The Tortoise and the Hare...

So it's been a while. I know. I apologize. It was part laziness, part exhaustion, part lack of inspiration, and part internet at home not working for a while. Enough excuses though, it's nail art time. I almost put off posting until tomorrow night, I've been on a 'Six Feet Under' kick today, but I promised my colleague Prob that I would post this weekend, and so I shall. :)

Today's design kinda popped in my head the other day, and I knew that I had to try it out. I tried a combination of using a crumpled paper towel and a brush to apply to get the effect that I wanted. It's not exactly how I pictured it, but I'm reasonably satisfied with how it turned out. :)

I used H&M Rust as a base, with a mixture of Seche Vite top coat and American Apparel Raccoon to create shapes on the background color. For the next layer of shapes, I used a mixture of Seche Vite top coat and MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious. Finally, I used a mixture of Seche Vite top coat and American Apparel Hassid. I topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Square Dancing

You know me, I love my mod, geometric patterns. This puppy is no different, with its brightly colored square outlines over black. I actually wore this one day, then redid it. This is v2.0. The first version had looser, bigger squares, but I prefer the smaller, more tightly woven squares I think.

I was going to post these last night, but I made marinara sauce instead. From scratch. I've made sauce from 'scratch' to an extent before, meaning canned tomatoes, and the rest from scratch, but this time I used fresh tomatoes. Truth be told, it's kind of a pain in the ass, but man was it worth it! I blanched the tomatoes to remove the skin, then diced them, cooked them down, and added them to garlic, mushrooms, olive oil, and onions and simmered them til all the flavors melded. I was actually pretty stoked the recipe I was using didn't include basil (I hate basil). It DID call for carrots, celery, and bay leaves, but I didn't have those, so out they stayed. All in all, it was a total success, and much better than paying $5 for a jar of Ragu, which tastes like a monkey's butthole. Best part? Enough food for the two of us for two meals, and one more serving left! (all for the low, low price of $3.50- yes, that includes the 3 lb of fresh tomatoes!)  Next time I make it, I'm definitely doubling or tripling the recipe so I can freeze some for easy meals. Can you blame me? ;)

BTW- Wanna hear about my New Year in India? Read all about it on Just Another Day in India...

On to what you came here for... the nails. ;)

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with white acrylic as a base for the design, covered with American Apparel MacArthur Park for the green, and Zoya Robyn for the turquoise. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Homer New Year!!

My buddy Homer wanted to wish you all a happy 2012, so he asked me to paint my nails for the occasion! He donned his best party hat and posed for his nail portrait, and away I went to painting him!

My first new year celebration in India was certainly an exciting one- I'll share that on the 'Just Another Day in India' blog tomorrow, complete with video, so keep an eye out for it! :)

Homer and his nail art likeness. He looks worried or sad. Maybe he doesn't like them. :(

I used Zoya Robyn as a base, with white and black acrylic paint for homer, a mixture of Lotus Herbals Brownie Glaze and American Apparel California Trooper for the ears, and a little American Apparel California Trooper for his cheeks (he's a rat terrier, so he has tan spots on his cheeks). For the milk bones on the other 4 nails spelling out '2012', I used American Apparel Trenchcoat with American Apparel Raccoon to shade. Topped all nails off with a coat of OPI Rainbow Connection, and 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I wish you all the most amazing 2012, and to quote a friend, 'May your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions!'

Why this Kolaveri Di?

For those of you not aware of this song (probably most of you outside of India), it is the most ADDICTIVE song ever. I can't get it out of my head. It's SUPER popular here in India, and is somewhat of a joke now. 'Why this Kolaveri di?' in Tamil means, 'Why this Murderous Rage, Girl?' Check out this song here. Be warned, it's a SERIOUS earworm. To date, the youTube video of this song has gotten over 27.5 MILLION views. Insane.

Today's nails are my tribute to India, my new home for the next 2 years. :) I did the Indian flag!

Some goofy pictures from Christmas Day, just goofin' around. (and our Chinese Christmas dinner, lol)

Black and White and Red All Over

Wow. It's been a while. Sorry about that. Turns out packing up all yer shit, then moving to the other side of the world is a lot of work! :-D I've missed the blog and interacting with all of you!! I'm finally on the other side of the world and starting to adjust to everything (except the fact that the biggest nail polish remover I can find is 30mL). I'll admit, things were difficult at first, and I questioned WTF I got myself into, but then, things got better, and I started to acclimate to my new surroundings. I'll admit, there are times when this country is maddening, but that's everywhere. If you want to read about my India adventures, I've started a new blog, Just Another Day in India....

