Bond, James Bond!

 Hi Everyone!  It looks like the lovely storm Rocky is finally coming to an end.  He didn't knock us around or punch us out too badly--get it? Rocky--punch?? LOL!  Okay too early for the corny jokes.  We were supposed to have snow again today but it looks like they've changed their minds.  Don't you just love the weathermen?  It's the only job you can have and be wrong most of the time and not get fired!  

I wanted to wear some of my OPI's from the Bond collection so I hauled out Casino Royale and Tomorrow Never Dies and wondered what to do with them. I wanted to do a tape mani but I was too lazy so I thought about a saran wrap mani.  Hokay well it was really hard to see the contrasting difference when I saran wrapped them.  I took a page out of Cris from Let Them Have Polish's book and stamped using Konad M83.   She did a black and red and gold mani awhile back with this stamp and I just loved it!  Turns out she's brilliant because the stamping helped turn my ho hum color into something pretty cool!

I love how you can't really tell what color I have on underneath the stamping. It's a plum, it's a blue, it's a purple!

I'm trying to get used to these shorter nails too, they aren't too bad but I guess I long for my long nails back.

Can you believe today is the last day of February already?  I know everyone is thinking Spring but we're still pretty stuck in Winter here.  I might have to haul out the pastels again next week to see if I can hurry it along!

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

More Cowbell!!! Aka Pink Zebra!

Morning everyone!!! We have another huge snow storm to contend with here.  Lots of snow yesterday and it's expected to snow all day today as well.  I know a lot people are grumbling about it but the reality is our Nation was in a huge drought last year and we need this snow to start off our planting season.  It's Winter here still in Wisconsin and it stays Winter here until after April LOL!

I can't believe I'm wearing pastels in the middle of Winter but I am!  I decided to gradient with a couple of the new Sugar Rush colors from Sinful.  I don't "do" pastels and quite frankly I get sick of seeing all the pastel collections posting when we are still in the dead of Winter, BUT when I saw these and knew how affordable they were I bought them all.  I blame my friend Jen Miracle of Jen's Wonderland for this.  In fact I say it's a Jen Miracle I'm even wearing pastel in the middle of Winter!

I did a gradient with Cotton Candy and Sugar N Spice from Sinful.  Both are quite lovely.

I stamped using both Mash-41 and M57

While it looked good with just the black I could hear Christopher Walken in the background yelling "more cowbell"!  So hauled out the white and silver glitter striper and went to town

It's pretty wild and bold and helps jazz up a pastel LOL!

Winter Storm Rocky is wreaking some havoc today--I hope all who are in his path stay safe and drive smart!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!

Monkey See, Monkey Do--Pinterest!!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Monday!!!  It looks like we're getting some more snow Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but it's going to be in the 30's all week as well, which is nice!

I FINALLY decided to do one of the bazillion mani's I've seen on Pinterest today.  The only problem is I didn't freaking "pin" it!  I can't find it either!  If you've seen this one and have it pinned can you please let me know so I can give credit where it is most certainly due!

As you can see I had this on this weekend before I had to cut my nails down for the challenge yesterday.  Oh how I miss my long nails!

This is a simple and easy mani of a gradient with Nina Ultra Pro Pink Frost and Sally Hansen Black Tie with OPI Servin Up Sparkle sponged on 

I love the iridescent shimmer in both Pink Frost and Black Tie.  How do you like my "claw" pose?  I find it's easier to hold my hand like this than all kept together these days

OMG it must be old age and maybe arthritis creeping up on me LOL!

I love Pinterest for so many reasons, great mani's, great recipes, cute animals, and beautiful nature pics!

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Getting my nerd on!

Hi Everyone!  Today's theme for the Adventures In Stamping Challenge--is Nerds!  Nerds???? For real?! UG!  At least that's what I thought at first.  I don't know a single thing about Nerds really.  I mean sure I saw the movies Revenge Of The Nerds when I was young, and yes I know what The Big Bang Theory is, but Nerds?  I'm not very nerdy so I actually thought about not doing this challenge.  Yep, I honestly was going to pass on it.  But I got to thinking and I have not missed a single Sunday challenge in the group since it's inception over a year ago.  While we keep getting more and more members into the group we don't have very many participants in the challenge.  So I knew I had to pull out the stops, pull up my big girl panties, and do something for this ding dang challenge!

Since I'm not a "cute" plate person I didn't have any nerdlike image plates either.  Or let's just say ones that came immediately to mind.  I did a google search based on an idea I had and then I hauled out ALL my plates and started scouring through them.  Unfortunately for me the Cheeky 2012 set had an image on it I knew would work.  I say unfortunate because the small round Cheeky plates are too small for my nails.  SO I did the only thing I could do and cut down my nails! OMG is that dedication or what.  While they might not appear short to everyone I look at them now and go oh my god look at these shorties!

