Laguna Beach landscape gradient in green, purple and yellow

One of my favourite pendants is my Laguna Beach necklace (see it here). Personally, I wear it almost exclusively and always gets heaps of compliments. I never tire of making it for new customers. So I decided to draw inspiration from that. This is the mani I was wearing (and still was till today) on Saturday at the Queenstown Art Market. Decided I needed something to draw attention to my stall and my jewellery and nail art.

I started with a coat of a-england Dragon - a beautiful olive green holo. Then I gradient applied a-england Avalon from just below the middle to the tips. I went over twice towards the tips to make it darker. Avalon is a vibrant purple with a bit of shimmer. The tips I first gradiented in OPI Don't talk Bach to Me (a mustard greeny yellow - pretty ick-looking in the bottle but I tell you, I use this a lot!). The tippy tips were sponged in OPI Need Sunglasses.

After letting this sit-dry for about 15 minutes I drew my hill lines in black. Just random dunes and slopes. I used an Ozotic duochrome (910) to highlight parts of the dunes. Then I brought it all together with top coat, twice.

The purple-yellow is a vibrant combo and looks really good together. All the colours flow  – but at the same time pop. A lot of people noticed it on Saturday, and that they matched my pendant. Proof that everything is hand drawn! I would like to do more of this type of nail art for clients, but that is still slow going. I think I will get there in the end, though!

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a-england Fated Prince

This is a simple mani I was wearing in the middle of preparing for garage sales. The last of my beautiful a-englands I had yet to swatch / wear. I really think it is a shame that a england no longer ships worldwide. I know you can get the elsewhere, but it is not the same!

The base is two coats of Fated Prince (Burne-Jones collection). A beautiful holographic grey. a-england always has such a smooth velvety texture. And this holo really shines! I decided to add some purple glitter (inspired by someone out there who had just worn purple glitter).

But first I applied a coat of Pretty & Polished 7 Year Lich. This is a great black and grey glitter. Of course, it would look better on a lighter base! The glitter has a slightly clear grey base with black and grey bar and round glitter pieces. Then, I topped with a nice purple hex glitter from Orly (Can't be Tamed).

Top coat sealed the deal. Pretty simple, but almost elegant looking. So far today all I have really done is clean out our kitchen and my studio. I lost a polish!!! I thought it may have dropped behind my polish shelves, so moving that started a domino effect of cleaning. And stock take:

glitters = 36; Pretty & Polished = 8; Layla = 9; Zoya = 16; Essie = 4; Nfu Oh = 4; a-england = 8; piCture Polish = 11 (really 12); butter london = 7; Ozotic = 3; Cult Nails = 2; China Glaze = 40; OPI = 58; Orly = 11; Nostalgic Lacquer = 7; CND = 4; and lots of singlettes.



But did not find my missing piCture pOlish. Perhaps George played with it and it is under a sofa somewhere....

GOT: purple – monarch butterflies

Apologies, I am late in posting this. And double apologies – I didn't do a very good job of clean up before these photos. In the meantime my nails look a lot cleaner, but no pics of that! But this will not keep me from being absolutely enamored in this mani! Can't stop looking at my nails! Gradient purple monarch butterflies.

All the polishes are way over a year old. I started with two coats of OPI A Grape Fit. A nice creamy full tone purple. This was followed by a two coat gradient of a england Avalon. Avalon is a much underused colour on my end. It just seems so bright when I wear it alone. The wrong type of bright, I guess. I want to wear it, but then I don't like it on. Might have to do with my skin tone.

The tips were gradiented with one coat of Orly Fowl Play, a beautiful purple with opalescent flecks in it. So the tips have some orange and red coming through. Depending on the light, more or less. I fast dry top coated all of this before continuing. Probably waited about 15 minutes.

Then I drew/painted the lines and tips in black (any ol' black, combo of striper, polish and acrylic brush) and dotted white spots on the tips. I top coated with a thick coat of Poshé being careful just to hover the brush over the nail (no smears). After an hour or so another top coat of Out the Door.

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I have a glammy mani client late this afternoon! Just a one-offer as she is visiting the area, but still - maybe some good word-of-mouth ?! I invested in 40 flyers but am uncertain as where to hang them out still. I dropped one off at the gym and hung one at the local supermarket. It has probably already vanished from there. The ladies who work there aren't very nice and take down things. Not really fair, but nothing I can do about it. It is free advertising but it seems the motorsport weekend flyers stay up forever.

Business-wise our renewal deadline has come and gone. We have not been able to sell the business so are now officially in countdown mode. We may get lucky and the landlord will find a new tenant who will buy the chattels off us. I doubt it, though. We feel the property owner doesn't really care much about us and our situation. Otherwise, we are loathe to even think about the work involved in clearing out. As Scarlet would say: we'll put that off till tomorrow!

a-england Rose Bower love-li-ness pure

This is most beautiful polish. a england's Rose Bower from the Burne-Jones Dream collection. No wonder it has won heaps of blog prizes as the best red of the year. Well worth the wait – I have been waiting for this it seems forever!

