Lack of inspiration + stuff on my mind = No posts

I've been struggling to do some art lately, it's not that I don't have the inspiration, other than I'm waiting for some parcels to arrive, some nail art things from BPS and polish from Llarowe, I just don't feel like doing anything. I have been doing my nails, but nothing special, just some colour for the sake of having something.

Bf's mom moved to Australia just over 2 years ago. So he hasn't seen her for all this time and they are now finally coming for a visit. Recently my parents have started talking about what we will be doing for christmas, so I naturally mentioned that his mom will probably be here, meaning that we will probably spend the time with his mother. I mean, I see my parents all the time, we stay a 10 minute walk away from each other. And we have spent each and every single christmas together for the past 25 years.

Now, it seems that this is not good enough. I was told that I need to consider who has done more for us (being my parents or his) and where I want to spend the day, because if I choose to spend it with him and his mom, I shouldn't bother to buy my parents any gifts, as they won't accept it and it would be a waste of money. Now I find this to be very unfair.
I am expected to choose between my boyfriend of almost 8 years and my parents? This is why I wanted to leave the house in the first place. It's difficult and exhausting trying to keep two people happy.
My mother had previously confronted Bf and told him he is changing me into somebody that she does not know. Now I don't know how these things work, but isn't that what happens? People change or do they stay same? No matter what they go through or what happens in their lives, they stay the same?
While these things were being said to me, I kept quiet. I expect that if it had to happen some thime ago, I would have reacted differently, but I just thought to myself. Why have an outburst? What would be the point? It will just bring me great unhappiness and me probably walking out of my parents house. And what would have been the point of saying that they were also invited to spend the day? I don't think it would have changed a thing.

Growing up we didn't really make big deals out of holidays and birthdays. Or at least it didn't seem that way to me. You didn't always get a happy bday on your bday, nor a merry christmas or even a happy new year. But should I dare not to send a message, then its held against me.
I think I'm just gonna say that I will be spending the day by myself. I'll make myself a nice meal and not have to worry about pleasing anybody.
Like that's going to happen....
I actually find it difficult to have such conversations with my mother, as she is a very hard person. She has done and said some very hurtful things before, things I'd rather forget, but I haven't written her off. She is after all my mother and I was taught while growing up I should have respect for my elders.

Spring Bling

I'm having a love affair with Tip Top Nails South Africa's polishes. I don't have an acurate number, but I have over 50 bottles of polishes, a couple of cuticle oils and their amazing Miraculous Results. Thanks to the combination of MR and cuticle oil and wearing gloves when I do housework and being super careful at work with the crazy amount of filing, I have managed to grow and keep my nails at a lenght I love! My nails have never been the lenght it is now and I really love it. Whenever I talk about my nails I start grinning like an idiot, which I'm doing right now at my screen :D In actual fact my middle finger nail broke just before I did this mani, I knocked it a couple of times and eventually I think it had enough. I don't think the lenght lost is that noticable

Anyway they are again having a competition on their page. This one is a Spring Bling competition. So they looking for pastel colours, no art and lots of bling. Again I wasn't sure what I wanted to do,  I wanted to do another waterfall mani, but I didn't want to be predictable. I remembered seeing a mani, where there was a silver nail, with lots of glitter. And I wanted to try that, but what would the rest of my mani look like?

So I settled for this...

Here I used Tip Top Fairydust on all my fingers except my ring finger. There I did 2 coats of Armourplate with 2 coats of Snowcapped glitter over that. I then did 2 coats of Snowcapped glitter on my pinky, thumb and middle finger. I started more than halfway up my nail with the first coat and halfway into the first coat, I started the second. Hoping it would appear as a glitter gradient. On my index finger I placed a tear drop shaped gem. I looooove how this turned out. Its so sparkly and I keep catching glimpses of the glitter and then I have to admire my handiwork. In retrospect I should have maybe used Galaxy glitter, it has more of a holographic colour and would probably have shown better on the Armourplate, but again I really loved the way this turned out.

For some reason though I struggled my ass off to take a decent picture. In the previous pic I don't like the shadow behind my hand and you can see the wonky shape of my index finger very clearly. It actually seems that I ended up with polish on my cuticle, but that is not the case.

With this picture, its really not very clear. I'm actually very dissappointed with these pics. I've taken them over multiple times, but I'm just not happy with the outcome.

What do you think? What picture is your favourite? I submitted the last one.

P.S. I tied third place :) So yayness. Joan, the CEO of Tip Top, has given all of the entrants the option to email her and get the opinion of the judges. So naturally, I did just that. I wanted to know what they thought, regardless of the fact that I was a winner. So the response was:
"An excellent improvement. Lovely, pretty entry fitting the colours, spring and bling in. The towel in the picture does kind of ruin it but we thinks she did really well and listened to the advice she was given last time."
So I was like eeeeek, its not a towel, but a blanket and I use it or a red one to take my pictures on. The reason for this being that I had read somewhere that a cluttered background distracts from the actual art itself. Guess I won't be using those blankets again... But now to find a neutral background... Any suggestions?

