I recently did a polish swap with Debbie over at The Crumpet.

 I sent her some of the Milani 3D's and in return I got some of the lovely OPI Muppets polishes.  OPI are not particularly difficult to come by where I live, but it's always more fun to get things in swaps, isn't it?  I've gotten pretty into swapping recently and I've recieved a number of interesting and exciting things in my swap packages.  I'm always curious to see what other people will send because it gives me ideas of what to send others.  But wow.  Debbie really stepped up her game on this swap.  As soon as I opened it I noticed a familiar and lovely aroma.  Tea.  Not just ANY tea either.  Multiple types of tea.  Including my most favorite standard tea...PG Tips.  PG Tips tea puts Lipton tea to shame.  But it's SO hard to find around here.  Although some of my local groceries have started carrying it, it's also fairly expensive.  So you can imagine my surprise and excitement to recieve some in the mail!!  There were also some peppermint tea bags and some spiced apple ones.  It's actually quite amusing to receive tea this week as I've had a sore throat for awhile and I've been drinking more tea than usual.  Tonight I needed to edit about a hundred pictures for my various blogs and I also have a lot of cleaning to do following a busy week.  So I thought I'd sit down with some pretty polish and a nice, hot, cup of Spiced Apple tea.  :) So yummy. 

And because she can never keep out of things...you know who had to poke her fat little nose into my tea.  She particularly enjoyed the peppermint bags. :P

Ok. So ONE more Halloween mani!!  Last night I was kind of bored and I remembered that I had some Halloween polish I hadn't used yet--well--not Halloween persay, but creepy!!  A few weeks back someone mentioned that you could snag the Essie Morticia's Nails set for only $10.  Where I live, ONE Essie will run you $8 so three for the price of one is a steal in my book.  I even got free shipping!  They arrived awhile back and I put them in my drawer and kind of forgot about them.  Until last night.  I was watching The Simpson's annual Treehouse of Horrors with my husband and got inspired to do ONE last Halloween mani.  I keep seeing these blood drips popping up (mostly from fans of True Blood) and I thought it would be a quick easy mani I could do for today.  And it was!  One thing I love about the Morticia's Nail's set is that all the polishes inside are jelly finish.  So while I had to use a bit more red to get a more opaque look, it was also more blood-like since blood is not really opaque.  I'm taking these off tonight before I trick or treat with my neices since I'm going as a Poke-girl (pics to come!) but they're fun for the day!! Enjoy and have a wonderful Halloween!! :)

So these are my second (and final) Halloween design this year.  Hopefully next year I'll have more time and motivation to do more but it seems all I had was trouble with them this year!!  This was my second attempt at these as well although I was smart this round and tested my designs on a nail wheel before I started on my nails.  The first round was nice but the colors were all wrong.  So I started again with these murky greens.  I did kind of like the end result but the haunted house looked a bit more busy than I wanted.  Oh well. Next year! :P

Enjoy and thanks for following! Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

Base coat is: OPI Stranger Tides with reverse french in Essie Sew Psyched.

Swirls on all nails but accent are Models Own Moody Grey

Ghost is Konad White

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I love dressing up and being crazy and all the scary things that go along with it.  So I don't know why I've had such a hard time getting motivated to do Halloween themed nails.  I've seen this mummy design on a hundred other blogger's sites and this is my THIRD attempt at it.  I still don't love it but it didn't come out nearly as bad as the other two attempts!! It's much harder than it looks!  I used my Models Own black nail art pen to do the lines for that and the spider web and let me just say, I. LOVE. THIS. PEN.  It's SO easy to use and you can really get some tiny lines with it.  The spider web is my favorite part of this mani.  Oh...and the fact that it glows in the dark! I used the glow in the dark polish UNDER the nail art pen and then again over the white on the eyes so that the design would appear in the dark.  It worked great although it wouldn't photograph for anything! :/  I hope you enjoy the nails and hope everyone is having a great Halloween!! (One more creepy design is on the way :P)

Thanks for following! 

Base is: OPI Skull & Glossbones

Topped that with China Glaze Ghoulish Glow

Black is: Models Own Nail Art Pen in Black

Eyes are: Ulta Snow White

Centers are: butterLONDON La Moss

Then coated the non-designed nails with: Wet & Wild Tangled In My Web

This past week my sister had a little girl (she's SO cute!) and decorated her room with little owls with the theme, "Owl always love you."  I thought it was the custest thing (and I love owls!) so I thought I'd do some similarly themed nails.  I added some glitter to the top of the owl to add a bit of depth but I think it made it look a little lumpy. It didn't look that way in person!! (hate it when that happens!) :)  

Enjoy and thanks for following!! 

