Thank goodness that's over!

So...let's talk about my day, ok?

I woke up at O'God Thirty in the morning, took my shower, got my hair done, and then forgot my makeup so I couldn't finish getting myself ready. I drove by myself three and a half hours in the dark, getting slightly lost to get some gas when I was just a hop, skip and a jump from Greensboro. Thankfully, I made it to the convention center just fine and in time to see each of the opening categories walk the runway.

I was uncharacteristically quiet the entire morning, spending time breathing deeply and trying to not let my nerves get to me. It came time to head to the holding area where we were placed at our table. A ridiculous amount of time later, our time began and I spent the next 45 minutes doing my final nail art design while the judges walked around hovering and nodding. It was easy to ignore them. It was not easy to ignore the people walking around taking pictures while we were working and getting close to our work and giving praise that I had to thank them for.

Thankfully, I finished my design with 5 minutes to spare, which was just enough to set up a professional looking presentation and put some simple jewelry on the mannequin hands. Which was almost all in vane because we ended up walking with our hands to the judging table.

Two or so hours later, it was time to call the winners of all the categories. All in all, my school wracked up. Especially with the big trophy that was given out due to the number of contestants per schools. My friend Marisa got 1st in female haircut and style, which she was super excited about. As for me...I GOT A TROPHY!

But not just ANY trophy...

FIRST PLACE, KIDS!! HECK YEAH!

I can't even BEGIN to tell you guys how tickled I am about this. I got a trophy that is as big as my head! For reals! It's as tall as my head. Which is pretty crazy. And you guys, seriously. The only trophies I've ever gotten in my life were "Good job kid, you played this sport!" trophies and one in 1988 that I won in a costume contest at a bank dressing in a Minnie Mouse costume that my mom made. And now I have a First Place trophy! In a category that I've become seriously interested in.

Yeah. That's right. I won first place.

The final nail design.

DETAILS!

I totally started crying from surprise and happiness at one point. Seriously, I'm so tickled. As I was leaving the venue to get to my car, the male judge (Who looked like he was trying to be David Bowie) stopped me and told me that my design was wonderful and very wearable. It was a pretty surreal moment. On the 3 and a half hour drive back home I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it was true. I had one first place with a design I came up with on my own.

That trophy is mine and I totally deserve it!

Gettin' it all ready.

Oh sweet molasses! Things have been crazy lately. I've been trying to get things together at school because this weekend I'm traveling to Greensboro to compete in a competition at the hair show there! I'm entered in the nail art competition and I'll be honest with you guys, I'm pretty nervous about it. Well, today, with the help of the awesome Rachel from school, I was able to do a really decent set of acrylic nails on the mannequin hands to get then ready! She did one hand and I did the other. But I'm still pretty stoked about it.

This is my hand. It's a little lumpy, but you can't really tell until you put polish on it.

Both hands together. There are some imperfections, but it happens. We're gonna hit them with the drill tomorrow...and I'm kind of excited about that!

So, once it was totally decided that I was going to do the competition and I was supplied with the two mannequin hands, next came trying to figure out what I was going to. I sat with my main professor today with my nail portfolio, which is such a work in progress. We went through and narrowed everything down. While I have a pansy that I LOVE and a few really nice beach scenes, It was decided that flowers and beach were commonly used themes in these competitions. So, we moved on to one of my favorite designs...the bow.

I had created a set that I call "Pink, Girlie Punk," which is a set of designs that are pink, white, black, and silver. And, after I looked at them, not that punkish. But whatevs. So, we decided to mess with some of those. I came home, played on the Wii Fit for about 30 minutes, then decided to time myself doing these designs. Because I have to do two hands in 45 minutes. Its kind of nerve wracking if I think about it too much.

So, I get things situated in my recliner, which was my first wrong decision. Next time I time myself, I'm sitting at a table with only the things that I need. Sheesh, what a time I had! It was ridonkulous! I ended up not making time, but I know why and its stuff that can be easily fixed. Once I was done with the hands, I looked a them and thought, "I'm not totally ok with that."

The finished look.

Close up of my favorite nail, the houndstooth.

There just isn't a consistency that I would like, to be honest. I love the houndstooth and the argyle. The bow on the middle finger is also a favorite of mine. I will be doing something with that bow, the houndstooth, and the argyle. I shall have some pictures on that tomorrow.


