Day 23-JAWS!!!!!

I am going to be honest up front. I have never seen Jaws all the way through. Crazy, I know.  I have seen parts here and there, but to be quite frank....I'm scared.  Giant man eating shark. Enough said.  But I wanted to so something fun and a little bit dark so I chose to be inspired by this movie anyway.  I also have fallen waaaay behind on my 52 week challenge (I figure I have done a manicure every single day, the nail gods will forgive me) and yesterdays theme for that was Under the Sea.  Voila, I combined the two and you get Jaws nails.  I really am loving these 'inspired by' themes as I get to do fun free hand nail art.  It is really helping me get better and learn techniques to a steady hand.  I still suck at free hand on my right hand, but I'll get there.

For these nails, I used NYC Cashmere Creme for my ocean/sky base.  I then used Orly Grave Mistake to draw in the letters and the dripping blood. This is a PERFECT color for blood.  I can't wait to use it for all of my halloween manis in October!  The thumb is Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost.  Jaws himself is NYC Sidewalk and I used It's So Easy black and white stripers to do the details.  For my swimmer, I first used the white striper and then went over it in Sally Hansen Sorbet to give them a more natural skin color. On my right hand I got lazy and decided to stamp a shark on my thumb.  I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep with plate m27.  

My thumb was giving me trouble....the polish shifted :-(

Do you have a favorite ocean themed movie? Since Jaws is not my favorite I would have to say that U-571 is the best ocean movie....plus it's a WWII movie. Double score.

Come back tomorrow for a book themed mani that I haven't decided on yet. :-P It will probably have trees though!

Thanks for stopping by, and go check out the other lovely ladies who are participating

Day 17-Glitter Glitter Glitter

I love Glitter! I especially love indie polish glitter.  I have been looking forward to this for a while (many of the other patterns mani's don't appeal to me) There really isn't much to say though.  I used another D & R Apothecary polish called Ametrine.  I had no idea what ametrine was so I looked it up.  It is a gemstone that has both purple and yellowish gold tones to it. It's quite beautiful! This makes perfect sense considering the coloring of this polish.  I started with a gold base and then topped it with the Ametrine.  I created some abstract lines on the accent nail using the colors in the ametrine.  When I was done I thought it looked like a a Jackson Pollock painting.  I was almost tempted to save it for 'inspired by art' later on, but then I would have to take this off and I just don't want to :-P

Base-Milani Gold Dust
Glitter-D & R Apothecary Ametrine
Accent Base-Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost
Stripes-It's So Easy Yellow and Gold Stripers

Do you love glittery things as much as I do?  

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comments!

Don't forget the other ladies manis :-)

Day 14-Flowers

Let me start by saying that I am in love with these nails.  I am so glad that I did tomorrow's challenge nails first, so I can keep these on for two days :-P  I got my inspiration from a youtube video by LOVE4NAILS who does some amazing free hand nail art.  This video was actually of her painting her dominant hand....which i chose not to do this time around.  Anyway, I changed up a few things, but all in all it's pretty much the same manicure.  I used all striping paints, something I have never done before.  Let me know what you think!

Base-Sally Hansen Diamond Blush
Stripers-Kiss White, Kiss Black, It's So Easy Glitter Pink, It's So Easy Glitter Gold

Thanks for looking and hopefully reading! Don't forget to check out the other ladies participating :-) 

Day 12-Stripes, sort of

First of all....what do you think of the new look? I went purple...Holly's favorite color :-)

Ok, so I'm not totally sure if this counts as stripes.  I had an idea and it just wouldn't come to fruition, so I opted for just some crossing lines.  I hope I don't get kicked out or something :-P

I choose another D & R Apothecary (or as she is now calling her nail polish line Hit Polish) for my inspiration to this manicure.  Seriously, if you haven't checked her out yet you really need to do so! Her polishes are just amazing and she keeps making new ones all the time.  It's a gold mine!  I think I own like 13 already. The polish I chose was called Fiesta.  It is a clear base with teal, orange, and yellow glitters.  I especially like the bar glitter in this one. Gave it an extra special touch.  As I was doing this manicure I kept looking at the colors feeling something familiar and I just couldn't figure it out.  Then it hit me! Miami Dolphins!! Their colors are teal and orange. I lived in Ft. Lauderdale for 8 years of my life and although I don't care much for the Dolphins, it brought back good memories <3  Maybe this manicure will make you feel all warm and fuzzy too.  One can only hope....