All colors by Barry M: 

Mint Green, Berry Ice Cream, BlueBerry Ice Cream, Yellow

These nails are loosely inspired by a design I saw at Sephora a few weeks back.  They have out a new brochure filled with different nail art that you can do with their products.  Of course, I didn't use their products for this!! But they suggested a red polish over the tips of a leopard nail strip they were selling and then they lined the edges with tear shaped silver gems.  I did the leopard on a metallic background to mimic the shiny 'minx' like strips they had and then used a super glitter to do the 'gems'. Enjoy and thanks for following!!

Base is: Orly Luxe
Tips are: butterLONDON Scoundrel
Leopard print is: Hard Candy The End
Gem dots are: Burlesque Collection by OPI Glow Up Already

About a month ago I did my first BIG international swap. And by big, I mean more than two or three polishes. This particular trade was for 6 I believe and these two were among them.  I'm really excited about this swap because it earned me my very first GOSH polish.  :)  Metallic Green.  I follow a lot of blogs and there is one girl in particular, Sam, who always posts the most AMAZING stamped nails.  Stamping is an art let me tell you and while you can create really awesome things with minimal effort if you're good at it, it can also be a real pain.  She uses GOSH metallics frequently for stamping so when I got a chance to snag one I wasn't passing it up.  This is over Catrice Dirty Berry, a gorgeous dusty purple with tiny holographic shimmer that lights up in the sun.  It didn't pick up on film well but it's sort of a purple versin of butterLONDON All Hail The Queen which is one of my favorites! 

Enjoy and thanks for following! :)

Catrice: Dirty Berry

GOSH: Metallic Green

Today is my last day of vacation at home!! Tomorrow I will be headed to a bunch of places (we're doing a mini-vacation in a few places!) so I thought I'd post some nails to tide you over :P  I have a couple of things set to auto-upload but if I know blogger...and I DO know blogger...they'll never actually post.  I'll be back Sunday with new and exciting things!  These nails were inspired by a Missoni for Target dress I snagged a few weeks back (when they actually still had them!).  It's also my first frankened polish because out of all the nail polish I own it seems I don't have one rusty orangy redish one. :P  The polish on the thumb is the franken.  It was actually pretty fun mixing the colors together so it's possible more frankening is in my future.  Stash photos are to come at some point this week and it's out. of. control.  After spending HOURS swatching and numbering and organizing (I'm still not done) I've decided to cut back on the polish buying for awhile. There are a few on my wishlist but nothing serious. :)  Today I've also reached 100 followers!! So I just want to give a HUGE thank you to my followers, new and old, I love sharing with you and I've learned a lot from your feedback. :)  I haven't decided if I'll do a giveaway or not for several reasons.  The most important is that I started this blog for myself to have a place to post my passion and see how I'm improving.  I'm so excited and happy to share it with people who are passionate about the same thing and I'd like to think that you're all following along because you feel the same.  I hate the idea that someone is following me just to win something free and not because they really enjoy what I'm doing.  It's also just a really big hassle to get a giveaway together and get it shipped out.  I have A LOT of swapping going on right now and it's getting overwhelming.  And the final reason is that I've learned recently that there may be legal implications to having a giveaway.  So I'm still thinking it over and I'll let all of you know what I decide.  But thank you anyway for following along with me.  I really appreciate having you along for the ride! :)

*Side note: I've added a Blog Sale tab to my page.  If you could check it out and see if anything catches your eye that would be great. I'm trying to clear out some polish I don't use and I'd love for it to go to some polish lovers like yourselves! :)*

Base on all nails: Essie Sand Tropez

Zig Zags are:

