Thursday, December 29, 2011

Yay, I painted my nails today!

Hello readers, hope you're having a fantastic week. Things are getting better with me, I finally got to paint my nails after the Christmas Day Finger Massacre. My pinky is still the same as what it was on Christmas day though, I'm sure it's going to stay that way for a while lol. But you cant see it so nobody knows that it doesn't match. It has Color Club Hot like Lava with a coat of Pure Ice Beware on top on it in case you're wondering lol.

I've also been playing with my new camera, I still have a lot of things to learn about taking good hand pics and lots to learn about my camera too. I also want to forewarn that I did not do a very good clean up job before I took these, they look a little bit of a hot mess. I'm learning as I go, I really want to make this the best blog I can so please bear with me and I welcome any tips or constructive criticism. :)


So, onto my mani, unfortunately there's no nail art, I can barely write my name muchless do anything decent on my nails at the moment lol. Just a simple cream and an awesome glitter polish.



I used two coats of NYX Between Mauve and Purple and 2 coats of Nicole OPI One Less Lonely Glitter, I think these work really well together and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this glitter, it's awesome.





Thanks for stopping by, what do you think of this combo?

XOXO
Amber









Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Goodies!

Howdy! I'm doing a little better today, minimal pain but I'm not able to really use my hand too much. I have a gross chipped mani going on that completely horrifies me but my right hand has so many tiny scratches that I'm scared to get acetone anywhere near it. o.O Oh well, maybe in a few days, its not hurting constantly anymore so that's all that matters.

Anyhoo, I thought I'd share my awesome nail goodies that I got for Christmas. My hubby picked me out 14 new polishes, he did pretty good :)


L to R, Eggplant, Gray's Anatomy, 9.0.2.1.Orange, Teal or No Teal, Teal of Fortune, and Sage in the City


Midnight, Evil Queen, Twinkle Twinkle and Mystical


Calm/Wild, One Less Lonely Girl, Me + Blue, and Hyper/Relaxed

I can't wait to try these out!

Here's one of my most unexpected gifts. My mom actually offered me $50 if I could guess what this one was because she was SO sure I'd never guess it. She was right, I would never have guessed it! lol



She got me 1 GALLON of Acetone, hahaha. I should be set for a WHILE. lol

One of my favorite gifts I got was a new Camera YAY!!!!! No more craptastic cell phone pics, I'm so excited! Hopefully my hand will be good as new in a week or so and I can get back to doing some nail art, I have some great ideas to start the new year with. :)

Well, thanks for stopping by, can't wait to see what everyone else got for the Holidays.

XOXO

Amber

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Ho, Ho, Ho!

(I am going to preface this by saying that if there are any weird typos I will come back and fix them later, I am medicated and tired lol)

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. My day was pretty much the crappiest Christmas EVA! We opened gifts from Santa at about 4:30 am with the kids, then by 8 I was in the emergency room getting stitches in my finger.

I was loading my dishwasher and dropped a glass and broke it and my hand was the victim. So needless to say, I felt like hell all day and then I had a bad reaction to my pain meds. It just sucked and my hand hurts. :( It could be worse though...(isnt that what people always say to make you feel better?) It doesnt really make me feel that better, it ruined my Christmas and that makes me sad because its my favorite day of the year.

My day wasn't all horrible though, I did get to see my family and they all babied me :), I got some great gifts, which I will get into in another post in a day or two when I can take pics (with my new Camera!!!!!) One of the best and most exciting parts of my day was being featured on the blog Nails Adored!

Jamie has been having a Blogger Spotlight on Sundays and today I was honored to have the spotlight. How awesome is that? You can check out my post Here.

She also featured one of my favorite Christmas mani's that i did this season. Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. I have been so excited to share this one!



Rudolph is one my favorite holiday movies, I've watched it every single year since I was a kid and I love being able to share it with my own kids now. I'm very proud of this mani.

I also took a photo of my base before I painted the characters, they pretty much covered it up but it sure was cute.




I did a base coat of Wet and wild Rain Check and sponged a little bit of LA Colors Wired and then stamped the snowflakes using bundlemonster plate BM14 with NYC french tip white and Pure Ice silver mercedes. I love how this turned out, it would be a shame to have it covered it up if it weren't for the fact that Rudolph turned out so awesome lol.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today, I love all of my readers and I appreciate all of your feedback and comments. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas!

XOXO!

Amber

Saturday, December 24, 2011

For Unto Us A Child Is Born~Special Guest Post

Happy Christmas Eve! :) Today I have something extra special to share with you. I have asked my friend Laurie to share her special Christmas nail art with you. The moment I saw them I knew they needed to be shared, they're beautiful and they're the real reason for the season. Thank you Laurie for giving me the opportunity to share this with my wonderful readers. Merry Christmas!

