Monster's University! :D

One of my all time favorite movies has to be Pixar's Monster's Inc. I went and saw it for the first time for my 11th Birthday party way back in 2001 and always enjoy re-watching it. It's so incredibly clever, funny and just plain stunning to watch (those animations are spectacular!). To say I was excited about the prequel to Mike and Sulley's story was an understatement. I forced Bryce to tell me that he was also, in fact, just as excited as I was about the coming movie, though I knew he's really a Toy Story kid at heart ;) 

For those who don't know, the two main characters in the movie are Mike Wazowski, a green, short and round, one-eyed monster, and James P. Sullivan (aka "Sulley"), a big blue and purple spotted fluffy monsters. I love them both. Here they are in the latest movie. 

Well, the Monster's Inc. tradition is about to come full circle! A friend of mine's daughter turns 11 today...and guess what movie we're all going to see to celebrate?!? Yup, Monster's University! I knew I couldn't go see this prequel until I had matching Monster's Inc. nails to go with me, so I made sure to show my MU pride before heading out.

Nail art funk? No problem! Paint flowers!

I have been seriously failing at keeping up my posts lately! Ahh! For whatever reason, I've been in a bit of a funk when it came to my nail art the past few weeks. I've been stressed and busy and this past weekend I literally just read...and it was so fabulous! I forgot how much I miss reading and I am definitely going to have to make it more of a priority :)

I decided to do some funky rose like flowers to get me out of my funk and I really love how they turned out. I think it was just the thing to get my creative juices flowing again so hopefully I'll be posting regularly again soon!

This color palette is a little different but I think it still works. I used a ton of color and my medium length striping brush...which one of these days I'll have to actually take a picture of for reference. Also, I apologize in advance, this is a picture heavy post. Also, also, don't mind the sad paper cut on my middle finger ;)

Sunglow Stripes

Yeesh, I have been such a bad blogger lately! Why aren't you all admonishing me and telling me to step my game up?? ;) I finally have something new to share with you all...but I'm not overly in love with it. I'm such a tease, I'm sorry! D: I hope this weekend inspiration will smack me in the face and ask what the heck I've been doing this week. 

I actually really really love the color palette, but I defiantly failed when it came to the execution of these. They're a bit...Easter-y? I think I need to revisit these colors together in a different pattern though. My inspiration was an Anthropologie dress called the Sunglow Stripes Dress and oh my giddy gumdrops, I wish I had a spare $268 to throw at this dress. I seriously love it. And need it. Like last week. 

Southwest Inspired Mani Monday Tutorial for Lulu*s!

Happy Monday, Everyone! Wanted to share my latest Manicure Monday tutorial for the Lulu*s Blog! This was a Southwest inspired look and I seriously fell in love with how they turned out. If you have a nail art brush, these will be an easy look to recreate. Be sure to check out the tutorial! :)

Father's Day Memories

Hello, all! It's Father's Day here in the States and when thinking about something I could do to represent my own awesome Father, I landed on all of the great memories that he has helped create and been apart of. 

I've been so incredibly lucky with my family life. Growing up, my Dad always made time to take my sister and I to soccer practice, doctor's appointments, and friend's houses. He has always been there for us and is so supportive of all of our endeavors. He is without a doubt one of the kindest, most understanding and generous men out there and I am so proud to be his daughter. 

So, I decided to paint some of my favorite memories and representations of my Dad:

- I played soccer growing up and he was often a coach and always a cheerleader. 

- My love of camping started at a young age when my parents took 6 month old me camping in Yosemite...and I've been hooked ever since ;) Our family camping trips could never run as smooth as they do without my Dad. He's the Superman of camping. 

- Our family has a ski boat and every summer we would spend the weekends out at our local lake. We loved to go inner-tubing, wakeboarding and kneeboarding, and my Dad was always at the helm of the boat. He always knew just how to make my sister's and my inner-tubing the most frightening and fun experience but managed to give us confidence to pop up on a wakeboard when we decided to give that a go instead. 

So, here those are, represented in nail art format! 

Moroccan Quatrefoil

My passion for nail art has also stirred in me a passion for patterns and fabrics. I now see patterns as something I can potentially recreate or be inspired by and I'm really enjoying that aspect of this nail art experience. 