Models Own: BlooBloo

butterLONDON: Jaffa

China Glaze: Lemon Fizz

Hard Candy The End mixed with Orly Prince Charming

Franken: Dusty Rose

It looks so sad and not rainbowy in the Seche bottle.  And it doesn't have the nice wide brush that OPI's have.  I didn't even get to paint ONE stinkin nail with it before this.  So seriously lame.  Although most of the polish was saveable, this still gives me a wicked case of the sads.  I'm one of those people who still has the original boxes for EVERYTHING.  Having an OPI in a Seche Vite bottle is KILLING me right now.  KILLING.  And I can't even  put it next to my other OPI's because the shape makes it too bulky.  The shame.  But there is a bright side to all this!!  And that's the customer service at AveYou.com.  This is the first time I've ever ordered or received a damaged polish and let me tell you, I receive TONS of polish mail both from companies and from people.  I was a little worried about what the response would be when I wrote them about it and I took A TON of pictures just in case they asked. Pictures of the polish. Pictures of the mess. Pictures of the bubble wrap with glitter flecked all inside of it.  I wrote them and explained that it had cracked open when I touched it.  I told them my other two were fine.  I told them that most of the bottle was saveable.  And I told them I had pictures if they needed them.  (I've heard a lot of companies ask. Understandably.)  I kid you not.  FIVE minutes after I sent the email I had a response. And not one of those, We-got-your-email-you're-very-important-we'll-get-back-to-you-later auto-responses.  Nope.  A real email.  Which said they were terribly sorry, will resend the polish immediately and will look into what might have happened to my glorious Rainbow Connection after the evil postmen got their hands on it.  (Ok I might have embellished a little bit on that last part :P) So the moral of the story is: AveYou.com ROCKS. Tons. And I'll definitely order from them again (at some point!).  And you should too if you want great customer service. :)  Update: The moral of the story is that this is apparently a recurring problem, and while they were very nice about it...they screwed up my replacement order too. :( They sent me another Warm & Fozzie instead of Rainbow Connection.  Another girl in my Facebook group also recieved two broken polishes. Sad times. :( While I still appriciate the excellent customer service (they shipped my replacement for the replacement within hours of my letting them know they messed up) it will only take them so far.  I may or may not order from them again in the future. I'll need some time to see how they do with other people! And still no Rainbow Connection :(


Oh and as a total side note:  Warm and Fozzie is my new OPI love. I would marry it.  Gone Gonzo...not so much.  :P

Apparently yesterday was Columbus Day. Not to sound completely ungrateful to Columbus for 'discovering' America...but no mail days suck. I even went to the post office to mail a swap package only to find that it was closed :( Lucky they have self-serve postage units so I was at least able to drop my swap package off. Since there was no mail today, and I live in a township (yay no taxes!) I have to wait until some ridiculous hour of the day to get my nail mail today. :( In the meantime, I found this ABC quiz at All The Pretty Polish and I thought I'd kill some time with it. More nail pics to come soon I promise!! :)

A – Age: 28 (and yet I still feel 21!)

B – Bed size: Queen

C – Chore you hate: There aren't any chores I hate...I love to clean (I know I'm crazy) but I always make my husband do the trash.  Who wants to walk the the dumpster with a bag full of gross?

D – Dog’s name: No doggies.  Two lovely (and sometimes sweet) kitties, Aoife and Eoghan

E– Essential start your day item: Coffee with vanilla almond milk

F – Favorite color: Green at the moment. I'm also really digging orange.

G – Gold or Silver: Silver

H – Height: 5'4

I – Instruments you play: I play a little piano and a tiny amount of guitar. Used to play the flute many years ago but doubt I could do anything with it now.

J – Job title: Whatever. Lol...I don't really have a job title.

K – Kid(s): None at the moment

L – Living arrangements: With my awesome husband and my two kitties.

M – Mom’s name: Rose

N – Nicknames: Ricky, Bee, Britney

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Vitamin overdose when I was two.

P – Pet Peeve: Poor grammar tops my list. But I have many.

Q – Quote from a movie: "If you want to know who a man really is take a good look at how he treats his inferiors; not his equals." Sirius Black

R – Right or left handed: Right handed technically speaking but I can do most things with both

S – Siblings: One of each.

T – Time you wake up: Usually around 6:45AM. Unless Eoghan has other plans. :P

U- Underwear: is a necessity.

V – Vegetable you dislike: I like most veggies but I'm kind of over eggplant at the moment.  I ate way too much of it for awhile. 

W – Ways/Reasons you run late: I do not run late. Ever.

X – X-rays you’ve had: Teeth at the dentist and then my neck/head/back when I was in a car accident in high school.

Y – Yummy food you make: Lots of things!! You can see some of them here!

