The Happiest Place on Earth

No...not Disneyland. I'm talking about Wamego, KS, home of the Wizard of Oz Museum! I found out a Wizard of Oz museum existed about a year ago and have been bugging Honeyham to take me ever since. A few weeks ago we finally made the trip out to Wamego, and it was amazing.

We didn't really have any plans except to check out the museum, and I was pleasantly surprised to find there was also an Oz Winery, The Wicked Stitch yarn store, and Toto's Tacoz!

The museum itself is somewhat small, but packed with Oz memorabilia. They had everything, from a full collection of books, including books in many different languages, to special edition peanut butter jars sold to promote the move. We may be heading back in October for the Oztoberfest which features a few of the original Munchkins!

I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks. I do I do I do I do I do!

I am OZ! Great and powerful.

Marvy's namesake. We should have brought him with us!

After the museum, we headed over to the Oz Winery where we sampled some wine and picked up a bottle of Oil Can and Emerald City Lights. While we were there, one of the employees mentioned that there was a brewery we could tour in Manhattan, just a short drive from Wamego. When Jeff found out it was the Tall Grass Brewing Co. he was pumped! We often have beers from that brewery here in Lincoln! We decided to get some lunch at Toto's Tacoz, then head to Manhattan for the brewery tour.

The tour was AWESOME! I had never been to a brewery tour before, so that was pretty neat! We got a complementary beer tasting glass and tickets for six samples. After the tour, we hung out in the front area of the building - one side had the bar, and the other had seating plus a foosball table and and old Nintendo set up.

Duck hunting

Named for American Gladiators

Overall, this turned out to be an awesome trip (despite an impromptu extension due to some car troubles). We will definitely be heading back to Wamego at some point!

On a Trip

The move is done and the new apartment is AMAZING! I'll try to get some pics of it, but I want to decorate a little first. We have all kinds of frames and art to hang from the wedding :)

This next polish I swatched is Wet n Wild Megalast in 213C - On a Trip. This polish takes forever to dry. I got it before I discovered the wonders of a quick dry top coat and got sheet marks even though I painted my nails a good 3-5 hours before I went to bed.

It's an awesome color though, I love it!

 Sorry for the cat hairs in the photo. I can't escape them!

Like I said, this color is awesome. It's pretty thick so it gives good coverage! I don't remember how it wore over a few days, I don't think it had too much chippage though.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener
Polish: Wet n Wild "On a Trip" - 2 coats
Top coat: Essie Good to Go along with Sephora by OPI drying drops.

Swatches

I've decided I want to go through and swatch all my polishes. Because I'm weird like that.

First up we have Zoya Astra. This was the first Zoya polish I tried...and it's ok. It's a red/silver (or maybe light pink?) glitter in a red jelly base (I think jelly is the correct term). I guess I was just a little disappointed because it's much more muted than I am used to for a glitter. It is very pretty though, and application is great. I was able to get good coverage in just two coats!

Some of my nails look like they have some bald spots or that it's somewhat sheer, but to be honest you can't really tell in real life!

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener
Polish: Zoya Astra - 2 coats
Top Coat: Essie good to go followed by Sephora by OPI drying drops

And for my family, who I think still reads this...I promise I will put up some non-polish related posts soon. We're moving on Saturday, so there will be plenty to update :)

Water marble!

This was my first attempt at doing water marble nails. I had a lot of fun, although it was a little time consuming. I haven't tried this technique again, but now that I'm building up more of a stash and have more complementary colors to choose from, I will probably try it out again soon!

I used Essie marshmallow, chincilly, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 340 - Mint Sorbet. The marshmallow (I think) ended up just sort of looking like my natural nail color. Like I said, I think I will try this one again soon with brighter colors, or colors that work together a little better.

Dandelion nails

I want to start of this post by saying I did not come up with the design on my own. I saw it on redditlaqueristas, but I can't remember who originally posted it.

Anyway, on to the nails!

The base is Essie chinchilly, the dandelion leaves (...tufts?) are Essie marshmallow, and the stem/dots are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 22 - Jumping Jade. I'm not 100% sure on the green color, since I did these a while ago! I used my striping brush for the leaves and stem, and a small dotting tool for the dots.

More stamping

Here's another early attempt at stamping:

The base is Essie marshmallow, stamped with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 320 - Raisin the Bar. I used Mash plate 11.

First time stamping!

I also got a stamping kit for Christmas. Woooooooooooo. I love this thing, and now that I have some nail art pens, I have more opaque polishes that work well for stamping.

This was one of my first attempts at stamping:

This is Essie chinchilly with fishnet stockings stamped over it. I used MASH plate 14!