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Friday, August 30, 2013

Fun with Brown

Already this morning, I have done two loads of laundry, changed the sheets, fed the hummingbirds, watered my plants and cleaned my 30 gal fish tank.  All by 0800. Now I'm tired.  Next weekend I need to clean my house.  It's at that point again where the tumbleweeds of fur are starting to takeover.

This morning I counted eight hummingbirds!  I'm betting I have more than that, but I personally saw at one time, eight hummies buzzing around my house.  I absolutely love that!  When you pull into my driveway, you see all these tiny birds just zipping around.  They buzz me when I refill their feeders.  I've been doing this for 12 years now and I have no idea the life span of a hummy, but by now they are used to me.  I talk to them. I'm pretty sure I've already told you this.

Two weeks from today (at least the day I'm writing this) I'm on vacation.  WOOHOO! Off to Canada to fish my heart out.  I will definitely show you guys pictures like I do every year.

The sun finally came out for today's mani. You ought to know what that means right?  Yup holo time!  I just got in some new brown polish and I just had to play with them.  You know how I just live for brown.

Here is the silly bottle shot.



This is Zoya Flynn and Louise with Glitter Gal Belgian Chocolate in the middle.  I have been lemming this Glitter Gal for quite some time now.

I started with a skittlette of these awesome browns.  Here are the starting shots.

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This Glitter Gal is a stunning reddish brown holo.  The Zoya are amazing as well.  I'm sure you've noticed the nubs have returned. I also did not do straight squares this time.  I want to see if it makes a difference.  These are more sqouval.

Next I placed a bunch of tape.  Here is that step.


Next I filled in the spaces with the different browns.  Here is that step.


I was so excited to play with these new browns that I didn't really think about how they'd go together.  The pattern ends up being hard to see on some of the nails.

Next I did some clean up.

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Yeah, not my best color choices.  I did some more clean up and added studs to the center.  Here are the results.

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Even though it's hard to see, I am in love with this.  Because it's brown!!!!  Plus that holo is amazing.  I am having fun doing these tape manis.  I really need to try gradients at some point.  It's on the horizon.

What do you think?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Earth Tones

I'm sitting here, eating Lucky Charms cereal out of the box trying to come up with something to talk about.

At work this week, we all got brand new computers that actually run Windows 7. Plus I got a huge 21inch screen.  I'm feeling all sorts of important.  In reality, all the computers where I work are being replaced.  It's about freakin time that they are mainstream.  It's nice and fast too.  The problem is, we have been using Word 2003, now we have Word 2010.  Exponentially harder in my opinion.  I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that now.  Most of my job uses Word so I will need some time to adjust and figure out what I'm doing.  It's definitely slowing me down at this point in time.

My other issue today is with Zoya.  I'm pissed as hell.  I have been waiting forever to buy their new Cashmere collection and waiting for a sale.  Well none ever came so I caved and ordered it.  The day they arrived at my house?  Zoya decides to have a BOGO.  I could have gotten this set at half price.  You had best believe that made me very mad.  I tweeted Zoya, I emailed them and I called them.  I was told sorry there is nothing we can do.  Most companies will let you have the sale price especially when it's within a week like this was.  Nope.  I'm screwed.  Trust that I will NEVER buy Zoya again and never again unless there's a sale.  That's just bad customer service.

After this let down, I had to hit the grocery store on my way home from work.  I'd been putting it off for far too long.  Guess what happens?  It starts pouring rain and I mean pouring hard.  I had no umbrella and was forced to shop and sling groceries in the rain.  I got soaked, my groceries got soaked and to top it all off??  I broke a nail.  Yup.  Topped off my very bad day.

I've decided that my nails just may not be able to handle the square shape.  Every time I finally get some length past my finger, I break a corner off and have to nubbinize.  I think I'm going to have to rethink my nail shape. I'm tired of this happening every time.  Today's post will be the one before the broken nail.

Next time, I will be showing off a new shape.

Here is your silly bottle shot for today.


Oh how I love these kinds of colors.  This is Bettina Earth and Trend, Nails Inc Fenchurch St and Joe Fresh Caramel, Moss, Teal and Khaki.

I started with a Skittlette with the Joe Fresh.  Here are those shots.

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How awesome are these colors together???  I live for colors like this.  Next I placed a lot of striping tape. Here is that step.

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You can see I almost forgot to take this picture!  I filled all these spots in with the rest of the colors.  Here is that step.

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I then removed the tape and did some cleanup.  Here is that step.

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I'm not sure if the blue nail goes with the rest as it is so different.  Anywho, I then did more cleanup and added studs to the base of each nail.  Here are the very cool results.

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I happen to love this.  I love the colors, I love the design.  Now that I have the new Zoya Fall colors, I'll be playing with more colors just like these.

What do you think?  If you follow me on Instagram, you would see this a week sooner!

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Monday, August 26, 2013

Funky Fun

Before you get all bummed that this mani is going to revert back to my funky french stand by, read on.

I showed you last time my first try with studs.  I decided I really liked that and wanted to play with them some more.  Plus I ordered some other types that I can't wait to get!

