Forty Great Nail Art Ideas: Christmas



These are coming up late! Super behind on things and work has been crazy lately but hey, the point is they get posted eventually, right? (We'll go with that.)  At any rate these were my nails for the last day of Traditions with the Digital Dozen and also were my nails for last week's New Crumpets Nail Tarts theme which was Christmas. I hope you guys enjoy them! Happy Christmas Eve!! :)

Snowflakes are falling on my head...



It's day four of Traditions Week with The Digital Dozen.  These nails are a little bit sloppy so I apologize for that. I really wanted smaller flakes but I don't have any small flake stamps and my freehanded ones were awful!! At any rate every year around this time I use old magazines to make pretty snowflakes that I hang around the house. It's cheap and fun and festive!! So these nails represent those! Check out the other girls art below!!


Christmas Lights...


Today I have a sort of generic look for you but it's still reflective of traditions so I think it fits this week's Digital Dozen theme quite well!  Every year my husband and I get a new ornament to reflect something that's happened to us over the past year. We have one from the year we were married, one that's a Presidential ornament from our year spent in Williamsburg, a yellow submarine from our year of Beatle mania and loads more. This year I finally got around to making paw print ornaments with my kitties as well.




 I'm really sad that I missed the opportunity to do that with my very first kitty, Eoghan, because today on the anniversary of his death, I'd love to have it to look at. :(  These little string lights are just sort of representative of decorating the house. I hope you enjoy them. Check out the other girls art below!!



Trimming the tree...


It's day two of Traditions Week with The Digital Dozen. Today I have a simple design for you.  When I was a child my mother had this little glass Christmas tree with plastic lights that you push into the holes on the tree and a little green star. The tree plugged in so that when you turned it on the light came through the plastic pieces.  There were a few little birds and butterflies on it as well.  At any rate each year she'd get out the little tree and hand me a little can of the lights and I'd spend hours gathering just the right ones and putting them in the little holes so that no colors were right next to one another and there were so many birds and so many butterflies. It's a great Christmas memory for me, and even though I no longer decorate the little tree it was definitely a tradition in my house!  So today I did some simple little green trees and then some "lights" for my other nails! 


Did anyone else have one of these?! Check out the other girls art below!!

The Digital Dozen DOES...Traditions!!



It's time for another week with The Digital Dozen!! This week we're bringing you nail designs inspired by holiday traditions.  I actually don't have many traditions which made this week rather difficult for me but I've managed to find a few things that I do *most* years!  Starting with this one! So every year I make candies.  My favorite candies to make are potato candies.  Even though they seem easy, they're actually fairly tricky BUT they're delicious to eat.  Although I'm not much of a sweets girl so I rarely eat more than a few of them myself. A few years I've done my own peppermint candies and candy canes as well. They're not the hard ones that you typically see but more like the puffed ones. Which let's face it, are my favorite anyway!  So here are my potato candy and peppermint inspired nails! I hope you like them! What are your favorite Christmas treats?

Check out the other girls traditions below!!


Forty Great Nail Ideas: Winter



This week the New Crumpets Nail Tarts challenge was winter.  When I think of winter I kind of go in a winter wonderland type direction. In fact I actually have a winter wonderland themed bedroom! So it's basically a nice blue shade with snow and birch trees and deer or woodland creatures.  A nice, calming wonderland. :)  So for today I did these birch trees on a blue background. What do you think of when you think of winter?


Forty Great Nail Art Ideas -- glitter or flakie topper



 My prompt for today's New Crumpets Nail Tart challenge was to combine a glitter or flakie topper with leopard!  This one was super hard to photograph but it was really neat in person.  The leopard on the black nails is pretty subtle but it really flashes in the light! I used an Ozotic topper to create the look. :) Check out the other looks below!


