Recent NOTDs and a Mini Trip Report

So yes, I did disappear last week, and as per usual when that happens, I was travelling, this time to my home away from home in the mountains of northern Idaho. To start the week, my nails sported Zoya Stevie, posed below with a giant leaf along one of the trails we hiked. My arm is dirty from clambering over a huge pine tree that had fallen across the path due to a big storm that blew through just before we arrived in town (and my wedding ring is off because as you can see, my fingers were turning into sausages because that's how they do in the heat of summer when I exercise).

I didn't have time to do a fresh mani for the trip, so Stevie is actually layered over a previous mani, Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips in Pinkies Up, which were a gift from the lovely turtlechick. I tend to overlook the glittery strips, figuring I have tons of glitter polish that will give the same effect, but the advantage of the strips is I can put them on two minutes before bed next to Mr. Sensitive Nose. I really liked this mix of rose gold and silver glitter with my skintone, too.

As usual, I got great wear from the Sally Hansen strips; here they are six days later:

I almost ended up wearing just one coat of Stevie over the strips, as the rose and silver glitter underneath gave the lilac a pretty glow, but I decided I needed a second coat to better camouflage the growth gap at the base.

Mid-trip, I took all those layers off and put new strips on, in the Fl-roar-al design, which was a limited edition from last fall (the clearance label on the package tells me they weren't a sell out; I got them for $2.62).

I'm sorry to say that when I made the change, I saw that my peelies are flaring up again, even though it's summer, when my nails usually do better, and I was trying (and mostly succeeding) to remember to wear rubber gloves when I did dishes on vacation. But hey, they're only nails and they'll grow out again. It's especially hard to get upset about stuff like that surrounded by natural beauty like I was last week.

View up one of the ski slopes, covered in wildflowers this time of year:

The elusive huckleberry, which only grows at certain altitudes in certain soil conditions; we found and picked some on several of our hikes:

Flowers were all around, some with bonus butterflies:

And sometimes nature came to us, like this mule deer visitor looking in the back window of our condo:

I was so busy hiking and relaxing and helping Mr. Karen with a furniture building project that I didn't get into the city to look at nail polish, nor did I buy any online the whole time; I guess I can manage a no buy if I'm distracted enough!