Catch A Wave!

Hi Everyone Happy Hump Day!!  I pulled out some of my fun Zoya Summer colors from a few collections ago because I like everyone to feel the love in my drawers and not just the new stuff. Zoya Josie, Robyn, Reagan, Pippa & Arizona along with OPI A Roll In The Hague for a fun but simple beach towel look.  I actually tape mani'd which is so so so dreaded for me!  It's hard to use striping tape when you have long nails LOL

I added a bit of Hibiscus flowers as an accent from Bundle Monster and here's the cute look of the day!

I tried to just freehand straight without the tape but that was SO laughable!

What do you think?  Does this mani remind you of beach towels?  My coworker Jacky sure thought so!

With summer officially here it still has to be like 150 degrees before I will get in the pool LOL  Beach towels are just for show for me!

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

Following A Tutorial Week--textured gradient!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Hump Day!  I have a lovely mani to show you today and it's from a tutorial I followed from one of my favorite bloggers--Adventures In Acetone.  Jacki did this AHmazing criss cross textured striping tape mani awhile ago and I've been doing them ever since!  I love it when I can copy something of hers because she is crazy talented and really too hard to copy lol!  But a striping tape mani, now we're talking!

I started with a base of Nails Inc Victoria Street and then did my criss cross striping tape and sponged on Zoya Vespa and Kiko 646

I super love, love, LOVE this mani!

Some of you might be tired of the textured nail polishes but not me!  I cannot get enough of these babies!

Jacki does a lot of tutorials!  She has a Tutorial Tuesday where I first found this tutorial.  Make sure you check the link at the top to check it out and look into all her other fab tutorials!!

Welcome 2014!

Hi Everyone!!! Happy New Year's Day!  Today in Wisconsin we are ringing in the new year with snow, snow, snow and then some more snow!  Nice to be able to sit it and watch it come down from the outside!  We are still having our bitter cold weather too.  I'm spending my day reading, working on some nail art ideas for the weeks to come and watching my beloved Discovery ID channel!  
I recently bought A TON of nail polish so I want to make sure I'm using it and not socking it away.  I really want to make 2014 the year I don't just carelessly buy and not use the polish I've bought.  It happens to a lot of us in the nail polish community we buy and buy and buy when we already have enough polish to last a lifetime so we end up not even using the polishes "we just had to have".
I'm also going to focusing on using the plates I have as well.  I have bought a lot of plates as well and I find I get them and don't use them.  Seriously, I just bought 4 Messy Mansions but haven't used the 12 MoYou I got, or the Pueen Love Element Set nor have I really used the last 2 Bundle Monster sets! This just needs to stop LOL!
My vow for 2014 is to use the polish I buy and not set it aside and buy more; to use the plates I have and not keep falling back on images I've already used or have used time and time again.  I'm letting you all call bull on me if you see me using something tried and tried over and over again.

I did want to showcase and highlight some of what I think were my best mani's of 2013.  I tried to narrow it down to ten and that was just a ridiculous concept considering the fact I do my nails just about every single day!  So in no particular order let the pics begin!

I did 2 butterfly mani's this year I loved, this gold sparkle one and this gradient blue one

I went a little wild with some animal print, doing 2 zebra looks I really liked

I did a couple mani's to match my clothes--or someone who I worked with lol!

I had a super fun french tip neon gradient this year too!

Sometimes I went really simple and it turned out stunning

Sometimes I didn't do anything simple at all and it turned out stunning

I went crazy a few times with studs and spikes this year and each time I loved it!

Remember when I matched my friend Jen's shoes and purse?

or when I did this totally impractical collar recreation?

I also did this one my first sugar spun mani with some black studs

I feel in love with textured polish!

I did a lot of mermaid and dragon looks!

I had to survive an entire year without my dad, and it sucked

Many of my friends call me the Gradient Queen

of gradients both bright and dark

Through it all I just love to stamp

Thanks so much for being with me in 2013--I hope 2014 brings you all my love, happiness, joy and success!

Criss Cross

Hi Everyone Happy Friday!!!! Sorry for fallen off there a couple days!  Crazy busy at work makes me tired so I come home, eat, and fall into bed!  I can give you an update on the car though--I was driving around on a loose freaking tire!  OH MY GOD!!  I could have died in a fiery crash for sure!  Seriously though that's what was wrong with the car.  I was expecting a huge cost and my wonderful mechanic charged me $10 to tighten everyone up.  I don't know how it happened, it could have been when my BIL was checking my brakes for me.  In any case I'm all fixed up and the camera fund money will still be used for a new camera!!! Woot!

Okay so now onto the cool portion of the day-the manicure!  I'm wearing a cool textured look today!!  I got the idea from a tutorial done by Jacki over at The Adventures In Acetone.  All I can say is where was the tutorial when I needed it during Tape Mani week??? LOL!

For my mani I used a Zoya Dove with Zoya Miranda and Kiko 646 sponged over the taping

Miranda is a lovely raspberry!

I just love how cool this looks!!! Thanks Jacki!!!

I'm wearing a franken I made as my non accents--I named this lovely dark grey Shibari MASTER

I just can't get over how much I love these textured polishes!

Please make sure you check out Jacki's awesome and easy, YES I SAID IT--EASY tutorial!  You can honestly get something as cool as this!

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

Better Late Than Never!!!

Hi Everyone!!!! Happy Saturday!!!! It is a GLORIOUS day out today!!!!  The past two days we've had sun and it's been in the high seventies or low 80's so we haven't had to have the air conditioning on non stop which is awesome!!  Today we have more of the same Woot! Woot!  It's the company picnic today so I'll be heading out there to meet up with my coworkers who are also my friends (the best kind of coworkers) for a fun time.  Some of them want to drive the big tractors today but I'm pretty sure I'll just be a observer for that one LOL!

My biggest temptation will be there today though--grilled sweet corn!  UG! Let's hope I can keep it together and just have one ear of corn!

So all week last week I lamented the tape mani challenge in The Digit-al Dozen.  I spent over 2 hours working on the mani for today ONLY TO DISCOVER the challenge only runs Monday thru Friday LOL!  This is by far my best attempt to date so it couldn't go to waste!

2 hours!!! It took 2 hours to do just these 2 nails.  But it their defense I wrecked the ring finger so had to redo it

My coworkers loved this one!

As you can see I carried through with the blue and coral as a skittle on the rest of the fingers

I used white, black, China Glaze For Audrey and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet for this mani

In the end it was totally worth it BUT for someone who changes their polish every day 2 hours is too long to spend LOL!

I must admit toward the end of the challenge I was liking some of the ideas i came up with.  I need to step out of my comfort zone more often and do things I don't normally do--I think it will keep me on my toes.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Digit-al Dozen Does Tape--Shimmer me timbers!

Hi Everyone!! Happy Friday!!!!  Now that the tape mani week is coming to an end I have one I do like--LOL!  I've been enjoying the whole skittle look and haven't done much at all with my Zoya's in the Irresistible collection so I hauled them out and decided to pair them with their Stunning counterparts for today's mani

Index to pinkie is Zoya Thandie & Amy, Darcy & Kerry, Josie & Rikki, Rocky & Hazel

My favorite combo is on my thumb Yana & Bobbi

I'm usually a day behind posting so this is what I wore yesterday and got a lot of compliments!

I enjoyed it immensely and loved how it sparkled in the sun.  I snapped this pic while at a stop light in car on the way home LOL!

I should have tried for a closeup of the ring I made with Butter London Wallis and my franken Ragnell it's super lovely!

So here we are at the end of the tape mani rope and finally one I like!