Tag: Alfie Chronicles

Of Life and Lacquer > Alfie Chronicles

OPI Vintage Minnie Mouse

Posted on by Cynthia

I grew up in Orange County, CA and have only been to Disneyland 3 times in 32 years. No joke. When I was a kid, my parents couldn’t really afford to take us to Disneyland (damn you greedy Disney) so I didn’t grow up being in love with that place. Yes, I would watch “The Wonderful World Of Disney” on TV and loved all the classic Disney animated movies, but I was never Disney obsessed. When I saw this new OPI collection at my nail place, I decided to get three of the four polishes; I passed on the glitter which should be no surprised to you if you have followed my blog for a while now.

My friend V asked me to swatch one of the polishes for her so I figured I might as well swatch the other two. To tell you the truth, I’m not super excited with these colors. They looked cute when I saw the bottles and the fact that they are Minnie Mouse inspired was the biggest draw, but now they are are just kind of blah.

If You Moust You Moust is a saccharine sweet color. I don’t find it that interesting but I don’t think I have any dupes for it so it’s a welcome addition to my collection even if it reminds me of Pepto-Bismol.  I remember that one time I faked a stomach ache because I wanted my mom to give me some Pepto. Is that weird? I had a really hard time applying this polish because the brush was wonky. It was thin in the middle so when the brush fanned out, I would get very few bristles in the middle. I think that because of this, I had some weird bald spots. I hope it was just my retarded brush and not the formula.

 

The Color Of Minnie was the least interesting of the colors in my opinion. It has a certain shimmer that makes it look somewhat frosty, and I don’t really like frosts much. I can also see some VNL and I don’t like that at all. At all.

 

I’m All Ears is the color that I was most interested in trying when I saw the promo pics. I actually really do like this color even though I can still see VNL after 3 coats. I wonder how this would look layered over another color…probably pretty cool.

 

Today I got another email from Alfie’s new mom…I’ll call her BB. She wrote that Alfie is doing really well and that he’s a very happy go-lucky dog. They have another Wheaten, Rose, who is now 14 years old. Rose seems to be super grumpy and doesn’t want anything to do with Alfie so of course he follows her around ALL DAY. I can totally picture him trying to get in her face the way he does with everyone and Rose just wanting him to go away. He has been on a few short car rides without throwing up which is great, but he still won’t get in the car on his own. I always had to pick him up and put him in the car if I wanted to take him with me. I hope he gets over it soon so he can learn to love car rides. I know that eventually it won’t hurt as much to talk about Alfie so for now I am taking comfort in hearing how well he is doing.

Where Is My Nail Polish Juju?

Posted on by Cynthia

The beauty.com debacle is still ongoing. As you may recall, I ordered a nail polish set around 3 weeks ago and I still don’t have my items! I was sent out a replacement when I received my empty order and when I received the replacement, it was also empty!!!!! After ignoring me, someone finally got back to me and said that the sets were now out of stock in their warehouse so they couldn’t verify if other sets were also empty. Oh, how convenient. I was informed that they were going to receive a new shipment and that once they unpacked and inspected the new sets, they would send one out to me and also refund my money. I got my refund but haven’t heard anything else since early this week, but I won’t hold my breath when it comes to receiving that SpaRitual set.  That whole situation is such a freaking joke.

Well, get ready for today. I was expecting my Sephora shipment of nail polishes. I saw that a bunch of them were on sale so I stocked up. I ordered the following: Illamasqua Velocity, SOPI Who Let The Dorks Out, SOPI Slushied, Sephora Burst Of Mango Cream, Nails Inc Bruton Street, Nails Inc Gatwick, Nails Inc Heathrow and Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens. This is what I received:

All of these bottles of nail polish were in one bubble wrap baggie so maybe that’s how one of them broke and covered all the other bottles. I’m not interested in keeping bottles that are completely covered in nail polish and with ruined labels. If I pay for something, I want to get it in perfect condition. So anyway, I called Sephora and everything is pretty much out of stock now. Only 2 of the 4 Nails Inc polishes are still available so I’m returning everything else. I am keeping the Illamasqua polish and the glass nail file as well. The only reason the Illamasqua polish was spared is because it wasn’t in the same bag as all these other polishes and it was in its separate box. I’m so annoyed right now. Is this the universe telling me that I need to stop purchasing nail polish online? Empty boxes, exploded nail polishes….what a waste.

Alfie got his rabies shot earlier in the week so I was super worried about him after I read all the horror stories about dog vaccines. I was convinced that he was going to have a horrible reaction because he was so lethargic for a couple of days. He now seems like he’s back to his stubborn self. He has been really testy lately and throws massive doggy tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. He nips me when he gets annoyed, but he never really bites me. The other day I got so mad at him because he went apeshit when we got home after a 2 hour walk. Since I live so close to the beach, we have a great breeze so I’m not afraid of him getting too hot. I take his water bottle and dish as well as treats so that if he wants to rest, we can just stop somewhere nice.

