31DC-D31 - Your Signature Style

Hey y'all!

OHPRAISEDOT I can't believe I finished a 31-Day Challenge!  I am truly astonished that I managed to keep up with it, ON TIME no less, and managed to get every prompt done in time for a 10 AM posting the following morning, despite not getting that head-start I intended back in December.  Needless to say, the month of January has flown by and here we are on the final prompt, My Signature Style.  I was a bit confuddled by this one as I really don't consider myself to have developed a signature style as of yet, but there were aspects that I knew I would need to incorporate.  With a little inspiration from my kitchen apron, I was able to develop this look.

31DC-D30 - Something You've Never Tried Before

Hey y'all!

Ahh... the penultimate day of this month-long challenge, and it's a Friday to boot!  I'm glad to see this week come to a close, and frankly, the month as well.  Today's prompt challenged us to do "Something You've Never Tried Before" and I decided it was a perfect time to try leadlight stamping (as well as clear some jellies out of my untried box).

31DC-D29 - Blue Base

Hey y'all!

Well, I finally saw the dentist yesterday, and prognosis: root canal.  Fun!  All I can say is that I'm happy that I'm not in the overwhelming pain that I've suffered the past 5 days waiting for that appointment!  Now we can return to regular broadcasting... whatever that means around here.  Today's prompt for the 31DC is Blue Base, so I decided to play around with another abstract technique to create this look.

31DC-D28 - Non-Glitter Topper

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We're so close to the end of the 31-Day Challenge now that I can almost smell it, but that may have something to do with pain killers for my tooth affecting my ability to sense things properly.  The good news is that the dentist will see me this afternoon, and with a bit of luck I'll have my wits about me enough to finish the month and get ready for the beginning of February, when I'll be launching a new giveaway, so stay tuned for that!  Today's prompt for the challenge is Non-Glitter Toppers, and that gave me the perfect opportunity to play with some new goodies in my stash.

31DC-D27 - Recreate One Of Your Old Manis

Hey y'all!

Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge has us revisiting our archives to recreate a look we've already done.  I had a hard time deciding between remastering a look I flopped the first time around or revamping a look that I got right, and ultimately decided that I had to recreate one that had a request for a tutorial which I never got around to.  I still haven't done the tutorial, mind you, but at least I'm dusting off the original look for another go. 

31DC-D26 - Metallic Fishtail Braid

Hey y'all!

Short post today as I'm struggling with a bad tooth that's giving off a lot of temperature sensitivity and it's got me in a bit of pain, so the dentist should be expecting me!  Today's prompt is Fishtail Braid, and I've gone metallic for a soft but chic look accented with square studs.

31DC-D25 - Complement and Contrast

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Happy Sunday!  Today begins the last week of the 31-Day Challenge, and I'm so grateful the end is in sight!  I really could kick myself for not getting a head start on it, because I feel like I've been in rushed catch-up mode for the past three weeks!  I haven't had a chance to cruise through the other challengers' nail art looks other than what's on IG, nor have I been able to read any of my other favorite blogs, or even respond to the comments that have been left for me, and that makes a hugely sad panda.  To that end, let me first apologize for not being quite so "present," and also assure you that I will be playing catch up during the first week of February to get things right.  For now, however, we continue pressing on, and today's prompt is Complement and Contrast.  I had really been wracking my brain trying to be clever with this prompt, and the answer dawned on me as I was looking at the trim of one of my makeup bags!  As I was growing up, I was always taught not to mix brown and black because they don't complement each other.  I think these days that rule has been pretty well tossed, but there are most assuredly some brown/black combos that don't work.  With that in mind, I created my own brown and black modified French tip nail art look that my grandmother would have hated, but I definitely love.

31DC-D24 - Decals

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Decals, and whereas I had intended to do a tutorial for making homemade water slide decals, time got away from me and I seem to have lost my water slide paper anyway, so that's gonna get pushed back, but it IS coming.  Instead I turned to a baggie in the bottom of my nail art kit that contains all the random decals and stickers that I somehow end up with but never use.  I pulled out a set of pretty French Tips and used them to make this look.

31DC-D23 - White Base

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Happy Friday!  I've been a bad blogger.  See, I had built up a couple days' worth of buffer on this challenge and this week I've managed to piss them away, so today's nail art was done hastily last night after two days of shopping and binge watching TOWIE, because apparently I *am* a basic B.  To my defense, I can honestly say that I started watching it because I wanted to nail down the accent, so I'm not sure how many more seasons I'll be able to stomach before I become completely allergic to the orange.  ANYWAY... today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is White Base, so I fell back on a bit of stamping to create this musical manicure.

31DC-D22 - Blobbicure

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Hope you're all feelin footloose and fancy free!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge was to create a Blobbicure, also known as a pebble manicure.  I decided to play with some textures and tones to create this... almost patriotic look.

