Happy Valentine's Day!!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Valentine's Day!  I don't know why so many people seem to be against Valentine's Day. I hear people saying all the time they are "anti" Valentine's Day or how dumb of a "holiday" Valentine's Day is.  Celebrating love should never be considered a bad thing if you ask me.  And really what the whole world could use some more love!

I have a lovely glitter gradient on today using Ninja Lisa & Paula--I love using these 2 polishes together and also Butter London Chancer.  I topped it with a skittle from BM317

It's pretty blingy

And just super lovely

This was my first mani using the XL stamper too.  I'm not sure why everyone loves it though.  I had a bit of a hard time with it sliding down after I had it lined up

Could be I'm too set in my Konad double stamper ways.  But I'll keep trying!!

Thanks for stopping by!!  Much love to you all!!!

Roses for Valentine's Day

Hi Everyone Happy Hump Day!  I have a lovely mani on today and this one always reminds me of my friend Kerri.  She is a stamping maniac and those of you in Adventures In Stamping know I'm talking the truth lol!  Recently she's gone through some tough times so I wanted to do her "signature" rose mani and send her some "roses" via the internet!

Kerri did a bunch of these roses all with different colors all using a fade technique she came up with and shared with us.  It just makes them so lovely.

This is an all Zoya manicure.  I used Zoya Norra, Lara and Shelby.

Norra is so lovely!  I've had it quite a while and wore it for the first time.  It's definitely a 'me' color too so won't be my last time wearing it!

I used BM323 for the roses.  Shelby went down as a dot in the center of the petals and then Lara was painted all around the center before scraping diagonally on the plate.  The Love saying is from BM311.  I did a stripe of Shelby over the Love and then put Lara above and below it for a fade effect.

I hope everyone gets some real flowers for Valentine's Day but if not--let these roses be for you too!

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

Hey! Jealous Lover

Hi Everyone!  I'm wearing a gorgeous combo for you today!  And what makes it SO perfect is the name.  Today I'm wearing Hey! Jealous Lover, another one of Red Dog Designs.  When I first saw it I KNEW I had to have it.  If there's one thing I am for sure, it is, a jealous lover.  Unfortunately I was born with the bad picker gene so I'm smart enough to stay away from relationships now, but when I'm in them I definitely admit to jealousy LOL!  I layered this gorgeous creation over Illmasqua Viridian because if you're going to be green with envy and jealousy why not wear the best green there is?

I did a cute little accent nail

because when you're with me your heart is locked up! LOL!

I tried my hand at "the claw" pose because Debbie of The Crumpet and I were discussing signature hand poses

I don't really know if "the claw' is me.  I think my signature pose might be more like this

All I know is Hey! Jealous Lover is one gorgeous glitter topper!!!

It's part of the Ol' Blue Eyes Collection through Red Dog Designs that you can find through Facebook or check the link HERE

It's supposed to be in the 30's and sunny here today.  We might see some of our snow melting!

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

Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday--My Simple Little Pleasures!

Hi Everyone! Happy Monday.  I'm hanging in there today feeling a little better.  My knee seems to be less wonky with the help of advil but my neck is still a bit stiff and sore.  All in all I think I'm on the mend!
Despite feeling cruddy I managed to nail a water marble tutorial done by the ever popular and super fantastic Colette, of My Simple Little Pleasures

I'm pretty stoked with how this turned out!  

I used the gorgeous Every Month Is Oktoberfest by OPI and Essie Lilacism

The most amazing thing about this water marble is every finger worked right the first time!!! I did not have to redo a single nail!

I followed Colette's youtube tutorial found HERE. It never ceases to amaze me when she comes up with all these way cool water marbles!

Countdown to VDay is pretty short lived!  Maybe you could give this a try!

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!

When I wear red, I think of Silver

Hi Everyone!   Welcome to winter storm Nemo!  Can you believe they are naming our winter storms now?  We're expected to have snow all day.  ALL DAY!  And the real horror I'm facing is we are out of both eggs and bread here so we won't be able to make French Toast is this storm.  I say this because whenever there's a smidge of snow on the ground people rush out to buy milk, eggs and bread LOL!  I'll report in tomorrow and let you know how bad it really was.
I'm featuring another Valentine's Day mani today.  I chose to wear one of my favorite reds, Butter London's Knees Up.  My fab friend Silver, of the Silverinator.com told me I HAD to have it and man was she ever right, so whenever I wear it I always think of her

Knees Up is a gorgeous red, it's absolutely flawless

I add some silver swirls and gold lips and and hearts for a quick and easy Valentine's Day mani

The swirls are from BM224, the scrolls are from SH04, and the lips and heart are from BM02 and BM202

This one was so much easier than yesterday's and it's cuter if you ask me!