GOOD NEWS, I have found my camera! Bad news...I have no idea where my battery charger is. This is my life, guys...this is my life every time. But I will have it and my battery charged for the competition and then we can finally move on from the crappy camera phone pictures. The day to rejoice shall be in the near future.

Anything that I was to send out is in the mail. I'm terribly sorry that it has taken this long to get anything out there. I'm getting really tired of life kicking me in my face. I'm about ready to start fighting back.

Also, as I am sure some of you know, the month of November is Nanowrimo. National Novel Writing Month. I'm working on a story myself, though I thought it might be fun to sort of honor Nanowrimo in my blog and make a really conscious effort to write a post a day.

AND! This is what I'm super excited about. The preciously mentioned Rachel from school used to be a nail tech for like...years. AND she's agreed to teach me in her ways. haha She also said I was welcome to video her with doing nails and everything and that I can share it on here. Which, I probably will be doing. I'm also thinking about doing things with reflexology and massages...because hand massages are amazeballs.

But, that's all for now. I'll post the final nail idea for the competition tomorrow.

It's good to be back :D

What goes bump in the night.

I was going to post this last night, but I ended up going to a high school football game with my friend so that she has someone to talk to and hang out with while her daughter ran around the whole night with her friends. And, seeing as how I like to hand out with my friends no matter the venue, I was there. And I was running late, so I didn't get to post it before I left. So, why not post now? :D

I wanted to wait on posting the manicure until it was up on the website, but I decided to compete in Polish Freshie's Halloween Nail art competition. She posted all of the entries and they are seriously awesome. I wish my picture had been better so you could have seen the detailing a whole lot better. Sadly, I didn't make it into the top 3 (Or, top 4 actually). But the ones that did are pretty cool. Voting is going on now, so stop on by and cast your vote.


Here's my entry. I used my awesome hand and nail model Katherine. The design is full moon and silhouettes. The pinky is bats, ring finger is a witch on a broom, the middle finger is a tombstone, the index finger is a cat, and the thumb is a haunted house or church (however you look at it).

Sure, I'm sad I didn't make it in the top four, but I'm super proud of the design. I just wish the picture had been a whole lot better. But soon, my internet friends. Soon the pictures will be better. I promise.

Hoot Hoot!

Ugh, life has taken over and kicked me in the face!

The wedding of my friend Amber went awesome! I will hopefully post some pictures later this week. We all had so much fun and I spent the night before the wedding painting finger and toe nails various shades of red or For Audrey. Which, were the wedding colors. It was a beautiful and fun ceremony, and Willow Smith's song "Whip My Hair" is totally stuck in my head since then.

Then, when I got home, I got bombarded with midterms. I took my practical today and it lasted all day. But I feel pretty good about it. I have two more exams tomorrow and Wednesday. And I'm focusing a bit on getting my services done so that I will be able to graduate for good this semester. Its hard, though. Especially when we aren't getting walk ins as often.

But, I didn't want to leave you guys high and dry for much longer! So I give you more Kat Nails. She and I share a love in owls and so we went with a night theme.





AND I'm getting better at stamps! :D

But for now, I'm off to do some more studying. Until next time!

Polishing More than Nails

I was going to post last night, but its just one thing after the other with Daisy and I've been trying to keep my eye on her. And I was exhausted and totally ready for bed by 7:30. Of course, I didn't actually GO to bed until 10:30 or 11, but that's a story for a different day. Like, the day you feel like being bored, because there isn't much to it.

But, I was able to finish my friend Kim's birthday present. And she LOVED it! I got a wooden tag and on one side I painted a scene I had done on a nail that she loved and was inspired by her daughter (and a little bit of her husband). On the other side, I painted a pineapple and the letter K. You know, so her daughter couldn't try to swipe the necklace lol.



The background is all nail polish and the surf board and details are done with acrylic paint. I used Sally Hansen Blue Me Away for the darker blue, then sponged China Glaze For Audrey over that using a disposable eyeshadow applicator. The sand was done by using the same sponge technique with China Glaze Classic Camel. You can't see the glittery bits, but I added some China Glaze Cowardly Lyin' on top of that for the sparkly sand look.

Here is the necklace next to the nail that was the inspiration.

Here's the back. The pineapple is China Glaze Classic Carmel, the rest is acrylic paint.

I topped both sizes off with two coats each of Seche Vite. I think it came out looking pretty awesome, myself. Once I made the hook for it and slapped it on a chain, I boxed it up all pretty like. Kim LOVED it and I'm rather tickled with it, myself. I'm gonna have to start doing more of these. What do you think?

