Filed off all my nails today! :-0

When doing my own nails today I was very tired of doing French at myself. I also wanted to try out to have clear gel overlay. Since I am not going to travel or doing anything else fun the next weeks I though: "Why not"!

It is very, very strange, but in a way it feels nice. Haha, very natural! :-D

No nail-art for me, hate it!

At every show, every class, at the internet, everywhere I see nail-art. To be honest, I don't like it. I can see and appreciate the talent and artistic flare the nail-techs have, but I would never walk around with nail-art myself. Somebody will shoot me when I say this, but *I* think it is kind of "tacky". When that is said, I must add that I am very conservative and I only were some small diamonds as jewelries. I even don't like big diamonds! :)

For a strange reason I feel I am not allowed to say that nail-art is not my cup of tea and I feel rude when I say that *I* think it is "tacky". Well... Everybody tell me how boring I am with my very short p/w nails! Is that rude? In my opinion, no. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, also when it is not suiting everybody!

One of my clients today: A man!

Yes, I have some men coming regularly to me, they are all guitar-players. Today I had one of them. He is studying music at the university in Bergen, the "Griegakademiet". When I was in the US he had to go to another nailtech and I was curious to hear why he chose to take the bus 30 min. to come to me instead of using one closer to where he lives. I must say I was really flattered that he said my nails were the best!

I have some of the guitar-players from "Griegakademiet" and it is interesting to hear their approach towards nails. They are REALLY dependent of their nails. If they break a nail they can't play. For them it is also very important that the nails are filed in a very special shape (I HATE it because they want me to file their nails in a shape that is quite unnatural for me... but hey, they are the clients! :-)) . My client today said that my nails are the best to play with, they give the best sound! Who would have thought of that?

Today I got to know that another client of me, a guitar-player too, won a competition in Poland. Haha, I am so proud because I did his nails before the competition! :-D

Am I loosing my mind???

My last client today was talking in her mobile when she came. She sat down and I prepared her to do her nails - she was still talking...

I looked at her nails and became really worried because her nails looked really bad. Her nails were thick, uneven, the white was kind of "blurry" and they were not at all "flush" in the cuticle-area. While I looked at these strange nails I was thinking:

"When did she visit me last time?"
"Was I sick, ill, tired?"
"Did I have a very bad day?"
"Where was I when I did these nails?"

I felt really, really anxious and thought about my bad performance in the US. Maybe I was beginning to loose my mind? Maybe I *was* a crap nailtech? Maybe I should shut down my salon?

My head was spinning when my client finished her phone-call. Then I remembered she had been in the US and asked her if she had done her nails over there. THANK GOD, she had! :-D

My client had payed 40 USD and said she prefer to pay 165 USD for my work and she was thanking me again and again after her appointment. What a relief!!!

I am better today, but

no work today either. Because I didn't know if I was going to be sick or not today, I canceled my clients yesterday. I am better, but not 100% so I am not feeling sorry that I am home today too. *MY* plan is that I will be 100% tomorrow! :-D

No work today either...

Well, my tummy was better in the afternoon yesterday, but this morning it all started again. It's been very, very bad today and I had to cancel my clients. And yes, I have canceled the clients tomorrow too. I think this must have been the worst tummy-bug I have ever had and I can't wait to get well.

After all there are some positive things now. 1. I am not traveling alone. 2. I am not on a plain. 3. I am in my own house, my own bed and have my own toilet (THANK GOD FOR THAT!). 4. It's good for loosing weight! :-D

Luckily my schedule wasn't fully packed this week, so it will not be a problem to rebook my clients. After all I can work Saturday and Sunday if required.

Being sick and self-employed

Yesterday I woke up with a tummy-bug. It was really bad and it didn't get better through the day. AND it continued today. Not good. Normally I go to work, no matter how ill I am, but not with a tummy-bug. It is impossible to go to work, running to the bathroom and feeling sick.

I had to cancel and rebook my clients for today. Luckily nobody were on their way to holiday and nobody wanted this bug so they were all happy not to come to me today. :)

The problems when being sick are massive when self-employed.

1. My clients will not get their appointment, and they may need it for a special occasion.
2. If you're quit new, you can loose clients.
3. The loss of income.
4. I have to fit in the clients in an already tight schedule.

I HATE to be sick and I always have to think twice before I stay in bed. Luckily my clients know this, so they understand.

I haven't decided what to do for tomorrow. Right now I don't know if I can do it, I don't feel good at all. AAAAARGH....

I have to sort out my models... again....

So far I am going to enter three competitions this fall.

London - Nailympics. I will only need one model, as I am only going to enter the gel tip/overlay. I think I have sorted out my model for this competition. I will use Hannah, the model I used in Manchester and London. She has gorgeous nails and nail-beds!

Dublin - B.I.T.E. At this competition I will need at least two models. One at the everyday-extentions and one for the sculpturing. These will be on the same day, so I need seperate models. I also need one for the gel tip/overlay the day after.

Manchester - Professional Beauty. Hannah may help me out at some of the competitions as she is going to compete herself, but because of that, she can not help me for all three... Luckily I have some friends in Manchester, so I may get, literally, a helping hand here. :)

Searching and finding a model for each competition is exhausting. I WISHED I had a good model at home and I WISHED I had the money to bring her. The problem is that if I want to bring my own model, I will only be able to enter half of the competitions, because of the economy. What I really need now, is not to win, but to get the COMPETITION- PRACTICE. Of course I want to win, but if I will ever beat the best, I need all the practice I can get to avoid "loosing my head" as I did in Orlando.