Birthday Cupcakes!

 Happy birthday to me! My 23rd birthday was actually a couple days ago, May 4th. We've been busy doing fun stuff for my birthday weekend, so here are my birthday nails!

Cute cupcakes! I wanted to use my wedding colors because I've got wedding on the brain lately.

The polishes I used: Catrice Sold Out Forever as the base color, Zoya Cassi for the cupcake icing, Revlon Mystical raspberry jelly for the cupcake liner lines, Lynderella Love Lace and Lilacs for the sprinkles, and I use StrideRite white for the liners.

Here are closeups of my accent nail cupcakes. I also did my thumbs, but they bubbled really bad because I did the topcoat in the car and obviously didn't do it well.

As I was taking pictures, a lady bug landed on me :D. They are very sentimental to Jeremy and me. Today is one year since my best friend Marian died, so this was really special.

Here is Moose playing with his personal catnip plant in the sunroom while I was taking pictures. You can see his little kitty mouth :P.

We went to the Botanical Gardens for my birthday. The rose garden was at its peak.

We took the boat ride and saw the resident eagle that has nested in the Gardens. I love seeing them wild like this!

We picked our own strawberries!

And we had fun at the gardens. Smile! :D

Catrice Sold Out Forever

AAhhh finally, a mint green! Can you believe I didn't have one before this? Kati gave me this through our swap and I love it. Catrice Sold Out Forever is a mint green creme with bright green shimmer that is much more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.

Here is a picture of the bottle shimmer. I have to try really hard to see shimmer on the nail, but it's still gorgeous!

If you haven't noticed I took off my acrylics. They were all eehhhh. So now I have tiny little squares :P. They're almost nubbins. Actually I have broken several corners since I cut them so I might have to go back to squoval :-/. And my cuticles were neglected obviously. I swear I think they look fine until I see lose up pictures.....

I decided it needed some more pizazz so I added flowers with Catrice Dirty Berry on the ring fingers.

Then I craved a Mint Aero and decided to do a comparison :D. Pretty close honestly, though the Aero mint green is brighter. It was super noms!

Birthday Pedicure

It's my birthday!!

Kati sent me the most beautiful birthday card in my swap package! I saw it and immediately though that it would make lovely nail art for a manicure. I was also in the process of deciding which of my new polishes to use, so I wanted to some of those. I started the poll and GOSH Holographic was first, followed by Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses at Night. I decided they would work great for this mani and I would use both!!


Here are some comparison pictures so you can see the nail art next to the piece of inspiration.

The card had dark cherry blossoms and white lotuses, so I made my own variaton of that. I used Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses at Night for the base color, GOSH Holographic for the cherry blossoms and branches, and added a white lotus off-center on both big toes.

The colors in the holo were just amazing. Stamping toes was a little difficult, which is the method I started out with, so I ended up freehanding most of the cherry blossoms. They're messy, but I think they get the picture across. The lotus really finished it off nicely too.

Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses at Night was really amazing in the swatch I did, but the shimmers didn't translate to the nail as well. In some of the pictures I managed to capture it more. I think it might have something to do with it being on my toes instead of my fingers, as I can't get as close to my nails when I look at them. I can't see the detail. Check out those above pictures though and click on them to enlarge (as usual, if you didn't know by now). The flaky shimmer is just super cool!

And of course I have to show off my tattoo lol. Thanks again Kati for all the great polishes, and happy birthday to me!! :D

I'm Back! Inspired by a New Package!

I suppose I took a hiatus recently, unplanned. I'm still not really sure. I have been busy lately and have had some final exams with more coming. Everyone needs a break sometimes? So I was walking out to garden, one of the things I've been staying busy with lately, and I saw a package on my front door step! But first, let's pause for gardening pics.

First you do the rows...Yes my markers are broken pieces of baseboard moulding lol. I'm resourceful.


Then you plant stuff - these are sugar snap peas.


Here are some onion seeds. I also planted carrots today. The rest is still indoors from when I planted them before the last frost. They're cute little seedlings now and I'll be planting them maybe in a week or two.


And here is where I am after this stage. I went ahead and marked where my tomatoes and peppers are going to make sure I leave room since I planted the onions, carrots, and peas kind of in the middle. In addition to these, there will be two types of tomatoes, three types of peppers, spineless zuchini, yellow squash....I think that's it. I have strawberries in a cute little hanging basket in the front :).

ANYWAY! I picked up the package and OMG ITS FROM KATI! That means nail polish and chocolate. Kati is one of my very best nail polish buddies, and Amber and I both have started swapping with her. My birthday is super soon too (May 4th) so it's like a swap and birthday in one!!

Loads of polishes, some nail stickers, 2 filmo canes (Hello Kitty and...a rabbit I think), a super cute kitty tin, and tons of num nums (orange chocolate pastilles, gummy bears, caramel filled waffle cookies, fruity tangy gummy that are awesome, coffee hard candies, and loads of mini Ritter bars in different varieties of chocolate.

The polishes included are Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper Hello Holo, Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper Mystic Mermaid, Essence Nail Art Magnetics Hex Hex!, Essence Nail Art Magnetics Magic Wand!, Essence Nail Art Magnetic Mystic Wish!, Essence Nail Art Magnetics Pixie Dust!, GOSH Holographic, Teez Nail Laquer Cool, Catrice Dirty Berry, Catrice Sold Out Forever, and Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses at Night.

I quickly swatched a couple on my nail practice plastic thing...whatever it is lol.

Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses at Night - Black jelly with green, hot pink, and purple flecky glitter

Catrice Sold Out Forever - Mint green creme with very slight bright green shimmer. Can you believe I didn't have a mint green before this one?

Catrice Dirty Berry - Purple with a hint of blue with silvery purple shimmer

Catrice Dirty Berry with Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper Mystic Mermaid - This topcoat makes the polish a little more frosty, a bit lighter, gives it a small blue tinge, and adds silver and blue shimmer. Cool huh!?!

Catrice Diry Berry with Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper Hello Holo - Clear polish with medium sized round holo glitter. It flashes all sorts of colors, hence the holo.

Now the real question is, which one do I wear first? I need a new pedicure, so that's where I'm starting. And I do love my nail art ladies, so give me some ideas using one or more of my new polishes!!! Post here, and I'll put a poll up as well.