Inspired by Akimbo nail art and happy birthday to mee =3

I love when bloggers do a spotlight on artisans with cool jewelry a la XOXO Alexis Leigh. This time it wasn't her though, it was Steph Lau at Fun Size Beauty (who shares my opinion that full size nail polish is impossible to finish and mini's are all we need). She did an awesome spotlight on Akimbo, an etsy shop run by California sisters Jenny and Kim. They collaborated to even sweeten the deal with a little giveaway for almost any one item from their shop... and I won :D:D:D This was an excellent thing for me because as soon as I looked at their gorgeous pieces, I wishlisted the meteorite ring and fully intended to spend my ever dwindling cashmoneys on it. When I found out I won I was ecstatic!

I eagerly awaited its arrival and it made it just in time for my birthday! Lucky meeee <3

 So, like I said, I got inspired! I used a sponging technique and a million colours (okay, like five: Revlon Strawberry Electric, Pure Ice Blue Midnight, China Glaze Running in Circles, Orly Rockin' Rockette, Nyx Techno) all over China Glaze Cast a Spell.

(Instead of bombarding you with a scroll of photos of my step-by-step I made a picmonkey collage.)

To further match the ring, and distinguish these from galaxy nails (though near-sheer metallics appear to be an AMAZING way to accomplish those), I freehanded two double lines using my dotting tool and KleanColor Gold Bright. I cleared up the terrible mistakes while it was still wet by running a mechanical pencil along the edges. It worked pretty well. One day I will have a real nail art brush. One day...

And another collage with their pretty business card <3

And then just some snaps from the sunshine...

Omg, do you love it as much as I do? I may have to use these specific colours again for actual galaxy nails :3

What do you think? Do you have any tips for getting precise lines? Wish me happy birthday? ^___^

PS: I really wish I could do a giveaway for you guys for my birthday but I'm so low on funds I'd never be able to ship the prizes in a timely manner. The second I get a job, there will be a celebratory giveaway so send me your tips and tricks if you've got any ;P

[Akimbo Handmade Jewelry is on both Etsy and Facebook - go say hi and tell them I sent you!]

Etsy Shop: CreativeUrges

Ever since Alexis Leigh did her review on an Etsy shop she purchased from, I wanted to do it too! I've loved almost every purchase I've made from Etsy and I know that some of you will be happy to discover things to save toward (that aren't nail polish).

One of my biggest woes in life is my inability to wear jewelry. I'm allergic to everything. EVERYTHING. If it's not gold, I'm not wearing it. I break out in an itchy, red, ugly rash and it's bad times all around. These long nails do some damage! I tape up the inside of my pants because the back of jean buttons irritate my skin too =( (Hockey tape is a LIFESAVER - if any of you need to tape something like jeans, use this because it stays stuck even in after a wash or twenty.)

Anyway, my point is that I'm limited to woven hemp and rubber bracelets, and I've never had a hope of owning a watch that I can wear....

Until...

My boyfriend's wonderful brother got me this for Christmas, and if it isn't one of the prettiest things I own, I don't know what else there is! I really love it and I've worn it a lot. It fits perfectly for me (she asks for your size) and the design along the leather is really cute.

 And here's what I did on the back to make it wearable (all hail the hockey tape)...

The best thing about this is that she makes quite a few, and they're designed for women. Most cuff-watches are geared towards men, believe me...

Anyway, here's the link to get your own, or at least take a look!

What do you think? Is it your kinda thing?

Dragons!

To keep me company on that 3 week trip far far away (to Istanbul etc), my boy-toy sent me pictures =) This little dragon was his birthday present from me. I got him from the insanely popular Dragons and Beasties on Etsy.

These are all the photos he sent me, along with the caption they came with. Enjoy <3! (Sorry for the filler)

"Don't worry, I brought back up"

“I conquered them all.”

"Come, my minions..."

“I tried to play too but I couldn’t move the cubes onto the buttons.”

"Get me out of here, these guys are quackers!"

“It's still cold without you, even with the furnace on.”

“Yay treasure!”

"I found a dry spot in this downpour!"

"Shh! I'm a trap!"

"I feel like such a third wheel..."

“This hamster is very large. I’m scared...”

“This spot is considerably wetter then the last one”

"I made a friend!"

