Dear Muffin

This is a really hard thing for me to do. But I figured, just do it, like ripping off a band-aid....

Dear Muffin,

  You were Two when we met you in 2007. I still remember that day we walked into Petsmart, and as usual I insisted we go say "Hi" to the kitties at the shelter. And there you were, alone in a kennel. Your little information card said you were Two, affectionate and just a little anti-social. I remember thinking , "But this is the sweetest kitty I've ever met"! You were excited to play with Daniel and I from behind kennel bars.
  I remember thinking "This is the coolest kitty I've ever seen". Your fur was beautiful; long, thick and splattered in brown tones. It was the softest fur I had ever felt! We called you our "Bunny- kitty". You shared a birthday with my mom, which I thought was pretty funny. I remember the day I adopted you, Daniel was out of town. I remember it was December and really close to your birthday. What better gift could I have given this kitty, than to give her a loving home on her very birthday? So I did. Everyone at the shelter was so happy that you were going to a home! You had been at the shelter for over Six months! I remember being so sad when I found out. How?! How could this sweet, adorable kitty have spent so long in a lonely cage at a shelter?!
 I remember the day I brought you home, to our first tiny apartment. You were so happy! You fit right in! I remember letting you out of your traveling box and you immediately jumped on our couch and curled up with me. I knew I had made the right choice. You were meant to be with us. A few days later Daniel came home from his work trip and he was so happy to meet you! You were excited to meet him too.
 You always had a big personality, you always wanted to be with Daniel and I. Which I loved! I loved having a kitty that was so friendly and pretty. The vets always commented on how pretty you were. And you were! You were the loveliest kitty! Always so poised and well- behaved. You moved with us through Three different houses, and you made each of them a special place to be in. You were so much more than our kitty, you were our buddy, our furbaby! You kept me company for the many years that Daniel was on the road, and I never felt lonely because I had my Muffin.
 You were a single-kitty for a looong while. Then we brought you home a friend, Truffle. You seemed skeptical at first, but then you two grew to like each other. It was always so cute to hear the Two of you playing, or play fighting. I was happy to see you had a little friend for when we went on trips. I know she will miss you too.
 You may not know it Muffin, but you also had many people who loved you because of mommy's blog. You helped in such a BIG way. To this day I'm sure more people came to this blog on Mondays to see you, than to see my nails. And that was just fine with mommy, because she had the sweetest kitty in all the land who helped her pick her polish. It was our "Monday thing". I know it may sound stupid to some, but it was "our thing". I will miss this greatly. I will miss her chilling with me while I polished.... I will miss her.
 There are so many things I will miss about you, my Muffin. You had such a big personality. You were such a loving kitty. We tried so hard to keep you with us. We really did. It broke my heart to see you struggle with your health so greatly. I didn't want to be selfish though, I knew you were suffering.Even as I sit here typing this I still can't face the reality that you are gone, but I must. We will miss you so very much Muffin. You were a fantastic pet, friend and even a cry pillow when I needed it. Daniel and I will never forget you, you are irreplaceable Muffin! I hope you had a very happy life, we tried so very hard to make sure you were always happy and comfortable. You were a great kitty, the best kitty and I will never forget you.
 I hope your kitty heaven is full of all the things that you loved! I hope you have a lot of space to run and a lot of things to jump on, you always liked being up high. I also hope you never forget us, because we won't forget you. Even though I hugged and kissed you everyday, it still doesn't feel like enough...
 With that, I bring this letter to a close. My heart is heavy, my eyes are sore and I really don't know how to occupy my thoughts at this moment other than with the happy times we all shared together. Muffin, you were SO loved and cared for, I really do hope you knew that. I'm grateful I got to know you and have you in my life. I'm grateful I got to take you away from that crowded shelter and give you the best life possible, but I am so sorry I couldn't save you in the end. You were a fighter kitty, you really were.

We love you Muffin! You left us in good paws, Truffle is a fantastic kitty as well and I hope she knows that for a while, she had the best kitty friend in the whole world!

