{"id":8880,"date":"2011-01-17T00:30:20","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=8880"},"modified":"2011-01-16T12:34:08","modified_gmt":"2011-01-16T17:34:08","slug":"questions-comments-fingers-rings-and-manicures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/questions-comments-fingers-rings-and-manicures\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions, Comments, Fingers, Rings and Manicures"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I was finishing up my recent blog redesign<\/a>, I invited people to ask me questions for the new FAQ page<\/a>. I couldn’t come up with short and sweet, FAQ-style answers to all of them, especially the ones about comments. I’ve received nearly 41,000 comments since I started this blog in 2007, so when Stacy Lomman<\/a> asked, “I want to know the most annoying or stupid or bitchy comment you ever got from a reader?” I wasn’t sure where to start. When Tina Mougouris followed up with, “…have you ever received a comment that was touching or moving ? Something that gave you the warm fuzzies?” I figured I’d answer in a post.<\/p>\n

Starting with the good news, I have indeed received many touching\/moving\/warm-fuzzy-inducing comments. Too many to count, as a matter of fact. I particularly enjoy the “history teacher” comments: “Why couldn\u2019t you have been one of my history teachers in grade school?!” asked Stef M<\/a> in response to my 2008 Katherine Swynford post<\/a>, while K.Line<\/a> said, “You should be a history teacher (and I mean that as the ultimate compliment),” in response to the same year’s Lesson of 2 Evils<\/a> post.<\/p>\n

As for the annoying\/stupid\/bitchy comments, there are lots of those too. I try to avoid giving them much play, though sometimes I can’t resist<\/a>. But it’s worth sharing a recent one because it brought back all kinds of memories, including how I got into designing big rings<\/a>. After I posted a picture of my heart-shaped-diamond ring on my hand<\/a>, a spammer left a comment that said that my thumb was “old-looking and unattractive.” First, I was amused that spammers have moved on from incoherent compliments\u00a0 (“A truly legendary beauty that you poses for your best angle. … It feels like wearing a classy one and truly it is admirable”) to body-part criticisms. It was only last spring that an emoticon-using teenager blogged a complaint about my less-than-gorgeous feet<\/a>,\u00a0 so I immediately checked the header of my blog to make sure it still said “Wendy Brandes Jewelry” and not “Wendy Brandes, Body-Parts Model.” I don’t want to do any false advertising. I am fully aware that I am no George Costanza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In fact, I’ve always thought my hands were “unpretty,” as the TLC song<\/a> says. (You know who has pretty hands? Stacy<\/a>!) This is not something that ever kept me up at night. When it comes to certain appearance issues, I remember what my mother, BarbaraB, used to tell me when I was a kid: “No one is looking at it as closely as you are.” Of course, that advice is totally out of touch in the Internet age. People are<\/em> looking at it much more closely than I am! I’m thankful that my teen years preceded digital cameras and Facebook. Anyway, while I didn’t stay up at night sobbing over my hands, I did spend years trying to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative <\/a>by painting my stubby nails with Essie’s subtle and inoffensive Ballet Slippers nail polish<\/a> and wearing skinny little rings — if I wore rings at all. Then, one day, I looked down at my hands and thought, “Fuck it. I don’t like subtle and inoffensive. Why don’t I wear what I<\/em> want?” And just like that I started wearing more noticeable polish and giant rings.<\/p>\n

Lately, super-manicurist Tracylee Percival<\/a> has been helping me indulge my passion for in-your-face nails. She did my last Minx manicure in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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My November Minx manicure by Tracylee, plus two chunky rings.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tracylee has a great manicure technique, which doesn’t damage my cuticles like the manicures at the terrifying nail salons I normally go to. Comedian Anjelah Johnson must have been spying on me during my past manicures, which normally entail both physical and emotional abuse:<\/p>\n

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I’m so happy with Tracylee’s work that I was inspired to try a long-lasting gel manicure. Here’s the one she did for me last month using three colors by Gelish: Midnight Caller (gunmetal), Sheer White and Vegas Nights (glitter).<\/p>\n

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Nails by Tracylee, products by Gelish.<\/p><\/div>\n

I got it done on December 23 and it lasted till January 7!\u00a0 I was immediately ready for another. Here’s my second Gelish manicure. The plummy color is called Bella’s Vampire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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My in-your-face manicure by Tracylee.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you’re in New York, Tracylee will come to your house for an appointment. You can also catch up with her at the lovely Damali NYC salon<\/a> on 5th Avenue at 47th Street. Email her at tracypercival at gmail dot com to set up a time. Maybe you’ll catch me in there getting a manicure inspired by Polished Paws Up<\/a>, a Lady Gaga-themed nail art blog. It’s hard to pick a favorite from that blog, but for its great potential to gross people out, I’ll have to go with the Meaticure.<\/p>\n

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Meaticure manicure by Polished Paws Up. Click for source.<\/p><\/div>\n

I think a Meaticure would look great with a set of my swear rings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Blogger Princess Poochie works the swear ring look.<\/p><\/div>\n

The only thing that is more fun than giving the finger to replica-luxury-goods-pushing and hand-hating spammers is giving ALL the fingers to them!<\/p>\n

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While I was finishing up my recent blog redesign, I invited people to ask me questions for the new FAQ page. I couldn’t come up with short and sweet, FAQ-style answers to all of them, especially the ones about comments. I’ve received nearly 41,000 comments since I started this blog in 2007, so when Stacy…<\/p>\n

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