I'll let her take it from here, Enjoy! :)


Hello readers! Merry Christmas! For me this is a time to reflect on the reason to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus. I know it can be a sketchy time for a lot of people because we want to do our best to be politically correct and not offend anyone. In the nail art world I've seen a lot of manis with reindeer and Santa, Christmas trees, Christmas tree lights and even snowflakes and snowmen. All cute fun and happy mani's. I was searching for Nativity scene pictures the other day and I came across this fantastic manicure done by Topcoatit and I thought YES beautiful! Usually I stamp my mani's using the various different stamping image plates but this one I did all by hand using a few dotting tools and nail art paints.

It didn't take me near as long as I thought it would and honestly it was much easier than I thought as well. After I showed it off to my nail polish friends, the wonderful Amber asked me to guest post on her blog today--she is a sweetie and really much more talented then I am! I thank her so much for asking me to share this with you! Without further ado here is my Nativity Scene manicure. Thanks TopCoatIt for the wonderful idea.



To get this look I used a franken I made duping Starry Starry Night called Natural Law. Then I sponged China Glaze Spontaneous over that and then Hard Candy Sky at the tips. I used Hard Candy Mushroom for the manger and then white for Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Gold glitter for the star and voila!



I hope everyone has a wonderful Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Medley!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve! :) Only 2 more days till Christmas, yay! It would be a lot happier if I wasn't sick, I woke without a voice this morning, fanfreakintastic! o.O

Oh well, it could be worse I guess. Hope everybody else is doing well.

I did a little Christmas nail art medley last night of some of my favorites that I've been seeing.



My index finger has some bleeding with the red polish on the bow and I have a few chips already, I'm really hard on my hands I guess. :/ The half moon wreath is inspired by the lovely Sarah at Chalkboard nails, her's is WAY better lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO,
Amber

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I'm a Julep Maven It Girl!

Howdy!

This weekend after hearing about the promotion Julep was having for one cent start up, I decided to give it a try. That's definitely a sale I can afford ;). Seeing a 1 cent charge in my account was pretty funny haha.

I ordered Saturday evening and recieved it today (Wednesday) so the shipping was pretty quick. It shipped out on Monday.

Here's what I got in my "It girl" box:



From left to right the polishes are; Fast Dry topcoat, Helena, Chloe and Kim. I also got a Green glitter pot and samples of their SPF 30 Hand cream and Age defying Hand brightener.

My nails were already nekkid so I went ahead and swatched each polish on a nail. As far as I can tell they have great coverage, each polish only took two coats to be completely opaque. The fast dry top coat is just kind of "meh". I put it over the Chloe and it doesn't smooth it out very well like a lot of top coats do, even after two coats and it's not very shiny in my opinion and I'm still up in the air about the "fast dry" part. I'll give it another go later though when I have time to sit down and swatch it for reals.

The glitter pot is interesting, I only played with it for a minute on one nail, it is a really pretty color, it's a really fine glitter powder. I've never used loose glitter before, so it should be fun to play with. :)

I haven't been buying much this month at all, with Christmas here it's hard to justify buying for myself. Last night I did get a few new polishes while at the Dollar Tree though, I'm crazy like that. They had a bunch of two packs of NYC quick dry polishes so I bought two.


L to R: Times Square, Greenwich Village, Midtown, and Little Italy. I love NYC polishes, they're one of my favs, they normally run 1.99 at Walmart and I paid $2 for all 4. Yay!

XOXO

Monday, December 19, 2011

Sunday Football Series #15~Indianapolis Colts

Okay, pretend for a minute that it's not Monday and it's actually Sunday ;).

This week I chose the Indianapolis Colts. Congrats to them on their first win of the season :/. Poor Peyton Manning, I miss him.



I did a splatter using a LA Colors blue and little bit of silver. I LOVE splatter mani's, they are so cute and so much fun to do, it's one of my favorite techniques. :)




Go Colts!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday Football Series #14~Baltimore Ravens

I apologize for being late, I did this mani on time, BUT I never got around to posting it. Last week was such a busy week and me and my kids have been sick to boot. FUN times! This week is probably not going to be much better though, it'll be better after the holidays though so don't give up on me :).

Anyhoo, last week my friend Lori suggested The Ravens. I LOVE how it turned out, I think it is pretty awesome.



I really hate that the pic isn't better, I did a lot of really good detail work on the ring finger Raven, he looked way awesome. This cellphone pic doesn't do it justice I assure you. (Hopefully I won't be saying that much anymore after Christmas ;) , hoping to get a new Camera!)

This was the first time I did the fishtail/braid, I used THIS tutorial by Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails. I love the way it looks, I want to do it again.