 Don't forget to hug your furbabies today, and every other day.

More about → Dear Muffin

Muffin Monday! O.P.I Eurso Euro- Mixed Texture Nail Art

(**O.P.I Products provided for review consideration.**)

Hello and happy Muffin Monday!

 Look at me getting a Muffin Monday out on time!!! I won't even blab much and get straight to it! This week Muffin picked me a most amazing shade of vivid Cobalt Blue by O.P.I called Eurso Euro. This shade is from the Euro Centrale collection. I wanted to keep the look simple, but interesting. So I did a mixed texture look featuring some of O.P.I's Liquid Sand shades as well as Muffin's pretty pick. 

 For this look I started with a base of Three coats of Eurso Euro and Oy Another Polish Joke(Golden shade) by O.P.I. I LOOOVE these Two shades together. I've had a soft spot for Blue and Gold since they were my High School colors. Plus, there is something so regal about the combination. Anywho, I did my base colors and top coated them with some Seche and waited to make sure they were dry enough to move forward with the Half-moon details. For the half moons I used Get your Number and What Wizardry is This? liquid sands. I waited a good 45 minutes before photographing this look to make sure the texture polish had dried enough for there to be a good contrast between the shiny bases and the textured sand polishes.

Look at Muffin go!

 And because I also loved these polishes on their own... Here are Eurso Euro and Oy Another Polish Joke. Both were an easy Three coats of color to reach full opacity. I ran into no issues with the formulations. OAPJ was a little sheer but did well in Three coats. It can also be layered.

 What do you guys think of the mixed- texture moons? I really liked the look of the shiny and "rough" together. I'm sure this type of mani would hold up well, these textured polishes have been wearing like iron on me! I've been really enjoying this O.P.I Spring Collection. I think it's one of the best Spring collections by O.P.I in a while!

Would you try a mixed texture look?

 (**O.P.I Products provided for review consideration.**)

More about → Muffin Monday! O.P.I Eurso Euro- Mixed Texture Nail Art

"Truffin" Tuesday!! Barielle Green Apple and O.P.I My Paprika is Hotter than Yours!

Hello and happy Tuesday! 

  SO sorry this post is running late. I got distracted yesterday while working on my hair. I got into one of my cray cray funks and decided I wanted to re-do my hair colors. I've been taking Folic Acid supplements (per my doctor) and my hair, and nails have been growing SO fast!! But, anywho... My roots were KILLING me, so I got wrapped up in that project and completely forgot to post this awesome mani I did with Truffle's pick(s).  

 Muffin is still refusing to pick lol. She will just sit there looking pretty like "What, what do you want human?". This week though, Truffle decided to join in the fun and picked me some shades to play with.

 I don't know what it is about this look but I LOVE how it turned out. The color combination is weird and yet it works so well. Truffle picked for me Barielle's Green Apple and O.P.I My Paprika is Hotter than Yours. These are both phenomenal, vibrant shades!! They both have amazing formulas, incredibly saturated and creamy! I used Two coats of each shade. For the triangle Purple accents I used Zoya Pinta. I finished the look off by adding some contrasting "glequins" and topping the whole look off with Twee & Honey's This is Matteness- matte top coat.

 And here are the kitties doing their thing.

 And because I loved these shades together before I even added accents. Here are my base colors. I am smitten with O.P.I MPIHTY!! That said, my camera was not a fan lol. It is an AMAZING Summer/ Spring shade and if you even remotely like Oranges, you will want this baby. Green Apple by Barielle is a really fun and unique shade and you can't beat that Barielle formula!

 I'm loving all these fun and quirky shades for Spring and Summer. I think those are my favorite seasons for nail polish. I had so much fun working with these colors and I can see why Truffle has trouble deciding ;).

  Time to go finish working on my hair!! I will have pics for you guys as soon as it is done ♥.

(**OPI and Barielle products provided for my consideration**)

More about → "Truffin" Tuesday!! Barielle Green Apple and O.P.I My Paprika is Hotter than Yours!

