Snowmen

Oh, snowmen...how you tease me with your "here today, gone tomorrow" attitude.  This week in the Let it Snow! challenge, it is snowmen.  Sounds relatively simple.  Not for me!  I really struggled with coming up with something new and simple.  I most definitely didn't end up with simple.

So, let me just set the scene for this manicure. I'm looking out my window into the yard at the snowman standing there longing to come inside where it is warm.

There is snow falling outside and the windows are frosty...

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful..."

Here's the rundown:

• base color is Orly Dayglow (2 coats)
• sponged the following colors on top:
• Sally Hansen Air
• Sinful Colors Cinderella
• Zoya Tallulah
• Wet N Wild Saved by the Blue
• Color Club Lumin-ICEcent
• tips are sponged with Orly Dayglow
• Snowman stamp is on BM318 in Pure Ice Superstar!
• the other fingers are stamped with CH5 in Pure Ice Silver Mercedes
• "glequins" added for the snow effect in holographic and silver
• oh, and there must be 4 layers of Seche Vite

I do like how this turned out.  And with this many layers of polish on, I am going to wear the heck out of it!

Here is a close up of the snowman:

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

Check out the other snowmen entries!

Icicles

Today is all about winter.  This week's theme for the Let it Snow! challenge is icicles.  As usual, I struggled with the creativity of this one.  I had a lot of ideas but ended up with something I had never done before.  I wanted something really wintry looking and I wanted it to be soft in color.  I chose some beautiful colors, which surprisingly, I stuck to throughout the entire process!  My idea was that the icicles had to have somewhere to hang from, so I went with a half-moon mani.

I like to ask some of my non-nail-art friends for their ideas when I tell them the theme.  One of my friends suggested that it would be neat to have the icicles hanging from a branch.  I have a stamp for that so I added it to my accent nails (thumb & ring finger).  I somehow managed to stamp my ring finger perfectly along the half-moon.  That was a nice surprise!  I love how this came out!

Here is what I used:

• 3 coats of Sally Hansen's Air as a base
• 1 coat of Zoya's Harley for the half-moon
• Barielle's  Silhouette for the branch stamp (Mash 37)
• China Glaze's Lorelei's Tiara for the icicles
• Seche Vite as the top coat

I hope you like it as much as I do.  I love how "wintry" it came out. 

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

Take some time to look at the other "icicle" mani's!

A cure for the "helmer" screech!

I sure hope this helps those of you who are struggling with that dreaded screeching sound when opening the drawers of your "helmer".  Now, I am one of the many who have the imitation variety as I can't get to an Ikea and Michaels has aweome deals on these drawers.  The price you pay for not getting the original is this awful screeching sound when opening the 3rd drawer.  I have 4 "helmer's" which means there are 4 opportunities to send my cats fleeing to the basement from the noise of closing them!

I was telling my hubby how there were other people complaining of this awful noise and he was laughing at their suggestions as he had the "perfect" solution.  I was annoyed with him telling him how he can't know the pain we go through.  And he said "watch, I will fix it for you right now!".  Great, now he is on a mission to show us just how silly we are.  Well, we didn't have the supplies on hand that he swore would be the end-all-be-all cure to this annoyance.  The next time I was at the store I picked them up for him to prove his theory.  I knew that his "logics" were perfectly sound, but how could it be this easy?

Here is all you need:

These are those little felt pads you can put on the bottom of furniture feet to keep them from scratching up hardwood floors.  This package of 12 cost me $2.99 at the grocery store.  We put 2 on the back corners of each of the 4 problem drawers.  Like this:

 

Be sure to only put them on the back corners of the drawer.  If you put them on the front, the drawer doesn't close properly.  I am amazed that the solution was so simple!  It is pure silence now.  I am in heaven.  Now I can open and close these drawers without anyone knowing and without sending the cats to the basement!  You know I have to concede to my hubby's genius now...that is the painful part.  But, I have to give credit where credit is due. 

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

Fireside Glow

This week's theme in the Let it Snow! Challenge is "Fireside Glow".  Let me tell you that this one was hard to be creative with.  I had a brilliant idea that took me DAYS to come up with.  I went to experiment with it and it turned into an epic fail.  I was really bummed so, now that I was down to the wire to get it done, I went with plan "b".  Actually, where I ended up was plan "f".  This is how it goes sometimes.  Anyway, I love how it came out.  It is a beautiful gradient.  The photos don't do it justice.  Someday, my hubby will build my lightbox for me.  :)

The way I pictured this was a warm yellow at the bottom which gradually progressed into darkness.  It is there, but it is subtle.  I used a sponge method to get this look.  I layered all of the colors together on a makeup sponge and applied all at once.  I think 3 coats would have been better than the 2 I finished on. 

