Hey Everyone! Back when I first started "collecting" nail polish I would always say my problem color was blue. The problem being I loved it and ALL blue nail polishes. Well I've been doing this nail art stuff for a couple of years now so I'm happy to say I've branched out and my green and purple drawer definitey rival my blue drawer now LOL! BUT blue is and will always be my first love. The first blue I ever got was 16 years ago believe it or not! I was working as a receptionist in the OB-Gyn department and there was a sweet girl I worked with, Olga. One day she came in with this blue nail polish--I think it was by Sinful back when they had the short sqround bottles like Seche Vite--the name of it was Disco Blue and it was gorgeous! All the girls knew how much I loved doing my nails and I was so touched when Olga said, "I saw this and thought of you!!" All these years later I'm still loving those blues!
I did this mani after I saw this way cool design on Pinterest. I love Pinterest! You get the best ideas there!! This is where I first saw the design. I tried to get back to a blog but it was wanting me to sign into some other social network lol! Um no thanks, Facebook obsessed is enough for me!
This is a gradient half moon mani and pardon me but this really kicks a$$!
I used a couple of my favorite blues for this--Cult Nails Time Traveler and China Glaze Sea Spray.
The application is really easy! I did two coats of Time Traveler and applied Seche Vite. Then I used my trusty price stickers to help with the half moon and I did my gradient technique with Sea Spray and Time Traveler and sponged it onto my nails over the sticker.
At first I was disappointed when I realized it gradiented the two colors instead of keeping them separate as the picture from pinterest appears. I think she sponged her darker color over her lighter instead of gradienting them together. But once I had them all done I loved the look!
This is definitely something I'll be doing again with some different colors! I'm thinking of a nice chocolate brown with For Audrey!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a good day!
Hi Everyone! Happy Monday! I really thought about doing a MSMD Mani today BUT I loved what I was wearing so much I just didn't want to take it off. Instead I decided to switch it up a bit and I'm pleased with how it turned out! The other day I got some new OPI Polishes two of them being Nein! Nein! Ok Fine! and Her Majesty's Secret Secret Service. I can't believe how much I love the color of Nein! Nein! It is so gorgeous and luxurious. Not to be outdone by Her Majesty's Secret Service which I've been told is a Zoya Fei Fei dupe or vice versa lol! As with all glass fleck type polishes they sponge so well so I did a simple sponged gradient with the two.
These two polishes really seem meant for each other!
And don't you just love the coloring on Nein! Nein! OK Fine!????
In order to still wear this same gradient I stamped over it with China Glaze Passion and BM210
It's a bit hard to capture with my camera but at the right angles you can see the gold stamping over the gradient on my tips
This might be a great idea for someone who's busy or doesn't want to change their polish everyday!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Hi Everyone! Happy weekend! I know I'm late with my post today BUT it's because I was working a long long time on it! Today's theme for the Crumpets Nail Tarts is
Influenced by a Scary Movie!
Well there's no way I'm putting The Ring on my nails and that's the movie I think has scared me the most through all my years. The girl is SO freaking creepy. Instead I decided to pay homage to good old Channel 18 and Creature Feature! I remember as young girls watching I Was A Teenage Werewolf, The Mummy, Dracula Meets Frankenstein and the Creature From the Black Lagoon so I decided to get them all into one mani!
A super big thanks to my friend Sarah of Chalkboard Nails for helping me come up with the Wolfman and Creature drawing last year!
I went with fine tip sharpies to do the designs because lets face it I'm not good and freehand!
I would SO love to link everyone else today BUT I had to do some major laptop fixing all because I couldn't hear any sound on You Tube video and YES I did need to hear Tartofraises when I'm checking out her marbling. So when I tried to get back into Facebook I couldn't! And now I have to wait 24 hours due to security reasons for flip sake! Don't you just love social networking?
It's just as well because today's a day spend relaxing and maybe watching some scary movies!
Have a great weekend!
YAY I have access to the lovely Facebook once again so I'm linking everyone's cool mani's!!
Hey Everyone!! It looks like I'm jumping from Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge to Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge lol! I've got a few hectic things going on right now and I've not been able to do my nails each day *GASP* I have a super cool mani today so this baby could stay on for a few days!!
Let's see what's up for today shall we?
Ooooh blood and gore!
Check out my very first successful splatter mani!!!!
