Thanksgiving Catch Up

Between school and work, things have gone into overdrive these past couple of weeks!  I have 3 more finals, a final paper, and 9 more days of work before I get a break and time at home!  I canNOT wait!
So, since I got behind and it's now almost Christmas, I'll just do a quick post with the two Thanksgiving looks I wore this year.
This first one is inspired by this look from the Tumblr Sabzii's Nails.  I first saw the mani on Pinterest and fell so in love with the Funky French she did.  Her little feather is amazing and I knew not to even attempt that!  So, I used some of my amazing decals from RLR Creations Nail Art. 

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*OPI DS Opulence
*China Glaze Fairy Dust
*2 coats Out the Door

I tried to find out what polish she used for her mani because it is gorgeous!  I didn't get an answer, though, so I did my best and was really impressed with how close this was!  I used DS Opulence, a pretty, dusty rose with scattered micro particles and dabbed on Fairy Dust for some larger holo pieces on top.  I used two different decal, one on each hand.

Ignore that smudge on my middle finger and look at how awesome those decals are!  They are so easy to use and come out amazing every time I've used them!

My second look was my attempt at this little turkey from All That Is Gorgeous.

I used Essie Mochachino for my base.  Then, I went mainly to my China Glaze Capitol Colors--Mahogany Magic for the body of the turkey and Riveting for the orange feathers/dots.  I used OPI Dane-shiny Red and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Man-go Team! for the other feathers.  His body and head turned out...not as I imagined.  I loved the dots, though!  Overall I'm totally envious of how awesome the turkey was that I worked from, but this wasn't too bad at all.  My little cousins thought he was fun, which is really all that matters :)

Back to school...

I've been wanting to try chalkboard nails since the 31 day challenge at the beginning of the year.  A contributor in The Crumpet's Nail Tarts posted some and I forgot to write down her name, so if you posted them back in January let me know!

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener
*2 coats Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out
*OPI Danke-shiny Red
*China Glaze Mahogany Magic
*Color Club striper in White
*1 coat Out the Door
*1 coat Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love

I fell in love this the pin I found of apple nails Cosmetic Cupcake did, so I added it as an accent.  I used a small paint brush and Danke-shiny Red for the apples and just a dash of Mahogany Magic for the stem.  I left these shiny and like how they turned out.

I used Black Out for my chalkboard base and painted in white over the top.  Things got a little dicey on my right hand, so these did not get worn out in public, but at least I gave it a shot!  I can never quite find the right brush to use when it comes to freehand art.  I was going to use a small paint brush for the letters, but decided to give my striper a try.  The brush on it is very thin but long, and did not give me the control that I needed.  Yeah, that was supposed to be a heart on the pinkie...oh well!

I really like how these looked.  I'm going to give them another go with a little more work on the art part, but if you haven't tried chalkboard nails, I recommend them--they are easy (in theory) and super cute!  More importantly, for me, they are a little love letter to my momma as she starts the first grade!

New 31DC: Inspired by a fabric

I was a little panicked trying to think of how I can make a mani around "fabric."  I am not very into fashion, so I don't see a lot of inspiring looks.  Then I remembered my duvet.  In my first 31 day challenge, I used my current duvet as my pattern inspiration.  This one is based on the one that I have stored right now that I love.  It's packed up right now, so I didn't pull it out to photograph.  Here's a link to it, though, that I found.

*1 coat Yello-Out
*1 coat China Glaze Mahogany Magic
*Zoya Zuza, Meg, Kimber, Carly and Myrta
*1 coat Out The Door

This look also let me use my 2 favorite collections from last year.  I keep coming back to colors from China Glaze Capitol Colors and the Zoya Surf collection.  A-mazing!  Because I knew I was going to be using a lot of dots, I just used ONE coat of Mahogany Magic.  I love any time I can get away with just one coat of a polish!

 

 

The Surf colors were actually really close to the colors of my duvet, a bit dusty or jewel-toned.  These are just gorgeous on the nail and, I think because of their shimmery/foil finish (just look at it out of focus there!), are great coverage.  IF I were a stamper, I think that these would probably be really great to use.  I was just about to remove this to do a little catch-up for yesterday (things are a little messy in my family right now, so I didn't get to a challenge) but I think that will have to wait until tomorrow so that I can wear these for a full day...you understand, right?  Some polish is just too pretty to let go of!

 

"You'll go down in history!"

I've been having a Christmas movie marathon for my "weekend" because I miss most of them while I'm working.  I LOVE Christmas movies!  Except Frosty--that one is really weird.  Anyway, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of my favorites, so here is my little homage to his story:

I love this movie!  Hermie's quitting makes me a little too eager to leave my job.  Yukon makes me laugh.  I love his dogs.  I want to cuddle the little dolly.  I even look past Clarice's "There's Always Tomorrow" and Santa being kind of a tool. 

 *2 coats Wet 'n Wild Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire?
*Sinful Colors Why Not
*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out

Don't you just hate macro shots sometimes?  When I see those darn smudges in photos that aren't visible in real life it kills me!  This picture is really not color-true, either, but photo editing is a big world I'm not quite ready to dive into yet.  Why Not is a darker, dustier blue than this shows.  I used these cute yellow umbrellas that Holy Manicures painted (and their base) as my inspiration.  These little guys brought all of the misfit toys to children once Rudolph returned to Santa!

