Memorializing the Snow

Even though I'm mani-backlogged, time is of the essence with today's:  snowflakes!  Now, here in coastal SC, we mostly got sleet and saw flakes falling, but never got the powdery stuff on the ground.  So sad.  :C

But I have snowflakes o my nails, so life isn't THAT bad!

I started with the Zoya Liberty x2 I've had on for the past few days.





I then stamped Color Club On the Rocks with Vivid Lacquer 006.  I tried to smooth it with Gelous before SV, but it drastically smeared one nail, so they all have SVx2 to get the texture filled.



I, of course, took my pictures with the hood of my car as the background.  ;)

For fun, there are a ton photos I took this morning of the yard behind the break.

Puppy Paws

For Giftmas, I got my littlest sister a Klutz Nail Art book.  It's a set I had when I was about 10 and since she's always oohing and ahhing over my nails, I thought this would be a nice treat for her that also fits my stepmother's requirements of peel-off and non-toxic.  I had her flip through and pick out a few designs she liked, and then with my big-girl tools (a fine paintbrush and various sizes of dotting tools) I did some adorable nail art for her.

She wanted blue and red base color:



I did two coats all around.  Then she wanted puppy paws and little puppies.



Thumbs ended up being painter's palettes.  (I think because they required me to use all the colors, including mixing up some brown.)



So even though I explained to her that since they are water-based and designed to peel off, they wouldn't last very long (woe is me, though, the art on a squirming child easily took over an hour) she was devastated when she lost a few.  Hopefully she realizes that she can just ask me to do it again next time we have some spare time!

Cast-On: Color Affection

Ok, let's hit on the knitting aspect of my life.  I love knitting, but I change manis far more often than I hit any kind of knitting milestone- cast on a new project, learn from a mistake, finish knitting, or even blocking.  But I've got a project start today, so yay!

I decided that I really needed to find a use for one of the several variegated lace-weight yarns I have.  I really wet through a phase and then it hit me that I had not a clue what to do with them.  So gorgeous in the skein, they kind of knit up not-so-pretty.

The one I've had the longest is a Zitron Filigran in the Indian Summer colorway.



Look at this.  It's freaking gorgeous.

I tried to start knitting with it a few times, but always felt meh about it.  Someone suggested incorporating it into a Color Affection, though, and that sounded like a great idea!  So I hit my LYS to try to find two colors to compliment the royal/jewel-toned colors in the Zitron.

I ended up with two balls of Nico Feza- a purple with a red "halo" and a black with navy "halo."





I did the black-and-white-photo test, and I think the color choices will be successful!



I even knit a min-swatch (ain't nobody got time for all those 4x4" squares...) to see if I liked the colors next to each other:



This shawl will probably take me a thousand years to finish, given my history of project completion, but I think I'll like it in the end.  :)

New Year's mani- in late January!

Several things happened between Christmas and now.  Mostly, though, I was stuck on a browser that wouldn't allow me to function in Blogger.  So I have a lot of catch-up to do.

I did the most epic mani ever for New Year's Eve.  Actually, as much as I loved this, I probably should have switched my accent polishes, but whatever.

I took so many pictures.  These two are indoor.  First under a crazy LED light, but the purple is off.



Next under just a regular overhead light.



These two are a few days later in my car: first in a shady kind of place, then in direct sunlight.





On all but ring:
Revlon Gel-Smooth Base Coat
Essie Sexy Divide x2
Maybelline Lavishly lilac x1 on middle finger
Maybelline Gilded Rose x3 or 4 on ring finger
All topped with SV or Gelous and then SV.

I have to say, Sexy Divide was TROUBLE to apply.  The first coat looked awful.  the second coat hid all imperfections, though it would have been perfect at 3- I was just too lazy and no one is looking THAT close.  I would have probably also either worn a gold under the Gilded Rose so so many coats wouldn't have been needed (it was still sheer after the above) and also, I probably would reverse the Lavishly Lilac (so you could really see the purple in it) and the Gilded Rose over Sexy Divide.

Here's me wearing it in action- the BF and I spent NYE with a few friends playing Cards Against Humanity while practicing being not-sober.



Best.  Card.  Ever.  (But no one in the room thought it was funny, I guess you gotta be a cephalopod-loving hoar to truly appreciate this.)

Crafting for Christmas: Part 3 - Picture Frames

And we conclude our foray into last-minute crafting, I'll give you some pictures of various stages of the process of gluing glass to picture frames and calling it ART!

I decided on 4 frames- and then grossly underestimated how many beads I'd need for each (Mostly, I counted, and then promptly forgot what I'd counted and said, "Eh, 30-40 beads!"  And it was really like 60-70.) so there was a lot of last-minute painting of more for ones I thought I'd finished.

First frame completed was for my father and stepmother- I decided a picture frame was the perfect gift card holder to the neat cooking shop downtown I'd purchased for the earlier.  (Secretly, of the three I've completed because yes, I'm still working at the moment I'm typing this, this is my favorite because the polish matches the frame so perfectly and though the edge of the frame is smaller, that just means it's all-the-more covered by beads!) Painted with Color Club Winter Affair, which came form Sally Beauty, so it smells like burnt vanilla.  I knew as much as I loved the color, I'd never wear it on my nails, and the smell will eventually fade from the frame.

I painted these in batches of 15 and 20, so as I painted one layer on, I'd move it to the other side of the box lid I was working in.



When I was all done, it looked like this:



The bottom half of that picture shows the back-ends of the rainbow of colors I used for the frame for my sister.  I decided to use the swatches I'd been playing with because they were all lovely, and a spectrum would make an interesting frame.

This is the front side of some of the swatches I ended up using again, and the blue and purple on the right side are for another frame entirely (the one for my aunt).  You can also see the pendants I made on the bottom left, though the poor lighting does them absolutely no justice.



Two shots of the spectrum frame.  I plan on getting sunlight pictures of these, if I can later.





Ok, and though this has never even been posted, so not time has passed for you, I have returned with some photos I took in my car before giftwrapping and giving these away!

Blue and purple-themed frame for my aunt:



A reddish-brown themed frame for my uncle:



And a better angle so the shimmer can be seen a little bit better:



And here's the spectrum in better light:



I have a bunch of close-ups of the spectrum beads, but I feel like they would be overkill.  Trust, there are some fabulous colors in there, but the overall look is what I was going for!