As you can see I did a gradient first! I used Essence Vampire's Love Polishes for my gradient--The Dawn Is Broken and Hunt Me If You Can
And did you see that??!!!! Right hand pic even !!!!!!
My "blood" is Revlon Devil's Lure (which I love) and China Glaze Salsa
I tried to stamp a bat on this mani can you find it????
Not really LOL! It just looks like more of the blood and gore BUT I'm so please with how this turned out!!
You know this is going to be a good challenge today so make sure to check out everyone else!
OMG Readers! I totally forgot to post Crumpet's Halloween Challenge picture today! I got all the way to work and said oh oh!!! No blog post for today! GLURG! I hope my fellow crumpet's will forgive me! Today's theme in the Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge is
Pumpkins!!! I'm featuring a franken I made last year with this mani. This is one of the first frankens I ever made. Basically it's an amped up Pumpkin Spice!
Because I really love dark colors, especially this time of year, I just did an accent nail of China Glaze Cross Iron 360 and an image from BM305. Man BM305 is sure getting a lot of use lately!!
I can't believe I made this Gypsy Bries franken over a year ago and just never wore it! It's really quite lovely!
Now let's check in with all the other gals and see what they came up with for today's challenge!
Hey everyone! Happy Monday? How was everyone's weekend? Mine was great! I got to babysitter my grandnephew Sean on Saturday. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal BUT he's not even 3 years old yet AND I don't really "do" them until they are at least 5 lol! I am not a baby or toddler person. They are small and can break easily. My little sister, Lynelle, gets Sean at least one day every weekend and I usually go over there to hang out with her and him--this time she needed to do some running around so I came over to watch him until she got back. She's got a nice kid friendly home. Aka no chinchilla cages and kittens with claws lol!
Sean and I HAD A BLAST! Little did I know he never played the drums before until I watched him though lol! He tipped over the ottoman, found some drumsticks of my nephew's and started hammering them on the ottoman. So of course I joined in with the guitar hero guitar and we were totally rocking out! We watched Cars, and Madagascar 3 too. I really had nothing to worry about lol! He is the cutest kid on the planet. I'm sorry my beautiful sister, Lisa, is not here to enjoy him--but I am grateful we get to spend time with him whenever we want. We tell him about his Grandma Lisa and I can't wait until he's old enough for us to tell him things about her.
But enough of that!! You are here for the nails! Okay you might be here because I'm pretty cool and witty LOL!
A couple of weeks ago Bundle Monster had their annual Halloween Contest. Last year I was the grand prize winner. AWESOME! I was really thrilled to win last year and didn't really think about entering again because geez there is no need to be a pig and I've won everyone Bundle Monster contest they've had. I'm sure you all know how much I LOVE BUNDLE MONSTER PLATES--that being said I feel a loyalty to them and entered the contest.
There were some fantastic designs this year! OMG my favorites were the orange and silver design by my friend Amy of I'm Feeling Nail-venturous, the cool vertical design from my friend Ashley of Smashley Sparkles and then one by my friend Joanne who's in the Crumpet's Nail Tarts group. I LOVED Joanne's!! She did Sugar Skulls! OMG I don't even like Sugar Skulls because they creep me out, but her's was fantastic.
So good news/bad news. Good news Amy and I made the top 13--bad news Ashley and Joanne didn't :( It more than bums me out. I didn't think my design was very elaborate but based on what many people have said about it, is it's a design that's very Halloween YET not too out there for wearing in an everyday setting.
I did a nice gradient using Orly Goth, Zoya Mira and Essie Lilacism. Then I went with Bundle Monster plates BM305 (haunted house) BM224 (gnarly tree branches), BM213 bats and BM13 (more bats) I added some yellow to the haunted house windows to give it that eery glow and I named my design Bats On The Bayou. You might have seen this mani and even voted for it if you followed the contest.
Here's a pic with more bats on my thumb
I got a lot of compliments on this mani and I get a lot of people saying how much they love my gradient and how seamless they always are. I don't really know why it's so easy for me to gradient, it just is.
In fact you can see how much better I am at gradienting when you compare this year's mani with last year's.
Not a very smooth gradient last year and now that I'm comparing the two I really do think this year's is a lot better!
Right now the judging phase is going on, so we'll see if I make it to the top 3. As I said before though, there were some fantastic entries! Best of luck to the top 13!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Good, Bad, Better! Hey Everyone! I've got another good, bad, better mani today. We've had some gorgeous Fall weather going on in Wisconsin and driving around just makes you appreciate where you live SO much. To see the goldenrods and deep reds scattered with orange, green and even burgundy is just AHmazing. I wanted to do some sort of Fall colors mani so I gradiented and really loved it!
