Game Day!

Hi Everyone!! It's game day here in Packer country and while this would normally be a day full of fun it's also the 15th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks. It's a somber day mixed in with the fun.  But this is also how the world works. For every day of joy is someone's day of sorrow.  I wanted to support my team today but also show my patriotism and reflect on the sorrow on 9/11

I used Zoya Song and Giovanni for my blue and green and OPI Wocka Wocka for my red. Some Dashica SdP and FUN stamping along with my custom Packer plate with Mundo White and Yellow

Not sure if anyone is watching the Packer Jaguars game is pretty intense!  My sister and brother in law are in Florida for the game I'm sure they are having a great time

Sort of missing my square nails today so you could see all of the Go Pack Go down at the tip but I'll live with it LOL!

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

Family Fun Day!

Hi Everyone! Happy Saturday!  Today is my mom's birthday so we'll be getting together later to have some dinner and play some games.  It's a bit challenging celebrating my mom's birthday because on my mom's 18th birthday her mother died.  I never met my Grandma Shaw but I know she was deeply loved by my mother and her death especially on her birthday was a crushing blow.

My mom's sister, Lynette, or as we love to call her Aunt Net, came down from Menomonee Falls last night and is spending the weekend with her.  Trust me when these two gals get together there is a lot of jaw jacking and definitely some fun times.  

Before the get together I'm going over to my sister's house and we are doing a DIY spa day along with my niece.  These are the times I love!  My family hardly ever asks me to do their nails but today we are doing pedi's for sure and maybe even a mani will get snuck in.

I've been kind of lacking in the nail art department lately.  Not really sure why.  I never not have my nails painted but sometimes I don't have any art on them or sometimes I have the same art on them for almost a week *GASP* 

I have been very dedicated to losing weight so I am walking quite a bit these days and that walking may just get in the way of me wanting to sit down and paint my nails and then do some stamping.  I'm also reading a lot more than I used to which makes me INSANELY happy but it seems like more and more little things are taking over my nail art life.  I'm hoping to find that perfect balance out there that's for sure!

This is a mani I did the other day because I just needed something fun and quick.  Gradient stamping always seems to do the trick when you want something that looks like it was complex when really it isn't

My base is the pretty Pahlish Divination from the Bespoke line, I am a huge of pastel polishes with the chrome flakies in them.  I wish someone would do them in every single pastel color imaginable!

I did some gradient stamping with Mundo de Unas Pastel Blue, Holland Blue and Purple with FUN 15

I like doing just a couple of accent nails over a non cream base so you can see both the art and then the beauty of the base color on it's own

And I'm not going to lie it's quicker so then I have more time to walk and read LOL!

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

Let Freedom Ring!

Happy 4th of July!  Today I'm spending my freedom by doing nothing other than watching some Discovery ID and reading.  I'm trying to not overdo it today exercise wise.  This is supposed to be my "off" today with no exercise but I might be addicted as it feels like cheating to not do anything.  So instead of aiming for 10k steps today I'm trying for only 5k.
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I did get a 4th of July mani done though.  I love how it turned out.  I always try to do something a little different and I think this one worked perfectly

My base colors are Dior Blue Label and Massai two of my favorite blue and reds I own

I stamped with Mundo white with FUN and UC plates

Simple but perfect!

I hope you all have a happy but safe 4th of July!

A promise to a daughter

Today is Father's Day but I am a fatherless daughter.  This day is not a day of celebration for me but instead a reminder I am a ship out to sea without an anchor, a bird flying aimlessly along with nowhere to land.  Today I choose to honor my father with the sign he gave to me after he died.  That very first day I had to go out into the world and face it without him there was the biggest brightest rainbow I had ever seen.  It took my breath away and no matter my route into work that day it was always in front of me--it should not have been yet it was.