Muffin Mon... Er... Tuesday? O.P.I Euro-Marble

Hello lovely people!! 

  So... I'm late with this post :(. Yesterday was not a good day for me. I woke up pretty sick and whatnot so... Needless to say the polishing was not happening. Today I woke up feeling better, but still quite out of it. I'm sorry this post is so late and short. I've really been struggling with my health and energy lately. I would love some consistency right now :-s.

 This look started with a clean White creme base. I did a Blue themed watermarble with some of the new O.P.I Euro-Centrale shades. I used You're such a Budapest, I saw...U saw.. We saw... Warsaw and Can't find my Czechbook. I always foget how much of a pain it it to clean up Blue polish after marbles. Well, for me at least. Once I was done with the cleanup, I was not entirely happy with my marble. So I topped it with my secret weapon, INM Northern Lights. When that didn't save it with for me I did a Konad stamp from plate M63 in Konad Black special polish. I then went back and topped the whole thing off with O.P.I Don't touch my Tutu to give it an "underwater" look. I actually really adore the finished look. I'm glad I stamped and sammiched the whole look.
 
 Muffin is being a princess lately.... And hey!! It's a Truffle photo-bomb!

 Here is the marble before I stamped over it. IDK what it is but I was not really happy with it... :(

That is all for me today. I hope you guys like this mani. I'm so sorry I was late and short. As soon as I am feeling better I will be back up to full speed. In the mean time, if I disappear for a little bit, don't worry! It just means I need a little break and will be back shortly!

(**OPI products provided for my consideration**)

More about → Muffin Mon... Er... Tuesday? O.P.I Euro-Marble

Muffin Monday!! Sation Of Corset I'll Call You and Guillotine Grape

Gah it's so late!! 

  Sorry!! Muffin.. Muffin refused to pick me a polish this week lol. So I ended up going with two of the shades she rejected haha. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. It's pretty late and I'm pretty tired. That said, I LOVE this look! 

 My base shades are Sation's Of Corset I'll Call You and Guillotine Grape. For my gradients I used the same Two shades. Doing gradients with Of Corset I'll Call You was fantastic because it is a soft, squishy Pink. I've found that using jelly-like polishes on gradients makes them such a breeze! I topped my gradients with INM Northern Lights.  The stamps were done using China Glaze Passion. The stamp on on my ring finger is from Bundle Monster plate BM202 and the lace-y patterns are from BM323. I finished the whole look off with one final coat of SV.

 And here is a fun collage of Muffin's indecision haha!

Have a good night my darlings!! I will be back sometime tomorrow!!

(**Sation products provided for my consideration**)

More about → Muffin Monday!! Sation Of Corset I'll Call You and Guillotine Grape

Muffin Monday!! Julie G Dream in Pretty

Hello my lovelies and happy Muffin Monday!! 

  Sorry about today's post being so late. Muffin mad her pick yesterday. Muffin picked like a boss this week. I set up and Mr. LTHP lured her to the room and she made her pick on the first try. She went for an adorable color from the Julie G line by Jesse's Girl called Dream in Pretty. 

 For some reason I was feeling tropical so this is the look I came up with for Muffin's pretty pick.

 I started with a base of Two easy coats of Dream in Pretty. On my Middle and Ring fingernails I did some Sunset inspired gradients with Julie's Fave and Dream in Pretty. I topped my gradients off with Seche Vite followed by a thin, sparkly coat of INM Northern Lights. For the all the stamps I used a plate I got in a swap with a Dutch friend and Konad Black Special Polish. I do not know the brand of the plate but it was number SdP-71. I then went back and free-handed the Black ground under my Palm trees with Cult Nails Nevermore. I ended up really loving this look... And kinda wishing I was on a beach with a Corona in my hand...