Z – Zoo favorite:  Elephants and Clouded Leopards although many zoo's don't have them.:(

This Monday's challenge in my Facebook group was pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.  This month being Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought it would be a good one to participate in.  Don't forget this month (and every month) to get regularly screened by your doctor and to remind the men and women in your life to do so as well.  You can find information on how to do a self check, what to do if you find something, and even how to get support if someone you know is suffering at The National Breast Cancer Awareness website. This is a serious disease that I've personally lost someone to.  If found and treated early, the chance for survival is very good. The check is very easy, doesn't take much time, and can really save your life. If you have a minute, visit the website to see what you can do to help promote awareness in your area.  If you even tell one person you love you can make a difference.  Don't forget there are also TONS of cool products this month that are going Pink for the Cure so just by doing some regular shopping you can contribute to the cause! I hope you enjoy the nails and thanks again for following.  :)

Base: Catrice Miss Piggy Reloaded

Glitter coat: Deborah Lippmann Bring on the Bling

Bow: Konad White

Bow center: Barry M Shocking Pink

It's the final day of my week of San-X!  Today I did Homekoro. Homekoro is a brown pomeranian puppy that likes to encourage his friends with praises and kind words.  He is so cute and fluffy, too!  He has a little bird friend named Uttori who I chose to do as my accent nail.  I hope you enjoyed my week of San-X (and maybe found some cute new kawaii inspirations!)  Thanks for following! :)

Base: China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Dots: Barry M Mint Green, Berry Ice Cream, and China Glaze Secret Per-i-winkle

Homekoro: Barry M Mushroom, China Glaze Ingrid, Barry M Berry Ice Cream, and Ulta Snow White

Kineizukun is a little squirrel (yeah I know it seems like he should be a raccoon!) who LOVES to clean!  I love to clean too which makes Kineizukun and I a good match!  He's a relatively new San-X addition but SO cute!  I did the ring finger as his little tail and the thumb as his face. :) Hope you're enjoying getting to know my favorite San-X characters this week! Who are some of yours?

Thanks for following!

Base: Revlon All Fired Up

Dots: Ulta Snow White

Accent Nail: Essie Sand Tropez, Barry M Mushroom

Kineizukun: Revlon All Fired Up, Ulta Snow White, Essie Sand Tropez, China Glaze Ingrid, LA Nail Art Black

Mamegoma are a bunch of little seal characters. They're so small that they actually live in a fish bowl with ice cubes!  Mamagoma is one of my favorite San-X characters and I am really keeping my fingers crossed for a new Mamegoma bento box this year!!  Besides being small and super cute, Mamegoma is also super easy to do as nail art. Although I used a TON of colors on this mani!  I think he came out rather well. :)  Enjoy and thanks so much for following!!

Base coat: Ulta Snow White and two coats of Orly Honeymoon in Style

Dots: Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and Berry Ice Cream, Nicole by OPI Dandylion

Mamegoma: Ulta Snow White, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Berry Ice Cream, LA Nail Art Black, Nicole by OPI Dandylion

Rilakkuma is a toy bear who likes relaxing, sleeping, listening to music, and soaking in hot springs. Sounds like the life, no? His favorite foods are dango, pancakes, omurice and custard pudding.  Some of you hard core Rilakkuma fans might have noticed that in fact, this is Korilakkuma, the female friend of Rilakkuma.  I intended to do Rilakkuma's face on my thumb and somehow I never got around to it!  I also somehow forgot to do the outline on her mouth. :/ In any event the nails were still a hit! I got a lot of compliments on them and they're probably the easiest design I've done yet.  Just a few dots and two lines! I hope you enjoy them and thanks so much for following! :)

Base on all nails but accent is Barry M Mushroom

Base on accent nail is Essie Sand Tropez. 

Button is butterLONDON Saucy Jack and Ulta Snow White

Eyes, nose and mouth are China Glaze Ingrid

Top coat is Seche Vite

Base coat: butterLONDON Toff

Flowers: butterLONDON Teddy Girl and Cheeky Chops

Accent Nail: Base buterLONDON Teddy Girl.

Flowers: butterLONDON Toff, Cheeky Chops

Base coat:  Hard Candy The End

Covered that with two coats of Nubar 2010 and one coat of OPI Zom-body to Love

Tarepanda: Ulta Snow White, Hard Candy The End

Accent Nail: Ulta Snow White, eBay water decals

All colors this week are Model's Own.

Base: Feelin' Blue

Dots: Prussian Blue and Beth's Blue

Here's a close up of the glitter in It's Alive.  Isn't it amazing?

Base: Zoya Dree

Glitter: China Glaze It's Alive

Tips: Zoya Veruschka

Top Coat: Seche Vite