Girly Girl Challenge Elegant Print

I feel like I haven't been around much! It started with football partying last Sunday, then the cocktail flu on monday, and then both of my children were down with strep throat the rest of the week plus I opened up my etsy store, Llama Lacquers, on Tuesday. Today was the first day I was actually able to go out of the house and be amongst the living.  I miss blogging every day :-(  But I think I miss reading everyone else's blogs and commenting on the beautiful manicures that my ladies do the most.  I feel like I'm neglecting other bloggers.  Sorry ladies....I love you!!!

On a good note, Llama Nails (my new group on facebook) had a great first challenge day! So many people posted and we are up to 62 members. I really never expected so many people to join.  Thank you to all of the lovely ladies who have joined and are participating! Oh, and saving the drama for the llama <3

Onto the nails.  This week's girly girl challenge was Delicate/Elegant print.  I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw this.  I have been waiting to use my bundle monster paisley stamp since I got it, and I was finally able to! I also used two new Sinful Colors I got from the $.99 sale from Walgreens.  I chose two different bases Leap Fog which I stamped with a metallic purple, and then I used a metallic SC called Hot Wired which I stamped with white.  I love the Leap Fog.  It went on completely opaque in two coats.  You could almost get away with one coat but it left a few bald spots. Overall I like this manicure.  I think the stamping could have been a little bit better (especially on the middle finger).  I do love the two color stamping on the accent nail! What do you think?

Base Coats-Sinful Colors Hot Wired & Leap Fog
Stamp-BM 315 using Maybeline Amethyst Ablaze & Spoiled Correction Tape

On another note, I love my new light box.  It makes all the colors look so life like.  But it sure does show every imperfection! I gotta work on that ;-)  

Thanks for stopping by.  And check out the other girls beautiful delicate manicures! 

A is for Autumn

In case you don't know I have recently started a new group on facebook called Llama Nails. We are a group of fun loving nail girls who just want to have fun with nails and keep the drama for the llama :-)  If you haven't seen....here is our adorable little mascot llama.  You know she wants you to do her nails, right?

So we have started a new challenge today called the ABC of Nails.  We will be going through the alphabet one week at a time! Each week we will post a manicure that contains something from the letter of the week.  It can be a polish name, a polish brand, an item on your nails, or even a technique.  These posts will come to you on Wednesdays! 

Obviously to begin with we are starting with A.  I wanted to do something different, but had a hard time coming up with something. The weather here yesterday was so beautiful.....almost fall like, so I decided to do an 'A'utumn manicure.  I love Autumn, don't you?  The smell of pumkin spice, crisp leaves, apple cider.  The sound of rustling leaves and kids playing outside.   Even the gorgeous colors of Autumn.  They have to be some of my favorite color combinations.  Russet oranges, dark reds, golden browns, and coppery colors.  I recently purchased an indie polish from Hit Polish called Autumn Harvest which is a gorgeous combination of sparkly fall colors.  I used this over gold and then did a gradient using some colors found in the polish with a leaf stamp on top.  I really like this gradient and I think it looks just beautiful next to Autumn Harvest and the gold stamp! I am so glad I get to keep this on for a couple of days!! Doesn't it make you want to take a walk in the brisk fall air and step on lots of leaves :-) 

Base-Milani Gold Dust
Glitter-Hit Polish Autumn Harvest
Accent Gradient-Ultra Pro Mossy Britches, Ultra Pro Burnished Bronze, & Finger Paints Picasso's Puce
Stamp-BM04 using Maybelline Bold Gold

Sorry if my cuticles aren't quite up to par :-(  Alas, so many other things going on!!

So, what's your favorite thing about Autumn??  

And hey....I have opened my polish store on Etsy, so please stop by and check out some of my Princess Bride inspired polishes! It's called Llama Lacquers :-)

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate all of your comments! Please check out the other ladies participating in this fun challenge.  Lots of really cool 'A' manicures!

Captain Jack turns One

I cannot believe that my baby boy is one years old today! It seems like just yesterday that I was holding in my arms feeling so unbelievably lucky to be blessed with another sweet child.  And being amazed that I could love this one as much as I loved my daughter.  Jack was an angel from the day he was born.  He has always been a smiler and brings joy to everyone who sees him! I am so going to miss the baby stage in my life. And yes, we are done.  Two is plenty! So here is to hoping Jack's second year of life is just as enjoyable as his first :-)

For the manicure I got to use a new indie polish from 365 Days of Color.  It is called birthday bash and it has a lovely white jelly base with fine blue glitter and multi-colored confetti like glitter.  It really reminds me of icing.  I wasn't too sure about it when I first put it on, but after the second coat I fell in love with it. I almost ate my fingers....but I took pictures first!

