Designed and Executed by Mr. CraftyAndPolished

Here's a mani that my husband just created tonight. This is for IG @megatuce's giveaway. You're supposed to have someone who is not familiar with how to do nails design and create a manicure as an entry. I was so completely sure that J would do the Chicago Bulls but he really surprised me! He decided to do Microsoft Office 2013!! He's got the icons for OneNote, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook on my left hand. And the icon for Microsoft on the other. 

He painted it all... from base color to the details. The clean up was all him. 

I'm really proud of the time and effort that he put into it because he really did not have to do this. He can be so sweet when he wants to be.

Mixed Mash Up

I'm not a pink person. I like it and the darker shades seem to complement my skin tone well but I just don't have the love that I should for pink. That's why I painted my nails... again... today. After I completed some school work that's due tonight I vegged out to youtube. Can I just say that I love YoungWildandPolished?! There are some people who don't like her for whatever reason but I love her sass and attitude. It reminds me of the way I would banter back and forth with people at my former workplace. I love it!

Anyhoo. I was catching up on my youtube and realized that I loved the way her nails looked. She does polka dots so beautifully. So I took out my dotting tools and decided to try them out. I don't practice them nearly enough and you can tell on some of the dots. But, we all know that practice makes progress (if I want to go as far and quote the Duggars). But it's completely true. These polka dots are way better than my first or second attempt! And I added a glittery accent nail because, well... why not?

For the plastic bag mani thumb and the polka dot nails I used China Glaze All Aboard and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. My ring finger is L'oreal Sexy In Sequins. I did top SIS with 2 coats of American Classics Gelous (you can find this at Sally's Beauty) and all of the nails were then top coated with one coat of Seche Vite. 

Pink for Leelah

There's been a lot of talk on my nail board and Instagram about painting your ring finger pink today. It's supposed to bring attention to the untimely end to a young girl's life due to her gender identity. I don't really want to bring the mood of this post down. But it's a terrible thing to think that parents could make their child feel so badly about themselves that they would see no other option than to end their own life.

I am a parent of three children. My hope is that I am raising them to believe that they could come to me and share their true feelings with me. I can never understand how any parent could be so terrible to the life they helped create. Sigh. I'm sorry.

In memory of Leelah Alcorn, here are my #pinkforleelah nails.

I used Sinful Colors Starfish as my base color. I then watermarbled using China Glaze Giver's Theme and Wet n Wild Clear. I probably should've used something else instead of the clear polish but I was really just experimenting with the watermarble. I then topped off the watermarbled nails with China Glaze Fairy Dust and the ring finger I topped with OPI In True Stefani Fashion.

You probably don't know this yet but I have an unhealthy addiction to glitter.

I think they turned out nicely and I hope they help bring attention to the younger trans community.

DIY Nail Stencils With Painters Tape

There's been a lot of talk about how to make your own nail vinyls. Nail vinyls can help make your nail art shine but the price can start to add up quickly. At $5 a sheet in most online stores the price of nail vinyls was a little too much for me. What's a girl to do??

Make her own, of course!!

I had seen a few tutorials using electrical tape but I didn't have any on hand and I really didn't want to go to the store. This is what got the wheels in my head turning... aha! Painter's tape!! It's sticky but not too sticky, inexpensive, and best of all  had some in my garage. I tried to cut it with pinking shears but soon realized that I was going about it the wrong way. The tape kept flopping all over the place and my shears were getting sticky. The next step in my thought process was to put the tape onto something to help stabilize it. 

Looking at a sheet of stickers in front of me I saw the slick side that the adhesive was attached to. It kinda looked like freezer paper to me (something that I also had on hand). So I put the tape onto the freezer paper and tried to cut it... it worked wonderfully! 

So here's a video I created that shows how I made my nails stencils. I can't really call them nail vinyls since they aren't made of vinyl. I hope this helps you and that you try it, too!

New Years Mani

Here are my nails for New Years! My base color is All Aboard by China Glaze. The glitter on the tips of my fingers is My Voice Is A Little Norse by OPI and the silver striping was done with a Sally Hansen striper. The rhinestones are from eBay.

All Aboard was a little streaky on the first coat but the second coat completely took care of that. I love this cooler type of purple. I wish I could show how much it sparkles in the sunlight. It's so simple but really pretty!

I have an addiction

And it is nail polish! I've recently become obsessed with my nails and nail polish. I wish that I could say that it's something that I'll get over but I kind of doubt it. My nail polish collection has expanded from about 15 or so in July to over 100. I've gotten kinda good at it, too! So, if you'd like to see me try different designs and kinds of polish, stay tuned.

I'd be happy to take you along this journey!

ABC Posters

While browsing Pinterest I came across another blog where the woman had created some ABC posters. I looked for a link to possibly download and saw that, unfortunately, there was no way to download it. From the pictures it looked like she had cut out the pictures and glued them down to her sheet of paper. After a lot of thought and searching for different Google images I was finally able to create my own. If you'd like the document, just download it. I figure why should anyone else have to go through all of the trouble when I already have.

Enjoy.

ABC Posters