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.