SO I have been MIA lately because of everything starting back up for the school year. The kids start school Tuesday and Wednesday, but the sports have already started o.O FUN! I love it but it leaves me much less time to mess around on the computer.........
ANYWAYS we took the kids to a White Sox game on Wednesday (8/17/11) and you all know I am WAY too huge of a fan of theming your nails :D SO here are my Sox nails at the Sox game! <3
Please ignore the fact that I chipped one of them............I cleaned out the car before we left and of course I had to chip on UGH!
THEN yesterday I went to my FAVORITE little 1 year old boy's birthday party and what is a party with out CUPCAKES!! <3 YUMM! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE CARSON!! <3
I finally decided to put more effort into learning how to use my French Tip Dip. I won a French Tip Dip kit a while back from their facebook page here! I was intrigued by the idea of it to begin with so when I won it I was OVER THE TOP excited. When I got it I tried it right off the bat but it is a learned trait. I kept half scraping off the polish as I tried LOL. I gave up too soon. I decided yesterday I was going to try it again :D This time I used a lighter touch with it and it worked almost perfectly!! I figure a few more times and I will be able to use it super quick and easy *love*
So I am not a huge fan of the traditional french mani. I have done them in the past when I would get gel nails. But that was when I wasn't dedicated to keeping my nails painted. I would do that so I could at least have nice nails without the effort. BUT I see no point in that right now LOL. BUT I still love me some funky frenchie manis!! *LOVE LOVE*
FIRST here is what a French Tip Dip looks like:
and my mani *First Class Frenchie* I tipped it with China Glaze First Class Ticket, then covered the whole nail with Essie Kisses & Bises, then used a silver and black striper to add details. I am in LOVE with it right now actually :D
I recently got some polishes from a close friend of mine and one of them was a GORGEOUS blue...........obviously called Magic. In the bottle it has this fabulous pinkish flecking throughout the whole thing. The ONLY issue is it doesn't translate as well on the nail. You can still see it a bit but only from certain angles, in certain lighting :/ in fact even the bit you CAN see is dang near impossible to get on camera..........even IN the bottle. It is a very awesome color I just couldn't capture just how awesome it is in any of my pictures. With that being said here is what I DID get...........
and here in dim lighting was the only way I could ALMOST catch the pinkish flaking in the bottle......
It's definitely a great color to have. It will be TOTALLY awesome for the Bears season................once I find a great orange glitter :D
Okay so recently Sally Hansen released their new fall 2011 line of Insta Dry polishes. Well when I saw the swatches on my girl Kristin's blog, Manicured Monkey I fell in love instantly with Teal-y fast, most teals I own are more green and this one is definitely more blue. SOOOOOOOOOOo pretty. Now there ARE a couple more from this line I think I will invest in, but Teal-y Fast was my instant love. I was actually extremely surprised I found it so soon after it came out considering the area I live in seems to get everything 2 months AFTER everyone else already has it. BOO TO THAT!! So I about jumped up and down when I saw it at Walgreens. Hahahaha I think a lot of people don't understand Sally Hansen, yes it is a drug store brand but a definite high quality one at that. I got hooked on polish because of Sally Hansen Xtreme wear polishes and I would wear my mani for a full week in the beginning. SO in my opinion because it is a drug store brand it is given a bad name. BUT I love my Sally Hansen's about as much as I love my OPI and Zoya polishes and that's saying something!! Now the thing with Insta Dry polishes is they have this wide flat contoured brush and it is just slightly too wide for my fingers. BUT the contoured tip is PERFECT and I wish all polishes would do that, it makes it a bit easier. I just wish it was slightly skinnier for my skinny nail beds. With that being said MOST people really like their brush and have no issues, I just have skinny nails *giggles* (at least SOMETHING on me is skinny right!!? *laughs hysterically*) ANYWAYS..........
I give you "Totally Blue-tiful" (I added one coat of Kleancolor Silver Star on my ring fingers....still not sure I like that part BUT o'well! It kind of looks like the stars have bubbles in the picture but they don't. I think it has something to do with the little glitters in it and the sun shining off the top coat LOL)
Well the other day I got 2 gorgeous Glitter Gal Polishes in the mail from a polish loving friend of mine in Australia, Ms Sarah McAWESOME!! LOL Glitter Gal IS and Aussie brand and harder to come by in the states unless you know someone or want to pay outlandish shipping fees. With that being said, I was SOOOOOOOOOO excited to get these. they come in these OOBER cute tiny bottles and are linear holos. I just want to live in a sea of their beautiness!!