To the embarrassment of my boyfriend, if I find a pattern somewhere - be it a table cloth, t-shirt or pillow case - I will snap a quick picture of it so I don't forget that I fell in love with it. Then when I get home I often fruitlessly search the internet for a general name of said pattern. Today's search informed me that the pattern I have been wanting to recreate is called Moroccan Quatrefoil. 

One of the very first manis I did that I really truly loved was a tape mani with this pattern. I painstakingly cut painter's tape to create a template I could paint over. Looking back, I can't believe I decided to stick with nail art after how frustrating that process was, but I LOVED how they turned out and was so proud of what I had managed to create. This was before I had figured out how to use my brushes so the idea of hand painting this pattern seemed absolutely absurd to me. Since then I've been wanting to do something else that was inspired by this classic pattern. 

Most quatrefoil patterns that you see create interest by repeating the shape seamlessly over and over. I had originally planned on doing this with my nails, but discovered that that was going to be more frustrating than the original taped one. So I opted for my own version.  

30 Day Flower Challenge - Allium

Awhile back on my Facebook page I shared a 30 Day Flower Nail Art Challenge that was going on every day through May and I was so so excited to partake in it...because flowers are my favorite! But, life got in the way as well as other challenges and suddenly it was June and I had done absolutely ZERO manicures for the challenge. I was so bummed out because I really loved the idea of this challenge. But the lovely ladies that put on the challenge (datyorLOVES and Delight in Nails) decided to extend the challenge (and accompanying inlinkz codes!) for a whole year. 

So, I decided to quite slacking and go for it! I'm going to try and complete the challenge but who knows how long it will take me. 

Wondrously Polish X Lulu*s tutorial...a little after the fact ;)

So I'm not sure how I managed to forget to share this here, but I did another tutorial for the Lulu*s Blog! I got to do a matching mani to a SUPER cute purse that I am just so in love with :) You can see the full post and tutorial over on their blog, but here are some teaser photos! 

Cartoony Ocean

Super quick post for you all today! I've got to get some work done around the house but I wanted to get the latest theme of the June Nail Art Challenge completed. Today's theme is Ocean! At first I was a little bit irked that this was the next theme, but then I decided I was going to take it as cutesy and fun as I possibly could. I ended up literally typing "cute ocean scene" and used the very first google image that popped up as my inspiration :) 

While I really loved the concept of these, I think my execution is lacking a bit. The black polish of the eyes and mouthes smeared slightly when I added a top coat, and I definitely need to practice getting the general shape of things (like fish, turtles, and whales ;) ) painted more accurately. 

I painted a similar background on all my nails before beginning, and then used my medium striper and my small detail brush to create the fish, whale, turtle and crab. I had originally left these shiny from my top coat, but I about lost my mind when I was trying to photograph the detail in these with that. The shine was creating so much glare and the whole thing just sucked! Because of this, I added a matte top coat and had much more success capturing these than before. 

Funky Floral

Yeee! Can I just say that I am so super duper uber excited about this mani!? I'm sure that by now you all know of my passion/love/obsession with floral looks (and hopefully you're not getting tired of them!) and this manicure is just making me so happy to look at! Prepare for photos!!

This didn't actually start out as well as I had originally hoped. I had done almost 4 nails of another floral look but was really hating it. Sometimes I will push through with a design and hope that once I'm finished and have added a top coat that I'll finally like it. But that didn't happen with my original look.  At all. So, I scratched what I was doing and plunged my painted fingers into my super awkward acetone tub from Target (I mean, it's pink and has weird bristles and is just...weird...but works wonders!) and started fresh. And I'm so happy that I did! 

I ended up with these super funky flowers and am just so freaking happy with out they turned out. I was roughly inspired by a pattern from colourlovers.com and I absolutely love when I create something that I just want to stare at for hours. It doesn't always happen and I'm so proud of myself when I'm able to create something I really truly love. I hope you love them like I do! 

Coco Allure Snap Dragon Swatch and Review

Good evening everyone! In the world of nail polish, I think everyone would agree that aside from all of our polish drying up, breaking a nail is without a doubt our biggest fear. And that happened to me today :( quick, someone play me the world's smallest violin! 

Breaking my nail may have no real world implications, it is still pretty darn frustrating! I was cleaning my house (gasp!) and I look down to see a CHUNK of the nail on my index finger just missing. Yes, a chunk. WHAT? And, of course it's on my left hand so I can't just pretend it didn't happen. That will teach me to clean again! ;) Nail art sort of left the picture after I trimmed my nails down so I moved on to my second love - indie polish!