Christmas Nails #3

Hey everyone and Happy Friday!!  How many of you are done work for the Christmas season?  Yesterday was my last day of work for the year, and I don't go back until January 6th!!  WOOHOO!!!

I figured with it being less than 5 days till Christmas Day, I should probably post another Christmas mani!  I did this a while ago, because as you know I have been losing my polishing mojo :(  But, let's take a look!

Holiday Nail Art Challenge Week 2

Hola readers!!  I know I said that I would be on the ball this week with Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Challenge, and I wasn't.. FAIL!  I did have my mani done a few days ago, I just was being lazy and didn't get the post up.

This week's theme was Decorations.  My idea came into my mind immediately when I saw the e-mail, and this is what I came up with!

Holiday Nail Art Challenge Week 1

Happy Sunday everyone, and Happy December 1st!!  Only 24 more sleeps :D

I have a late mani submission for the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge.  Yes, I have had all week to do it, but I have been super lazy and only did it last night, very last minute.  Let's take a look - I am very excited for the way this turned out!  The theme for this week's challenge was snow, my FAVOURITE part of winter and Christmas :D

Marble Flocking Powder Mani

Evening folks.  If you know me well enough by now, you will know that I definitely got distracted on Sunday after publishing my post.. so I didn't get any extras written up *slaps own wrist* Bad llama!  Anyways, I wrote this up while at work Monday so I could stick the pictures in and publish it as soon as I got home and here were are on Wednesday morning... *sigh*

Today I have for you a mani I did not this past weekend, but the weekend before.  I have been meaning to do this kind of mani for a long time now, ever since I saw it in a picture on Facebook, which I can't for the life of me find now!  I should have pinned it!  This is a "marble" flocking powder mani!

Hallowe'en Mani #2

Hey everyone!  Hopefully you are enjoying the last day of your weekend - I don't want to go back to work tomorrow :(  I thought I would take today to do up some blog posts so that I have something to post for the rest of the week, since I have been slacking on that, hardcore!

Today I have my Hallowe'en Mani #2 for you :D  I love the way this one came out, so let's take a look!

For this, I applied one coat of Different Dimension Bazinga! (from the Big Bang Theory collection) over 2 coats of China Glaze Ingrid.  The combination felt very fall/Hallowe'en-ish to me, and I loved the way it looked!  With it being Stamping week for COTW on my Facebook group (I think we are changing it to Mani Of The Week - MOTW), I decided to stamp the little devil guys from BM-305 and Julep Mystery Yellow.  This polish stamped surprisingly well :)  They are just so cute!

Then I decided to see what it looked like mattified, and I love it even more!

I really love stamping, it makes nail art so easy!  This is also my first time stamping over a glitter, and while I see it on a couple of the blogs that I follow, I have never tried it because I was afraid that when I did it, the stamping would take away from the glitter.  In this case, I think it definitely added to it :D

That's it for today!  What do you think of my little guys??  I think they are just so cute!!  Alright, I'm off to work on some more post drafts right now!

Z is for Zebra

Happy Monday everyone!  This week is the last week of the ABC Nail Art Challenge!  I can't believe 26 weeks have come and gone already, time flies when you are having fun :D

Today I have for you my "Z" mani!

Z is for Zebra

W is for Winnie the Pooh Water Marble

Evening everyone!  I'm so glad it's a long weekend so I don't have to go to work tomorrow :D  That and today wasn't a very productive day, so I'm glad I have another "do-over" day :)

Tonight I have my "W" mani for the ABC Nail Art Challenge!  There are only 4 weeks left of the Challenge, I can't believe we are this close to the end already!  So much has happened in the last 20+ weeks!  Let's get to it, shall we?

W is for Winnie the Pooh Water Marble

Congratulations Josh and Irena!

Happy Monday Tuesday Hump Day lovely readers!  Yes, I have had this blog ready to post since Monday but I have been too lazy to actually hit the post button and plaster it all over Facebook.  I'm pretty lame, huh??  Last weekend (Aug 18) Tyler and I attended Tyler's friend's wedding.  Tyler was in the wedding party, and he looked pretty darn good in his tux if I do say so myself ;)

And of course, I had to come up with an outfit (and mani to match) to look just as good :)  My dress was a red satin with black mesh overlay to make it look burgundy, with pink beads sewn on in a floral pattern.  My shoes were 5-1/2" heels from JustFab called Vanna, in the Wine colour.  I also brought some Dr. Scholl's Fast Flats with me because I knew I wouldn't last the entire night with the heels on - 5-1/2" is a HUGE heel for me!

