Hothouse Flowers

I haven't done a mani for the summer challenge in a while.  But as it is almost over, I thought I should do one!    Today's theme was hothouse flowers.  I assume hothouse is another word for greenhouse.  I know, stupid American :-P  When I saw this topic, I pictured brightly colored flowers.  So I chose some bright colors and free handed some petals.  These will most likely be the only flowers I can keep alive...well until I take them off.  But I like these so much, I may keep them on for more than a day or two!  I started with two colored bases.  Then on two of the coral nails I did a gradient with the purple.  I then free handed the yellow petals on each nail.  I added some dots for a contrasting and complete look.

Coral-Sinful Colors Hazard
Purple-Wet N Wild On a Trip
Flower-It's So Easy Yellow Striper

I really am quite proud of the work I did.  I only wish I could free hand with my left hand better.  Practice makes perfect!

Thanks for stopping by! What are your favorite flowers?

Pop Up Video

Hello all! Hope everyone's labor day weekend was great.  I had a nice time with some neighbors at the pool drinking beer.  It was a good day! I ended up in bed by 8:30.  Jeez. The polish I have for you today is what I was wearing over the weekend.

As you know, my favorite indie polishes are made D & R Apothecary.  The lovely Rachel makes so many unique and inspired polishes but sometimes she can't think of a name.  She holds contests on her FB page to name some of these polishes.  Her husband and daughter chose the winner and that person wins the polish. She recently held a contest for two polishes, one of which was a multi-colored glitter polish that had colors reminiscent of the 80s.  I thought of the name Pop Up Video and I won!! I realize that the show Pop Up Video was on in the 90s, but many of the videos that they showcased were from the 80s.  Apparently this how has returned on VH1, but since I hate today's music I have no desire to watch it.   So, today I have a swatch of that polish for you! I just love it.  I didn't do anything special, just swatched it over a base coat of Misa Spaced Out.  I thought it made the colors of the glitter "pop" out.  hehe

If you haven't checked out D & R Apothecary you really need to.  They are closing the Bath and Beauty part of their shop and will only be doing nail polish.  The name of her polishes is Hit Polish.  Check it out.

Girly Girl Challenge-Day 1

Spur of the moment thing.....doing another challenge.  Thankfully I am only doing it once a week.  It looks like a lot of fun and gives me an excuse to be girly :-P  This challenge was created by Lindsey at the Neverland Nail Blog

Day 1 (or week one) is Think Pink.  My favorite pink that I own is Milani Pink Out Loud.  It is such a bright and shimmery dark pink that always looks great! I also decided to use one of my own polishes from the Princess Bride Collection called As You Wish.  I'm glad that I did this, because it gave me a chance to see what I need to change about the polish....it needs more concentration of glitter! I was having a hard time picking it up as you will see.  The glitter is a little sparse.  Even still, I think the mani is pretty and oh so girly!

Base- As You Wish by ME
Accent and diagonal french-Milani Pink Out Loud
Striper-It's So Easy white
Stamp-BM317 using Spoiled Correction Tape

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think :)

There are other ladies participating, but I do not have the linky's code yet.  I promise to get it soon! I do know that The Cute-icle Chronicles is participating so you can check her out to start with!

Llama Nails & the Princess Bride

For starters I wanted to let you know that I have started a new group called Llama Nails on Facebook.  Courtney from the Cuticle Chronicles and myself will be the admins and we would love everyone to join in on the fun!!  We will be doing manis on Wednesdays.  We have not set a starting date yet but we will be beginning with the ABC's of polish.  Let me know if you want to join! We would love to have you :-)  Just don't bring any drama......that's what the llama is for.  We save the drama for the llama.

This is our mascot....isn't she cute and you want to paint her nails?! 

Now, my big news.  Announcing this may be a little premature, but I am so excited I can't contain it any longer.  I have decided to make indie polish to sell!!  (you are all clapping I know)  

When I first got into nail art I knew nothing about indie polishes.  After a few months I was introduced through swatches to indie sellers like Dollish Polish, 365 Days of Color, and Vivid Colors.  I love glitter and all things homemade so naturally I was intrigued.  It took me a while to buy one and when I did I fell in love.  What I love about indie polishes is the thought behind them. The personalization of it all.  I love that all of my geeky loves are put into color and glitter to parade around on my nails. Most of my current stash is from D & R Apothecary and I am a loyal follower and buyer of her polishes. But being the DOER that I am, I wanted to try this out.  I wanted to create polishes that show my love for color and design and all things nerd. So I spent a few months doing some research and I kept coming up with these ideas for 'collections' of polishes. I talked to my husband about it and he thought it was a great idea! He gave me the go ahead to buy the materials I needed  and a whole new child was born :-P  

I have created my first set of polishes all based on The Princess Bride.  We are still in the experimenting phase, but I wanted to share with you what I have planned and what I have created thus far. I am pretty geeked if I do say so and so far my husband and neighbors have given me some thumbs up so I am feeling very confident.  I would love to know what you think as well and if you would want to buy any of these.  Let your friends know, tell your neighbors. Hey, tell your friends neighbors.  Tell your Aunt Susie's cousins brothers wife.  Just send them over and have them take a look.  I apologize if the pictures aren't that great.  I need to figure out how to photograph polish better.  

The first polish I made was called 'Hello, My name is Indigo'. (get it?)  It didn't work out quite right, so I am in the process of tweaking it and making it perfect. No pictures of that yet.

The second one is called Princess Buttercup.  A yellow glitter polish with yellow flowers. 

Who doesn't love and hate Princess Buttercup? With her holier than thou attitude but ever lasting 

love for dear Wesley!

