What I did with my April NAS kit...

Good early morning, my darling readers.  I hope y'all are doing well.  Last night I decided to do something with the Kiss Artist Paints and Tip Guides set that came in my April Nail Art Societ kit and this is what I came up with.  Without further ado, the photos:

Both photo's were taken outdoors, in natural light.  For my base coat, I used Nail Nation 3000 Green Apple base coat, then I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Hard to Get as the base of the design.  I didn't want to go with anything in particular so I did an abstract and each nail is slightly different.  I used the Turquoise striping paint first and brushed it on, let it dry, then brushed on the Lavender striping paint.  Then finally, I used the Hot Pink striping paint.  I had a lot of fun using each of these.  This was the first time I've used striping paints even though I've had some for quite awhile.

This was before I added a top coat of Seche and before cuticle oil.  My cuticles are super dry right now.  Sorry y'all had to see them that way.

For those interested, I have a peek at my SCS equipment.  This is the St Jude Eon Mini that was implanted last Tuesday into my upper left buttock area.

At the top, leads plug into it and go up into my spinal canal.  The object of this is to interupt the pain signals before they reach my brain and replace it with a slight tingling sensation (electronic pulse) before I feel the pain.  I have two of these leads, photo below.

And finally, there is a remote that I have that operates the system.  It has different programs that allows me to change the sensation that I want to feel.  

That is the SCS in a nutshell.  The previous battery I had was double the size of this little mini I have now.  The life span of the battery is 8 to 10 years but my doctor tells me to expect about 7 years because of how I use it, 24/7/365.  I rarely ever turn my system off unless I am having medical tests done that requires it to be turned off, like an EKG or CT Scan.  

Do you ever just do abstract art on your nails?  If I had added rhinestones, do you think that would have been 'too much'?

As always, thank you for taking a few moments of your day to spend with me! Huggles!

My first water marble!

Good eveing, dear readers!  I hope everyone is having a great week-end so far.  I've been taking it easy due to this pain flare-up I've been in.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll ease up soon but the weather doesn't make me hold my breath for it.  We're due to get some freezing rain later in the week.  Yeck!

After watching many youtube video's and going through other bloggers photo's of water marble mani's, I finally decided to try one myself.  I'll let y'all judge the results for yourself, but I think it turned out not too badly.  There are a couple of areas I got splotches, but in general, for a first attempt, I'll say it is a success to a certain point.  It wasn't near as difficult to do as I had feared it would be and I ended up having some fun with it.

Without further ado, a few photo's for your viewing pleasure.  Please excuse the quality, my camera batteries ended up dying on me and I was only able to get a couple decent looking photo's and only one hand.

I started with one coat Revlon Colorstay base coat, then 2 coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in "Hard To Get" (white).  For the marbling, I used China Glaze "Liquid Leather" (black), Cover Girl Nailslicks "Cherry Brandy" (Red) and the Sally Hansen again.  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

For those wondering, I picked these colors because they were the colors of the school both my kids graduated from, The Fairfield Union Falcons.

I like how it turned out.  Kind of like that paint art you can do at the county fair where you put a little paint of whatever color you want, then they spin it around.  That is what this reminds me of.

In my opinion, water marbling is unique because there are thousands of design options just depending on the colors you use and how you run your needle/dotting tool/toothpick/whatever through the polish while it's in the water.  I can see myself doing this again and again as I really enjoyed learning how it was done.  

Have you done a water marble yet and if so, how do you think yours turned out?

Thank you all for spending a bit of time with me this evening.  Huggles!

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.

Go Buckeyes! 5 October 2012 2:07 am Friday

Good early morning, my darling readers! I meant to post this yesterday, but time just has a way of getting away from me when I'm not feeling well. I'm still recovering from whatever tummy bug I had last week, but hopefully I'll be fully recovered by next week and can get on some kind of schedule so you will all know when to expect my posts.

Today's review is of a polish from an independent company I found on Etsy.com. The name of the shop is Different Dimension and can be found here. The first polish I ordered was 'Sparkles like Edward' and I'll be reviewing that one later. This is the second polish I ordered just because I love the name and because I am an Ohio State Fan. It is called 'Scarlet & Gray'. Missi, the owner of the shop is very friendly and fantastic about getting back to you when you contact her for anything. She made my first buying experience through Etsy a pleasure and I will definitely be a customer of hers for a long time to come.

The formula on this was a little on the thick side, but I did not have any application issues at all. This is 2 coats over a base coat of Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth Stage 2. I followed it up with a single coat of inm Out the Door Super Fast Drying top coat.

I really like the way this looks on my nails and I'll definitely be wearing it during the Ohio State/Michigan game in November. :0) Missi also makes other dual colored polishes that can be for colleges/pro/or high school teams as well as several sets. Please check her Etsy store out.

**This polish was purchased using my own funds and she has in no way paid for/nor influenced me for any promotion of her or her shop.**