Oh Christmas Tree

Hello nail friends. How are your holiday preparations going? We finished the last of our shopping yesterday (you know, getting it done early this year). It seems harder to get in the Christmas spirit every year. It's just always so busy with work and baking and seeing five different sides of the family it's easy for me to get burned out. I've been wondering what are your favorite Christmas traditions or things that help you get in the holiday mood? 

My favorite tradition from childhood is St Nick putting candy in your shoe every Sunday morning in December before Christmas. But only if you leave you shoe by the front door cause St Nick ain't got time to go looking for your shoe all over the house. We also learned that it doesn't do any good to try to trick him by leaving two different shoes. St Nick is smarter than he looks. I tried this tradition with my husband last year, but he kept putting away all the shoes! I guess St Nick also doesn't buy my excuses about why shoes need to be left out instead of going into the closet where they "belong."

I've got on two coats of Orly Jealous, Much? as my base. For the trees I taped off triangles and then sponged on the darker green, Revlon Colorstay Rain Forest. I used a small brush and Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold for the stars and garland detail. The ornaments are glequins from Born Pretty. These were really easy to do if you're looking for a last minute nail idea.

A Day Late and 42 Cents Short

Wow, I'm really on top of things tonight. I've caught the cold that everyone I know now has and my brain is working at half capacity. I will push through to bring you all some new nail art. :) I've tried my hand at some stamping again and it's nearly passable this time! I keep missing the tips and edges so I thought I'd finally spring for one of those fancy XL squishy stampers everyone talks about. I even have a gift card to use. I went on Amazon tonight all ready to place my order and my gift card balance is 42 cents short of the total. Sigh. Which obsession to favor more? Getting all the things for my nails or being extraordinarily cheap? 

I've got another polish to show you from one of my favorite bargain brands, Spoiled. This is one of the new shades called Fair Metal. It's a gorgeous pink foil that has a ton of shimmer. I spiced it up a bit with stamping and some individually placed glequins from Born Pretty. The thumb is plate BM-319 and the middle is BM-214 from Bundle Monster. I used Wet n Wild, Black Creme for the stamping. For the accent nail I used Spoiled, Daddy's Credit Card which seemed like a nice corresponding silver to the pink. I also added a coat of silver glitter which you can't really see- Sinful Colors, Queen of Beauty.

Meme Week: Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

Today is the last day in the Meme Week series. The theme of this challenge is inspired by Sweet Brown and the things that she (or anyone else) ain't got time for. If you want to see more of Sweet Brown including some funny videos check out Know Your Meme.

 

 

Today I wanted to try a manicure that I've been in love with since I first saw it. This one is by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails. Click here to see the original. I've never had time to recreate it though because lets be honest... ain't nobody got time (or patience) to sit there and individually place each piece of glitter for this mosaic style mani. Well, last night I blocked out the whole evening and made time. Here's the result:

 

 

 

I had some major bubbling issues with this one! Not only over the glitters, but for some reason on the plain nails as well. You can't really see it in person, but the camera really picks it up. This is one (probably too thick coat) of Wet n Wild Black Creme. I used glitter from Born Pretty which I placed individually using a toothpick dipped in clear polish. Horrible bubbles aside what do you think? Was it worth the time spent?

 

 

 That wraps up meme week. It's been fun and there has been some truly inspired meme art this week. I've really enjoyed seeing what everyone came up with. Check the links below to see what the other ladies ain't got time for today.



 

Nerdy Goes Nautical

I think I'm addicted to nautical stripes. Every time I see a nautical striped t-shirt at the store I'm convinced I need it even though I already have at least 3 in my closet. Of course I've been wanting to try nautical themed nails for a while now. Instead of the traditional anchor I went with a nautical star and added some glequin stripes.

 

 

I started with two coats of Wet n Wild, French White Creme. I used an x-acto knife and a self healing mat with the measurements printed on it to cut scotch tape into 1/8 inch strips. I stuck these on one nail at a time and painted over with Ulta, Moody Blues, then peeled the tape up while the polish was still wet. On the glittery nail I used an eyeshadow brush to tap on loose craft glitter from Michaels before peeling up the tape. The nautical star was drawn freehand using acrylic paint and a small nail art brush. I added red glequins from Born Pretty to the thumb and topped it all off with a coat of Out The Door top coat.



Laid-Back 31 DC: My Favorite Nail Art Technique

Can rainbows be a favorite nail art technique? I've been obsessed with chromatic groupings of colors ever since I got a Rainbow Bright book as a kid. I was mesmerized by all the red things on one page and all orange on the next. That's just the way colors should be right? One tragic day that book fell between the slats in the porch deck never to be seen again (well, at least not until several years later when the siding finally got rickety enough for me to pull apart a gap wide enough to squeeze through and rescue my now water damaged and moldy book). To this day I still arrange everything in my closet by color.