Pretty straight-forward mani: two coats of Rose Bower topped with Out the Door. The colour is absolutely fabuliscious! A deep raspberry rose red with holographic shimmer. All you can do is think of new adjectives to describe it. So great. The colour moves from deep raspberry to a bit of a pink tinged deep rose. Velvety application, no problems. a england has to be my favourite brand (just wish they weren't so hard to get a hold of).

I decided to do an accent nail (seems like forever since I have done that). Two coats of my fav nude, Butter London All Hail the Queen. Another gorgeous colour. I top coated first before drawing and painting. I was trying for Pre-Raphaelite wallpaper designs à la William Morris. Look like plain ol' leaves, ha! But the red against the nude is stunning.

And.... I couldn't resist and made a ring to match. Talk about beautiful! Simple, yet elegant and chic. And a tad medieval. (more here). My last mani lasted all these days! Why is that? When you want something to last it seems to get ruined in hours. Oh, I made a pendant to match that as well. So much inspiration.

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Well, tonight is film nite and it has been chilling cold all day. Southerlies blasting through. I have had some business today. Sitting on egg shells as I have applied for a couple of jobs. The one interview was Saturday and they talked to me for almost two hours! For a super part time job. Really makes no sense unless they were trying to get all my knowledge! Would like to get it, but you just never know who they are looking for. The other one is very, very appealing - am waiting for an interview call. Hope I get a try.
Yeah!!! Today is my girls' 25th bday. xxxxx.

a-england skittlette using Iseult and Princess Sabra

Am totally in love with a-england and have four (count 'em 4!) new polishes. I plain could not decide what to do, but thought I would start with the pink of Iseult (Mythicals). True, I am not a pink person, but this colour is so beautiful, I just had to want it!

Iseult is a shimmer pink. Like all the a-england's I have, there is a holographic velvet quality to the polish. The tiniest bit of grey shimmer makes the pink (or anything) luxurious. This is an AABBC skittlette with AAC being three coats of Iseult each. I decided on the third coat to even out the base totally. The polish is not sheer, but wanted a full coverage.

The BB skittlette is Princess Sabra (Legend), in its newer form. This is a gorgeous olive bronze that shimmers like wow! The polish has a nice yellow tinge, so definitely warm. Only two coats of this and all was top coated before continuing.

The ivy is freedrawn with black as the AA part of the skittlette. This wasn't as fiddly as in the past so I must be getting better. Managed both hands before continuing. I dot-filled the leaves with Princess Sabra and then added some Beauty Never Fails (Heavenly Quotes) for depth and accents. After that all dried a bit I added some more black lines and thick top coat.

I think the pink and green look totally fab together! In fact, I am very happy with this mani. Looks delicate and elegant. Living the pre-raphaelite dream! In fact, I have started a pendant based on the drawings as the colours work so well together. Apologies for the photo spam, but just too pretty!!!

What a day. I have a big lump in my stomach since the landlord drove through our carpark (she lives behind my café). When she exited she drove right across the road to my competition to meet friends for coffee! Just gutted. She has never supported our little café, though it would be in her best interest as we pay lease etc for her. Makes me feel sad. Add that to an almost non-event of a day. At least I got to skype with my girl!!!! That was great!

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Happy Year End 2013!!!

Hi girls and lovely friends and followers! This, my last post of 2013, wishes you all the very best for 2014 – may only good things and good experiences visit your doorstep. For my year-end mani I chose simple elegance: a-england's Avalon from her Mythicals collection. A true royal purple (two coats of it!). This was then topped with a coat of Orly Can't be Tamed (a purple and black glitter), and a nice heaping of OPI's 18K Man with the Golden Gun. Let's end the year in style, eh???

Looking back at all of mine and other posts this last year I am so proud and surprised at what I have personally accomplished, but also at what I have seen others create. Of course there is much room for improvement and growth, the path, though, is a strong one. I have put together some of my favourite manis and blog posts on this page (page here). My nail polish collection has grown, I now have a studio area to work and play in, and I have meet many kindred spirits in the nail art community.

stash 31 dec 2013

This year is ending differently than I imagined. The future of my wee café is very much uncertain. Decisions about this have caused many sleepless nights and much dilemma. I think the weeks may be counted, certainly the months. It makes me very sad to perhaps see it go as I put all my love and thought and ideas and life and money into it. Windows close, doors open.

my wee café

Towards the end of the year I decided to go online with my jewelry – perhaps an open window. I had been making earrings, rings and pendants and selling at the café. In my little PANZ group here in NZ, some girls started doing jewelry, and I noticed they went online. A gf suggested selling online as well, so I started wee shops. I have one on felt.co.nz (nz based handmade craft faire) and on etsy (a global handmade marketplace).

my shop on felt

my shop on etsy

So, my friends, I close now for a glass – or two or three – of bubbles (even the good stuff of Moet!), some cheese and baguette, pizza, perhaps a movie with the Mr and a feeling of love. Even if the last weeks have been strained, I live the life I love and love the life I live. Focus on the beautiful positive. Peace and cheers my friends!