Know when to stop!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Monday to all!  I had a great weekend.  I spent all day with my little sister Nel and our grand nephew Sean.   We went to a kids learning and activity fair on Saturday morning and there was so much cool stuff to check out.  Sean is four and loves to dance so we looked at a dance school for him which I think is going to be pretty cool. He also tried his hand at tennis with a real racket and was pretty good.  He loved it!  So lots of fun options ahead for him for sure.

He's got a birthday coming up in June.  Don't tell him but we are buying him a new riding toy!  He has a small motorcycle he has to push with his feet to ride and it's too dang small for him LOL.  His tricycle also too small.  We are going to try to find another motorcycle but are also going to check out a big wheel and a bike.  He wants a Batman cake for his birthday this year too so he's moved on from Spiderman now LOL!  Poor Spidey.

After the fair we went home and played outside for a couple of hours and shot some hoops.  Tee Tee Laurie was a cheerleader though.  I'm too old to be shooting hoops.  After that we went inside to watch the movie Spirit again( for the fifty millionith time) but basically for me that meant nap time!  We had some pizza rolls and pizza for dinner and then it was time to head back home.  Really a great time!

Sunday my son finally caved in to watching a scary movie with me.  I had been trying to get him to watch one with me forever and he's not a huge fan so then naturally he picked one that was super terrifying!  The Babadook.  OMG totally freaky and terrifying.  I stayed up until like 2 am before finally caving in to sleep because I felt like I would have nightmares.  Thankfully it was a restful night's sleep!

Yesterday I played around with some dry marbling.  And I really loved what I did but naturally I messed it up by stamping over it! Curse you Sunday Challenges!

So here's a couple of pictures of the cool drying marbling I did 

If you remembering my bowling ball mani I did the dry marbling the same way by using an old plastic plate sleeve and then just applying stripes of color and working through them with a toothpick

Isn't it cool??? It is! Totally!

Then I stamped over it with FUN13 for the AIS Sunday Challenge--flowers of a different color and it's not as great anymore :(

Lesson learned!

I really do enjoy this dry marbling though.  I'm working on another idea later today and I'm going to play with some of my alcohol inks too!

I hope everyone is having a great Monday so far!  Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Challenge--Black & White

Hi Everyone!  Sorry I've been so MIA but I am just not feeling great these days with that barking cough cold so I haven't been feeling to nail artsy.  I managed to pull it together today and participate in the AIS Sunday Challenge with a nice black and white mani.  Lucky for me I also got to haul out my beloved Voodoo Doll by Nailventurous which is like one of my top fave polishes of all time.  I've got to use this baby very sparingly since Amy isn't making polish anymore.

I'm trying some new watermark areas in my pics too  because . . .
I finally got a smart phone and am now on instagram! LOL!  I haven't posted anything on IG yet because I'm very behind the times but I'm going to do my  best to get all my Digital Dozen posts up on IG this upcoming week as well as the blog and FB.  OIY I never thought this day would come.

You should have seen me the first day I had my phone!  OMG I could not figure out how to stop it from buzzing with facebook notifications.  Then I couldn't figure out how to answer a call.  Lastly I think I called people every time I just tried to send a text.  Honestly I think my son was ready to throw the phone out the window LOL.

But I'm a lot more under control now and I might have, sort of, figured it out.
I'm trying out these watermark which seems super tiny

If you're old like me you can barely see it!

It's going to take some getting used to I think.  I am definitely more use to seeing this on my pics!

Change is good though right???????!!!

Tomorrow is Digital Dozen week!  I think it's going to be a really cool week.  Make sure to stop by and check it out!

There's something positive about this negative space mani

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I haven't done a Sunday challenge in quite some time and today's challenge was negative space mani.  Negative space mani's are challenging for those of us with long nails because we have a white tip.  And if you're like me you have a super white tip.  Negative space mani's tend to look best on someone with shorter nails in my opinion

That being said I decided to haul out my FUN 15 plate today to see if anything stood out to me.  Sure enough I found an image I liked and paired it with my two favorite Mundo de Unas blues--Holland Blue and Navy

It's pretty fun and whimsical.  But can you see what I mean about the long nails and white tips?

It's pretty noticeable LOL!

I can say I REALLY love my new FUN plates.  They stamp like a dream and the images are really diverse.

We finally got some snow!  Yep the past 2 days it's been snowing here so it finally looks and feels like Winter.  Too bad we didn't have any for Christmas!

No Packer football today as we have a bye because WE ARE THE DIVISION CHAMPS AND WE KICK A$$ so I'm watching the Cowboys vs Lions game today and rooting for the Cowboys!