 Here is a look at Muffin's pick, and my base color, Dream in Pretty. This is one of those pretty Lilac- Pink creme shades that I cannot get enough of. The formula on this shade was SO amazing. It has just the right amount of pigmentation and it is very self-leveling. I used Two coats for full opacity.

 The Julie G line by Jesse's Girl recently had an expansion of 27 colors and I kinda wish I had access to them.. Silly Florida not having Rite Aids :(... BUT, I keep hearing that the more we request on Ulta's FB that they carry Jesse's Girl the sooner they might do so!! So lets all go over to the Ulta FB page and ask for Jesse's Girl cosmetics at their stores!

Thanks for stopping by!!

(**Julie G nail color provided for my consideration**)

More about → Muffin Monday!! Julie G Dream in Pretty

Muffin Monday!! Pretty & Polished Tomboyish

Oh My!! 

  Yes, you are seeing correct! Muffin is back!! I don't even remember how it has been since I last did a Muffin Monday, even Muffin forgot what it was all about lol. For those of you who may be newer to LTHP Muffin Mondays are a feature that I started back in 2010 and I used to do it EVERY Monday. Basically I would like up random polishes and which ever shade Muffin "picked" I would feature in one way or another.  As I started to get busier and busier it because harder to keep up with the weekly Muffin Mondays. That said, so many of you lovelies reached out to me asking where Muffin was, I had to bring it back!!

  For today's feature miss Muffin picked me one of my new Pretty and Polished acquisitions, and one of the coolest polishes I've played with in a long time! 

 To see Muffin's pick in action just continue reading ♥.

 Muffin picked me the great Tomboyish by Pretty & Polished. This amazing shade of smokey Teal changes colors, drastically, with warm and cold temperatures. I had played with color changing polishes before but none with a change as noticeable and awesome as Tomboyish. In the picture below you see Tomboyish in it's "cold/natural"state. I really love this beautiful shade of smokey Teal creme and all the pretty shimmer suspended in the base. 

 This look is inspired by the name of the polish, in a backwards sort of way. I wanted to give Tomboyish a very delicate and girly look. For the lacey stamps on my Index and Pinkie fingernail I used Cheeky plate CH23. For the bow stamp on mr Ring fingernail I used Konad plate M59. To accent my stamps I used some small pearls set into my top coat. On my middle finger I did an accent of Lynnderella Connect the Dots.

 In the photo below I have dipped my fingertips in warm water to get the color shift. Tomboyish goes from a deep, smokey Teal to an ethereal, shimmering Green-ish- White. I kept switching the water from cold to warm to see the nail art pop and "disappear" with the color changes of the base.

 And here you can see Tomboyish before any nail art was added. This beauty has a fantastic formula and I only needed Two coats for full opacity.

 This pretty does dry a bit dull and gritty so a top coat is a must to bring out shine and smooth out the surface. Other than that, I am so very impressed with every aspect of this awesome nail color.

 What are your thoughts on color changing polish? Do you own any? You can color me impressed with this beauty. I'm thinking that I might need to head to P&P's shop and pick out a few more of these fun pretties!

 Are you happy Muffin is back?!

More about → Muffin Monday!! Pretty & Polished Tomboyish

Muffin Monday!! Aphrodite Lacquers Rumrunner gets "Giltified"

Happy Muffin Monday!!

  It has been SO long since the last time I did a Muffin Monday. I miss having my kittehs halp on the blog. Have you guys missed Miss Muffin? She sure has had a nice little break, but it was time to have her come back and help me with my Monday picks :D. I literally could not decide which of my Aphrodite Lacquers I wanted to go with, so I had Muffin pick for me. As usual she picked a total win! Well, all of the options are total wins... Onto the kitteh!

Aphrodite Lacquers Rumrunner

  This is such an amazing color I don't even know where to begin. Rumrunner is an amazing Berry toned jelly base packed full of different tones of small Red, Pink and Berry hexes and smaller Silver twinkle glitter. Uh-MAZING! I absolutely LOVE the fact that it is an opaque polish and it does not need to be layered. This color really does remind me of a tall, delicious drink! I used Three thin coats for full opacity. I love this jelly sammich in a bottle.

