Christmas Mani: Candy Cane Accent Stamp

I'm way behind and should have posted this days ago, but here we go.  This was supposed to be a full stamped mani-- red candy canes on white, white candy canes on red-- but once I did the one stamp, I decided I liked the current look better than the idea of the planned one.

Christmas Mani: Stripes

I've been having more adventures in striping/nail art polish, and this is my latest.  Red and white stripes over a green base.  I had a bit more trouble with the white, due to it being thick and gloppy in the neck of the bottle.  There was also some smudging that waiting ten minutes did  not prevent, contrary to the nail art tip I saw on Facebook.  (Not that I believed it to begin with.  I tend to wait a long time before putting on topcoat, anyway.)

This also marks my first full-on gap mani. Not too bad, I'dsay.

Pink Wednesday: Freehand Swirls

I thought it would be cool to make some little swirls then add some strokes of green and ta-da!  Roses.  That didn't happen.  Instead, I just have some swirls. It's progress.

Plaid Mani

After I got home from my quest to find the other last bottle of Matte Me Crazy, I finished working on my plaid nails.  I'll definitely be more careful next time because these look sloppy.

Adventures in "Oh no You Di-int!"

Hey, guy, remember that mattifying topcoat I was so excited about?  The one that was the only one left at the store?

One of my nieces ruined it by adding nail polish to it.  None of them will admit to it, but the nail polish got put away immediately.  They were just wasting it applying and reapplying anyway.

I then hopped into my car and snagged the last bottle at a different store after having enough trouble finding the NYC display.  Next stop was the liquor store in the same plaza for blue raspberry vodka and tonic water.

At this point, I have one hand done up in plaid. Pictures tomorrow unless it gets messed up by then.

Another Day, Another Post

So I missed yesterday, though technically I did blog, twice even, just not on this blog. The following picture might give you and idea as to what that's all about.

Pink Wednesday: Now in Matte

I said I'd use that top coat for this post, didn't I?  And I did, with a (kind of?) glossy accent nail.  Without further ado...

Excuse the Tip Wear

I just happened upon the NYC Matte Me Crazy mattifying top coat in the store today, and I got so excited, I didn't even bother changing my polish before trying it out.  The mani I had on is this one with two coats of Pure Ice in Rio on top and no topcoat.

To best show this top coat off I have a picture of the original mani:

Casino Run

I did a casino run today with my mom.  It actually went pretty well at one point, then I had to quit while I was ahead, but I learned a few things I should keep in mind for next time.

• Play the maximum number of lines.  Don't be a wimp.
• Pay attention and don't accidentally play the maximum bet.  Oops.
• Some machines just suck.  People don't play them for a reason.
• Winning streaks are very, very fun.

That's about it for today.  I did decide to break up with a certain slot machine, but I think I'll give it another chance.

Just Another Day

Last night, I was thinking about making jewelry today and wondered why I haven't made any in so long when a friend's Facebook post reminded me: the last time I crocheted with wire, I screwed up my nails horribly.  But I figured I could use other methods today except...

... It's my grandmother's birthday and we went out.  It was fun despite the fact that we had to switch restaurants.  The one we originally were going to go to told us the wait would be an hour and a half and then two and a half hours.  The others we checked?  45 minutes to an hour.  By the time we got everyone together and chose a place then got there (not far-- just across the highway), our wait was down to 20 minutes. Great.

And just to you know, garden salad is better than Caesar.

Old Ebooks and Stuff

One of my favorite things to do is trawl through Project Gutenberg looking for things to read.  Plus, now that I have Kindle for PC, I actually download the things I find, which is great for me because I've now added a few references to my library including Bulfinch's Mythology (I still want a hard copy of it.  I'll get around to buying it someday) and some Latin grammar books. The highlighting feature of Kindle for PC has come in handy since there are so many prepositions and conjunctions I keep forgetting--and now I have an easy reference.

Among my little collection (that will probably grow far too big at some point), I also have a Portuguese reader--good for my language studies-- and some novels by people I've never heard of but had interesting tables of contents. I also took a look (if a look entails reading the entire thing) at Wool by Hugh Howey, the ebook that came with Kindle for PC (How many times do I have to type that?), and I really enjoyed it.  For those who want a snack (48 pages, I think) of post-apocalyptic fiction, you should give it a look.

Now it's time for me to go read a book with actual paper.