After settling on the image I picked out I remembered seeing the cutest design on Frippery Digits awhile back and sure enough I had it saved in my favorites folder.  I feel a kinship with Frippery because we both have Digits in our blog names LOL!

This is the Nerd mani I came up with for today's challenge!

I used Sally Hansen Ivy League which is a bit dupey of my fave China Glaze green, Cha Cha Cha because I saw this pic when I was googling germs

I looked through all my plates trying to find something like this then found the Cheeky CH09 plate which really looks like molecules and I said HUZZAH!  I have a winner here.

At first I was just going to go with the CH09 but then I remembered Frippery's cute germ mani she did so I decided to add the "germs" from BM209 and BM212 and this turned out alot better than I had hoped!

And I really do love this green!  The fiery gold shimmer in it is just to die for!

In the shade it almost takes on a metallic type appearance--flat but still really pretty!

Ah who am I kidding?! It's the golden shimmer that just knocks this color out of the ballpark!

Oooooh Aaaaaah golden shimmmmmmmmmer!!!

This is where I first saw Frippery's germs!  This mani she did is AHdorable! Make sure you check it out HERE!!!!

I'm glad I didn't give up on the challenge today.  I'm sad I had to cut down my nails, but you now what? They'll grow out!

Today my mom and I are going to see The Silver Lining's Playbook.  She's a retired nurse, I wonder what she'll say when she sees me with these germs on my nails LOL!

Thanks for stopping!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Rhapsody in teal

Morning everyone! Oh wait is it afternoon? Yikes!  Well I got up early but was SO waylaid today!  I got up at 6am.  Yep 6am on a day when I could sleep in. Now that I'm 50 I can't sleep in.  It just doesn't happen.  It could also be because of the jerk cats and chinchillas who share my room too LOL!  Mick St. John is the NAUGHTIEST chinchilla on the planet I swear!  The dude NEVER sleeps.  EVER.  He is UP ALL NIGHT!  Ah but I love him.  It's a good he's so cute I tell ya!

I did get up early this morning and really wanted to do something different for a change, but honestly I just kept drawing a blank.  I gradient all the time--I mean like all the time and I wanted to do something non gradient but as I was putting some polishes away I found 2 in my "blue" drawer right next to each other and I said oooh cool these would look so good as a gradient so BAM there went my whole I need to do something more than gradienting thoughts.

I'm not sure why I think I need to stop gradienting though.  This mani which is so simple, is so beautiful.  I love it.  One stamping color, one stamping image over a simple gradient--it's timeless and really gorgeous.

I just did a simple 2 color gradient using Revlon Fashionista and Rimmel Marine Blue 

I stamped using Milani White On The Spot and BM12

I really love all my Bundle Monster plates but I sure wish they would "redo" the first set to make the images larger!  

These single images are really lovely though and work fine

Here's a pic of the colors I used--Revlon Fashionista and Rimmel Marine Blue

All in all I'm really happy how this turned out and glad I did gradient instead of doing something else!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Love is in the air!

Hi Everyone!  I did a really awesome mani and after I was done I thought oooh hey this looks Harlequin-ey which made me think of the time I bought my very first Harlequin Romance!  The book was called Moon Tide, by Rebecca Stratton.  Back then I believe it was 75 cents and I rode my bike a couple of miles down the street--okay it was probably like 5--to buy it at the Piggly Wiggly.  I was 12 years old.  Yep I started reading the "hardcore" stuff at 12 and quickly moved from contemporary romances to the bodice rippers.  No "tween" stuff for me--no teen fiction stuff for me ever.

Despite all I've read and how I'm even more hardcore now, I never found it appealing in any way shape or form to read books or watch a television series where the "kids" were in high school "doing" it!  I can't believe how many adults watch this stuff either--I guess I'm still a prude at heart lol!

To do my nails I did a lovely tape mani with Sinful Beah Khaki and OPI Casino Royale and then I stamped with Awaken and DRK-B

I love the color combination of Casino Royale and Beau Khaki together!

And I just love this almost barbed wire image from DRK-B

I feel "redeemed" after a couple of let down mani's I've done lately

Do you see the Harlequin look or is it just me????

Another winter storm is bearing down!  Winter Storm Q is headed East--I hope if any of you are in it's path you stay safe!

Thanks for stopping by--I hope you all have a fantastic day!

