Bonus Post: Catch-up Time!

Hello again!!

My last month and a half has been busy, busy! I've got a totally random post today with some things I wanted to share, but didn't have time to post until now. Blog catch-up time, if you will.

First up, a few vacation pictures! Northwest Montana is an incredibly beautiful place. We were fortunate for some lovely weather while we were there and got out on the trails for some hiking. Here are a couple pictures from our day in Glacier National Park.

Me in a very large rock. Hidden Lake Overlook Trail, Logan Pass.

Here's the gorgeous view from the overlook. This is Hidden Lake.

Lake MacDonald shore.

And here is our favorite coffee shop in all the world:

Copper Mountain Coffee. Best. Coffee. Ever.

That's Copper Mountain Coffee. One bonus to the northwest is all that fantastic coffee they have there. These little roadside, drive-up espresso joints are everywhere. This one makes the best coffee I have ever had. We stopped here almost everyday of our vacation (sometimes twice!). I'm pretty sure I brought home an extra five pounds of latte weight!

Nail Mail is the best kind of mail!

Next up, I snagged a few deals and got all this nail mail in one day! Orders from Coterie, Zoya, and llarowe. What's in these lovely packages, you say? Well, I snagged the Butter London deal from Coterie while it was still available (it was amazing--three polishes plus the matte topcoat for $11!). I justified this purchase for myself because All Hail the Queen was one of the six polishes to choose from, and it had been on my Wish List for... since I had a nail polish wish list, I think! I figured, if I was intending to buy this one polish anyway, I might as well take advantage of this sale since that one polish would've have cost me just as much! I also picked up Knackered (already swatched over here!) and West End Wonderland.

Butter London from Coterie Haul, plus CrowsToes Absolum.

My sister's birthday is coming up soon, and she's just starting the transition from acrylics to natural nails. So, I thought I'd spread some polish love. I thought she'd like Zoya Carly, Kimber, and Breezi. I also snagged  Sea Lore Ariel from llarowe since The Little Mermaid was her favorite movie as a child, and it's glitter. And, of course, I couldn't just order one polish from llarowe while I was at it, could I? I was quite proud in my show of self-control--I only included one extra polish for myself in the order. CrowsToes Absolum was in stock, and I couldn't pass that by! As far as I know, my sister does not read my blog, so this shouldn't ruin her birthday surprise, but if she does, she should stop lurking and let me know! Teehee!

Zoya and Sea Lore for my sistah!

I'm still trying to be good and stay on a "low-buy". I'm planning on using my two remaining Zoya Share the Love reward offers for "3 Zoyas for $10" before they expire at the end of December, but nothing else after that until my birthday in March! That might be hard.....

Finally, a few "nails of the week" I haven't made time to post separately. While on vacation, I wore my black lace french tips since I ran out of time before we left to do anything else. After those started to chip, I cut them down and just painted them a simple coral color. It's Wet n' Wild's Poppy Dream. I have to get a swatch up of this soon because I absolutely love it! I topped it with Zoya Chloe and the only topcoat I had, which was a new bottle of New York Color's In a New York Minute Fast Dry Topcoat. Did they change this stuff? I remember it drying pretty quickly before, but this new bottle never dried. I was pretty ginger with them for a few hours, and still smudged/dented/ruined them later in the day. No pictures of that--they didn't last long enough! So I redid the coral and went for this zebra striped look (and, yes, I brought a stamping plate and all needed accessories on vacation with me).

Once that Coterie package came, I couldn't resist putting on All Hail the Queen. I added an accent nail of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink sponged on from the tip up. I quite loved this look.

Butter London All Hail the Queen plus Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Butter London All Hail the Queen plus Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink close-up! Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

And to round out this post, we come to what I wore this week! This is a base of Sinful Colors Nail Hardener, two brushed on coats of Zoya Penny, another sponged on coat of Penny to alleviate the brushstrokes, a coat of Seche Vite, stamped with Rimmel Tequila Sunset, Orly Luxe, and Zoya Elisa with image plate BM04 , and, finally, a coat of NYC's In a New York Minute (my bottle seems to be fine on dry time as long as the rest of the mani is dry... that might have been my problem in Montana--I think I slathered it on there like you would with Seche while everything was still wet. Lesson learned!). I was quite pleased at how well Elisa worked for stamping. I have yet to test it on a full or bigger image, but I think it has promise!

Zoya Penny stamped with autumn! Outdoors, natural light, no flash.

Detail of the accent finger. Outdoors, natural light, no flash.

If only the trees here matched! Outdoors, sunlight, no flash.

Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Happy weekend! And if all that wasn't enough, more Monday!! ^_^