Digit-al Dozen Does It Again--Tape Mani

Ah the dreaded tape mani, I'm sure by now you all know I'm not a fan of the tape mani.  They are not easy, they are hard--HARD HARD HARD!  I was really dreading doing another one when words from wise Victoria spoke out and said "don't stress about it!  do something simple"  And so I did!  I did do a simple and easy tape mani and not only did it turn out fan-freaking-tastic it matches my work blouse!!!!

This is just a simple half moon mani using label stickers!

I used Sinful Colors Savage a lovely teal blue matte along with OPI You Don't Know Jacques suede!

I stamped using my favorite leopard print image of all time BM221

No stress!  Super simple and easy!!!! AND it matches my blouse!

Lesson learned today when the Manicurator talks to you--you listen!!!

Now let's check out the fantastic tape mani's (because you know they're going to be) from my friends!


Our Spectacular September Giveaway is almost here!  Have you entered yet???

No roar in this leopard

Hi Everyone!  I hope everyone is safe and sound after the large storm front sweeping the US!  I'm posting something today I actually wore last week and did not like at all.  Here's the kicker though, everyone else who saw it loved it!  I had a lot of high hopes for this baby but it just fell short in my eyes.

I did a half moon mani with Zoya Farah and OPI What Wizardy Is This

Even with the leopard stamping it just really fell short in my eyes

I also had a lot of tip wear with this baby toward the end of the day!

I have decided though, the leopard image is my go to image.  I'm thinking about doing a week long of leopard--so be on the look out for it!

What do you think about this one--winner or not?

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

Purple Up!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Monday!  In addition to it being tax day it's also Purple Up!  April is the month to support military children.  April is a VERY busy month.  Like the other awareness issues going on in April this, too, is very important.  Men and women in the military, who fight to keep us safe, and our children safe, are separated from their children.  This isn't an easy life for a soldier even more so for the children they leave behind.  While other kids are going to the movies and Disneyland, sitting down to a dinner table, and getting tucked in at night, a military child who's mom or dad is on deployment has to settle for letters, texts, and computer skyping.  Just as their mom and dad are strong warriors they are strong warriors too--living and waiting until they can be reunited with their parent.

Today I'm wearing a purple mani in honor and support of thousands of military children!

I love my creme and holo mani from yesterday so much I thought I'd do a half moon mani with Zoya Pinta and China Glaze Octa-Gone-Wild and Zoya Caitlin and China Glaze Visit Me In Prism

Too bad it's cloudy otherwise I'd try to some outdoor pics!

When you see a soldier and thinking of thanking him or her, please take a moment to realize there often so much more they sacrifice for us--then think of child or children they had to leave behind for us and how difficult it must be for children living without them.

I proudly support our military men and women AND their amazing kids!!!

On fish two fish, red fish . . . rainbow fish!

Hi Everyone!!  I had really had time trying to figure out what mani to do for today.  Last night I was toying with a few color combinations ideas.  I knew I wanted to do a half moon mani but couldn't decide on Muse and DV8, Casino Royale and Purple Illusion or Vampire State Building and Ozotic 621.  I decided to go with Muse, For Audrey and DV8.  It turned out really great even if the DV8 isn't super holo

I love doing these gradient half moon mani's!

And while this looks pretty awesome all on it's own

You know I had to stamp a little something on here!

Yep I did a couple of rainbow fish using China Glaze It's My Turn, DV8 and 2Nite

I used the fish image from SH19 and even did the reverse image stamping so I could get some kissing fish!

I'll tell you this though, one little accent nail with Illamasqua Muse on it, is really not good enough for me.  I have been wanting this FOREVER and was lucky enough to have my friend Gina snag it for me.  Muse will definitely be in my future!

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

Let it snow!

Hi Everyone!  We finally got some snow!  I'm not really sure what's going on but suddenly we are naming our winter storms for crying out loud and we were hit by Draco.  In honor or in light of this event I have a little snowflake mani

I used OPI DS Sapphire and a franken I made named Sighs Matters to do the half moon gradient.  It's pretty lovely!