When Mani's Attack Episode 17

Hi Everyone!  On Sunday there was discussion in the Adventures In Stamping facebook group why we have over a 1000 members but less than 100 people do the weekly challenge.  It's a challenge we vote on every week and even though we sometimes have over a 100 votes we're lucky if we get 50 people to actually do the challenge.  I'm not sure why this is.  I'm not really sure why we have over 1000 members in the group but it's always the same people posting pictures.

Some of the new girls said they are intimidated by the "professionals".  I had to laugh a little because while I've been blogging for a year now I am in no way, shape, or form a professional.  Sometimes my mani's don't turn out the way I want them too, sometimes they really suck.

When I started my blog I swore I would post all my mani's whether they are good or bad.  Last night was not a good night for me LOL!  After my ooooh looks super awesome rainbow in the dark mani this is the swill that hit my nails!

YIKES!  This baby is a hot mess!  There was not a single thing I liked about it!  And here I was thinking I'd be cool and do a mani ala Nailasaurus and um no.

I really think it's the white dots within my leopard I hate so much lol!

This mani lasted all of the 10 minutes it took me to take a few shots of it with this one being the best then BAM it was off.

This is what replaced it

I wanted to put For Audrey and Bluey together BECAUSE I keep For Audrey with my greens and Sheila from Pointless Cafe as well as Ashley from Ashley Is Polish Addicted both swear to me it's blue! Tiffany Blue!  

This is better but still not great!

I might have to concede to the whole For Audrey is blue thing though.  Next to the gorgeous Bluey is does appear blue!

I stamped using my DRK-A plate which I got at ninjapolish.com .  Now that my nails are long--thanks Rejuvacote--I'm loving my DRK plates!  And guess what you can buy Rejuvacote at Ninja Polish too!!

This is sort of a slap in the face after my awesome mani from yesterday BUT such as life.  We can't all be good all the time, we just can't.  Okay maybe some of my blogger idols can Colores de Carol, Let Them Have Polish, The Polish Perfectionst, Chalkboard Nails, Wacky Laki to name only a few but clearly I can't lol!

What do you all think about For Audrey--is she green or blue??

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday--Wacky Laki!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Monday!  Today I have a kick ass MSMD mani!  I'm a HUGE lover of Anna's work on Wacky Laki.  She is amazeballs.  I just love her stamping but she has the coolest freehand ideas and STUFF like the mani I did today.

Yes it rocks!

It's totally awesome!

And I know what you're thinking right now

If you're anything like me you've got Dio's Rainbow In The Dark playing in your head!!!

Let's see your devil horns!!!

LOL! and omg this took me FOREVER on the left hand so I simplified (sort of) on the right!

Much less time consuming!

Check em out side by side!

And here's a blurry picture from the camera man who I told today should not ever, ever, ever be a neurosurgeon--good god that kid cannot hold a camera steady!

I really do love this mani!  I think I'll wear it more than one day!  

Here's the original tutorial by Anna--please make sure you check it out HERE

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Only a niece could love

Hi Everyone!  Today's theme AIS aka Adventures In Stamping on facebook is NEON! Neon! what the flip?!  I know you all know I am not a neon fan, and I give my niece, Alex, a hard time for always wanting neon, but here I am rocking a neon mani. 

I did a gradient using the neons I have, they are starting to get low because Alex wants them ALL THE TIME! Ug that means I'll have to buy more neons!

I stamped using my DRK-C plate
I think neons are really hard to photograph.  They make my skin look orangey.

This pic is better for my skin tone

I like the thumb!  Turned Up Turquoise and Purple Panic make a cool gradient

Here's the cast of characters

That's a lot of polish to use for one mani!!! 

This does look summery BUT it's hard to think summer at all around here with the weather in the 20's and snow on the ground.  And here in Wisconsin it's going to be like that for at least another month!

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a great day!

K.I.S.S. and no frenching!

Hi Everyone!  Funny thing happened on the way to turning 50--I have fallen apart!  My 50th birthday was on Tuesday and it seems like everyday after that I am just going downhill!  I've been in bed at 8 pm most nights, last night I was in bed at 7pm--hoping to try to get much needed rest, but instead of feeling better I just feel worse!  This morning my right eye was all swollen for crying out loud!  I've even been too tired for nail art! OH. THE. HORROR!!

I did manage to put this on though and forgot how much something really simple can be beautiful

I followed the K.I.S.S. rule Keep It Simple, Stupid

This is the lovely Zoya Aurora with black rhinestones and an accent nail of black with a purple rhinestone

It really doesn't get much lovelier!

Today I'm off to see the new Die Hard--A Good Day, To Die Hard with my whole family!!!

Let's hope I get a better handle on 50 soon!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!