Texas Recap and Mani Parties!

Hey there guys and gals!

So I've had a very busy last two weeks.  Hubby and I have been on vacation to visit my family and friends back home, and I may or may not have gone a little kooky picking up new polishes to add to my collection.

Totally did.

The goodie parade is about to start!

Greetings, dolls! I've been having an adventure, which is why I haven't had a chance to post as often as I'd like, but I wanted to toss a quick mani up for you, using some new goodies I've recently hauled. There will be a full haul update soon, rest assured, and it's a HUGE one! 

In the mean time, however, I wanted to share something, not nail related.  I finished my first major crochet project!

I know it looks a little wonky, but it's folded in half for photography reasons.  My first small project was a scarf in a half-double stitch.  When I presented this scarf to my mother, she decided that she would rather have a blanket.  Moms, amirite?  So, in the spirit of complete laziness, I decided to just make a bunch of other scarves of the same length and then stitch them together.  Each scarf has a varying width on purpose, promise.  Mom seems impassive as ever.  *sigh*

Alright, how about some nails?  As I mentioned, I recently did some hauling, including some new OPIs.

For this mani, I started with a base color of OPI's I Knead Sourdough.  This is another of the San Francisco Fall/Winter 2013 Collection.  I had passed on it online, but when I saw it in person I knew I had to have this rich coppery brown shade.  I'll do full swatches in another post, because it really is gorgeous.

Then I used some striping tape to mark off the V shapes, and covered the nails in a coat of OPI Honey Ryder, which is a gold liquid sand from the OPI Bond Girls collection from Spring 2013.  This is my first of the liquid sand texture polishes, and I think I might be hooked!  I finished the look by placing triangular rhinestones centered inside the Vs. 

Have you tried any of the liquid sand texture polishes by any maker?  What do you think of them?  Let me know in the comments!

Breast Cancer Awareness mani!

Well hello again, friends!

So the last week I've been pretty quiet online because I was pushing really hard to finish an editing job.  I've learned more about Norse mythology over the past 6 weeks than I ever really cared to know.  If it tells you anything, I didn't even change my nail polish for a WHOLE WEEK!  Crazy.  Suffice it to say, I finished up the book and turned it in, so I had a bit of free time to do a pink mani for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is of course, October.

Now, I'm not a fan of pink.  In fact, I kind of loathe it.  I actually had a hard time when I started doing this mani because I didn't have much selection of pink polish with which to work.  However, the cause is dear to my heart, because my mother is a breast cancer survivor of over 15 years.  I've also seen several friends' mothers go through the process, and it's not pretty.  In the past year, a friend was diagnosed, and she is even younger than me, so it really hit home.  However, she's doing really well since her surgery and we're all hoping for a full recovery.  I'm not going to preach on it, but ladies, please check your tatas and get mammograms on the regs.  Early detection is key. 

Either way, I knew that I wasn't going to be content with just slapping on some pink polish with some ribbons, so I decided to do go holo and add pink french tips.  I also have an abundance of pink rhinestones that I will probably never use during any other month than October, so I plopped those on as well.  Did some underlining detail with a hot pink striper, and a white accent nail with a single pink ribbon in the same pink striper.

Colors used:
Born Pretty Holo Effect #1
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Kiss Nail Artist Paint in Beach Pink (from the MDK07 Kit)

I'm pretty happy with this mani, though it's fairly simple.  I'll be wearing it for a few days, anyway, or at least until I get my hands of a certain cache of new polishes.  Expect lots of swatches to happen over the next month (including another pink polish - oh well, can't win 'em all).

Shh... Ali's working.

Working on a tight deadline to finish up an editing job before we take our holidays, so I'll be going dark this weekend.  With a little luck, I'll be back in time for Mani Monday.

In the mean time, here's what I'm currently wearing:

Essie's For The Twill Of It, then I attempted to marble on some holographic topcoat with plastic wrap.  Didn't exactly come out as glamorous as I'd planned, but it'll do for now.  No time for nails, Doctor Jones!

With flash and slightly blurred so you can see the holo.

Hope you're all having a fantastic week, and I'll see you soon!

Mani Monday: Inspired by a television show

Happy Monday, friends!

Hubby and I have a running issue: finding movies and TV shows that we can both enjoy.  I tend to lean towards fantasy and sci-fi, and whereas he can get into sci-fi, he isn't really a fantasy guy.  In the past, we've been able to find common shows that we can watch together (Doctor Who was one of the first things we bonded over), and he's turned me on to things I hadn't seen in the past, and vice-versa.  For instance, he has gotten me watch Game of Thrones (we're still going thru season 1, NO SPOILERS PLEASE!), District 9, Super 8, and a few other assorted movies.  I suggested he watch Being Human and Battlestar Galactica.  I've tried my best to turn him on to my Joss Whedon obsession - the first time we met I made him watch Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and though he'd seen Serenity but didn't "get it", on my first trip to England we sat and watched Firefly, which he didn't really start appreciating until midway through the only season that exists.  Pardon me a moment, I still need time to grieve.

Okay, I'm better.  Moving on.  He liked The Avengers, hated Cabin in the Woods and Buffy, but he willingly watched Much Ado About Nothing with me last month and enjoyed it quite a bit.  After many discussions about the kinds of sci-fi he likes, I figured I had one last trick up my sleeve to make him realize why I would, at any given moment, leave him to go make genius babies with the mangod Joss. 

Hey wait, isn't this supposed to be a manicure post?  Oh yeah.  Can you guess from the mani below which Whedon tv show I've suckered hubby into watching, and he actually loves it?