Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Day 1-Red Splatter


If you don't know this already, I am an awesome multi-tasker.  I have had many years of experience at it....9 years of teaching, 4 years of momming.  Now apparently, a few months of nailing and I can make one mani work for two challenges.  I know you're impressed, who wouldn't be? My talents are endless :-P  For today's challenge I was able to make my first day of the 31 day challenge and the Summer Challenge work together.  The summer challenge was summer splatter.  I have never done splatter.  I still don't think I have.  The first day of the 31 day challenge was red.  I love red. Red reminds me of passion...especially a dark red. It makes me feel all sensual and 'go out and watch Magic Mike' frisky.   I have very few red polishes though.  I think red is one of those colors that doesn't have as many shades to it as the other colors.  I wonder why that is?  Well, my mani tonight is hardly frisky or sensual, it just is what it is.  I didn't have the patience (or willingness to clean up all that mess) to do a real splatter.  So instead I used a toothpick to drag blobs of polish on my nails to make it look splattery.  That's totally a word.


Base-Wet n Wild Burgundy Frost
Splatters-Sally Hansen HD Lite & Wet N Wild Red Red


Thanks for looking! I appreciate your comments.  But before you leave, check out some of the other marvelous girls who are also participating in the 31 day challenge.


31 Day Challenge

Crazy Nail Lady is my name so apparently I need to live up to it by adding one more thing to my plate.  The 52 week challenge, plus Adventures in Stamping, plus Summer Challenge just wasn't enough.  So why not add the 31 day challenge!  I've done it once, I can do it again!! (It may be cheating, but I think I can make some manis work for more than one challenge at once) I really just want to redeem myself and there is a lovely group of ladies who are doing it for the month of August.  The first time I did it (which really wasn't that long ago) was when I first started doing my nails.  I was not that good.  So here I go again. Someone just suggested to me that I should post my before and after pics as I go along.  Not sure how I feel about that....but maybe I shall :-) If you don't know what the 31 day challenge is here is the schedule.


Day one starts tomorrow.  P.S I've already gotten mine done

Here is a list of the other ladies that will be doing it:


Sally Morgan
 Nikki Muldrew
 Kimberly Rybak
 Felicia Renee Banuelos
 Belén Cortés
 Cristina Santos
Courtney Mendoza
 Natalie Elise
Rebecca Russell
Jessica Beswick
 Raquel Soares
 Briana
 Ash
 Kimberly L


Have a wonderful evening!

Go for the Gold

I have Olympic medals planned for next week on my 52 week challenge, but the Summer Challenge was having the same challenge today so I decided to do it early.  Or, I may do it again next week. Who knows.  Anyway, I recently bought this gorgeous Ultra Pro called Gladiator and just had to use it for today's challenge. Yes, I know Gladiators are from Rome and the Olympics originated in Greece.  Still, they both competed in an arena.  Potato, Potato. :-P
Once again, I went into this with one plan and ended with something completely different.  I actually wanted to show silver, gold, and bronze but just couldn't make it work.  So instead I chose to go with the design of this years medal, which looks like this....


I love the off patterned lines and thought this was a great idea to put on my nails.  How do I put gold on gold was the tricky part.  Thankfully I have an It's So Easy Gold striper that is only a few shades off of my base color and it worked great!  Just different enough to stand out but not so different that you can't tell it is gold! 





I feel a bit guilty as I have not watched any of the Olympics this year.  I love the Olympics, I just haven't had time.  I am more of a fan of the Winter Olympics but still I love watching them...especially the swimming.  I did watch a snippet on the Today show about Race Walking.  Who knew this was a sport?  It looks a lot like a deranged form of mall walking.  I am sure it is exhilirating and hard. But it looks weird.  

Well, thanks for stopping by and checking me out.  I appreciate all of your comments!  


