Frosted Evergreen

Yesterday I painted my nails... and it was cloudy... and today its raining. So darn it I'm just going to post my cloudy pics of this Mani. Rawr!

I have here China Glaze- Holly Jolly as a base. Sponged over that I used China Glaze- Four Leaf Clover and then Sponged over that, China Glaze- Frosty and Sponged on top of that a Snowman polish that is red glitter in a clear base. Wow was that alot to type, or a mouthful if you were to read it out loud.

Something awesome I stumbled upon while bored and reading a random blog (sorry guys I go on sprees where I read like 5-6 blogs from first post to end and cant remember who posted what), use chap stick to keep the extra polish off your cuticle's and skin. I tried it for this Mani and have to say it works like a charm. So much easier than tape or trying to brush on petroleum jelly. Just pop open a chap stick and rub it around your nail. All I had to do after three layers of sponging colors on was wash my hands in warm water. All of that extra polish came off without a single problem. Let me just say I was very impressed at how simple this method was.

So I love and hate this Mani to be honest. It looks like snow covered trees with tinsel on them to me at times, but others it looks like a complete mess. What are your thoughts?

Well happy polishing... My first real day of class time was today (last week was just orientation) and I already have homework. Yeesh! Don't want to get behind so I am going to get to work on it. Until next time.

Its Hello Kitty!

Thanksgiving was pretty boring for me... and the food wasn't all that great. I am used to my huge family gatherings with tons of great food. The affair I went to was bland, quick and then over before I felt like I had the chance to blink.

So during my boredom of waiting for said bland food to even be done, I painted my nails. I had brought my nail kit with me like I do every year. No one else wanted their nails done so I only did myself. Made me miss my sisters all the more.

This is OPI- DS Extravagance with Konad Pink stamped over. Faux-nad Hello kitty plate was used for the ring fingers and some plate I don't remember was used for the thumbs.

Hope you all are recovering from your black Friday escapades. I myself did not participate.

Happy Polishing!

50th Horde Member Giveaway- Winner

Hey guys, I have to say a HUGE thankyou for how many of you who entered my giveaway. I know it gained alot of new followers, and I do hope not all of my new followers vanish. Comment and let me know what I can do to help you out.

So after verifying over 200 entries and deleting a bunch of comments to protect your email addresses from spam, we have a winner! Congrats SayAnythingBrooke. An email has been sent your way. Please respond within 48 hours so I can get your package in the mail. In the event no response has been recieved I will have to pick another number at random.

Again thank you guys. Dont forget, I still have another fabulous package of gifts to giveaway for my Celebration Mani contest. Just submit your mani and the necessary info, which can be found HERE, to Jea.Lo.Ryder@gmail.com by Dec 4th.

As always, Happy Polishing!

Cupcakes on a rainy day

Yesterday it was pissing down rain pretty much all day long. I even had to stand in it for over an hour while working on my car. Not my idea of fun.. my poor curly hair turned into a huge puff ball Afro by the end of the day. Just eww. To cheer myself up and redeem my chipped and two peeling nails, I gave myself a Mani. I had been intending to do so all weekend, but alas life got in the way.

For this I used Milani- Hi Res and Bundle Monster plate BM14. Konad polish was used for the stamping but I honestly have no idea what the name of the polish is. It is a small sample bottle of blue that came with my Coraline set.

If you haven't already don't forget to send in your Celebration Mani's.Info can be found HERE. You still have plenty of time to be creative. And no need to feel like you couldn't possibly win because voting isn't going to be your typical affair. So please, even if you just do something simple, give it a try. You never know what could happen!

Ok time to finish getting ready for my first day of school. I have butterflies from hell right now. Gah. And in case you are wondering, I am starting an advance Esthetics's course.

Happy Polishing Loves!

Phat Santa's Accent

Today I did not feel like being all crazy and creative. So I did a simple Mani with China Glaze- Phat Santa and used China Glaze- Mrs Clause on my ring fingers as an accent nail.

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable week before thanksgiving. I know next week is going to be insane for me. I start school, have cooking to do, black Friday sales to attend and Christmas decorating. Busy busy! Well and of course nails to do... can never forget those.

Happy Polishing loves!

Holiday Temporary Tattoos

Around Halloween one of the many blogs I read featured nails done with temporary tattoos. I sadly cannot remember who's blog to point you to where I got this idea from, but I knew when I saw it that I wanted to try it.

I have been enjoying walking thru Christmas isles and buying a few new decorations the last few weeks. During my window shopping I stumbled upon stocking stuffers at wal-mart. Ten small boxes with a sheet of temporary tattoos in each seemed good enough for me. Gives me five full Mani's seeing how each sheet has five designs on it. I just had to have them when I saw them. I might toss a set in each of my winners boxes before I ship them out as well... still debating on this.

For a base I used Milani 3D Holographic in Cyberspace. The only thing I hate about the tattoos is that the white is so translucent you can't really see it at all unless your nose is almost pressed against my hand looking at them. On my Right hand my middle finger is supposed to be a polar bear but you cant really tell what the heck it is.

