What a Backlog!

Yes, once again I've been slacking off!  So instead of giving a play by play of all the ABC Challenge entries, I'm just going to post a picture fiesta.

                                                 L
               

                                          

                              

                               M (Inspired by a mani from Fingerfood Nails)

 

                                                                    N

                                                    
                                                 O

                                                P

                                              Q

                                      

If anyone wants to know what a particular color was, just post a comment and I'll gladly answer!  Things have been crazy around the house lately, hence the lack of updates.  I'm in the middle of my R entry, and will definitely update asap!

Purple Pretties and Entries J & K

In my last blog, I mentioned that I'd picked up Sephoras 'What Film Noir You In?' and Chanels 'Taboo'

WFNYI is a gorgeous, bright shimmery purple that's opaque in 2 coats.  I don't think the pictures do it justice. This one rang up at $2.00, and the SA figured they might be getting ready to discontinue it.  I honestly don't know why they would...everyone who's seen this polish absolutely loves it.  Let's just hope the price I paid was some sort of error and that this polish will continue to be available for some time to come!

Taboo is a dark purple with lighter purple and blue within its depths.  One thing Chanel is known for is the hidden shimmers in their polishes...rather like looking at a top quality gem.  Pretty at first glance, but when you really look, you see so much more.  And, as with their other polishes, Taboo is pretty opaque after one coat.  However, because they're so thick you're better off carefully applying a thin coat and doing a second after a good amount of drying time.  If you don't watch it, these polishes will bubble like crazy.  I suppose I could thin them, but I'm afraid I'd ruin it. 

Back to WFNYI, I just had to use this one in some form of nail art.  As I've had 'Cartoon' nails on my to do list for a while now, I decided to take the plunge and am so glad I did!  I think this mani came out pretty damn good, especially considering it was my first stab at it.

 This was a very easy manicure and there's a couple ways you can do it.  The way I chose was to do a black base color and then add the purple inside of it.  I won't lie, I made good use of my smaller dotting tools to clean up the black around it and make it as even as possible.  I also used a dotting tool for the white exclamation marks.  The other way to do this would've been to do the purple as a base color and add a black border around it with either a dotting tool or small paint brush.  If you feel confident enough to do that, you should because it takes a lot less time that way.  But I wouldn't be me if I wasn't taking the long way around.

Since I still had the WFNYI/Taboo combo on my other hand, I decided to make it my 'J' entry by adding 365 Days of Colors 'Jellybean There, Done That' over WFNYI.  Jellybean There, Done That is one of 2 limited editions that Sunny created for her Easter Mystery Bags. It's a pink, white, purple and light blue glitter mix in a clear base.

For my 'K' entry, I decided to revisit the Cartoon nails manicure, this time using Picture Polishs 'Kryptonite'.  I don't think this one came out as good as the other one did but in my defense I did it on my right hand, which means I had to use my left to paint with.

Well, I think that's about it for now!  I'll be back next time with entries 'L' and 'M'!  Have a great week!

Laziness, thy name is Pyr...Family reunion and entries G & H

Yep, I'm a lazy ass.  Kept meaning to post a new entry before leaving for Chicago and totally blew it off.  But I've recently started quilting, and have been busting ass on a quilt for my granddaughter.  Was hoping to get it finished in time, but there was no way.  Once I'm over this jet lag, I'll be back at it again.

Had a great time while I was back, seeing family and friends.  The highlight of the week was my finally getting to meet my granddaughter Hana!  Here's a couple of the portraits we did.  The first is of my daughter Jordan,  Hana and my son in law Daniel...

This is of my son Zachary, myself and Jordan....

I honestly thought I was smiling more than that!  And, for some reason, the makeup we had on didn't really come through in the pictures.  For instance, Jordan was wearing eyeshadow but in the portraits it only looks like she had on a touch of mascara and eyeliner.  Which for her is fine..she looks great w/out makeup.  Myself?  Not so lucky.