Monday, July 30, 2012

Cala Lily from D & R Apothecary

Have I told you yet how much I love the polishes from D & R Apothecary.  Well, let me tell you.  They are gorgeous! I now own eight of them.....three of which I won from their giveaway! YEAH for giveaways! Because I have been so busy I have only had the chance to try out two of them.  The first one I did was Champagne (which I blogged about a few days ago)  Today's color is called Cala Lily.  It is a shimmery white base with white, yellow, and green glitter flakes.  It really makes you think of spring flowers, Cala Lily's to be exact! It looks just lovely in the bottle and even greater on the nail.  

I've discovered that my favorite type of mani has one accent nail.  I find I have been doing this more and more.  What is your favorite style of mani?

Cala Lily is to the right

Yellow Base-Sinful Colors unicorn
Glitter Base-Kleancolor Holo Green
Indie Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cala Lily
Striping-It's So Easy Green, Yellow, White

I love how some of the white glitter made little flower patterns :-)



Did I mention that I also love the Kleancolor polishes?  I bought a bunch of new ones from Beauty Joint.  They are quite pretty.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate all of your comments!


Saturday, July 28, 2012

An Apple a Day

First of all, I had to switch up my 52 week calendar.  Today's post is supposed to be Coast Guard and Thursday's is supposed to be fruit. I switched them because the Coast Guard's birthday is next Saturday and that just made more sense. So, today you will get fruit and like it! :-P

Secondly, I now love Kleancolor! More importantly I love Kleancolor Black for stamping.  It is so nice and thick and stamps so dark! YEAH! 

Thirdly, Seche Vite top coat is my new best friend.  OMGEEEE are my nails shiny and thick.  Who knew? I mean, I guess a lot of people knew.  But I didn't know.  Now I know. Double YEAH!

Fourthly, I did some serious nail care today.  After looking at my last post, my cuticles were in complete disarray.  

And lastly, these nails turned out way better than I had planned.  It was a simple idea based around the new China Glaze Jamaican Out that just came yesterday in the mail and it just went from there.  I love it when that happens.  I also love when I am able to match my 52 week challenge schedule up with the Sunday Stamping for Adventures in Stamping.  So, what do you get when you take fruit from my challenge and  red and black from the Sunday Challenge? Strawberries you say? Watermelon?  No, apples of course!  And here they are....
Glitter Base-Spoiled Pirates Booty
Red Base-China Glaze Jamaican Out
Black-Kleancolor Black
Stripe-It's So Easy Gold
Stamps-QA18 using Kleancolor Black & SE18 using Wet N Wild Red Red




Thanks for looking! Hope you had a great weekend and I appreciate all comments!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Will 'O' the Wisp

I just recently went to see the movie Brave with my daughter.  If you are a mother of a daughter and have not gone to see it, you absolutely must!  It was a truly moving and adorable movie.  Not only was it a Disney movie where a girl didn't need to be saved by some boy, but it was a story about a girl coming of age and what it's like to butt heads with her mother.  What woman doesn't know what that is like!!  I don't want to give anything away but Holly and I held onto each other at the end and cried.  It was a very good bonding moment.  Part of the story involves a mystical creature from Scotland called the Will 'O' the Wisp.  The Will 'O' the Wisp is a ghostly light that leads travelers from their path into dangerous places or situations, often marshes or bogs.  In the movie it leads the young Merida to what she believed was her destiny. I find this idea to be both intriguing and just plain cool.

I also did these nails on the Will 'O' the Wisp for a contest for Nat over at No Holos! Frankens and Nail Art Blog.  This contest speaks to me in so many ways....being the history and nail nerd that I am.  The contest is all about history, myths, and legends.  How cool is that!  I am entering for the beginning stamper prize (as I am still a beginner).  The prize for this is Hard Candy Frenzy, CoverGirl Lip Perfection in Dazzle, and Nicole Save the Last Dance.  I sure hope I win!!  So, onto the nails.....

