GOT: pink – Field of Love flowers gradient skittlette

Blatant creative plug! I had this idea for nails and a pendant, and earrings and nails (not to wear together, but designing off each other). Then I saw the pink GOT (golden oldie Thursday) prompt, and knowing Valentine's Day is on the horizon thought this would be a good time to do this. I am very happy with how everything turned out. And that is why I am up on a cloud and wanting to share!

The mani is an ABBCC skittlette, though the CCs are hard to decypher from the A. A (pinkie) is one of my oldest polishes: a mini bottle of OPI Strawberry Margarita. Been around my basket since the ark. Eeck, mini bottle! I had visions of the polish being a big gloopy mess. But no. Not super "new" but definitely applicable. The polish is very similar to China Glaze Wicked Style, a tad warmer. For the CCs I used a base of Margarita and then marbled tip layers of the heart neon to bring the heart colour back into the mani. Not a total success story, but it worked.

The BBs are my pride and joy. The gradient was a four part deal and uses all piCture pOlish holos that I have had for over a year (still complying by the got-rules!). From cuticle to tip: hope, cosmos, jealousy, kryptonite, though the main components are cosmos and jealousy. Take it back, I just got jealousy. Oh well, most have been in the stash for a year. I top coated this before continuing. Then I drew the tulip hearts (ring) and balloon (middle) with thin black strokes and filled them in with China Glaze Neon & On & On. Careful top coat over that.

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I did my nails and the pendant-necklace simultaneously, but backwards! What a trip! And I was so cautious (i.e. scared) to mess up my drawings that I tread quite lightly in the beginning. So below a couple of more shots of my earrings and pendant and nails - and Harvey being nice sociable to me and watching me photograph. Here is the link to the pendant in my etsy shop (shop). Oh, my hands and arms are pretty scratched up from tiny George - rude little bugger!

Check out all the other girls below!!! And, apologies if my design doesn't fit the rules. But the pink is old, as is most of the rest and the mani is 3/5ths pink!!

TPTjan1: red with orange and yellow stripes

Right off, don't know if I will be doing four TPT a month. I am also interested in GOT, but won't be doing that weekly, either. That just leaves no time for anything else in the nail art department. I think I will do two of each in alternating weeks. I love Crumpie's challenge ideas and want to take part as much as I feel like it - how's that for commitment!!!

TPT = tri polish Tuesdays (and... GOT = golden oldie Thursday). Each month has three (tri) selected colours and you are to do different manis with the colours through the month. January is red, orange and yellow. At least one of the manis has to include all three colours (rules are a bit nicer this year!), I decided to start with the three today as I may only do one more of this particular tpt.

I started with one and half coats of China Glaze Sunshine Pop (the half was on the top half of the nail) and a coat of Orly Holla. I don't like Sunshine Pop much. It has that 70s shimmer to it and looks cheap on me. Must have too much blue tones or something. My (mini) bottle of Holla got a nice big squirt of Seche Restore. Imagine that, new polish! I really don't like it but it is a great orange and the only other ones I have are either very pastel or neon. I top coated this before moving on.

baby george and the tri polish

Used nail tape to section off a stripe in both the yellow and orange areas. This was covered with one generous coat of Zoya Sooki. I only used one coat but did have to make sure it covered the yellow thoroughly. I did two nails at a time but let them sit a bit before top coating. I like Sooki, it is a nice tomato red. A good summer red. The true colour is somewhere between pic one and two way above. Late afternoon lighting, sun had just come out after the rain.

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I like the colours of this mani but don't enjoy the mani. This is usually true with any tape manis. I just feel that my nails are so heavy with polish. You know how sometimes you paint your nails and they feel light yet sturdy. Today, my nails now feel heavy with polish.

Above my super bonus Georgie shot. George is our new kitten, he is just shy of seven weeks. Very cute, very loud, very lethal (in regard to arm scratches). He started out as all black but I notice a bit of white creeping in! Big brother Harvey cat is still pretty unimpressed, though he does occasionally say hi.
I am not alone in my TPT challenge days, so check out the girls below, too!

Shatter green on green

I really should wear my shatter polishes more often. What I *need* is a silver or white based shatter. Like OPI Solitaire but in shatter. Only have two, black and this one: a dark green teal shatter from OPI's SpiderMan collection.

I started with two coats of China Glaze Unpredictable. They call this a turquoise duochrome but I think it is lighter, and has elements of teal and light green. I thought it would be a soft and similar undercoat to the shatter.

Now, I should have top coated this before moving on. I totally forgot. If you top coat before adding the shatter then the shatter doesn't "pull" your undercoat away. The Mr and I started watching some lame movie (World's End) and I just didn't pay attention! So, in case you are (re-) learning this, first top coat before shatter. Then you apply just one simple coat of shatter. Don't be tempted to go back over, try and do it right the first time with one or two strokes. I like this shatter. it has some frost glitter in it (like lizard scales) and is a dark deep teal green

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Today is Sunday and so far nothing has happened at my café. The last two days were super busy and to make me even happier, I sold two pairs of earrings!! But today, the cars just race by. It also doesn't help that the place across the road bad mouths us and tells its customers that we are never open. They are mean and greedy and want all the business for themselves. Honestly, how can you be fuller than full? But, big corporate from overseas. They think differently. I hold my little fort and hope for some nice people to stop in for a wonderful coffee and breakfast - and maybe some jewelry!
On another totally different note! Just one more follower then I am up to 50!!!!

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.

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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.