This gradient is Sinful Colors Pull Over, a franken I made called Pumpkin Spice Latte, and Revlon Vixen. I really love it. Because I was stamping over it I didn't do a topcoat. I wish I had!
I decided to stamp over it using an image from my DRK-A plate. I did a mixture of China Glaze Cross Iron 360 and Kleancolor Metallic Red and I really did not like it!
I don't know why exactly but I feel almost as if this would have been better with a creme stamping instead of a metallic. Only problem is I didn't really feel I had a creme that would be opaque enough.
I --decided to cover up the stamping with the gradient again which wasn't easy as the yellow was a bit sheer so my cuticles looked like caca. And then I topped it with Sonoma Nail Art Deadly Zins and voila!
I just loved it a lot more!
What do you think? Which way do you like it best? Should I have just left that gradient alone and wear it *gasp* plain?
Happy weekend! Hope everyone enjoys some time off of work these next 2 days!
Hey Everyone!! Happy Friday! Have you been keeping up with the news lately? A young girl, Amanda Todd, posted a youtube video about her life fraught with cyber bullying before she committed suicide. She was bullied online, stalked and physically abused at the tender, tender age of 15. I mean wow 15. It's horrible, it's sad, and it's oh so wrong.
Sometimes it's hard to imagine what kids can do to kids. BUT it's even harder for me to fathom what adult women can do to adult women over nail polish! The other day a good friend of mine, a wonderful blogger, was chastised by other women in a nail polish group over a picture she posted. A lazy day picture, a picture posted in a group and not on her blog. I mean oh my goodness who do you think you are if you think nail polish goes on without getting on your skin and cuticles sometime? If you are that anal retentive putting on your polish more power to you!
I'm not. I have a buttload of clean up when I do a mani. I love to gradient, and it's virtually impossible not to get it all over especially if you want to do a gradient that looks smooth and seamless. If you want it to look good it's messy believe you me!
Actually see for yourself!!
This is the super lovely Sally Hansen Scarlet Ruby and Coral Amber gradient.
No clean up and it still looks great!!!! I mean how can it not? It's a Sally Hansen prism gradient!!!
After a long time cleaning up--and even then it's not the best clean up this is what it looks like
Ah pretty darn lovely if you ask me!
I had intended on stamping something Halloweeny over this--actually thinking pumpkins. But then I got to thinking about all this cyber bullying lately and some of these "mean girls" in nail polish groups and I really wanted to go off on a few of them. I mean OMG who do you think you are? You're a freaking nail blogger--you're not saving the world for crying out loud. I love my blog and my readers, I do it for fun. I don't think I'm too big for my britches EVEN THOUGH my butt's the size of Montana--this is meant to be something light and fun. Since when did nail polish become a launching pad for snarky ass women to cut other women down? And why would anyone sit back and watch it go down and let it happen? Shame, Shame, Shame on you mean girls!
So instead of keeping quiet and saying nothing and stamping some pumpkins over this mani--this is what went down
Whomp Whomp!!! the devil made me do it!!!
I HAD to say something because I don't like it when my friends are treated disrespectfully. I HAD to say something because young girls are killing themselves over the treatment they receive via the internet. It's cruel, it's heartless and it's wrong.
Sometimes we all have that devil on our back. He wants us to say something we know isn't nice.
But remember the golden rule--if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all!
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!!
Hi Everyone! Do you believe in monsters? Did you when you were a kid? I'm not going to lie and I will let you all know I have an irrational fear of werewolves. Yep I said it, and it's true. There is no way in hell you'll catch me in the woods during a full moon. My friends and family make fun of me for this all the time BUT I like to say, well do you want your last thought to be--as you're getting your throat ripped out by a werewolf--Oh Laurie was right and I was wrong? LOL!
When I was little I was super scared of monsters. OMG Lisa and I would watch every stupid scary movie out there and I would have to sleep with her. She was younger than I was but I was sleeping with her lol! Now here's the super funny thing. We each had a twin bed up against a wall and there was a window in between us. I always wanted to sleep up against the wall because I felt like if a monster came in through the window it would eat Lisa, be full, and leave me alone. She always wanted me to sleep against the wall because the felt like the monster would come up from the floor through along the wall eat me, be full, and leave her alone! LOL! Omg it was years and years before we each shared this with one another.