The first one I wanted to try was the Red one, I have never seen a red holo in person before so I was jumping out of my skin.........
I really wish these pics would show the holo goodness a bit more because I have AWESOME rainbows on my fingers!!
*sad note* I broke a nail doing hubby's job last weekend so I finally had to shorten my nails back so they are shorter now...........boo. Life happens, I will have to grow them back out. They were finally getting about the length I wanted to keep them too LOL
A pic of both of the Glitter Gal polishes Sarah sent me :D
THANK YOU SARAH, for sending me such AWESOME polishes YOU SO TOTALLY ROCK!!
Today's mani post is a SUPER OOBER SMOOPER DUPER one :D See IF you are a nail polish girl LIKE ME, you know that holo polishes are like the holy grail of nail polish.......high coveted and sought after. Especially linear holographic polishes. What is a linear holographic polish you ask. Well firstly a holo (or holographic polish) is one that shines like a rainbow in the sunlight. There are two types one that is scattered or has specks of holo graphic glitter in the polish, so it shines rainbow in the sun but speckled not in a line. Linear holographic is a polish that's holo particles are so small it makes the whole nail look holographic and it shines like a rainbow in lines down the nail.
Well I was lucky enough to get a few polishes from the China Glaze OMG line in a swap from my friend Kate :D (THANK YOU KATE!!) The China Glaze OMG line was from a few years back and is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO hard to find, so I feel SO blessed to have been able to get these. Kate so TOTALLY made my year with the 3 she sent me!! *love*
My pictures do NOT do it justice and this looks WAY better in person :D This polish is called "LOL"
I give you........ "Giggle"fest
(and as usual YES it's mess NO I don't care......PLUS ignore the pink on my thumb......that's what I get for painting my girls' toes pink right before I paint my fingers LOL HAHA)
and in the shade to see the color of the polish, it is a nice medium purple:
Thank you SO much for reading my mani post today!! :D
SO today is paint your toes pink to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness!!
I am not normally a fan of feet pictures..........I don't like feet AT ALL *giggles* BUT it is for a good cause :D Take some time out to visit the Susan G Komen website and learn more about Breast Cancer Awareness and while you are there, please make a donation :D even $5 will help the cause!!
If you would like to join us and paint your toes pink today visit the Facebook event page for Pink Toes 4 Breast Cancer Day and join in the fun!!
So we decided to take this one step further and my two girls and I all painted our toes pink today!! So I give you "A Family of Pink Toes"
See Kristin found one of the OPI Texas Jellies I wanted and is sending it to me and Tammy sent me this GLORIOUS swap box full of Kleancolors (including Chunky Silver) so I decided I would take a jelly polish I already have (OPI Too Hot Pink To Hold Em) and use KC Chunky silver that Tammy got me, to make a jelly sandwich mani! A jelly sandwich mani is where you sandwich a layer of glitter between layers of jelly polish. :D SO I give you......... "Glitterwiches"
*and AS ALWAYS.....yes it's messy.........no I don't care" clean up happens later LOL
Two coats of OPI Too Hot Pink to Hold Em:
One Coat of Kleancolor Chunky Silver:
Finished product with 1 more coat of OPI Too Hot Pink to Hold Em and a top coat :D
Okay so I saw a post in a group I belong to where a girl used the needle drag technique to make this FABULOUS mani, WELL I decided I needed to try that right away but I wanted mine to be a tad different. (To see the other girl's mani and the video I watched to "get" it, stay tuned to the bottom of this post!!)
The colors I used: China Glaze Black Diamond Claire's Grasshopper Finger Paints Dahlia My Number Funky Fingers Kingston
The idea is to paint stripes and drag a pin through it to cause a streaking effect. LOVE!! Of course I figure with more practice I will get better :D
The pics I took are NOT the best but the sun wasn't the best that day.........
The post of the blogger who inspired me to do this mani, her's is DEFINITELY gorgeous and different than mine. I wanted mine to look more stripy.......of course I will eventually do one more like hers to look like a traditional tie dye :D
Here is the video I watched to learn the needle drag technique:
Okay so I have been bad and not posting my pics for a week......... *woops*
A week or so ago someone in a group I belong to started talking about how many yellows we each owned. Yellow is deffinately a color I wish I had more of............
SO that convo spawned this mani.........ladies and gentlemen I give you:
Far Out in the Sand.......man! (and yes..it's messy......no I don't care, it was still wet when I took these pics!)