Base-China Glaze Agro
Flower stamp is Maybeline Color Show Bold Gold using stamp BM-316
Wisp stamp is Maybeline Color Show Blue Blowout using stamp m24






One of the things I love about art is that it is open to interpretation.  I love the little wisp and how it came out.  I would follow it through the woods ;-)

As always, thanks for looking and I appreciate all your comments!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Olympics

I am bummed.  My Olympics nails were really a complete failure.  I had such a great idea and it just wouldn't come to fruition.  I tried three times and finally ended with this.  (I ended up taking them off to put on my new indie color anyway)  I may attempt to do some more later this week.  I also have another Olympic themed nails set for next week, so maybe I will be able to redeem myself.

The idea behind these nails was to use the colors of the Olympic rings and the style of the 2012 Olympic torch which is a really cool gold with cut out dots.  I also used a home made water decal which I was in love with but just wouldn't lay on my nail right.  So, here are the pictures.  Blah.



Also, here is a picture of the 2012 Olympic torch to give you a reference and to understand why I used the circle stamp.  

As I mentioned in a recent post, Courtney at The Cute-icle Chronicles will be joining me starting today on the 52 week nail challenge! She is super talented and I can't wait to see what she has done! So go check her out. 

Thanks for looking! All comments are appreciated :-)



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Guest Post & New Indie Polish

YEAH for my first guest post! and YEAH for it being for someone such a great nail artist as Caitlin @ Caitlin's Creative Corner.  She is always so creative and unique from doing book covers to teal tuesdays.  Thanks Caitlin for letting me post on your blog :-) And have a great vacation!!

My other first is that I got my very first Indie polishes today and was soooo excited to try them out.  I have been drooling over some Indie polishes for a while now and for one reason or another have not bought any.  So, I finally decided to give one a try and they are AWESOME! I came across D & R Apothecary last week while searching through Etsy.  I could not get over all her awesome colors.  She also makes handmade soaps....which she sent me a little sample of :-)

So, I got three shades from D & R.  Rock Star, Champagne, and Bumble Bee.  I am saving the Bumble Bee for my Steelers nails later in September.  Black and Gold!!! I am also saving the Rock Star for later too.  I know I scheduled Rock Star Nails somewhere in my 52 week challenge.  So, I chose to do the Champagne nails.  Take a look at this color! It is so purty, you really want to drink it and get all giddy on bubbly.


I used Decades of Dysfunction as my base coat.  This is the first time I used this color....its quite pretty really. It's an off white with a hint of pink or lavender.  It's hard to tell 



I'm a little bummed that I couldn't get the real color to show up in these pictures.  But it's still pretty.  It is a gold base with purple and gold flecks.  Just gorgeous. It looks coppery in the pictures which it really isn't. Oh well.  It was also real easy to put on.  I love glitter but one of my complaints of most glitters is that you have to blob it on.  This went on in a nice smooth motion.  My hats off to you D & R Apothecary! Thank you for such a job well done!







She is also discontinuing some of her older colors if you want mini bottles for only $2.50.  She needs more room :-)  So go check out her Etsy page here

Thanks for looking! All comments are appreciated!

Monday, July 23, 2012

MSMD-Pink Gradient

I always want to do a MSMD but something always happens on Mondays and never get to.  There is so much great art out there I want to try it all!!!  I do find that when I try to replicate someone else's nails it often ends in a fail.  Today that was not the case.  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do today but I knew I wanted pink.  Some days I just feel pink.  I even put on a pink dress this morning.  If you knew me in the past this is pretty funny.  When I was in high school I was anti-pink, pretty much anti-girly things. I was a bit of a feminist and believed that people (boys) should like me for who I was on the inside and that being a girly would take away from my personality.  I also thought that I didn't need to learn how to cook, sew, be a domestic diva.  These things were what girls were stereotyped to do and this was not going to be me.  I look back at this and laugh at my idealistic and naive beliefs.  Plus, look at me now.  I'm a stay at home mom who loves to cook, do my nails, and dress is pink.  Who knew?  Anyways, onto the nails.  I got my inspiration from Colores de Carol who I happened across on pinterest today.  I do not have the same stamp, which I am totally bummed about cause it's gorgeous.  And the one that I had originally picked out, which was similar, just would not stamp. booo.  So I chose one with flowers.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I still am not very good at gradient.  But when you stamp over it it doesn't look too bad. So, what do you think?






