Cala Lily from D & R Apothecary

Have I told you yet how much I love the polishes from D & R Apothecary.  Well, let me tell you.  They are gorgeous! I now own eight of them.....three of which I won from their giveaway! YEAH for giveaways! Because I have been so busy I have only had the chance to try out two of them.  The first one I did was Champagne (which I blogged about a few days ago)  Today's color is called Cala Lily.  It is a shimmery white base with white, yellow, and green glitter flakes.  It really makes you think of spring flowers, Cala Lily's to be exact! It looks just lovely in the bottle and even greater on the nail.  

I've discovered that my favorite type of mani has one accent nail.  I find I have been doing this more and more.  What is your favorite style of mani?

Cala Lily is to the right

Yellow Base-Sinful Colors unicorn
Glitter Base-Kleancolor Holo Green
Indie Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cala Lily
Striping-It's So Easy Green, Yellow, White

I love how some of the white glitter made little flower patterns :-)

Did I mention that I also love the Kleancolor polishes?  I bought a bunch of new ones from Beauty Joint.  They are quite pretty.

Thanks for looking and 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!

Hooo's your momma?

My mother has always loved owls.  I always remember this large wooden carved owl that would sit in the foyer of our home that greeted me when I would come home.  No, it didn't actually talk, but sometimes I felt like it might.  So when I did my first owl nails with the new bundle monster plates I knew my mom would love them.  The first thing she said was "I want those!"  When mom asks, I give.  I didn't do the exact same nails, but I did use the same stamp.  My favorite part of these nails is the little owl on the branch.  My mom had no idea what I was doing and kept looking at them.  Of course I wouldn't tell her until I was done and she squeeled with delight! This is why I love doing this. 

Thanks for looking! Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest.  My camera was being stupid :-P

My Babies Birthstones

This week's Sunday Summer Challenge is Precious Gems.  I thought, ooooo girly stuff!  I wanted to do something with the gem amber but couldn't quite figure it out.  There are a lot of gorgeous gems out there, I even learned a little about gems through a Colored Gem Tutorial that was suggested to us by Emily Esqueleta Blasphemy who happens to be a gemologist. Check out her blog here :-) After a lot of thought I decided to go the birthstones route.  I don't talk a lot about my children on here because doing nail art is something that is for me, and it's good to have interests outside of your children.  But there is no doubt that my children are great inspirations to me.  My daughter is 4 and was born in April and my son is 10 1/2 months and was born in August.  Both have beautiful birthsto
nes.  April is Diamond and August is Peridot, a beautiful greenish yellow gem.  How lucky that those colors look so good together! I used a lot of polishes for this mani and I am still not sure how much I like it.  It has a lot of texture which I am not a big fan of.  But I think it looks pretty.  What do you think? 

as a base coat I used Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush and on the ring finger Sally Hansen Ivy League
For the tips I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and Spoiled Show Me the Money and striped with the Ivy League
I then globbed on glitter flakes from Studio M called Covered in Diamonds (how appropo)
I stamped with BM-315 using the Silver Shimmer and BM-317 using Milani Black Swift
I then added a small rhinestone

I love the little bows and I love my children :-)

If you want to know your birthstones....or someone you love, here is  a chart

 Thanks for looking!

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

Pretty in Plaid

I am loving this 52 week challenge because it is pushing me to do things I wouldn't normally do.  I don't love plaid and probably wouldn't have done this had I not scheduled it.   I am a shcedule whore.  I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to do free hand plaid or stamp.  I was tired last night (as I had just driven from Pittsburgh to Michigan)  so I decided to do the stamping.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  They feel Scottish and I want to come up with a clever name but I can't think of one.  What would you name these? 

Base coat is Milani Black Swift with two coats of Orly Androgenye
Stamped with Spoiled Correction Tape using m60
Striped using Wet N Wild Red REd



You can sort of see the sparkles from the Orly coat in this picture

Have you looked at my schedule for the 52 week challenge?  Check it out on my blog roll.  Maybe you want to do it with me! Thanks for looking

Pittsburgh Pirates

I'm a little behind....

