Nail Polish Dreams

I have always been attracted to nail polish since I was a little kid. How wonderful to have colors right on the end of my fingertips. I’m interested mostly in pink nail polish. I’ve always loved pink. I love pink radiators – I have one in my Carnforth studio.

I have a collection of 1950s child’s tin kitchen furniture in pink.

My beloved collection of pink children's tin appliances! I found the washing machine at the Goodwill Outlet in Nashville, Tennessee, ensconced in some comforters and sheets. I only had to pay by weight so it only cost me $2.

I have pink bedroom slippers.

Recently, I rescued a pink dog from the house clearance warehouse. She was so much pinker after being washed.

Cotton Candy Dog!! So pink and fluffy.

So, how wonderful to have pink fingernails. But it’s always been the same as soon as I paint my fingernails; I feel like I can’t breathe. I feel like something heavy like a paperweight is sitting on each little fingernail.

Pink trouser suit (what? me in trousers?), but no pink fingernails.

When I was a kid, I immediately scraped off the polish with my teeth and sort of enjoyed the flaking pieces of paint on my tongue for a minute, but then I would feel a bit sick and I’d go take it off with remover. I haven’t tried using nail polish for about eight years now. I have a few bottles, but I just look at them longingly sometimes.

Once I made a painting with all of my unused polish and it hangs in my house in Nashville. People probably think it’s just paint, but I know it’s swirling streams of the nail polish of my dreams (can’t find a picture of it).

When I started collecting antique dolls, I noticed that some of them had little red lines around their fingernails – leftovers from dolly nail polish.

The hand of my doll Irene pictured below. She is known in the doll world as a “Sweet Nell” and was made more than 100 years ago in Germany.

I wonder if they scraped it off with their tiny dolly teeth just like I did?

Who needs pink nails when you have such great eyebrows?

But really I imagine that their polish was worn away as they held the hands of friends who came before me. Their polish was washed away by little doll mothers when their tiny hands became sticky from tiny cakes. Their polish was spirited away by time brushing past them in nurseries, in cardboard boxes, and in blankets inside trunks in attics. Then one day, I brought one doll and another home and said, “Look at your cute little fingers. I once wore a bit of nail polish, too.”

Mary, my three foot tall Armand Marseille doll even has some remnants of polish on her toenails!

The dolls and bears, especially Stanley Bear and Odile Bunny, and I wish you kindness and friendship in the week ahead, and always.

Your friend,

Jeni

Stanley Bear and Odile reveling in hotel pillows and sheets on a recent doll rescue adventure. They also had waffles for breakfast!

---

Substack Notes where I post pictures and thoughts plus excerpts from other writers whose work I’m enjoying.

My shop where you can buy real albums that you can hold in your hand.

My website.

Instagram and Facebook where I post my adventures almost daily!

My articles for Modern Daily Knitting.

---

Tip Jar for the doll & bear hospital. PayPal or Ko-fi.