This is without the lines (although technically since there is bar glitter I could have gotten away with it)

Orange Base-Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up
Teal Base-sinful Colors Rise and Shine (apparently there is a theme here)
Glitter-Hit Polish Fiesta
Stripes-It's so Easy Teal Striper

Tell me that glitter isn't gorgeous! This whole manicure just makes me want to get up and well....fiesta!!

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow for animal print and I will answer the question where do you get Strawberry Milk from :-P

Check out the other lovely stripe manicures from the ladies below

Day 6-Candied Violets

Two things I am in love with today:

1.  The new shape and equal length of my nails
2.  Another D & R Apothecary polish

It only took me 8 months :-P but i finally was able to get my nails to be pretty much the same length and figured out how to shape them correctly.  It sounds like it would be a simple thing, but it wasn't.  I don't know why, it just wasn't.  I love the rounded square nails, but was never able to get it right.  I finally figured it out.  I may be an idiot for it taking this long, but that's alright.  I think I was afraid to cut my longer nails even though they weren't the shape I wanted them to be.

So, today was day 6-violet.  I love purple.  (Because yes, purple is violet.  Potato, potatoe). It's almost up there with green.  I especially love purple and green together! But today, I stuck with just purple. It's so pretty that I almost want to eat my nails.  I used another D & R Apothecary polish called Candied Violets for my base.  I tried to go with the name of this polish for my inspiration....candy! yum.  I even used a candy stamp on my accent nail, although it is really hard to see. I really love this manicure....almost enough to not want to take it off tomorrow! Naaah

Such a pretty glitter with purples and whites....even some color changing glitters

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush then D & R Apothecary Candied Violets
Tips- It's So Easy Striper purple
Accent Nail Base-Milani Hi Res
Stamp-BM 306 using Maybeline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze

Here you can actually see the detail of the candy stamp :-)

Thanks again for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed today's mani :-)

As always, check out the other ladies who are participating in the 31 day challenge!

Day 3-Yellow Buzzz

This mani was supposed to be easy.  I had planned for it to take about 20 minutes.  Color, stamp, stripe, done.  HA! Of course everything that can go wrong with a simple mani, did.  The base coat went on great, but the humidity just wouldn't allow it to dry.  Painting the tips with the striper went alright, but my accent nail still wasn't dry.  So, I decided to put a coat of fast dry on to move things along.  Needless to say I ended up smudging that so I had to start all over.  This happened twice. GRRRRRR.  I finally got all that done and wanted to do one little bee stamp and it kept drying so fast that I had to stamp twice. So my bee looks all janktified (spelling?)  All in all it turned out alright and I sure do like this bright color.  The bee is so cute....he just looks like he's been chopped in half. :-P Buzz Buzz

Base-Sally Hansen HD Lite
Stripers- Kiss Black & It's So Easy Yellow
Stamp-BM301 using Kleancolor Black

Have a wonderful day! Thanks for looking and I appreciate all your comments.

Please check out the other ladies participating before you go 

Go for the Gold

I have Olympic medals planned for next week on my 52 week challenge, but the Summer Challenge was having the same challenge today so I decided to do it early.  Or, I may do it again next week. Who knows.  Anyway, I recently bought this gorgeous Ultra Pro called Gladiator and just had to use it for today's challenge. Yes, I know Gladiators are from Rome and the Olympics originated in Greece.  Still, they both competed in an arena.  Potato, Potato. :-P
Once again, I went into this with one plan and ended with something completely different.  I actually wanted to show silver, gold, and bronze but just couldn't make it work.  So instead I chose to go with the design of this years medal, which looks like this....

I love the off patterned lines and thought this was a great idea to put on my nails.  How do I put gold on gold was the tricky part.  Thankfully I have an It's So Easy Gold striper that is only a few shades off of my base color and it worked great!  Just different enough to stand out but not so different that you can't tell it is gold! 

I feel a bit guilty as I have not watched any of the Olympics this year.  I love the Olympics, I just haven't had time.  I am more of a fan of the Winter Olympics but still I love watching them...especially the swimming.  I did watch a snippet on the Today show about Race Walking.  Who knew this was a sport?  It looks a lot like a deranged form of mall walking.  I am sure it is exhilirating and hard. But it looks weird.  

