterly insane colour like fuchsia or electric blue but for now, I’ll just keep growing it longer. FYI, the cute bunny necklace is from Anna Lou of London, the Boy's birthday present to me, awww...

2. I started a new hobby in May, pole dancing. Whee, so much fun! I try to go to Rock the Pole once every week but I have an X-pole in the middle of my kitchen as well. Such a good exercise, really good for your coordination, arms and core muscles. Funny that I’m so into this now, as a kid I was so scared to hang upside down that no power in the world, be it peer pressure or the gym teacher, could make me do it.

3. This year I’ve been really into makeup for some reason. I’m completely obsessed with vegan, cruelty free makeup and want to try every product that I can find. You can guess that this addiction is not good for my wallet at all.

4. In addition to makeup, my latest project is all about my nails (me me me, I’m beginning to sound so vain… oh right, it’s my blog…). I’m trying to grow my nails longer, we’ll see how that progresses…

New Year, New Life?

Yeah, well I guess that’s what they say about the beginning of a new year. I dunno, I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions. Everything feels about the same as last year, which is not bad considering that last year was a good one for me. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken, right?

Christmas time wasn’t the best possible for me. The boyfriend, who is a nursing student, worked night shifts through the holidays, so we stayed home. There was no snow in sight, so it didn’t feel very Christmassy. And last but not least, our little bunny Myntti died after Christmas. He became very ill on Christmas Day and I did my best to keep him alive through the holidays (no emergency bunny doctors in Helsinki) by feeding him and giving him antibiotics and painkillers from the local emergency animal clinic. When I finally got him bunny-savvy care, he died when he was on his way to x-ray. Myntti and Tessa are my first own pets and this was the day I had been afraid of. It wasn’t easy but this is the sad (an inevitable) part of having pets. Myntti’s ashes are now home, waiting for spring when he will be buried at my mom’s garden next to our two cats.

Myntti as a little baby. Awww....

Tessa seems to be quite ok considering that she has lost her lifelong buddy. She is eating and being herself, which makes things easier for me too. At present we are not looking for a new bunny but maybe some day.

That’s about it for now. I haven’t been knitting for a while, which I knew would happen due to really busy times at work, but I am so going to pick up that tyrolean cardigan soon.

D'oh!

Last week I really outdid myself and knitted the Tyrolean Cardigan to the point where the armholes should start. I'm knitting the whole body in one piece, so you can imagine that it takes time to just finish one row, with all the bobbles and such. Well, I start to read the instructions for the armholes and... I notice that, in my knitting frenzy, I have completely ignored the increases in the side seams. D'oh, indeed. Had to frog the whole thing down to the k2p2 part... I guess these things just happen.