This sunday's Challenge for Adventures in Stamping was Something I love.  There are a lot of things that fall into that category in my life.  My children, my husband, my family, the piano, books, my friends, my life :)  But at the time I was visiting some of my family in Pittsburgh.  *Quick fact....my whole family is from Pittsburgh and we're a bunch of nuts when it comes to their sports teams, the Steelers mainly! Only a few still live there but that doesn't mean our blood doesn't run black and gold*  I love visiting Pittsburgh and my extended family that lives there and on Sunday we went to a Pirates game!  I love a live baseball game too.  It was a good game, two homeruns by their star player McCutchen.  Unfortunately is so blazingly hot that my baby was not having a good time.  Anyway, here are my nails that I did in honor of the Pittsburgh Pirates!

This is the Pirates logo that I used as some inspiration

Base coat is Sally Hansen Lightning
The bandan is Wet N Wild Red Red and stamped in Milani Black Swift using BM19
Also, stamped ring finger with Milani using stamp BM 301
I used the Kiss black striper to draw the tips on the middle and pinkie as well as the P
The baseball is Spoiled Correction Tape white and the wet n wild Red Red

A few pictures from the game....

A gorgeous picture of the stadium!

My son, Jack

My daughter, Holly, in the middle and her cousins

Won't you Be my Neighbor

  I live in the best neighborhood ever.  We call it Mayberry.  I never in my life thought that I would want that white picket fence kind of life, but here I am and I couldn't be happier.  I decided that I was allowed to enjoy this kind of life because inside I am still that crazy girl who wanted to be a musician in NYC.  So, one this that comes with this awesome neighborhood is a group of amazing women who I can proudly call my friends.  They have been super supportive of my crazy nail addiction and they let me do their nails this week!

My friend Lynette liked my red, white, and blue nails so much that she asked me to reproduce them on her.  I love this girl.  Every day she is excited to see my new nails....most days she is the first to see them.  She is also a nicu nurse so can't really have her nails done, so this was extra special.  Thanks Lynette, you rock!

It was cool to do some striping on someone else's nails.  The lines are much straighter :)

My neighbor on the other side of me is Amber.  She was the first to agree to let me do her nails.  She is also super awesome (I say that word a lot) and pretty much agreed with whatever I wanted to do.  Thank you Amber!

Last but not least is another awesome nieghbor,  Mandy.  Mandy has gorgeous nails and was a real trooper with her two year old sitting on her lap.  (Who also ended up with a cutie patootie manicure)  Thanks Mandy and Evelyn!

A nice summery look :)  I had a few difficulties with the stamping today but other than that I think it turned out pretty good!

Such cute little hands :)  She sat so still and even let her nails dry.  She kept wanting more stickers.  "One More"  

So, thank you again ladies.  I am truly thankful to have moved here and to count you as my friends.  Let me know when you want new ones!!

Wedding Date

So very true :-P

Today, is day two of the 52 week challenge and the challenge was Argyle.  I think we all picture old men in golf socks or old socks when we hear Argyle.  But not me.  I think of the Wedding Date with Debra Messing and the ever so lovely Dermot Mulroney.  Everybody say yummmmmyyyy!  If you love a good and stupid romantic comedy check it out.  Anyway, there is a scene where Debra's character Kat is going to her sisters bachelorette shower and it is a golf themed shower at a local London Pub. So the girls dress in short skirts and Argyle socks.  I just happened to love her outfit and her socks!  Now for the life of me I can't find a good picture of those darn socks, but I found a much more enjoyable picture where you can see the tops of her socks :-)

As you can see the socks are a lovely pink and brown (if you can tear your eyes away from the boy)  I designed my Argyle nails in honor of those socks since they got to touch Dermot.  These are my favorite nails thus far.  I hope you like them.  BTW, no stamping 

Base is Sally Hansen Diamond Brillant Blush
Pink is Wet N Wild Tickled Pink
Brown is Spoiled Nirvana
Shiny Brown is Spoiled I'm Ba'Roque
and the White is Spoiled Correction Tape

I am proud that this is all free hand :)

On, one last note I discovered this Sally Hansen Diamond Brillant Blush which is the base for all my fingers but the ring finger.  I love it because it allows me to do french manicures where my nail bed looks almost nude.  It covers the yellow that has become my real nails.  Thank you Sally Hansen!

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!