Another Sponge Gradient

I love sponge gradients.  I really do.  And this rather oceanic one pleases me.

 Again, Sally Girl Epic applies blue than in the bottle, though not quite as blue as the photo--at least not on my monitor. There's not much else to say other than my nails have pretty polish and of course, I'll tell you the colors used.

Slipping Already

I'm cheating and counting this post for the date I have on it since I haven't gone to bed yet.  There's not much to tell.  New pattern.  New mani (which will be posted today tomorrow).  I'll just leave anyone reading with this crappy photo:

Nuff said.

Pink Wednesday: Oops!

More fail nails abound, this Pink Wednesday.  I had them all done and was about to clean them up and take pictures when I had to go do something.  This, of course, led to smudging and... ugh, It was too late to try redoing them, so I just took the best photos I could of this stripe manicure, and I'll be taking the polish off.

The First Tuesday of November

It's that day, so this post should probably be about the election and who I voted for or somesuch, but I'm not going to tell you, so there. Just know that I voted; I think that's good enough.

I'd like to put a clip of the Election song from Weinerville on here, but I can't find one, so I'll put up the class president episode of Making Fiends.




Vote vote vote! Vote vote vote!  Unless you are a potted plant, cause potted plants don't vote.

Attempt #1

So I'm supposed to be doing this NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) because I'm not feeling the novel writing thing this year. And look at me, posting late already.

Since I'm really not interesting enough to write about what I'm doing every day, a lot of these posts will be sharing/recommending things I like.  Today, I'm going with music.  Specifically, Kimbra and her album Vows.  I play these songs all the time, and it's only fair to share the candy with the rest of the class.


This album has actually been out for a while, but it was only released a few months ago in the US, so I'm late to the party.  Anyway, here are four songs from the album Vows. If the videos won't play here, click on through to YouTube.
 

The Herp of Derpenstein

This was supposed to appear last week, but then Hurricane Sandy happened, so time to play catch-up.

What I have here is a combination dotting/freehand manicure using my Sinful Colors Nail Art polishes.  I branched of into something new, never having done freehand nail art, and what I got was derpy-looking Frankensteins.

Ghostly Halloween Mani

I got a nice little surprise when I turned on my camera yesterday--pictures of a ghost manicure that somehow didn't make it to the blog.  This one is just a bit of dotting and tweaking with nail art polish and some letter stamping.

Halloween Mani: Vampire Princess

This was originally supposed to be  Pink Wednesday manicure, but I started too late and... that's okay, because it cave me more time to come up with this concept.  Once I saw the lip stamp on my plate, I knew exactly what to do.  Add in some new acquisitions from a great sale on nail art polish ($0.49 each!), and we have a vampire manicure on princess pink nails.

Halloween Mani: Murder Crashed the Party

So you're at an awesome Halloween party.  The music has everyone moving.  Drinks are flowing.  Everyone's decked out and made up and looking great--from the sexy to the dorky to the creepy.

Then all of a sudden, a guy (or is it?) walks in with a chainsaw.  He gets some welcoming smiles and a few laughs. People who think they know who's behind the mask pat him on the back.  Others are trying to figure out who the newcomer is.

He gets a drink, and the party goes on as normal.  That is, until you hear the chainsaw rev.  It's an odd sort of grumble at first, and then the roar cuts through the music. A subsequent scream can't even compete with the noise, but that changes once people see the limp, bloody body on the floor.  By this time, the DJ has abandoned his booth, and the music is on its own, drowned out by shrieks of terror.

Next thing you know, you're on the floor groaning as life slowly drains from you. You let out one last pained gasp as you realize the last thing you'll ever see is that underneath the blood spatters, your murderer is rocking a killer manicure.

Manicure: ???

I've been meaning to do a post with this polish for a while  It's a cheapie that caught my eye in a dollar store.  Jordana in Smooth Blue is a much-welcome addition to my collection.

I decided to do a stamping manicure to test and see if it should go on the stamping polish page, and the results--Well, it stamps, but the color I put it over wasn't the best choice, so I'll have to try again with a different base color.

Pink Wednesday: It's Been a While

Wow, according to filenames it's getting close to four months since I've done a Pink Wednesday post.  Terrible, but lets remedy that.

Here, we've got a mani with a franken base and some stamping. Floral because... why not?