2 coats of Funky Fingers Cayman Island.....which smells like bananas!! This is pretty sheer BUT I actually LOVE it!!! <3
Sun:
Shade:
Finger Paints Psychedelic Sunshine (2 coats) over top of FF Cayman Island without a top coat:
With top coat: Sun:
Shade:
and just for kicks this is ALL the yellow I own (out of 280) .........and one is a striper! I NEED more yellow in my life!!
Thanks for checking out my blog and look for another post of my current mani later today!!
SO over this past weekend my good friend Tisha came and gave me 5 new nail polishes BECAUSE SHE ROCKS!!! She gave me 5 different Avon Mirror Shines, which I had mentioned that I wanted to try *excited* These are my FIRST Avon polishes!!
Well you KNOW I couldn't pick which one to try first LOL.......
SO Mirror Shine skittles baby!! I give you "Mirror Madness"
AGAIN I didn't clean up before taking pics.......in fact I slapped this polish on right before having to leave for all five of my kids' dentist appointments so I was afraid that I would ruin it before I came back.....so they weren't even dry in these pics! LOL
Avon Mirror Shine - Pink Ice, 2 coats
Avon Mirror Shine - Glisten, 1 coat!!!! Opaque in ONE coat! <3
Avon Mirror Shine - Blaze, 1 coat!!!! Opaque in ONE coat! <3
Avon Mirror Shine - Peach Ice, 2 coats
Avon Mirror Shine - Polish, 1 coat!!!! Opaque in ONE coat! <3
SO needless to say I am pleasantly suprized by the application and quality of this polish. I have had this on for 2 days and the only spot that chipped was where I had broken my nail, all the other fingers are PERFECT still! <3 SO if you have the ability to get your hands on these, I would say blaze, glisten and polish are MUST HAVES.
I bring to you today a tribute to all of those who have been affected by a drunk driver. Any and ALL of these stories could have been changed by the simple act of calling someone or asking for help. We are adults and we should know better than to get in the car and drive after you have been drinking too much. Always know who your designated driver is and know your limits. If you are going to be out and have to drive home, stop drinking well before you will be leaving and don't leave until you have given enough time for it to wear off. Anything less is irresponsible! These stories have touched my heart and have even changed the way I will conduct myself as well. We all need to be more careful! You never know who's mommy or daddy, brother or sister, son or daughter you could harm if you make a bad decision.
My first story comes from a fellow polish addict, her story will be told through a video she created: *heart broken*
A mother passed away and a friend and sister lived through hell, because of some one's bad decisions
Next I bring you a story from a girlfriend of mine, Ms Tisha M: "Years ago, I had a couple of friends in college. They were both citizens who's parents immigrated form Pakistan. One was working 2 full time jobs to put the other (his younger brother) through college. One night a drunk in a pickup hit the younger brother head on. Hit him so hard that the pickup popped the hood and decapitated my friend. The car caught fire and by the time responders arrived all that was left was a burnt body. It was my first time in an Islamic Temple or to an Islamic funeral and it was gut wrenching that the family could only display a photograph. The older brother was inconsolable...."
:'( So young and taken too soon.....
Now we move on to a story from a mommy friend of mine Ms. Julie P: "When I was around 8, I think it was... or maybe it was 9? I lost a friend to a drunk driver. She had just turned 13. We used to take her and her older sister to church and youth group sometimes. It happened while I was in Idaho, visiting family. She was staying the night at a friend's house. The friend's mom got drunk and forced them (her, her friend and her friend's siblings) into the car. The drunk woman's children (3 of them, I think) were in the backseat. My friend was sitting in the front seat, but the seat belt was slashed. The drunk woman was driving over 100mph and flipped the car. She died instantly. Her children survived. My friend was in the hospital and was fighting for her life until she overheard a nurse talking about her condition and that the nurse didn't think she'd make it. She gave up after that. Her family had been trying to contact us, but we hadn't been home, as I said. I remember how I found out though... My sister wanted to take a walk with me and a few of my friends. She had gone into our apartment to ask permission while my friends and I waited outside the front door. Then my oldest sister came out and picked me up and I remember pushing away from her and yelling at her to put me down, but then she told me that my friend had been killed and I immediately stopped fighting her and began to cry. I cried and cried and cried. I think it was for an hour straight. My mom came home and I had just stopped crying. My face was all read, my eyes were puffy, I was blowing my nose. That's when she learned what had happened. My friend had been such an amazing, sweet person. I remember when we were in Idaho, my mom talking about how her grandpa had died when she was a kid and she said to me that she hoped I didn't have to experience anyone dying any time soon (up to that point, I hadn't). Then we came home to find out my friend had died while we were gone. I'll never forget her! I also remember driving to church one day in the car with her and she pointed up to the fluffy clouds and said she wondered if that was where God lived. I remember when I first heard she had died, remembering that moment and at least taking comfort in knowing that wherever Heaven is, she was there now with God. Even now, writing this, I'm tearing up. :'( "
I will forever think of all these precious souls lost too soon when I look up at the clouds, thanks for sharing Julie!
