Forgiveness is a gift of high value. Yet its cost is nothing.

a tree grows in brooklyn


It's the final day of book week and I've saved my absolute favorite book for the very last. :)  Today's nails are based on a book that I probably should have read much earlier in my life than I ended up doing. I've heard a lot of people say it's on their school reading lists but it was never on any of mine and that saddens me to a great degree.  I picked it up just a few years ago and read it out of curiosity and it's just an absolutely amazing book. It will really change the way you feel about life and about your choices and it was one of those ones that you pick up and you never really put it down. Even when it's not in your hand it's on your mind and I love those kind of novels. You can really live inside the world of the book for a few days or weeks or however long it takes you to devour the story and then inevitably, it has to end and you're left both relieved at reaching the end of the journey and sad to leave it behind. Even though it's my favorite book I've only read it a few times because I try to save it as a treat. :)  It may not be entirely obvious from my design but today was inspired by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I wanted to really just go very simple on this one. It's a complex story but a simple theme. I chose to emulate the early 1900's Brooklyn with bricks on most of my fingers.  One of the important themes of the novel was the lack of trees and green in Brooklyn and I wanted that to carry over to the nail design. And of course there's that tree. The Tree of Heaven so it's called in the book which is a metaphor of course for the ability to thrive in difficult times. I did a tree on some sort of concrete colored polish on my accent nail to represent this. It turns out, in the end that the main character, Francie was the tree that grew in Brooklyn so it really makes a great representation I think.  Anyway...enough rambling! I hope you really loved book week because I've LOVED sharing it with you. Please check out the other girls pages to see what they've come up with for the final day. As always you can see the colors used in my mani listed below and today, because I had to use a bit of a technique I've included a little description as well! Enjoy!!


Colors Used:
Zoya Destiny
China Glaze Brownstone and Life Preserver
OPI Solitaire
Models Own Black Nail Art Pen

Technique:
To achieve the texture I started with two coats of Zoya Destiny (any color will work but I wanted to start with something sort of similar to the direction I was going). When fully dry I sponged LIGHTLY over the top with the two different China Glaze polishes to get a nice brick shade. Then use the nail art brush to make the lines. I did not topcoat. :)

Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.

book week



It's day four of Book Week with the Digital Dozen. I'm sort of sad to see this theme go but I'm also a little glad because it turns out that using books for inspiration can be a very tricky thing! Sometimes it's hard to know how much or how little you want to capture.  I love that books, unlike films, are more of a personal experience to everyone. No two people read the same book the exact same way which means each is a personal journey to the reader. BUT that also means that my version of what's important, may not be the same as yours!! Today I went very abstract for my art.  I thought of doing covers for books but again, to me it's more about the content than someone else's vision of the story. So for that reason, today may not be as easy for you to guess! It's for The Giver.  I read this book for the first time in the fifth grade and I absolutely love it. It remains one of my favorite books of all time and I've read it so many times I can't even count!  The art work today is some black trees or leaves on white to represent the sort of world that Jonas, the main character, lives in.  No color was a huge theme of the book.  I also did some black birds on a white background.  I know there were no animals in Jonas' world but to me, they symbolize the freedom that Jonas sets out to achieve. And finally, I wanted to do an apple on my ring finger because it's the first time Jonas sees the color red but I didn't feel it fit in with the abstract nature of the rest so instead I've done cracks in the red to represent the cracks in his world that the red color will lead to.  I hope you're all enjoying book week! Please check out what my fellow ladies came up with for today and stay tuned for the final installment tomorrow!!


Colors used:
Zoya Purity
Revlon Black Lingerie
Orly Grave Mistake

So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.

Barry M


It's day three of the Digital Dozen Book Week challenge.  I'm trying to get through all my most favorite books for this challenge but let's face it, there are way more than five of those!! For this one I went a little further back into my childhood years.  I believe I was eight the first time I read this book and even today it's still one of my favorites.  If you haven't recognized it yet, it's The Phantom Tollbooth.  One of the things I love about this book is that it's very logical while at the same time seeming very illogical!  It tells the story of a boy named Milo and his journey though strange lands with a dog called Tock.  I used my ring finger to represent the map of the Kingdom of Wisdom.  There were so many lands to choose from but I only have so many fingers!! So I went with just two and then added a clock for Tock on my middle finger.  For the index I have the top half numbers and the bottom half words to represent Dictionopolis, one of the capitols of the Kingdom and where Milo learns of the princesses, Rhyme and Reason and learns that they've been banished for their belief that numbers and letters are of equal importance.  Then on the pinky finger I have some numbers to represent Digitopolis, where Milo eats subtraction soup which makes him even hungrier!  I hope you enjoy the nails and don't forget to journey over to my fellow ladies pages to see what they've come up with for todays challenge!!



Colors Used:
OPI Fly
Barry M Silver Foil
Zoya Purity
Revlon Black Lingerie

When it's done, it's done. And no one will know until it's done.

a england


It's day two of the Digital Dozen book week challenge. Today I've chosen to do a mani based on a book which I enjoyed and movie which I loved. Normally it's the other way round for me. I love the book and when the film comes out I'm like, "Why did they ruin the book!?" but this film was a happy experience for me and I really enjoyed it more than the novel.  I really love books about monarchies and even though I generally stick with the non-fiction ones, this book and series is just a must read.  I wanted to use sort of "regal" colors so it seemed fitting to start with A-England's Dragon. Especially given the content of the book and the fact that it's a famous piece of English history.  Have you figured it out yet?  The book is The Other Boelyn Girl.  I wanted to incorporate the things I felt were most important in the book but while sticking with a cohesive theme so I decided to highlight some aspects of Queen Anne. If you saw the film, the necklace should have given this away and if not, surely you've seen the iconic necklace in portraits of the queen.  I also included some stamps to represent the luxe gold brooches and jewels she wore as queen.  I hope you all enjoyed this one and don't forget to check out what my fellow dozeners have come up with for today!!


Colors used: 
A England Dragon
Orly Luxe and Au Champagne

The Digital Dozen does...books!

books


I know you're all excited because it's time for another week with the Digit-al Dozen!  This week's theme is books and it's actually been a bit of a challenge for me because I read SO many books.  Literally, I'm currently in the middle of four (yes, at once) because I can't devour them as quickly one at a time!  This art work is for one of my favorite books.  There were a lot of different ways I could have taken it because the particular book I chose has SO many gorgeous details and descriptive elements.  The setting is just an amazing place.  But when I held it up to a few people and asked them to guess the book, they all got it on the first try.  Have you guessed it yet?  It's for Memoirs of a Geisha. I really love books about Japan and China and it was such an easy read for me.  It's a very moving book but it's not one of those I'm-gonna-cry-everyday-for-weeks kind of reads which really appeals to me.  I wanted to capture the most important elements of the book so I focused on the red/white color scheme and on the umeboshi.  I used some square glitter on the ring finger to simulate rice so that it would sort of resemble the onigiri with the bright red umeboshi plum at the bottom.  Then I used some fans to sort of tie in the Geisha theme.  I hope you really loved these! Please check out what my fellow book worms have come up with for today's theme and stay tuned all week for more books!!


Colors used: 
Essie Blood Curdling
 Zoya Purity 
OPI Lights Of Emerald City 
Zoya Raven

Popular Posts

Like us on Facebook

Flickr Images