Warning: depressing and personal stuff below. If you just want the sale use code FAMILYFIRST to get 20% off everything here.

Hi everyone, since I have so many social media sites it's just easier to write everything out here instead of trying to fit it into 140 characters, but I'll still try to make this brief.

As those of you who follow me on Facebook have likely seen, my grandmother had an accident and has been comatose for about the last week. She was diagnosed as having no brain activity, which was confirmed by a second doctor, and the family has chosen to remove her breathing tube and allow her to pass (or, if by some miracle it happens, to heal. I'm still hoping, but knowing it won't happen) naturally. Right now we're not sure when that will happen as she's been breathing on her own for a day and a half so I'm going to be getting plane tickets and a hotel as soon as she passes, but for now I'm stuck in the horrible limbo of Waiting.

My entire family is in Southern California and I....am not. I'm up here in Portland. And I really need to get home to see my family. So, that means sale time for you! Silver lining, right?? From now until whenever I leave for CA I'm doing a 20% off sale with the code FAMILYFIRST which gives 20% off everything except charity items, so everything listed here. You can add other items to your cart if you like, the coupon just won't apply to them. I also have all Elemental Ward top coats on sale for only $5.

This sale is kind of wibbly wobbly, it currently doesn't have an exact end date; I'll be discontinuing the code 24 hours or so after I get my plane tickets to CA so there will be warning. Thank you to everyone who has sent me kind words and positive thoughts <3

We need to have a serious talk, folks.

I learned at GeekGirlCon that far too many of you aren't using top coat and this is just straight-up NOT OK! Top coat is amazing. It smooths out glitter, makes your nails super squishy and shiny, and helps your mani last a lot longer without chipping off. In a word, it's magic. And not enough of you are taking advantage of this readily-available magic!

This is a serious enough issue that I did some science for you and took pictures of my nails without top coat. I am forever shamed, but it's worth it to prove a point!

Look at how dull and lumpy that looks. Kinda gross, right? Let's see how these exact same manicures look with top coat.

Mmm, yeah, check out that SHINE! And it smooths out all those glitters. AND, if you're using a quick dry top coat (like Elemental Ward) it even helps your nails dry way faster than they naturally would (EW dries rock-hard in 20 minutes or less, great for us late-night lacqueristas). It can also help to re-apply top coat after a day or two to re-strengthen the protective power.

Oh, by the way, those polishes in the pics? Uhh, don't worry about them for now :D

So please, do yourself and your nails a favor and invest in a top coat! More expensive doesn't always mean better, too, but definitely spend more than a dollar or two on a bottle.

From a totally unbiased standpoint I do like Elemental Ward the most out of the top coats I've tried. I used to only use Butter London's Quick Dry top coat but it didn't dry nearly as fast as Elemental Ward does (and it's like $18 a bottle, ouch), but even if you don't use EW please spring for at LEAST Sally Hansen brand or something similar. And I do mean real top coat, not just clear coat!

So there, now you have no excuse not to use top coat! The more you know ミ☆

I had an unbelievably great time this weekend. I met amazing people who I'd only talked to in occasional FB comment threads (or not at all!) and I got to meet some people I've emailed regularly for a few months but never gotten to meet in person. It was two days of whirlwind craziness but I'd have to say it was the most satisfying craziness I've ever experienced. Despite the insanity I was able to set up the booth in time and get everything ready to put my heart and soul on display, and let me just tell you....worth it!

Saturday I dressed as a genderswapped Captain Reynolds from Firefly and another captain found my booth! Raph of Digital Nails requested a picture of us together and we were happy to oblige.

I saw a ton of other amazing cosplayers as well and even did manicures on some of them. My friend Winnie (who was selling her awesome jewelry, Happy Nerdcore) took some pictures of the great costumes she saw. I'll be doing my best to label the costumes I can recognize, if you see any that I get wrong or don't know please leave a comment!

Other exciting points in the weekend included going to a panel with Christal of Espionage Cosmetics and getting to chat with her about small business stuff, seeing Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency (I tried to get her to check out my booth but she was more interested in the tea booth next to me, sadface), and eating some fantastic pizza at Serious Pie.

At the end of the con Sunday night all my friends and I got together for dinner and staying up far too late for almost everyone having to wake up for an early flight and then go straight to work, but it was an amazing time regardless (but then, I was one of the ones who got to sleep in the next day!) and I'm already looking for more conventions I can go to. I'm crossing my fingers that it's not too late to apply for a table at Portland Comic Con in January :)

Check out all these cool people!

And finally: the swag! I got some awesome goodies at GGC, here's just the stuff I could fit on my side table.

Rainbow Love pin from ACLU WA; sushi animal, Portal, and :P pins from Nauti Art; Digital Soaps pins; Gay/Straight/Wibbly-Wobbly, Sexy-Wexy pin from Northwest Press (my friend Briannon also got me a shirt that says this; it's officially my new fav tee!); Key earrings from GeekStar Costuming; Girl Power charm, earrings, and glow necklace, paw print glow necklace, and pink/blue/white Swarovski earrings by Happy Nerdcore; I ♥ Games and I ♥ Gaming stickers from pixelkin.org; Tea, Earl Grey, Hot card by Dancing Heron; What Does the Fox Say postcard by fablefire; kitty tote (that was previously stuffed with a bunch of tees) from shirt.Woot; and tentacle teddy bear stickers from someone whose name I can't remember :( All in all a very good haul!

I also wanted to remind you all of my social media sites, since I have a few new accounts now!

https://www.facebook.com/Lucky13Lacquer (My most used platform)
http://instagram.com/lucky13lacquer (new and I love it so far!)
https://www.youtube.com/user/Lucky13Lacquer (YouTube? Whaaaat? Yes, Lucky 13 videos are coming in the future! Leave a comment with ideas for stuff you'd like to see me do or discuss)
https://twitter.com/Lucky13Lacquer
http://lucky13lacquer.tumblr.com/

And I can't figure out how to end this post, so...