Thanks for looking! Have a great week

P.S.  I am very excited to have a fellow awesome nail blogger join me in my 52 week challenge starting this week.  Her name is Courtney and her blog is The Cute-icle Chronicles so go check her out! She is very talented. Plus, we used the same freakin stamp today.  How funny is that :-P

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Glittery Girl Skulls

Today's Sunday Challenge was new favorite stamp.  Ummmmm, this is like asking me what my favorite book or song is.  They are all impossibilities.  I simply can't answer that question.  So instead I chose my newest stamp.  I was on vacation when they came, so coming home to new stamps was pretty exciting! I really like this mani.  I hope you do too!

Base-Sally Hansen Gunmetal
Glitter-Milani Silver
Stamp QA5 using Spoiled Correction Tape & Sally Hansen Wined Up








Thanks for looking! I appreciate all comments :)

Friday, July 20, 2012

They ARE Batman

Today's mani comes with a story.  A story about strength. Not, the physical kind....although some parts of this story are definitely about physicality.  This story is about the kind of strength that comes from within.  The kind that we all wish we had.  The kind that makes a person do the most amazing things even though it is the hardest thing in the world to do.  The kind that makes people so determined to accomplish a goal that nothing can stop them. The kind of strength that Batman has.  Batman you say? Yes batman.  Batman was handed a shitty deck, right? Parents murdered in front of him, girlfriend taken, all the enemies of Gotham city out to get him.  But instead of crumbling Batman used his brains and strength to help his community. Granted he was a little violent and maybe a little vengeful.  Still, he had no actual superpowers and still became a super hero. That to me is what a super hero should be.  Someone who rises from the ashes to do outstanding things.  Just like the people I am going to tell you about. So as you read this story promise me not to pity the family I am going to tell you about.  Promise not to feel sorry for them. You are allowed to feel sad and you are allowed to wonder at the humanity of it all, but don't waste your time feeling sorry for them.  That won't help.  What you can do is send prayers, or good thoughts and they would gladly welcome your well wishes.  But what would make the most difference is to learn from the strength of this family and to do better because of them.

The Johnsons are from Florida.  They are a family of 7! Mom, Dad, 4 girls, 1 boy.  (You absolutely are allowed to make Duggar family jokes....the mom gave permission once). In all instances they are your typical perfect family.  They are all picture perfect, athletic, smart, funny, and involved in their community.  Every single one of them are overachievers.  What makes them so different is that one of their little girls resides in Heaven and their 4 year old boy is quadriplegic.

On July 1st 2011, the Johnson's were in a terrible accident in the mountains of Tennessee.  Their sweet daughter Hannah who was 6 at the time was killed at contact.  Their oldest daughters Brooke and Kathryn broke multiple bones and were in wheelchairs and crutches for many weeks.  Susie, their mom who was pregnant at the time with their beautiful daughter Renee, suffered a concussion and had most of her ribs broken.  Owen almost died but was revived by the EMT's.  It took some time to know the extent of his injuries but finally the doctors pronounced that his spinal cord had been partially severed and he would have no use of his arms and legs and would have to be on a ventilator to breathe. Needless to say this was pretty devastating news for everyone.  They spent months living at the Ronald McDonald house, far from their own home, getting to learn Owen's disability and recovering from their injuries.  Susie and her husband David wrote extensively on a website to keep people updated on what was happening with their lives.  At times it was almost too hard to read as you could feel the pain and anger through their words.  The emptiness they felt from the loss of their daughter. The frustration at not being able to hold Owen through all the tubes.  Other times I simply sat in amazement at the way Susie was able to look at situations with an open mind when it was clear to me other people were being complete douchebags.  I thought about her pregnant belly (as I was pregnant at the time also) and how hard it must be to feel joyous about the new life when one so precious to her had been taken from them. And I constantly thought about how the girls must miss their sister  so terribly and how it must have been so hard for them to understand why this could happen to them.

