Before

It’s 9.39 am. I am very much looking forward to my home spa day. I plan to use every possible treatment, cream and nail tool I have. I have also decided to spring clean the lounge, use an air diffuser for spa scent and prepare my activity table (phone, headphones, book, drink, possible snack). I am rubbish at painting nails and my finger nails are always so short and cuticles so badly picked that I endure a manicure (the embarrassment) roughly once every two years.

I am not going to hurry and I fully intend to spend the entire morning relaxing (once I’ve created my makeshift spa zone).

I reiterate that I am not going to spend any money on this project, but I am aware that I have rather an impressive arsenal of relevant beauty treatments (the hot wax bath and hot mitts were purchases for my swollen and sometimes uncomfortable repetitive-strain-injury hands).

After

It’s 6.06 pm. Today, in many respects, didn’t go to plan, but I do now have waxed, soaked, trimmed, treated and painted finger and toenails so today’s project was completed.

I ended up enjoying and appreciating two elements of my day that weren’t supposed to be the highlights (I am not complaining). I enjoyed the tidying and cleaning prior to “spa day” and making my day bed spa zone comfortable and clean. I listened to some of my Spotify playlists and genuinely enjoyed the hour or so I spent moving furniture to vacuum and wash the floor with the door open and sunshine.

The second highlight was waiting for the polish to dry, which meant lying down on my “spa bed”. I felt uncharacteristically relaxed, listening to Indian yoga/meditation music (not my usual “thing”). That was a great chunk of downtime, extended by the sun on the bed making me sleepy.

The soaking, waxing, scrubbing, cutting, shaping, painting was not much fun, I didn’t even feel relaxed with the wax bath and waxy hands in plastic bags in the heated mittens. I am rubbish at painting nails and didn’t expect to enjoy that on any level. My only observation is that the OPI paint I used on my toes was significantly easier and smoother to use than the L’Oreal paint I used for my fingers. My hands are ridiculously dry from so much washing and occasional hand gel usage so I didn’t post the before and after hand photos as they don’t look as dramatically different as I would have hoped (nail polish is such a pale pink it looks a bit like an extension of my finger colour anyway!). My feet are never going to be prettified but I concede the colour is a good diversion from the sate of my feet.

The fingernails with paint on won’t last long, but it will stop me picking my cuticles for a few days. The toenails will cheer me up. I will appreciate my improved day bed and may feature a meditation music lie-down more often. I have had a positive day and overall appreciated the effects of this project.

I suppose I should choose a less relaxing project for day 3. I’m going for the sewing machine repair/testing and, if I can get it working again, I will either make or repair something, something VERY simple. I have used a sewing machine maybe ten times ever and each occasion has resulted in streams of profanities and a pamphlet’s worth of “how not to” cock ups!