Pumpkin's Blog - Day 1

Pumpkin’s Blog

Ok, so don’t get excited but this is my blog.

Sigh yawn sigh.  I know it’s been a long time coming sigh, but things don’t happen quickly in Pumpkinland.

So … actually, I’ll go and have a few biccies first, back in a mo.

(10 minutes later)

Mmmmm, yummy.  Yawn oooh they travelled to my tummy.  Sorry sigh, where was I ?  Yes yawn me – Pumpkin.  I suppose you want to know a little bit about me?  Well, oooh what’s that hang on sniiiiiiiif, ooooh my lips smell yummy – licks lips mmmm – yes, well I’m a pussycat, as you may have guessed from the photo, and unless you’re colour blind you can see I am a glorious ginger stripey and white ball of gloriousness.  And no, I am not fat, or skinny-challenged – licks lips they’re still so yummy – but I will settle for voluptuous.

So that’s me.  Voluptuous pussy.

Exhaaaaaaust-ED.  Time for a nap.  Leisurely look round.  Think I’ll just plop right here.  Sigh yawn sigh.

4 hours later

Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn oooooh sleep so goooooood.  Ah, bliss.  Wonder if there’s any food lying spare ? Sniffs air and discovers – triumph – I can smell chicken!  The holy grail of leftovers!  My oh my – stumbles to feet – my oh my yawns and follows sniffs oh oooh I’m getting closer.  Ah, bless the Bethlet, she left me some chicken on her plate.  Sniff sniff drool ooooh sooooo yummy oh my god chicken RULES oh wow.  Well that was a bit meagre harrumph.  Sniff despondent face – nothing else on plate.  Or tray.  Or under plate on tray.  Or under tray.  Or on the seat of the sofa (not that I jumped up to have a look you understand, noooo that would have been a disastrous and wanton use of calories) or lying on the carpet.  Sigh.

Boring.  Ooh the sun’s moved round a little bit.  Oooh if I angle my bottom just right as I pirouette and ….. plop … oooh that’s it, toasty.

Ok, now I am comfy I should do a bit of grooming, but let me fill you in on a few basics first.

So, firstly – me.  Number 1 pussycat.  I rule the roost and the neighbourhood, no one messes with me, and everybody dotes on me.  Except Marky-Mark, but more on him later.  Ooooh, just licked my shoulder and now it smells like chicken.  Awesome.  So, yeh, I enjoy yawn relaxing.  Chilling, hanging out at home, pottering around from room to room (well from kitchen to lounge), looking adorable, and oh yes, YES, patrolling the neighbourhood.  Yes, yes, all the time. 

Lick lick. Itchy bit.  Mmmmm.  Like everyone else, I like food.  Well, you need it to survive don’t you, so I make sure I have every possible chance at survival.  And I hate to see food go to waste lick lick or just lie there in boxes or bags.  Let it out, people, let it out, is what I say.  Food should not be caged in a tin or a box or an inpenetrable bag, NO, it should be free.  Free to provide happiness and stamina and essential nutrients for a healthy fur coat!  Free – uh, where was I ?  oh yes, lick lick.

I live in quite a nice house.  But man does it have a lot of rooms.  Once I lived with a little old lady in a 2 room flat and that was awesome, no more than lick lick 10 pawsteps between the food bowl and the duvet but this place lick lick nibble nibble is … extensive.  It exhausts me just thinking about all the rooms in the house, so I’ll just give you an overview –

The kitchen – this is where all the action is.  This is the HOTSPOT.  This is my land, my country, my Eden!  Lick lick nibble what IS that nibble lick gotcha lick lick.  The kitchen is cool for many reasons.  Firstly, it contains my food bowl, which over the years I have made sure is kept full by a mixture of adorable, annoying and pathetic manoeuvres.  Secondly, it contains Parsnip’s food bowl.  Parsnip is my so-called sister – yeh right lick lick – she’s snooty and skinny and quite often very slow to respond to the music of a filling food bowl.  This is the only time I EVER love Parsnip.  Thirdly, it contains Marky-Mark.  I am not sure whether I like Marky-Mark as he is very lovey dovey with Parsnip for some reason, and I do not trust people who prefer skinny to …. voluptuous.  But the Marky-Mark likes to give tidbits to his little babycat when he makes his sandwiches once a day and when he cooks.  Lick lick.  Now, he is at least fair, so he gives me as many tidbits as Parsnip, and as I make sure I stick to his ankle like glue, I usually get a little bit extra as well.  GET IN!  He gives us cheese sigh ham sigh raw bacon yummmmy sigh and raw chicken mmmm.  Ah, I could almost forgive his babycat-love. 

