Fly Fly Away

Hello again, my fellow nail lovers!
Hopefully everyone in the states had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and your nails made it through all of that cooking and mingling. Keeping on the subject, mine did not :(. I can't begin to explain how sad I was with the condition of my nails, but when working at a job that sees its busiest times during the holidays... you don't get too much down time to preen. Working 13 hour days up until the day before the fat turkey sings is quite the downer especially when you wake up on the day of Thanksgiving to half of your color on one nail totally chipped off and no time to fix it. Someone had to make the green bean casserole!

Aaaaannnyway!! Like I said, I hope you all experienced a different situation and your nails were the shining stars this past week. To change my sad demeanor (once I actually had time to paint away), I decided to go with a color that was keeping with fall hues yet had some spice to it. Surely others have done this, but I just needed a pick-me-up! What better way to do that than paint your nails with this color. It's so fabulous and the name truly does suit the color.

My Private Jet!
If anyone else had the mayhem ensue like myself, post your story!! It's always nice to know you're not alone. Also if you have the opposite! I love hearing about the great compliments people get on their nails!

VICTORY!!!

I just got the official email from my girl Crista at OPI... I am a winner of the marbling contest!! Yaaaay!!!! I will make sure to take a pic with my t-shirt when I get it! In the mean time, here are my nails today. They remind me of a flag!! (sorry this post is so short, but I have to go get a much needed haircut :)  )

Ski Teal We Drop
Alpine Snow
Fiercely Fiona

Make it Shorts

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been three days since my last polish. Horrible??? Right!? As much as it pains me, I'd say it was well worth it. Instead of doing my nails yesterday, I got to go to the opera and it was BEAUTIFUL!
However, a busy schedule does not mean you can't plan ahead!! To appease my needy digits, I rollled all three days into one session; three different style all in one day! Let's see if you can find the re-occurring theme (ok.... if you're unable to see it... maybe glasses should be your next purchase :) )
Here they are!

This style is somewhat similar to the second step of the tri-color nail, except I make that corner even smaller. I might try doing it even less next time :)
Suzi Says Feng Shui
Shorts Story

Depending on which angle you're viewing the nail, it can be quite the challenge to figure out just how many colors you have on. (Try layering even more colors than just two!)
No Room For The Blues
Shorts Story

I felt so pretty and bubbly when I wore this style out :) Great pick me up!
Shorts Story
Alpine Snow
Black Onyx

Tri-color Nail Tutorial

Just Tri-it!

One color on your nails is just fine, but why not three?? Here is my tri-color nail design. Party In My Cabana looks a bit orange in this picture, but I assure you it is a lovely shade of pink. If you own it, you know what I'm talking about :). Enjoy!!

Alpine Snow
Need Sunglasses?
Party In My Cabana.

The Grim Tale

It may seem overly fanatical that I catalog my nail polish, and now that I'm looking at my list I feel like its too short ;). I digress... You may say "Liz! You're O.C.D". Which is when I might look you dead in the eye, memories flowing through them like a river... I begin to tell my grim tale.

It was in the wee hours of the morning on a hot southern Georgia summer night that two strange thieves stole into the townhouse I shared with my lovelies, Chelsea and Tom. Tom was out enjoying the shenanigans one young college boy might run into with fellow peers, and Chelsea was a meer door over at the neighbors enjoying a graduation celebration for our close friend and neighbor, Antuan. Where was I, you ask? After spending time next door enjoying the festivities, I decided to call it an early night and enjoy a good restful sleep in my bed on the third floor. (My days of going out four nights a week and staying up until 4am were apparently behind me).

Before I actually tell you the sheer terror that is the climax of this story, let me take you through a rather precise description of these wrongdoers.
*Female: Short, thin, crazy eyes, most likely owning t-shirts air-brushed at a carnival and what looked like possibly voyeuristic.
*Male: Possible "little person" with noodle limbs and an egg head, over sized duvet-ish looking black jacket and Junco Jeans, crazy eyes matching his counterpart, also possibly voyeuristic.
*Both: Likely crack heads.

These "wonderful" specimen were unknowingly to all other guests at the party... crashers. The neighbors thought they were friends of guests and vice versa. So there I was, sleeping sound while the thieves in question waltzed straight into our townhouse and took what they pleased.
"Oh, NO!" You might say. "What did these putrid degenerates take??!"
I will tell you what they took; Half. Of. My. OPI. Collection. I will let you take a moment to collect yourselves.






I did not have this catalog of polish when they stole half of my heart. Some are discontinued, and as much as it pains me to admit... some I just can't remember the names. If I had done this before the "crack head home invasion", I would have been able to be reunited with more of my babies.
So there you have it, folks. The reasoning behind my catalog (and a good one at that). I truly hope this results in a "scared straight" realization for those of you who hold your OPI as close as myself. You never know when the nail polish intruders will come to your door and "snatch yo people up". So, hide yo list, hide yo bottles, and hide yo husbands too...
The End.

Lots of Room for the Blues!

Ski Teal We Drop
No Room For the Blues
What's With the Cattitude?

