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Sunday, September 27, 2015

It's the end of days----maybe

Hi Everyone!  A happy Sunday to all.  Tonight we have the double whammy of a blood moon along with a lunar eclipse.  And of course we do because it's cloudy as hell here so yet again another eclipse not witnessed by me! UG but who am I kidding??? It doesn't even start until after midnight and I'm in bed by 9 pm most nights LOL!

To mark this occasion as I may not ever see this again since it's not happening for another 20 years, I decided to haul out my Messy Mansion MM52 plate which is the Mayan Doomsday Calendar.  I'm not going to lie this mani didn't turn out as well as I had hope but my base was KILLER!
I just loved this base I did but the black stamping over it wasn't the best choice 

Here's the plate I used.  It's really cool!
I started with a base of Zoya Pepper and then did the saran wrap method with Nails Inc Vigo St as well as Zoya mini I have with no name on it! Yikes!  No clue what it is LOL
I think I like my pinkie and  index finger best
And my thumb!  My thumb turned out great too
All in all I think this is a pretty good mani to welcome the end of the world just in case we have it! hahahah!  

I hope wherever you are you have the chance to see tonight's eclipse.  I'm sure I'll catch pics online tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Thursday, September 17, 2015

The Digit-al Dozen Does The Digit-al Dozen--Day 4!

Hi Everyone!  Oh my gosh this week has just been so much dang fun!  Everyday I can't wait to see who's done what and who copied who, it's just a great way for me to start my day!

So the one person I was absolutely positive I would never be able to recreate is the extremely talented Wondrously Polished.  I mean come on she does every thing free hand.  EVERY SINGLE THING SHE DOES IS FREE HAND!  Have you seen her stuff?!!! It's freaking amazing.  And she lures you in like Bob Ross because you look at her stuff and you go "oooh I bet I could do that"  News Flash!!! You cannot do it.  Trust me on this.

But she actually did something during our Neon week that I could do!  I mean don't get me wrong I stamped this sucker because come on now I'm not crazy but I was able to copy this and I am pretty dang happy about it!

Besides it works out great for the end of summer for sure!!

Here's my recreation of Wondrously Polished's Tribal mani from our Neon Week!
So the bad thing about this mani is I just finished it at 11pm which means no sunlight LOL.  Unfortunately this is the best lighting I could get indoors :(
I did get to try the dry brush method for this mani and it was the first time I ever did it!  I'm a fan!  I will definitely do it again
Lindsey has a lot of hand poses but I was able to try to recreate one of them
Here's the side by side pic!
Really I'm going to be sad to see this week end!




Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The Digit-al Dozen Does The Digit-al Dozen Day 3!!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday!  I'm pretty happy with my recreation today!  I'm not going to lie I wished I had been able to do so many other mani's by this person because she is cool and amazing but the ones I love the most by her aren't during a Digit-al Dozen week dang it!  But that's okay because this one is super cool too.

Today I decided to recreate the lovely and very talented Copycat Claws.  I've known her for quite awhile now and have happily following her latest and greatest creations for years.  And bless her heart she still religiously posts the Sunday stamping challenge in AIS!  I haven't even been doing that these days.

This mani is WILD!  She did this super cool zebra over leopard look during our Patterns Over Patterns week.  Here's my take on it
Pretty cool!

I tried to do Serene's hand pose--it's not easy

It's still not really right but it's good enough!
I had to improvise a lot for this mani.  I don't have Essie Mint Candy Apple so I used China Glaze For Audrey and then put a light coat of Pure Ice Mint Dream over it.  There was also no way in hell Konad M57 was fitting on my nails so I used a XL Bundle Monster for my zebra stamp, my leopard underneath is from my new Marianne's XXL 4 plate

Here's a nice side by side comparison
She's just SO cool!

I'm heading over to check out everyone else's day 3!



Tuesday, September 15, 2015

The Digit-al Dozen Does The Digital Dozen Day 2!

Hi Everyone! Wow what an exciting day yesterday!  We were all blown away by the mani's we had done recreating one of our very own's from a previous Digit-al Dozen week. I'm not going to lie the consensus still is it's hard as heck to pick a mani to recreate.  We are all  just that good LOL!  But that's really the problem!  We are all so good that it's a bit daunting when you think you can recreate someone's work of art.  So of course I had to go after that task again today.  I fell in love with this next mani I recreated for two reasons--one the color scheme and two it's so damn pretty!

Day 2 has me recreating the very talented but also Sassy . . Shelly.  This is my recreated of her Midsummer Night Garden during our Summer week
As I don't have the Cirque Shelly used I got to haul out my Clarins 230 and put it on over Revlon  Royal
Really a stunning combination if you ask me

Here's our mani's side by side for comparison--how'd I do?
Eeep I am enjoying this challenge so much more than I thought I would!  I'm heading over to see everyone else's Day 2!


