What I did with my April NAS kit...

Good early morning, my darling readers.  I hope y'all are doing well.  Last night I decided to do something with the Kiss Artist Paints and Tip Guides set that came in my April Nail Art Societ kit and this is what I came up with.  Without further ado, the photos:

Both photo's were taken outdoors, in natural light.  For my base coat, I used Nail Nation 3000 Green Apple base coat, then I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Hard to Get as the base of the design.  I didn't want to go with anything in particular so I did an abstract and each nail is slightly different.  I used the Turquoise striping paint first and brushed it on, let it dry, then brushed on the Lavender striping paint.  Then finally, I used the Hot Pink striping paint.  I had a lot of fun using each of these.  This was the first time I've used striping paints even though I've had some for quite awhile.

This was before I added a top coat of Seche and before cuticle oil.  My cuticles are super dry right now.  Sorry y'all had to see them that way.

For those interested, I have a peek at my SCS equipment.  This is the St Jude Eon Mini that was implanted last Tuesday into my upper left buttock area.

At the top, leads plug into it and go up into my spinal canal.  The object of this is to interupt the pain signals before they reach my brain and replace it with a slight tingling sensation (electronic pulse) before I feel the pain.  I have two of these leads, photo below.

And finally, there is a remote that I have that operates the system.  It has different programs that allows me to change the sensation that I want to feel.  

That is the SCS in a nutshell.  The previous battery I had was double the size of this little mini I have now.  The life span of the battery is 8 to 10 years but my doctor tells me to expect about 7 years because of how I use it, 24/7/365.  I rarely ever turn my system off unless I am having medical tests done that requires it to be turned off, like an EKG or CT Scan.  

Do you ever just do abstract art on your nails?  If I had added rhinestones, do you think that would have been 'too much'?

As always, thank you for taking a few moments of your day to spend with me! Huggles!

A completely non-nail related post...

Good evening, darling readers! I thought, while I was up and feeling up to it,  I would take a few minutes to let those who are interested know that my surgery went okay today.  I also thought I would explain what a spinal cord stimulator is and what it does because I'll probably refer to it from time to time and some people may ask themself "What the heck is she talking about?" :)

A Spinal Cord Stimulator, or SCS for short, is kind of like a pacemaker, only instead of regulating the heartbeat, it gives off a gentle electrical stimulation or vibration that takes the place of their pain.  A lot of times, they are used as a last resort after other methods of pain control, or other treatments have failed.  If you've ever used a TENS unit,  it kind of feels like that, only everything is internal instead of external.  If you haven't, the best way I could explain it would be is that it kind of feels like sitting in a massage chair.

There are 3 major companies who make the stimulators right now:  Boston Scientific, Medtronics, and St Jude.  I have St Jude.  Most of the people I know who have them have Medtronic models.  They all work on the same principal though.  My original implant was done in October 2004 and was done with a non-rechargeable system that was supposed to last 3 to 5 years.  Two yearrs, 2 months, and 2 weeks later, it died, so I was put on the list to have it replaced, which is called a revision.  Four months later, I finally had my revision done.  This time, I got a new type of system that allowed me to recharge the battery when it started to go low and it had a longer life-span, 8 to 10 years.  I had that revision done on my hubby's birthday, January 16, 2007.  :)  A year later, I had to have a revision done on the lead wires that run from the battery to the wires in my spinal cord because one of them had quit working, so I had that done.  And now, 5 years later, here I am, recovering from another battery revision, but this time, there is another, better system.  During the surgery, the doc makes a little pocket, using the person's body fat, to tuck the battery into.  Today, part of my surgery was to repair the pocket because I've lost 105 pounds over the last couple of years and the pocket the last battery was in was way too large to hold the battery and it was resting up against a bone, which was causing more pain instead of helping, like it was supposed to.

April Nail Art Society Kit and Surgery Update...

Good early Tuesday morning darling readers!  Today I have an update for you regarding my surgery.  It is finally scheduled and is just hours away!  I didn't mention it earlier because I was afraid if I did, I'd jinx it.  :)  It is 1:50 am here now and I have to be at the outpatient surgical center at 6:30 am this morning.  Surgery is supposed to start at 7:30 and will take about an hour to a hour and a half.  After about 30 to 45 minutes in recovery, I'll then have a programming session with the representative of the company who makes the spinal cord stimulator to set up enough programs to get me through the next 2 weeks until I meet them in the doctor's office for further programming.  Hopefully I will be home and comfy in my own bed by noon.  :0)

Let's get on to the April Nail Art Society kit shall we?  I just got it today and really liked it!  I did see a sneak peek of May's kit and think I'm going to LOVE that one as well.

The whole kit & ka-boodle.  What is that I spy there in the upper right corner?  Yes, it's a golden ticket!  It states on it, "Greetings to you, The Lucky finder of this golden ticket! From the Nail Art Society! Send us an email to (has a special email address) and claim your prize for a secret surprise!"  I have sent the email but have not received a reply as of yet.  I will let y'all know what the secret surprise is as soon as I find out what it is.  :<)

Kiss brand Nail Artist Paints and Tip Guides, also has some rhinestones included.  Colors are turquoise, pink, and lavender. 

These are called Love Stones.  They're all shaped like bows in different colors.  Very cute.

There was also a bottle of nail glue and a roll of aqua colored striping tape in this month's kit, as well as the decoration idea card titled Bows & Stripes.  On the back of the card it says there were 5 golden tickets sent this month, so I guess I am one very lucky lady to have received a golden  ticket.  For some reason, I feel like Charlie in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  lol

Do you want to take a guess as to what the secret prize could be?  Let me know in the comments.  :0)

As always, thank you for spending a little time with me today.  I will be gone a few days, recovering from my surgery and I hope, getting some nails done too, and painting some swatch sticks, since it I did receive those and got them all labeled and all I have to do now is put the polish on them.  Please take care y'all and I'll catch up with you in a few days to let you know how things went.  Until then, huggles!

Better late than never, March NAS Kit!

Good Wednesday afternoon darling readers!  I hope you all are having a great week so far.  For those who work a traditional Monday through Friday work week, we're over the hump and half way through now!  Before you know it, Friday afternoon will be here!  If you work a schedule such as the one in my household, swing shift with rotating days off, hump day is whenever it's the middle of the work week.  Today happens to be the day off for the other half so this next week, hump day will fall on Saturday.  It can be confusing for those not used to it, but we've been working with this schedule 23 years now and it works for us. :)

Today I have for you the March Nail Art Society Kit.  Better late than never, right?  I had heard a bit of grumblings from the midst of the great interwebs when people first started receiving this kit, especially since it was still under the old pricing structrure, and I could see where, for some, it might have been a bit disappointing, but for me, I liked it as I have every kit since I started with the club in December last year.  One of the biggest reasons I decided to try NAS was convenience.  Before I started this blog, I gawked at and over all the beautiful nail art that was being created and wondered where everyone got all the items they had used to create their beautiful works of art.  Then I found NAS and thought what a wonderful way to try different things without having to plan a shopping trip and maybe being disappointed because I couldn't find something I was looking for or having to buy online and wait 2-3 weeks for shipping.  It was already put together in one little convenient little package mailed right to my door!