Hopefully you have all watched my little tutorial. Again, sorry about the sound delay and that it's in parts but if anyone knows how to fix those things (no, I don't have a Mac :( ) Please please feel free to comment!! This is my finished product from the tutorial!

My thought process behind this was for my amazing boyfriend who is a former collegiate swimmer for Michigan. He loves blue (he wears it all the time) and was constantly in the water, so I thought it might be nice to do colors that he would really appreciate :). I also did all blue because I told you guys how "blue" I was when the videos weren't working. Maybe all I needed to do was match my mood, then the fates would let me have things my way ha! I hope you guys enjoy and any feedback is appreciated ("but don't get crazy")

It's over!!

Last but not least!!! This is just a wrap up. It's not crazy important to watch, but here it is. I really hope you guys enjoy and use this video!! Thank you so much!!!

Aerial View of Water Marbling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYWHDoGsGGw

This is the one video I was able to successfully upload to youtube. This is the aerial view of water marbling. This video was from the last water marbling I did which is why the colors are different from all the other tutorials. Enjoy

Part Two

Alright... So try after try after TRY, I can't get the sound to match up but honestly at this point, I'm spent :(. You can still hear everything and see everything so I'm just throwing my nails up and hoping you guys will still watch!! Here is part two. BTW... I'm not actually cross eyed haha. I thought I was looking straight into the camera, but apparently not! (sorry everyone, I'm still learning)

It's a Christmas Miracle!!

HEY, EVERYONE!!! COME SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK! If you don't know what that's from, please stop reading my blog. (just kidding... but seriously...)

Here it is!!! My water marbling tutorial!!!! I recorded the tutorial in parts so that it would download properly, and so that I could show you a straight on view and aerial view of the process. I really hope you all enjoy this because it sure did take quite some effort in getting everything to work!! (this whole process has shown me how horribly technically UNsavvy I really am )

Ok, part 1 with the rest to come very shortly!!!

The Candy Shoppe

I decided to record an instructional video for water marbling and it's not uploading!!!!! I am very sad right now because (in my opinion) it was a really good video that took you guys through the whole process. Maybe I need to be faster... I don't know. Anyway I'm in a blue mood because of that :(. Even though I can't figure out how to properly post the video, I can at least show you the marbling that I did for the video. Sorry guys... better luck next time!!

I call these nails...... The Candy Shoppe <3
Colors used: Need Sunglasses?  Shorts Story   Do You Lilac it?   What's With the Cattitude?

Match You Manicure!

Alright, so I have never really been the type to match my nails to my outfit. Some might think that would be a totally reasonable option for me because I do my nails multiple times per week, but if you already have a color on, why repeat it... right??? Some of you may disagree, and I totally understand the logic behind bringing an outfit together, so when it happens (by chance) I can't say I mind.

Even though I'm not a huge follower of the whole "matchy-matchy" deal, there are still some fun ways to match your manicure. (Keep in mind, this is all my personal opinion. I'm sure any choice is the right one as long as you like the way you look).

Number one: Try not to over use the color you're matching. As you can see in the picture my polish only matches one item of clothing. Personally, I feel when you get tooo matchy matchy (in my eyes) you start to resemble any fruit of that color. (example: blueberry, apple, banana, you get the drift).

Number two: Try a slightly different shade of what you're matching. My polish has more of a pink/red tone than the skirt which is nice if you don't want your nails or article to get drowned out. You want people to notice that your nails and article of clothing are two separate things :)

Last but certainly not least... I always like to throw in a small splash of color that doesn't show up anywhere else in the outfit to avoid the whole fruit doppelganger effect. In this case, my fun little birdie ring :)
HAPPY MATCHING!!

Perfectly Purple

I had on Funky Dunkey before I did my nails for the contest and I wanted them back to a solid color. I LOVE Funky Dunkey, but painting your nails back to the color you just had on??? Nahhh. Since I'm still in a purple mood, I chose Pamplona Purple.

Let me be clear... This. Color. Is. A-ma-zing!! It's definitely my favorite purple that I own, and also one of my favorite colors in my collection.

OPI is having a little competition :)

Have you ever seen the shirts OPI gives to their consultants?? Well, I have and their AWESOME! OPI posted on their Facebook page that they are holding a water marbling competition and that the winner gets one of those famed bejeweled t-shirts!! I have recently immersed myself into this little technique, and I have got to say it's a lot of fun! This picture is on the last post, but since I did this today, I wanted to give it a little more attention and possibly notify anyone who didn't know about the competition!

I didn't choose the colors for their common themed names, but sometimes it just works out that way :)
Glitzerland
Ski Teal We Drop
Alpine Snow

Let the obsession begin

Here are all of the pictures I have taken of my nails. This will bring us up to present and then hopefully I can start writing a caption or few with each picture to take you through the possible process, or just what I happened to be thinking when buying or apply the little gem of color.
If by some amazing miracle, someone looks at my blog and wants to know the color names of these past pictures, please comment and I will let you know. I would just take too long now and I want to get all caught up :).