Putting these on was simple. I just cut the temporary tattoos into smaller nail sized shapes of the part of each design that I wanted, applied like you would for the skin, let air dry and sealed with a clear top coat.

Happy Polishing!

Contest: Give the Gift of... Nail Polish! My Entry

I entered a nail art contest over at Tara's blog HERE. Had a ton of fun doing this. As well I wanted to post this mani to hopefully inspire some entries for my celebration mani contest. So far no one has entered. *sad face*

Btw these images are click able... (well all of them are on my blog), but I uploaded these one specifically large so you can see the detail work I put into this mani. I am so happy with how they turned out.

Thumb to pinkie: Typical house with lights along the roof line, polar bear with scarf multi light yard decoration, tree with lights and presents, snowman all dressed up, north pole sign. Each nail has snow on the ground and a night time sky.

Check out all of the polish I had out while doing this. Yeesh! And yes I used every one of those colors.

If you want to check out all of the designs head over to Taras blog and vote for me or whomever you think did an awesome job. One entry per person and you must be a follower to vote.

My entry is based on all of the trips my family makes every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas out in the car to look at the lights.

Happy Polishing... Have more fun stuff to post later today. (I am up entirely waaay too late... darn sick kids.)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

So awhile back I won totally nailed it's first giveaway. I think I was one of her first readers, and was a bit tickled when I got an email from her letting me know I won. She is a sweetheart and going to school to be a nail tech. You guys should definitely check her out.

So what all I won:

• Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment - Strength
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Dianthus
• Sally Hansen HD Nail Color - Byte
• Sally Hansen HP Nail Color - LCD
• Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Rose Petals
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Petite Pink
• NYC Liquid Lip Color -Looking Gloss
• Pink Gerber daisy hair clip made by her
• Pink button earrings made by her (I really wish I could wear these... sadly my ears are gaged)
• Kiss brand nail art stickers

And she sent with all of that a really sweet card with a nice message inside apologizing for taking a bit to mail the package to me. I didn't mind at all that it took some time. I was just giddy that I won. I seldom win anything. I think the last thing I won was at my Senior all niter after graduation from high school. I won a check for $100, and that was almost 10 years ago (geesh that makes me feel old.)

If you recall the little fingers from my last post, yup this would be the package that Ian wanted ALL of the colors used from. He is too funny. I have myself a fashionista in the making I tell you what. Kid knows his colors, steps and will call you a bitch if you don't do things his way (and no I do not let him get away with such language, he picked it up watching TV... thus why we no longer have cable or a converter box.)

Well Happy Polishing Lovelies... I have chipmunks, erm.. children to attend to.

Snapping Out of It

As promised here are some nail photos of nails from the past week when I was MIA. And even a little boy hands shot. Ian again begged for polish and was granted his snazzy pink/blue combo.

First image here is China Glaze- Peace on Earth with China Glaze- Frosty. I used my new embossing tools to make this fun look. I think last Tuesday or Wednesday was the first frost of the year and I actually had to use a scraper on my car windows. Totally inspired my nail art.

Here we have China Glaze- Ruby Pumps stamped over with Konad special polish- White. I used Bundle Monster plate BM01 for the Image. I as usual failed to bother to clean up my cuticles before snapping my pictures. I think I just give up on the whole idea. If for some reason it bothers someone that much they can find another blog to read.

I must say this polish is a pain in the ass to photograph. It looks to bright red no matter what lighting I tried to use. Seriously its soo much more dimensional with lots of glittery goodness. I honestly think its just my crap-era... I mean camera. I keep checking out new ones but have decided to hold off until after Christmas. My kids just come first.

And last this is my sons little fingers. He was excited about a giveaway package that arrived in the mail and wanted me to paint each of his nails a different color. He already had on light blue polish though so I just painted over the blue. I have a post for tomorrow about the fun box of goodies I received and from whom.

This is all for today.
Don't forget that I still have my first giveaway going and nail art contest to boot!
Happy Polishing. :)

Celebration Mani Contest

Ok gals (and possibly guys) I know I have been MIA pretty much since Cinder passed but I am forcing myself to get out of the blue fog of depression I have been in, and follow thru with some posting. I have been diligent this past week with photographing my nails and other things, but not posting a thing. Just reading blogs and books. So, as promised I have a fun contest for the holidays. If you entered my first giveaway and emailed me your Mani already you will get an additional 10 entries for my giveaway.

So its the holiday season and everyone is having parties, decorating and enjoying the company of friends and family. This is the time of year for people to celebrate. So I want to see some fun Celebration Mani's! They can be related to anything from thanksgiving to Christmas, new years to Kwanzaa and anything in between. This gives you guys some wide room to be creative and show some passion.

