Christmas and New Years Manicure!

lHappy New Years Eve!

Since I wasn't able to do a post on my Christmas manicure, I decide to do a Christmas and New Years combo.

Btw, please excuse my nasty cuticles. They have been really dry due to the weather. I guess I didn't realize how dry they were! :(

Christmas Manicure:

• Red: OPI's You Rock Acapulco Red
• Gold: Rimmel. I can't remember what its called at the moment and I'm too lazy to dig for it through my nail polish stash
• White: Non-toxic (yes, I had to put that) acrylic craft paint from any craft supplies store

I originally wanted to do the candy cane design on all my nails, but I figured it would be excessive. So I decided to improvise and this is what I ended up with. I tried to keep it simple, but it just came out very gawdy and christmas-y. But hey, it never hurts to be in the Christmas spirit right? It only comes once a year so I thought, "why not?"

New Years Manicure:

• Bright blue: OPI's Suzi Says Feng Shui (Spring/Summer Collection)
• Blue glitter: OPI's Simmer & Shimmer (Burlesque Collection)
  

For some reason I thought blue would be a good and festive color for the new years. But again, it came up quite excessive but hey, its all for fun. I used the same white craft paint from my Christmas manicure and a dotting tool to make the white dots. I used tape to make the straight edges. Believe it or not, tape has been my best friend in nail designing. It works wonders.

Tell me what you think! Thanks. :)

Versatile Blogger Award!

While I was away on my unannounced hiatus, Kay of Gurly Things awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award. Aw, so sweet of her. :)

Rules:

1. Thank and link back to who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Pass it along to seven blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy.

4. Leave you recipients a note, telling them about the award.

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7 things about Alice:

1. I took one lesson in Muay Thai. I got so frustrated with the instructor because he kept picking on me that I started crying. It was quite embarrassing. Don't get me wrong, I had fun, but it was that intense. Luckily I was paired with a girl so it wasn't as awkward-- she was very understanding and nice. :P
   
2. I bring my boyfriend with me when I go shopping and or buy nail polish because he seems to have a better sense of what looks good. Which works out for me because when he goes shopping once in a blue moon, I can pick out better clothes for himself than he can. Weird right? He can pick out better girl clothes than I. But can't pick out guy clothes for himself. :)---which brings me to my side story. Remember how dark blue nail polish was in style for fall about 2 years ago? Well I remember asking him what colors he thought would look like nice. He suggested dark blue. I told him, "you got to be kidding me". A few days later I was reading the Los Angeles Times---lo and behold there was an article in the fashion section indicating that dark blue was the new in color! I saved that article because I thought it was funny. I'm thinking about framing it. :)
3. I bought my first pair of heels about 2 months ago for a wedding. I'm 23 years old and I never bought heels for myself until now. I've had the luxury of borrowing shoes from my older sister until she moved to San Fransisco.
   
4. I have a strange hobby of keeping old letters, notes I wrote to friends during class in high school and Christmas/Birthday cards from people. I don't know why I keep them. I especially like to go back and read the notes I wrote during class and laugh at how stupid I use to be.
5. Although I make a lot of Hello Kitty stuff when I do my crafting/nail art. Chococat is my all time favorite. :)
6. About 60% of the music in my mp3 player belongs to Frank Sinatra. As my great history high school teacher would say, "His voice is like butttttttttttahhhh" (butter).
7. I've never left the country before, which is quite sad. I've been stuck on USA soil my entire life. :(

Okay, so I'm going to be a rebel and break the 3rd and 4th rule because I haven't recently discovered any new blogs and it would be cheating if I tagged blogs that I've been reading for awhile. Sorryyyy...:(

Hello Kitty Manicure

I've been away from the computer for awhile. Since I have email access on my mobile device, I seldom use the computer now. :(

Here is a Hello Kitty manicure I did, although she is not my favorite Sanrio character. She is nonetheless a beloved icon.



I know it looks a bit excessive, but this was done at the spur of the moment. Since I use to work for Sanrio, I figured such a gawdy look would be appropriate for a Hello Kitty manicure (pink, purple and glitter/sparkles-I kinda thought about shiny stickers). I didn't use red because it is a traditional Hello Kitty color and I wanted to do something different.

The purple I used was from Color Club's Wild at Heart . The glitter polish was used from OPI's Burlesque Collection; I used Show it & Glow it! and Sparkle-icious. The pink was nail art paint I bought from Sally's Beauty Supply, used for the stripes and bows. The black and white paint I used for the Hello Kitty face was acrylic craft paint.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a photo of the other hand before I took the nail design off. It was less excessive, more plain and much nicer. I had to go to a wedding so I figured it wouldn't be appropriate to wear to a wedding.

Tell me what you think! :)

Black Flats Reconstruction (3 in 1)

I've been so lazy!! and for too long! I've been keeping myself busy here and there working on small projects.

Here is a simple and yet fun project using basic black flats. I bought these at a stand from my local Farmers' Market. They were only $10! So I couldn't resist! I never ended up wearing them and began to collect dust in our storage room. I decided a change was needed to make these shoes wearable. As I was walking around Joann, ideas starting coming to mind and I ended up purchasing (2) gold bracelet toggles, a bag of silver end connectors, leather band lace, and a metallic gold lace.


This is the what the Mary Jane flats looked like when I first bought them.




A close up picture.


Black leather band I sewed to the back of the shoe.


This is the final product! So I know I skipped a few steps, I was so into it that I completely forgot to take progress photos. :( But as you can see, I used the gold lace, gold toggles, and silver end connectors to make the ankle wrap.


Here is a close up of the ankle wrap with all the jewelery hardware.


I also found some other fun uses for the ankle wrap!


A bracelet!

There you go! A pair of black flats reconstructed/altered to my liking with 3 uses in 1 product. What do you think? :)

Totoro Nail Design

Okay, I delayed my update as I promised...this is the laziness I am talking about!

Here is a Totoro manicure I did. Since I love Totoro and nail art, why not combine them? I was thinking of you Asami when I was doing this because I know how much you love Totoro and Nail Art. :)

The mediums I used were Orly's Bon Bon which is a pale gray-ish light purple. It is such a pretty pretty color. I figured this would be a nice color since light gray on nails is too dull for my taste (no offense to any of you who like light gray on nails). I decided to use this shimmery/glittery purple from OPI that I mentioned in my Space Nails post. (I still don't know the name of it. If anyone knows, please tell me! I'd like to know. :) ) The So Easy Stripe Rite paint I got from Sally's Beauty Supply which I used to make the little designs. I also used dotting tools which are not pictured to make of the designs.



I used the shimmery/glittery OPI polish on my fingers that didn't have designs on it so the whole design wouldn't look dull from the Orly's Bon Bon.



Tell me what you think! :)