52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Brushstroke + Favorite Brand

Hi everyone. I am running a little behind with my posts due to the holidays, so this is very last minute. There was just so much cleaning, and eating, and shopping to do! Anyway, I decided to just do short brushstrokes of random color on my nails using some of my favorite polishes - butter LONDON, and then stamp over top. I totally love this brand. The colors are gorgeous, the polish is always super smooth, and the names of the polishes are always entertaining, too. ;)

I started off with two coats of Trustafarian, a pale green, scattered holographic, and then added Chuffed (orange), Airy Fairy (blue), and Stroppy (purple) over top in random strokes.

After that, I stamped over top using a floral image from MoYou XL Pro Plate 13 and Konad Special Black.

This is what butter LONDON Trustafarian looks like all by itself. Gorgeous! Oh, and it is more rainbow-y than this, but I couldn't figure out how to operate my new camera...whoopsie. I figured it out since then, so my pictures should improve soon. :)

Alright, I'm off to go finish my cleaning, and then we are baking cookies and putting up the Christmas tree! Oh how I love this time of year! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Things I Am Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am posting these nails for my stamping group on facebook, and let me tell you, my stamping collection is NOT big enough heehee. Anyway, I decided to keep this one simple because I have been sick for a week with a sinus infection and just really haven't been feeling like doing much of anything until today. I used O.P.I. Black Magic Mountain for my base and did my stamping with Loreal As Gold As It Gets. I used lots of plates and won't list them all here, but if anyone wants to know what plate any of these images came from, please comment and I will let you know. :)

So this manicure features several things that I am thankful for (within the boundaries of the plates that I own). On my pinky, I am trying to represent love and family. I am so thankful for my husband. He works so hard at trying to make our life better and always knows just what to say when I need to hear something encouraging, funny, inspiring, or whatever! I am thankful for my family (mom, dad, inlaws, sister, and extended family, too) for being so awesome. I am so lucky to have so many caring people around to shower me with love!

My ring finger features a cat (which stamped all crazy, but I was feeling to crummy to redo it) and a pawprint to represent my dog since I don't have a dog stamp. :) There is nothing like unconditional love to make you thankful. And the warm, fuzzy cuddles are good too!

My middle finger is supposed to represent health. I am thankful that I am in good health (ignoring the sinus infection that WILL go away). A lot of people don't have that, so I have to remember to appreciate it and take good care of my body. I only have one after all!

My index finger represents vacation, which I am always thankful for. We go to the beach at least once a year with our family and it is always wonderful. I look forward to it all year.

My thumb represents my job. I love the company I work for and I am so thankful that I have been nurtured and allowed the best chances at succeeding there. I work with a lot of really good people, too. And of course, I am grateful that my job gives me the ability to feed us, and clothe us, and pay for our home. Money is good, but happiness is better, and I have both!

Here is what O.P.I. Black Magic Mountain looks like by itself. It is a really pretty, vampy, shimmery burgundy polish. It went on in two coats, and I topcoated it with Seche Vite.

Thank you so much for looking. I hope you all have a wonderful day with your families and have nice, full bellies later!

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Books + Brown

Ah books. I love books so much. I had a hard time just picking one book to inspire me, so I had to think about this one a while. I was sitting in my living room just staring at our bookshelf trying to find the one book that would wind up gracing my nails for this challenge. In the end, I couldn't pick one, so I came up with this manicure instead.

Staring at my bookshelf gave me the idea to the book bindings of several books. I have collected all of my favorite classics in leather with pretty gold embossed covers, and they all look so pretty sitting next to each other. I thought it would look good on my nails, so I went for it. I'm not sure that I like it in practice, but ah well. This is O.P.I. A-Piers To Be Tan as the base. I used the plastic wrap technique to blot on a darker brown polish from China Glaze called Call of the Wild, then added my detail and titles using Julep Mahima.

Here is what O.P.I. A-Piers To Be Tan looks like by itself. This is two smooth coats with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thank you so much for looking. Have a great day everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up

Four Seasons Manicure (with a bonus 5th season some of you will know well)

Hi everyone! Today I have a stamping manicure for you that represents the four seasons. Well, five, but I'll explain that in a minute. I love double stamping ever since the first time I saw Laurie over at Dressed Up Digits do it a long time ago, so every time I can, I try to squeeze some into a manicure. Since this one is for my stamping group on facebook, it is an excellent excuse to do some double stamping. ;)

I used so many different polishes and stamps for this, I'm just going to list them out at the bottom of this post. If anyone has any questions or wants more detail, just ask in the comments. So, you may be noticing that gray thumb and wondering what that is supposed to be. We have a season here between winter and spring that I refer to as "slush disaster". My husband calls it "crippling depression". It is freezing cold and there is slushy snow and water everywhere. The sky is always cloudy and grey and you start to wonder if you will ever see the sun again. And this goes on for MONTHS. I thought a grey nail with clouds and blowing wind would represent this well. It really does feel like its own season here in northeast Ohio.