Next I have a story from an old high school friend of mine Dawn and this one was very recent and breaks my heart: "My cousin just got killed riding on a motorcycle with her bf who we believe was drunk! They left a wedding reception at 2am. Bf didn't see car and they hit making a turn. She flew off with no helmet. The Dr said she had not a single broken ...bone in her body. Her head took it all and it made her brain dead. The family was able to donate her organs which is helping them grieve. She was only in her 20's! Sad! We just laid her to rest today actually ;( "
WAY too young! *tears*
Now I bring you a story from my for lack of a better phrase *nephew in law* Will: "A close friend of mine that lived in Bolingbrook lost his wife one night after coming home from the bar...they were driving down Frontage Rd going towards the old neighborhood...Queenswood....and while they were arguing with each other she got mad and jumped out the van....she hit her head and died....then I think it was five years or so later when the same family still recovering from that and with dad being the parent ran his house the way he did...very relaxed like let there oldest son Kevin go out with friends and well they did a lot of drinking....and it was late...like two or three in the morning they were coming back to Kevin's house on Queenswood and a lot of us from the old neighborhood is guilty for doing this but is one of those long street with no side walks but there is six street lights on that street and they gunned the van that they were driving in and started counting but one of the lights were out and they were over 80 mph and at the end of the road and went right into a bi-level ranch house and killed Kevin and a couple of his other friends as well....all because they thought it would be fun...sorry for it being all jumbled up....but I was really close to these ppl and trying to make the story as short as possible....it was in the news...this happened back in 2000 or 2001....Alcohol destroys so much and has destroyed a lot of ppl that I know....it is really no good at all...I am really happy that I went sober years ago...and I thank Jesus that I didn't hurt anyone or my self like that when I was young and dumb...thank u for this post....c ya"
This post touches me because stuff like this happens all the time when you are young and haven't fully learned the real responsibilities you do as you grow older. It breaks my heart that this happened. :(
I also want to dedicate this to my SIL's cousin who also passed because of a drunk driver and my dear friend Diana's brother who passed away nine years ago this month from an accident as well but they are unsure if it was drinking or driving or not. RIP all you wonderful people who were taken from us too soon!! LOVE FROM HERE TO HEAVEN!!
And now.......my nails dedicated to everyone who have been affected by this issue. I painted them red to support MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Please take the time to check out their website here. If you have the funds please make a donation in the memory of all these missed loves. If not just take the time to make sure you don't drink and drive. Make sure YOU don't take away some one's loved ones with your decisions. We can all make a difference by consciously making the choice to not drive while intoxicated.
My nail: Claire's Poison Apple, with an accent finger of Funky Fingers Golden Coast and detailed with black striping. (ignore the tip wear I put another coat of top coat on then took a shower.....did some dishes scrubbed the stove........mopped the floor THEN took my pics LOL :/ )
and another random mani just because!! I would have done a post for this one but.......I took these crappy pics while I was doing it then proceeded to ruin half my nails right after I was done! LOL BOO to that! This is China Glaze Pelican Gray, then topped with Sally Hansen Night Lights (pic does NOT do it justice) then I added one finger of OPI red shatter for MADD.......
Thank you SO much for stopping by and taking the time to read my post!!
Until next time!
Love and Sparkles,
*Debby*
ADDED ON: I received a message today from my friend Diana about a friend of hers that has recently passed because of the actions of an irresponsible drunk driver, this was her message to me:
"So I know its over, but I too now have been affected by a drunk driver. My friend was riding his bicycle and a drunk driver hit him and took off left him in the street for 2 hours b4 a cop found his body. Thank goodness a neighbor called reported the damage on the guys car so they got the scumbag...heading to Decatur now to say goodbye to him. A great man R.I.P. Michael Wayne Wharton..sorry for depressing ya but I can't believe so soon after ur post my life would b affected by something like that :-( anyways woman have a great day"
Everyday we lose more and more wonderful and loved people to such a horrid preventable fate. Be responsible DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!