Base-365 Days Birthday Bash
Tips-Its So Easy White striper & Maybeline Blue Blowout
Accent-Spoiled Correction Tape
Stamp-BM 307 using Maybeline Blue Blowout

Happy birthday my baby boy! I don't care how old you are, you will always be my baby! 

Day 25-Bollywood Fashion

Today is inspired by Fashion.  I seriously had no idea what I was going to do for this manicure.  I searched pinterest. I looked at shoes and purses.  I even looked at my kids clothes.  Nothing was coming to me.  Then, while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance and one of the couples did a Bollywood dance and it hit me! I loooove the Bollywood clothes.  The sari is one of the most beautiful pieces of clothing I have ever seen. They use such gorgeous color combinations. All so bright and vibrant. Plus, the way they drape over a female figure is a truly unique and mesmerizing design.  I used to dream that I could wear one someday...maybe I still will :-) So, I went back to pinterest and the internet and started searching for a bollywood fashion design that I could recreate on my nails.  And let me say, I think I nailed it!!  (pun completely intended)  First, here is the design that I was inspired by.

I started with a purple base then striped in some teal.  I then stamped a similar pattern as the tear drops with gold and drew lines using magenta and gold.  For the accent nail I used magenta as my base, stamped flowers in gold and dotted the centers with teal. I am in love with them...and so was the Sally Beauty Supply check out girl (when I went to take advantage of their 50% off already reduced clearance stuff!)

Colors- NYC Purple Pizzazz Frost, Sinful Colors Rise and Shine, S.C Dream On
Stamp-BM223 & 211 using Maybelline Bold Gold

As I look at these I want to get up and shimmy my hips and put my fingers in the lotus pose.  What do you think of Bollywood? 

Thanks for dropping in! I appreciate all of your comments. 

Make sure and stop by the other girls' blogs to see what fashion has inspired them today :-)

Day 21-Inspired by a color

This is going to be short and sweet as my carpal tunnel has been really bad the last few days :-) I actually chose two colors for my inspiration, green and purple. It is probably one of my favorite color combinations and my daughter's room are these colors.  Sorry so short, heres the pictures

 I started with China Glaze Unpredictable. It is quite beautiful, but very hard to photograph

stamped with Maybelline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze plate m64

Pardon my lovely wrist brace :-P I photographed the last two the following morning. 

Hope you like them! What is your favorite color combination?

Come back tomorrow to see a manicure inspired by a song....I'll give you a hint, it is a song from a musical about a green lady :-)

As always, go check out the other lovely ladies participating!

Day 9-Rainbow Puzzles

So today was another first in my nail polish world.  I used two colors on one stamp! ooooooo, crazy right?! I was quite nervous about it because I wasn't sure I could do it right, but it turned out to be quite easy.  Some nails didn't turn out perfect, but all in all it was pretty cool! I also used the cute puzzle stamp from the 3rd bundle monster set for the first time today.  I have seen a lot of cute manis done with it and i have been wanting to use it.

I really had a hard time deciding what to do with the rainbow mani because I have seen so many out there that I want to try.....skittles with animal print, a rainbow dotticure, rainbow french tips. But in the end, this is what I decided to go with! Hope you like it.

Base-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Stamp-BM 319
Stamp Colors- Sally Hansen Rapid Red, Spoiled Jail Bait, SH Lightening, SH Lickety Split Lime, SH Co-Bolt Blue, Maybelline Amethyst Ablaze

I love the Sally Hansen Insta-Dry polishes for stamping.  They all work so well!!  I also love the Maybeline Color Show Metallics. It's awesome that there are good polishes out there for stamping that don't cost an arm and a leg.  

Thanks for stopping by. I love all of your comments.

Don't forget to stop by the other ladies blogs to check out what they are doing too!