Super Saturday: Weekly Updates...Fearghuis Rioghan



I haven't done a Super Saturday post in awhile so I thought now would be a good time to do some updates!  Starting with the one above! Most of you probably already know I have two kitties, Aoife and Caoimhe.  Well this past weekend I adopted another kitty who has been named Fearghuis.  Unfortunately, Fearghuis did not come to me in the best shape.  In fact, he's in quite bad shape.  On Saturday after I picked him up and brought him home I noticed he was breathing very loudly and his breath was quite rattled.  He was wobbly when he walked, his teeth and ears looked filthy and when I bathed him to get the smell of cat urine off him (which took TWO baths and a foam bath) I noticed he was incredibly thin. He was advertised by the "rescue" (and I use that term VERY loosely) as a Chocolate Point Himalayan.  I was told he was healthy, fully up to date on shots, kept in a foster HOME with one other cat and was 9lb.  Since he was a bit far and because of how the rescue organization works, I had to fill out and be approved for adoption before I was permitted to see any of the cats they foster.  At the time I understood it as being for the purposes of making sure when they set these appointments it isn't a waste of their time.  Now I feel very differently about that.  When I arrived to look at him I was given a quite limited amount of time to look him over and the foster parent was not available for me to speak to. Instead the adoptions are done at the home of the woman who runs the "rescue".  She explained his runny eyes, saying they hadn't been wiped that day and that he often has runny eyes when he drinks.  His fur being quite fluffy as he's a Himalayan, it was difficult to see how thin he really was and she said she wasn't sure his exact weight but thought he was around 7 or 8lb (he's actually closer to 5.5lb).  He's clearly not a Chocolate Point either, he's very obiously a Seal Point and she agreed that his breeder had indicated he was a Seal but that she personally felt he was a Chocolate. At any rate...


Here he is AFTER two baths (and a foam bath) and several face cleanings. His eyes didn't open further than this when I brought him home.  I had him to my vet a few days after I this and it turns out he's riddled with infections.  Poor little guy needs to gain about 2 or 3lb, he's missing patches of fur from malnutrition and until yesterday he could barely see or breathe because his eyes constantly crust over and he's so congested when he leans his head forward he can't breathe at all.  After some TLC (and lots of antibiotics and supplements) he's doing MUCH better today.  He can finally see, he's had more energy and is starting to play and he can lean his head forward to eat and drink now.  He's going to need some additional tests before we'll know for certain if we can keep him (our vet indicated that he may have things which would put our current kitties at risk) and he's not fully vaccinated but can't get those until he's doing better.  So he's taking up quite a bit of my time lately. My vet was uncertain if the age they gave us was accurate at just over 2 years and his paperwork is all crossed out and written over so that's not promising either.  They also told us at my vet he's probably been kept in VERY close quarters with more than a few other cats (probably in a kennel not freely roaming a home) and has likely been underfed and uncared for most if not all of his life.  



I'll try to keep you guys updated on how he does from here out but for now it's been pretty exhausting trying to nurse him back to health.  The nice thing is he's pretty affectionate so I've gotten lots of snuggles lately. :)  Hopefully I'll be back to having time to polish very soon! Hope you're all having a great week and for those in the US, a nice holiday!

Forty Great Nail Art Ideas: color + grey



Today's inspiration for the New Crumpets Nail Tarts 40 Great Nail Art Ideas was grey plus color.  I've done an IKAT design with my grey and a teal color. I've never done an IKAT design and I've been wanting to try one out but I'll admit this is my second attempt and it still isn't as great as some of the ones I've seen.  I think there's a trick to getting your brush just wet enough so that it leaves color but also kind of drags to give it a nice feathery look.  It's one I'll have to work on for awhile but honestly it came together pretty fast and it's not horrendous so with just a bit of practice it could be a really easy 10 minute mani.  For now I think I'll stick to leopard for my quickies though! ;P Check out the other girls art below!!


Zoya Winter 2015 Matte Collection

zoya

I apologize for the delay in posting these! I'm still really struggling to keep up with my blog in light of some life changes! I'm also still trying to sort a lighting situation so some of these are taken in natural light and some in artificial and so on.  At some point in the near future I'll hopefully have it all sorted and everything will be more uniform.  At any rate this is the 2015 Matte Velvet collection from Zoya.  I really love the matte collections from Zoya. I think they're gorgeous and overall they dry quickly and finish lovely. I had an issue with only one of these and again, it was the white one.  I don't know what it is about matte white but it just doesn't seem to work for me.  Other than with that one though, these are all two coats and the formula was a dream. :)  Above we have Yves, a nice royal blue.


