Nail Art: MoYou London Challenge Day 4 - Fantasy (Mermaid Nails)

If you do nail stamping, it's most likely that you know of MoYou London and their absolutely AMAZING array of stamping plates. Seriously, these things are works of art in and of themselves!

Well, in honor of reaching 10K followers on Instagram, MoYou London is hosting a challenge/contest!

Today's post is my first attempt at the challenge. The theme for May 4th was "Fantasy." I was planning on doing a mermaid-inspired manicure, so it worked out perfectly for this theme!

Reviews and Swatches: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue It

It's been a bit of a busy week, but I'm trying to use this weekend to catch up, write posts and hopefully schedule some to go out soon.

This polish was supposed to be last week's Budget Friendly Friday polish... but, well, that never happened, despite my best intentions. I had even posted about it on Instagram! 

So, here you are, a week and one day late, your Budget Friendly Friday polish!  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue It.

Nail Art: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #16 - Gothic

When all of the members of the Theme Buffet were throwing around ideas on the Facebook group for the upcoming months, I was excited to see Sarah of Penny Pinching Polish suggest a gothic theme. I had a whole bunch of ideas that I would have loved to try out.

And here I am, two hours before this week's deadline, trying to throw together a mani really quick - one which was none of the things I really had in mind. This was one of the weeks I was most looking forward too...and of course it would turn out to be the one where I had little to no free time.

Nail Art: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #13 - Monochrome - Deep Blue Sea

So, March ended and we reached the end of our first set of Theme Buffet themes. The group put together a new list of themes to last us through the end of June, and the first of those themes begins today!

There was actually a bit of a mixup and we wound up with TWO themes - Monochrome and Mother's Day (apparently it's Mother's Day earlier in the UK. Never knew that!). Since Mother's Day here in the US isn't until May, I decided to go with the monochrome theme.

Nail Art: Tri Polish Tuesday - Pastel Plaid

I want to apologize for my posting schedule these  two weeks. I've missed half of my usual weekly features and haven't had the chance to visit friends' blogs or comment on things I've seen out there. being busy + missing my camera battery charger = no new posts ;_;

That said, I found myself with a few extra moments in which I could make another attempt at the Tri Polish Challenge this week. Two out of four weeks this month isn't bad, right? Enjoy my attempts at putting together a green, blue and purple pastel plaid look... even if it is a day late for the Tuesday challenge...

Nail Art: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #10 - Dots and Stripes

Sometimes when I participate in nail art challenges, I have no idea what to do. I'll hem and haw and finally decide to just do SOMETHING. A lot of times, I'm not necessarily happy with the results, but I did it <3

The theme for this week's FingerFood Theme Buffet was "Dots and Stripes"  and of course I had TONS of ideas. The problem wasn't lack of inspiration, this time, but instead a complete lack of time.  There are only a few more hours left to submit this week's designs, so I threw something together really quick.

Today's Polish Haul - 12/28/13 - Sinful Colors, Sally Hansen, NYC

Imagine that you have been searching for a job for the past 4 months. You're down. You have little to no money. You're 32 and have been staying with family until you can find a job. You don't have a license and the majority of your friends have either moved away from the area , or are back in the country you just returned home from.

You find yourself in the nearby Walmart with $20 in your pocket. What do you do to cheer yourself up?

Splurge on a bunch of cheap nail polish, of course!

'Tis the Season....

So, part of what prompted me to begin this blog was my online wanderings after painting my nails for the holiday season. Posting a photo of my Christmas nails to Instagram made me wonder how many other people do exactly the same thing every day!

As a word of warning, I took the photos in this post before I had planned on blogging, so beware crappy iPhone photos in crappy lighting. Future photos will definitely be more composed.

Keep reading to learn more about this look...