A return to blogging and Christmas present nails

Hi everyone!   I'm back!  Thanks to Amanda for completely carrying the blog for almost the entire month of November while I was packing and making arrangements to move cross country from Indianapolis to Boston. I'm now (mostly) settled into my new place and can once again start paying attention to my nails.

My nails - ug.  Any of you who have moved know how stressful it is on your nails.  Packing and unpacking boxes not to mention lifting them.  I think I've broken the corner off nearly every one of my nails in the last month, so I was forced to cut them down to Super Nubs and hope that they will grow back out by Christmas.  My cuticles are weeping.

The drive was horrendous.  Who would have thought that the blizzard we had to drive through would be in Indiana not Mass?  We intended to drive 7 hours the first day and 9 the second, but the weather was so bad that we were over an hour behind schedule and had to stop an hour early just to get out of the storm.  That made for a very long 12.5 hour drive on day 2 (counting some additional weather slow downs).  Remember that scene in Star Wars where they make the drive to hyperspace?  Try driving in that kind of weather for 6 straight hours.  Case in point -

Yes, that is literally what our windshield looked like as we were pounded by a snow storm. 

So 2 days later we arrived Boston.   Most of my stuff arrived intact, minus the plate glass from my china cabinet that came broken in 2 pieces and my poor, poor light box.

So anyway, on to the mani..

I started with China Glaze Midnight Kiss, which is a sparkly gold foil.  Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Rapid Red.  I was really hoping for more of a contrast, but I'm happy with the more subtle way it turned out.  It kinda looks like wrapping paper. 

I actually prefer stamping my nails  when they are shorter because the full nail designs fit better.  Incidentally - I'm apparently out of practice with konad after taking a month off because I had to redo nearly all of the nails on my picture hand at least twice with the index finger taking 4 tries to get the stamp straight.  ug.  And then I guess I bumped it with an acetone soaked cotton square where the design is missing.  Too much time off!