Shut the Front Door!!!!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!! Oh my goodness gracious me!  It has been a while hasn't it?!?  I started to reminisce about the days when I used to write a blog and how much I enjoyed it.  So I decided to brush the cobwebs off the old blog and try to recapture what I used to love to do.

Now if you have followed my blog previously (roughly a hundred and twenty six years ago) you will remember that I was at university getting my degree in Education.  So let me update you:

• Still completely obsessed with nail polish
• Received a First Class Honours Degree in Education (I know right?!?!)
• Still absolutely adore nail polish!
• Trained for my teacher's qualification (aka the hardest year of my life!!)
• Completely obsessed with nail polish and make up!
• Qualified as a teacher in 2012
• Got a job as a Year 4 teacher (8-9 year olds)
• Totally love nail polish and change it roughly 2-3 times a week
• Am in my second year of teaching - totally loving it - and now teaching Year 1 (5-6 year olds:  aka little snot monsters!!)
• Absolutely obsessed with nail polish, make up and my Filofax.

Am totally thrilled to start my little blog up again and really hope you enjoy the journey with me.  I really hope to start posting videos of nail tutorials too.

My nail polish collection has grown.  Those little monkeys just seem to magically reproduce! I don't know how my collection has got so big!  I think I have about 500 polishes now .... Yowzer that's a lot.

I will tell you that I have become more of a connoisseur for nail polish and have a refined taste in the polishes I purchase ....... NOT!! I love all nail polishes left, right and centred! If it's a gorgeous colour I will buy it. I tell you what I want to do more of and that's:

1.  Follow the seasonal trend and be up to date on what is hot.

2. Start reviewing all 'beautifying' items that I purchase.

3.  Create more list posts ie:  Best facial wipes, best nail polish remover, top ten fave nail colours of the season, best dog grooming products (ok I lied about the last one! unless you are really interested in what I use to wash my dog?!)

4.  I also would like to share lifestyle tips as well.  My job is extremely stressful at times and I would like to share some of the things I do to create some "me" time.

I hope this all sounds good and you will participate.  I have sooooooo much to share with you.

Calm down Jodes! I hear you say.  One of things I would like to share with you is my top ten nail polishes of all time.  I might even do it as a video - I am a little scared of YouTube but will certainly give it my best shot.

Anyway, I am so glad to be back and will bring you lots of goodies tomorrow.

Love you all

Jodes

xxxx

Me meeting Henry Winkler after I qualified as a teacher - nicest man ever!  I know, I know this picture is totally random and it's not a picture of my nails but I do remember rockin' an 'acid-wash jeans' manicure ..... which I do not have photos of .... Good start Jodes!!  However, I am currently wearing OPI Peace Love and OPI at the mo.  I am about to change my manicure so please excuse the tipwear.  This has been on for 6 days - but my hands are constantly in water.  Did I mention I work with 30 5-year olds?!? Thank God for Purell is all I can say!  I love the oils slick look that is on trend this season.  Having said that the polish always looks better in the bottle than on the nail.  I'm not saying that it doesn't look good, I just mean the 'oil slickness' does not transfer well on to the nail.  The polish shifts from a gun metal grey with flashes of pink to a green and blue in some lights.  Application is fabulous and I used two coats (I am a two coater girl so most of my manis are two coaters)

No Flash

With flash

I'm Still Here!!!!

I am soooooooooooooo sorry!  The play finished on Sunday and I have come down with the sniffles.  Plus that and having to go to Uni at five in the morning PLUS organising my Brownies' Christmas Party!

Me and hubby (who was also in play)

The play was a huge success!  We all had such a wonderful time and it got a great response.  The piccie above is me, on stage, in my 80s outfit.  I was wearing Essie's Pepperoni on my nails.  I haven't worn that colour in such a long time.  Sadly I forgot to swatch it.  I have had it for about four years and I can report that it still applies beautifully and it lasted for three days before it chipped ... but then I was climbing up and down ladders several times an evening!  Back to normal swatching real soon ... I promise!  I missed you all! xx

China Glaze - Pure Elegance and Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends x

I had a mani yesterday at may favourite manicure place as a little treat to myself before I get too exhausted with this play!  So this play I am in is set in the 80s.  When my fab nail technician asked me to choose my colour, could I decide?!?  My head was saying pinks/reds but my heart was saying fab purple glitter.  So I chose Pure Elegance by china glaze thinking that it would satisfy .... something!  Although it is a yellowy pink it does have an iridescence to it.  However, after a day of wearing it I had to take it off!  This polish is like eating sweeties.  After a while you overdose on sugar and you get a stomach ache!  It's all right in small doses.  Plus I don't think it goes with my 80s outfit also.  I am now wearing a red which I will post tomorrow.  Plus do come back to see me in my costume!!