Today's theme in Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge is . . .
Things That Go Bump In The Night (Monsters Etc)
Well I tried for a Monster's Inc type mani. Not sure if I consider this a success or failure. Bottom line is, it's late and I need to get to bed so I'm changing this mani lol!
This is supposed to be Sully and Mike but really it sort of looks like a rabid Cookie Monster lol! Along side of my monsters is Orly Androgynie which I think is freaking gorgeous!!!!
Let's see what my cohorts have come up with!
Hey Everyone! I see thousand's of these Pink Wednesday posts but I don't really ever do them because I sort of boycott pink. I don't not like pink it's just that pink has come to mean something other than girly bubbly stuff to me. That being said, today I am totally doing pink and showing my support to the hundreds of thousands of women battling breast cancer. IT SUCKS! IT'S AWFUL!!! IT'S TOTALLY NOT FAIR!!!!! But unfortunately all of that doesn't keep it from coming sometimes.
Women and men who battle this horrendous cancer are the fiercest and bravest warriors I know. I did this mani today thinking of them
I want you all to know even without your hair or your breasts you're still beautiful!
I admire your strength and your courage and I am awed by the will to survive you all have.
You are the most beautiful, most brave, strongest people I know!
Hugs to you all!
Hi Everyone! Today is another installment in Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge and omg at first I panicked with this theme--
Freestyle Halloween. I think we all know how I feel about my freestyle! Let's just say my freestyle is trapped inside my non-creative body LOL! I wanted to do something cool and funky SO I went to youtube! I checked out the queen of the water marble, Collette of My Simple Little Pleasures. She has a couple of spider web designs so I decided to try my hand at one.
And this is what I came up with----
ATTACK OF THE GREEN MUTANT SPIDERS!
This looks pretty cool BUT it wasn't easy lol!
I should say it doesn't look as great as Collette's BUT I do think it's cool!
AND I got to use my favorite green--China Glaze Cha Cha Cha!
Check out the Thumbies!
Here's Lefty
And Righty
I think this mani is spooktacular for Freestyle Halloween!!
Make sure if you haven't seen any of the bazillion water marble tutorials by Collette you check this one out for sure!
AND check out what all my ghoulish gal friends have come up with today!
Hey Everyone!! Happy Monday! Okay usually it's not happy because no one wants to be back at work LOL! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was pretty lowkey. It was crummy weather BUT I got to spend some time with my grand nephew, Sean and see my nephew AJ and his beautiful girlfriend Jericho all dressed up for Homecoming!
Today for MSMD I copied the super talented Ashley of Smashley Sparkles. She's usually to blame for some of the polishes I "have" to have like the entire Color Club Take Wing collex and the latest one I had to have--China Glaze Senorita Bonita. When I saw the way cool water marble Ashley did with Orly Goth, Senorita Bonita and China Glaze Riveting I knew I had to be all in!
Since it's October and Halloween stuff is rampant I added an accent nail of just China Glaze Riveting and stamped a little witches hat.
I'm not going lie to you about this one. IT WAS HARD! It's so hard to water marble with Senorita Bonita and Riveting. I wasted SO much polish on this baby. UG I hate when that happens!
Ashley's turned out super cool! Make sure you check hers out here
And be sure you check out what everyone else has come up with for MSMD!!!
Hey Everyone--today I want to talk about the difficulty of surviving the loss of a loved one. With this month being October there is nothing but Breast Cancer Awareness surrounding me at every turn. Everyone and their mother is doing the silly "post this as your face book status", some people are going around saying something stupid like Save The Ta Ta's because they think it's funny, and work has been having donate $5 to Susan G Komen so you can wear jeans, and on and on and on.
NO ONE is more aware of breast cancer than I am. Breast Cancer killed my beautiful sister, Lisa. So this time of year is very hard on me. I don't want to be a bitch, I don't want to be bitter and ugly, yet I am. I have to say to myself repeatedly--just because your sister did not survive does not mean someone else's sister didn't. And even though my sister died, every day someone's sister survived--someone's mother, grandmother, aunt, sister and daughter did survive--AND someone's father, grandfather, brother and son did too.
I want to be as supportive as I can this time of year, but for me pink doesn't really cut it. I actually almost hate pink this time of year. To me it's hard to see the words HOPE, FAITH, and LOVE and think them especially concerning breast cancer. BUT the fabulous Kim from Overall Beauty has Joby Nail Art Stickers for Breast Cancer Awareness and they are a really great affordable and easy way for someone to show their support not only this month but any month.
