31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Days 7 and 8 are combined because I've been super lazy =)

Day 7 was a black and white design...I love vintage things so I googled this image and loved it...and tried to recreate it on my nails which ended up being more challenging than I thought.

Day 8 was metallic.  I only have one polish that is metallic enough to be featured during these challenges so here it is!

THe picture shows this as a really yellow gold and while it is on the yellow side it is not nearly as vivid as in the picture.

On another notem I am going on vacation and will be taking a hiatus of sorts on the challenge (not that I;ve actually stuck too closely to the time limit) but I will get back with it soon after my vacation is over... there maybe one more post tomorrow, depending on how much packing I get done tonight =)

31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Hey everyone!

Here is my violet design, it's pretty simple but I liked how it turned out.  I find that I'm really attracted to darker colors when purchasing polishes so one benefit of this challenge is it has made me realize that I should expand my color selection =).

The darker color that I used (Essie Carry On) is super dark and almost black looking when worn alone...though I think that lighter purple underneath brought out the purple side ofthe polish.

Until the next post!

31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delays in posting, I'm crazy tired and was really busy yesterday so no posts and I'm now a day behind because I had zero energy or inspiration today.  Anywho, on to the blue design.

So I am in love with the color on all of my nails (China Glaze Sexy in the City).  It's a bright blue with a slight teal and green shimmer to it...I'm borderline obsessed haha!

To wrap things up I will get right back on track tomorrow, I swear.  Be prepared for some purple nails =)

31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Here is my green nail design and I tried a new technique but of course didn't let my base color dry long enough before trying it out so I smudged it all up and then had to go back in and try to fix it so I am not completely sold on this new technique but maybe I'll try it again sometime...who knows.

Like I said, this design idea didn't really work out the way that I dreamed it would but it's still an interesting idea and I'll try it again...eventually. 

31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Yellow makes me think of sunshine and daffodils and lemonade and numerous other things.  It also makes me think of high school.  My high school colors are purple and "gold" or yellow lol.  So these nails are a kind of throwback to my high school...Go Eagles!

I am finding these color challenges more difficult than I thought I would...I don't want to just paint them a solid color because I feel like that's too easy but finding new and interesting ways to combine the shades of the colors that I'm using is proving to be a little difficult...but I guess that's why it's called a challenge right?

PS Sorry that I'm a day late on this one but Tuesdays are pretty busy for me so we'll probably have to expect 2 posts on Wednesdays instead.

31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Today was a day for Orange!

I have a whole whopping 4 orange polishes and being a redhead I tend to steer away from bright oranges because I am just not a huge fan despite the fact that orange is supposed to make your skin look more tan (it would take a miracle for me to be tan).

So after painting and repainting my nails a few times I finally am satisified.  My other designs just didn't seem to be orange enough so I just went for it.

I didn't want to do too much clean up afterwards because I had already painted them twice and I really just wanted the dang things to dry so I could go wash my hair. Haha!

It's fairly simple and I'm not madly in love with it but it does satisfy the orange theme so I'm content.





31 Days of Nails Challenge!

Hello!! So a totally different project for the blog! I won't just be raving about something haha! I follow quite a few nail art blogs and have become kind of obsessed with doing my own nails/nail designs.  Anywho, one of the bloggers (Nail Days) is doing this 31 Days of Nails challenge and I am going to do it! I am sooo excited about it and I can't wait to see where it goes! I usually redo my nails everyday anyway because work is really rough on my polish and designs so I will hopefully stick with the daily posts.  The only exception that I can forsee is my vacation at the end of April to early May but after that brief hiatus I will be sure to get right back with it.  So here are the challenges:

Since today will be my number one challenge, here is my RED design!

As you can see, they are strawberries!!   I think they are super cute and were relatively easy to do so I'm pretty excited about them! 

If you want to know a little bit of background, I used to be a terrible nail biter! Like so bad...there aren't even words to explain how awful it was.  The only time I had ever had long nails was when I had acrylic nails on which is what started this nail journey.  My sister got married in December 2011 and I had fake nails put on for the wedding.  I let them grow out with every intention of getting them filled but a month went by and I never did and it was just time for them to come off.  I took them off and realized how long my nails had grown and decided that in order to keep from biting them I would have to keep polish on them and have them be pretty.  So I started painting them and of course the flimsy nails that had grown out broke and chipped but I refused to give up and now I have pretty nails that I enjoy a lot and I love the creativity that nail art provides. So I am really excited to share all of it with you!!!

I hope you all will enjoy this little adventure and we'll see if I can keep it up :)

xox

Ahh Pinterest...

For those of you who don't know what Pinterest is, let me enlighten you.  It's a website where you create your own "boards" and "pin" random things from the world wide web onto them.  It's kind of like bookmarking different websites all in one place that you can share with your followers.  It sounds a little strange until you start it and then you waste a few hours pinning things and realize, "Holy Cow, I started doing this three hours ago!"  Some may view this as a waste of time...I happen to love it!


Anywho, I have several boards and one that is entitled Quotes...original I know.  Despite my lack of creativity in naming my boards I have come across some pretty awesome things, one of which is...

I think this quote was made for me...I'm always looking for something...when maybe I should realize how happy I am with my life in the present.   I'm vowing to myself to make this more of a habit, find what makes me happy and simply be happy with it.

On a completely different note, I am kind of up in the air on how this blog should function.  I love writing whatever I want to but I feel like I don't actually write frequently enough...hmm who really knows...so I'm going to try to mix up writing about things that weigh on me and things that I enjoy.  I know not everyone enjoys what I do so if you're not interested in a post...skip it! ;)

So kind of a random post but ooo well! Enjoy what is to come :))

PS If you are on Pinterest and are interested in following me you can at http://pinterest.com/rachellouise18/ 

Appreciate

  I don't know how often you have ever felt unappreciated but I know that it used to be a very common feeling that I had.  It doesn't take much to let someone know how you appreciate them and yet it seems to be the hardest thing to do.  I work at McDonald's and I definitely feel that when you bust your butt making $200 order or clean every second you can or are simply especially nice or have an especially good attitude that it should be expressed that you're appreciated.  It's not hard, a simple good job would do.  However, I find that its not the workplace where people go unappreciated the most.  It's in daily life because I know that I assume that the people most close to me know how much they mean to me, but do they really?

  I started thinking about this because today is my grandmother's birthday.  I try to think of the last time I told her how much she means to me and besides "I love you"s and visits and I can't ever remember a time where I sat down and told her how grateful I am for her and how lucky I am to still have her, happy and healthy, in my life. 

  I also realized that some of my best friends probably don't know how much I appreciate them either.  My best friend since birth for example...we don't talk every day, we barely have seen each other in since she went away to school. None of that matters though because we can always pick right back up where we left off no matter how much time has passed.  When we do see each other, no matter if its for two weeks, two days, or two minutes, they are the best time spent until the next time we see each other.  She supports me in any endeavor and I know that if I ever needed her she do all she could to be with me.  She also never mentions how she never gets gifts from me because she knows I'm so broke pretty much all of the time.  She's literally one of the best things in my life and I don't know that I've ever told her.

I guess this is my personal challege and well as a challenge to those of you who read this.  Show some one that you appreciate them every day for the next week...or month...make it a habit because who doesn't love to know that you appreciate them for simply being who they are.

Thanks for reading and sorry that I've been pretty inactive lately.

Love Always!
Rachel