Sighs Matter is one of my favorite books and surprisingly (not) one of my favorite frankens.  Here's a bottle shot of it

I stamped a couple of snowflakes on the accent nail and voila!

OPI DS Sapphire looks silvery here doesn't it?

I'm setting this up to post in the morning, I wonder how much snow there will be when I wake up???????

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

Sweet treats!

Hi Everyone!  OMG I cannot believe how crazy busy it is at work right now.  Today alone we sent out 22,000 packages! Of pastries!  Unbelievable!  I guess you really take for granted being able to go to the bakery whenever you want for a kringle lol!  Things will start winding down soon and I'll be on to another assignment after this one--hopefully something permanent in my near future.

I did this mani last night and I just loved it!  I am absolutely loving Wocka Wocka--it might be my good to red from now on--oh oh better get another bottle of it fast lol!

My friend Michelle made a polish for me that I call Sissy Pants, it's what I used for the half moon in my half moon mani and then I topped it with OPI's Wocka Wocka, check out how cool it looks

Sissy Pants is a pale pink with white, pink and different colored green glitter in it.  It's a private joke between us AND it sort of remind me of the ribbon candy my grandma used to have at her house.  

I am not a fan of where the half moon smeared on thumbie though!

But this is a pretty cool look if I do say so myself

I also love how the half moon look makes my nails look longer!  I had a break in the pinkie so I had to file down, which hacked me off!

Now look at the cool stamping I did over this half moon design

OMG YAY!  Isn't this just too cute?!

I just love, love, LOVE how this turned out!

Definitely ribbon candyish or peppermint candyish now!

I stamped using the tip image from RA-110

Which do you like better?  Before the stamping or after?

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

At last my mani has come along!

Hi Everyone!  Oh my lord I have had a day!  I got up super early to work on my AIS challenge mani for today and here it is 2pm and I'm finally getting it blogged!  Today's challenge theme is stamping over a blue base and I really wanted to use some untrieds.  I hauled out China Glaze Secret Periwinkle and the Essence Blue Magnetic I have and discovered two things.  While they look like they'll match up in the bottles once on the nail they did not AND seche vite ruined the magnetic!  It completely erased the lines the magnet made.

I was so hacked off!

I decided to start again and use China Glaze Sea Spray with it.  I also changed around my magnet lines and FINALLY I have something I like!

I did a half moon mani for this magnetic and I like it.  The Blue Essence is gorgeous!

I even stamped with it for my accent nail!  Magnetic polishes stamp great!

I used a few plates for the snowflakes.  The accent nail is BM323, index is 
RA-119, swear and pinkie is BM14, and the thumb is SH17

I really love the snowflakes on the thumb and index and wish there were plates with those snowflakes only smaller--if you know of one let me know!

All in all I'm really happy with how this turned out EVEN if it took forever!

Now I just have to hope we don't see snow in Wisconsin anytime soon!

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Somewhere over the rainbow peacocks fly???

Hi Everyone!  I hauled out some of these matte's I have because A I love them and B I need to start using all this stash I have amassed.  I mean seriously I have so much polish I haven't even used once for crying out loud.  And it's getting rather ridiculous!

I've had Zoya Savita for ages and didn't even use it until the other day!  I decided to yank it again and use it along with Veruschka and my new Pure Ice Blue Midnight.  Check out what I came up with!

Wow! I really, really, REALLY love how this turned out!  I wanted it to look like a peacock that's why I went with the gold in the half moon.

I stamped over it using BM212 but I wasn't madly in love with it

Not sure if it was the shiny top coat on it I didn't like

Or maybe it just covered up too much of the gorgeous gradient

I decided to matte it to see if I would like it better

Better but really it looked the best without stamping over it I think

What do you think--do you like without the stamping?  Do you prefer the matte over the shiny look?