I think this would love just lovely over a cream base

The next polish is called As You Wish.  A pink base shimmery base with matte pink hearts and turqouise hex glitter. 

                                                                        

As You Wish really means I love you.  I chose the turquoise to represent Wesley's beautiful eyes that looks like the sea after a storm. 

 

Maybe over a dark pink base or even white

Next, we have Iocane Powder.  A white pearl base with irridescent fine glitter and burgundy bar glitter.

My favorite scene in the movie.  The red bar glitter is representative of the wine that Vizzini and the Man in Black drink during their battle of wits.  Nothin beats the line.  "Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line! HAHHAHAHA!" and then he dies.

I think this would look great by itself or even over black.  I also think this looks better with one coat instead of two.  It almost is too thick with two. 

And last we have The Dread Pirate Roberts.  Although I just came up with a catchier name as I was writing this....the Mani in Black. hehe. A black base with silvery black and black hex glitters. 

The best character in the movie.  When Wesley becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts and is so dashing and courageous. I love me some Cary Elwes <3

I love the way the mica used in this polish gives it an almost grainy look.  It reminds me a bit of stone.  This would be great over silver or grey. 

Well, I hope you are as excited as I am! I can't wait to get them up for sale and for people to try them out! 

Please let me know what you think.  I love you guys :-) Oh, and help me come up with a name to call my polish! So far I have come up with Mayberry Nails (there is a story behind that) or maybe even Llama Nails! Any and all suggestions are welcome

Day 30 & 31-Final Days

So this is it!  I completed the 31 day challenge in 31 days straight! I am quite proud of myself...if that's ok :-) The first time I did the challenge it took me about two months.  I may have fallen a little behind this past week, but I did it! WOOHOO! You can cheer for me if you want, I don't mind.

For day 30 it was Inspired by a Tutorial.  Let me tell you there are some great tutorials out there!  I watched about a million on youtube and just couldn't decide. So much talent out there! In the end, I chose to go with my favorite video tutorial girl Raquel at Love4Nails. She has so many unique, creative, and artistic designs that I think are amazing.  I hope to be as good as her someday.  I chose to recreate one of her flower designs again.  I went with different colors, but the idea is still the same.  They started out ok, but I had a hard time getting the flowers right.  I think I need to remember that my nails aren't nearly as long as hers and I must accommodate for my short nails next time.

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush
Diagonal French-Essie Mojito Madness
Flowers-LA Colors Art Deco Pink striper & Spoiled Correction Tape
Leaves-NYC Big Money Frost

I wonder if I had stuck with her colors they would have looked nicer.  Also, she uses acrylic paints instead of polish.  I have so much polish it seems silly to buy something else to paint with :-P If you want to see her tutorial, check it out here.

Day 31 was to recreate your favorite mani from the challenge.  Someone in the group suggested that we recreate someone else's mani that we liked.  I thought this was such a sweet and kind suggestion! Problem is....which to choose! Such wonderful work was done and it was so hard to pick! After looking over the pictures so many times I kept being drawn to one in particular.  It was a simple but pretty manicure done by Carina Martins at Polish it All.  On Day 5 she did a blue manicure that I fell in love with.  It was a beautiful teal blue base and on one accent nail she made scalloped clouds in one corner.  She did such a nice job! Here is her original one

Go to her post to see more pictures!

I did an ok job recreating this mani.  I couldn't quite get the scallops right, but in the end I thought they looked quite pretty.  I did add a little something because I love using my D & R Apothecary polishes. So I added one called Cloudy Skies over the non-accent nails.  Pretty appropo don't you think!

Base-Spoiled Toadally Amazing
Scallops-Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint & Sinful Colors Rise and Shine
Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cloudy Skies

Well, I can't believe it is over!   I think either the Bollywood or the Violet Day were my favorites.  What would you say was yours? 

I will be starting a few new things over the next weeks or so.  I've got the Princess Bride, a Time Warp contest,  the ABC's, and a possible giveaway!  Make sure to come back tomorrow and you may just find out what some of those things may be!!  

Thank you so much for all of your support and wonderful comments throughout this challenge.  You are more than appreciated! This whole adventure wouldn't be nearly as much fun without my beautiful followers!

Ok, now go check out some other awesome manis!

Day 29-A Mermaids Call

In many coastal towns, it is believed that fishermen long to catch the beautiful mermaids that live in the sea.  If they catch one, the mermaid must come to land and live with him as his wife, grant him wishes and he will be forever happy.  Alas, the mermaid will spend the rest of her life feeling the call of the ocean, longing to return to her home in the sea.  But bound by the mythical rules that govern her to stay with the fisherman she is unable to do anything about it.  The only way that she can return is if he loves her enough to set her free.  I find this tale both sad and intriguing.  It inspired me to do some mermaid nails for Day 29, inspired by the supernatural.  I have been wanting to do mermaid nails for a while but I don't have the stamp that I see so many others use to accomplish the mermaid scale look.  Instead I chose to use dots to create a fish tale like scale on my accent nail.  After completing it I started to think they looked a little like the Rainbow Fish :-P Oh well, a talking shimmering fish in the ocean is supernatural too, right?

Base-Sinful Colors Let me Go topped with China Glaze Prism
Accent Nail Dots- Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, Sally Hansen Silver Sweep, WnW on a Trip, S.H Co-Bold Blue

What do you think of when you hear the word supernatural? My husband said ghosts. ooooooooooooooo

Thanks for coming by today! Only two more days left in the challenge! Then, I will have some news to report that I just can't wait to tell you about!!

In the meantime, check out some of the other supernaturally inspired nails :-)

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!