That was LAST weeks Sunday mani, THIS weeks won't be posted until tomorrow when I can take a picture outside lol. It's pretty cute, but fairly simple and I did one of my favorite techniques. :) Stay tuned.



Go Ravens!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Day 4~Candy Canes

Hello my lovelies, hope you're having a fantabulous weekend. Today is Day 4 for me, Candy canes!

I did peppermints, but it's the same thing basically;)


I used NYX Girls Woman for the red and the white is actually acrylic paint because all of the whites I had are getting really gunky and polish thinner isn't doing much for it. There is also a coat of LA Colors glitter but I have no clue what the name is.

This is also my rarely seen right hand, my nails and cuticles look like hell I know.

Anyhoo, thanks for stopping by! XOXO

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Ohhhhh FUDDDGGGEE!!!!!

Howdy! Today I'm on Day 3 of the 12 days of Christmas Challenge. A Christmas Story. You know the movie, with Ralphie who really wants a Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle and everybody keeps telling him "You'll shoot your eye out!". Yeah, That Christmas Story! ;)

This one was really fun to do, I love this movie and I love that TBS shows it over and over for 24 hours straight starting Christmas Eve.


On the Index finger we have Ralphie's friend Flick who was Triple Dog Dared to stick his tongue to the pole and got stuck. Middle we have Ralphie in his pink bunny pajamas that his Aunt Clara gave him, heehee. Ring we have the infamous Major Award in all her glory. And Pink is the box that that the Major Award came in, and it's pronounce Fra-gee-lee. ;)



This next photo is of my bases, I just thought it looked pretty so I thought I'd share it too. The Red is Finger Paints Curators Crimson and the yellow is China Glaze Lemon Fizz. It was just so bright and fun.


Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!!!!!

Friday, December 9, 2011

I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!

I am sorry, I said I was going to get back to the 12 days of Christmas challenge on Tuesday and I've been seriously slacking. Don't hate me ;)

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging. I am on Day 2, which is presents. I was inspired by one of my favorite Christmas songs "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". I LOVE how it turned out.


Polishes used were Finger Paints Curator's Crimson, LA Colors blue, NYC french White tip, and Sally Hanson Going Green, as well as numerous acrylic paints.


Here's some of the other ladies participating in the challenge:
Michelle - http://sonomanailart.blogspot.com

Here's a little tune to brighten your day :)

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Nutcracker!

Howdy peeps!

Yesterday my kids and I and some friends went to see The Nutcracker Ballet. It was SO good. None of us had ever been before and it was quite an experience. It was so much fun. It was put on by the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet and they did such an amazing job, it was awesome.

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the ballet. My kids were very entertained. They were introduced to men in tights which, naturally, brought on fits of laughter. I tried to give my daughter the stink eye when she started giggling when the Prince came out in his white tights but it's hard to keep a straight face when you KNOW why they're laughing. She leans over and says "You can see that guy's butt". And well, you COULD, those tights left very little to the imagination lol. I will say this much though, he looked good in his tights, just sayin'. ;)

I am so glad we went, we definitely made some good memories :).


Okay, on to the 'good stuff', you KNOW I did my nails for the occasion ;)

I am loving my little nutcracker man, he's too cute. The red is Curator's Crimson with a coat of Pure Ice Beware, silver glitter on top. The nutcracker is done with acrylic paints with a base coat of a Franken made by my friend Laurie Nievin called Natural Law. It's a dark blue jelly with silver glitter, it's gorgeous and I plan on swatching it soon in all it's glory, it's a beauty.

Well, thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think! :)

XOXO

P.S. I plan getting back to the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge tomorrow :).

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Sunday Football Series #13~New England Patriots

Howdy peoples! Hope you're having a fantastic weekend, it's been pretty good so far for us. We are in week 13 of the football season and this week I did the New England Patriots.

I love how this turned out, it's pretty cool if I do say so myself, what do you think?


The red base is Finger Paints Curators Crimson and the rest is acrylic paints. I had a LA Colors blue polish on my thumb it didn't match the patriot blue so I painted over it in paint.

Go Patriots!

Photobucket

Thursday, December 1, 2011

12 Days of Christmas~Day 1

Hello my lovelies, Happy December 1st :)

I am doing the 12 day Christmas challenge that was created by the ever so talented Michelle of Sonoma Nail Art. The first day is SNOWFLAKES!!!!



I decided my snowflakes needed a cute little wintery friend. :) I love it!

This is really a great challenge, it's only 12 days. You can do them whenever and whatever order you want, just have fun with it.




Here's are some of the other ladies joining in this challenge, check them out too! :)

Michelle - http://sonomanailart.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by! XOXO