I don't want this story to bring you down, because although it is hard to imagine, this is a story about strength remember.  And I know every parent out there can't even begin to fathom what Susie and David must have been going through.  For myself, I would hug my daughter Holly (who is only a week younger than Owen) constantly and cry every time I read one of Susie's updates on the emotional and physical roller coaster everyone was riding on.  But the reason this story is about strength and hope is because through it all they fought. When Brooke woke up in the wreckage of the accident she didn't ask for help, she told the EMT's to help her brother and sisters.  When Susie thought she might die from it all, she held on and even told jokes.  When Katheryn was in so much pain from the broken bones or the removal of all her hardware, she still wanted her Justin Bieber. When Owen came out of spinal fusion surgery, he still managed to smile the biggest sweetest smile.  When David felt hopeless from being unable to take away his family's pain he gave them even more support. And even baby Renee, only a wee thing in her mommy's belly, held on until it was her time to make an appearance months later.  There a million more instances of strength and courage that they have shown that I simply don't have time to list.  But what I can tell you is where they are today.

The girls have had all of the hardware removed that was put into them to help heal their bones.  After seeing all of the metal in them I am sure that if you had put a tv antennae on them they could have gotten some pretty good reception.  Owen has had a diaphragm pacer put in (by the same doctor that performed surgery on Christopher Reeves, Superman himself!). This means that he can breathe without the aid of the ventilator.  If that's not enough it also means that his mommy can hold him in her arms without the interference of all the tubes.  Owen has also been able to go in the pool, play video games using muscle stimulation and eye movement, and sword fight with his dad :-P  Brooke and Katheryn are both swimming on a swim team and of course Renee is as cute and as healthy as can be. They have survived Hannah's birthday and the one year anniversary of the accident. But I think mostly, they have lived their lives.  They have not crumbled.  They have not been holed up in their homes feeling sorry for themselves.  They have gone out and continued to enjoy life.  They have told jokes.  In fact, I knew Susie was beginning to heal when she started making fun of people again.  They have been strong.  For themselves and for each other. They have said "NO! I will not accept defeat and I will not lay blame." They have risen above and fought.  They have been superheroes. They ARE Batman!

Thank you Johnson's for showing me the meaning of the word strength and for giving hope to so many hopeless people out there.  You really are an inspiration. Keep fighting!

If you want to know more or see pictures of the Johnson's check out the facebook page dedicated to helping them here at Hannah's Helpers.

So, here are the batman nails....per Owen's request :-)





If you want to know any of the colors let me know.  I'm exhausted as of now :-P I love the batman decal I made, a little disappointed in the batman emblems. oh well, can't be perfect all the time!

Thanks for looking (and reading today)


Monday, July 16, 2012

Hooo's your momma?

My mother has always loved owls.  I always remember this large wooden carved owl that would sit in the foyer of our home that greeted me when I would come home.  No, it didn't actually talk, but sometimes I felt like it might.  So when I did my first owl nails with the new bundle monster plates I knew my mom would love them.  The first thing she said was "I want those!"  When mom asks, I give.  I didn't do the exact same nails, but I did use the same stamp.  My favorite part of these nails is the little owl on the branch.  My mom had no idea what I was doing and kept looking at them.  Of course I wouldn't tell her until I was done and she squeeled with delight! This is why I love doing this. 



Thanks for looking! Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest.  My camera was being stupid :-P