Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope that you all had a lovely Sunday.  I don't think I've ever posted on a Sunday before.  It is a day of rest after all.  I always feel extra lazy on Sunday and my Husband always feels like cleaning and doing laundry and being responsible.

Lego Leprechaun! 4 leaf clover stamping!

Today is St. Patrick's Day and last night I saw people dressed in green going out for drinks.  I can't say that it is something that I've ever done, but whatever.  I never could understand the whole drinking heavily because you are Irish thing.  It seems kind of mean to Irish people if  North Americans celebrate one of their holidays by drinking.  It's not even about that! In Ireland they would probably just go to church and hang out with their families (It is a religious Holiday after all!). Here it seems more like celebrating stereotypes of Irish people : ( You can enjoy a pint of Irish stout like Guinness, but please be responsible!

St. Paddy's nails: green, Irish flag, gold and brown and cream to look like a pint of Guinness!

 

From R to L: Revlon Hot for Cocoa, the head of the stout was made with Joe Fresh Plaster, for the gold middle finger I used Sally Hansen Golden I and Color Club Gingerbread, for the flag I used Sally Hansen White Out, Rimmel Tequila Sunrise and Revlon Posh, for the emerald finger I used Sally Hansen Groovy Green topped with Love and Beauty Green Glitter (wow the amount of thought that went into that name!)

Bonus nail design I wore earlier in the week: Love and Beauty Bronze (gorgeous shimmery rose gold) and Orly Holla.  I wanted really obnoxious nails!

 Well I must get to bed.  I'm exhausted from the technical difficulties I had today (it took forever to post this because my photos weren't uploading). Also I start work tomorrow! Yay I'm employed again!  I guess some of the luck of the Irish rubbed off on me!
-A.C.

Ghosts of Christmases Past (Photo Glut)

Hello Finging Fiends! Happy New Year! Sorry that this is a month late lol. I hope all of your Holidays went well! Mine were ok... they could have been better, but I felt homesick, tired and uninspired.  The holidays were pretty rough for me because I am unemployed, but since I am creative I made jewelery and finished a painting for my oldest sister's birthday.  I was fired around this time last year and it sucked that I found myself unemployed 2 Christmases in a row.  There was a lot of moping and crying and me feeling sorry for myself. I guess it was naive of me to think that I would have found something by now, but 4 months is the longest I have ever been out of work and things are getting kind of grim.

I'm trying to stay productive and keep busy job hunting as well as keeping my spirits up.  I had some parties to go to before Christmas, so that felt good.  It was also my Hubs's birthday on December 22, so that was a pretty fun party.  I was kind of annoyed that I baked so much and nobody ate it! He loved his cake, but I was like "Is everyone on a diet... before Christmas?! Is my baking really bad? Am I the only one who likes sweets and is that why I look like Momma June whilst everyone is slimming down?".  It is stupid now that I see in writing what goes through my head when I feel anxious.  It feels good to get it out and laugh at my imbalanced brain.

I did some really great nail art over the holidays so I'm just going to post a photo glut, then once I am up to date I will post more often (ha ha let's see how long this Resolution lasts... hey shut up brain! I resolve to not fall for your negativity!). There will be many posts with just photos and less rambling because I am still new here.  I may make a second blog with more personal stuff : ) since I have so many photos to share and maybe you are not here for whinies, but here for the shinies.

I wanted my nails to look like a soft early morning snofall.  This design was pretty sweet and subtle.

Penny the tortie cat under the tree.

Some of my favourite decorations. Frog Flapper Lady and Frog Dapper Gentleman... and a mushroom.

The Angel looked lonely, so Jack Skellington Serenaded her.

Penny waiting for Santa.

Nothing says Christmas like a Pickle ornament! I lost the star on my Christmas tree nail art.

Paaaaaaarty!

Glitter and a Chikadee.

The oh-so-popular snowflake.

Cult Nails Flushed, Claire's Mystical and a Color Club's Wild at Heart.  My 3 current faves... it was like Christmas came early!