Here is what I used:

From Left to Right: I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen's Beige Blast.  The gradient is comprised of the other polishes shown.  This is the order I used them as well...Sally Hansen's Amber Ruby, Pure Ice Iced Copper, Milani Metallic Mango, Pure Ice Hot Tamale, Milani Golden Goddess, Milani Good Morning Sunshine.

 It is a relatively low-key mani for me.  But it will make a good base to build from during the week.  :)

Be sure to see the other entries for the challenge this week. 

NOTD: Winter Skittle

Ok, so I am doubling up on the posts for my mani today.  I did this one yesterday and it fell perfectly into two different challenges.  I posted the first one for the Let it Snow! challenge yesterday.  But today is Skittle day for The New 31 Day Challenge hosted by The Crumpet on Crumpet's Nail Tarts.  This is my first ever official skittle manicure.  I never knew what one was before, to classify previous manicures under this category.  This one was pretty fun!  I am in love with this blue color!

Here is what is on each nail:

• base color = Blue Moon by Wet N Wild (2 coats)
• Pinkie:
• moon stamp (Mash 32), snowflake stamp (BM 319); both stamped with Superstar! by Pure Ice
• Ring:
• snowflake stamp (BM 323) stamped with Superstar! & Pelican Gray by China Glaze
• Middle:
• tree stamp (SH 207) stamped with Pelican Gray; blue holographic glequins
• Forefinger:
• Luxe & Lush by China Glaze
• Thumb (sorry, it isn't pictured - I just couldn't get a good one!)

 
I think it is interesting that you can't tell which finger is which in this picture! My pinkie is the top left finger. LOL!

Here is what is on each nail:

• base color = Blue Moon (2 coats)
• Pinkie:
• snowflake stamp (SH 202); clear holographic glequins
• Ring:
• Sparkle Top Coat by Finger Paints
• Middle:
• snowflake stamp (BM 323) stamped with Superstar! & Pelican Gray
• Forefinger:
• moon and stars stamp (SH 207) stamped with Superstar! & Pelican Gray
• Thumb (sorry, it isn't pictured - I just couldn't get a good one!)

You can also see that winter is here in Buffalo by the amount of dry flaky skin I have. It always looks way worse in these close-ups.

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

Check out these other lovely manicures entered in today's challenge!

Winter Solstice

Happy Sunday!  This is my version of the winter solstice for the "Let it Snow!" Challenge.  This is a hard one!  I wanted something both light and dark.  The winter solstice is, afterall, the shortest amount of daylight of the year.  So, I chose to do night scene with a little bit of winter thrown in.  I really like how it came out, but I do love my polish!  This also, unintentionally, became a skittle manicure.  I never even knew what that was before entering into this nail community!  So, for those who may not know what that means, each nail has a different design.

I tried some new things too with this manicure.  I used my glequins for the first time.  They are really easy to put on and I love the way the light catches them.  I used my new Shany 2013 plates!  YAY!  I also used a bunch of un-trieds.  That list is very long and someday, I will get to them all. 

Here we go!

This is my left hand.  It is so much easier to photograph this hand.  I would love to have a remote shutter release for my camera but it just isn't that fancy!

Here is what is on each nail:

• base color = Blue Moon by Wet N Wild
• Pinkie:
• moon stamp (Mash 32), snowflake stamp (BM 319); both stamped with Superstar! by Pure Ice
• Ring:
• snowflake stamp (BM 323) stamped with Superstar! & Pelican Gray by China Glaze
• Middle:
• tree stamp (SH 207) stamped with Pelican Gray; blue holographic glequins
• Forefinger:
• Luxe & Lush by China Glaze
• Thumb (sorry, it isn't pictured - I just couldn't get a good one!)

Ok, this is my right hand.  The picture came out pretty good...

I think it is interesting that you can't tell which finger is which in this picture!  My pinkie is the top left finger.  LOL!

Here is what is on each nail:

• base color = Blue Moon by Wet N Wild
• Pinkie:
• snowflake stamp (SH 202); clear holographic glequins
• Ring:
• Sparkle Top Coat by Finger Paints
• Middle:
• snowflake stamp (BM 323) stamped with Superstar! & Pelican Gray
• Forefinger:
• moon and stars stamp (SH 207) stamped with Superstar! & Pelican Gray 
• Thumb (sorry, it isn't pictured - I just couldn't get a good one!)