If any of you are in Nemo's path--stay safe, drive safe, and keep bundled up!

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

Love stinks and so does this mani!

Hi Everyone!!! Okay love doesn't always stink and this manicure isn't as bad as some of them I've done but holy cow this should look so much better than it does.  A few days ago over in the Adventures In Stamping group Kim B posted this amazing manicure she did with gel polish and some stamping.  All her mani's are pretty awesome but I just loved the one she did.  She used some Dashica plates and DRK-A and I was like hey I think I can pull something like this off.

Shake My Head.  This is the same moment when you watch figure skating on tv and then say hey we should go figure skating.  As if you're going to be able to throw a triple sow cow or a double axle LOL!  I mean it is just not happening!  I didn't even take a lot of pics of this mani because A I was too tired to actually even change my polish let alone stamp on it tonight and B it took me freaking forever!

Awhile back I got a wonky Milani White On. Instead of the fabulous full coverage in one coat bottle I got a watered down need a zillion layers for opacity bottle.

Just like Kim I used Sally Hansen Wined Up to stamp with but it was not easy.  I had some smearing and some dragging AND I could get all of the image on my swear to transfer.

I used BM317 on the index, DRK-A on the swear and ring and CH15 on the pinkie

If you've seen Kim's you know mine does not hold a candle to hers.

I think I'm starting to have issues with my nails being so long and curved for my beloved Konad double stamper.  I have an XL Stamper on the way let's hope it helps.

Valentine's Day is around the corner, hopefully I'll come up with some redeeming mani's before then!

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

The Devil Made Me Do It!

Hi Readers!  Awhile ago I got a delicious dark vampy red by Revlon called Devil's Lure.  It's very dark but instead of being a dark creme like Vampire State Building it's a jelly.  It also has teeny eeny little pink glitters in it but those are too visible when you stamp on it lol!  I wanted to do another Valentine's Day type mani for you all today without being one of those cutesy Valentine's Day manis that are all over the place right now.  I decided to go a gorgeous rich, baroque style by mixing the dark vampy red of Devil's Lure with gold.  The gold I chose is Finger Paints Key To My Art.  I also dusted off my reinforcement tabs to try another half moon mani.  
Here's the final result

Looks who's in the background!!! Baxter!  He doesn't seem too interested in this mani lol!!


I love this view of it

Here it is with flash

Here's a bottle shot of Revlon's Devil's Lure.  I love these dark reds!

If you look close at the bottle you can see some of those teeny pink glitters in there. To get this look I did a base of Key To My Art.  I let it dry completely and then placed the reinforcement tabs on the bottom of my nails and did 2 coats of Revlon's Devil's Lure.  I topped with Seche Vite and when dry I stamped using Sally Hansen Gold Chrome pen and used RA112.


Here's a pic of the polishes I used

All in all I like this mani for a Valentine's Day look.  I'm not thrilled with how the reinforcement tabs work with my nails.  Next time I may just try the french manicure guide and see if I like that better.


Got any plans for Valentine's Day readers???  I've never really been on the receiving end of Valentine's Day because my birthday is on the 12th so I've always had birthday celebration but not so much Valentine's Day celebration lol!  Oh the curse of sharing a birthday with Abe Lincoln!


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

I say tomato you say tomahto

Hi Readers!  Today I have fantastic mani I took a lot of gruff over from my nail polish friends.  When I first did it I called it a rim job and they went ballistic.  I mean come on readers not everyone's mind is always in the gutter!  My friend Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails kept telling me it was an "outlined" mani.  WHATEVER!  You can call it whatever you like  readers, rimmed or outlined it's freaking gorgeous!

Look at it with flash! It's like my nails are glowing!

And of course I didn't stop there . . .

Check out this smooooooooch!!!

Here's a flash shot of it! Glowing!!!!!!

To achieve my "rimmed" mani I used WetnWild Black Creme and a base and then carefully "outlined" in reverse using Kleancolor Metallic Red.  The key is having a small frame and not a larger one.  To add some Valentine's Day flair I stamped with China Glaze Emotion and Konad Black using the lips on BM02


I love, loved, loved, LOVED this mani so much I made a matching ring!

I have a little pen pal in Illinois--Cassie.  I'm going to send this ring to her for Valentines Day.


So readers what do you think? Is this an outlined or a rimmed mani?  Are you a fan of this look or not so much?


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