Before I go I want to say something to my friends in America:- Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  We don't celebrate it over here but if we did then I would be thankful for my blog because through it I have met some wonderful women.

x

The Final Set!

Isn't it fabulous!  The house is based on a 16th Century cottage.  We were able to get on the stage and rehearse properly for the first time last night!  However, it is a lot smaller then we are used to and I have ended up with bruises everywhere and a twisted ankle!  If you look upstairs to the right, you'll see that it goes off to the "attic" which is actually a fabulous little cubby hole which I camp out in for about 10 minutes.  So I have put some stuff in my cubby hole such as a magazine, my make up, hand cream (of course!) and a can of gin and tonic!  It's a little bit naughty but hey with all the running around I have to do up and down the stairs (in heels no less!) I deserve a little drinky-poo to keep me going!  It's our first performance in front of an audience tonight.  It's what we call an open rehearsal.  We invite old age pensioners to come and see us for free.  It's like a warm up before the real thing!  Anyway we were rehearsing until midnight last night so I am pretty pooped today.
I am sorry for the lack of nail pix but I do have a mani that I will post later.
Lots of love
x

Our Fabulous Set!

I can't believe that a small amateur dramatic group like us can actually build a fabulous set like this.  I am so amazed.  We have a wonderful team and they have worked so hard on this.  I know it doesn't look much - it's not been dressed yet and there are ladders everywhere!  The whole set is on a revolve as well so it spins around.  Our first night is Wednesday night.  I'm not sure if we would have a complete run through by then because the set isn't ready yet.  Only because we don't have nearly enough people to help and it has been a huge project.  Having said that everyone has worked well together. Tensions are running high as well.  I told the stage manager at the end of the rehearsal that my vase that I carry and threaten to smash over someone's head (in the play) was the wrong one.  It was far to big and heavy for me to carry.  Well I thought I was going to have to sew my head back on after she bit it right off!!  I mean really, we are all in this together and we all want to put on the best show so there is absolutely no reason to snap at someone!  We are all feeling the pressure!  Anyway I am having a nice manicure tomorrow so will post some pix of that.  My hands are suffering as I have to climb up and down a ladder ... in heels!!!  I will post some pix of the complete set and us rehearsing as well.  OK I need my beddy byes!!  Night all x
PS Despite everything I really enjoy reading your blogs, it really takes my mind of the stresses!  Thank you everyone xx

The First Time

Hello my sweeties!  I am so sorry for not posting.  I am so behind on all my swatching.  My play is all next week (ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!) and we have all been busy building the set and rehearsing.  I am so pooped I can't tell you!  Anyway I have been wearing OPI's "You're a Doll" which I bought after seeing it on Katie's blog over at What Katie Did Her Polish (Thanks Katie!).  I haven't worn a "subtle" polish in such a long time.  It is so pretty and I absolutely love it.  Please do go and see what it looks like over at Katie's blog (see my blogroll).  I love the creamy colour with the tiny red flecks in it.  I call it my secret polish!  I feel like people see it as a neutral colour but I know that it has this little secret!  OPI's "You're a Doll" has now become a new favourite.  I love it. I can't describe how it makes me feel.  Yes I can ..... it makes me feel like I have just discovered nail polish for the first time.

So I've been thinking.  I want to know that last time a polish has made you feel like that.  Do you remember when you discovered nail polish?   Every so often I find a polish that replenishes that wonderful feeling.  OPIs "You're a Doll" has totally recaptured that for me.  So, what polish has made you "recapture that old feeling"?!

Naive Nails Competition

Check out Naive Nails (listed on my blogroll)  She is having a fabulous giveaway.  Two hand creams and ESSIE MINT CANDY APPLE!!! Which I am dying to get my paws on! I've entered and I have my manicured fingers crossed!

x