Next up is Honor. I think this one was my favorite but it seemed a touch less matte than the others.

Then comes Sue, a gorgeous champagne tone.  This one was a bit sheer for me with two coats. You can just see my nail line in the picture. Another coat may have taken care of that though.

Then there's Iris, a gorgeous pink/purple fuchsia kind of tone.  This one was a bit reminiscent of my favorite matte, Harlow.

Then we have Amal, a beautiful red color. This one will be perfect for your upcoming holidays!

And finally Aspen, the white tone I was telling you about.  I love Aspen but you can see she was a bit streaky and this is with three coats. :(  Which one is your favorite?

**These polishes were provided to me for my honest review. I have not been compensated for my opinion**

Escape the ordinary...


It's the final day of Pinterest week with The Digital Dozen and I saved my favorite for last!! OK, let's face it; everything Kate Spade is my favorite. lol...but this design I think came out rather well and it's a little less clean than the others.  This was one of the patterns Kate used in 2012 I believe as one of the staples in her collection.  I love how retro it feels. Here's the original pin:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/37858453089341775/

I used a white background instead of cream and I didn't  have a stamp that completely matched this pattern (like I could freehand that!) but it's pretty close to the picture I think!


Check out the other girls art below!!


Life is short; buy the shoes!



Pinterest Week with The Digital Dozen continues today with this look, again inspired by Kate Spade.  The lighting on this picture is SO bad so I have to apologize for that. I'm still experimenting with where the best spot and time will be to photograph nails in my new place.  These were inspired by some stupid cute and glittery Kate Spade shoes which I'm adding to my list of NEEDS. Lol  you can check them out below!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/193091902750514402/

Feel free to click on the picture to see the original pin! Or you can pin them to your wishlist (like I did!) right from here if you prefer. :)


Check out the other girls work below!! Thanks for following!


Keep Calm and...



It's day three of Pinterest week with The Digital Dozen and I'm carrying on with the Kate Spade inspiration. This look is based on a series of prints Kate has which have little sayings on them.  I thought a polish themed saying would be a good plan!  I actually kind of hated this one at first but it's grown on me now and I think it's one of my favorites. I also did a gold dot in lieu of the spade that generally adorns these prints.  It's a small area and I thought the dot worked but kept it a little more clean.  Here's my pinspiration!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552535448005717563/


Feel free to click on these pictures for the actual pin!  I love how clean and graphic these are but at the same time the mint keeps it girly and soft.


Check out the other girls art below!!


Find the silver lining...


So it's day two of the Pinterest challenge with The Digital Dozen and I'm still rocking the Kate Spade nails!! One thing I love about Kate is that even though she has a lot of different patterns in her line, almost all of them can be mixed together and look totally awesome. So today I've mixed two of her patterns together to make a fun look.  I always love striped nails...really stripes in general! I wear them fairly often.  I also love monochromatic nails because they look clean and graphic and they can go with anything.  This is one of those great patterns that allows you to swap out the accent nail for various looks without a ton of work.  At any rate you can check out the pins that inspired me below...and that watch is on my Christmas list if anyone cares to know *hint hint* ;P

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AZFt3zE-lA5aB_xa7X4LMWn2glQv_rAV_jKFsC2rCymRgPu-3Et_dZqPA8cQP0u33I8pcNEcRopwEgQfvqJLe7Q/


How cute is this little set up?  Stripes are a common Kate Spade pattern and they're featured on bags, dresses, planners, etc...but 'tis the season, right? :P

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/154177987219580188/


How beautiful is this watch?  I love how the hearts look like they're falling into place!

Check out the other girls inspirations below!!

The Digital Dozen does....Pinterest Inspired!



It's time for another week with The Digital Dozen!! This week our challenge is to use inspiration from Pinterest.  I go through short phases where I pin loads of things to Pinterest but in general, I really don't use it at all so I went a little bit of a different direction on this one.  Ever since I did a week of Christian Siriano I've been DYING to do a week of nails dedicated to another designer I love.  I haven't really gotten round to it yet and this was a PERFECT opportunity to do it! So this week I've chosen pins from Pinterest from one of my favorite designers; Kate Spade.  Check out the pin that inspired these nails below!! :)


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/102386591502748264/

Kate basically chooses really simple, classic patterns and then she uses those designs throughout her line.  Aren't these sneakers awesome? Check out the other girls artwork below!!



