The Digit-al Dozen Does Gradient--Yellow And Blue Make Green!

Hi Everyone!  I am posting this late today and I am so dang tired!  One of my chinchillas was up at 3 freaking am this morning rearranging his cage.  I don't know what his deal is but dude thinks he's some of sort of Feng Shui Master and does this a few times a month. I should have just taken him out and put him in the little cage aka jail but nope I kept hoping hushing him and scolding him was going to work but NOPE.  So I basically had about 4 hours of sleep last night. I am dragging my butt right now like nobodies business.

Luckily I was able to get a mani done last night to post today AND it turned out great!  I'm pretty sure I am going to bed and the ripe old time of 6pm tonight though so tomorrow's isn't going to be done until way late lol

For today I decided to do gradient stamping. I'd like to say I just mixed good old Mundo Yellow and Turquoise on the stamping plate and it made green but no I used Avocado which I just adore and DRK B for today's mani. My stamping is over the base of OPI DS Fantasy another polish I just adore

I love this line effect don't you?

This is a great image for showing off some gradient stamping but also allowing the base color to show through

I've got my mani station all set up now too and added two desk lamps and I am much happier with my pictures.  I might decrease my bulb wattage though as it might be a smidge too bright

I think this type of image is totally "me" unlike yesterday's dainty--lacey stamping

My girls have been totally nailing it this week!  Vic's animal print was spot on and you know you have to see some animal print from her but everything she does is awesome. Carmina and Cathy both have been showing off some flawless gradients with bright colors--I just love them!  Ashley is killing it with her faux water marble and she is NAILING the stamping which trust me is big for her.  Michaela did a fabulous mermaid mani as did Amber--I mean really Amber is kicking ass this week with ideas and colors.  Jacki's been doing AHmazing stuff with drugstore polish!  Yes you heard me drugstore polish which means it's available to anyone and everyone and look at what you can do with it!!! Rose Lynn and Marisa both doing some super cool stuff with such bright colors. Amanda is coming up with some cool double stamping. Shelly is nailing with some radials and watermarble AND video to boot and Tammy and Serene are just my long time stamping heroes I mean really everything they do I adore.  This group is full of special women who are just lovely inside and out

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone! A very Happy Easter to you all today.  I spent the day with my family .  We had a great brunch after church this afternoon and I got to spend some time with my grand nephew, Sean.  He is SO MUCH fun!  We played some Wii games and some tag in the house and then we watched the Dreamworks movie Spirit Stallion Of The Cimarron.  I'm not going to lie I cried four different times in that movie.

I love spending time with my family and especially on this day when as a Christian I rejoice the day the stone was rolled away and Christ rose to Heaven.  Someday I will join him there and be reunited with all my loved ones who have gone before me.  A day to celebrate most certainly!

My Easter mani today is pretty simple.  Nothing as stark and riveting as my Good Friday manicure but devout none the less.

I did a lovely gradient using Sinful Colors  Sweet Tooth and Candy Coated along with China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le

My stamped heart is from Shany SH15 and my swirls are from VL3 and Mundo Lavender.  I added some white doves from DRK Designer XL 1 to complete my Easter look for today

I really hope everyone has a happy and blessed Easter!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Thankfulness--Veteran's Day!

Hi Everyone!  I'm proud to show of my mani today for the Digit-al Dozen Does Thankfulness--Veteran's Day.  I am very grateful for the many men and women past and present who have served our great country.  Not only them but also their families sacrifice a great deal so that we many sleep at night and not worry about our freedoms being stripped away.  

We don't have to worry about what we wear, we have the freedom of speech, we have the right to choose many things about our lives and all because our Veterans have sacrificed their time and even their lives to keep America free.

Thank you Veterans!  I am forever grateful for your service and the many sacrifices you've endured.  Bless you all!

Here's my take on some Americana and Camo!

I stamped my thumb and index with Dashica SdP M, my pinkie with DRK A

Remember this old pose I used to do??? Why?? It's sort of dumb but I was looking through some older posts and saw it and just had to do it again LOL!

My red is the lovely OPI Embarca Dare Ya and my blue is Zoya Song.  My camo is a bunch of Zoya's!  Dree, Tracie, Ray and Evie.

Let's pop over and see what everyone else is thankful for today!

An InLinkz Link-up

Doubling Down with Darling Diva!

Hi Everyone!  Happy weekend!  This upcoming week is going to be one filled with Halloween I'm sure!  We've had a really nice weekend with lots of sunshine and it actually hit 60 the other day too so nice to be able to have the windows open.  You know these days are coming few and far between.

