China Glaze Agro in skittlette with hearts

What a total hectic of a time it has been! And it is still not over. There are so many things I want to write about; for those who follow and myself for future reads. Time just gets way from me from day to day. It has been over a week since my last post, and my FB pages are pretty bleak as well. But I know things will be looking up soon and I will be back on the social marketing bandwagon!

This was the mani I was rocking for my first craft faire on Easter weekend (blog to follow on that as well). I fact, I wore it a couple of days before and after. The base is two coats of China Glaze Agro. Love this green - perfect autumn shade. I decided to do an AABBC skittlette, leaving Agro alone on the AAs. I had made some wee bracelets with a heart and Agro as a background, so I recreated this on my nails.

The hearts were drawn asymmetrically and are in Ozotic 502 Sands. The duochrome shifts from gold to brick red to brown through copper. Very earthy. The pinky received a coat of CG Electrify - also from the Hunger Games collection. A very Katniss look – in fact, I made a ring for the craft faire (just for fun).

right hand

Since I last wrote I have had two garage sales at the café, with one more to go this Saturday. I never had so much business! But you would not believe the amount of work involved getting all the old (bought with café) cr*p down from the attic areas and put out on tables. It was massive! Our fault for not insisting she (landlady-preowner) clean out her junk before selling. But I was wide-eyed and anxious for my fantastic wine bistro plan! Dumb. There are still things to do, all very overwhelming at the moment. But we had good sales and some big ticket items are gone.

just part of a massive massive pile

Then in the midst of all this the film society had their members only night (and final night of the season). I got yellow flowers!! All a tad emotional and I got a bit teary eyed. So sad to see the venue go - seemed perfect for the film nights. Generally sad to see the venue go.

There is another mani to post, and with Anzac day tomorrow I am working on my mani for that. And Ripponburn today. Also, getting my paperwork together to apply for NZ citizenship hopefully Monday (yeah, big yeah!!). May have a mani client tomorrow (need to get my studio up and running - have secured web domains, need business cards....). I "rewarded" myself with a small polish buy. Just because, I felt like it. Some indies from overseas.

Bye girls! Thanks for being a part of my wild ride!

GOT: stripes – hand drawn fronds over stripes of copper and blue

I am enjoying the GOT challenge. Makes you take a long look at your stash, see what's old and try to find away around the prompt. Sorry I am a bit late in posting this - well, in my part of the world it is Friday. But things mounted up yesterday and I couldn't get it done. There was film night last – great, great Norwegian film (Headhunters) – and I had to get ready for that. Then before that, I had Ripponburn day with the little ladies. It just all piled up, felt behind all day.

So this is my take on stripes. The base is (yicks, another mini bottle) Orly Chocolate Martini. This is as old the OPI from the last GOT mani. I must have thought that mini bottles was the way to go four or five years ago. I was not that glam back then and probably thought this will be fine for those days when I felt like painted nails. My, how times have changed! I applied two coats and top coat before continuing. I waited a while.

Then I used one coat of Zoya Wednesday for the accent stripe. This was one of the first polishes I bought back in Oct 2012 when I re-started being glam. I still love it and have many similars (CG For Audrey, NOPI Alex by the Books). I lightly top coated the stripe area before continuing.

harvey getting in on the action!

I drew black outlines for frond like leaf-flowers. Carefully I filled them in with OPI Greenwich Village (bought at the Viet shop Nov 2012 in the States) and Zoya Sooki (got at my local NW in a buy-a-box-of-Kellogg's-and-get-a-free-bottle-of-polish-special also in Nov 2012). I use Sooki A LOT! It is a fantastic shade of tomato red. The red and green complement the copper and teal really well. Who'd of thought? And, I have gotten a lot of compliments on this mani - people really noticed it. In fact, I have started a similar based pendant (oh! sold two pendants this morning at the café!!!!).

right hand

Today is very windy in Central. And now a coldness is blowing through. Not that nice when the Antarctic winds swept the plains. Especially in summer. Even though I am late to the GOT party today, I am going to take time and check out all the other lassies and their creations!

I did end up making a pendant after all! more here: etsy shop.

Sunburst gradient with Nostalgic Lacquer Athlete

Happy 2014! I started the year with a bright sunny gradient, inspired by one of my new Nostalgic Lacquer glitters. Erin sent me four beautiful glitter to review, along with the two I ordered from her. So I am currently the proud owner of six new NL glitter polishes!! Here I am using the Athlete from the Saturday Detention collection, a groovy orange, yellow and white glitter.

I started with two coats of OPI Goldeneye then gradiented China Glaze Orange Knockout (neon orange - finally a good use for it!) and Mariah's OPI Sprung over that. I didn't bother top coating that and just went ahead and applied the glitter.

The Athlete is a clear base with orange, yellow and white glitter. It has large white square glitter mixed with very small pinpoint white specks, and that would be the only drawback for me. I like the white idea, but the white bits are big and "loud". I would rather they be smaller. And, I have to admit, one rolled upwards and I had to pick it off after it dried.
What I really like are the orange and yellow bits with the white. A very summery glitter, and over my gradient or a solid metallic it looks great!

I had to fish and dab a bit to disperse the white around. But I only did that on the first coat. The second coat of glitter I applied normally and that seemed to fill in any spaces. I can also imagine some jewelry ideas with the glitter.

right hand

So... we started the new year with a kitten, six weeks old. The Mr wanted a kitten, but he will not admit that. He thought Harvey needed a mate. It does make sense, though. Two person household, two cats. And why not? They eat basically nothing so care is minimum and if we go away, taking care of two cats isn't much more difficult than one. Right now we are calling him George – king for a day! – but that will most likely change soon as his personality comes out. Behold, the tiny tot.