We went to the Shedd Aquarium and Brookfield Zoo.  Had great weather for the zoo, which is a bonus.  Even still, it was pretty hot so seeing the splash area next to the Penguin house w/the fountains/sprinklers was a welcome sight.  We all took off our shoes and socks and acted like little kids.  We woke Hana from her nap in the stroller and she had an absolute BLAST running around in them.  So much so that she kicked up a fuss when we decided to leave and pouted for several minutes..lol.  The new feature, Stingray Bay, was equally awesome.  You pay a couple bucks and go into this tent that has a huge pool a couple feet deep with stingrays swimming around in it.  You can pet them as they swim by, or buy a cup of small, frozen fish that you hold in between your fingers. My AWESOME sister, Stacy, kindly purchased a few of these cups so that we'd all have a shot at it. Putting your hand almost flat on the bottom of the pool, the rays swim over it and basically suck them up out of your hand like a vacuum.  If you're in Chicago, you HAVE to go to Brookfield Zoo and check it out.  My bestie, Julie, said she heard it's only a temporary attraction so go while the getting's good!


And now onto the comp entries, here's my 'G' entry.  It's Girly Bits 'Eggnogoholic'.  When I first saw a picture of this on Llarowe, I had to have it.

It's a sheer white base w/gold flakies.  Very pretty, but VERY sheer.  I used 3-4 coats in the pictures above and you can see that it's still a bit transparent.  I would recommend putting this one over a white base to save time (and polish!).  Still, it's a good quality polish and I'm looking forward to using it as a backround for nail art in the future.

My 'H' entry was primary colored hearts on a black backround....colors used were Color Club Endless Summer, a mystery Essie and Maybelline Electric Yellow over A-England Camelot.

I'm not thrilled with the way it came out.  It works, but I need to start fine tuning my dotting skills as I think it came out a bit sloppy.

I don't have an 'I' entry, because I was in Chicago and forgot to take a picture of the Pure Ice 'Irreplaceable' I'd put on.  But I do have a good excuse.  While I was back, our family went to Orland Square mall to get portraits done and we had an hour of waiting around time before the CD of the photos would be ready.  Of course, I took this opportunity to check out Sephora...both the store and the area they have inside JC Penneys.  I grabbed the Sephora brand 'What Film Noir You In?' and 'I'm With Brad'.  WFNYI turned out to be discounted down to $2.00!  I totally love the color, it's a bright, shimmery purple.

I also went to Macys to see how much they wanted for the Chanel I've been lemming since seeing swatches of it...Taboo.  While it had been released in the States and Canada, I was told it wouldn't be out in the UK until June.  And since I'd probably save a £ or two by getting it in the States (gotta love currency conversion), I wanted to buy it there.  Sure enough, they had several arranged in a nice little pyramid.  The end result was my saving £1.  Not as much as I'd hoped, but every little bit helps.  So I couldn't wait to put on Taboo and WFNYI and took off Irreplaceable before remembering to photograph it *Facepalm*.

I'll have pictures of both in the blog I do for the 'J' and 'K' entries, as I used both polishes in the 'J' one.

Well, I think that's about it for now.  Going to do some cleanup on my current mani and get it photographed while the sun is still shining.  Hope you guys are all doing great and I'll see you next time!

The Great Gracelyn Experiment

Hello hello.  Time for a break in between nail challenge entries.

One day last week I was playing around with a mani that I was getting ready to remove, seeing what some of my new polishes looked like on top of it.  I was so impressed by how it turned out, I took the entire thing off and started again.

On my left hand is Chanel Paradoxal, with Models Own Indian Ocean layered over it on the middle and pinky fingers

On my right, Chanel Provocation, with Models Own Indian ocean layered over it on the middle and pinky fingers

I then put 2 coats of RubyWhiteTips Gracelyn over all of it and WOW! Here's the left hand again-

And the right-

You can see that Gracelyn turned the whole mani into what looks a like pink/purple/blue chrome polish.  Gracelyn is a hot pink polish that Lauras daughter made and it's pretty damn impressive considering she was 8 years old at the time!

This was one of those manis that I hated to remove and actually kept it on for about 4 days until I took it off last night so I could start working on my 'F' entry for Sunday.  You need this polish!  It looks fantastic on it's own and amazing when layered over another color (or two)! 