Fourthly .. is that a word sigh – it contains Momma who loves me more than babycat and therefore sneaks me treats when babycat’s not looking ha ha ha haha ha ha ha.  And it also contains the Bethlet, who finds it amusing to feed us and ladies and gentlemen, who am I to complain about that ?!?

So, kitchen, gateway to paradise.  Next is the lounge.  Sometimes people eat in here, which is good, and if they’re not eating I just snooze, no biggie.  Again, the Bethlet is a good target, and Marky-Mark is extraordinarily good at putting his plate on the floor, slipping into the lick lick kitchen for a can of beer and leaving his meal unattended ha ha ha ha. 

You see, there’s a popular misconception about me that I am not fast or nimble like a proper pussycat.  That’s not the point.  I am fast and nimble and NINJA when I need to be.  When I need to be.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is only when there’s food on the floor.

Ok, blogging is officially siiiiiigh exhaust-sigh-ing yaaaawn.  Nap time.  Mmmmmm.  Dream of doing nasty things to Parsnip.  Hee heee.

Sigh yawn sigh.

Nail Fun - Splatter 31st July 2011

Nail Fun

Nail Fun is all about having fun with your nails.  Layering it, splattering it, making pretty patterns with it … it’s the most fun you can have on your own with a child in the house !!  J 

SPLATTER  FUN 31.07.11

So, let the official first Crumpet nail splatter begin J

The tools you need – base coat and top coat.  Lots of newspaper as this WILL make a mess.  At least 3 straws, and scissors to keep trimming the messy ends off.  Nail varnish remover.  Either an old top or a top you don’t mind attracting the odd bit of splatter! 

Colours – it’s all about contrast.  For my base colour I chose OPI’s Skull & Glossbones, an off-white colour.  And for my splatters, I chose 5 polishes by Zoya – Paige, Dawn, Demi, Mira and Quinn (this is the order they appear in on the left hand; I reversed the order for the right hand).

You'll see that all of the nails have splattered a little differently.  So, i have learnt - to create a great big blob splatter (such as the left middle finger or the right index finger) hold the straw really close to the nail and absolutely vertical - this means the nail varnish doesn't have far to drop and literally explodes.  To get the more squiggly splatters you need to blow from further away and at a slight angle - these are the ones that go EVERYWHERE.

 The purple one- MIRA - is my favourite, purely for the way it has splattered.  It also provides a great contrast to the base colour.

When I did the right hand, the purple landed ALL over the nail as I had the straw a little too close.  I managed to tone it down by splattering some of the base colour over the top and then dabbing it - just about rescued it I think.

And just to give you a laugh - this is what your hand looks like before you tidy it up with nail varnish remover.

Have fun - you CANNOT go wrong with a splatter mani, AND it's fun :) 

NAILS I LOVE - OPI - Skull & Glossbones

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

OPI – Skull & Glossbones

When I first saw the Pirates of the Caribbean Collection from OPI I was MASSIVELY disappointed.  Puky pastels are so not my thing and I might even have harrumphed.  However, the more I saw photos of them, the more they seemed appealing, and I eventually picked up a bargain set on eBay, partly so I could get my hands on silver shatter.

Once on the nail, my pastel-aversion was forgotten.  Super glossy and super gorgeous, they looked like pearls on the nail, and whilst I didn’t love all the colours, some became keepers …

And so to Skull & Glossbones which surprisingly is one of my favourites.  This is a high gloss crème in an off-white colour.  Slightly putty-ish, slightly beige, slightly newspaper-ish, this makes nails look like a million dollars.  Elegance in a bottle, it can’t be pigeon-holed.  There’s undoubtedly a little bit of green in there just to keep it the cool side of dull, but for a pastel – and an almost colourless pastel at that - this takes some beating.