My 4-year-old neighbor, Sarah, hugging Alfie

Alfie waiting for me to put on my sneakers for our afternoon walk

Alfie watching someone on a bike and getting ready to chase after them

Alfie trying to eat grass

Mohawk Alfie (he was annoyed that I used water to spike his hair)

I hope you all had a nice week and that you enjoy your weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Empty Boxes & The Wheaten Greetin’

Posted on by Cynthia

Today I received my second SpaRitual delivery from Beauty.com. You may recall that I ordered the SpaRitual Holiday Duo about two weeks ago during their Friends & Family Sale. I am a sucker for a sale, so I couldn’t resist getting this set at such a great price. Well, that was a major letdown when my package arrived and the actual box set was empty. I called them up and they re-ordered the set and sent it out to me. I’ve been waiting for these polishes for almost 2 weeks!  I really want to try them out since I only have one other glittery SpaRitual polish, and the ones I ordered are cremes–my favorite finish. So this is take two:

Yay pretty box again! 🙂

 

Uhm, empty box…again?!?!?!?!?!?

You have got to be kidding me, right? Is someone playing a joke on me? I called Beauty.com again and the CSR told me that they are going to “investigate” the issue with the warehouse and that I will get a call back the next day. They offered to refund my money, but I’d rather wait and see what happens. I really want my nail polish, dammit!

And on the Alfie front, he is really coming into his own. If you don’t know much about wheatens, I suggest you watch this video:

I’m nearing a week that he has been here and he is starting to let his wheaten personality come out. Today he realized that he is a prodigious jumper which was just his stepping stone to the wheaten greetin’. He jumped up on a couple of people today to say hello. I know this is something that people try to train them out of doing, but I love that about them. I’m sure a lot of people would hate it if some random wheaten jumped up on them so I don’t know how I’m going to handle it yet. He jumped on some kids that we ran across  on one of his potty breaks and then completely lost it once I got him back inside. He was running around like a bat out of hell. At one point he was running across the room towards his crate but he missed it and crashed into me since I was sitting near the crate and putting some of his toys away. I now have a huge bruise on my leg thanks to Alfs. He has also completely mastered going up and down the stairs, and now I just have to train him not to go so fast. Here are some Alfie pictures. I took these after he wore himself out horsing around like a lunatic.

The best part of my whole day was when Alfie licked my cheek and wagged his tail. He hadn’t done that to me yet so I am confident that he is making a lot of progress. I hope he continues to grow into the wheaten playfulness. I love my stinky little pup.

Nicole: You Win

Posted on by Cynthia

It was an epic battle but someone had to lose. Considering my recent failure, I figured I might as well go out in a blaze of glory. So I concede defeat; Nicole you are victorious in the great battle of not cutting our talons nails for the longest period of time.

Last night I noticed that I had a tiny little break/rip on one of my nails. Then I noticed the same on 3 other nails. That was pretty much a death sentence to my nails because it was just a matter of time before I snagged it on something and ripped it off. Just thinking about it makes me cringe.

I went crazy with my nail clippers. I cut my nails as short as humanly possible without hurting myself. Look how weird my nails look now! It feels amazing to not have to worry about my long ass nails

I give these about a week before they grow enough for me to be able to square them. Fun times.

Tomorrow I am going to pick up the paperwork from my doctor’s office for my dog. I am so freaking excited I can barely stand it. I had an idea today: would it be tacky if I threw myself a puppy shower? You know, like a baby shower but for a puppy. Let me explain my reasoning. I have gone to countless baby showers for friends and family which means that I have bought them countless presents for their babies. I am happy to celebrate their choice to have a baby so does that mean that I get jack shit because I’m fairly certain that I’m never going to have a baby?  Why can’t  they celebrate my puppy and the fact that I will not be bringing a screaming snot-monster that will one day be a horrible teenager into the world?

Here is some stuff that I bought for my puppy. I really feel like an expectant mother. I always end up having long conversations with people about pets when they seem me buying all this dog stuff.

This bed looks so comfy. I wish I had one of these when I was a baby.

I got him a food bowl and two toys. The newspaper looking one makes a crinkly noise and also has a squeaky ball. The other one yells “Oh noooooooooooooooo!” when you press its belly.

This is like a shamwow for dogs. lol It’s supposed to be super absorbent so I can dry my dog off after a bath. Of course I also bought a leash.

Lastly, I purchased a mat for his crate. I still haven’t purchased a crate, though. I saw a lot of them on ebay so I might buy one there.

Can you tell I’m so ready to get a dog?  As you can tell, my carpet is a light color. I am wondering how long it will stay that way once I get a dog. I doubt turds look good on it. 🙁 I don’t know how I’m going to deal with the mess that comes along with having a dog, but I am sure it will be more than worth it.

P.S. I was kidding about the puppy shower. Well, only sorta kidding. Celebrate my puppy damnit!