HAUL TIME!

Yesterday I had a half day at school since it was the end of third quarter -- WOOHOO! It was also my mom's birthday, so we and my two sisters spent the afternoon shopping. We started by getting lunch at Chick-fil-A -- YUM! Then we headed out to some stores to shop.

Simple Strike Down Nail Art

School has been crazy busy recently with my senior portfolio due on friday so I've really been slacking on my blog So lately I've been stuck on just solid colors for my nails. BUT, I found an easy little design that I'd like to share with you that only took an additional 30 seconds on top of a solid color.

I started with a cool dark blue polish by Pure Ice (sold at Walmart for only $1.97) in the shade Teal Appeal. I was kinda frustrated that the true color wasn't getting picked up by my camera but this shot showed it best. Since I was getting bored with solid nails, I took a gold nail striper and made a little pointed strike running off the tip of each nail. And that's it! Super quick and easy way to spruce up an solid manicure. Have fun creating different color combinations and adding your own flair.

<3 Valentine's Day Nail Art <3

Firstly, I just want to apologize for being so late in putting this up. I really do feel so bad about it and will try to do better. And just a reminder, if you ever have any requests for nail art for specific events or just in general, leave a comment! I'd love to come up with something. And sometimes I could use the inspiration.

To get along with the tutorials, I have a few designs you could wear for Valentine's Day. Again, sorry for the short notice, but at least you won't have to worry about chipping!

Pinky Pink

This is a really simple design. I used white polish on my thumb and ring finger and pink polish on the rest. Then, on the ring finger, I used a small dotting tool dipped in the pink polish to make teeny little polka dots. I used the same dotting tool dipped in the same pink polish to make a teeny little heart in the corner of the thumb nail. As you can see it's a really cute, easy, and QUICK design.

Neutral V-Day Nails

For this design, I started with a light grey base and then used a dotting tool dipped in light pink polish to draw two hearts on the ring finger and different sized dots on the rest of the nails. This is another pretty easy and quick design.

Girls Hearts

The first step of this design is to paint all your nails pink with a white accent nail. Then, use a small dotting tool to draw tiny hearts on the ring finger, using light and dark pink polish (the picture doesn't show the difference very well). Also, the picture doesn't show, but I did a little white heart in the corner of the thumb nail, similar to that from the "Pinky Pink" design.

Candy Hearts

(a.k.a. Conversation Hearts)

This is probably one of my favorite designs, but unfortunately it takes a while to do (so you might have to wait until next Valentine's Day). I picked out some pastel colors that matched closest to the typical Conversation Heart candies. Then, I used a red nail striper to right the little messages on each nail.

Note: I did come up with this design on my own, but days before I did it, my sister tells me she just watched a MissJenFabulous video that is virtually the same but I decided to still do it in case some of you haven't seen that.

Box of Chocolates

Alright I have to admit, this is not the best quality design I've come up with. In fact I wasn't even going to include it in this blog post, but I figured some of you would be able to do a neater job of it. I started with all red nails with a big silver heart on my ring finger. Then using a dotting tool dipped in brown polish, I drew various shapes in the silver heart to represent chocolates. I'm sorry for the sloppy execution of this design but I was rushing and hopefully you'll still have a fun time recreating it.

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I hope you all have a

<3 Happy Valentine's Day! <3

New Year's Eve Nails

New Year's Eve is an exciting holiday with all kinds of glitzy decorations and lights. Today I'll be showing you how to do a super shiny and sparkly manicure for the holiday or any other time you want to add some sparkle to your look.

Step 1:

Start with a base of a neutral metallic or micro glitter. I used Bold Gold from Maybelline's Color Show collection.(it is one of the holographic polishes). Apply as many coats as it takes to make it completely opaque.

Step 2:

Pick out some chunky glitter polish and apply that over the metallic base. I used a glitter that had a variety of colors (Wet n Wild Fast Dry - Party Of Five Glitters). I did one coat on each nail and multiple coats on my ring finger to make it an accent nail.

Step 3:

Add a coat of your favorite top coat to smooth out the glitter and make your manicure long-lasting.