Opinions, Coveting, and Pedicure

Ok, so, the good news is that Daisy is doing better and can finally keep down food. The bad news is that I think she hurt her back or hind legs today and now just...isn't herself at all. Poor thing. She's had such a rough weekend. And because of that, I have, too. I love that little girl and I feel so bad for her. It makes you just want to cuddle her.

Other than that, let's take a minute to talk about MAC's villains collection that just came out. The colors are amazing and let me just say that ever since I started cosmetology and started watching my friends that do AMAZING makeup (Yeah, I'm looking at you Natawsha and Betsy), I've found a new found love for this company. I aspire to one day own a few things from this brand. I know, a simple aspiration, but at least its easily achievable. And now with this new collection...I want some nail polish!

Mac Formidable

This is the polish I was most excited for. Its a beautiful blue and purple and glittery party for your nails. But, once I saw them in person...well, I wasn't as impressed. Which was sad. Then again, I didn't get to do more than a quick swipe of one layer on my nail, but still. At this point, I figured I wouldn't be wanting any of these polishes.

Mean and Green

Then came Mean and Green. I had no expectations for this one at all...so it was nice when it met them and then exceeded them. Its a neat purple, blue, and green mix that also left me feeling like there was a bit of a rosy shimmer to it. Seriously you guys...pretty for your fingers.

MAC Bad Fairy

I am coveting this polish like nobody's business! Seeing this color in person and putting it on my nail...You guys, I'm seroiusly thinking that it is ok to spend more than six dollars on a nail polish. I'm looking at my bank account wondering if I can budget in a $12 polish. That's like...4 bottles of polish from my beauty supply store. If I get this, this means no China Glaze for a few days. But OMG it would be so worth it. But, hey, if any of you love me enough to get it for me (because I'm the definition of subtle), then please, don't let me stop you. ;)

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

I have been seeing this polish everywhere on the blogs, but I've been seeing it in posts from like, May. And due to the fact that it's October? Yeah, I might not be getting this polish anytime soon. BUT if any of you out there happen to see it, PLEASE get me a bottle and I will pay you back.


Also, in my reading of blogs, I've learned of a brand of nail polish that so many people of singing high praises. Zoya polish offers a huge line of colors and now offers spooning. Which means you can order a spoon, which is a painted plastic nail with the color you wanted to see. These spoons are 50 cents, BUT you can apply that money spent on the spoons to your nail polish order, which is pretty cool. Here's their website for you to look around. I really kind of want their Crystal polish.

Nubar has various sets of Two Way Nail Art Pens, of which, I want them all. These are awesome because if you top the top, you get a neat pen like tip. Then, if you unscrew the top, its a nail art striper brush. Which is pretty awesome.


So that's my coveting list and my opinions on the MAC polishes in their villains collection. Now, I shall leave you with a picture that my friend Kim took over the summer of pedicure on a client I had. Its a simple pink color with pink and purple plaid and hearts.

The icing on the cupcake

Man, oh Man! This week has been INSANE! For anyone that's watched the weather channel recently, you'll have heard of the ridonkulous amount of rain that took over the east coast, especially Wilmington! Monday we set a record for highest amount of rainfall not including a hurricane. Well, by yesterday, we even broke the record that included a hurricane! That was was Floyd, which I was told, was pretty rough. Thankfully, all we had was rain and some wind every now and then. BUT MAN! That rain was pretty consistent. I kind of forgot what the sun even looked like until it decided to show up about ten minutes before it set in for the night. Though, I have to admit, the yellow washed that world had for those brief sunny minutes was pretty awesome. So now its drying up outside this weekend, just in time for the rain to start again on Monday. I'm just hoping it doesn't flood the entire city like it was trying to do this week!

Then, on top of the need to build an arc, yesterday I came home to find my dog had unzipped my bookbag, and ate a good amount of stuff that puppies are not suppose to eat. Obviously this point was emphasized with the poor girl being sick just about all night and this morning. Finally, I took her to the vet this morning and now she's sleeping it all off. Poor baby. But today she seems to be doing a little better. Sleeping off the meds they gave her, mostly.



So yeah, add in school and you get the reason as to why I didn't post the last two days. Well, that's a lie. Wednesday I didn't post because I was exhausted and didn't want to risk making another post that might not make too much sense like the Crayola Nail Art Post. And yesterday I was worrying over Daisy. ANYWHO, how about a little icing on the top of the cupcake that has been my last few days.