Double Post: Stamps

Cry for me.  My SD card has been going through phases where it won't work with either my computer or my camera.  Right now, it hates my camera.  So I'm stuck using my camera's (very limited) internal memory and the USB cord.  It's really put a damper on my picture taking.

Anywho, on to the nails.

Thundercloud Mani

These nails are inspired by the way the weather's been lately.  We've had a lot of rain and some thunderstorms.  Days that started off looking pretty nice have turned dark and gloomy.  But these nails are cute, yeah?

Pink Wednesday: A Double Post

So my original mani idea for today didn't turn out well.  I bailed partway through because it just felt like wasted effort.  But more on that, later.  Here's the replacement.

This was tough to photograph since the sun had gone down by the time I was ready, so I had to resort to the kitchen lights and a white backdrop.  The color (Sally Girl Epic) is nice, but not nearly as bright and more dusty than it looks here.

Pink Wednesday: Tastes Like Candy!

It's Pink Wednesday again and my nails look delicious!  Seriously nommable.  I've given into the idea that I am on a dotting kick and did my nails accordingly.  With no further ado, feast your eyes on these.

Bam! Tutorial Spam

In the name of keeping this thing updated somewhat regularly and remembering it's not a nail blog, It's time for some tutorial spam.

The first one is something that I have no idea what to do with at the moment, but I love it and want to share because I may have an odd sort of love for scratch-offs.  I'm the person who gets the car dealership ads in the mail, takes off the key, and scratches all of the circles.  Then, of course, I don't do anything about my "prize."  Scratching is a reward in itself.

Pink Wednesday of Fail

Okay, I said I would have a blog post up today, so that's what I'm going to do, even if this mani leaves much to be desired (and is still drying as I type this).

I've been having a bit of a nail art dry spell.  I'll put on a few coats of my base color, and that would be it.  I'd say I was going to stamp or dry marble or whatever, but it would never happen before the polish started to chip.  I'm still looking for something other than buying more polishes to kick me in gear.  A weekly challenge or something.

Anyway, here's a picture before I go into what's wrong with my nails.

Sponge Gradient

I've noticed a pattern with some of my manicures.  I'll do them, and I'll think "Meh."  Then I'll wear them for a bit, keep checking out my nails, and realize I like it a lot more than I thought I did.  This is one of those manicures.

Adventures in Dotting

Eek!  I've been a little lax in my blogging lately.  I'm bad; yes, I know.  But I'm back! And I have a simple yet awesome manicure to show off.

Earlier this year, I did a Black Out Challenge that encouraged participants to use black polish.  Personally, I'm not afraid of black nail polish or dark nail polish in general, so I thought it was about time I used it again.  Here we go with a black and white dot mani.

Pink Wednesday: Sugar Coat

It's that day again!  I have a shade of nudey-pink I haven't used before to share.  Sugar Coat is a sheer pink that I loved after seeing it on Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite.  As you will see, it didn't apply for me as well as it did for her.  But I will tame this beast!  Then I will love it forever and pet it and... wear it, of course.  Until then, I'll just pretend I don't see those streaks.

Anywho, a picture.

Nail Stickers

The mani I've been wearing for the past few days is my first foray into using nail stickers.  I've had these for a while, but I've been waiting to use them.  For what, I'm not sure.  Anyway, It's been a while since I've done an orange mani, and the stickers worked well with the color.

Peeenk Wednesday

It's Pink Wednesday again, and there's glitter all over the place.  This week, I have a half-moon tape mani done with a Sally Girl glitter polish that wasn't dense enough for the look and some loose glitter from Sweet Libertine that picked up the slack.  For some reason, the glitter is the one Sally Girl Polish I have that has a name.  The loose glitter did its usual thing and didn't stick everywhere I wanted it and stuck in some places I didn't.

Contest Entry. For Real this Time.

After asking around, I've decided to go with the ladybug for Enamel Girl's stamping contest.  I love the ladybug mani, and if it weren't for the fact that one of my nails is splitting (again), I'd keep it on for much longer.  As it is, I'll just save it for another time.

Contest Entry. Or not.

Today I have a mani that I was going to enter into a contest, but now I may end up undoing every nail but one and redoing it as a non-skittles mani.  I'm just not excited about the way these go together.  It's for a spring-themed contest held by Enamel Girl.  I think things would have gone better if I had more solid stamps as opposed to outlines.  Take a look, and please vote in the poll below and help me make up my mind.