Nail Fun - Splatter 1

Nail Fun

Nail Fun is all about having fun with your nails.  Layering it, splattering it, making pretty patterns with it … it’s the most fun you can have on your own with a child in the house !!  J 

SPLATTER  FUN FOR BEGINNERS !

So, I have been very intrigued by splatter manis, and have read lots of different tutorials.  There are a few ways to do it ….

For the first 3 you will need … newspaper (cos you’re gonna make a mess), and a straw.  I used a normal drinking straw which I cut to a shorter length.  Other tutorials have recommended even thinner straws, but I’m struggling to find them in my local Tescos!

You ARE going to make a mess, so you either need to be prepared to use a cotton bud and nail varnish remover to tidy up your nails OR, you can surround your nail with Sellotape, and then pull this off afterwards.

All of these 3 splatters have been done on top of 1 coat of OPI Skull & Glossbones – remember, you are trying to create drama, so you want a bottom coat that contrasts with the colours you are going to use.

Splatter 1 has been done with 2 ESSIE colours – Soiree Mauve and Smokin’ Hot.  I put a big blob of nail varnish on a scrap piece of paper, dunked the end of the straw in, and blew, quite close to the nail (when I tried blowing from further away, it went everywhere BUT the nail lol).    I quite like how this one looks, especially the overlap of the colours.

Splatter 2 was done differently.  This time I used the nail varnish brush to put the varnish INSIDE the straw – what can I say, I’m very impatient, and it took a LOT of blowing to do Splatter 1!  You can see straight away that this has a much more dramatic effect and plops much more colour on the nail.  If I could have been arsed, it might have been nice to use a different pink on top in the slower method.  I think using the 2 styles has promise.  I used OPI’s I’d Like To Thank for this one – it’s a metallic, and there’s a fabulous contrast where some bits went on thick, and others went on much lighter.

The 3^rd one is my favourite.  It’s just so dramatic and it LOOKS LIKE A FLOWER!  A gerbera to be precise, which is my fave flower of all.  This was done using PARIS by Nails Inc.  Again, I shoved this one INSIDE the straw, and because it’s thinner than the OPI, it flew onto the nail with spectacular effect.  I will definitely be doing this one soon for real.

Finally, I thought I’d show you another way to splatter.  This technique was in Kayla Shevonne’s blog post.  For this one, you drop a blob of colour on the nail and then use a dotting tool to spread the blob into a splatter pattern.  This can be tricky, as the spreading can go a bit streaky.  If you haven’t got a dotting tool you can use a pencil or a blunted cocktail stick.  You then use your tool to add another few dots.  You’re supposed to use at least 3 or 4 colours for this, but I think I did my blob too big!  Also, I have no idea how you’d do this to the nails on your right hand – could go very wrong !!

 I'm off to have more fun .......

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - MIRA

Nails I Love

ZOYA – Mira

Ok, this has been the hardest nail varnish EVER to photograph and I’m still not convinced I’ve managed to take a photo that even resembles it, so you really do need to be Googling if you’re thinking about buying this one.

MIRA is another lush Zoya purple.  It’s a medium dark bright purple, very Royal, almost a Cadbury’s purple!  It’s a pure crème polish, no shimmer, no glitter, but very beautiful – just pig-difficult to photograph.

Like all Zoyas, this dried darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle.  In the bottle, it’s got quite a cold vibe going on, but on the nail it’s deeper and richer and a lot less blue.

This is the photo I am happiest with and which seems to capture the colour quite closely -

Another good photo, the thumb did look like this is real life and this also captures how the nail colour looks less blue than the bottle.

Last photo - shows the Crackle contrast really well, but you can see how blue the varnish photographed.  The little finger has an overcoat of OPI's I Lily Love You (although it's in a pink suspension, on Mira it provided a mainly blue kaleidoscopic glitter.)