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

Dragons Are Not Slaves

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Sunday!  Did I mention to you all that I am totally enthralled with Game Of Thrones?  I got on the bandwagon VERY late, much like Doctor Who LOL!  I just started watching the 3rd season, trying to get all caught up and current and man this show is a heart ripper!  I don't handle the animal deaths nearly as well as I handle the human deaths EXCEPT FOR KHAL DROGO!  I'm not sure what rock I've been living under but I suspect it was the Mick St John Moonlight rock but suddenly I've crawled out from under it and I'm all about Khal Drogo these days.  Man oh man oh man what a man!  I sure hope Lisa Bonet thanks God every second of the day for giving her such a fine, fine, fine man!

Today's theme for Adventures In Stamping is Bad Ass.  Bad ass means a lot of different things to a lot of us but for me what could possibly be more bad ass than dragons????!!!  Seriously people they fly AND breathe fire!  I'm pretty sure I came up with one seriously kick ass--bad ass mani today!

I know right?!  Totally Bad Ass!!!

How sparkly is this base????!!!!!!

I started my base with two coats of Zoya Seraphina, topped with two coats of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle and then topped all that with a Love & Beauty silver holo glitter topper! OH MY GOD!

I stamped with my favorite Messy Mansion plate MM21 and the rest is history!

I absolutely love how this turned out!  I think we all know how much I love my spikes too so this is just all kinds of winner, winner, chicken dinner for me!

Are any of you Game Of Thrones fans?  I have not read the books but I am enjoying the series on HBO very much.  I'm not really a book and movie person, it's usually one or the other for me.  I'm glad I'm just watching the show as now I don't have any preconceived notions as to how someone looks.

I am a bit shocked no one has tried to off George R R Martin!  I mean come on!  He kills off all the good people.  I have in my head how I think the series should go.  I can only hope for his sake that's the route he follows or he'll have a real rebellion on his hands LOL!

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Challenge--Pastels!

Hi Everyone!!  Happy weekend!  The sun is finally out here and we've had two very nice days to our weekend.  Yesterday I spent some time with my little sister and our grandnephew Sean.  We took him to a kids event they had and watched him run around and play like crazy and then I treated everyone to ice cream.  It was really nice to spend my Saturday not working for a change!

Today I'm working on some Springish cleaning.  I cleaned out our hallway closet and tossed out a bunch of stuff I never use or haven't used for a long time.  I also tossed out old makeup and reorganized my current makeup stash.  And in the process of cleaning out the closet I found a brand new never used bottle of OPI The Lifeguard Makes Me Blush. Now how's that for perfect!  It's a sweet summer pink too so it will go to good use for sure.

I also cleaned the bathroom, scrubbed the bathroom floor and cleaned the windows in the living room today and all of that was done before 9 am!  So that means I get to spend a relaxing rest of my day reading and doing my nails!

I'm also reorganizing nail plates today because I got the 2nd Wistonia set in the mail yesterday.  So much fun for a Sunday LOL!

Today's challenge for Adventures In Stamping is pastels.  I'm not really a pastel person or should I say I wasn't.  It seems like suddenly I'm in  pastels because I got a few of the pastel Kiko Cupcakes and I really like this pastel look I did for today's challenge.

I hauled out some of my Sinfuls from their Sugar Crush line last year and did a saran wrap smoosh method with Orange Cream, Cotton Candy, Sweet Nothing and Sweet Tooth.  I stamped with a plate from new Wistonia set--W204

I'm not sure why I'm so late on these Wistonia plates!  I got the 2nd set and really like them so I'm sure I'll go back and pick up the first set as well

I must admit that today was the first time I felt my smoosh saran wrap method was successful too!

The blue Sweet Tooth is probably really too dark to be called a pastel but Spring is SO hard to transition to!  How do we go from dark vampy Fall and Winter colors to pastels in the Spring?!  It seems crazy to me!

This is as pastel as I'm going to get!

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

Sunday Challenge--plate that ends in 1

Hi Everyone!!!  Happy Sunday!  Packers are playing tomorrow night so I don't have anywhere to rush to be this fine afternoon.  It's a bit chilly again but the sun is shining.  I'm on a quest to find a couple of eye shadow palettes for my friend in Singapore and I'm on the hunt for some green tops and sweaters today.  I have 2 absolutely gorgeous scarves I want to wear and the both are gradiented greens and I have no green tops at all! WHAT THE FRENCH?!  So I'm on the hunt for something green for sure!

I've got a lovely green on today for my mani though!  It's one of the pretty "ugly" colors.  A color that you normally would not find striking or gorgeous or beautiful yet when you put it on you go WOWZA!