Pink Wednesday: Baby's First Dry Marble

Happy Pink Wednesday and Pi Day , folks.  I have a dry marble for you done with a polish I like.  A.  Lot.  Candy-licious really is quite a delicious color.  There's not much to say about it, so time for a photo.

St. Patrick's Skittles

First, I'd like to point out some new links up above.  There's my current polish list and a list of polishes I've successfully used for stamping for anyone wanting to try stamping but not sure about polish.  Some of them have links if I've posted pictures to the blog.  Now on to the good stuff.

Because I'm lazy brilliant, this collection of St. Patrick's day mani ideas comes in the form of one skittles mani.  I'm quite happy with them, even the simpler ones because they have their own understated qualities.  Let me show you what I mean.

Pink Wednesday: More Rio

Last Wednesday's post left me feeling a little... meh.  But I do like the idea of documenting my fails for future reference, so there's that.  Today's mani is better.  I stamped down near my cuticle, which is new for me, and I like the way it came out.  Too bad I wasn't a fan of any of the photos.  (It's always something.)

Pink Wednesday: Jelly and Stripes

Happy Leap Day and Pink Wednesday!

This is a good example of a manicure that just didn't come out quite the way I envisioned it.  That goes for most of my Pink Wednesday manis so far.  Speaking of Pink Wednesday, the color in this mani is more of a magenta, but I'm going to declare magenta and fuchsia pinks, so there!

The polish in this one is one I'd seen around in Wal-Mart, but what really made me want to pick it up was this post on Let Them Have Polish.  I'll definitely have to do another mani soon that will do it justice.  I originally wanted to do a French, but I'm waiting for a few of my nails to grow to where I want them before I do that.  Instead, I did tape stripes--sort a a different kind of jelly sandwich, I now I wish I'd done one of the other ideas I swatched.  Look out for this color again next week.

Is it Just Me? Measuring WPI

Every once in a while the WPI gauge conversation comes up.  If you're a spinner, you probably know what I mean.  Someone asks about the necessity of it, almost everyone says no and tells them what they use instead.  Personally, I use a ruler.

One thing that seems consistent is that people wrap the yarn to measure WPI--in which case, I'd think something with a larger circumference/perimeter that a lot of the alternatives to the WPI gauge would actually be a better choice.

I don't wrap.  I shove my ruler into the hank and choose  a variety of threads to measure with because I want something closer to an "average" WPI rather than the WPI of just one section, which is what you get when you wrap around a ruler or dowel or whatever it is you're wrapping it around.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say a niddy noddy (or your skeining tool of choice) seems like it would make a better WPI gauge than a WPI gauge.  I suppose if I were more anal about my spinning and consistency, wrapping would be a more attractive option, but I'm fine with my natural variation, so there will be a ±1 weight variation from what my intended yarn weight is at some point in the yards upon yards I'm spinning, especially since I stretch my projects out timewise.

So there you have it.  I apparently think the best time to measure WPI is during the skeining process.  But maybe that's just me.

Pink Wednesday Stamping

The pink in this Pink Wednesday is a stamp over a nice silver foil.  Expect to see this polish on this blog often because I am full of ideas for it.  I picked it up in CVS the other day, and I have to say I'm happy with it.  Nice dry time, opaque in 2 coats, looks great, good price.  There will have to be a mashup of this and my Sally Hansen Fractured Foil crackle polish at some point. 

And here's a picture:

A Quick Pink Wednesday Update

This will have to be a quick post since I lost track of time, and I have a date.  Eep!

This mani is just yesterday's with sponging.  I wanted a cloudlike effect, and I think I succeeded on some nails but it didn't come out so well on others.  I'm not a big fan of the pictures either, but... I'm working with what I have at the moment.

Catchup! Challenge and Valentine's Update

Ah, I've been a bad girl.  These manis were supposed to be separate posts and both were supposed to be up before today.  What I have for you today are my submission for the third week of the LSGGN Black Out Challenge and my last Valentine's day mani for the year.  So without further ado, I present:

Pink Wednesday: Roses and Jewelry

This Pink Wednesday has a bit of a Valentine's Day theme going on.  I'll warn you it's not my favorite mani, but that may have something to do with the fact that it was a bit of a rush job in the end.  It also doesn't help that they didn't photograph well.  As I look down at it, it's kind of growing on me, but I don't know.  I may not survive until tomorrow.