I was going to include these photos in the Crayola post, but when I started falling asleep while typing I realized that maybe they should go in a separate post. So here we have it! My friend Kat loves for me to paint her nails at school. She also loves cupcakes and walking around going "nom nom nom." Basically, she's my favorite Mexican even. So, in honor of two of her favorite things, we came up with a design for her nails! As per usual lately, these were taken with my cell phone because I suck at finding where I last put my new camera. (BTW, mom, you didn't just read that bit. I know exactly where my camera is >.>) These pictures were also taken about a week and a half after I painted them to begin with, so there's a bit of growth and chipping.


Tipi and Daisy like to cuddle and spoon. Daisy's the little flufly one. She's a sweetheart. So is Tipi.



NOM NOM NOM! Her index, middle, and ring finger all say Nom is a curvy font while her pink is suppose to represent sprinkles. I can't remember which polishes I used, but I know they are all China Glaze. I know the ring finger was Peachy Keen.


CUPCAKE! This one has Sally Hansen as the base color, The China Glaze on the middle finger as icing, and China Glaze Classic Camel at the cake part. I'll edit this post later with the rel names and the links.

I love how this ended up looking. And Kay was seriously rocking it out. Also, I feel the need to point out that her nails are real, too. And they could claw a stripper's eyes out.

I took these pictures before she took her polish off so I could give her a second manicure that was nocturnally inspired. You'll see pictures of that manicure sooner than you think. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm gonna to cuddle my sick puppy, clean the kitchen, and look for my camera.

Provoking Memories of my Childhood...Product Review

So, I thought about putting these pictures into two separate posts...but I don't want to. I took to pictures today at school and now I want the rest of the world to partake in their horrible cell phone quality.

I seriously need to find my camera that is buried somewhere under mounds of headbands that I've been working on in my spare time. This is my life.

As it is, though, I have my very first product review! How do you like THEM apples? :D

So, while I'm naively scouring my local stores in hopes of finding a rogue Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, I happened to find an entirely different kind of hidden treasure. Wilmington is so huge that it found the need for two different Wal-Marts. Let me tell you, as a child born and raised in the coal mountains of Virginia, I'm not used to the concept of having more than one Wal-Mart in the same city. It just boggles the mind. We have two in our county, yes. But that's county wide! This is city wide. I'm amazed at the doubles we have here, to be honest. But I digress.

When I lived back in Virginia, it was an inside joke with my family that all of my money went to Wal-Mart. Which, wasn't so much a joke as it was...well, completely and totally the truth. So, you would think I would be excited to move to a place that had two Wal-Marts. Well, I'm not! Because the Wal-Mart with the best selection in crafts, electronics, beauty, and pharmacy is also the same once that makes me irrationally angry just thinking about it as I suppress the almost uncontrollable urge to jab my rat tail comb from class into someone's eyeball. I'm a ball of sunshine and daisies, really.

That being said, I ended up going to this Wal-Mart with my roommate last weekend and that's when I spotted this little gem.



Yes, A Crayola brand nail art pen. Don't worry, I laughed too. I even made fun of it as I stood in the isle. I just couldn't understand the concept of a crayola nail art pen! I mean, really? Who saw this one coming? Well, once I got done making fun of the poor pens, I started doing that shifty eye thing. You know, that one we all do when we are trying to do something without someone seeing for fear of being made fun of. And then I snatched the white pen.



And I have to say, this nail art pen is pretty impressive! I know I'm still new to the scene and all, but of the nail art pens that I have used. I'm pretty smitten with this one. The hold is so easy and its almost like drawing on your nails with a marker.



The packaging called this an ultra fine point and it really is. Look how nice that tip is! I seriously loved the tip of this marker. It was much more sharp than Sally Hansen's nail art pens and was easy to hold onto. I really enjoyed playing around with it.

I found that the actual medium that came from the marker was not as watery or thin as most white nail art pens that I've tried in the past. Plus, you didn't have the urge to continue to push in the tip and you worked. In fact, the medium just almost flowed off of the tip. It was really nice. AND it dried fast!



Honestly, I loved this thing. And not just because the whole idea of it just provoked memories from my childhood to ran around in my mind. My favorite part about it, though, is that it came with a little page of fingers with nails on them for you to be able to deisgn ideas on. Seriously, you guys! This is the first time I have EVER found a nail design template! Of course, it doesn't really help that the nails are tiny and that there isn't really a lot of room to get overly detailed.

so what do I think? I think we have a winner on out hands.