This is the very lovely No More War by Rescue Beauty Lounge

It's an incredible green.  One of those colors I like to call pretty "ugly".

I was lucky enough to be given it as a gift from my sweet friend Stephanie.  She's probably one of the nicest people I know right along with the third in our Polish Trio--Dani.  I can't wait to get together with these girls again!

I stamped using image BM-H11.  This mani is so simple yet might be one of my faves EVER!

Do any of you like those pretty "ugly" colors?  If you do what polishes are your favorite??

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

Sunday Challenge--Plate ending in 02!

Hi Everyone!!! I hope you are all having a great weekend.  It has been dreary, foggy and rainy all weekend here but that's okay!  Yesterday I spent the day all day long in my pajamas working on some idea for Fall and Halloween.  The Fedex guy came and got to witness the horror that is me on the weekend, no bra, hair not done and still in my pajamas and of course no makeup but he just smiled and told me to enjoy the day.  Nice Guy!!

Today's challenge theme in AIS is a plate ending in 02.  I hauled out my MoYou Back To The 70's 02 again and played around with some greens!

I did a lovely gradient with Sinful Colors Innocent and Zoya Envy for some accent nails

My index and swear are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Ivy League

And of course my 02 plate is the Back To The 70's 02 from MoYou.  The MoYou plates are fantastic!!!  I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a few more of them!

I've got some busy nail weeks ahead--next week starts the theme of Autumn for my Nail Art Theme Week group and the week after that is Digit-al Dozen not to mention the fact on Saturday I'm getting together with my girls Dani and Stephanie to do some nails and hang out and chat all day!!!

Today we are heading over to mom's for the Packer game.  She made pulled pork with rootbeer.  We'll see how delicious and yummy that is.  I'm going to try not to have any of mine on a bun--I hope I can resist!

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

Adventures In Stamping Challenge--Ungirly!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Sunday!!! I feel really bad about being MIA the past few days but I've been SO busy!  Yesterday instead of doing my nails I spent the day with my mom.  We went to see Prisoners and then went shopping.  the movie was great!  Very suspenseful and tense though.  And here mom wanted to have a nice relaxing and fun day LOL!  we did some shopping next and I got a few tops and sweaters for 70% off!  And mom bought me a new set of dishes that I've been wanting forever--they were 50% off!! Woot!  What a great day so I don't feel too bad about not getting any nails done.

Because I have another super busy day ahead of me I just had a quick minute to get a mani done for today's Adventures In Stamping theme which is "ungirly".  No pink, no glitter, no ruffles.  I decided to do a quick textured gradient.  I went with Red Dog Designs Sunny Shores and Zoya London because it matched the top I'm wearing today

Here's a shot of the gradient before cleanup.  I don't clean up my textured gradients before stamping as I don't topcoat them.

I stamped using BM310 because it reminded me of the universal symbol for man or men

And there you have it!  The Packers are on a bye today so no plans for any Packer parties!  I'm going to be taking my nephew back up to school in Platteville so we have lots of time to chat--yes Auntie Laurie is like the Spanish Inquisition folks!  It's a gorgeous day and although I won't be outside enjoying it, I will be having some pretty scenery for a 3 hour drive today!


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

Autumn Nails

Hi Everyone!  Holy cow did I have a major fail of a mani this morning!  I worked on a gradient for today's AIS challenge theme which is Autumn Nail and what I fully expected to turn out glorious and beautiful was a hot sucktastic mess!  Good lord it was ugly.  My friend James always tries to say I have no fails but I think we all know I have had some major fails!  I was able to recover this fumble though (how do you love that football analogy for football Sunday???) and do something I think is quite lovely.

The colors I chose today are Nails Inc Hamstead Gardens--one of those pretty "ugly" colors and Zoya Pepper and Toni.

Here's the craptastic gradient and stamping first

Yikes this is just a hot mess!  I didn't even clean up that great since I knew it wasn't staying on!

I did like how my thumb turned out though and I thought of doing the same gradient again with different stamping 

But I didn't!

Here's the ever elusive and rarely seen in the wild right hand--the one I refer to as my "man" hand.  I had stamped over the left and then realized I should have taken some pics of just the lovely Fall skittle!

Nails Inc Hamstead Gardens is that mustardy/baby poop yellow.  It's perfect for Fall!  The ring is Zoya Toni and really nice bordeux and the swear is Zoya Pepper--the perfect brick red!

I stamped using SA-02 with China Glaze Passion

I think it still says "Autumn" and it definitely looks better as a skittle rather a gradient!

I really like my new set of SA plates from Aliexpress.com!!

