I won a MAJOR AWARD

Weeks ago, I entered Different Dimension's giveaway on Facebook, and mostly forgot about it. And then I WON. And then I gave her my mailing address and then I mostly forgot about THAT.

So a week later, I got my mail (as I've mentioned earlier, my mailbox is three blocks away and it's been really cold and I forget because mostly my mail only brings me pesky bills that I already pay online or grocery store flyers that I never use since I tend not to buy pre-packaged foods and that's all they have coupons for). But. Today, I got it.

OMG WOW. I thought I'd get a few more of DD's awesome colors, but no. She sent me 14. Seriously. FOURTEEN.

It's been below zero for days here, so I can't do any more than just look at them until tomorrow, since I'm pretty sure they won't mix well when they're so cold. But HOLEE CAMOLEE. (If that isn't a word, it should be.

Here's the list, so you may be jealous:

• ...more
• Bazinga
• Blame It On The Pain
• Ditz
• Gumdrops
• Hanna
• Imitation Is The Most Sincere Form of Flattery
• Rainbows & Butterflies
• Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
• Sign your 'X' On The Line
• Sparkles Like Edward
• That is SO Fetch!
• Think Of All The Fellas That I Haven't Kissed
• Work Hard, Play Harder

I already bought (and love!) Curiosity and Inner Goddess when I was stressing out while the election returns came in.

Anyway, get ready for a ton of fun (and hopefully not abominable!) looks with this huge amazing awesome haul. This is way better than a leg lamp from Italy.

Black and White - Crumpet Challenge day 1

Sometimes, I think I have to learn a lesson over and over and over again. We may see a lot more of that lesson this month, since I've chosen to join Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge.

Today, the theme is Black and White. I decided to try a dry marble french, as seen here. The lesson is: my photos stink. And I should look closely at them before removing a manicure, even if I have to do several in a day so that I can post them on time.

The ingredients are simple -- Sinful Colors' Black on Black plus Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On. The marbling wasn't bad, even. But I didn't remember to clean up, there's weird cotton ball schmutz hanging on the edge of my nails, and I can absolutely, positively do better. Way better.

Tomorrow, I'll try silver nails. Well, later tonight, but you'll see it tomorrow!

Santa Decals

As I said earlier, I actually did this manicure Monday, but didn't have time to post. But here's a super bonus Christmas picture of my younger daughter at church on Monday night:

And the manicure:

It's two coats of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me, with little Cina decals I got from Sally a few weeks ago and meant to use before now.

I also came up with a brilliant idea to deal with the OPI minis I have collected, but that will be another post.

I hope you had a lovely holiday! I hope to find another challenge group because I really enjoyed the stretching and creativity I got to both see and experience for myself.

Tinsel (plus, I'm melting!)

I finished both the 11th and 12th challenge on time, but didn't post since I was kinda booked with church and family and presents and children.

My tinsel mani was really cute when I finished it. A few hours later, my thumb paint seemed to buckle. Weird.

The base is a couple of coats of Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar, which is a really nice deep shimmery red. Then I put on a coat of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat. It didn't feel smooth enough, so I put a couple of coats of SV on top. I assume that's why it buckled on my thumb.

As always, pics aren't great. I liked the sparkleflashmess though, so I left it in.

Elf-like!

I ended up spending 7 hours doing various church-related things today, so I'm too tired to be terribly clever. Tomorrow morning I'll do the last two manicures, and I'll be done with the challenge. I'm going to miss having the inspiration and fellowship of my challengers. I hope I can join another challenge group soon!

I google imaged a lot of Christmas elf pictures, and the main cohesive theme I saw was their stripey green and white tights, so I did a base of NOPI Lights Kim-era Action, and striped Kleancolor Green Grass. I have craft scissors that are zig-zagged and so I masked off my tips and painted them red with OPI The Spy Who Loved Me (which I love, and should get a full-size of soon, because it's such an interesting red). The zig-zags don't show well - my craft scissors have a wider zig than I really envisioned, and real pinking shears might have worked better. I used my NYC Matte Me Crazy topcoat, and I really liked the effect.

Still, I had multiple compliments from total strangers, although not one could guess I was aiming for an elf theme. Ah, well.

Go see what my other challengers did!

Half Wreath Moonicure!

So the big lesson I have learned from this manicure is that it's dumb to remove it after taking pictures but before checking that the pictures are any good. It's a good lesson.

I used Finger Paints Sketch n Etch as a base, and covered it with Nailtini Millionaire, which I got in my ipsy haul last month. It looked kind of fuzzy and festive, like I think a wreath should look. I used my hole reinforcers (you know why they cut them in half in tutorials? It's not because they're cheap -- hole reinforcers cost about a half a penny apiece -- it's because they bend up if you use the whole thing. Now you know!) to make a moonicure, and painted over the whole thing in Sinful Colors' Black on Black. Which is still my favorite black, even if it's cheap. It covered glitter smoothly in one coat. Dang. After I pulled off the reinforcers, I freehanded some bows in Orly Monroe's Red. The whole result was cute as a button.

So I snapped a few pictures (light box will likely come after Christmas, if I ever have money ever again) and they looked okay on my phone, so I removed the polish. I wanted to get a head start on the weekend manicures -- I have six church services to attend or perform in between Sunday and Monday, plus wrapping gifts, plus making food, plus not going insane, so being a few days ahead seemed like a good idea.

Yay for lessons! Sorry the pictures stink. I'll figure it out someday, I swear.

In the meantime, go see what everyone else did! I bet they have better photos!

Abstractly Ornamental

My original plan (is it just me, or do most of my posts seem to start this way? Maybe it's just me) was to do one beautiful ornament on each nail and detail it and ... maybe that will work next year. My original manicure was a mess and I wanted to actually show a success for the first time in a few attempts, so I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:

I started with a couple of coats of white (I'm almost out! Time to try a new white!) and overlaid many, many (like....5 or 6 or 8 or 12....but probably 5) coats of OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air to have a glittery tree backdrop. I dotted on big dots of OPI Into the Night, Orly On the List and Monroe's Red, and Sally Girl Dumped. It looks like ornaments on a tree to me, and that's what counts, right? Right? :)

Also, when I was at Sally, I bought "acetone nail polish remover" instead of straight acetone, and while it smells pretty good, it doesn't work as well for cleaning up around my cuticles. I think I have to go back to acetone, at least for clean-up.

My fellow challengers did beautiful things! Go look!