NaNoWriMO 2012

The jewel I bring you today is a different kind of jewel. If you love books, this one is for you! November is National Novel Writing Month. I know we are already 10 days into the month, but if you have a story laying around that you've been wanting to write, now is the time. Any book of any kind. I'm actually winging it. Surprisingly it's pulling in ideas I had for several books, but I'm kind of liking how it's shaping up to be. So I will be a little mia around here for this month, but now you know why.

I had been thinking about doing this for at least a year, maybe two. I got to thinking, why wait, who cares how great it is. It's a rough draft and at least I can say I attempted it. Now I can say I'm putting my almost everything into. LoL :) Not enough I know, but baby steps, right? Just wish I had more time and less things to do. But I am making this a priority. It's just one month, that what I keep telling myself. One month of a crazy house, I already feel like a mess so let's give it another reason. Then at the end of the month, I have something to show for it.

I'm really glad my friend told me about this. This month and novel isn't even finished but I'm already sold on doing it again next year. So come join me at writing your own novel and let's do a good kind of crazy together. At least it will give us a reason to indulge in our coffee addiction and leave a story from ourselves as a book.

Circles and Swirls

I am still feeling nostalgic of Halloween and wanted to play with orange and black some more. So I pulled out my Red Angle plates and had some fun. As you can see with the first finger these stamp pretty well. I'm still working on my technique, so the smudges were due to user error. The ring finger I wanted to try the seran wrap painting with the newer tecnique I've picked up. I used to paint with it before I knew it was already a technique. Dang, I'm not as original as I thought. I however paint with it, like you would with a sponge for wall painting. The way I tried this time was to have your base color on and dried, then add a second layer and then pat with a balled up piece of seran wrap. My husband can't stand it, I love the look so be prepared to see more of it. I decided I wanted a touch of gold on the accent as well and topped it with Essie As Gold As it Gets and sealed with with top coat. 

           

Hoped you all had a nice Halloween!

All Hallow's Eve

These are my Halloween nails. I'm actually quite disappointed in them. I love the thumb! I tried stamping Sally Hansen's Insta Dri red over black, and it didn't really stamp well over black. I even tried some random orange and red foils to see how they work. I have even looked to see if there are some reds that will stamp over red and there apparently isn't one yet. I'm hoping to try some this winter to see if any metallics work. 

As you can see, the foils barely show up in the sun. I'm looking for a vibrant red over black. Do you know of a red I'm missing?

I just happened to grab a random twizzler laying around the house since there's always one around here. Thought it might add a little lightness to the macabre of the manicure.

Hallow-Rain

Ah, fall the best season of the year. I absolutely love this season and all the weather and colors it brings us. We can't forget about the bonfires, apples and the amazing cider it brings, and pumpkins and Halloween, of course. Which of course I hope you've made sure to do in this extremely short fall season we have this year. I think we had less than a week of it... yes, I think I shed some tears over it. I actually don't really celebrate Halloween myself, but I do like to play with some Halloween scenes on my nails and watch some movies with the friends. 

Here is today's pretty, Zoya Tao. It is from Zoya's Mirror Collection from Fall 2011. Smooth consistency and opaque in two coats. Fall 2011 is known for it's greys, which could not have made me happier. Tao is no exception, described as a light smoke grey with blue undertones and a muted, softened metallic finish.

                        

I could not leave well enough alone, after a day I decided to give it a halloween topping. Yes, I said topping, my new term apparently. But I love food, so I guess it's quite fitting for this lady. :) 

BM plates BM-209, BM-213, BM-222, and BM-223 were used. Not shown is the pumpkin from BM-222 as an accent on my right thumb. I did not play by the norm on this mani. I meant to do two accents on each hand, but loved the bats so much I wanted to use them on the rest instead of just an accent. I'm not usually into ghosts, but this one is way too cute and I figured once or twice out of the year isn't too bad for a casper type of ghost. Sally Hansen Silver Sweep was used for stamping and Art Deco Black was used for the rain. (My husband thougth they looked like clouds.) Clearly I need some work with the dotting, but I went raw and wanted to use the brush to see what look it gave. I actually like the streaked ones better, seemes to look more like rain. 

Not my best work work, but I enjoyed it for a playful look for a couple days. What do you think, 1. a fail,  2. something to learn from, or 3. no worries, let's just play? 

I mean, look at all that shimmery prettiness all from Tao!

Run for the Silent

This last weekend a group of us were running in a marathon that was put on by our city. However we ran to help support and raise awareness for sex trafficking. For the Silent is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to putting an end to sex trafficking all over the world, including right here in the United States. Sex trafficking is a modern day form of slavery that uses children of all ages under the age of 18 for commercial use of sex. If you'd like to find out other information or to do what you can to Run For The Silent, please check out their site.

On too the polish! I wanted to match my husband's gray performance shirt that he picked out and the regular blue one I picked out. I used two coats of OPI Skull and Glossbones for the base, added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. That was just not enough sparkles for me and running that early, and with no workout of any kind for two months prior; frankly, I needed something pretty to keep me calm. So CVS' Spoiled Jewelry Heist came out. I wanted some pink, and I think it has a nice combination of blue and pink with a hint touch of green. I love it, then I added another coat of Fairy Dust on the tips for a bit of a gradient look. 

I don't know about you, but I loved this mani. It did not turn out how I wanted it to. The gorgeous gray of Skulls and Glossbones looks more blue, and the pink glitter looked more golden unless the sun hit it just right. I've worn these two before and didn't have this outcome so I only assume it was the combination. However I loved this so much I actually left it on for a full five days and it's a great look for fall. Can't say it really tied in with our shirts, but I enjoyed it as did a few others who noticed. That's what really matters with accessories, that we get to enjoy ourselves a little bit. Guess it goes to show that sometimes things can come out better than you think they will.

Hello World!

Hey all! Welcome to my corner of nail polish adventures. Today I bring one of my latest and favorite manis. I've been excited for this and it turned out better than I expected. I am ready for  Halloween and I have too many manicures I want to do before the holiday gets here.

I have used two coats of Wet nWild Black Creme for the base. I think it's a little thin, but for some reason I have quite a few of these. I have been excited to try this Bundle Moster pattern from BM-215. Once I got Maybelline's new Bold Gold, I knew exactly what I was going to try. I just love snakes and was excited to see how the combo would turn out. I enjoy the outcome and in fact it reminded me of the snake I used to own in college. He was a ball python and a sweetie. I know most of you probably think that's an odd comment, but the little guy actually let me pet his head all the time. (And snakes aren't known for this, usually the exact opposite.) So this also brought back some found memories.

I'm not to crazy about all the metallics this season, but I think that's just because I'm kind of over them already from a couple years ago. However, I reached for this because I happened to be looking for a gold and one especially for stamping. Bold Gold is a lovely metallic and stamps effortlessly; I am glad I got it. In fact I've already bought a back up because I know I will be using this often. I would suggest you get one, but I want all of them and I have found several CVSs around me completely out on several occasions. And at around $4 they are a good buy, so stock up while you can!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, I sure did! After a crazy week a run was in order.