NAILS I LOVE - Lippmann - RUBY RED SLIPPERS

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

DEBORAH LIPPMANN – Ruby Red Slippers

This is Lippmann’s legendary Ruby Red Slippers, a nail varnish that is fun, funky and totally redefines glamour.  Red glitter and sequins are suspended in a browny black base varnish.  Layer on to your heart’s desire for a look that is original, modern and the envy of your friends.  The red is bright and happy and although it’s not solid, catches the light to give an impression of jewelled nails.

I have used 2 coats, but to be honest 3 might have been better – this looks like red fire stars twinkling in the night sky.  The more you apply, the more depth you get to the red.  Sensational and unique.  A keeper.

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - SUVI & EDYTA

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Suvi & Edyta – Greens

I am not really a green girl if I’m honest.  Green is one of my favourite clothes colours, I have green eyes, I think they look awesome in the bottle, and then I put them on me and they just look…. wrong.  Which is a shame, because these are both brilliant colours.

SUVI is a peacock green (on my thumb, middle and little finger).  Its forest dark, but with flamboyant shimmer which brings out green glimmer when you bend it to the light.  It also has an oil slick vibe going on and happily changes colour, bringing out notes of gold, sludge brown and black.  Really dramatic and almost Victorian in its grandeur.

EDYTA (index and ring finger) is from the WICKED Collection and is a whole other ballgame.  This is a metallic antique dark green and I actually might keep this one as it’s really unique.  It has a dark sludge green base which is jam-packed with gold micro-glitter.  On the nail it all blends into a grungy green – quite fabulous.  

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - HARLEY

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Harley

HARLEY is from the Intimate Collection and is a super soft fluffy grey.  Really!  In the bottle, it looks to have a beigey undertone to it, but this disappears on the nail, although there is still something there giving it warmth.  It’s a beautifully soft colour with subtle underhints of mushroom and lilac lush.  This contains a massive amount of micro-shimmer which all adds to its plush effect. 

Lovely and subtle and with enough going on that it’s not remotely boring.

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - CAITLIN

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Caitlin

Caitlin is from Zoya’s 2011 INTIMATE Collection (all 6 are utterly fabulous).  It’s pretty much the perfect dark lilac because of it’s smokiness, and lacks the brightness of OPI’s Planks A Lot.  This is very similar to Kelly in that it looks like a plume of coloured smoke (this one hued with lilac; Kelly hued with purple) and again, looks darker on than it does in the bottle.

Caitlin is a smoky lilac on top of a medium grey base.  In my eyes, this one's pretty much perfect :) 

The index finger has been shattered with CHINA GLAZE Platinum Pieces Crackle (I prefer China Glaze to OPI for crackle / shatter as it seems to give more a more varied effect).

NAILS I LOVE - Zoya - KELLY

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

ZOYA – Kelly

Kelly is from Zoya’s WONDERFUL Collection of 2010 and is a traffic-stopping drama of a colour.  Darker on the finger than in the bottle, it’s a dark plume of purple smoke – deep, mysterious and totally unlike any other colour.

Kelly is a smoky purple on top of a dark grey base.

The index finger has been shattered with CHINA GLAZE Latticed Lilac Crackle (I prefer China Glaze to OPI for crackle / shatter as it seems to give more a more varied effect).

NAILS I LOVE - Lippmann - WAKING UP IN VEGAS

Nails I Love

Nails I Love is written to celebrate some of the most beautiful nail varnishes on earth and to help you choose which colours and styles will suit you. 

Each posting will feature details about the colour as well as photos.  I guarantee every photo will show the varnish as it looks on your fingers, otherwise, what’s the point ? 

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

DEBORAH LIPPMANN – Waking Up In Vegas

So this is Lippmann’s famous pale taupe.  Matte and thick, this almost goes on in 1 coat.  Colour-wise it’s puttyish, a pure medium grey which begins to take on a taupier hue the longer you stare at it.  (It goes on much greyer than it looks in the bottle).  Eventually it looks like stone and concrete – grey but not quite.

Very elegant, very classy but slightly lacked the wow factor for me – until I layered it with the divine Glitter In The Air, a creamy suspension of pink and blue sequins.  Somehow, that made all the difference, elevating it from ladylike to yeh-I-like !  J