The Excitement is building!

Yesterday, while watching my Twitter feed and feeling as if every part of me was about to explode into small shards of glass from the pain I was in, I saw someone mention Jilltastic Nail Design is going to have a 28 day challenge during February and to check out her Facebook page for more information, so that is what I did.  As I have never done a challenge before and wasn't sure if you were supposed to wait to be invited to participate in one or how one worked, I asked if it was okay for me to take part in it.  I was very pleased when the response was yes.

Later in the day, I had a doctor's appointment with my pain management doctor to see if there was anything that could be done to help break the current pain flare-up I'm in and to discuss the possibility of replacing the generator (battery) for the implanted spinal cord stimulator (SCS) that I have and it was decided to go ahead and proceed with the pre-authorization process for surgery for as soon as my insurance will approve it.  We also bumped up one of my medications temporarily, so if over the next few days, I post and it seems a bit disjointed or more rambling, you'll know why.  :0)  I also felt bad yesterday because it was Mr Older's birthday and I had wanted to surprise him with his favorite cookies when he came home from work but instead, he had to hurry to take me to another appointment.  Hopefully sooner I'll feel better and not only be able to make his favorite cookies, but I'll make him some german chocolate brownies to go with them.  :)

After the appointment I began worrying about the challenge though, so I got in touch with Jilltastic Nail Design and she assured me, even if I have surgery in the middle of February, I can still continue with it, so I'm still just as excited to participate.  This challenge is open to everyone, not just bloggers.  For those who want to follow along, you can find info here.  If you do participate, please share your pretties on her Facebook page here and don't forget to 'LIKE' her page!  :)

Okay now for the mani I am currently wearing.  I decided blue might cheer me up a bit, especially when I pulled this bottle out.  I won it in a give-away back during Halloween and thought it was very pretty.  It is China Glaze's Want My Bawdy.  The name gives me the giggles sometimes because the definition of bawdy according to www.dictionary.com is "indecent, lewd, or obscene", which this polish is none of, at least to me.  In the bottle, this polish appears to be a bluish-purple, or blurple if you will, but on my nails, I didn't see much of the purple come to the party, but that was okay because I tried my very first stamping.  It isn't the most amazing job, but it isn't as bad as I thought it might turn out.  I couldn't decide between 2 designs so I alternated every other nail.  I started with a base coat of Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler on the nails that needed it, then followed with a coat Sally's Hansen's Maxium Growth Stage 2.   I did do 3 coats of CG Want My Body because after the first 2, I had a few spots where my nail was still showing through so I did one more coat which took care of that, otherwise it applied nicely.  I did the stamping with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails in Hard to Get.  I topped everything off with one coat of Seche Vite.

Photo's after the jump.


And now for your viewing pleasure (and please excuse the quality, I think it's time to replace not only the lighting in our home, but my camera too), the photo's.

As you can see, I wasn't quite consistent with getting the design centered on each nail.

I broke my middle nail and it seems to be taking its pokey time about growing back out.  I still think my pinkie finger looks oddly short compared to my others.  lol

I was actually able to get the lighting on my camera to get as close to real-life as I could for this photo and then what happens?  Glare.  *sigh*  Unfortunately, I did chop the poor turtle's head off on my index finger.  These designs came from Salon Express's Plate SE21.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with my first stamping adventure and plan to practice, practice, practice!  I know I'm definitely not ready to tackle a full nail design yet so I'll stick with the single designs until I get more comfortable learning how much polish, how much pressure to use to pick up the polish, and all the other little details that go along with stamping before I tackle the bigger designs.  I also spent a lot longer with my clean-up after I was finished with this mani than I ever have any other because I really wanted it to look nice and I think it really made a difference.  I know eventually I'll get quicker with both processes the more I do them. 

Have you done stamping and if so, what has been your favorite design to stamp?

As always, thank you for spending a few moments of your day with me.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  Huggles!