Here is what I did with my nails:

Eeyore Nails

Good morning, and happy Monday!  What is everyone up to this week??  I will be working on getting stuff ready for camping this weekend when I'm not here at work.  I haven't been camping in a year, and I miss it.  I really love camping - that it's an escape from everything, especially when you are in a Provincial Park (campground run by the province of Ontario) with no hydro, no water and sleeping in a tent ;)  This year should be better than last year - we had a fire ban last year because of dry conditions, and it was a terribly windy and stormy weekend.  So far they are calling for decent temperatures and "scattered showers", so hopefully that will change for the better during the week :D

Onto the nails - I saw a post on Crazy Polishes' blog using an MJ Stamping Plate to create a Winnie the Pooh mani, and I knew right away that I HAD to have it!!  So I went to My Online Shop's etsy store to purchase it immediately - good thing I had just the right amount of PayPal money ;)  Unfortunately, she doesn't ship to Canada, so I had to use my US middle man - Amber from And Then There Was Polish - as my shipping destination so she could send it onto me when she got it :D

A few weeks later, it came in the mail and I was SOOO excited, I immediately did a mani with it!

K is for Kisses

Happy Sunday!  We're starting to count down the days till moving day :D  Just a bit more to pack, like my polishes and the clothes I will need for the next couple weeks.  Tyler and I got a BBQ yesterday too :D  I have to say that I LOVE shopping for house stuff with him!!  We also went to look at bathroom hardware like towel bars, etc. but we are waiting until we go for our first visit to make sure there hasn't been anything put up :)

Today I have my "K" mani for the ABC Challenge, can you believe we're on K already?  Holy crapoly, where does the time go?!

K is for Kisses

Smile!

Hey everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!  If you have been following my Facebook page, you will have seen my announcement that Tyler and I bought a house this past week!  We put an offer on it and it was accepted the same day! :D  We are going through for our inspection on Tuesday, when I plan to take lots of pictures, so I will post them on the Facebook page for everyone to see :)

I did this mani last week, and I thought it would be appropriate for it to be posted along with this news - smiley face nails!

G is for Gradient

Afternoon ladies and gents!  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  Hopefully your babies (human or fur-baby) are treating you to a day of rest and relaxation!  Tyler and Owen just left, but I was just happy to have them with me for the morning, and this whole weekend :)

Today's post is for the ABC Challenge.  It's "G" week :)

G is for Gradient

Julep Nora with Stamping

Howdie ladies and gents!  It's the end of the week.. for me anyways ;)

So Wednesday I posted swatches of Julep Nora... well I did some stamping on it and wanted to post it separately because I am SO in love with the way it turned out!!

February Nail Art Challenge Day 6

Happy Friday polishers!  I haven't done much today besides shovel the driveway which took me about an hour.  We got some more snow last night :D  Tyler told me to tell it to stop, but I won't, hehehehe!  Tyler said that because I wasn't going to the gym today that I could shovel the driveway while he went to work - deal!!

Today I have for you my Day 6 design for the Nail Art Challenge - Gradient.

Christmas Sweater Nails

Merry Christmas Eve everybody!!  I am so excited that Christmas is (finally) here!  This is my favourite time of the year :D

Today I have my "official" Christmas nails for you - these are going to have to last over the next few days because I will be spending time at family get togethers and I think that I will get some funny looks if I whip out a bottle of polish and all my tools :P

I'm pretty proud of this mani if I do say so myself.  This is mostly for my cousins who love having "ugly Christmas sweater parties".

Pretty sweet, eh?!  For this I used Julep Delaunay as my base colour and then with Konad Special Polish in White and stamping plates M69 (snowflake) and M71 (lace patterns).  Then, to make it more "sweatery" I topped it off with Essie Matte About You top coat.

I am of proud of these, and unfortunately they took longer than I was anticipating (and a lot of q-tips) so I really hope they last until at least the 27th.

What is your favourite Christmas mani you have done this year?  Mine is this one, and my "Santa's Sleigh" nails from yesterday.

I also want to take this time to wish all my readers a Very Merry Christmas!  I will be away from the computer until the 27th at the earliest.  I do have a scheduled post for you tomorrow though, in case any of you have a couple minutes to log on ;)  I hope Santa's good to everybody, and be safe!