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 5-Blue Mash

I have been eyeing this manicure on pinterest for some time now.  I have no idea who it belongs to as the link takes me to a social networking page that I don't have an account for.  But I have been wanting to do something similar and decided to do it for this mani.  I really like it.  I have so many blues and in so many different shades that I couldn't decide what to do.  I literally sat my blues out in front of me and stared at them until one of them told me which one to use. :-P I kid. No, my polishes don't talk to me, I'm not THAT crazy.  I did sit there for a long time trying to decide though.  Eventually, I decided to go with a metallic Maybeline and a glitter Finger Paints.  The Maybeline was called Blue Blowout, which I have only ever used for stamping.  I was a little disappointed in the application of it as it was very streaky.  I know this happens with metallics, but this was unusually so.  The Glitter was called Art you Wondering and took three coats to cover, which is also pretty typical.  Well, onto the pictures.

Metallic Blue- Maybeline Color Show Blue Blowout
Glitter Base- is Finger Paints Art You Wondering?
Teal Base-Sinful Colors Rise & Shine
Striper-Kiss White
Stamps-BM317 & m59 using Spoiled Correction Tape

This was my inspiration mani....if you want to see it on pinterest  click on the picture

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate all of your comments :-)

Check out the other ladies that are participating below.  It is a great way to see so many different and fabulous interpretations of one color! 

Day 2-Orange You Glad you joined the Coast Guard?

Happy day! I was able once again to fit two challenges into one mani! Day 2 of the 31 day challenge is Orange.  And today is the Coast Guard Challenge for my 52 week challenge.  How convenient she says.  The Coast Guard colors are orange and white.  Some might argue that it is more of a red but I know the truth since my husband was in the Coast Guard (keep reading and you get to see pictures of him in uniform!) I had put the Coast Guard on my schedule since the 4th is their birthday! Take a moment to sing Happy birthday to the Coast Guard.  I'll wait.  This year, they celebrate their 222nd birthday.  If you want to know a little more about the history you can check it out at the official U.S Coast Guard website. Just so you know, the Coasties are a crazy bunch of people.  My husband and his Coast Guard friends always have stories to tell that would make a sailor blush.  A Navy sailor, not a coastie.  Did you know that the Navy calls them the Hooligan Navy? Not very flattering, but true.  A fun bunch of folks!

Orange Base & Stripe-Spoiled Orange you Glad
White Base-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Blue Stripe-Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue
Stamp-QA5 with Maybeline Bold Gold

Why, so serious Stuart?  I mean Sir Cooke.

This was all before I knew him! 

HeHe. Look how cute he is....and how young!!

Well, thanks again for stopping by! I appreciate all your comments.  Come back tomorrow to see yellow nails! I have no idea what I am going to do yet, so I will be surprised too :-P

Before you leave check out the other lovely ladies participating.  Have a wonderful day!

Will 'O' the Wisp

I just recently went to see the movie Brave with my daughter.  If you are a mother of a daughter and have not gone to see it, you absolutely must!  It was a truly moving and adorable movie.  Not only was it a Disney movie where a girl didn't need to be saved by some boy, but it was a story about a girl coming of age and what it's like to butt heads with her mother.  What woman doesn't know what that is like!!  I don't want to give anything away but Holly and I held onto each other at the end and cried.  It was a very good bonding moment.  Part of the story involves a mystical creature from Scotland called the Will 'O' the Wisp.  The Will 'O' the Wisp is a ghostly light that leads travelers from their path into dangerous places or situations, often marshes or bogs.  In the movie it leads the young Merida to what she believed was her destiny. I find this idea to be both intriguing and just plain cool.

I also did these nails on the Will 'O' the Wisp for a contest for Nat over at No Holos! Frankens and Nail Art Blog.  This contest speaks to me in so many ways....being the history and nail nerd that I am.  The contest is all about history, myths, and legends.  How cool is that!  I am entering for the beginning stamper prize (as I am still a beginner).  The prize for this is Hard Candy Frenzy, CoverGirl Lip Perfection in Dazzle, and Nicole Save the Last Dance.  I sure hope I win!!  So, onto the nails.....

Base-China Glaze Agro
Flower stamp is Maybeline Color Show Bold Gold using stamp BM-316
Wisp stamp is Maybeline Color Show Blue Blowout using stamp m24

One of the things I love about art is that it is open to interpretation.  I love the little wisp and how it came out.  I would follow it through the woods ;-)

As always, thanks for looking and I appreciate all your comments!

This Little Piggy

This will be a short post.  I like the pedicure, but I don't like putting my toes out there.  But the Summer Challenge decreed it so here they are.

Base is Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings
Stamp is Maybeline Color Show Bold Gold using m64
and dotted with Essie Mojito Madness

These look a lot prettier in person.  I just don't know how to photo my toes.