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!