XOXO

Christmas Wreath Half Moons

Well, looks like we all survived December 21, 2012!  Who wants to make t-shirts?!  ;)  And to top it off, we got some snow last night so *breaks into song* it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today I have for you a Christmas twist on half moon nails - I have turned them into Christmas wreathes :D  I can't believe we are only 4 days away from Christmas day!  This month has gone by way too fast!  I remember when I was younger, December would always drag by so slowly because I was so excited for Christmas!  Christmas Day and Boxing Day also seemed to last forever too, but now it seems you do all these preparations for Christmas and then before you know it, it's all over.  Maybe we should do Christmas nails all through the year :D

Anywho, onto my wreathes...

For this I used 2 coats of Julep Alyson as my base colour.  Then with hole reinforcements, I created my half moon curve a little further down the nail than you normally would with a half moon and painted Avon Ruby Slippers on the tip.  After removing the reinforcements, I used Zoya Logan and my dotting tool to create the bottom of a wreath along the half moon line.  You probably could just do your nails half and half because the bottom of the wreath is what creates the half moon look in the end anyways.

Then using Julep Delaunay and my dotting tool again, I created little berries on the wreath :)  After all that, using Julep Felicity and Konad M71 I stamped bows on the bottom of the wreath.  It didn't stand out as much as I had pictured in my mind, so if you want it to stand out more, it would probably be best to freehand a bow rather than stamping.

I love the way this turned out!  Except for the bow not standing out as much as I hoped, it looks exactly how I pictured it in my head :D

Are you excited that we are so close to Christmas?  What is the favourite Christmas mani you have done so far?

Snowflake French Tip

Thank goodness it's Friday!  There are only 11 days left before Christmas, and it doesn't feel like it because we are missing lots of snow, and this year has gone way too fast!  I also just realized that I have been blogging for almost 6 months!  Sure doesn't feel like it!

I have another Christmas mani for you guys today!  I found this while browsing Google for stamped Christmas manis and found this design by Meliney, but altered it slightly to make it more Christmasy and I don't have the stamping plate she was using :)

Source (screenshot from the tutorial video)

Here is what I came up with:

For this design, I used Avon Ruby Slippers for my red tips, Bundle Monster stamping plate BM-319 for the snowflakes and Konad Special Polish in White.  I topped it with Jordana Crystal Glitter.

This is so Christmasy and I love it so much!  You could do this with any colour on the tips and it will look great!  I was debating on whether to do red or green and decided on red :)

Do you like it?  Have you ever watched any of Meliney's tutorial videos for nail designs?  Which one is your favourite?

Nail Polish Canada Challenge Week 1

Hello happy readers!  I hope all my US readers had/are having a wonderful Thanksgiving, and those of you who are out shopping in the Black Friday madness are being safe, and finding some awesome deals!!

Nail Polish Canada is having a Holiday Nail Art Challenge where bloggers can enter to win massive amounts of prizes :)  I saw originally saw this on Neverland Nail Blog while scrolling through my reading list on blogger.  I later found out the Nail Polish Canada sent out e-mails for this and was a little disappointed I didn't get an e-mail too, but I also haven't informed them that I'm a blogger so that may have something to do with it ;)

Anywho, the theme for the first week of the Challenge is Snow.  *sigh* I LOVE snow!  It's my favourite thing about winter.  I look forward to the winter season as soon as the last pile of snow is melted in the spring, and people around me, including my family, think I'm a little whacked.  I tell them "if you live in Canada, you probably should like snow" ;)  I really hate when people whine about it when the weatherman starts using the "s" word (snow) and the "f" word (flurries) when showing the forecast... you know where you live, you know what to expect :D

For this, I did some stamping.  I knew I had the perfect stamping plate for this theme - Bundle Monster BM-323, the full nail snowflake design :)  When I first got my Bundle Monster plates this is one that caught my eye (probably because of my obsession with snow ;) ).

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On and Julep Gunta (dark blue) as my base colours, and Julep Fina (metallic light blue) for the stamping.  I was actually undecided what colour combinations to use so I consulted with my youngest sister and my mom to decide.  My sister like the white with metallic blue flakes and my mom liked the dark blue with metallic blue flakes.  I decided to combine it and did my nails white with accent nails in the blue.

I hope you guys love this as much as I do :D  Make sure to head on over to the site to vote for my design, and all  your favourites!!

NOTD: Stamping and Rhinestones

Hello ladies.  Sorry this post is a little later in the afternoon than you are used to.  Tyler and I went shopping earlier today and I am just getting around to blogging now :)  I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend so far!