Forty Great Nail Ideas: Black and White

ncnt


Today I have another great nail idea for you from The New Crumpets Nail Tarts. First I have to apologize for the lack of posts recently.  I bought a house this past month and I had TWO vacations pre-planned (didn't super plan on the house part at the beginning of the year!) so between moving and those and just life in general I've been struggling to keep up.  I had things pretty well sorted through last month but I didn't hit the ground as quickly as I anticipated in the new place so now I'm a bit behind schedule.  That being said I hope you enjoy this fun houndstooth look for this week's challenge.  I really love a good, clean pattern like this.  It's bold and classy!  Please check out all the other amazing 
work below!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Orange, Purple, and Green


This is going up a little late as I've been moving and then on holiday and apparently my scheduled posts stopped posting after a bit!! Apologies on that but here's my weekly design for the New Crumpets Nail Tarts!  This week my challenge was to do green, orange and purple nails with a half and half pattern.  I decided to do these triangular nails and then mix up the colors. This is a fun one to do if you use a more neutral base because it makes your nails look like CLAWS!  I hope you all enjoyed your week and I can't wait for you to see what I have coming up next month. :) Check out the other designs below!!


40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Geeks!

animal crossing


It's that time again!! Today the challenge for The New Crumpets Nail Tarts is Geeks.  Now, I'm a TOTAL geek.  I love all things geeky: Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, LOST, science...I could keep going.  Thing is though I've done SOOO many geek mani's now that I found myself a bit stumped on this one.  Then...I remembered that I love to play games (I'm a Nintendo geek!!) and one of my favorite ones is Animal Crossing! So I decided to pay homage to the game with this fun, albeit not so perfectly executed mani. :)  My Tom Nook could've been better but overall I'm pretty stoked with how this came out!  I hope you're enjoying these challenges. Check out the other girls art below and I'll see you with more Crumpet art next week! :)

Feelin' Foxy...

autumn


It's the final day of Autumn Week with The Digital Dozen!! These weeks seem to just fly by, don't they?  For today I went a little outside the box and decided to do this foxy manicure.  I really have no idea how foxes play into Autumn but for some reason now that fall is here I see them everywhere. I don't mean live ones either!  I've never done fox nails before and my sister sent me a picture of some the other day so it seemed like a good time to try it out!  I did most of my nails like little fox tails because of the shape and then I did just the one with a little fox face.  These were really quite a bit easier than I anticipated so it's possible I may incorporate more foxes into my art!  I hope you had fun with us during Autumn Week! Check out the other girls art below! :)


Splash into Autum!

autumn


It's day four of Autumn Week with The Digital Dozen. Today I have a splash mani for you! I tried this technique for the first time during the last Digital Dozen week and I LOVE IT.  It's really fun to mix and match it and it's so stupid easy to do it's not even funny.  This time I did two colors for the splash and I mixed up my stamps a bit so my accent has much more coverage than the other nails.  I wanted it to incorporate the changing of summer into Autumn but I think maybe I should've done the colors in the opposite direction because it kind of looks more like Autumn blending into Spring! Still I really love the end result!! Don't forget to check out the other girls art below!!


Leaf me alone!

autumn


It's day three of Autumn Week with The Digital Dozen!!  Today I have this fun repeating leaf pattern for you!  Sometime back I did a look sort of like this with several shades of flowers overlapping one another. It's still a favorite of mine and it was also one of the mani's I did when I started doing Flashback Friday art.  This was another one where I started out with a different direction and then ended up coming round to this one.  I'm basically obsessed with white nails and I'm trying to break out of that some but it's just not working! :P  Anyway I hope you enjoy these and don't forget to check out the other ladies art below!!