Today I'm sharing a couple of cool mani's I did all Halloween related with 2 Darlings Diva's.  The good news is Darling Diva is having a 20% off sale today through midnight and I'll be sure to link her store and the code after the pics!

First up is The Immortal a gorgeous holo topper with charcoal flakies.  I chose to wear it alone not over anything and did 2 generous coats.  I just love it!  I did some stamping with my DRK-A plate to  give it a wallpaper look.  Then decided to add some ghosts and a demon to it for that perfect Halloween feel!

Isn't this a stunning holo topper???

I decided to add the ghosts and demon to it just based on the name of the polish LOL!

I think I will try layering this over some of my dark fall polishes--definitely over a dark red to see how it looks

The Immortal is part of Darling Diva's WitchEE Collection

Next up is Are We On Cops?  Which is a charcoal black holo with red micro glitter in it.  

My favorite thing about it is definitely the red glitters!

I found this picture on line and that's what I used for my inspiration

How'd I do?

Are We On Cops?  Is part of Darling Diva's The Pageant Collection

Now for the cool part! Darling Diva is having a sale now until Midnight tonight!  If you use the code FALL20 you will save 20% from your order.  She has a new collection out as well The Salem collection all with gorgeous dark colors just perfect for fall

To get to her store go HERE 

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

OK from the UK!

Hi Everyone!! Happy weekend!  It's a gorgeous day out here today in Wisconsin!  The sun is shining.  I have the day off AND I have Jill Shalvis' new Lucky Harbor book to read--you cannot ask for me.

Okay you can but still LOL!

Because of the magic of Facebook I have been able to meet some really cool people I would never have the chance to meet in person.  Say what you want about social media but Facebook really has been bringing people together for years now.  One of these people is my friend Sally.  She is a laugh a minute, ALWAYS makes me smile AND she has access to Nails Inc!  Yes I know I can take myself right down to Sephora or Ulta and check them out but nothing is better than nail polish from abroad!

I recently got some beautiful lovelies from my sweet Sally.  Nails Inc Elm Park Road being one of those lovelies.  It's STUNNING!  It's hard to describe!  It's a deep purple with micro glitters than can flash from green to gold depending on the light

I wore this all day on Friday with no stamping over it!  I stared at my fingers all day at work LOL!  Good lord it's heavenly

So yesterday I decided to stamp over it but it took me hours because I really just loved it so much!

I stamped using my new Avon Gold Metallic too! OH MY GOD I love the new Avon Metallics!!!!  I am so glad I snagged 6 bottles of the gold!

I used DRK B image for my stamping.  It's one of my favorite images and I felt it would just look great with this color.  I was right!


I hope you all have a wonderful day.  If you're in the States I hope you are enjoying our Labor Day Weekend.  Please be safe!

Orange you glad it's Wednesday?!! Extend a mani!!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy hump day!  I loved my orange gradient SO much I just couldn't part with it so I did a beautiful extend a mani!  Not really a oh hey let's wear a lot of these gorgeous oranges you have but it is what it is LOL!  I really do love my orange gradient so much I just could bear to get rid of it so soon and you all know that's pretty rare for me.  I decided to stamp over it and add some free hand roses to it.  YES I did free hand!

I stamped using one of my favorite images ever from DRK B and then I just did the needle swirl method with an orange and red for my roses

I'm not thrilled with my leaves but I don't free hand much so this is pretty good for someone who would rather stamp LOL!

Man this is a lovely gradient still!!!

The theme this week in my advanced nail stamping group is straight lines--stamping straight line is sometimes not easy at all ESPECIALLY if you have very curved nails like I do.  I'm going to attempt something tonight using orange, black and silver--so Halloween colors but not in a Halloween design.  I hope it turns out as I'm visioning it in my head.

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

Naughty Negligee!

Hi Everyone!  Happy and wet Thursday!  Definitely more like a balmy fall day here than Summer.  Mother Nature is just toying with us these days!

I've been seeing a few of these sheer black polish looks popping up on Pinterest and I really fell in love with the look the first time I saw it.  I decided to make up a sheer black of mine and do somewhat of a negligee look.  I was really easy to do even though it looks as if it wasn't!

I only used coat of my black sheer as you don't want it too dark.

I stamped using DRK A and LilyAnna 03.  Then I framed it all with a classic rim job and then matted it

Next time I do this look I think I'll frame it first then stamp it.  I think it will be much easier and less messy that way

What do you think of this look?  Have you seen it popping up around on blogs and Pinterest?  I really love it and will definitely be doing more mani's with this look!