So yesterday I showed you Julep Sienna, a beautiful "white gold" shimmer that I think will be great for the Christmas holiday season.  When I wore it a few weeks ago, I decided that it needed something a little extra.  And I also wanted to do some stamping so I did :)

For this I used Julep Sienna as my base colour.  Then, with Konad Special Polish Black, I stamped on the crisscross design from plate #M79.  Then with Jordana Black I freehanded some French tips :)  Then, because I wanted to try out some rhinestones, and because I only had round ones in green, I applied them to the big dots of the stamp design on my ring and thumb nails.  With a fairly thick layer of top coat, these puppies were NOT coming off!  :)

I found myself petting my nails while wearing the rhinestones :)  It was kinda weird and I'm sure if anyone saw me doing it they thought I was nuts!  I love using the rhinestones and love what they add to nail art :)  Maybe the colour combination isn't the greatest, but I have some clear/silver ones now so I can use those for something like this rather than green ;)

Do you guys use rhinestones?  Do you like the look of them or are they too much for you?

Go Pink Wednesday October 3

Hello ladies!  So as some of you saw, I was thinking about doing a "Think Pink" Challenge on the Facebook page, but then Leanna Lawson commented, letting me know that Andrea over at Finger Painting Fingers is having "a Pink Wednesday thing".  So I headed to the Facebook page and found the link to her blog to check it out!  I e-mailed Andrea and got all the information, and here we are! :D

I'm sure we all know someone in our lives who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  One of my friends from high school, her mom had breast cancer.  I don't know the complete back story, but I know that they thought she was clear and it came back and she lost the battle the second time around :(  It makes me sad that there hasn't been a cure found for this, it is so common and you would think that with all the money people have donated and the technology of today it wouldn't be so difficult!  And I know the doctors tell us to check ourselves for early detection, but I will be the first to admit that I don't.  I never think of it, as bad as that sounds :(  I really have to try to remember!

I don't know all the avenues in which I can support cancer research, and with being in a small town it's hard to have access to these avenues if they don't come knocking on the front door, so to speak.  Any time I can, I make sure to support any organizations for all forms of cancer research.  I have chopped off my hair for cancer research in my local health care system and I donate money every chance I can.  If I had a before and after picture of my hair I would definitely post it here, I will have to do some digging tonight and will maybe add it later.  It was done at my high school and every one who participated in "Hair Off for Headwaters" raised money to go towards cancer research.  Then, when the day came, we were all called up on stage in our cafeteria (not during lunch ;) ) and we got our hair chopped.  Some shaved their heads, but I wasn't brave enough to do that.  The hair that is collected at Hair Off for Headwaters is taken to create wigs for people who have gone through chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  I cut about 6-8 inches off my hair.. I cried, but it was definitely worth it!  For me, it will grow back!  My younger sister also did Hair Off for Headwaters.  She did it for her friend who was battling a blood cancer (I'm not sure if it was leukemia) and later lost the battle at the age of 15 or 16.  I think my sister cut close to 10 inches off her hair.

*sigh* Ok, enough with the mushy/sad stuff.  When I saw how many ladies in the nail polish community were doing their nails in support of Breast Cancer for the month of October, I wanted to join in.  If I can't support it in any other way, I would love to say that I supported it through nail art :)

I decided last night that I don't have that many pink polishes, which is weird because it's a pretty "normal" polish colour and I do like pink as a colour.  I guess I'm just drawn to other polish colours before pink, probably because I think "I have lots of pinks!".  I do have more coming in the mail, but they aren't here yet.

For this I used Jordana Happy Days and L'Oréal I Will! white sponged in a gradient.  I didn't realize until I'm typing this now how fitting those names are for looking forward to beating Breast Cancer!

For the ribbon design, because I don't have the Bundle Monster stamping plate (and I wanted to do stamping for this) with the real cancer ribbon on it, I used the ribbon-looking design on Konad plate M63 with Jordana Prune Whip.  I absolutely love the look of this!  It's so hopeful looking and so feminine, which I really love!  I showed it to Tyler when he was at my house last night and he said I "cheated" because I used the stamping plate rather than painting the ribbon on by hand, lol!  What does he know?!  :)

Now, here comes the tricky part.  Andrea has asked me to include an inlinkz link to the blog post to keep everyone who is doing the Go Pink Wednesdays with us linked up.  I have never done anything like this and I'm pretty un-geekish, so here's hoping it works!  (According to my preview it does!  Lol!)  Make sure to check out what all the other ladies are doing! :D

Make sure you show your support for Breast Cancer Awareness and paint your nails pink with us every Wednesday of October! :D  You can post them to my Facebook page to join in on the fun!