It still feels like just yesterday he was with us but no--he is gone

Even though I wanted to use black I chose white stamping instead as I truly believe the rainbow he sent to me was a promise everything will be ok

All anyone who has lost a loved one can do is hope they will continue 

Hope they will make them proud

Hope to be with them again soon

Happy Father's Day to my dad who is in heaven.  I love you, Daddy

The Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbow--Flower Power

Hi Everyone long time no see!  Yep you are not seeing double it's just me posting twice in one day.  Honestly I'm not a fan of blogs doing this but I hate being behind.  If you know me you know that I really really really really love reverse images on stamping plates.  I just love the look and I was able to pour through my plates to find something I really loved 

This is another neon gradient for me this week using China Glaze Electric Nights from last year because I was too lazy to get up and go through polish and they were sitting out

I stamped with FUN and Messy Mansion plates

I adore how my thumb turned out!  I think it's gorgeous

I wasn't sure if I should matte it so I asked my friend Ashley from Ashley Is PolishAddicted and naturally she said yes.  She ALWAYS says yes

But seriously folks that girl knows what she's talking about!  This looks great matte!

I found a really cute pic online the other day and I'm attempting to recreate it for tomorrow's mani--wish me luck!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbow--Neon Triangles!

Hi Everyone Happy Monday!  This weekend it was 92 degrees so we are officially in Summer so that means--neon. I'm not a huge neon fan and I say all the time I'm not a huge neon fan yet I find myself doing some neon nail art LOL.  This did turn out pretty cool though so I guess I should try to embrace the neon a bit more often.  I hauled out last years China Glaze neons--the Electric Night's set and did a gradient and then stamped with FUN19.   FUN19 has a bunch of skull images on there and I was >< close to doing skulls but decided on these triangles at the last minute

I definitely took sun shots of this mani but for some reason all of them looked washed out so I went with shade shots

To be honest it always seems like neon shows up better in the shade which sort of defeats the purpose LOL

This is pretty cool though don't you think?  I absolutely love all my FUN plates

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone and I did try matting it as well

Turns out I'm not as much of a fan of the matte as I am the shiny

I'm seen some pretty cool stuff from everyone today.  Some of us went traditional rainbow colors and some of us non traditional.  I haven't seen my girl crush Serene's mani yet but so far my fave has been from Tammy.  Lots of detail in hers!  Gurl is going strong after all these years we've both been stamping!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does Spring--Pastel Chevrons

Hi Everyone!  Well did you all survive Daylight Savings Time?  I thought I was going to be super tired but I wasn't at all.  I think a lot had to do with the fact I had the delish Cinnamon Dolce coffee from Starbucks at work yesterday.  There are a few of us who like flavored coffee so we have quite the variety going on there.  I'm hoping tomorrow we can try the Dark Chocolate Truffle I bought.

Since I survived Daylight Savings Time I'm happy to report I had time to do my day 2 mani last night LOL.  I decided to go with some pastel chevrons.

I started with a base of Girly Bits Love Your Elf which is pink nude with shimmer.  Sadly the shimmer didn't really pic up with my camera.  I used several Mundos for the stamping Peach, Mexican Pink, Velvet, Sky Blue and Lime. Chevron plate good old FUN 5

I used to say I didn't love pastels but honestly I really love them.  I think I love Fall and Spring best for nail polish colors

So glad to be able to stamp the wavy chevron because UG tape mani's or vinyls nope just cant not do them

You might be able to see a little bit of the shimmer in this shot

Not leaving well enough alone I added some Bunny Ears

Meh not sure if this makes it a cuter mani or not

So day 1 was refreshing!  Not everyone did flowers woot!  Let's see how day 2 goes!

An InLinkz Link-up

Celtic Duochrome

Hi Everyone Happy Hump Day!  This day did not start out well at all.  The city is on a boil advisory where I work due to a power outage and something about the psi level and blah blah blah.  Needless to say no water means NO COFFEE in the morning! OMG it was like fate worse than death around there for awhile.  Thankfully I survived and am totally prepared for tomorrow.  I will be making my Caramel Chaos at home and bring a delicious thermos of it with me to enjoy tomorrow morning LOL.