Monday, September 14, 2015

The Digit-al Dozen Does The Digit-al Dozen!

Hi Everyone! Happy Monday!  This week the Digit-al Dozen has flat lost it's mind.  I kid you not.  We are doing what I think is the hardest challenge we've ever done.  This week we are recreating a Digit-al Dozen mani done by a Digit-al Dozen member past and present during a Digit-al Dozen week.  Say that fast three times for crying out loud!  

So what's so hard about this challenge.  Well for one we have a lot of really good talent.  We have a lot of exceptional free hand artists as well as exceptional stamping artists and I think it's hard for someone to want to recreate a free hand if you are a stamper or try to stamp if you are a free hand artist.  And we have a lot of members.  While 12 is in our title we always have a good 20 in our group.  And we are choosing past or present members--that's a lot of mani's!!! WHAT WE WERE THINKING!?!

While I think every single person in our group is amazing I had to do something I thought I could do and do well and because we also only have 5 days to do it in there's a lot of really fab mani's I had to leave behind.  Thankfully there's always a Monkey See Monkey Do Monday right around the corner LOL!

For my first design I actually chose one of my all time favorite mani's done by Sheila of Pointless Cafe.  Sheila is an exceptional free hand artist and she has a flair for color.  She knows what looks great and she always does an amazing job.  Today I recreated her Red Riding Hood mani from our Fairy Tales week
I just loved the starkness of this mani by her when I first saw it and am so glad I got to create it

Here they are side by side, different yet the same

I think I'm off to a good start on this week!  But it's only day 1 LOL!  I'm going to go and check out what everyone else wanted to recreate!


Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The life beneath the exterior

Hi Everyone!  Monday Sept 7th would have been my beautiful sister Lisa's 51st birthday.  Sadly she died from triple negative breast cancer 6 years ago.  But that doesn't mean the day isn't still celebrated or even mourned in our family.   We got together that day and went for custard and delish burgers at Kopp's in Milwaukee.  Then we went back  home and looked at picture album's and remembered the many treasured years we had as a family

I know I've said this to you before but after someone in your family dies you become a broken family.  You try the best you can to pick up the pieces and continue moving forward but sometimes it's not easy.  I think to most people I look like I've got it together and I'm managing just fine, but underneath and behind closed doors I am a fragile mess and sometimes I completely fall apart.

This is the mani I wore on Monday--to me it shows the chaos and despair those of us in broken families live but at the same time how much we are tied back together by the family and friends who love us and support us.
My base is the gorgeous Blue Ribbon Cankles by Girly Bits
Some Mundo stamping and I feel like this really represents exactly how I feel.  Some days are great, some days are awful everyday there is despair but on those days someone is my string and anchors me with their love
As everyday goes by more time passes and the intense heartache you feel when you lose someone you love dulls.  It never goes away but I do believe time makes it more bearable.  One day we will be together again and I know that will be a glorious day.  Until then I am so grateful for my family and friends who keep me from drifting and hold me tight and comfort me during my times of grief and despair.  

Love is such a precious gift and is one that comes in many forms--I hope all of you experience it as often as you can

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Coffee, Tea or . . .

Hi Everyone!  I almost said Happy Monday LOL!  Today is definitely Tuesday and how lovely that is after a nice day off to celebrate Labor Day.  I worked on a really lovely gradient with some stamping from the new Messy Mansion MM62 plate which is all tea related images.  It's pretty dang cute. I think this turned out just lovely although I wish I would have had some nice tea sandwiches and cakes to go along with it!
See how sweet this is?!
Here's how cute the plate is
I love the words that spell TEA that is just adorable!
This might just be the last of my light colors since we're moving into Fall
What do you think--I think it's just too precious!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend those of us who celebrated it.  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Extend a Mani!

Hi Everyone!  i was trying to get out of doing my nails since A they looked pretty cool and B I had a good book to read so I decided to try to triple stamp these babies.  Double and Triple stamping is a really awesome look but to be honest it's not as easy as it seems.  You like to still be able to pick up the designs you have below each a layer.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and other times it doesn't even really matter.  For my triple stamping I hauled out one of my Uber Chic plates and stamped over my matchy double stamping from the other day

What do you think?
So it looks cool but maybe a bit busy
Still matches my shirt except I can't really wear the shirt days in a row LOL!
Still got the tip wear on my pointer--I'm too lazy to fix it!

I think tomorrow I am going to cover over ALL of this and show you the really beautiful base I started with

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