You can also see that winter is here in Buffalo by the amount of dry flaky skin I have.  It always looks way worse in these close-ups. 

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

Be sure to see the other entries to this challenge - there is some serious talent out there!

China Glaze Haul (ebay)

So, this post comes with a story.  You may have noticed that I use the term "logics" in my posts.  There is a story behind this - kind of like a little family joke.  One day, we were driving in the car (my husband, his daughter and myself) and she had made a comment about something not making sense and used the term "logics" rather than "logic".  We about died laughing but it stuck and we use that term instead now.  What can you do - she was 13.  She is almost 17 now - I can't even believe how time flies! 

Ok, wait.  I totally got distracted there.  Anyway, my "logics" behind this haul are really ridiculous but a fellow nail polish junkie will totally understand.  So, on to that story now.  In preparation for my January polish "no buy" I had to stock up in December.  I had a 15% coupon from Sally's Beauty supply so I decided to check them out.  While there, they had their China Glaze polishes on sale for $3.99!  Total deal so I decided to take advantage and get It's a Trap-eze! from the Cirque Du Soleil Worlds Away collection.  Every post from my fellow bloggers is just so beautiful that I knew that was a must have!  So, I went to Let Them Have Polish's site to see her swatches (here) to help me decide which ones I had to have and which ones I could do without.  It was hard choosing since having the entire collection would make me happy.  But, sacrifices must be made.  LOL.  So I placed my order with Sally's and it should be here soon...but this isn't from there.  I was very pleased with my purchase until I received and email from Sally's saying that my order had shipped and, oh, by the way, they are out of stock of the one polish I had to  have.  I was furious to say the least!  So, on December 29th, I had to find it!  I was on a mission and I didn't want to have to pay full price.  I found it on ebay for $3.49 + 1.49 shipping.  I could live with that.  But then I saw that it was from a store and they had a LOT of China Glaze that I have been wanting.  I splurged.  BUT, I order 2 of the It's a Trap-eze! just to make sure I had it and a back-up!  Whatever, this is totally long.  This is how I tell stories.  LOL!

On to the photos!

First up is: Nova, Liquid Leather, Luxe & Lush

Next is: Marry a Millionaire, Ray-Diant, Prism, Lorelei's Tiara

Some purple's for my collection: Grape Juice, C-C-Courage, Gothic Lolita, CG in the City

Finally, the Cirque Du Soleil Worlds Away items I got: Escaping Reality, It's a Trap-eze!, Surreal Appeal

I love it!  Can't wait to swatch these!

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

NOTD Pink & Gold

If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you will know that I don't typically change my mani more than once or twice a week.  I had an itch today and it needed to be scratched.  For some reason I had pink on the brain.  Then, I keep seeing the new challenge Crumpet is running and the theme for day #3 is gold.  So, pink and gold it had to be. 

What I used:

• pink = Blushing Bride by Sally Hansen
• gold = ok, so this is Color Club and one of my biggest pet peeves about this brand is that they don't always label their bottles - especially when they are in a big pack.  So, I have no idea what they are.  One is a fine gold glitter with fine green micro glitter in a clear base.  The other is a holographic gold glitter in a clear base.  Sorry I can't be more helpful.
• the gold hearts I got in my nomorerack.com haul the other day.

I topped this off with 2 coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the glitter and the hearts.

I am going to submit this to the 31-Day Challenge on Crumpet's Nail Tarts.  I can't do everyday but I would like to jump in when I can.

I love how this one turned out!

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy

New Year's Eve Nail Mail

I love getting mail!  I love getting nail mail even more!  I have a lot of orders out there right now because my financial diet is going to be a year long trial.  This is going to be hard.  So, I had to prepare myself for this endeavor by buying all that I knew I needed (wanted) within reason in December.  I found these little beauties on nomorerack.com.  I have had some not-so-good experiences with this website, but my sister buys tons from there so I decided to try it again.  I was surprised to get these in the mail when I did since my account profile says that it is still "processing".  Anyway, you can see what I got in the pics below (very pic heavy).  I got 6 nail art decal wheels and 18 pots of hex glitter!  Oh. My. Gosh.  I love the glitter, but I was disappointed in the size of the pots.



 

 

The glitter is simply AMAZING!  I can't wait to attempt this new feat!  I haven't ever worked with it but I have seen some great tutorials on how to do it.  This should be enough to get me started...LOL.

Thanks for visiting!
Brandy