Well, that's it for me...I'll be back soon with my 'E' and 'F' entries! Here's a final, parting shot of my right hand again-

I'm A Slacker

I should've done this a while ago, but it's been one thing after another around here.  Jax is doing much better though.  The hard part is keeping him from bouncing and running around.  He's back to the vet on the 3rd, so hopefully he'll get the all clear.  Only thing that's worrying us is that he's not been walking on that leg much this past week, and we're afraid he may have overdone it somehow.  But short of sedating him, there's not much we can do and even then it might not settle him down.

This past weeks entries were 'C' and 'D'.  My C entry was a cherry blossom mani.  I think it came out nice, but I definitely intend to do this one again some time.  The base color was RubyWhiteTips Polish With No Name

I think the branches were a bit too thick in some places, and the extra white dots should've been smaller..I think it looks a bit too 'busy', though everyone who's seen it disagrees.  But at least I know what to fix for next time.

My D entry is my favorite so far.  When I saw the Double Ruffian mani by Lucys Stash I just had to try it.  Usually I don't have much luck with anything involving forms, but I really love how this came out.

The pink is Focus by Picture Polish, the gold is Mummy Mush from Pretty Serious and the blue is Cosmos, also from Picture polish.  It was really easy to do when it was all said and done.  I used a curved french manicure form and placed the bottom against the cuticle.  The second coat was free-handed carefully.  Then I took another form and aligned the bottom so it rested at the top of the pink and so on for the rest of it.  I just love the polishes from Picture Polish and Pretty Serious, so you should definitely check them out.  Both brands can be purchased from Llarowe .

I'll be back soon to show you my 'E' and 'F' entries.  E is done, but I still haven't got a clue as to what my F one will be.  Take care!

Now I Know My ABC's.....

It's been a little bit in between posts.  Kinda busy around here...first we were all sick and then The Annoying Pomeranian had to have surgery on one of his back legs due to having a floating knee cap, so they had to deepen the socket and realign a ligament.  He'll have to have the other back leg done as well, but we're planning to wait a few months before putting him through all this again.  He's doing good now, though we had a bumpy weekend cause he was having bathroom issues.  He has 6 stitches that are due to come out tomorrow.  Never fear though, he's almost 100% back to his usual whining, demanding self.  Here's a pic of him with his nekkid leg-

Now, onto the nail stuff!

Once again the lovely Erica of Erica's Nails and More is holding a nail art challenge.  This one is a bit of a marathon.  Based on the ABCs, there's a different letter each week for a total of 26 weeks (duh!).  Either the type of art, brand or color of the polish has to begin with the letter of the week.

The complete rules can be found HERE if anyone is interested.  I've decided to do a blog for every 2 entries instead of writing one each week.

And so...onto the letter A!

I decided to do an 'A is for Anarchy' for this entry.  Polishes used were Orly Liquid Vinyl and Color Club Mamba. I know there should be a circle around/in the 'A', but not putting something that should be there is my own personal form of anarchism.  Last time I checked, anarchists don't follow the rules.

This was quite easy to do.  The base color was half black, then half red.  Added some top coat and once that was dry I applied the striping tape and reversed the colors (black over the red, red over the black).  The most difficult thing was wrestling the tape into position.  Oh, and finding a red that was thick enough to cover the black in one coat.  

For B we have a french manicure, glitter style.  Polishes used were Illamasqua Baptiste, RubyWhiteTips prototype Million Grapes and Models Own Gold Rush.

The heart shaped rhinestone was a last minute decision, as I felt it needed something more.  To be honest, I almost did away with this one completely because, for some reason, I wasn't feeling it.  After putting the hearts on, I fell in love with it. 

Well, this Sunday a C mani is due and since I'm still clueless on what I want to do, I'd better quit writing and get my thinking cap on.  Thanks for reading!

Versatile Blogger Award

Well well well.  The lovely Erica of Erica's Nails and More has nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award!  Thank you so much *HUGS*!

So what does this mean, you ask?  Basically it's a way to call attention to and share blogs from around the net.  The rules can be found Here.  I was nominated, so I in turn will nominate others.  You're supposed to do 15, but I don't follow 15 other blogs (shame on me, I know) so I will nominate those I do follow.  I also have to list 7 facts about myself that others may not know.  So here we go....

1--When I do a manicure, I take photos so that I can find any mistakes/areas that need to be cleaned up   which I may have missed.  Occasionally this has led to me redoing an entire mani because, when I look at the picture, I suddenly hate it.