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

How Do You Blue 2!

Hey Everyone!  Back when I first started "collecting" nail polish I would always say my problem color was blue.  The problem being I loved it and ALL blue nail polishes.  Well I've been doing this nail art stuff for a couple of years now so I'm happy to say I've branched out and my green and purple drawer definitey rival my blue drawer now LOL!  BUT blue is and will always be my first love.  The first blue I ever got was 16 years ago believe it or not!  I was working as a receptionist in the OB-Gyn department and there was a sweet girl I worked with, Olga.  One day she came in with this blue nail polish--I think it was by Sinful back when they had the short sqround bottles like Seche Vite--the name of it was Disco Blue and it was gorgeous!  All the girls knew how much I loved doing my nails and I was so touched when Olga said, "I saw this and thought of you!!"  All these years later I'm still loving those blues!

I did this mani after I saw this way cool design on Pinterest.  I love Pinterest!  You get the best ideas there!!  This is where I first saw the design.  I tried to get back to a blog but it was wanting me to sign into some other social network lol!  Um no thanks, Facebook obsessed is enough for me!

 This is a gradient half moon mani and pardon me but this really kicks a$$!

 I used a couple of my favorite blues for this--Cult Nails Time Traveler and China Glaze Sea Spray.

 The application is really easy!  I did two coats of Time Traveler and applied Seche Vite.  Then I used my trusty price stickers to help with the half moon and I did my gradient technique with Sea Spray and Time Traveler and sponged it onto my nails over the sticker.  

At first I was disappointed when I realized it gradiented the two colors instead of keeping them separate as the picture from pinterest appears.  I think she sponged her darker color over her lighter instead of gradienting them together.  But once I had them all done I loved the look!

This is definitely something I'll be doing again with some different colors!  I'm thinking of a nice chocolate brown with For Audrey!

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

Purple Passion

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  I've got a pretty short and sweet post for you today. I'm trying to go through the old stasharoo and use some untrieds and I found this gorgeous purple in my purple drawer! HOLY COW Who knew who Visions of Sugar Plum was so freaking gorgeous?  I sure didn't!  My lovely internet daughter, Rebecca, sent this to me like a year ago and I've never tried it!  I should be shot!  I paired it with the lovely China Glaze Spontaneous in this sweet half moon mani and then stamped a cute butterfly.  What a lovely mani on the fly!

I can't wait to haul this baby out again and do something more with it! It's simply stunning!

Tonight is my nephew's last football game and it's homecoming!  It's supposed to be cold and rainy but never fear Auntie Laurie will be there!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

If this half moon mani is (Mr) Wrong then I don't want to be (Mr) Right!

Hi Readers!  Do any of you have the "bad picker" gene?  Not the gene about being bad and picking your nose, but rather the gene where when it comes to a choice of mate--boyfriend, girlfriend--spouse you're just a flat out bad picker.  I have the gene.  It's not discovered yet but I surely do have it.  One day when they do discover it I believe they will call it the Laurie Effect, or laurieism--but believe you me that gene is as real as the smart gene--or the can't lose any weight gene.

Last year when I did the 31 Day Challenge I thought it would be cute to toss together Hard Candy's Mr Right and Mr Wrong and I decided I want to use them again in this year's 31 Day Challenge and YES another successful pairing of the two!

Mr Right is a gorgeous dark blue shimmer--he reminds me a bit of Phallic.  Mr Wrong is a super cool glass flecky purpley goldy bronze lol!

I really love them both!

Ii thought for a minute about stamping over this mani but I just love the blue in Mr Right so much I didn't want to cover him!

Which one do you like better Readers--Mr Right or Mr Wrong?  And I wonder what our choice says about us????

Wow more than half way through the challenge!!! What's up for tomorrow

Galaxy nails--hmmm I'm not a huge fan of this look for some reason.  Maybe because I suck at creating them??? You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see how they look!

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