31DC-D21 - 3 Shades of Green/Yellow

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Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is to use 3 Shades of Green and/or Yellow, which I kind of did a couple of days ago in green and I don't have 3 shades of yellow that are far enough apart to actually make a look with them so I am doing green again.  Isn't that exciting?  Pfft.  Whatever.  I don't need your pity.  I decided to make a double-stamping look into a bamboo forest and throw in a yellow accent nail just for SnGs.

31DC-D20 - Rainbow

Hey y'all!

Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Rainbow, and since I've done a lot of different rainbow looks in
the last year or so, I really wanted to try to come up with something... different.  I started looking around for other nail art designs combining rainbow with animal print, and I found a lot of the standard leopard and tiger and zebra patterns, so I had to start thinking outside the box for something unique.  I certainly think I've accomplished that with this look - rainbow tortoise shell.

31DC-D19 - Fire

Hey y'all!

Happy Monday!  For my American readers, I hope you're able to take advantage of today's national holiday (MLK Day) to do something good.  Incidentally, today is also Robert E Lee's birthday, which is kind of ironic but I suppose those two days fall simultaneously every once in a while.  In further unfortunate coincidence, today is also marked as Confederate Heroes day in a couple of states, and on an even more bizarre turn of events, it's also National Gun Appreciation Day.  Seriously?  Does anyone else see the unfolding problem here?  I just... okay, let's just be clear here... on a day of unfortunate convergences of suspiciously differing ideological memorials, a) don't be a racist, b) don't shoot anyone.  With all that said, it seems almost comical to segue into today's nail art prompt, which is... I can't.  I just can't.  It's Fire, people.  We're doing Fire nail art today, so c) don't blow anything up or set anything on fire.  Dot have mercy.

31DC-D18 - Artwork

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Artwork, and whilst I was browsing the internet for inspiration for yesterday's Tranquility look, I came across a painting that I really wanted to recreate as a nail art look.

31DC-D17 - Recreate a mani

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Happy Saturday!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is "Recreate a Mani by your Favorite Blogger."  I actually have far too many "favorite" bloggers to be able to pick just one, but I've had a few manis in my hat for future recreations, so I've just pulled one of those out of the vault.  Jessica at BeHappyAndBuyPolish created this awesome dark blue and neon coral dotticure for her "What You Need to Have (And Keep) Great Nails While At College" composite post, and I loved the color combination so much that I knew I wanted to have a go at recreating it.  Although I didn't have the same colors as Jessica, I approximated them with what I had on hand, and came up with this look.

31DC-D16 - Tranquility

Hey y'all!

Ah, Friday is here at last, and this one in particular also would have been my dad's 74th birthday, so I am thinking of him today.  The theme for the 31-Day Challenge today is Tranquility, which is a nice, open prompt that gives lots of wiggle room for technique and interpretation.  Because I liked yesterday's green smoky watercolor effect so much, I wanted to practice with it a bit more, so I give you these blue smoked nails to represent the theme.  They have an aquatic feel that I think translates to tranquility for a lot of people.

31DC-D15 - Green Base

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We're just about halfway through this 31-day challenge, and the fatigue is starting to show on me, but I still feel like I'm accidentally coming up with some cool looking nail art, so on I persevere.  Today's prompt is Green Base, so I grabbed a handful of green polishes in different finishes, and went to work adapting an older technique to suit my purpose.

31DC-D14 - Holo

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Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt in the 31-Day Challenge gives us Holo, short for Holographic.  There are a few different ways to go about achieving a holographic nail art look, but I opted to take the most traditional (and really, most fun) by selecting two indie polishes stacked with holographic glitter and pairing it with a neat stamping image.

31DC-D13 Inspired By Pinterest

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My look today is inspired by this Butter London gold french and half moon look from Fashion Week 2014.  I loved the simplicity and thought it would be an excellent palette cleanser from all the heavy nail art looks I've been doing lately. 

Magical Mondays and 31DC-D12 - Film

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Happy Magical Monday!  Today I'm back with the next installment of the collab series I'm doing with Belle Glamour, celebrating one of our favorite mutual interests, Harry Potter.  It also works out quite nicely that today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Film, so I could kill two birds with one stone!  This month, Cat and I are showcasing our favorite characters from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorceror's) Stone.  My personal favorite character is Hagrid, played by Robbie Coltrane in the films.

31DC-D11 - Reversed Polarities

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Reversed Polarities, which confused quite a few people, apparently.  Originally I had intended to do a purple and yellow half-and-half nail with some needle dragging in concentric circles, but after Debbie explained what she meant with this prompt on a group discussion board, I had to rethink what I was doing.  The less confusing term for this look would be something like photo negative, or inverted colors, where the colors of a nail art are flipped to the opposite color.  I almost immediately thought a skyline mani would look cool with the colors inverted, and possibly because we just booked our next trip to Austin, I just had to give it a try with my hometown's skyline.