*3 coats China Glaze The Ten Man
*1 coat China Glaze Fairy Dust
*1 coat China Glaze Angel Wings

Good ol' Yukon Cornelius!  "Silver and gold, silver and gold,/ Mean so much more when I see/ Silver and gold decorations/ On ev'ry Christmas tree..."  Always looking for his silver and gold!  So, I gave him both here!  I used The Ten Man as my base, a gorgeous silver polish with micro glitter in it.  I added Fairy Dust for a little more sparkle and then taped off half of my nail and added Angel Wings.  This amazing gold holo glitter is part of their new Holiday line and so pretty! 

*2 coats Zoya Ginessa

*OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

*China Glaze Mahogany Magic

*China Glaze Ruby Pumps

*Sinful Color Snow Me White

*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out

 

"Do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?"  There are a number of really cute Rudolph manis floating around blogs and Pinterest.  I used Wooden Shoe for Rudy's face and Ruby Pumps for his nose to add sparkle.  Next time I'd leave a little more room for the antlers, but my nails are pretty short right now, so they're a little stubby.  I love that little red nose!



 

 

*1 coat Sinful Colors Why Not

*Sinful Colors Pink Cream

"We've a special job each year/ We don't like to brag..."  This is another shot of Why Not where the flash just makes it too light and bright.  I'm a little bummed about that because this is for Hermie and the elves.  This blue could be a one-coater with special attention.  I knew I was going to go over the tip, so I didn't add a second.  When I was little I thought those girl elves in their pink dresses and hats were so pretty!

*2 coats Zoya Ginessa
*OPI Danke-shiny Red

"We're on the island of misfit toys/ Here we don't want to stay!"  This nail took a lot of debate.  One of the things that makes the movie so magical and nostalgic is the coloring and quality of the stop motion.  I cannot tell, after a LOT of searching and watching, if the elephant's dots are red or pink.  I went with red.  I am second-guessing myself as I type.  ANYWAY, this is for the little polka-dotted elephant, Charlie, and all the other misfit toys who only want a child to love them.  Because I do! 

31DC: Inspired by fashion

"Fashion" is hard for me because I'm not really into clothes.  I'm a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl.  It's rare to see in anything but flip flops.  I like to look at pretty outfits on Pinterest, but I really don't know much about fashion at all.  So, I had to get a little creative again...

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*1 coat Sinful Colors Snow Me White
*1 coat Zoya Ginessa
*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Purple Pizzazz
*Sinful Colors Purple Diamond
*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out

I decided to give argyle nails a go.  I had not used either of these two purples before, and I thought that they looked so pretty together in the bottle.  I really should have tested their opacity.  The colors are really pretty.  Purple Pizzazz is a deep purple with red shimmer throughout.  Purple Diamond is a light lavendar with shimmer too.

The two were very sheer.  I taped off the quarters and painted them, but then needed to try to dab color on again.  It made for a little messiness.  Purple diamond is also pretty hard to see.  I used Black Out to add stitches.  The design isn't bad, but the colors weren't wise.  So I tried a fall-inspired one with darker colors:

 

*China Glaze Harvest Moon
*China Glaze Riveting
*China Glaze Mahogany Magic

These colors were much more opaque and made for a clearer pattern.  I think I'll have to try this again very soon with colors more like these or some good creams.  Side note: isn't the shimmer in these colors a-mazing!  I love them!  This is what is really cool about this challenge.  I am doing so many styles and designs so quickly, but I'm learning a lot with each about colors and techniques.  I'm excited to have time to try some new things when this is all done and use what I have picked up!
Have you done argyle nails before?  What color combos did you use?  Any cute fall ideas?

In Memoriam

This has been a rough year for my extended family.  2012 has been filled with too much loss.  We need a good end. 
Last Thursday we lost my uncle.  That sounds so absurd to say, like we misplaced him or can't figure out where he's hiding.  This comes less than three months after we lost my other uncle.  My dad has lost his brother-in-law and brother in the span of a single season.  We can't afford any more of this.  We need time to regroup and heal.  We need to be joyful again.  I know that this will take time, which is what we need as a family.  No more of this. 
My uncles were good men.  They knew the value of hard work, and honest effort.  Mike, who we lost in May, worked in paving, created with his hands.  Chuck, who left us last week, delivered for UPS for more than 3 decades.  He had a perfect driving record, a nearly impossible feat.  They loved their families deeply and fiercely.  They enjoyed simple pleasures: family meals, an afternoon in the sun, a quiet home town.
This week I painted my nails in honor of Chuck.

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Nails
*2 coats China Glaze Mahogany Magic
*1 coat Essie As Gold As It Gets
*1 coat Out the Door top coat
I realized after the fact that I also dipped into my Hunger Games polishes for Mike's memorial (Smoke and Ashes).  That seems so grim, but I think it's that these men were strong, inspirations, and the books are comforting.  It is appropriate, I think. 
I realized that Mahogany Magic is almost a perfect UPS brown!  If I had been careful, I could have pretty much gotten away with one reasonably thick coat, but I was patchy in places and opted for two.  The polish is not quite as yellow as it looks here, but there are plenty of swatches out there to look at if you haven't already. 
I don't know that I'm wild about the glitter.  I should have taken a note from my uncle and been comfortable in the simple, known enough is enough.  But I wanted something more for his memory, something big and demanding notice.  So, I added Essie's As Gold As It Gets over the top.  This is so much easier to apply and more uniform than other flaky glitters I own.  It looks much better and natural over Mahogany Magic in the sun.

This is a hard time.  I am torn between staying in grief and moving on, remembering and thinking of other things.  No one knows how to do this well.  For the moment, at least, I look at my hands and feel pride in the man that I call "uncle," the man that my family loves, the man that we were blessed to know.  It reminds me of what it is to live a good, respectable life, to be a person puts family above all and see nothing undignified in hard work.  It reminds me of the kind of person I can only hope to be.