2--I met my husband on an online vampire MMORPG that we both still play and where I'm a forum moderator at.  No, we aren't Goths.

3--I have 8 tattoos...one on each shoulder and six on my back.  When I win the lottery, I want to get two of the back ones covered up with a black/gray dragon holding a heart made of ribcage bones.

4--Though I've not done it in a while, I enjoy making computer backrounds with a program called Bryce.

5--Any time I start doing something that requires me to think and focus, Annoying Pomeranian decides he needs something and starts doing his squeaky door impression...like he is right now.

6--I used to love Duran Duran.  Yeah, I said it.  DURAN DURAN.  Deal with it.

7--I have to read while I'm eating.  I suppose the habit started when I was living on my own, but most of the time I don't feel right if I'm eating and don't have a book in hand.  Obviously, this doesn't apply when I'm eating outside of my home.

Okay, here's my nominations.  I realize I've probably never spoken to either of you, but rules is rules :D

1-Elise@From Lips To Tips
2-Rachel Marie@Rachel Marie's Nails

I know, only 2??  But when I went to my list of blogs I follow, I saw that several haven't been posted on in months.  My apologies, and I will be purging my list and finding new blogs to follow soon, I promise.

The Annoying Pomeranian

Hiya!  I have a little story for you guys today...

Once upon a time there was an adorable, yet annoying, Pomeranian puppy named Jax.

Jax loved to find many ways to make his owners want to pull their hair out.  He loved barking for no reason, chewing on the plants or mulch in the garden and playing in the mud.  One of his best tricks was his accurate impression of a door, whose hinges needed oiling, being slowly opened.  And he was very good at it too...he could keep it up for 5-10 minutes, until his owners gave in or fled the room plugging their ears.  One day he decided to use his favorite trick while his mommy was on Facebook, prompting her to post 'I need a nail polish called Annoying Pomeranian!!'. 

Well, the more his mommy thought about it, the more she liked the idea.  She remembered that her friend Laura Toff, the owner of RubyWhiteTips, also did custom polishes.  So she sent her a message asking about a custom job.  She was pretty vague when it came to describing what she wanted, because Jax had been going for a world record in annoying tactics that day and her brains had turned to mush.  All she could manage to tell her was that she wanted something on the lighter side of brown that shifted.

Not long after, Laura sent her a message.  Eureka!  She had it!  Excited, Jaxs mommy begged to see it after hearing how wonderful the polish was.  Pictures quickly followed and the mommy was thrilled.  'Do you want to tweak it anymore?' Laura asked.  'NO!' was the reply, for the mommy couldn't think of anyway to make this polish better and it was taken straight to the post office and shipped.

Laura was so thrilled with the polish that she decided to add it to her shop so that others could also wear this wonderful nude holo that was opaque in two coats.  She felt sure that once they saw the pictures of how it shimmered and then would explode with rainbow brilliance when the sun hit it, people wouldn't be able to resist buying it.  However, because of the risk of some trouble-making, PC obsessed, easily offended people possibly taking issue with the name Annoying Pomeranian, it was decided that the polish would be named after his owner and called Kim.  The first of a collection of custom polishes named after the women who ordered a custom job that jived with the types of polishes that Laura sold.

And thus, Annoying Pomeranian aka Kim, was born and made available for sale.  Jaxs' mommy was content and when Jax next attempted to give her more gray hairs, she only needed to look down at her nails and focus on the rainbow shimmer to become impervious to his ploy.  The polish also inspired her to come up with a little payback for Mr. Jax....a bath.

The end!

Random Nail Art

Good afternoon everyone.  Hope you all are coping okay with the clocks going forward an hour.  Here in the UK, ours won't change until the end of the month, which makes things a bit confusing for me when I need to call friends or family back home.

When I was going through some folders on my computer, I decided to put together a blog with some pictures of nail art that I'd done in the past.  First up we have a gradient that was done with A-England Tristam and Excalibur, with Different Dimensions Imitation Is The Most Sincere Form Of Flattery added on the tips.  This was my first 'successful' gradient manicure...

