Succulents and such

My two new babies! A kalanchoe (Paddle Plant/Flapjack Plant) on the right and and echeveria (Hens and Chicks) on the right. I love succulents because they are very low-maintenance but can be really striking and unusual.



I have a bunch of cuttings and small plants going right now as well.
 

I'm going crazy with them! Now I'm on the search for containers and terrarium supplies.

Tour de Fleece day 1

Tour de Fleece day 1, a photo by TartanHearts on Flickr.

on the left/forground: Widdershin Woolworks BFL single, half of a 4oz braid to become two-ply
middle: first wheel-spun chain-ply/n-ply! WOO! Woolgatherings BFL, light fingering-ish weight
on spindle: same Woolgatherings but spindle-spun.

Orly Gel FX

If you do gel and think you even might like this, GO PICK SOME UP! Seriously. It's amazing.





This was three coats of Sally Hansen 'Red My Lips' with two coats of Orly 'Gel FX' and Gelish base and top coats. It was a little thick, because of all those coats but not too bad.





Basically, I want to wear Gel FX over every gel color out there. It is so fun! I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves with this one.

*All products here were purchased by me for my own wear and review. 

Tour de Fleece pre-game post #2

When I said, 'I think there is a wheel in my future", I didn't mean two days in the future. I meant something more in the range of two years. I was planning to save my pennies for a while and that sort of thing.

Then this happened:



I posted about wanting a wheel and BAM! A friend of a friend had an Ashford Traditional for sale for a very good price. I snapped it up! I still can't believe it all happened so quickly.

I've been doing a bit of spinning, as often as I can. This was the end of my first day:



I am so glad I started on a spindle and was at least nominally familiar with the why and how. I still thought the yarn went over the big wheel part until last week. (hehehe!) Treadling was the hardest part, mostly because I'm not very coordinated. I'm burning through fiber compared with working on a spindle. I can't wait to start on the Polwarth from the last post and this stuff that just fell into my cart on etsy: (do you sense a theme from the other fiber?)

T-minus 6 days until TdF starts! 

so so excited!

These babies are live! After a year of working with Cleo of twee & honey, they are finally ready!
http://tartanhearts.storenvy.com/products/1724768-twee-honey-for-tartanhearts-summer-set-le
http://tweeandhoney.com/t-h-by-twee-honey/for-TartanHearts/summer-set.html


I love them all so much! I think the mint is my favorite. I'm a cream girl through-and-through, so that shouldn't be too surprising. The listings have all the relevant info, so check 'em out if you're interested. I'm excited to start getting these babies in the mail! We have some special packaging for these, of course.

Tour de Fleece pre-game and goals 2013

In addition to doing the nail polish and tartan things, I also do various yarny things. That's how this blog was started! I've seen blog posts and things on Ravelry about Tour de Fleece since it started in 2006- I especially remember it in the early years because I spent a lot of time reading fiber crafting blogs in those days. I didn't start spinning until this year (March) so this will be my first Tour de Fleece.

background: Tour de Fleece was begun in 2006. The goal is to do some sort of spinning project along with the Tour de France schedule. There are two rest days, just like the real Tour. Spinning? Get it? SPINNING?! Anyway, it has taken place every year since and this year is begins on June 29. There is a huge Ravelry group with a ton of teams and I'm on like four (so far). Different groups give out different prizes and such (I donated some to Team Slutboots, of course).

Since I'm such a new spinner, my plan is to spin every day. That's all. I have about 2/3 of 8 oz of Woolgatherings Mixed BFL top to go, although I am spinning it already. I've had it for months and haven't made a ton of progress. I'm spinning it on a horribly crappy 2 oz spindle and chain-plying it. No idea what it will knit up into or even what weight it will be. Fingering or DK, I *think* but I'm new.


I also have another top on its way to me:

It's 4 oz of Polwarth, which I've never spun. Basically, it's purdy and while I LOVE the grey, I'm getting a little ready for some color. 

Since the Tour race leader wears le Maillot Jaune, yellow is an unofficial color theme. I have some yellow manis and yellow jewelry lined up just for this occasion! I also picked this yarn before I knew about the Tour so I am glad that it had yellow.

Back to some more spinning! I think there is a wheel in my future.

new things in the shop!

- a England Saint George. I'm not sure there are words to describe how fucking amazing this polish is. It's amazing on the nail and it's just as good as jewelry. (listing here, if you're interested) I have a few more pieces I'll be adding in the coming days.
- I've got some patriotic things in the shop for 4th of July. AMERICA!
-MOST EXCITING:
I'm doing a collaboration with my internet superpal Cleo of twee and honey! We're going to have *limited edition* polishes with matching jewelry! Photos and details and all that jazz coming soon! It'll all be here when it is ready: http://tweeandhoney.com/for-TartanHearts/

Beat the Heat!

I needed to beat the heat today; it was 109 in Sacramento.



SensatioNail "Beat the Heat", with accent nail of "Sun Kissed", three coats of each. Nailtiques 2+ as base coat, Sally Hansen gel base and top coat, one coat of each.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE yellow. And my sister's favorite color is orange. So when I wandered into Walgreens and saw the new SensatioNail Island Fever collection, I picked these two up immediately. Without hesitation.

The application was great! "Beat the Heat" could probably be a two-coater. As a hater of VNL, I did three coats of each. The orange is definitely a jelly and although the VNL doesn't show up well here, it was very much there. The colors are a little less neon than they are in the photos, more like straight yellow crayon yellow and orange. My camera really hated them. You can see that it's a little brighter than the box color, though.

The wear ... lacked. I had issues with bubbling, some after the fact. On one finger, the bubble peeled off and revealed several layers of polish which made me wonder if it hadn't cured correctly. I tried again, doubling the cure time, and it still happened. It only happened with "Beat the Heat" and is visible on my index, middle finger, and thumb in the photos. I have used SensatioNail polish without the base layer ("gel primer") before and never had this problem. I'm hopeful that this was a bad batch. A lemon even!

Verdict: the colors are worth it for me. There isn't a comparable/dupe yellow gel that I'm aware of.

*All products here were purchased by me for my own wear and review. 

Bridesmaid nails!

Professionally done. The blue is a Nina Ultra Pro (old style) but I can't find the name. The glitter is China Glaze 'Lorelei's Tiara".

I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid in what was possibly the only non-tacky wedding with red, white, and blue as the colors. I also got to do the jewelry! More on that in a future post. These were my amazing nails. I found the idea on pinterest, of course, although it didn't have a source. (And it only took hours of searching "4th of July nails" and "Red, white, and blue nails" to find something that wasn't totally over the top.) I was originally intending to do this myself, with RCM "Midnight Affair' as the base and employing some nail art stripers. (I have glitter red!) All the bridesmaids got our nails done together so a professional got to do them instead. They lasted really well- this picture was taken on day 6. They survived the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, the wedding hangover, and two cross-country flights. My current gel hasn't done that well! The rest of the bridesmaids went with plain ol' French tips and such. I knew I made the right choice when a couple of guests came up to see what I'd done with my nails because they knew they would be "different". Well, they were!

Here are all the bridesmaid and the bride:

Aren't we adorable? Especially the jewelry and the nails. 

A couple of things I've been working on lately.

A variety of pieces that went out a bit ago. Some super fun ones here! #tartanhearts #tartan #highlanddance #scottish #celtic #jewelry #etsy #storenvy #plaid #handmade #nailpolish #nailpolishjewelry #lynnderella #mercurial, a photo by TartanHearts on Flickr.

Since I haven't updated otherwise, here are a few things I've been doing. A little bit of everything! I always like sending tartan and nail polish to the same home.