Black Out Challenge: Take Two

This week's challenge is called "Stagediving"  I decided to do something that combines grit and glam with a tri-color mani that included a silver crackle.  I love it and can see myself recycling it with different colors in the future.

Friday I'm in Love

This post is brought to you by a YouTube/blogosphere collaboration I found out about via Collete at My Simple Little Pleasures and the letter O.  Valentine's nail art!  What's not to love?

You might be wondering what in the world the letter O has to do with Valentine's day.  Well, It has something to do with the millions (okay, a bit of hyperbole) of stamps I had to put on my nail.  All of them were the letter O.  At least it covers up the lousy patch job I did on some of my nails.

This Mani Does Double Duty

I submit my mani for Pink Wednesday and for the LSG Gets Nailed Black Out Challenge.  Since this week's part of the challenge only required black as an accent, why not do a popular color combo?  With kittens!

Details:
Base Color-- NYC In A New York Minute Quick Dry Polish in Uptown
Stamp Color-- Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme
Stamp--Konad equivalent m30

Burrizza

Kitchen experimentation... ah.  If you haven't gotten it by now, I like to experiment with all kinds of stuff.  Why?  Because it's way more fun than doing what's prescribed.  Creativity makes the world go 'round.

This time around, it's the burrizza.  We'd already tried and succeeded with the pizzarito (burrito filled with pizza stuff), so it was only a matter of time before we did the burriza.

Basic pizza dough + beans and sauce + meat + cheese + a little sour cream on top = yum

Next time, I'll have to remember to buy some good chunky salsa, though.  Then it will be truly complete, and I'll be ready to take over the world.

Just joking, I'm not planning to take over the world.  Nope...

Sponging With Blues

Oh, the difference a layer of topcoat makes.  I loved this mani before, but it seems like the topcoat gave the gradient another layer of depth.  I love this mani.  So.  Much.

Enough of my gushing.  Here's a picture.  I took so many of them that it was hard to choose one for the blog.

More Mudpie

Remember that Mudpie Polwarth top I was spinning?  Well I have made some more progress on it.  I don't want it to become another never-ending project.  So far I've got this much done.

News in the Nude

I have finally tried the newsprint mani.  It was fun, and I plan to do it again one day--hopefully with better results.

Keeping it Simple

I'm really loving this manicure despite all the negative (if you can call bright yellow negative) space.  The tiny corner stamps are so low-key, yet they're still hard to miss.

Poison and Some Nail News

That's what these nails remind me of.  Skull and crossbones on a dark background?  That's just got to be trouble.

Birds on my Nails

Look at these birds on my nails.  Look at them!

Experiment Part II

Part II of the experiment would be disappointing if I really cared all that much about the results.  Yes, I'm one of those weirdos who just like to satisfy their curiosity.  That said,  let's continue.

After this paragrapgh, there would be a picture of the very low-twist singles I spun (as much as I like spinning, "spin" is one verb that offends my sensibilities when it comes to the past tense), but I forgot to take a picture.  Instead, I present the singles after washing and agitating and such.

New spinning and Some Experimentation (Pic Heavy)

So a few days ago I started a new spinning project with Polwarth from Gale's Art.  The colorway is called Mudpie, and it looks like it will be living up to that name.  Hopefully, it will be in a good way.  It looks like the color progression, the colors used, and the staple length will make this into  yarn that will be mottled at the very least

Here's the braid.

Spinning: The Project That WILL NOT DIE

Meet the project that will not die:

I've been working on it since 2009.  It's not its fault, really.  The fiber is lovely (merino/silk from Woolarina) despite all the messing up that's happened through travel and packing and such.  It's my fault for thinking that Navajo ply on-the-fly should be done for such a big project.

i crey sooo hahrd

nuf sed

Hello, 2012!

I hope everyone is starting their year off right.    I certainly had my share of merrymaking with a little help.  Food, drinks, music, video games, and my boyfriend made for a good night.

Unfortunately, there was a casualty of the festivities.  My manicure.  I knocked a few rhinestones out of place early on, and some eventually came right off.  And of course, I didn't get any pictures before the trouble started.

While I was messing up my nails, I also played some MarioKart and unsuccessfully tried to get everyone involved into some voice chat.  Alas, things weren't cooperating, and nobody got to hear why I've been called "the reason MarioKart doesn't have voice chat."  I'll tell you one thing:  trying to type and race at the same time is pretty difficult.  One more reason I don't text and drive.

So...

NACHOS!