#MondayRecommends #NailArt #nails #Maniology #HelloManiology #ManiologyAmbassador #MomGoth10discountcode #writingprompt
My longest-running friend, Beth Johnson, kept bugging to me to read the Gateway Recorder (Midlife in Gretna Green) fantasy books, and I kept resisting, but then she gave me a copy of Book 1 and I seldom turn away a freebie, so I read it.
I’m now halfway through Book 4. They’re addictive.
I can’t tell you anything about it, because just a blurb won’t do justice to the complexity of the interior lives, interpersonal (and interspecies) relationships, and politics being uncovered and balanced by a middle-aged (not teenaged!) woman who comes into her own unexpectedly and gives tradition a good, hard, much-needed shaking.
I don’t want to like them, but, dammit, I do!
ANYWAY, I decided to try to do a “pond” mani this week. It’s called a pond mani because the first people who did it did it in water themes. This one is bamboo.
I painted all my nails s pale green, then stamped bamboo with darker green. Then I painted over my accent nails with what’s called a “milky” white, smooth and translucent. Stamped another bamboo over that, then another coat of milky white, then a final bamboo. It’s supposed to make it look like it has depth.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: bamboo
MA
Daniel Antion
August 31, 2026 at 8:43amThere’s nothing quite like getting sucked into a book(s). Great job on the nails It amazes me how you get so much art onto such a small space.
Marian Allen
August 31, 2026 at 9:52amAwww, thank you for the nail comment. And I’m not sure the books would hit the same to a man. They have plenty of strong male characters, both good and bad, but I think they’re more woman-focal. Or maybe that’s just the 50s talking, and modern men would be equally addicted.