Playing Catch Up

With the boys out of school this week it has been crazy town around here which equals no posts...but I intend to catch up today.  First off we have Monday's Mani of the day:

Just a simple accent nail stamping. Colors here are Milani  Beach Front, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Kleancolor Sparkling Cosmos in the following picture.

Tuesday's Tutorial  was for this french manicure twist.

You start by striping with a striping brush each nail with a color of your choice(in this case NYC Pier 17) which will be the base of your french tip. Don't worry about the line continuing onto your finger- you will clean up later.

Now taking the polish brush fill in the rest of the tip and using an angled brush clean up around the nail with acetone.  Add a layer of top coat.

 For the accent finger I took NYC Madison Avenue and dotted twice closely together.

 Then I used the dotting tool I used to make the dots to drag each dot down to meet in a point to form a teeny heart <3



Finally we're to today's proper post-though it's nearly Thursday- here's Wednesday Weekly Wrap-Up.  Of course I didn't capture all our mischief on camera, but here's some:

Bear helped us along into the holiday by putting out our first Halloween decor.  And proud of it he was ;)

Bug enjoying a delicious and gushy ghouly treat.

Miss Bee finding anything and everything to make a play-thing with.

Flying...

This picture cracks me up every time.  We were waiting for a table at a local restaurant and the kids were having too much fun makin funny faces in the mirror.  

At Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland

Happy to start the maze at least ;)

Wheeee!

Loved the cute mining idea, and so geographically appropriate for our local :)

And the maze goes on...

Such fun on the train!

Sweet Bug softly petting the little goat- not somethin we see every day that's for sure! Usually he could care less- but as you will note- his gaze is still lifted so we don't confuse him with a true animal lover.  He must keep up the facade.

Hope all of your weeks were as blessed as ours!  Love all around.

Over and Out

Saturday Swatch Spam

Happy Weekend All!  It really is starting to feel like fall here in Northern California finally and I'm so happy about it.  We went on a hike today (the kiddos and I) and it was perfect weather- not too hot not too cold.  Bug and Bear even waded in the little pools of water that are usually catching waterfalls when it has been raining, but today they were nice and shallow.  What a beautiful day- truly!

For those of you who love color swatches as much as I- Saturday Swatch day will have ten colors for the week that you can find at any local store that carries polish, and if you have to go somewhere else to find them I'll tell you.  I also tend to spend pretty thriftily as well so if you find a color you like you won't have to worry about it costing you an arm and a leg :) The swatches will be two coats unless otherwise specified.

This is NYC Madison Avenue. Such a delicious red jelly and came out a little lighter on the nail than in the bottle. This is three coats here to try to banish the VNL.  It has a faint shimmer to it as well.

This orange is Fingerpaints Vermillion $ Painting.  You can find this brand at any Sally Beauty Supply near you.  It has a lot of shimmer and even a little gold duochrome- but just a little.

Deadly Dose by Wet n Wild Megalast- This is a very light gold metallic and took 3 coats for this opacity.  Looking more like the straw spun into gold from Rumplestiltskin than a loud metallic, I found this color to be really inviting.  This is the first of three I will show today from their 2012 Pick Your Poison Halloween offering.

Wet n Wild Fastdry SaGreena the Teenage Witch is right on for a witchy green.  A lot of shimmer- this was nearly opaque in one coat.  Not really my favorite green on its own but I will definitely use it for nail art.

Another polish from Pick Your Poison by Wet n Wild Megalast-  Toxic Apple was so reflective it's showing you the back of my kitchen in the nail.  This color was gorgeous- like tinted windows on my nails- a very steel purple.  A little too much light exposure here- it's actually darker and grittier.  The camera didn't catch it but there's also some mini blue sparkle mixed in.  If you look at the bottle you can see what I mean.

 Wet n Wild Megalast Root of All Evil from the Pick Your Poison collection.  Again- in real life this color isn't quite as bright but almost.  This gives you a pretty good idea of the lovely blue you have here- very eye-catching.

This is Pink Forever by Sinful Colors.  This is a dark bubble-gum pink cream.  Easy application and smooth finish 'cept for the nick on the middle finger ;)

Park Avenue by NYC.  This dusty, brown-gray  is such a delightfully cozy coffeehouse brown.  Love love it.

Ebony Hates Chris by Wet n Wild Fastdry.  This black is a little too black if you know what I mean.  I usually prefer off-black but I'm anxious to try this out for stamping and see if it transfers well.

This is Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice over Fingerpaints Vermillion $ Painting.  A beautiful mixture of gold micro glitter and slightly larger red-orange glitter, I felt this one was spot on.

Did you see anything that spoke to you?  Looking for a new flash of color to wear around this week?

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Over and Out

Wednesday Weekly Wrap-Up: Love and Discovery

So I thought a mid-week wrap up would be a fun way to mix it up- especially since weekends are too busy to do a wrap up post :)  This post is pic-heavy, so mostly these are for you Grandma!! Without further ado- here's what we've been up to this week.


Found some cuddlebugs in the back of my car.

Grandma I got a new toy this week and I chase it around all day!

So much fun

Brother- that's my phone!

Since I took down his inflatable pool, he's back to taking frequent baths lol.  He's just a big fish.

Holdin my own bottle

Momma let me at the bowl of mashed potatoes after everyone was done eating dinner and boy did I have a great time!

This white stuff was so fun and squishy in my fingers

Champion Chomper

Here Daddy- some for you

What?

This pic depicts Miss Bee's personality to a T.

Goofy girl

Mmmmm

Grubbin so hard lol

Gotta get in a shot :)

Sweet Sunny Bee.  She adds so much love to our lives and she can't wait to meet you Gma :)

Hoping all your weeks were filled with love!

Over and Out

Tuesday Tutorial: Plastic Wrap Technique

 Happy Tuesday everyone.  I have a new technique for you to try today along with me.  I'm seeing  this all over the place right now- the plastic wrap or saran wrap technique.  Here's what the end result looks like:

Basically it's a way of getting some really cool watercolor- like art onto your nails with really minimal effort!  So here we go:

Step One:

Cover your nail in a coat or two of your base color.  This is NYC East Village which is a very opalescent blue/green.  Loved it but it needs three or more coats to wipe out the VNL(visible nail line).  However, since I was adding more polish it didn't matter :)

Step Two:
Add top coat of choice- I used Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat

Step Three:

Take a strip of plastic wrap and bunch it up til it looks like this and paint a little of your first color right onto the plastic.  Using another surface (like a paper plate) dab a little paint off, and then dab directly onto your nails.  Repeat with each color until you achieve the desired effect.

Step Four:
Repeat your top coat.  Et Voila!

Colors I used were:
NYC East Village
Milani Sail Away which is navy with silver foil and is gorgeous!
Wet n' Wild Deadly Dose- a lighter gold metallic
OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls which is the off-white perfection :)

Are you going to give this trend a try?  You will be pleased with the result I promise!

Over and Out

Monday Mani: Discipline

Hey Ya'll

Been a while :)  I took a break after the 31 Day Challenge, cuz for real it was work ;)  I'm back with a Monday mani.  The main color here is Lilac-ing Discipline from Nina Ultra Pro which you can find at Sally Beauty Supply.  It was creamy and beautiful and a breeze to apply.  The blurple you see on the accent nail, I'm shamed to admit I can't remember since I wore this a few weeks ago.  Wish I could figure out which of my near navy purples this is, because these colors together were just love!  When I remember I'll update.

Find something to do today that inspires your creativity!

Over and Out