31DC-D10 - Glitter Base

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Happy Saturday!  I hope you're all staying warm and keeping safe.  Today's prompt in the 31-Day Challenge is Glitter Base, and I was feeling truly uninspired for a very long time until these started forming in my head while looking at one of my new indie polishes.

31DC-D9 - Red Base

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Happy Friday!  Another week is DONE and it's time to slip into something sexy and spend some time out with friends or in with someone special (as applicable).  In honor of frisky Friday, I chose to do a sexy lace look for today's 31 Day Challenge prompt of Red Base.

31DC-D8 - Monochromatic

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I feel like I've lost track of the days.  I had gotten into so such a good groove with the M-W-F-S posting schedule, and then December came and the 12DOC challenge threw that all askew, and now we've rolled on into 2015 with this 31DC and I don't know what I'm doing WITH MY LIFE anymore.  Also because Mr. Faff and I have not bought new calendars yet, I have a blank space on my wall where I normally track the days, so it's like, where am I?  What am I doing?  WHO AM I???  So exhausting!  Okay, vent over.  Today I think is Thursday, and today's prompt for the 31DC is Monochromatic.  I toyed with the idea of doing shades of a single color (because did you know that monochrome doesn't just mean black and white?) but ultimately decided that I wanted to play with something in my stash that I hadn't tried yet, so I went to greyscale for this look.

31DC-D7 - Pink and Aqua

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Happy Humpday!  You have officially survived the first week of 2015!  I did a bit more playing with the new camera, and I think I'm on the verge of getting my daytime light box settings sussed, as you'll see in the pics.  Today I have a cute and colorful gradient look with some dual-toned stamping over the top to celebrate today's 31-Day Challenge prompt: Pink and Aqua!

31DC-D6 - Half and Half

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Hope everyone's transition back to work yesterday wasn't too stressful.  It's Tuesday, which means that tonight I'll hopefully be attending the local camera club meetup and maybe start learning some stuffs (and dare I say it, meeting new people?)  After several hours yesterday playing with my camera settings, I finally managed to get some pics of this gorgeous nail art that I created for the 31DC Day 6 prompt, Half and Half.  I also took pics with my old compact camera, which are at the end of this post so you can compare.

31DC-D5 - Dotting Tools

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Monday's here, and I guess it's officially time to get back to the grind - the holidays are over and we've got a brand new year ahead of us.  I hope if you made resolutions and/or goals that you've not already given up on them.  Remember that even if you stumble, you can get right back up again and keep going!  This year I'm going to start working on getting out and interacting with my new community more than I have been thus far - between the culture shock and my own social anxiety, it has been incredibly hard for me to try to make new friends here locally, so it's become a goal of mine to change that.  I have no clever segue from that into today's nail art, so I'll just say that today we're working with the theme of dotting tools, and I created this fun look that I'm calling a peanut butter and jelly dotticure.

31DC-D4 - Happiness

Hey y'all!

We're moving right along in the 31DC, aren't we?  To end the weekend and hopefully send you all into Monday morning with a smile, today's prompt is Happiness, so I tried to piece together the happiest nail art I could, given the sour weather and house full of sick and/or injured people and puppies.

31DC-D3 - Water Spotting

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Top o' the Saturday mornin' to yas!  I am definitely starting to really regret not having built myself a small lead on this 31-Day Challenge, because it has left me without time to really get a grip on using my new camera, so I've temporarily reverted back to my little Samsung point-and-shoot until I can crank some nail art out and get ahead of the game.  Today's prompt is Water Spotting, and it gave me a great excuse to pull a new FX polish out of my untrieds and create this purple and white look.

31DC-D2 - Tape Mani

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Happy Friday!  Today I got to do some experimenting with the new camera Mr. Faff got me for Christmas.  It's my first DSLR, and aside from an old 35mm that I briefly played with in high school, it's my first foray outside of the compact, point-and-shoot cameras I've owned up until this point, which should explain why my pictures are about to start looking a bit different from what I've been posting.  With a bit of luck, by next year I'll have this macro photography thing figured out!  In any event, today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Tape Mani, so I created this fun look.

31DC-D1 - Follow a Tutorial

Happy New Year, y'all!

I hope you all had a great holiday.  I spent most of the last week binge-watching Lost with Mr. Faff, which put me into a serious time crunch for starting off my first goal for the new year - the January 2015 31-Day Challenge, as hosted by Crumpet's Nail Tarts!  This is my first ever 31DC, and I had intended to get so much work done ahead of time to make it easier on myself, but then I felt guilty for not spending any time with the hubs, so... the challenge got pushed aside.  Here's hoping I'll be able to get some serious work done this next week to get myself ahead of the game for the rest of the month!  The first prompt for this challenge is to Follow A Tutorial, so I scooted over to YouTube to find a simple but elegant tutorial for NYE.  I followed this "Elegant black & pink nails with dotting nail art" tutorial by LifeWorldWomen but changed up the colors just a smidge, because, ew, pink.