Fairy Princess

Sometimes you have an idea and it doesn't quite come out right.  This was one of those :-P  Day 6 of my 52 week challenge was faries and I was so excited about it.  I even bought a nail polish from Target by Sonia Kashuk called Fairy Princess.  It was just gorgeous in the bottle and even is a pretty color on, but it doesnt cover well and leaves lots of blank spots.  But I covered it in the new Wet N Wild Prismatics so it was all good.  I love those btw.  They are so much like the China Glaze ones but cheaper! YEAH for spending less!! So, the color turned out just fine and I do like my little fairy....I even did some coloring in and some dotting.  But the stamping on the other fingers just wouldn't turn out right.  I stamped and removed, stamped and removed, and stamped again.  I think maybe one finger on each hand turned out ok. Oh well, you can't get it right every time.  So here it is.  What do you think?

I like this picture....it looks so pretty in the sunlight and the flowers behind

Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful week!!

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!

A Girl Can Never Have Too Many Shoes or Purses

Just a warning, this post is a bit picture heavy! I love the color of these nails and couldn't stop taking pictures.  This is Day 5 of the 52 week nail challenge.  If  you haven't seen my schedule check out the post in my blog roll.  Today's challenge was shoes and fashion. I like these stamps, especially the shoes, but really my favorite thing is the color! I found a new brand called Chameleon at Rite Aid in Michigan.  It really is like a chameleon...changing colors.  I plan on going back and getting some different colors! I took pictures of my nails at the three different stages of this manicure.  One with the base coat, one with the gradient, and then with the stamping.  What do you think of this color?

Chameleon-Nucleus

Just the base coat. What pretty shine!

Base coat from a different angle

I then added this Pettites Color Fever called Banish

I thought it gave another extra sparkle :)



Outside in the sun after stamping plates BM-307 & BM-213 using Spoiled Correction Tape

In the Shade....you can see the gradient better here

Thanks again for looking! Let me know what you think, I love to hear all of your 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

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!!