What is your work ethic?

You know, sometimes I get very irritated with the people I work with. Being a medical receptionist and working for a rather big company, has it's days. And obviously there are a lot of SOP's (standard operating procedures), policies and procedures. And above that we still have to do what our Dr's want, which makes it rather stressful at times.

Recently we got a memo from our manager, who in turn got it from her manager, who was in the meeting the Dr's had when they decided about the new rule. They have meetings 3 to 4 times a year, discussing... Well discussing whatever they do.

Let me give you a quick break down of how things work, during the day we work with appointments. During certain times of the day, it's first come, first served. This would be early morning, before the appointments start, lunch time, and in the late afternoon to evening, after the appointments ended. During these times there is only one doctor on duty. On weekends, there is a maximum of 3 doctors on duty and not always at the same time. So, normally people would phone, ask if their doctor is on duty and rush in if they are. This would result in one or two doctors being bombarded by requests and a lot of the times it would be for full check ups. Weekends and after hours are considered to be for emergencies only. So it's a little difficult for the doctor to tend to a real emergency immediately, if they busy with your check up, that wasn't urgent, that you could have made an appointment for during the week.
Now personally I believe if you sick, you will see any doctor. If your doctor is on, bonus, otherwise I'm sure you won't care.

Now, the new ruling is, we not allowed to tell the patients which doctors are on duty. If they want to see their doctor, they need to make an appointment Monday - Friday. Obviously there will be people who will not be happy about this.

I'm generally not one of those people that does as they are told, but when it comes to my job, I do. Sure, I'll moan and groan about it, but at the end of the day I'll do it. Because it makes me a good employee, it makes that I get considered for over time and a better bonus when the time comes.

Yayness.

But, my dear dear colleagues, just don't care! They do what is easiest, the least amount of trouble.
"I'll tell the patients who is on duty, as I don't want to argue with them on a Sunday."
Yea, but you know what? You not doing what you supposed to and you might be making your own life easier, but not anyone elses. Maybe tomorrow or the day after or even a week from now, I will speak to that patient and that patient will scream and shout and argue with me, because you don't want trouble... Gee, thanks for that.

I get so frustrated by these things, I feel like pulling my hair out of my head at times. I get paid to work, so when I'm supposed to start work at a certain time, I start work. If I'm late (touch wood but I haven't been late yet), I'll feel so bad I'll start work double time. Work extra hard, so I can feel like I've made up for it in some small way. But nooooooo, not my colleagues, they first want to check their phone, catch up with their team (who they saw just yesterday ), check their hair and make up, make coffee or tea and then if they FEEL like it, they will start work. Bastards. And the sad thing is, they get away with it. Not because our manager doesn't do anything about it, but because she doesn't see it. Lucky Bastards. Yip, if anything, they are very lucky. They never get caught. Yet me on the other hand.... Sad.

Do you have any people you want to kill at work? Any weird quirks they have that drive you up the wall?



Paint it YELLOW!!

Man, I feel that I haven't been getting time to do any posts.
I have been having a hard time lately with people criticising me for my nail art, not in the aspect of how good or bad it is, but more along the lines of "Where do you get the time, don't you clean your house?" "Don't you have better things to do?"
And you know what, SCREW you all. I don't have to answer to anyone. I make time for myself. Because if I don't, who will? Some people are saying that when I have children one day I won't be able to do it then, but you know what? Even then I will make time. Why should I lose who I am and what defines me, just because it has happened to them? Sure, maybe right now I don't understand it, maybe one day I will, but for now, I am who I am.

Anyway enough of that, on to the nails!!
A friend of mine recently had a profile picture competition on her FB page, Do My Nails. The theme was Paint it Yellow.

I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do, but I really wanted to try to do a waterfall mani. I wasn't too sure either what yellow I wanted to use. I only have two, so I decided to try the one I haven't used before. It was Tip Top Nails South Africa's Summer Secret. And I have to admit, I do not like this one, not because of the colour itself, but even after 3 coats and a white bottom its still not opaque. My special brand of OCD does not allow for my nail line to show. But let me share the full mani.



It's not bad, considering that I got a lot of compliments for this one. Most people said it looked like fire, that wasn't the plan, but hey, I'm not complaining. I used my nail art brush and made the stripes with Tip Top Cherries in the Snow, Salsa Pop and Armourplate. I actually really like how this turned out. My lines aren't all the same lenght or very straight, but I think that is what makes it very cool.

Like I mentioned I'm not a fan of the yellow polish, don't get me wrong, I love the colour, but the fact that it's not opaque, annoys me to no end. I'm really not sure if I'll use it again. Maybe I could use it for a glitter sandwich... What do you think?

Oh, my mother liked it so much she had me do her nails the same way...

For her I used Tip Top As the beat grows on, I just loooove this neon green!



I'm gonna try a waterfall mani again some time, maybe with some blues or pinks and maybe with some more stripes... I think I was going with the less is more look ;)