What a-corny joke!

autumn


It's day two of Autumn Week with The Digital Dozen and today I have these cute acorn nails for you.  Somehow my matte topcoat got sort of smooshy and two of my nails have a bit of a texture to them but overall I really loved this design. You all know how much I LOVE to squeeze leopard prints into these challenges and for me this was sort of a play off the leopard print.  Also like leopard print, this manicure is SUPER easy and only requires a dotting tool. Definitely a win!! This is one of those mani's I was talking about where I started off with something that was a complete fail-tastic mess and then re-did it and ended up here. You can check out the failed look in a new series I'm starting up next week! Until then, I hope you enjoy these and don't forget to check out the other ladies art  below!!




The Digital Dozen DOES...Autumn!!

autumn


It's time for another week with The Digital Dozen!! This week we're doing Autumn themed nails.  I was so excited about this theme and then when it crept up somehow I lost all my motivation. Then I ended up doing a bunch of looks which were sort of fails and then I had to re-do them and....well they're at least close to being wins! ;P  Here's my first look!




On Thanksgiving a few years ago I did a turkey themed look using my nails as feathers with my thumb as the turkey head.  So from that I sort of sprung up this idea to do leaves.  My nails are a perfect shape for this but the only issue for me was that it came out a bit too similar to the feathers. :/  However, there is a win in there too because I am one of those people who love holiday nail art but HATE that it really has to be removed the next day or it looks kind of dated. :/ So you can wear your turkey for a day and then swap out your thumb for a leaf and voila! Thanksgiving to fall with only two nails to change! :)  I hope you enjoy these! Don't forget to check out the other ladies art below!

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Ideas -- Teal

gradient


It's time for another challenge with The New Crumpets Nail Tarts.  The challenge today was teal and then as we've got different designs to go along with the challenge, my extra challenge was to do a gradient.  I'm in the process of moving houses so all my nail supplies aren't readily available and, unfortunately, one of those things was a proper nail sponge.  However I felt this gradient still came out quite unique.  I did a lighter color and then popped some glitter over the top!  It sort of reminds me of a wave in the ocean.  :)  I hope you like these!  Until next week!! :)


40 Great Nail Ideas -- Hobbies

challenge

Today I have something SO fun for you guys!! I've started a new challenge called Forty Great Nail Ideas with The New Crumpets Nail Tarts.  Way back in the day I was part of the original Purple Fairy Crumpets and this is basically that group revamped (although with other upgrades in between!!).  So I'm super excited to be back with the Nail Tarts and this challenge is extra cool because it's going to run for the full length of the YEAR.  So you'll get to see some really fun art from me and loads of other ladies once a week!  Our first challenge was to do a mani based on hobbies.  I have SO many hobbies that it was a little tricky to choose one and on top it's sort of difficult to translate hobbies onto your nails sometimes.  I decided to choose yoga though.  I started with yoga about five years ago and I didn't love it.  I did it like, twice or something and then stopped.  I've always been very active and I love sports and working out and it was just way too...low energy for me.  Not that it isn't work because it is but it's sort of more relaxing than something that will pump you up.  Then about a year ago I went back to it as a 'break' from my regular high energy workouts so that I could do less lengthy workouts during the week and spread them over seven days.  Now with my CFS it's really the only thing I'm able to handle ALL the time and adding it to my daily workouts has made a huge difference in how much I'm able to do on a standard day.  I guess you could say I've grown to love it. :P  Anyway this is a layered splash marble technique with some fun yoga symbols on top. I hope you enjoy the mani and don't forget to check out the other ladies mani's below!! 

Doux et subtil...

french manicure

This is a technique I've seen a few times and I've been wanting to try it out but just hadn't gotten around to it.  It's basically a softer, more subtle, more modern version of your classic French mani.  I love how clean a great French manicure can make your nails look but I also think that they can look really dated.  Color choices are also a MAJOR part of what makes your French look wicked posh versus horrific flashback.  There are also a million and a half ways to wear a French and now with glittery tips and colored tips and everything else it's just endless the things you can do with one.  For me this was a really nice change.  It does give off the appearance of a French manicure but it's so much softer and it looks really fashion forward.  It's professional AND fun. :)  I jazzed this up ever so slightly with a gem stone and after I did it I wished I hadn't but what can you do? :P Thanks for following along! Have you tried this look?

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