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

How to enjoy cupcakes while on low carb!

Hi Everyone!  Wow look at that gorgeous sunshine out there!  I think we passed Spring and went directly into Summer here.  I'm not complaining though because the sun is out!

I've been doing the lowcarb lifestyle for about a year now.  My son and I are both following it at home and together we've lost over 100 lbs.  I still have a ways to go though and while I  haven't been walking because of the craptastic cold and rainy weather I have been pretty good about eating low carb.

Sometimes you just have those cravings though! OMG Mine are definitely for cherry turnovers and chocolate covered peanuts.  If I'm having a really bad day I will definitely go for some chocolate covered peanuts.  My son will eat a gallon of ice cream if it's in the house, so we both have our different things we can live without.

I did this cute mani with my new Kiko cupcake polish to help curb my cravings!

My fab friend Michelle picked me up a few of the Kiko Cupcakes polishes.  This one is 647.  I'm surprised I like them as much as I do--I don't like any other textured that's flat!

I did an orange, pink and blue gradient for the accent nails and then stamped with DRK B and MJ VI

I thought something bright and cute would be a great way to keep this Summer weather going!

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

If at first you don't succeed

Hi Everyone!  A couple of weeks ago I found a celtic knot drawing I really wanted to recreate.  The first time  I attempted it I was solely going by memory and I'll tell you what--my memory of it absolutely sucked!  So then I tried it again and felt pretty good about it until I compared it to the drawing and once again I just hadn't nailed it so I decided to give it one more go and finally SUCCESS!  At least success as close as I can get it.

Here's my first attempt

 Not sure what's up with Blogger but when I look at this pic it's coloring is horrible!

But that's not all, this is my inspiration so you can see how truly off I was!

Yikes doing things from memory really sucks!

This was my second attempt.  I felt pretty good about it at first

But then I looked at my inspiration and realized the green is wrong and that I needed a more mint green.

So this is what I ended up with

Finally!  Now I feel really good about it!

This must look complex but really it's just some rainbow colored stamping over black.  I used my DRK-B plate for the stamping.  I'm glad I kept trying to get what I really wanted

Supposed to snow ALL DAY here today--OIY!  I'm thinking of breaking up with Winter--how about you???

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

Digit-al Dozen Does Black & White

Hi Everyone!!! Happy late Friday!  Oh my goodness I was running SO late this morning I didn't get a chance to get my post up!  It was a food day at work today and I was requested to make my spinach dip.  I forgot to leave the frozen spinach out over night to thaw so I was really scrambling this morning to get everything ready and not be late for work!

I added a splash of color to my black and white today just because I wanted to!!!!

"Imagine there is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension that is vast as space and timeless as infinity.  It is the middle ground between light and shadow, 

between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

This is the dimension of imagination.  It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."

OOOOOH YES I queued Rod Serling!!!  For my Twilight Zone mani I stamped using DRK-A.  My accent nails are a combination of two cool Red Dog Designs--Pop Art Mickey and Dead Man's Party sans the mickey glitter and the skullz. I love the two of these combined!

I had a fun time with this theme all week!  What did you think?  Do you enjoy seeing a multitude of black and white mani's?  Did you give you any ideas?  Which mani was your favorite out of all of them?

Make sure you check out everyone's last day!!!

For those about to Rock!!! We salute you!

Hi Everyone--Happy Tuesday!  And oh what a happy Tuesday it is.  Today marks the release of not 1 but 2 books I've been waiting for!  I love new release Tuesday!  On my Kindle this very minute is Rumor Has It by Jill Shalvis and Striking Distance by Pamela Clare woot!!!! Can't wait to read both of these!

But in the meantime lets just stare at the gorgeousness of my nails for today!  In keeping with this week's theme of rocks and minerals I chose sapphire!

I went with the most gorgeous blue of all--Illamasqua Phallic.

He is a stunner

Most gorgeous blue on the planet in my humble opinion

How about a little blurb from a poem by Thomas Gray

             "He passed the flaming bounds of space and time.

              The living throne--the sapphire blaze,

              where angels tremble while they gaze,

              He saw, but blasted with excess of light,

              closed his eyes in endless night."

Sometimes that's what Phallic looks like--a sapphire blaze.

I stamped over it just because with some chains because I love silver chains on a blue polish

I stamped using SA-08 and DRK-A

I love the little hidden sparkle of Phallic peaking through!

I'm having fun so far this week with Rocks & Minerals--I think my friends are doing some fantastic stuff as well!