Know what I'm excited about at this moment?????  New Lady Gaga music!  I am in love with her and her music.  I can't get enough of it.  She recently released her new single and video for the song called "Applause."  If you haven't heard it yet, go to YouTube immediately and hear it.  It's amazing.  Her new album doesn't come out until November and I am dying to get my hands on it.  I just ordered myself a copy of V Magazine that has her on the cover.  Yes I'm obsessed.  I've already marked my calendar for the preorder of the CD and the release date of the CD.  I'm just hoping that her new album isn't as religious as her last one.  I just couldn't get into that part of it.  The album still rocked, but I could have done without that.

Now I'm not going to get into some huge religious discussion.  I'm not opening up that can of worms as they say!  Let's just say that like all things I've talked about on here, I have very strong opinions.  I'm just smart enough to not bring up religion here.

Let's get down to business shall we?

Here is your silly bottle shot.


This is Bettina Peppermint, Contrary Polish Greenhouse and Orly Au Champagne. The studs from MoYou are in front.

I have to say as much as I'm loving these fun manis, I'm tired of the white base coat. I need to figure out a different color scheme to not start with white.  This is the second post in a row that started with this Orly.

I am in love with this white, but come on-two posts in a row??  Here are the starting shots.

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It's been a few days since the sun has been out when I'm doing manis, so again, no sun shots.  Isn't this white gorgeous?  I do really love it.

Next I placed a bunch of tape.  This is a pain in the butt.  Here is that step.


You can see, I started painting these blocks and remembered to take pictures for you!!  Just think of how much time placing all this tape took.  A ton of time.  This is another three hour mani people.

So I colored in all these blocks I created.  Here is that step.


Obviously, this is precleanup.  Are you with me so far?  Next step is with the cleanup and tape removed.


Pretty cool right?  Next I added one stud per nail right in the middle. Finished up with top coat and here are the very cool results.

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How freakin cool is this?  Even though it took forever, I love it!  I'm still not used to the feeling of a stud on my nails.  I kept thinking I had something stuck to them. They did stay on for the two days I wore this so that made me happy.

What do you think of this?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?


Saturday, August 24, 2013

I'm a Stud

HEHEHE. I just had to do a silly title.  I'm on my third post  and am getting a little silly and tired!  I'm trying to get a week's worth of posts ready to go, just in case something happens I don't have to worry about things.  I normally do this and it makes me feel less stressed when I know my blog is caught up.

Now since this is posting on Friday and I haven't lived the week yet, I have no stories to tell.  What I do know is that I got my hair done and my hairdresser said that the next time she sees me my vacation will have come and gone.  Five weeks from now my vacation will have been lived and over with.  YIKES.  Yes I am very excited that the time is coming for me to go to my very happy place and fish, but I had no idea it was coming this quickly.  I need to figure out how many bottles of polish to bring to do my niece's nails.

Let me tell you, she's fishing like I was at her age and I think it's awesome.  She's six and the cutest thing ever.  I hope to be her favorite aunt.

Anywho, I got some new plates in from MoYou and she sent me some studs to play with.  I have yet to try studs and I thought that sounded like a very cool thing to try. I had also seen a very pretty mani on Instagram and thought I could put my spin on it.

It didn't turn out as well as hers, but not quite a fail in my book.  I'll let you decide.

Here is the silly bottle shot.


This is OPI Eurso Euro, Orly Au Champagne, Bettina Vanity and Lime Crime Pastelchio.

I started with a mani using the Orly and the Bettina.  Unfortunately, these two colors are so similar it's hard to tell them apart.  The mani I was replicating used a nice pink and a very pretty gray.  I realized I own ONLY ONE gray polish.  WTF? I must ask her what she used because it's so pretty.

Here are the starting shots.

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This Orly is my all time favorite white.  It just sparkles and I love it.  I did have to file my nails down for the first time in months!  Yes once again, I tried to get them square, but my eyes must be stupid, because looking at these pictures, they still aren't square!  I had to file them because I broke the ring finger.  It was my first time using a glass file as well.  I really liked that!

Now again, I forgot to take step pictures.  I promise to do better.  Here's what I did.  I placed striping tape on two fingers and added the blue on top of the white to have half and half nails.  I added dots of the opposite colors.  I attempted my first time at making flowers-huge fail there and then placed studs across the half and half nail line.

I know, I should have taken pictures!  Here are the results.

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The mani I was replicating was way prettier than mine.  The two colors she picked contrasted better, plus her flowers looked like flowers.  What I did was dot the dark blue and white on top of each other and used a toothpick to swirl.  Then I added the green leaves.  Obviously, I need to look up a rose tutorial before I attempt that again! If you cross your eyes and look from far away, they might pass as flowers!

The studs are awesome!  I love these.  They do make my nails feel funny and I keep thinking I have something on my nails, but I'm going to definitely use them again! Thank you to MoYou for letting me try out your studs.  I love them!

What do you think?  Fail or not?

Until next time people.  Any thoughts out there?