Well, thanks for stopping by and checking me out.  I appreciate all of your comments!  

An Apple a Day

First of all, I had to switch up my 52 week calendar.  Today's post is supposed to be Coast Guard and Thursday's is supposed to be fruit. I switched them because the Coast Guard's birthday is next Saturday and that just made more sense. So, today you will get fruit and like it! :-P

Secondly, I now love Kleancolor! More importantly I love Kleancolor Black for stamping.  It is so nice and thick and stamps so dark! YEAH! 

Thirdly, Seche Vite top coat is my new best friend.  OMGEEEE are my nails shiny and thick.  Who knew? I mean, I guess a lot of people knew.  But I didn't know.  Now I know. Double YEAH!

Fourthly, I did some serious nail care today.  After looking at my last post, my cuticles were in complete disarray.  

And lastly, these nails turned out way better than I had planned.  It was a simple idea based around the new China Glaze Jamaican Out that just came yesterday in the mail and it just went from there.  I love it when that happens.  I also love when I am able to match my 52 week challenge schedule up with the Sunday Stamping for Adventures in Stamping.  So, what do you get when you take fruit from my challenge and  red and black from the Sunday Challenge? Strawberries you say? Watermelon?  No, apples of course!  And here they are....

Glitter Base-Spoiled Pirates Booty
Red Base-China Glaze Jamaican Out
Black-Kleancolor Black
Stripe-It's So Easy Gold
Stamps-QA18 using Kleancolor Black & SE18 using Wet N Wild Red Red

Thanks for looking! Hope you had a great weekend and I appreciate all comments!

She Sells Sea Shells Down by the Sea Shore

Tonights mani kills two birds with one stone.  That's an awful saying right? Who the hell was out killing birds with stones? Was it with a slingshot? It's a disturbing image.   Oh well, the point is I was able to do one manicure that covered both my Summer Challenge and my It's So Easy Nail Contest.  Friday's challenge is sea shells and the Nail Contest is Summer designs.  So voila! Two birds. One stone. This one took me an extra long time to do and it doesnt use any stamps just free hand baby.  Being that I am a beginner, I am proud of the work I did.  It's not professional or anything fancy like that, but I like it.  And it probably won't win me any awards, but it's purty :) What do you think?

As always your comments are appreciated! Thanks for looking

Baby, You're a Firework

I had no intention of doing another 4th of July nails, but alas my thumb was splitting and in desperate need of repair.  So, I decided to do another one.  I think I like this one even more.  I love me some fireworks.  I keep wondering how my baby Jack is going to do tomorrow during the fireworks.  I have a feeling he will not be sleeping through them.  I also keep thinking about how much I loved teaching about our American history to my 5th graders.  One of the projects we always did was to analyze the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner and do a project with it.  Considering it is our National Anthem most kids have no idea what the words signify.  *Prepare yourself for another history lesson*  Francis Scott Key wrote a poem in 1814 from a ship where he was being held captive by the English.  He watched from his room as the English attacked Fort McHenry,  hoping beyond hope that the Americans would hold the fort.  As the battle raged on he watched the American flag (the star spangled banner) hold fast over the fort and he knew that the American's had won this battle.  "The rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air" always gives me such an image of what the night sky must have looked like from that ship. The poem was later turned into a song to the tune of a song called To Anancreon in Heaven (have no idea what that means)  So fireworks are fun, but they are also significant of our battle to keep America independent.  Btw, this was not the American Revolution :) History lesson over. I feel like such a nerd as I knew all of that information by heart :-P

Also, thanks to the Chinese for creating gunpowder and the idea behind fireworks. Way to go!  And....on to the nails

Red-Wet N Wild Red Red
Blue-NYC Skin  Tight Denim Creme
Glitter flakes are Sally Hansen In the Spotlight
Stamp is BM 316 using Spoiled Correction Tape
Also used some stripers over the stamp.  The Silver is Kiss, the Gold and Pink is It's so Easy

On, one last note.  Adding glitter flakes is not as easy as it looks.  You cannot paint it on like regular nail polish.  To get a good coverage you need to dab it on because a lot of the glitter is just like clear polish and is not always saturated with the glitter flakes.  Just a helpful tip.  Hope you enjoyed looking!