Penny sneaking into the background... or me intentionally putting her there because of her cuteness.

If you like any of the art, you can ask me in the comments what nail polish I used.  I didn't really feel like listing all the stuff I used.  I got a Helmer for Christmas (Yay! Thanks Hubs!) and I am currently re-organizing my collection.

Now How Did That Get Here?

I have been purchasing nail polish very slowly right now because I'm unemployed.  Its good because I'm wearing polishes that I never wore before.  I can only break the rules if I come into some extra cash like finding $40 bucks in my jeans... I suspect my mom put it there because I don't put anything in my back pockets. I don't think she gets that I'm supposed to compensate her for hemming my pants, but she may have felt bad for my broke ass. My hubby didn't know about the extra cash and he will not know about the new polishes because he doesn't read this blog... but when he does oh boy! Is this me technically coming clean about lying? Yes.

So starting today December 1st I am on a no-buy.  I got such good deals recently that I  don't want to jinx my good polish luck by buying duds.  I am an addict clearly, but when I see Color Club for $3-5 and it is Christmas stuff (well Christmas collections of years past and older stuff on clearance at Jessica Nail Supply on Orfus Road) there is no way I can pass that up! So this is a compilation of my most recent haul.  There is also some Claire's glitters because the Claire's at Fairview Mall must have found some old stock during the renovations.  They had their usual buy 2 get 1 free or whatever, but the one I picked was on sale for less than two bucks so I was encouraged to get another (damn that salesgirl twisted my rubber arm).

I also had to get Flushed by Cult Nails because Marta from Chit Chat Nails made me do it! Marta inspired me to start this blog and when I saw Flushed on her I had to have it.  See? Addicted. With addiction there also comes shame because I picked up this one from Essence:

Jacob's Protection from the Twilight Breaking Dawn collection.

Oh man I am never going to live this down, but it was such a deal! Only $2 and I was buying mascara anyway (Loreal Voluminous in Carbon Black, can't look alive without it). I'm so embarrassed to have purchased this because I'm not a Twi-hard at all.  I managed to choke down the first book and could go no further because it was so poorly written.  All computers have a thesaurus so I have determined that she hand wrote it or it was type written.  No wait! That is no excuse because you can buy one at the dollar store or go to your local library for writing help.  It was so bad that I couldn't bring myself to watch the movies.  I know it is geared towards teens, but how stupid does Stephanie Meyer think teens are?  Its insulting and Bella was the weakest character I have ever encountered. Hey my blog, my opinions : ). This probably won't gain me any pageviews, but if I can't say what is on my mind here then where can I?

Anyway back to pictures of shiny things!

Nail of the week: Love and Beauty Safari (the only one with a name!), stamped with plates BM07 and BM20 using Essie As Good As Gold.  This one is awesome for stamping!  I was dreaming of something baroque after looking at some Mary Katranzou  dresses.

From L to R: Cacee BFE Motion Dazzle (I have never heard of this stuff before but it is 3 free), Color Club Wild at Heart (a longtime Lemming thanks to Scrangie), Color Club Art of Seduction, Color Club Gingerbread

L to R all by Claire's: Marshmallow Dream (iridescent micro and hex glitter in a clear base, a dupe of China Glaze Make a Spectacle), Mystical (magenta and light blue microglitter), Ultraviolet (lilac circular glitter and hex holo pieces, a few silver squares for good measure), Pinata (mutlicoloured shards of gold, silver, magenta, blue green and red)

Closer shots... look at pinata! How fun!

Loving these two : )

My very first Cult Nails! I hope Santa brings me some of the Convert Packs. I really want 1, 3 and 4 as they aren't available individually.

 

 

So pretty! It reminds me of the paler cousin of Rimmel's Night before. 

How about those, huh? So pretty I can't wait to swatch!  I will be using my laptop for my blogging instead of just using it for TV (well that and the Wii... Netflix is pretty awesome and we don't have cable!).  My phone is not very good with closeups and as you can see I need better photos.  The desktop can't read the camera memory cards and the cords are long gone (maybe we never had them?). The laptops ports are still in good shape so hopefully my next posts will have better photos.  I mean my Nokia C6 is not terrible but it is not that great either. I will try and get my next post out ASAP because I have some electrical work to do around the house and I can't get bogged down in my job hunt.  Wish me luck!
-A.C.

