Ron from Chamber of Secrets - Magical Monday

Hey y'all!

Here we are again on the second Monday of the month, and that mean it's Magical Monday!  This month Cat and I are tackling our favorite characters from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  Since last month, Cat's "Flying Impala" nail art turned into more of a "Ron Weasley" look, and Ron was scheduled to be our next major character, I decided to go ahead and play catch up with her to do my own Ron look, focusing on his journey in the second story.

Neon Leopard birthday nail art

Hey y'all!

As you may have read, Saturday was my birthday, and of course I had to give myself a pretty manicure to celebrate, right?  After a lot of hemming and hawing, I finally decided on this bright, sparkly, and fun neon leopard print with black diamond crystals and silver glitter accent.

Texas Polish Haul

Oh.  Hi y'all!

I apologize for the delay in today's post.  Apparently the last few days have fallen into a black hole where the only things that exist are hot water bottles, Midol, and Downton Abbey on the DVR.  Don't judge me.  However, I promised you a haul post from my Texas trip, so I dragged my lazy fat butt up the stairs and set to work taking pics of all the pretty things that I'd already managed to put away but it's okay because it's for you and you're like family.  F'realsies.

Texas Recap!

Hey y'all!

A few of you will already know this, but Mr. Faff and I spent the last couple of weeks back in Austin, visiting my family and friends.  We returned Saturday morning, retrieved Isis, and spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and catching up on sleep, and of course, I put a little time aside to write up this post for you!

Guest Post for Roz's Nail-Scapades

Hey y'all!

I'm guest posting over at Roz's Nail-Scapades!  Head on over there to check out the full color version of this look!

Magical Mondays - Ford Anglia meets Whomping Willow

Hey y'all!

Ahhh... it's nice to feel myself returning to a "normal" posting schedule.  I'm going to be reverting back to the M-W-F nail art schedule, with Swatch It on Saturdays - a schedule I haven't been on since November, before the 31DC and the 12DOC challenges that consumed the past two months!  Also, my goal is to get a tutorial up on YouTube every 2 weeks for now, until I get faster with filming and editing videos (it takes forEVER!).  Today, though, the focus is all about my monthly collab with Cat of Belle Glamour, and our mutual love for all things Harry Potter.  This month we decided to pay tribute to one of our favorite scenes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - when Ron and Harry fly Mr. Weasley's flying Ford Anglia right into the Whomping Willow in their effort to get to Hogwarts on time!

31DC-D29 - Blue Base

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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

Hey y'all!

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-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.

Magical Mondays and 31DC-D12 - Film

Hey y'all!

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-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-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

Hey y'all!

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.

12DOC: Freestyle Christmas Tartan Plaid

Hey y'all!

Today is an exciting day for two reasons!  First, it is the final prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge which has consumed this month's blogging activity for me, and the second reason is a fairly big blogging milestone.  This is my 300th post!  Who would've thought when I started this journey just over a year ago that I'd have logged 300 entries into this blog?  It's very bizarre for me.  In any event, today's final prompt for this challenge is Freestyle, leaving it completely open to each artist's interpretation.  I took inspiration from another artist's design for the Red and Green prompt and while my attempt is nowhere near as sophisticated or chic as Natasja's of Love Life Lacquer, here are my Christmas tartan/plaid nails!

12DOC: Presents!

Hey y'all!

Happy first day of winter (officially)!  Seems a bit bizarre, given that I've been wearing a uniform of sweatshirts, long pants, and socks for months now, but I'm still a Texas girl at heart and it's bizarre that my flip-flops were retired for the year in October.  Today marks the penultimate prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas nail art challenge!  It's also the final assigned prompt, because Tuesday's prompt will be freestyle and open to all the artists' interpretations.  I find this prompt particularly appropriate though, because it involves something that I still haven't done and need to do quickly - wrapping presents!

12DOC: Ugly Sweater Nails

Hey y'all!

Happy Friday!  We've had a lovely past couple of days, as some heavy rains brought a bit warmer weather and I was actually able to leave the house in flats and no jacket!  Extraordinary!  I don't expect it to last, but I definitely enjoyed it while I could.  It's that time of the year when people pull out their Christmas sweaters (jumpers) and even go to parties dedicated to wearing the ugliest you can find.  In this spirit, today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge is Ugly Sweater Nails, and I had to dig out my flocking powder to create some for you!

12DOC: Christmas Decorations

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Yup, it's Monday, again, and we're now halfway through December.  By now, neighborhoods should be filled with creative and festive light-up displays at dusk, where enterprising homeowners compete with one another for the most Christmas-y lawn display of the street.  This was the inspiration I used to complete today's 12 Days of Christmas prompt: Christmas Decorations.

12DOC: Snowflakes

Hey y'all!

Happy 1st of December!  We're on the countdown now to Christmas and New Years, and that means a LOT of seasonal nail art from all of your favorite nail artists.  It seems like we only just finished last month's Challenge Your Nail Art series, and here we are starting a new series today.  For the next 3 weeks, we're going to be visiting the Twelve Days of Christmas, with prompts every other day.  Since this schedule runs roughshod over my usual M-W-F-S posting schedule, I'm going to abandon my normal schedule and hold off swatch posts (with one important exception this weekend), so that I can get all this nail art done and still have time to get my Christmas stuff in gear.  All that said, let's get into this challenge!  Our first prompt is Snowflakes!

Guest Post: Kirsten of Geeky Owl

Hey y'all!

Today I'm handing over the reigns to the super sweet, super talented, and all-around super woman, Kirsten.  I fell in love with her blog because she's so innovative and relatable, and I fell in love with her personality because we have so many things in common, from our mutual obsession with Joss Whedon and Doctor Who to our shared anxiety disorder.  In addition to being one of my favorite nail bloggers, she gets to preview some of the hottest new beauty products at her posh day job - I'm totes jelly!  I am so happy and honored to be able to call this woman my friend, and to be able to share her work with you all today.  Please welcome the brains behind the Geeky Owl!

House of Flying Daggers Nail Art

Hey y'all!

The second prompt of the Inspire Me Nails Challenge is Movies, and this week's prompt for the Llama Nails Book/Movie Challenge is Action, so I created this nail art based on one of my favorite scenes in 2004's House of Flying Daggers.