Here are the polishes and plate I used in this manicure, by finger:

• Pinky - Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Sally Hansen Lemon Zest, BM21 & BM01
• Ring - Barielle Joytini, butter LONDON Chuffed, MoYou Sailor 07, BM04 & RA-118
• Middle - N.O.P.I. Pros & Confidence, butter LONDON Airy Fairy, Konad m63, BM114 & RA-119
• Index - Sally Hansen Perfect Pear-ing, China Glaze Paper Chasing, RA-102 & Cheeky B21
• Thumb - Julep Dendrie, NYC Tribeca Silver, Konad m79 & MoYou Sailor 07
• The final stamp on each nail was done using Konad Special White polish

Thank you so much for looking and make sure you see what everyone else did for the seasons!

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Yellow + Elephants

I have something that I have to admit to: I have been totally lazy and uncreative lately with my manis. Gasp! There I said it. Every time I get a prompt, I turn to my husband and ask what I should do. So for this manicure, I did it again. I said "tell me a wild animal I should put on my nails", and he said "elephants!". So, now I have some very cutesy yellow elephants today for your viewing pleasure. I should just start having him write this blog, too. :D

So, I didn't realize how much these were going to look like they belong in a baby's nursery until I was pretty much done with them. But, I kind of like it. I used Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow for my base and drew in the elephants using Pure Ice Vintage Glam. I used a dotting tool for the polka dots on the other nails, and for the dots on the elephants' ears, too. The elephants' eyes were done with dotting tools, too and Konad Special White and Special Black.

Here is what Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow looks like by itself. It's a bit on the thin side like a lot of yellows, so it took three thin coats to get completely opaque and not streaky.

Thank you so much for looking, and be sure to check out what everyone else did! I am coming up with my own idea for the next mani so that I don't have to give my handsome hubby the credit for yet another manicure. ;)

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping With My Oldest Untried Plate - Konad

So the very first plates I bought were Konad plates. Everyone said they were the best (at the time), so I spent WAY too much money and bought 6 plates from them. And then, before I could try them all, sooo many new companies started popping up with plates full of way cooler images, so my Konad's collected dust. Well, I looked  through them and chose an images to try out that I normally would ignore and decided to put it over an untried polish, too. :)

I used a polish given to me by one of my coworkers. She gave me pretty much her whole O.P.I. stash one day because she said she never paints her own nails anymore. She gets them done every two weeks. She knew I would be happy to take them off her hands and I was thrilled! This one is called Bagota Blackberry. It's perfect for fall! I stamped over it using Konad Special Black and plate m-77.

Here is what O.P.I. Bagota Blackberry looks like by itself. It is a dark, shimmery red and went on in two smooth coats.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Please make sure you look at everyone else's untrieds!

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Three Shades of Blue + Cats

Hi everyone! For this manicure, I decided to use some inspiration from my husband once again. A few months ago, he requested a manicure with kawaii style animals. I figured that I could grant his request with this prompt, and so I have some cute kawaii kitties to show off today. :D

I could not be happier with how these came out. It is cuteness overload, and I will not be removing these until they are chipping severely. This means you may not see my left hand for a while. heehee

I was determined to get both prompts for this week in, and I'm so glad I did because I feel like this looks great with all blue shades. I used NYC NY Blues for the base, then added my detail with Julep Jessica and an unnamed navy polish from The New Black. Here is what NY Blues looks like on it's own. This was a popular color around town. I got so many compliments on it before I ever even painted my kitties on! Maybe people were surprised to see a nice bright summery shade this far into autumn? Anyway, this is two coats of NY Blues.

Thank you so much for looking! Make sure you look at what everyone else did for their domestic animals and/or three shades of blue manicures!

Summer Is Gone, But Not Forgotten - Maybelline Color Show Emerald City

Hi all! I am squeaking in this post for my stamping group at the last minute tonight! Since I am totally exhausted, I'm making this one really short. The pictures can speak for themselves anyway. :) So, the prompt for today is stamping over glitter.

This is Emerald City, one of the glitters from Maybelline's Color Show line of polishes. It was thinner than I expected, so there are four thick coats here. This polish would probably be better with some undies, but I am a fan of all of the sparkle!

I used MoYou London's Sailor plate 07 for this with Konad Special White polish. I miss summer so much already, but at least we have Thanksgiving and Christmas and loads of family time and food to look forward to!

Thank you so much for looking! Make sure you check out the facebook group to see what everyone else did for our challenge today!

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - 3 Dark Colors

Hi all - happy Saturday! I am so glad it is the weekend, you have no idea! Ahhh! Anyway, I had to use three of my newer (to me) butter LONDON polishes for this challenge. I just had to. And, because I was short on time, I decided to do a simple three-color gradient and added some stamping over top for some pizzazz.

This is butter LONDON Dosh, Big Smoke, and Stroppy. They are all sparkly and good and DARK. :) My stamping was done using Julep Mahima and Mash-43.

This gradient was really pretty even before I added the stamping. These colors all go so well together!

I used Dosh as my base on this one, so here is what it looks like on its own. This is a lovely shimmery olive green and went on smoothly in two coats.

Thanks for looking! Make sure you take a look at what everyone else did for this week's challenge!

An InLinkz Link-up