 

Ok, so maybe rainbows aren't, in fact, a nail art technique. I'll go for hand painted then. There's something satisfying about painting freehand. Even though the lines are a bit crooked I still feel a sense of accomplishment I just don't get from striping tape or stamping.

 

All stripes were painted with a nail art brush or the brush that comes in the bottle. Colors used (I think this may be my all time record): 30 plus base and top coat. I also stuck in a few glequins from Born Pretty for extra sparkle. Here we go- thumb to pinkie, base to tip.

 

Purples:

Ulta, Vintage Violet

Love & Beauty, Purple/Gold

Savvy, Deep Amethyst

Zoya, Julieanne

Victoria's Secret, Game On

 

Blues:

Sinful Colors, Calypso

China Glaze, Shower Together

Petites, Corduroy

Spoiled, Distant Memory

Ulta, Mint Condition

 

Greens:

Spoiled, Permission to Proceed

LA Colors, unnamed green

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails, Limestone

Finger Paints, Guggen I'm Lime

Nina Ultra Pro, Mossy Britches

China Glaze, Holly-Day

Revlon Colorstay, Rain Forrest

 

Orange/Yellows:

Zoya, Gabrielle

Wet n Wild, Sunny Side Up

Spoiled, Did I Dye It Too Blonde?

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, Expres-so Yellow

Sinful Colors, Unicorn

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Golden Rule

 

Reds:

Sinful Colors, Easy Going

Spoiled, Plastic Flamingo

Ulta, Eye Popping Poppy

Spoiled, Hit The Brakes

Finger Paints, Romanticism Ruby

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails, Brick Wall

Wet n Wild Megalast, Haze of Love



Laid-Back 31 DC: Inspired by Nature

Today's challenge was to be inspired by nature. Thinking about nature, the vastness, the beauty and wonder, there are a million things to take inspiration from. Of course I chose pond scum- or algae.. that definitely sounds cuter. I went with a swirling algae french tip look.

 

Picture found here thanks to Google.

I started with a base color of Wet N Wild, 2% Milk to help hide the staining on my nails (it kind of worked). After that dried I used painters tape to tape off the top part of each nail. I did a water marble on the tips using a pale, shimmery unnamed green from LA Colors and China Glaze, Holly-Day. I added green glequins from Born Pretty on one finger for an accent.



Gold Glequins

Today is my first non challenge related post in quite a while. I came up with this design while I was playing around with the glequins used in my St Patrick's Day manicure and it ended up turning out really cute.

 

 

I used Wet n Wild, I Need A Refresh-Mint for the three blue nails. Which leads me to ask why is this color named mint when it's clearly something between turquoise and robin's egg? The gold nails are two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Manicure, Golden Rule. I added the gold glequins individually to each finger for a little extra sparkle sparkle.

 

Laid-Back 31 DC: Cheer Yourself Up Mani

The theme for today is a "cheer yourself up mani" and I'd say this does the job. I don't have a go-to manicure that I paint when I'm sad or low on inspiration, at least not yet. That means my "cheer me up mani" is going to be something different every time and I like it that way. Rainbows, glitter and cheesy holiday themed nail art... how much better can it get?

 

I finally got to use the glequins I ordered from Born Pretty recently. If you don't know what glequins are yet be sure to check out this post by The Nailasaurus.

This manicure used a ton of colors (13 plus base coat and two kinds of top coat).

Blue background- Wet n Wild, I Need A Refresh-Mint

Gold- (just two coats- great coverage) Sally Hansen Complete Manicure, Golden Rule

Large gold glequins- Born Pretty layered on top of the small gold glitter

Red- Spoiled, Hit The Brakes

Orange- Wet n Wild, Sunny Side Up with Zoya, Gabrielle on top

Yellow- Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, Expres-so Yellow

Green- Spoiled, Permission to Proceed

Blue- China Glaze, Shower Together

Purple- Love & Beauty, (missing label)

Black- Wet n Wild, Black Creme

Grey shading on the pot o' gold- China Glaze, Recycle

Light grey background (thumb)- Sally Hansen Complete Manicure, Ion

White cloud- Finger Paints, Paper Mache

 

And since this post is all about cheering myself up I couldn't resist adding this adorable picture of a baby goat. I can't help feeling that I would have loved to study anatomy much more in school if it was more like this.