Anyway. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to what you actually came here for. :)

This nail design was inspired by a kurta (shirt) that I wore the other day. I'm definitely loving the Indian attire, though I still maintain a bit of my American style–can't give up my jeans! I love all the patterns of the clothing here, so many colors! This particular kurta is basic colors- black, white, and red! :)

I used white acrylic paint for the design over the black nail polish base. It's the first time using acrylic, and I'm not sure I like the outcome, it didn't seem to 'stick' well, and left jagged edges.

Our typical picture- me with my tongue sticking' out, and Chris giving me a dirty look :)

My friend Sheba and I

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with white acrylic paint for the design, and Nicole by OPI Redy to Runaway Love? for the red. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat. 

In the 'Mod'

Hey there!!  Sorry for the lack of posting, since my visa hasn't been approved yet, I'll try to post a little more until I start the moving process again. Unfortunately right now it's a bit awkward doing my nails, I have no nail table, no kitchen table, and a lot of my polishes and tools are en route to India. OK, enough excuses, on to the nails!!

I was stir-crazy the other day, so I decided to go out in public and walk around the outlet mall. On a whim, I stopped by the American Apparel outlet store, and to my astonishment, they had a ton of new colors!!  I was shocked, I hadn't heard anything about them, and some of them are AMAZING!! (not that the others aren't cool, they're just something similar to what I have already, or something I probably wouldn't wear, i.e. pink) One of the colors I am seriously head over heels for (I bought 2), is Lopez Canyon, an awesome red-orange color that is insanely cool. In addition to its awesome hue, its also quite opaque, which, obviously, is a huge plus in my book. I knew that I wanted to use this color in a nail design, and I had a design I'd sort of been picturing in my head for a while, so i went for it. It didn't turn out like it did in my head, but I don't mind the outcome. I'm always a fan of patterns on the nail, sometimes even more than nail art I've done like the Smurfs, Finding Nemo, or stuff like that.

I used all American Apparel polishes for this design (other than my topcoat). For the base, I used American Apparel California Trooper, for the black, I used American Apparel Hassid, and for the red-orange accents, I used American Apparel Lopez Canyon. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

And, because I find it amusing... cat bed. I am cat-sitting right now, and I found it amusing when I went in the bedroom the other day, and all three cats were on the bed–even the hermit cat that rarely comes out! Don't mind the unmade bed. lol

Hunter is the grey one, Molly is the hermit-cat near the headboard,
and Queequeg is the one standing up, I disturbed her slumber. :-D

Let Me Pick Your Brains...

I love Halloween. I love the dressing up, the candy, the scares, the spooks, the pumpkins, everything. It's always ranked fairly high on my list of awesome holidays. Sadly, this year I was supposed to be out of the country 2 weeks before Halloween, so I didn't think about it that much, and I definitely didn't prepare for it. Little did I know I'd be experiencing so much trouble getting out of the country, and would be in the states to celebrate the holiday of Caspers and cavities. The problem is, I usually start thinking about Halloween sometime around August, I don't do Halloween half-assed. :-D So, in an effort to celebrate the holiday, I painted my nails with Halloween goodness. I chose to do Zombie nails, because who doesn't like zombies? (unless they're being chased by them, of course)  Pardon the small piece out of the middle nail. I managed to break the nail before I got a picture of this manicure! :(

I used OPI Stranger Tides as a base, with American Apparel Raccoon brushed over it on a dry paper towel to dirty it up a bit. When it wasn't completely dry (mostly dry, but still dentable) I used my nails to gouge, scratch, and wrinkle the surface. The holes, dents, and scrapes I created were then filled with a mixture of Zoya Carmen and American Apparel Raccoon, then highlighted with Zoya Carmen on its own. To shade around the wounds, I mixed American Apparel Raccoon with OPI Stranger Tides, and to highlight, I mixed American Apparel California Trooper with OPI Stranger Tides. I topped everything with a coat of Essie Matte About You, then topped the bloody spots with Seche Vite top coat to make it glossy and sticky looking.

Happy Halloween!!! :)

In addition to the nails for today, while I was home visiting my family, my Aunt Roxanne expressed that she'd love for me to paint her nails, and that she really liked the Reverse Rockabilly design. I never really paint other people's nails, but I really like how they turned out. :)