In spite of the stay-at-home order, yesterday was a lovely day for my birthday. I spent a lot of the day talking on the phone, and my friend Kim and I took a chilly walk at Sagamore Hill/Donovan Reservation in Ipswich MA. The trail was occasionally muddy but the view from the top of the hill toward Crane Beach, Choate Island and Gloucester were wonderful. I wish I had brought binoculars. Even though it was a cold windy day, I really enjoyed getting out of the house and going for a walk in nature.
Jeff brought two gigantic lobsters for dinner, and thankfully, he cooked them. I’m trying to stay out of stores, and I’m trying to convince Jeff to do the same. So this year, he made me a birthday cake, instead of buying one from the bakery. As usual, it came out like lead, but it was the thought that counted. Plus he ended up going to one of our favorite bakeries where he picked up 4 special cupcakes. He was smart to have a backup plan 😉
Finally, this year, Jeff made me a birthday card, and I love it. It’s made with one of my lip swatches that he stole from my blog! (Oops! I just noticed that he got the cursor from his computer in the photo, oh well)
In a normal year, we get a little dressed up and go to a restaurant for a special dinner. For this stay at home dinner, I wore the clothes I wore hiking, and I never got to put on the mascara and lipstick that intended to wear. But at least I did my nails!
I had to go to CVS to pick up a couple of prescriptions on Monday, and I figured I should pick up my birthday gift from CVS Extracare. In the past, they gave me $5 off my purchase. But this year, the gift was a bottle of Poparazzi nail polish. Since I wasn’t going to buy anything at CVS besides my prescriptions, I guess the gift of an inexpensive $2.99 nail polish was just as good.
I chose Poparazzi Seeing Sparkles, a purple glitter topper, from the Special Effects collection. In spite of my advanced age, give me all the sparkles! Plus I figured I may as well get something celebratory. Since the polish looked like a topper, I decided to apply it over Zoya Joni, a purple cream polish that I bought a couple of months ago but hadn’t used. Joni is described as a “deep, dusty plum”, a mauve shade from a collection of nudes. I thought Poparazzi Seeing Sparkles would make it look more festive.
As usual, I started off with Morgan Taylor REACT Base Coat. Next, I applied one coat of Zoya Joni. I had intended to apply two coats of Joni, but to my surprise, it was opaque in one coat. (I wanted to take a photo of my nails with Joni alone, but I did my nails at night and the artificial light made the polish look too yellow.) After it dried, I applied one coat of Poparazzi Seeing Sparkles. I liked the sort of wide brush that made it easy to apply the thick polish. The glitter was suspended in a clear purple tinted background, and the glitter was well distributed throughout the polish. And it lay down flat, no glitter pieces sticking up. I also thought I might need two coats of the topper, but one was definitely enough. It dried super fast. I finished it off with a coat of Glisten & Glow Fast Drying Top Coat.
The Seeing Sparkles topper made the plum color Joni look more purple and certainly more fun. I have no idea how well this will wear, but I put it on just for my birthday to make the day seem different from all the other days at home. And I think it worked!
Happy birthday🎉🎉. Sounds like Jeff did a great job of making your birthday special! Love the cupcakes and love your nails too.
Thank you, Sandy, for the bday wishes! I had a very nice day, exceeded my expectations. My nails came out really nice. The free $2.99 glitter topper did the trick 😉
I noticed your beautiful nails yesterday as we were getting back into our cars! Good job Jeff–gigantic lobsters and cupcakes and cake and THAT CARD!!! Happy Birthday again… xo
Thank you, Kim, for the bday wishes and for taking that peaceful walk in the Donovan Reservation with me <3 Jeff did good on the card for sure!
Glad to hear it was good birthday! So times the simple things are the best
Thank you, Gloria, for the bday wishes! I agree, simple things and celebrating at home can be lovely too. Frankly, I was lucky to have a bday celebration at all this year with everything that’s going on.
Happy Birthday, my dear friend! That was so thoughtful of Jeff! I love that polish on you!
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Thank you so much, Helen, for all the bday wishes! The nail polish did look cute!
Great post. Happy Birthday Allison. I love the glitter polish. 😷🙋🏻♀️🧁🍾🥂
Thank you, DiEtta, for your bday wishes xoxo<3
That’s a fun festive manicure for your special day. And I love lobster and that card so Jeff did really good!!
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Jeff is so sweet. I like that he personalized your birthday card. I love small gestures like that. How odd it is to celebrate birthday in quarantine but you made the best out of it. It’s what we make out of every situation. I lol’d on the cake, smart move to have backup plan.
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