Nuit Blanche 2012

Well this past weekend was Nuit Blanche (all night art exhibits around downtown Toronto) as well as one of my sisters' birthdays.  I made her a yummy cake but forgot her present so my sister of the year card did not get punched lol.  I really need to practice making frosting more because I know how I want my buttercream to taste but it is not quite there yet. If you have any tips please add them to the comments.  I am basically trying to make it less sweet and more creamy.

So after hanging out with my sister and her friends and having yummy dinner, the texts began to flood my phone (Can Adria come out to play?).  I ended up missing the bus (really I don't know how he didn't see me) and waited an hour for the next one.  I want to rant but I will save the TTC rant for another time. I finally met up with my friends and my Hubs and we went to find some art.  We didn't see many of the exhibits and were a bit disappointed with the lack of displays this year, but we had fun anyway! We drank Mulled Cider tea and I spiked mine with a bit of Whiskey.  Something about 40 Creek Whiskey and Cider... it just screams fall! Don't worry I don't drink to get drunk so I really enjoyed it :)  So after wandering around the financial district in search of art (the most concentrated area of exhibits).  We ended up on King St. at around 3:30 in the morning and I was starving! There was no way I was going to make it with that long lineup at Tim Hortons... I just wanted a bagel!

Stop motion film of different vegetables growing.  Very informative and relaxing :)

Can you guess what this is made from?

Frosting!

Humber Bay Exhibit... It was on the Humber Bay Bridge since this summer.

It looked like a weird sea creature.

It had colour changing LED's that you can control with an App.

Messages on floating blocks with Throwies inside.  Throwies are LEDs with a watch battery electrical taped to it.  I barely went to the bathroom all night because I was scared of lineups.

This one just looks cooler than it sounded.  It was a suspended electric guitar that was being raised and lowered with amplified feedback.  Worst mass ever... I didn't even receive communion!

Drunken Streetlamps near the Cloud Gardens.

This one was really cool: It was a drive through fun house with projections and a guide.  The line was crazy though!

There were guys with microphones attached to their sweater cuffs as they speed solved a Rubix Cube.

Space invaders! Apparently you could play along.

Thumb: Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, Color Club Smash Hit and Wet 'n Wild Silver Frost Index: Nina Ultra Pro Black, Revlon Silver Dollar, and Essie Set in Stones Middle: Whirlwind White, Love and Beauty "Cannonball", LA Girl Glitter Addict  Uninhibited, Sally Hansen Glass Slipper  Ring (sorry about the chips!): Color Club Worth the Risque, Claire's Holo Topcoat Pinkie: Nina Ultra Pro Black, Ardene Paris Nights (I'm holding a Kozik Smorkin' Labbit vinyl art toy in my left hand)

Thumb: Nina Ultra Pro Black with Claire's Silver Crackle  Index: Whirlwind White, Love and Beauty "Cannonball", Essie Set in Stones  Middle: Nina Black, Revlon Silver Dollar and OPI Servin' Up Sparkle  Ring (gradient): Sally Hansen Pewter, Ardene Hollywood Star and Sally Hansen Glitz Gal  Pinkie:Whirlwind White LA Girl Uninhibited and OPI Servin' up Sparkle (right hand)

I did some art inspired nails.  I chose to do black and white because that is the colour of all the Nuit Blanche billboards.  I wanted to capture the vibe so I also did some abstract stamping, but it looked so bad I should have just done a plastic wrap mani.  I could have called the whole thing a failure because it turned out so different from the original idea, but art is art and it was salvaged by GLITTER! I did each nail different because it is something I have never done before and it had a greater effect in the end. I wish I could have taken close up shots but my nails were jacked up! I promise I will do this again because it was so fun doing such an obnoxious mani :)

-A.C.