“Yay adventures”

Swatch: AquaDaisy Me Too

I want to tell you how I feel about this polish with a quote.

“Tiffany knew what the problem was immediately. She'd seen it before, at
birthday parties. Her brother was suffering from tragic sweet
deprivation. Yes, he was surrounded by sweets. But the moment he took any
sweet at all, said his sugar-addled brain, that meant he was not taking
all the rest. And there were so many sweets he'd never be able to eat
them all. It was too much to cope with. The only solution was to burst
into tears.” ― Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30)

I want to put this on everything so hard that when it comes to making a decision on what base colour to use I am paralyzed by indecision.

The solution? Skittles! Rainbow ombre! Ten different colours! WEE.

From black....

To white =D

Essence Black is Back, Joe Mocha, Essence Passion for Fashion, Essence Let's Get Lost, Julep Leah

Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine, Essence Wake Up, Julep January, WetnWild 454D, Ulta Snow White

 The crowning glory: AquaDaisy Me Too!

Zomg bars

Squeeee!!!

I'm all set for the Pride Parade today =D The application was awesome. I didn't have to dig for glitter, though the bars are a little sparse, so if you specifically wanted something you'd probably have to go in for it. Now because my nail curved quite a bit, I had a tiny bit of trouble getting the bars to lay flat if they went straight across from one side to the other THROUGH NO FAULT OF THE POLISH. But yeah. This was fantastic. I am so happy. There will be sun pictures later, when I post about the parade =D

EDIT: I forgot to add the link to the shop! Get some at AquaDaisy on Etsy! =D

Omg guys, Canadian shipping!!

Oh man oh man, tomorrow The Polish Bar is doing UK, Canada and Australia shipping!!! Squee! The Manicurator did a swatch/review of a couple of them, and I always go check out the shops, and I'm completely glad I did this time. Indie polishers should definitely expand their shipping. Hopefully it's not too much so I can follow through on buying.
I wanna get 2 minis

Treasure Chest

Satellite

So hopefully shipping will end up like $2 or $3 and I can get 2 indie minis for about $12. That's not THAT bad. =)

ASBMF#10 Butterflies!

Hi! Today I learned my Julep Ashley was one of those from last month that came with a wonky brush! HURRAH! I e-mailed Julep and expect a response soon =) I just wish I'd known earlier so they'd have the chance to pack it with my last order.

Any-hoo, this item on the challenge list was butterflies, and I was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it (cremes with Julep Melissa layered over it and then the monarch wing design, metallics, what?) when my boyfriend suggested I do it like my butterfly wings!

He got them for me for Christmas from mybugs on Etsy

Have you realized how much I love etsy?

So I decided to give this a shot! It was a great idea after all!

So here we are after the initial coat of Ashley and the addition of the green (Sally Hansen Ivy League), the red (Essence Glamorous Life) and the blue dot (Essence Let's Get Lost) which you can barely see on the wings themselves between the red and green. I also added some Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine (which I got today) on the outer edge.

(caption: So far so good right?)

Now here's where the trouble began. I whipped out the LA Color Art Deco black and started dotting and striping all over the place, on the right hand first (because I'm left handed).

This is where it all went wrong...

Better Blackberry picture

On the plus side, it was a learning experience, and I think my left hand turned out better, even though I was drawing with my non-dominant hand.

I used less black lines.

Still a better picture with the Blackberry.

I'm really sorry for the blurry pictures... Now you know why I use my blackberry. My camera doesn't deal with nail pictures very well (or I don't, because I don't like cropping and doing work on the pictures before posting them lol).

Here's my thumbs!

Bleh, thumbs (a combo of two pictures, my hands are chirally symmetric dammit)

What do you think? Close enough? I... don't know how to feel about these. They are a nail art fail on one hand, but on the other hand, they do look like the wings (hahahahaha puns *shot*).

Okay so, I think they're really nice, but not on their own. They need me to be wearing the earrings or something, which makes them a little bit fail. However, Branden's mom for one, loved them, and they are colourful, which means I love them. Branden will probably like them too so I'm gonna mark it off and do the next challenge. I'll do monarch wing patterns some other time.

OH! If you were wondering, those are the wings of a sunset moth (Urania ripheus) and I fully intend to buy the necklace one day soon!

In the meantime, this firefox necklace from fusedelegance!

Dressing up with these is going to be fun! =D