Alternatives:

- Silver & Gold alternating base with colorful glitter

- Silver & Gold alternating base with Gold & Silver alternating on the opposite color base

- Dark Purple Base with chunky glitter

- ACCENT NAILS!

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I apologize for not putting this up earlier. Maybe a New Year's resolution will be to plan ahead more... Anyways, I hope you all have a fun time tonight with your friends and family!

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

Happy New Year!!

What I Got For Christmas 2013 + Nail Polish Haul (of course)

Christmas is my favorite time of year. Just the excitement and happiness of the day is so magical. I know some people don't like these "what I got for Christmas" blogs but I've always liked them and seeing what other people got for Christmas.

- Flannel Sheets

- Santa Stitch

My little sister got this for me since I had a big stuffed animal Stitch already.

- A.N.A. Striped Sweater

I got this for a great deal during Black Friday at JCP. I love the texture of it.

- American Eagle Flannel Shirt

I picked this up for myself at American Eagle Outfitters during Black Friday.

- Aerie Plaid Flannel Pants

Again, picked them out for myself during Black Friday...

- American Eagle Polka Dot Socks

... And these too.

- Ice Scraper Mitt

Ah! Something I didn't know I was getting before hand. So I've been having to scrape the ice off my car recently and it just causes a bad start to my day with freezing hands (because I refuse to wear gloves). My dad got this super supple ice scraper mitt to keep my hands warm when scraping my car.

- Mockingjay Pin

This was a gift from my little sister, who obviously knows me so well. I had a guess (which ended up being right) of what she'd got me for a long time before Christmas. When she handed me my present I figured it wasn't this because she'd wrapped it in tissue paper in a small box and wrapped the small box in tissue paper in a big box. She's a smart cookie.

- Michael Bublé Christmas Album

One of my all-time favorite Christmas albums.

- The Hunger Games DVD

- Catching Fire Paperback

Picked this book up for myself Black Friday shopping and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

- Husky Stuffed Animal

- Mini Taylor Swift Calendar

- Purple Snowflake Mug

a JUMBO mug to satisfy my love of tea.

- Owl Contact Case

I saw this contact case a couple years ago and LOVED it. And now I have it. :)

- Big (Faux) Pearl Earrings

- Big (Faux) Diamond Earrings

- Taylor Swift Fearless Tour Book

- Taylor Swift Speak Now Tour Book

- Taylor Swift RED Tour Book

All 3 of the TS tour books I ordered for myself when they were on sale during the 13 Days of Taylor.

- Sour Patch Kids x2

Candy from my sisters. The new blue ones are SO good!

- aaaaaaaaaaand NAIL POLISH!

essie full steam ahead

essie cascade cool

essie steel-ling the scene

I also got a duo pack of OPI polishes

Metallic 4 Life AND Did It On 'Em

So... I actually knew about all of these polishes because I chose them myself at TJMaxx a couple days before Christmas. 

essie was on sale for $4.99 (cascade cool was on clearance for $3.00) and the duo pack of OPI was $7.99. I love great deals.

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My family waits to open our stocking stuffers until the evening so we still have something to look forward to throughout the day, so here's what I got in my stocking.

Socks. Lots and lots of socks.
     - 3 pack from Aeropostale
     - 2 pack from American Eagle
     - 2 random pairs that I don't know where they're from
Butterscotch Disks
Sheet Metal Snowman Ornament
$15 iTunes Gift Card
Celebrate Christmas votive from Yankee Candle
Blow Pops x4
Candy Cane Gum (which is delicious by the way)
Phone Case (not pictured because I'd already put it on my phone, but it's black and white chevron with lime green accents)
$20 from my parents

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Oh! And a shoutout to my best friend for getting me one of the sweetest presents ever that I'd been wanting for a long time. She got me a Vera Bradley travel mug in the pattern Olivia Pink. She stole my phone during church and looked at my Christmas list without me knowing. Sneaky sneaky... But thank youu!

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So yes. That is what I got for Christmas this year. I am so thankful for everything and for the people they came from. Please don't think I'm trying to brag by posting this but I've always liked seeing what other people got for Christmas so now you can see what I got for Christmas! I hope you had a great Christmas too and I'll be back soon with my NYE nail tutorial!! (I'm pretty excited about this one)