NOTD: Goodwill Halloween Faces + Tutorial

This is so my favorite commercial right now - just puts a smile on my face every time I see it, and I (along with nearly everyone else in my family &, it turns out, many people at work) can't help but to sing along - if you haven't seen it yet, you can see it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4De9it-8Q&feature=share&list=LLl6OwCbW6bdtZ14hoxJrgwg

So, since the faces are all pretty basic, I decided to try my hand at putting them on my nails.  Just picking out the polish for this manicure took longer than some of my designs!  And would you believe that with over 2000 bottles of polish, I still had a bit of trouble?  I would have liked the pirate's beard to be a slightly lighter brown, but I didn't have one that was a creme, and since I was able to find creme matches for all the others, I didn't want to use a shimmer there.  So I just went with the slightly darker shade that was used for the cat/werewolf.  There were a few other things like that, but overall I think I did a pretty good job color matching everything.

I used black acrylic paint for the details, and 18 polishes for everything else:  China Glaze Papaya Punch, Essie Boxer Shorts, Nails Inc Tate, Nails Inc The Thames, Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme, OPI Alpine Snow, Orly Glow, Orly Orange Punch, Revlon Stone Edge, Ulta Blue Streak, Zoya Blu, Zoya Carmen, Zoya Evvie, Zoya Jacqueline, Zoya Josie, Zoya Neely, Zoya Pippa & Zoya Shawn.  Whew!  But worth it I think:

Here's a close-up view ... I see I could have done a bit more cleanup at the cuticle area LOL:

Here's the tutorial - there are annotations to navigate to each one, so if you only want to see a few of the faces it's easy to jump around:

This was a fun mani, I was a bit sad when I took it off to fix the break in my index (that you might have noticed on some of the pictures on the witch nail).

Thanks for reading!  I hope you all have a safe & happy Halloween =)

~Colette

NOTD: Skull & Crossbones + Tutorial

So, as far as old vs. new posts, I decided that I'm going to do both.  If I just try to do the old stuff, I'll feel like I'm just falling further behind & it would be true.  Plus, with Halloween today & the holidays right around the corner, no way I'd get caught up in time to share this year's themed manis with you.  So, I'll just try to state whether what you're looking at is old or new ... although in the end, it probably doesn't matter that much, right?  Nails are nails & a mani that was beautiful a few months ago is still beautiful today.

This post is a new mani, for this year's Halloween.  I wasn't sure at first if I was going to do any Halloween manis this year, I just didn't have much inspiration, and then I decided to do these ... they weren't my favorite ever, because as you know I'm a perfectionist, but it was fun to do & good practice at freehanding (which I need).  Base colors were OPI Black Onyx & OPI Alpine Snow, bones done with AS & the skull done with black acrylic:

Here's the tutorial:

And I actually ended up doing another, even free-handier, Halloween design - stay tuned for all of the little Goodwill Halloween faces from the commercial!

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

I'm Back! (No, Really This Time)

I've had several people, including my own mother, tell me that maybe I should stop blogging.  But even when I have admittedly large gaps in my posting, I'm still a blogger - this whole nail mini-empire I seem to have built all started here.  When I hand out business cards, it's my blog that's listed ... and every time I hand one out I get a little guilty feeling because I know it's been such a long time.  BUT now I have a Chromebook, so now I'm able to be a little more efficient by doing blog & YouTube related stuff during my lunch break at work.

(The Chromebook was a lovely gift from Google while I was in California a few weeks ago for the Top Contributor's Summit, but more on that later)

Anyway, I'm trying to get caught up all over the place, while at the same time giving myself more to keep up with LOL.  As of a few weeks ago I expanded my social media presence & in addition to this blog, and my Throughout Me blog, and the related YouTube channels, and the Facebook Fan Page, and the Google+ page that I don't use (yet) but set up because it seems inevitable I'll have to link my channel to it, you can now get your fix of me on:

Instagram:  http://instagram.com/mysimplelittlepleasures

Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/colettemslp/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ColetteMSLP

(There will be links added for all of them at some point into the sidebar)

There's not much on any of them yet, but I know everyone has their own favorite, I've had requests for all of them for such a long time - I finally ended up giving in because I needed to post & tag a picture on Instagram for a recent sponsored design that I did.  So far I'm most active on Pinterest, because there's so much cool inspirational nail art on there that I'd like to try myself.

Anyway, to sum it up - I will be posting more.  As I'm sure you can guess, I have a TON of material to edit & catch up with, and I may intersperse it with current stuff, or I may go strictly in order ... I haven't decided that part yet.  I just know that I can't afford to get any further behind, and I don't want this blog to just turn into an archive of old pictures.

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Today is the Last Day For Google Reader & Google Friend Connect!

You're probably aware that today is the last day for Google Reader & I really probably should have gotten this reminder post up sooner, but as you've likely noticed I've been too busy to spend much time here.  But that's going to change SOON!  (For reals this time).

There are several options, and you may have already found one that you like, but if not let me recommend Bloglovin' - it's super simple, and to transfer all the blogs you follow all you need to do is follow the instructions HERE:  http://blog.bloglovin.com/2013/03/moving-from-google-reader-to-bloglovin/ - with just a few clicks, you'll be all set!  I just did it myself - I know, procrastinate much?  Well, yes - you all know I procrastinate TONS.

So, now that you've transferred all the blogs you're following, you want to learn your way around Bloglovin'?  Well, to be honest I don't know my way around that well - but I found this awesome post on BlogHer that explains everything very well & even has pictures to illustrate the finer points!  So check it out: http://www.blogher.com/google-dumping-your-ass-comprehensive-how-loving-bloglovin

I have a ton of plans I'm in the middle of, the largest of which is the desire to swatch my entire 2000+ bottle collection of nail polish.  I've got the nail swatch sticks to accomplish this, and a light box for taking better pictures ... now all I need is to get ORGANIZED, part of which is archiving a few years of pictures off of my PC so I have room for new pics!  & of course I could archive more if I get caught up around here =)  So wheels are turning, if not quite as swiftly as I'd like, but the important part is to get moving, even if I'm moving slow.

Thanks for reading

~Colette

Macy's Spring 2013 Flower Show

I will just mention, that this is NOT turning into a blog that's just about flowers.  Seriously LOL ... but they don't require much thought or editing & I love sharing them with you guys.  These are from a few weeks ago, the theme this year was The Painted Garden, and we had an even bigger than normal group this trip - me, Mom, Grandma, Aunt, Uncle, Cousin & Dad!:

 The umbrellas hanging upside-down from the ceiling were a bit weird ... and yet fit in at the same time LOL.

These Love Story Lilies were hands down the most fragrant thing in the room.  So super sweet, in the midst of our extended Minnesota winter it was heavenly.

I think things in real life may finally calm down enough to allow me enough leisure to start trying (again) to get caught up.  Not that things are actually ever calm, but I've finished a few hugely important things (like taxes, blech, I procrastinated until the final weekend again this year), and I'm really on a get-organized kick, so here's me with my fingers crossed =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette.