Let Freedom Ring!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Memorial Day!  If you are in the states most of you are probably at home today enjoying a day off of work and hopefully spending time with family and friends.  Today we celebrate Memorial Day, a way to honor and give tribute to our veteran's both past and present.

We are a free country only because of their selfless sacrifice.  Thank you to those who have served and who are currently serving now--without you we would not be the people we are today.

I didn't have a lot of time to get in depth today with it being some nice weather finally so I pulled out my Red Dog Designs Let Freedom Bling and worked around it!

 Simple and easy, but still really cute!

My red is the gorgeous Butter London Knee's Up.  My blue is the super gorgeous Zoya Song

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!! Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Digit-al Dozen Does Monochrome--Blue Ocean!

Hi Everyone!  The weekend is almost here--yay!  Anybody have any great plans?  I'm working again--I know you're all shocked BUT I am also doing my mom's nails for her on Saturday.  Yes people hell has frozen over!  I could not believe it when she called me and asked me if I could make her nails look pretty for her dinner out on Saturday.  Now mind you all that will occur is a nude polish going on with no stamping whatsoever but still it's something!  Neither my mom nor sister capitalize on all the super cool mani's they could get from me whenever they wanted!  If Lisa was still here she'd be my number one non paying customer LOL!  I think we might try to go to the new Jack Ryan movie on Sunday if we aren't watching football--who knows anything cold happen!

Today I've chosen blue for my Monochrome Week day.  I have the lovely Into Darkness and Narasuk by Elevation polish in addition to Fishwife by Butter London on today.  I love the little accent nail I did with Narasuk so much I think I'll do a full mani like this one day!

Jut because I was lazy and it was still out I used MoYou Sailor 07 for the stamping

You just can't go wrong with waves--ever!

I think Monochrome week has been really great so far?  Does anyone have a favorite yet?  It's really hard to pick isn't it???  Let's see what everyone comes up with for today!

And don't forget the great giveaway!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Come on baby let's do the peppermint twist!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  My weekend got a little pole axed by the flu.  I was sick Friday and all of Saturday and did not feel safe enough to be away from the bathroom for more than 20 minutes until about 8 pm on Saturday night!  UG.  We missed the Hobbit--the Desolation of Smaug on Saturday because of it.  Looks like we'll just go next weekend though so I'm okay with that.

Since I was feeling better on Sunday and only worked at the bakery on Sunday I had some time for nail art!  I did a cute little peppermint twist look with MoYou Festive 03 and Butter London's Knees Up and CND Vinylux Cream Puff

Something simple but sort of sassy for this Monday morning!

I hope everyone is surviving the winter elements all right so far!  And I sure hope no one gets sick during Christmas!

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

Ssssssssssssflajo's Anaconda!

Hi Everyone!!!  When Jody asked me to review a polish from her Halloween collection I was ALL OVER IT!  Soflajo has some amazing polishes and I have loved every single thing I've reviewed for her as well as bought from her.  She thinks outside the box and always has a great theme behind her polishes.

She sent me a really cool scattered holographic shifting polish from her Halloween collection.  It's called Anaconda.  It's pretty amazing, it's even hard to describe!  It's a purple grey shifting polish that in the sun has a gorgeous holographic shimmer.

I took some pictures of Anaconda under the lamp as it was dark when I first got to put this baby on

The sun never did come out so I decided to do some nail art and did a couple of accent nails with Butter London Jack The Lad because it was sitting next to me.  I took them both to work with me to get some pics--they look great together!

I tried to get some good pics in the sun but it was pretty hard!

So how gorgeous Anaconda is??? A purpley grey!  I just love it!

And Anaconda looks fantastic with Jack the Lad--a great Halloween combo!

I went back inside and got pics at my desk with my make shift light box

Really pretty!

Hard to get a bottle shot though LOL!  Watch out for the ssssssnake!

I stared at the colors all day trying to decide what nail art I would do

It didn't dawn on me until I got home!!!

So here's an early Halloween mani if you will!!!  I stamped with China Glaze Cherish over Butter London's Jack The Lad using BM224 and added some snake eyes over Anaconda!

It's pretty cool!!!

Anaconda is part of Soflajo's Halloween Collection titled A Snake In The Hand Is Worth Two On The Toes.  It is available to purchase now along with the rest of the incredible collection which you can find HERE  Please stop by and take a look at the rest of the collection--they are all amazing!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you 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!

A funny thing happened on the way to the store

Hi Everyone--well remember how I was crowing about surviving winter storm Nemo?  I might have spoken too soon.  Yesterday I slipped and fell on the ice on my way out for shopping with my mom.  And by fell I mean FELL.  I stepped off our back stoop hit nothing but ice on my dumb tennis shoes and went down.  The whole time I was falling I told myself to keep my head forward because I was afraid of smacking it on the cement stoop.  I honestly thought I was no worse for wear.  Nothing hurt too bad when I got up.  I landed on my butt and back but neither of them hurt at all.  I had a little throbbing in my hand and elbow were they hit the ground but that was it.

I played it down to my mom because she has enough to worry about so off we went shopping for 4 hours or so.

I got home last night sat down for about 10 minutes and holy hell my knee started to throb something fierce.  It got to the point I couldn't really get up off of the couch with it.  Okay I know it's not broken, I know it was just over extended a bit.  I blew out my acl roller skating once so I know when something's really wrong.  This is just being overweight and overage lol! BUT man oh man it hurt. I went to bed early hoping to find some solace in the comfort of a hot cowboy romance and woke up at 6am to a sore as all get out neck and knee!  Yikes!  I've been adviling it up but I had plans to spend some time with the grand nephew today because I didn't see him yesterday.  Well that's kybashed! UG!  I'm sure I'll be good as new in a couple of days but until then this sucks!

AND to top it off it's raining outside so all our beautiful snow on the trees has melted and I didn't get to take any pictures of the snow laden branches dang it!

But after all this whining I've done to you I do have a pretty manicure to show you.  I ordered this gorgeous Red Dog Design, My Funny Valentine the other day and it is DELIGHTFUL!  It has circle glitter!  I love the circle glitter.  Captured in a clear base there are red, gold and black circle glitters with red holographic hearts.  I had seen my friend Sheila of Pointless Cafe layering over black and I loved it.  I asked the creator My Funny Valentine to pick a plate number for me for an accent nail and WHAM!  A beautiful and sexy Valentine's Mani!

The image I stamped with is from BM317--I'm sure it will get some good use this time of year lol!

I chose Butter London Knees Up for the accent nail because I love it!

My Funny Valentine is part of the Ol Blue Eyes Collection available at Red Dog Designs.  I also picked up Hey! Jealous Lover and am planning a mani with that as well.  You can find Red Dog Designs through her Facebook Page on Big Cartel HERE.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and let's be careful out there!

Day 31 Recreate A Mani From The Challenge

Hi Goddesses!!!  Today is the last day of the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 31 Day Challenge.  Today is all about recreating a mani you've seen in the challenge. The INSTANT I saw Debbie post her blue dragon I was not only in love, I knew I HAD to do this!  Debbie over at The Crumpet blew me away with her blue dragon mani AND she did a fab job on stamping which we all know I love.  I wanted to recreate her look so I decided to see her blue dragon and raise her a red dragon!

I think this turned out MAHVELOUS!

If only there was such a thing as a red dragon!

And this mani even looks great in the shade!

Here's a blurryish pic to see all the glittah goodness

This mani was a labor of love.  I started with Butter London Chancer, topped it with Sonoma Nail Art Deadly Sins and then I topped that with Fergie Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night.  I stamped using BM and Mash plates and voila!  A Red Dragon is born!!!

Here's Debbie's Blue Dragon to compare it to!

Man I still love this mani by her SO much!!!!!  In case you missed it you can see her full post HERE

Well that's it!! The end of the road for this 31 day challenge!!! I loved every minute of it!  I hope I can come up some ideas on my own now without being told what to do lol!!!

Check out the what my fellow Tart's recreated!

Day 14 Stamping

Hi Everyone! Oh lord when this day was first revealed in the 31 Day Crumpet's Nail Tart's Challenge I was scratching my head in wonder.  I stamped almost everyday--I rarely wear a mani with no stamping on it.  So how am I going to stand out on day Stamping???  Ninja's to the rescue!!!  Recently I got both the DRK-B and DRK-C from Ninja Polish.  I was wishy washing on which one as I planned on just getting one but then I kept seeing images from both I just loved so I had to get them both.  

In the process of putting together my "stamped" mani I got to use some really gorgeous polishes!  OPI My Private Jet, Butter London Teetotal, Zoya Pasha and Kiko 399.  I've had My Private Jet for years--since it first came out. Yet today's the first day I put it on.  See!  I have WAY too much polish!  If you're not wearing MPJ and you've owned it since 2007.  I bought it before I was into stamping.  To be honest I didn't really care for it much.  It was too sheer.  Tonight I decided to try my hand at a color skittle and first went to use my DS Desire but the color was totally off.  I hauled out My Private Jet and BAM perfect skittle!

When I saw the passport/luggage stamp image on DRK-C I knew I would use it for this mani!  I just love it!

Did you get a load of that Kiko Taupe??? OMG a taupe aka a nude and I love it!

I took a pic with flash to see if the holo would be more gorgeous

Hmmmm not really!!  I just love that Butter London Teetotal too, I feel like I've abandoned brown--my first love.  I need to use brown more often and what better time of year than Winter!?!

Here's the case of characters--ignore the long hair on Teetotal LOL!  I had no idea it was even there until after I took the picture!

Pasha was the very first Zoya I ever bought.  I love it.  For me it's the perfect nude.  I did order Farah the other day so I'm anxious to see which one I'll like best between the two of them.

I'm really excited about me new DRK's too and can't wait to use them more often.  My nails are really long now so it's nice to have some plates large enough for me to use without cutting them down.  Eventually they are going to have to get cut down though.

Let's see what's up for tomorrow

 Watercolor.  I haven't ever tried one, wonder if it will turn out!

Make sure you check out the Tart's and what they've come up with

Adventures In Stamping--Can't Wait For Fall!

Hi Readers!  This Sunday's challenge in AIS (Adventures in Stamping) is Can't Wait For Fall.  I LITERALLY can't wait for Fall!  It's my favorite time of year.  I live in Wisconsin which is truly gorgeous in the fall.  I also live right along the Root River with the woods behind me so I get a picture perfect scene everyday of Fall!  The red and yellow maple trees are so beautiful.  The crisp smell of an air starting to chill and smoke on the breeze from fireplaces--HEAVENLY!  

This is the design I did for today's challenge.  I think it turned out great!

I gradiented using Kleancolor Metallic Yellow, Misa Golden Thread, and Butter London Knees Up

I stamped with Kleancolor Black using BM04

I got my Misa Golden Thread from my fav friend Wendy and I'm definitely going to be using it by itself in a mani--it's gorgeous!

How do you feel about Fall, Readers?  Do you live where you see the Fall season or are you at a loss without it?

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

Sunday Stamping Challenge--Red and Black

Hi Readers!  I took a little unexpected break yesterday.  Unexpected because the neon gradient I had been working on for a long time yesterday was totally and completely ruined by the person who put the bottle of Seche Vite Base Coate in the row with the Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat! I thought something was up after I applied the Seche to my gradient, it still appeared tacky after a minute and that never happens with my Seche.  I stamped over it anyone blaming the neons.  One nail didn't work out to well so I had to remove the stamping and ug what a mess.  It was then I really looked at the others nails I had put the Seche on and realized they had all smeared.  Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat NEVER smears stamping.  So I looked at my bottle and sure enough it was just base coat ARG!  There was  A LOT of swearing in the kitchen.  I didn't have time to fix it though as I had to take my son for an eye appointment.  By the time I got back home and fixed the mani it was so late I just said forget it.  Lesson learned when you are buying Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat make sure you look at all your bottles especially when you're buying more than one lol!

So today I'm back with the RIGHT Seche Vite!  The theme for today's challenge is red and black and I don't know about you readers but usually red and black draws my minds focus to oriental design.  I was ecstatic to be using my new red Knees Up once again for this mani, and it's super simple but just uses a few stamping plates.

I do love seeing red and black together!

And really I might need to make sure I get a back up bottle of Knees Up which is ALOT easier to find and snag than a back up bottle of Vampire State Building lol!

I used plates from the second Bundle Monster set and an XL Cheeky for this design.  The Bundle Monsters are from BM202 and BM208 and the Cheeky is XL plate A.

I have SO many untried plates and polish.  I really need to get on board with doing a new plate image a day and a new polish a day especially since I have more on the way lol!

As I said before I love seeing red and black together--what are some of your favorite colors combos?

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

Are your knees up or down?!!!

Hi Readers!  I'm pretty sure many of you have heard me say the best red ever is OPI's Vampire State Building--and oh how I love my Vampire State Building BUT I have sinned against Vampire State Building and have lust in my heart for another red.  My friend Silver told me Butter London's Knees Up is the best read EVAH and I think I might have only half heartedly listened to her.  I may have even scoffed her but seriously Silver no more.  I decided to do the same mani I did for my bestie, Sandi this weekend and holy shizz this is one sexy mani!  I took some pics of this baby both outside and indoor at work.  Here's shots of indoors at work--this was at the crack of dawn and not all the lights are on in the building yet lol!  So there's a glare from my desk lamp

DAYUM this looks mahvelous!
Here's a pic of the ring I wore with it!

There's a matching bracelet too!

Did you see that pic of my husband??? A lot of people say he reminds them of someone famous!

LOL!

Oh lord Readers yes that IS a picture of Elvis in a frame on my desk lol!  I've had it for years.  Two nurses where I used to work gave it to me for my birthday in that very frame and I've taken it with me to each new job I've had since.  I have an Elvis mug and calendar in the cubicle too lol!

Here's some pics I took outside when I got home in the blistering 95 degree weather!

Yes we did get some rain FINALLY in Wisconsin so there is some green

I loved this mani! And Butter London's Knees Up really is a fabulous red!

This mani was super simple and super easy to do.  I did 2 coats of Knees Up and then stamped with Kleancolor Black using BM310.  One thing I noticed at work today is a lot of male coworkers were looking at my hands.  I have a theory that men are really attracted to red nail polish and today seemed to prove it lol!

Do any of you have this gorgeous Butter London???

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