Merry Christmas! (3 NOTDs)

Well, I'm off to brave the blizzard & make the trip to grandma's house shortly, and I'll take some pics of the ridiculous amounts of snow we got when I go out, but I thought I'd throw up some NOTDs & wish everyone a Merry Christmas before I leave =)

Here is my Christmas NOTD, using China Glaze Emerald Sparkle & Ruby Pumps. As usual, pics don't do justice to either one of these colors:


Here is Mom's Christmas NOTD, one of my Dollar Tree haul polishes, Maybelline Blackened Teal:


And, here's a blast from the past, my NOTD from LAST Christmas! I didn't take too many pics of my nails before I started the blog, but these were an exception. I believe this color is Cover Girl Boundless Color Goldstar, but I'm not 100% positive. I'm not sure what Konad plate this is, I'll try to come back later & edit in the info once I have time to dig it out (EDIT: image plate m59):


Stay safe & be happy everyone =) Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Holly Leaves & Berries + Tutorial

So, I originally planned on doing a tutorial for this, and then it was late & I was tired so I didn't. Then I got a bunch of compliments at work - one person even asked if they were decals, which I consider a high compliment if they think they look that good =) - so I decided to come home & do a quick tutorial with one of the nails I'd left bare, before I took this off.

I used OPI Dazzled by Gold as my base color, and this is a wonderful gold. It is SO sparkly, but I don't want to call it a glitter because it has a smooth finish. The first coat goes on sheer, but it builds quickly & you could go with 2 coats & be fine with no VNL I think - I am wearing 3 coats because I wanted a wet layer when I did my leaves. It kind of helped the polish flow more when I was painting, instead of sticking to the dry polish. For the leaves I used Finger Paints Evergreen Dream, and the berries are done with OPI Dreaming of Red.

I think this will be the last actual nail art I do for the holidays, as my next plan involves Emerald Sparkle & Ruby Pumps =) Here is my Holly Leaves & Berries manicure:


And here is the tutorial:



Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Christmas Polishes

Well, you guys probably already figured it out, since I used it in the swirl mani, but I did manage to track down a bottle of Finger Paints Evergreen Dream:


I think this is already one of my favorite greens, and I haven't even used it for a full mani yet, although you will see it as a nail art color once I get my current mani posted =) This was on my "allowed" list, so now my no-buy will need to start in earnest =(

BUT! My friend Sam at work got me a Christmas gift a little earlier this week - and guess what it was =)


Top row is Nicole Pink Different & Scene Stealer, bottom row are my very first Spa Ritual polishes Tall Glass of Water & Weathered the Storm. She said she was in a pink mood LOL & I love all 4 of these. Can't wait to give the Spa Ritual a try since it's my understanding they are a really good brand.

I am now almost caught up posting. & I am off work tomorrow & Friday, so I have real hope I'll be caught up with about 2 weeks of comments soon =) Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Christmas Swirl Water Marble + Tutorial

My original idea on this was doing something that looked like a candy cane, then I decided to add some green & it ended up just being kind of Christmas themed. I'm fairly happy with the final product, even though honestly only one nail turned out the way I envisioned. I tried several red & white polish combinations, prior to starting on my nails, and ever single time the red bled into the white - except on the very last nail I marbled, and I honestly don't know what I did differently (excuse the mess, this is about 50% cleaned up):


So if you would, please picture the rest of the nails like that & you'll understand my original vision. But, for whatever reason I ended up with quite a bit of pink due to color bleeding on the others. This is still a great design, but... well you guys know me =) Never happy LOL.

I used Color Club French Tip for my base color, and used that & Finger Paints Evergreen Dream & China Glaze Thunderbird for the marbling:


Here is the tutorial, not my best I think ... I kept stumbling over the words & I did like 4 or 5 takes & still wasn't happy, not to mention to corner of the notebook in the take that ended up being "best" Whatever ... I've never claimed to be more than a talented amateur LOL, and I guess my setup speaks volumes =) You can certainly tell I'm putting out these tutorials from, literally, my desktop:



I have 1 more idea I'd like to get on my nails & on video before the holiday, but I'm not sure I'll have time. We are expecting what they're claiming to be a huge blizzard Wednesday night into Thursday, so we're trying to get everything done by Wednesday now so we can be off on Thursday & not suffer through the commute just for a half-day's work. Anyway, we'll see how that pans out ... thanks for reading =)

~Colette

25 Dozen Cookies Later...

I'm actually not exaggerating here LOL. And that's just the ones I was personally involved with baking, not to mention what the rest of the family made. I counted the sugar cookies yesterday after we frosted ... well, tried to count them, I lost track at 12 dozen. Then there were the 4 dozen PBBs for work, which I already showed you, 8.5 dozen cake balls, and 5 dozen fruity foldovers. I took some pics, so if you're hungry, turn back now & come back in a little bit when I will have nail pics posted & a new tutorial =)

Here are the sugar cookies after frosting ... you can probably tell some of the ones that I did LOL, and they apparently got me in the mood for some marbling on my nails:


My aunt made rosettes - there was another box in addition to this one & she said she'd make more fresh for Christmas Day:


Almond bark with pretzels & peppermint, made by Grandma:


Fruity Pebble/Rice Krispie bars, made by Grandma:


Cranberry walnut bars - also made by Grandma =):


Cake balls =) One of my contributions of course. The green are chocolate cake with mint coating, the red are strawberry/strawberry & my personal favorite combination to date:


Fruity foldovers - kind of a sugar cookie based dough with your choice of preserves inside, this is another of my contributions, and I chose apricot & blackberry gooey deliciousness inside:


Snowballs AKA Russian tea cakes, made by Mom ... I never eat these since they have nuts (I'm allergic):


Cardamom cookies, also by Mom. She had a heck of a time finding cardamom, it was sold out everywhere, and then the sugar sprinkled on top was this super-special kind that was hard to find & as you see not that impressive in the end. To top it all off, the consensus was that these taste pretty much like a snickerdoodle cookie LOL. I think Mom considered these a semi-fail on that account:


Stained-glass cookies, also by Mom. One of her favorites, kind of like fruitcake except it's a cookie ... and another one with tree-nuts:


I don't remember what these were called, but they had oatmeal, corn flakes, peanuts, and peppermint frosting, and this is ANOTHER contribution by Grandma:


So we took all that & made 16 various trays, for family & friends =) Here are a few of them:


Cookie day may be my favorite day of the year, even above & beyond Christmas itself. I literally cannot remember a Christmas without a cookie day, it's always been a tradition =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette