Dipping my fingers back in...

Yikes, it's been more than a month since I've posted! It's been a really busy last few weeks for me, as I've moved to a new apartment, had to go Ikea shopping for additional furniture (went from a 1-bed to a 2-bed!), and make a trip back home to Canada to move the rest of my belongings from both my parents' basement and my boyfriend's parents' basement.

Finally things have settled down and I can get back into a regular routine that includes things like nail polish! Hooray!

My boyfriend (too bad he isn't my husband, because I wish I could use "DH" in my posts, hehe! Does anyone use DB for "Dear Boyfriend"? That would be a little confusing, since he works for Deutsche Bank, so we always use DB to refer to that... ) was with me the last 4 weeks helping me do all these things since he's moving in with me in September. He just left last weekend for training in London until the end of August. You better believe I'm sending him a wishlist of UK polishes (mostly Barry M) for him to bring back for me in exchange for all this loneliness he's putting me through! Hah! Do you guys have any suggestions for other polishes he can get me while in the UK?

I really want some Catrice polishes, but they appear to be available in Germanic countries only, right? Shouldn't be a problem, though, as I foresee business trips to HQ in Frankfurt in the future where he can fulfill my lemmings.

Anyways, I do have quite a few new goodies to show you guys!

First, I received a lovely package from Suzie at blah.suzie for being the sixth person to email her in a quick-fire giveaway! I'm so happy because this is the first time I've won anything from a blogger! I remember that night because I had just gotten home around 10:30 pm after having dinner in the city with a friend, and saw her post from around 10pm. I though my chances were pretty good to be 6th to email!

Here is the lovely prize package!


With Love by Hilary Duff Shower Gel & Body Lotion
MAC Metallic Eyes Palette
Dior Addict Mini
L'Occitane Purse Mirror
Little Romantic Thoughts Cards


MAC Metallic Eyes Palette


The MAC palette is really gorgeous and these are my first MAC eyeshadows ever! I really love the warm colours. I'm still trying to determine if I can pull off the cooler colours, but I may have to mix and match them with my other eyeshadows to make them work for me :) I haven't had a lot of time to do eye makeup lately, but I look forward to playing with them more in the future (primarily weekends XD)!!

I love the Dior Addict perfume! I had been pondering whether to buy Dior Addict Shine, but this is a similar scent and now I don't have to buy it, ho ho ho!

Some other goodies including a small compact and a set of very cute cards.


The cards are so cute! I showed them to my boyfriend and he asked if he could have some. Then on Saturday night (the day he left) I was getting ready for bed, I went to set my alarm (I use my DS as an alarm now, haha) and noticed he slipped this card inside for me to see. I almost started bawling right there!

Second, a few days later I noticed a destashing post over at Berryhappynails. How sweet is this girl to just give away polishes asking for nothing in return?? I managed to call dibs on OPI Fiercely Fiona, which I had been thinking about picking up (to add to my other Shrek polishes: Cattitude, Rumple's Wiggin', Funky Dunkey) around that time as well! I was over the moon with my good luck ^_^


I had a picture of it on my toesies, but I have no idea where that memory card went! :(

Finally, I received some epic good news right before I was going to move and do the Canada trip: I passed my last requirement for a professional accreditation I had been working towards! An annual raise and some letters to put after my name aside, I had allocated $55 as a "reward" to spend on polish if I were to pass. Unfortunately, with the move and trip coming up, I wouldn't be able to actually spend it for at least a week!!

The move itself went smoothly, as did our little road trip to Canada. I already blogged about this ad nauseum on another blog, so I'll skip it here!

The second day after we got back (a Friday), my car battery died and I had to take another day off work to get it fixed. I was so bummed that I had to spend another vacation day, after already having used 6 for the move and Canada road trip. It wasn't til late afternoon that my car was fixed (under warranty, thank god! I just bought my Civic LAST YEAR and it only has 3000 miles on it!!), so instead of going back home right away, we decided to go to the Ikea and mall nearby.

We went to the mall first so we could get some food (we were both starving) and shop around for some new work clothes for DB. He is a skinny, lanky boy, so no shirts fit him well. Luckily for me, I spotted an Icing store and ducked in and found a bottle of Laura's Fave!


Laura's Fave and Rebellious

DB hates my taste in nail polish colour, and he picked up a fairly boring colour and said "I like this one!". He left the store out of sheer boredom as I tried to find another bottle to buy (Buy one get one half off, as usual there), and ended up getting the one he picked out. I showed him afterwards and he was so happy that I bought a "cute" colour.


HELLO? LAURA'S FAVE? LOOK AT THIS!!! (sorry for the god awful swatch)


Shimmery...

Here's the other colour, Rebellious

But the colour he picked out, Rebellious, isn't bad either!

The Ikea trip (our first of SEVERAL) was uneventful. Our drive home took forever, as we got stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes. When we finally escaped the bumper-to-bumper area, I noticed a Sally's about 2 miles south of my new apartment! Ho ho ho! But we (read: DB) were too tired to make another stop, so I made a mental note to come back later.

Our first Saturday back, we had a LOT of errands to run. First of which was a grocery run at Whole Paycheck (err, Whole Foods). I was feeling kind of down that day because of my car troubles and missing more work. DB offered to let me browse in Kmart before hand (he absolutely hates going in stores like Target and Kmart, so this is a pretty bold offer for him to make, LOL!) to see if I could find some glycerin (to DIY me some Remove+).

No luck at Kmart finding any glycerin, BUT I did happen to spy a little plastic box on the bottom shelf in the nail polish area...


WITH THIS IN IT!


HAYE THAR, WTF?! Totally didn't expect to ever see this polish, after I saw the display on May 4 in Wags (obviously with both HT's missing) and then religiously stalking about 3 CVSs in the area.


You guys all know what this looks like, obviously :)

I put this on everything for a couple days (including the secret pedicure I did for DB: Zoya Pinta + HT) and am so happy to finally have it. I'm also glad that the Nfu Oh #40 I bought (when I was sure I'd never find HT) has different coloured flakies, because I'm not fond of having dupes in my somewhat "modest" collection (around 70 now).

Finally, we had a day of errands which included going to Target, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Actually, since HD and BBB are in the same shopping area, we split up to spare each other. DB got a power drill, which he was over the moon about (he spent the rest of the night just turning it on to make the drilling sound) and I got to use my 20% off entire purchase coupon at BBB... which included some polishing essentials. I found a bottle of Poshe top coat and picked up Essie Mademoiselle (a classic, no?)


I still haven't worn this yet because my nails are a little Charla-stained :(

I wouldn't get to spend the rest of my reward money (and actually, overspending!) for another week or so, but I'll save that for the next post, since this one is already ludicrously long :)