  Since I actually got to rock this over the weekend I layered my Zoya Gilty Gold flake top coat. I could not stop staring at my nails. I could have worn this for ever! I topped it all off with Cult Nails Wicked Fast  top coat.

 Muffin is happy to be back and I am so happy to have her help me decide which amazing polishes to wear again. I can't believe how long it had been since I last had Miss Muffin on the blog. That makes me feel bad mm'kaay... Muffin Mondays are an LTHP tradition, I shall try to keep up with it like I used to!

Thanks for stopping by!

(**Aprhodite Lacquer provided for review**)

More about → Muffin Monday!! Aphrodite Lacquers Rumrunner gets "Giltified"

Muffin Monday!! Sation Tardy Tart

Good evening!! 

  I'm late but I'm back baby!! The husband and I had a great and very chill vacation. We went to the beach and got our tan on, hung out with friends and totally re-did the polish room!! I'll have some pictures of what I did over vacation and a  little video tour of the new, and much improved, polish room soon.  I have a huge new desk now and room to make tutorials!! SO!!! That might actually be happening now :D!

 Onto why you're probably here... Muffin is back!!! It has been a WHILE since I've done one of these. I feel kinda bad about that.... But she picked me an awesome color and powered by Bing Energy Drink, some shaky hands and some tunes by Sleigh Bells I managed to bust out a cute mani and try something totally new!

 To see Muffin's pick in action just keep on reading!

  This manicure came out of no where. Muffin picked for me Sation's Tardy Tart which is the awesome Lavender base color on my Index, Ring and Pinkie nails. On my middle nail the base is Sations's Jock Juggler.  All of the colors used in this manicure are by Sation and they come from their Class of Sation collection. I will have some swatches of other colors from this collection soon. They are so bright and FUN and the glitters are to die for. Also, the people at Sation are SO good with their naming.

 So as I said above the base colors are Tardy Tart and Jock Juggler. For the leopard dots I used the same colors and for the outlining I used Sation Miss Emo Shun All (Oh lol... ). MESA will be a b*tch to photograph but if you can take my word for it.. Just buy it. It's amazing. It's an uber deep Indigo/ Violet.. It's radioactive and deep, moody.. Just amazing. You need it! As for the other colors used in this mani.. The same applies.  For this freehand leopard mani I used Sarah's Tutorial. I'm surprised at how well these turned out for how shaky my hands were... I think the shaky hands helped the effect haha. Topped off with Seche Vite..

Muffin!!!! <3!

Here are my base colors before nail art.

 These two colors have AMAZING Two coat formulas. I always expect colors in this family to have a thick and/or goopy formula but these were just perfect! They were buttery smooth, perfectly pigmented and more vibrant in person than in my photos. They are not pastel, maybe "neon pastels" if there was such a thing. I really wanted Sunlight pics of these but it is not so nice out today. I also relocated my light tent set-up so I have to adjust the lighting once again. These are not too far off from real life though.

 I'm happy to be back and that vacation is just what I needed. I hope I can keep up with this awesome tan I have going on... I hope you guys like this mani. It was a lot of fun to work on and surprisingly easy to do! Muffin is glad to be back!! 

Thanks for stopping by!

(**Sation Products provided for review**)

More about → Muffin Monday!! Sation Tardy Tart

Muffin Monday!! Nicole by O.P.I Listen to Your Mom-ager

Happy Muffin Monday!!

  It has been about a month since Miss Muffin has made an appearance on LTHP and I was feeling bad about that... SO! I made it a point that when I got home from work last night I would absolutely work on a Muffin Monday for you guys. I figured I'd limit her choices to some of my most favorite Blues since it is the last day of April, Autism Awareness month. So here is what I did with her pick.... It got quite involved(for me) It's been a while since I've done nail art... And yes, I did all Ten nails :D. I fully intend on rocking these for a few days because I LOVE them!