Next we have a skull manicure that was inspired by Professional DQs Sexy Skull Nails tutorial. The base color for this is I've Got a Crush On You, which was a limited edition polish in 365 Days of Colors Valentines Day mystery bags.

 The reason I'm only showing you guys my thumb is because the skulls on the other nails came out a bit too big, with a few other mistakes to boot, and just didn't look very good.  But I'm quite happy with the thumb.

This jigsaw manicure was inspired by a tutorial on Preen Me, which can be found Here .  The polishes were Viridian and Faithful by Illamasqua.  This was a really easy mani to do, so I encourage anyone who's been thinking about trying nail art for the first time to give this a go.  You'll just need something to dot with, whether it's a set of dotting tools (found on Amazon and don't cost much), or if you Google 'homemade dotting tool' you can find all sorts of ways to make your own.

Finally I have a butterfly wing manicure.  This was my first time doing one of these, and I think it came out pretty nice all things considered.  I had a feeling the red wouldn't work very well, but it's still okay IMO.

The base color for this was P-Wagon, from RubyWhiteTips Kill Bill collection. I probably could have done a better job if I'd used acrylic paints, but I wouldn't be me if I wasn't doing something the hard way, so I free handed this with regular polish.  At least a nice coat of Seche Vite smoothed everything out. The black was Orlys Liquid Vinyl, the red is Orlys Grave Mistake and the purple (yes, that's purple on the pinky) is Sexy Divide by Essie.  

In other news, the lovely Erica from Erica's Nails and More will be hosting another nail art challenge starting at the end of this month.  This one is based on the alphabet, and will run for 26 weeks.  The details can be found Here .  Everyone is encouraged to join in and, because this will be a long one, participation in every week isn't a requirement.  I plan to try my best to do them all, but thank God for her 'Wild Card' entries or I don't think I'd be able to get some of them done...anyone know of a polish that starts with X?

Raindrops and Skittles!

Hello hello!  I had a bit of fun at the Illamasqua counter yesterday due to stockpiling my Debenhams Beauty Club rewards and their having a small Mothers Day sale.  One of the polishes I managed to score was the much sought after Raindrops.

 Raindrops is a milky gray with white flakes that, to me, almost seems to have a hint of blue depending on the lighting.  It was discontinued some time ago and was brought back these past few months to much cheering, and promptly sold out both in store and online.  I got lucky that the Illa. counter at the Meadowhall Debenhams still had a few left.

I've heard that some have had problems with the formula....I did have some streaking on the first coat, but after that it was smooth sailing.  Two coats later and you could still kind of see my nails through it.  The first picture was taken with a flash.

Overall I'm pleased with it. I think this is one of those colors that kind of grows on you.  I was a bit 'Meh' about it at first, but then I found myself staring at my hands on and off the rest of the night.  Word has it that Illamasqua is putting a pink version into production after reaching their desired number of Facebook fans.  I doubt I'll be getting that one, but it'll be interesting to see the pictures.

Next up we have what's known as 'Skittles'.  Pretty self-explanatory...just means a different color on each nail.  Since I managed to get ahold of 5 polishes by RubyWhiteTips, it was only natural that I used these wonderful brightly colored gems in this way.

From thumb to pinky: Boo2, Peekaboo, Sugarbush, Poppy and Color Changing Orange to Yellow.

Boo2, Peekaboo and Poppy are polishes that Laura makes to help raise money for Bat World, a sanctuary for bats that have been brought in or found and, usually due to health reasons, are considered non-releasable.  They also do a great deal to educate the public on the importance of bats.  I urge you to check out their web site and see what they're all about.  There's also several uber cute bat videos in some of the bat bios on the Sponsor a Bat in Need page.  50% of the proceeds from the Bat World polishes go to the sanctuary.

These polishes are a pleasure to work with.  The go on smoothly and are almost one-coaters except for Peekaboo which is a lovely sheer lavender that builds to opaque in a few coats.  Boo2 dries to an almost matte finish and there's a 'sugary' texture to Boo2 and Sugarbush.  RWT is also doing a special 'No name, only a number' polish for her Facebook fans, the details of which can be found Here .  So be sure to check out everything she has to offer, including the polishes in her Kill Bill collection!

Well, that's it for now.  Hopefully you aren't falling asleep and I'll see you soon!