While the distinct difference between Zoya Pepper and Toni is harder to tell with the stamping over it, this mani is much better in my eye than the gradient.

Here's the Before and After shots though--YOU be the judge!

Heading over to a friend's for the Packer game!!!!  Hope my mani brings the Pack good luck!

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

Did someone say nude????!!!!!

Hi Everyone!!! Today's theme for the Adventures In Stamping Sunday Challenge is over a nude base.  Yikes!  Nude is like the kiss of death for me.  I'm definitely not a nude fan at all UNLESS it's in the form of a hot cowboy--then I'm all about the nude!

I try to do every Sunday challenge so I didn't want to let it beat me.  I grabbed my Zoya Farah which is a really very lovely beige creme and decided to try the nail decal method for the first time.  I chose a couple images from my DRK-A plate and then used China Glaze Astro Hot, Take A Trek and Infra-Red

The result is pretty.  It has some nice color but at the same time seems quite subtle

I learned about the nail decal technique via Messy Mansion, basically you stamp your image onto your stamper--they say it's best to use a squishy type stamper but I've also seen results on the Konad hard stamper.  You color you design in with polish and then apply a nice generous clear--don't use quick drying clear.  Wait a few minutes, I waited about 20 minutes and then you peel the design off and apply it to your nail.  My nails were dry.  I simply smoothed the image out and then applied my Seche Vite to it

The result is a lined in white design with multi colors--something you can't really do with straight on color stamping.  While it takes longer and is a bit more detailed than just stamping, it still wasn't hard to do at all

Here's the LINK if you'd like to check it our for yourself.

It's a super pretty day out today!  I'm thinking about taking a walk around the zoo!

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

I like my Lilac Heavy!!!

Hi Everyone!!! Hope you are all having a great day!  My lazing around and being unproductive lasted a day--today I'm back at it already.  I got up at 7 am and cleaned the kitchen, bathroom and livingroom--okay the livingroom isn't THAT clean as I still have bottles of nail polish on the floor that need to get put away into the melmers LOL!  BUT kitchen and bathroom are done. I got some great nail mail the past couple of days so I definitely want to play around with the colors I got and see if I can come up with something super cool and of course next week is Digit-al Dozen week so I need to start preparing for that as well!

Today's theme for The Adventures In Stamping facebook group challenge is plate ending in 8.  I scoured the many I have and was happy to find a PUEEN image I could use!  The real beauty in this mani is by far the base color!  My friend Jen had a sale getting of some stuff that just wasn't her aka wasn't a holo polish (LOL!) and I snagged 3 lovelies beauties from her.  Seriously Jen is cray cray giving up what she did but her loss is SO my gain!

Today my stamping is PUEEN08 over Catrice's Heavy Metallilac it is a gorgeous metallic purple!

I've never had a more "glowing' purple before!

My only complaint about this mani would be the fact a squishy stamper distorts images so my checkerboards are curved :(

If you fall in love with the color and then are sad you can't get Catrice here--never fear!  Ninja Polish is carrying this color right now!

I honestly had something completely different in mind for today's mani--I'm so glad this came to me at the last minute!

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

Wrap it up!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy Sunday--I was MIA yesterday due some much needed rest and relaxation.  Working all that over time took a toll on me so I lazed around, watched Discovery ID all day and read some hot romances.  WHEW!  I feel totally refreshed!  I did have a bit of a struggle with today's AIS challenge though!  Usually I have a great idea when a theme is picked however yesterday I was really struggling.

The theme for today is over a saran wrapped base.  There are a lot of cool saran wrap mani's out there, I just wasn't feeling any of them!  I decided to look through my stash and try to work out something with some untrieds I have.  Nothing stood out too much then I hit the brown drawer and I snagged Essie Mink Muffs and Zoya Cheryl (which I've owned for 2 years and never put on once and added a bottle of Zoya Pasha to the mix!

I really love how this non traditional for summer mani turned out!  

I did 2 coats of Essie Mink Muffs first--let it completely dry and then topped it with a coat of Zoya Pasha and dabbed away with the saran wrap.  When that was dry I put a dab of Zoya Cheryl on a metal plate and then dabbed the saran wrap into and splodged it on randomly. 

 Honestly I wish I had a copper metallic to stamp with--but I didn't have anything light enough so I reached for Maybelline Bold Gold and DRK-B and stamped a couple of accent nails because I liked just the base so much I didn't want to completely cover it

I added the matte top coat because it just looks so much better matte!  Check out thumbie!

I should do these saran wrap mani's more often!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!  Mom and I are off today to check out The Wolverine!  Hottie Hugh Jackman to the rescue!!!