 It's been SO long since I've done nail art that I get to actually WEAR! I'm kind of excited (DORKNESS). So she picked for me Nicole by O.P.I Listen to your Mom-ager, I absolutely adore this shade of deep Royal Blue shimmer. So for the stamping I used Cheeky plate CH06 and White Konad polish. I feel like my stamping is a little sloppy since it's been a while since I've stamped, especially dots. For my index fingers I did Two coats of Windestine Asbestos over the Blue base (LOOOOOVE this nail!!). On my Ring and Thumbs I did matching rhinestone accents. The stones were a present.

 Hee hee! MUFFIN!!! <3! She did not make this easy.

I just love this look! Maybe a bit "Holiday" but I could care less... It also comes off a bit prom... So it fits in at the same time haha!

So.. Epic nails are epic :D? Oh BTW, I am LOVING my new Cheeky stamping plates. This is probably my favorite set right now. I wish I had more hands!!

Thanks for stopping by!

More about → Muffin Monday!! Nicole by O.P.I Listen to Your Mom-ager

Muffin Monday!! Zoya Apple gets Studded

Good morning and happy Muffin Monday!

  Today I have one of, what seems to be, Muffin's favorite colors. I'm pretty sure she has picked this one once before. Today's pick is also one of Mr. LTHP's favorite colors. Whenever he visits me when I'm hard at work in the polish room he always picks up either Apple, Adina or Ivanka. What can I say? The man has good taste :D. So, basically I had Mr. LTHP pick some of his favorite colors and lay them out for Muffin for her to make her final pick... There were A LOT of Greens.

To see this awesome nail art and swatches continue reading. 

Zoya Apple

I started with Three thin coats of Zoya's Apple. This color is just so amazing. Well the entire Sunshine Collection from Zoya Summer 20111 was amazing. But, anyways, I started with Apple and then went to town with some studs I found at Wal-Mart. It is a very small Kiss pack and it doesn't have many of each style of stud but I really like these and the edgy look they create. I'm thinking of getting more. These are fun.

And here is a swatch of one of my favorite Summer colors from the faeries at Zoya, Apple. Three coats.

 Isn't this beautiful!

Thanks for stopping by!

More about → Muffin Monday!! Zoya Apple gets Studded

Muffin Monday!! Zoya Adina- Dainty Nail Art

Happy Muffin Monday!!

  Today's Muffin Monday is brought to you by a stubborn Kitteh who did not want to pick hahah! What I did was I had Mr. LTHP pick the initial Five colors because I just did not want to pick myself and then we set them up for Muffin. She came in... Sat down in front of the arch of colors and started cleaning her pretty little self. Mr. LTHP tried to point her in the direction of the colors and instead she decided she wanted to play and started rolling on her back and being adorable. Mr. LTHP wanted to see Adina... So I went with her... I beyond love the finished look!

 Please please please continue reading. This look is too pretty to miss! So.... Please enjoy Mr. LTHP's pick :D!

  I started with a base of Three thin and perfect coats of Zoya's Adina. I really wanted to play off the Green tones in this beauty so I sponged the tips with some Zoya Apple. I then went back and sponged lightly on the very tips with China Glaze Glittering Garland. I then went back over with some Apple because I really wanted the shimmery Apple gradient to be more evident. I wanted the look of dainty vines so I went with Konad Plate M73 and used my favorite stamping Green, China Glaze Jolly Holly. I topped the whole thing off with some Seche Vite. I really love the contrast of the colors in this mani and it is very striking in person. I am all about looks like this one.

Here is a swatch of the lovely Adina. It just so happens that the genius behind A England polishes is named Adina. It is awesome to see her Zoya namesake be such an amazing an unique shade. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.... Yum... This makes me think of mythical Nymphs or something like that.

I love wearing polishes that I have not worn in a very long time and falling in love with them all over again. 

Yay for nail art! I missed doing nail art... 

More about → Muffin Monday!! Zoya Adina- Dainty Nail Art