Today I've done a mani that shows how I feel about my sister and breast cancer.
Sometimes it's all about the pink and hope--sometimes it is dark. I love this mani though and it combines two things that are important to me--my love of nail art and the love I have for my sister.
Despite the simple look of this mani it wasn't. I used the angel's wings image from Red Angel 115 but I needed them spread apart a bit more so I had to stamp them one at a time and then put the ribbon in the middle. I used the gorgeous OPI DS Extravagance and then sponged on Wet n Wild Black creme to darken the tips. I then sponged on Jade Magia Negra a black holo over the black to give me a holo gradient as my base.
While this time of year with all the Breast Cancer Awareness can be very hard on me, it's not too hard on me to say the most important thing anyone can do about Breast Cancer is to simply be aware. You need to realize this is something that can happen to anyone in your life at any given moment. This is not a cancer exclusive to women. Don't be flippant about it if you are diagnosed with it. When I first learned my sister had it I said, "Ok it's just breast cancer--this is a curable cancer" Not all breast cancer IS curable. My sister had triple negative breast cancer--a very aggressive form of breast cancer that is not hormone driven therefore cannot be easily treated with hormone therapy. She was cancer free for nearly 5 years and then it returned. She had her breasts removed and again I thought her breasts are gone so she can't get this again.
WRONG--having your breasts removed does not mean you cannot get breast cancer--breast tissue is deep and it's more than on the surface of your body. Once Lisa's cancer returned the 2nd time after nearly 5 years of being dormant it returned every single year until she finally succumbed to it after 8 years. She went through radiation and chemotherapy each time. EACH TIME she took poison into her body to try to kill the cancer trying to kill her. Chemotherapy is the worst thing anyone can ever go through in their entire life--trust me I know--it destroyed my sister's body and it killed my father.
YET hundreds of thousands of women and men will take chemotherapy as a treatment to cure their cancer. They willing loose their hair--and not just the hair on their head, but also their eyebrows and eyelashes, to save their life. They go through excruciating pain and suffering simply to stay alive. Radiation makes them tired and radiation to the brain makes them confused and forgetful. Chemotherapy causes permanent damage to their nerves and they suffer neuropathy to their hands and feet. You can lose your toenails and fingernails while undergoing treatment. Your vision can blur and change with chemotherapy. You will lose your appetite and food may never taste the same to you again.
And still hundreds and thousands of women and men will endure this suffering to live. Their families will sit by and suffer silently as they watch their loved ones go through this--some of these family members will rejoice because some will be cured--others will be like me angry and horribly sad that their loved one endured so much pain and suffering only to die. And sometimes it's easy to say "Without the treatment I would not have had 8 more years with my sister" but other times it's easy to say "It's not fair she suffered and went through all of that for nothing"
So this time of year, when you see pink and are asked to donate, when someone asks you to do those silly facebook games--try to really think about breast cancer and make yourself TRULY aware of it. Try to realize it's something that affects more than women--and more than one person. Breast cancer affects an entire family and all the friends of the person who has it. Try to remember the treatment we use most often to cure breast is POISON. Don't be flip, like I was at first, and think it's a curable disease. Try to think if there's anyone you know who's had it or has it and call them up and say--How can I help you today?
To all my readers who are survivors--I'm thankful--so thankful you are. To all my readers who lost someone to this horrible cancer--my arms reach out to you for a virtual hug. I hope someday no one will ever have to be made aware of breast cancer--because it WILL be a curable disease. Until then do the best you can to educate yourself and don't ever think it's something that will never touch your life.
Hi Everyone! Happy Friday! I've got a pretty short and sweet post for you today. I'm trying to go through the old stasharoo and use some untrieds and I found this gorgeous purple in my purple drawer! HOLY COW Who knew who Visions of Sugar Plum was so freaking gorgeous? I sure didn't! My lovely internet daughter, Rebecca, sent this to me like a year ago and I've never tried it! I should be shot! I paired it with the lovely China Glaze Spontaneous in this sweet half moon mani and then stamped a cute butterfly. What a lovely mani on the fly!
I can't wait to haul this baby out again and do something more with it! It's simply stunning!
Tonight is my nephew's last football game and it's homecoming! It's supposed to be cold and rainy but never fear Auntie Laurie will be there!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
