Something new and something old

March 5, 2012 by Shannon Fennell 3 Comments

Last week I got my very first ever gel nails!  This is quite an event in my life.  I’ve only ever had one manicure and that was on a cruise in 1988 and it was a bit disappointing but I had really short nails so there was only so much she could do.

A co-worker at my day-job used to operate her own nail tech business and had just done her own nails.  I was really sick of my nails, which had always been crappy – they bend, peel and crack, and break at the slightest impact.  Lately the sides were breaking off and tearing down to the quick.  Hers looked really cool so I asked if she still did nails and how much it would be.

We arranged for me to go over to her house last Tuesday after dinner (I had a mom sitter booked already.)

I’m really pleased with the result – I did two days of solid heavy housework this weekend and didn’t break a nail!!  The only problem is getting used to picking things up… it is hard!  And they don’t scratch itches all that well being so blunt.  But I am planning to get them done again.

So that’s the new.

Now for the old.

On some of the groups/chats/forums I participate in people have been sharing their first face painting photos… I went on a search for some of mine.  In the process I was going through all my make-up scrapbooks and found some other work.

I worked on a film that was a Planet of the Apes parody – the chimp make-up photo I use on my business card was the test make-up for that job actually.  I found my photos from the shoot and thought it would be something to show everyone … a real movie set!  Which, by the way, is really boring to be on… hurry up and wait… and wait… and wait…

This was the location for Car Wash of the Apes which was in the Kits area of Vancouver, just up from the beach.

I didn’t actually find the face painting photo I was looking for but this one was actually THE FIRST face painting I did using Kryolan Aquacolours – so technically, my first face painting because the other things I had done before then were with regular make-up.  I copied the cow design from the Grimas book Make-up Voor Professional en Hobby.  It was one of two face painting books I had bought simply because they were make-up books for my collection.  The other was Making Faces by Sian Ellis Thomas.  I learned everything I knew about face painting from those two books… and that lasted me until 2003 when I was able to take some training with “real” face painters!

Actually, this isn’t all that bad really.  I have improved over the last 15 years but…  I still don’t mind saying “I painted this.”