Awhile ago I got some really awesome stamping polishes to review for Girly Bits.  Being an avid stamper I was thrilled when Pam asked me if I would review her new stamping polishes.  While there are lots of indies out there making nail polish there are only a handful making stamping polishes.  

Some people wonder if they are the same as regular nail polish or are they truly different.  I would say with Mundo de Unas those are strictly stamping polishes, they are too thick to wear as a regular polish.  Some of the other indies such as Hit The Bottle and M Polish you could definitely wear as both the polish and the stamping polish.  Same here with Girly Bits while they are intended to use for stamping they are thin enough to wear as a regular polish or use as a gradient. Pam made both metallic colors and cremes.  Personally I am a creme girl but when I saw the bottle of British Racing Green she sent me I almost died.  It is a gorgeous metallic shimmer Forest Green. I just love it!

I thought for quite some time what I could wear it with and then BAM March hit and I was like YASSSS some Celtic nails are perfect for March.  Well really they are perfect for any time especially if you love those designs and images and I truly do.

I hauled out an oldie but goodie Catrice Genius In A Bottle and then stamped with the British Racing Green with my FUN 13 plate. It is pretty dang stunning if I do say so myself!

First up I'm going to post the bottle shots so you can see what I'm talking about

It's quite lovely

I had forgotten all about my Genius In A Bottle

Just a fantasic duochrome with it's golden bronze to green shift

sooooo pretty!

I think these colors were meant for each other

I had absolutely no trouble stamping with Girly Bits British Racing Green.  I used the crystal stamper I bought from Girly Bits to stamp this image and it was so easy to line up and get the center of the image lined up on the center of each nail.  The best part--if you make a mistake you can pull the image off with masking tape!  I love stamping polishes that do that!

Girly Bits has several stamping polishes available in addition to the crystal stamper, stamping plates and some awesome nail polishes as well as treatments and base and topcoats.  Exceptional products, exceptional customer service.  If you haven't yet check them out please do so HERE

It's been warm here for the past 2 days so I really should be thinking about some Spring mani's but right now I can't get off my Celtic kick!

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

Must be Leap Year!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I'm not sure about you but today at work we just had nothing but weird stuff happening today!  First of all the office was invaded by stink bugs.  Now by invaded I mean 2 but still people were freaking out all over the place. It's a bug, it was on the ceiling it wasn't near anyone's desk yet the freak out still occurred.

Next were the strange requests, "Can I do this?"  "Can I do that?" "I want to do do this but I don't have any information you need in order to process this request for me"  OMG it was definitely a topsy turvy day!  Thankfully I have some fabulous coworkers so we just laughed and trudged along.

Since it seemed such a wavy crazy day I decided to do some stamping that looks how this day felt today. I started with a base of Paintbox Polish Pygmy Puff a really neat medium coral color with gold flakies that dries matte.  I stamped with Mundo Aqua and Black again leaving it matte without topcoat.  I used my geometric EDM-09 and FUN 15 plates

I thought about adding some white to this somehow 

I just haven't decided how I could pull it off

I'm still not happy with my camera set up either.  I bought 2 desk lamps thinking they would work great but NOPE totally yellow looking so I'm still climbing in the bath tub taking pictures

Maybe I can toss a few white circles on here tomorrow--we'll see.

Maybe tomorrow will be a perfectly normal day and I wont feel the need to keeps this wavy mani on LOL!

How was your leap year day???

Hi Everyone!!!  The weekend is coming up and I'm looking forward to it.  It's my little sister's birthday on Sunday so family and friends are headed up to Milwaukee for a comedy show.  We haven't gone in awhile and we are all really looking forward to it.

Meanwhile back at home I'm still trying to get things set up the way I want them in the apartment and I'm still on the hunt for the perfect coffee table and end table.  I mean who knew I would be this picky???? Certainly not me!  But yes the struggle is real trying to find ones I like.

Today I just have some simple FUN stamping with Mundo Holland Blue over Pahlish's Empress Chabi.  

Sometimes all you need is simple

I think these colors really compliment each other don't you?

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