So rules:

• One Celebration Mani per person.
• Anything goes as long as it is on the nail. So no skin painting etc. Just fun nail art. Stamping, freehand, stickers, decals, gems, found small objects... if you can get it on your nail and it fits the bill of a CELEBRATION then go for it. I will use my own judgment on this and notify anyone whom I feel needs to re-submit an entry.
• All nails must have nail polish incorporated into the design somehow! Art is great but since I am a polish fanatic lets see some polish!
• You must list all polishes used. You don't have to list top and base coats, but polish names and brands are important.
• I want a short one paragraph story/ explanation of your Mani. Let us know what your thinking was behind your creation.
• In your email I need your blog URL and GFC (google friend connect) name.
• Have fun!!!

Entries need to be received by Dec 4th at 11:59pm. Email entries to Jea.Lo.Ryder@gmail.com

I will post a blog within 48 hours of the end of the entry deadline and voting will commence for one week. No entries are to be posted anywhere until my post has been made. If I see your Mani is posted before I put it up for voting, you will be disqualified.

So now for the fun part. What you can win!

• Two sheets of nail decals: Letters and flowers
• A set of pedi toe separators by Mrs.Manicure
• A stuffed Reindeer
• A small bottle of Ulta Citrus Cream body wash
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Deep Purple
• Milani- Enchantment
• Sinful Colors- Nail Junkie
• China Glaze- Robotika
• China Glaze- Sci-fi

Good luck all and as always... Happy Polishing! (I have nails to show you tomorrow!)

Disclosure: All items for this contest were purchased by me.

50th Horde member Giveaway!

Ok everybody. What did you all do? I haven't been really paying attention to my followers number because I logged on a few days ago only to realize I now have over 50 followers. Errrmmm... when did this happen? Last I remember I had somewhere around 30ish. So to thank you for showing interest in my blog and all of the amazing comments I have been getting I am going to host a giveaway.

First item is something I bought for myself the other day. Its a set of embossing tools. If you have no idea what the heck an embossing tool is then let me just say they are pretty much "dotting" tools but are used in scrap booking. The set I have here is three different tools. Two of the tools are double ended and one is single. Each end on these is a different size ball which makes them perfect for doing freehand nail art. When I bought my embossing tools and some paintbrushes I received a coupon for 40% one item in the store. So I saved that coupon and used it to get these for my lucky winner.

Next is a small bottle of my favorite body wash. Coconut Lime by Ulta. I love this scent soo much. Its the perfect wake me up scent for morning.

And what polish blog giveaway would be complete without some polishes? In no particular order Cover Girl-Disco Dazzle, Cover Girl- City Lights, Orly- Mirror Mirror, Sinful Colors- Irish Green, China Glaze- Flip Flop Fantasy, Sally Hansen- Champagne Toast.

I will more than likely pick up a few more things as a surprise... or perhaps I have already. ;)

So here are the rules-
One entry per person. Any duplicate entries will disqualify you.

For one entry- give me your google friend connect name and email address so I can contact you if your drawn. I will be checking to see if you are on my friends list!

For ten additional entries- Email me your "celebration" Mani at Jea.lo.Ryder@gmail.com. Its the holidays and everyone is going to be throwing/going to parties for various events. So be creative! For more info go HERE.
For one additional entry- post about my contest in some format (blog post, sidebar, giveaway page, etc.) and give me the link to your post. (include the first image from this post with your posting and get two additional entries for a total of three.)

• Please note that if you do email me a "celebration" Mani, you will have an opportunity to win another contest on top of getting additional entries into the giveaway. Details will be posted soon.

This giveaway ends Nov 23rd at 11:59pm EST.

So.. Happy Polishing! And remember ONE comment per person on this post. I am going to be a stickler on this, so double check before you hit send.

Update: OMG.. where is my post??? No worries guys. To protect your email addresses I have put your info into a spread sheet on my computer and deleted your comments. Just looking out for you all.

CLOSED: Thank you for over 200 entries. All of them are being verified and a winner will be announced ASAP!

RIP Cinderella

Sorry, I have not been in the mood to blog. I had set up a bunch of posts, but I was dealing with a very sick cat and have been in tears on and off all week. I posted a few things trying to be cheerful and ignore my emotions but dealing with a sick pet is the worst. Yesterday, Halloween of all days, she got really bad. We knew she wast going to make it much longer. Her breathing had become labored and all she seemed to want was someone to hold her. We took the kids trick-or-treating anyway but came home to find that she hadn't moved at all during the 5 hours we were away. She had gotten to the point that she couldn't walk anymore.

I was awoken around 5am by my Lady Verve yowling at me. I went into my sons room and found her crying in a really quiet voice. She had somehow dragged herself under my youngest sons bed. I pulled her out and held her until 6:30am when she finally passed. Right now I am a bit heart broken. She was only a little over a year old. She passed away wrapped up in a blanket just how I used to hold her when she was a tiny little thing of a kitten.

I do have some posts I want to put up, like a giveaway and some Mani's but at the moment I just don't have the heart. Even knowing she was doomed a week ago when we found out she had lead poisoning didn't prepare me for how blah I feel right now. I promise I will be back, and maybe if I'm feeling better later today I will post the giveaway post I have saved in my drafts. At the moment I just need some time to collect myself. We still have to bury her which I fear is going to bring on more tears.

Thank for understanding. Happy Polishing!