Cross Cross

Random Manis

For the Love of Purple



New year, new attempt at blogging, all that stuff.

I wanted to start off the year with my favorite color: purple. So I chose two shades that are at the opposite ends of the purple spectrum - the darker purple is OPI's "A Grape Fit!" and the lighter, lavender shade is Revlon's "Lily."  I did the dots with an Orly dotting tool.  It's simple but cute, and I've gotten several compliments on it this week. 

I love the way these 2 colors work together.  And I have to say that A Grape Fit definitely ranks in my top 5 favorite purples.  I've always dreamed of owning a purple baby grand piano, and if I had the means to buy one (and a place big enough to put it!), I would buy it in the color of this nail polish!

I spent a good part of the new year's holiday weekend working on a very ambitious project:  alphabetizing, cataloging and photographing my entire nail polish collection.   I found a handy app on my phone that allowed me to enter each polish into a database that included brand, name, collection, and shade.  The only category I wish it had that it doesn't include is finish, but I was still able to get them all entered.  Along with each entry it allows you to photograph the polish.  So I got them all entered and took a pic of each one.  This was no small task and took me about 5 hours broken up over 2 days. 

The great thing about finishing this project is, I was able to reorganize all my polishes into 2 Helmers and still have 3 drawers left over for supplies.  Plus I put them all in alphabetical order by brand, so I can quickly and easily find exactly the color I'm looking for.  Another bonus of having an accurate record of exactly what polishes I own that it is with me at all times.  It already came in handy today when I went to Sally for buy one Orly get one free.  I picked up 2 different colors that I thought were pretty, checked my database and found that I already owned them both.  Then, I complimented myself on what good taste I have, and put them both back!

The downside to having such an accurate record of all my polishes, is knowing exactly how many I own.  I knew it was going to be a pretty high number, since it had been a really long time since I counted them all, but I have to say I was shocked at the final count.  When I think about how much money this collection represents, it makes me feel a little guilty.  But, then again, I work and I earn my own money and I feel like I can spend it however I want! 

I've been contemplating doing one of those 30-day challenges.  The only reason I've never done one before is I don't want to commit to doing my nails every single day.  I hardly EVER have my nails painted just a plain color - I've always got some kind of nail art on them.  And I'm not that good so it usually takes me a good 2 to 3 hours every time I do them.  So after spending that much time and effort on a mani, I hate the thought of having to take it off every day.  So it's possible I might try one just on my own - but make it more of a 30-manicure challenge wherein I do all the designs but not necessarily in 30 days.

Tomorrow is the first playoff game for the Pack, so I might do some kind of Packer mani tomorrow afternoon.  GO PACK GO!!!!! 

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Nails & Nerds

I absolutely love watching The Big Bang Theory on Thursday nights.  This week, I invited 2 of my girlfriends over to watch it with me and do our nails. So the 3 of us geeked out and watched the Big Bang and I showed them how to do nail stamping. 

They each did a dark purple base with silver Konad stamping on top.  They chose single stamps rather than ones that cover the whole nail.  And they both did only a couple of fingers.  But I think they enjoyed it and I certainly loved sharing my polish and doing my nails with girlfriends. 

I already had Revlon's "Royal" on my nails from the night before.  But they were plain and I wanted to do some stamping too, so I used Konad silver and a Bundle Monster polka dot stamp.  I love the way this turned out. 

I really enjoyed the evening and I think the girls did too.  I'm hoping we can do it again soon!

Blue Lagoon

The blue is Revlon's Blue Lagoon, stamped with Konad white and Red Angel plate 110.  This manicure was somewhat inspired by Linda at Copy That, Copy Cat..  The inspiration came from her post China Glaze Kinetic Candy and Simple White French.  I liked the color combination, although I don't have Kinetic Candy.  I thought Blue Lagoon was a good substitute.  And now that my nails are a decent length again, I wanted to do something with tips. 

Multi-Colored Leopard Print

This was the same leopard stamp I used before on the sponged manicre.  I did the leopard stamp first then went back in with a dotting tool and put in the colors.  But I think the idea would have turned out better if I'd put the dots in first, then outlined them in black with a nail art pen.  But, I did like this mani a lot.  I like the three colors.  Incidentally, these are the same 3 colors that I used in my previous sponged leopard mani.