Confession Time:

Confession Time:  Shaun had to damage my scale nail before I could bring myself to take it off.  😂  I had all of my other nails naked and ready to be painted - EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE.  I guess I was making a big deal about it so he said "Let me see it." and then proceeded to dig a chunk of it off me with his big, hard, man nails.  😳  I mean, I guess that was an effective way to make it easier to take off... at least I didn't have to murder it with polish remover for no reason.  😂

Anyway.  I wanted to use my succulent decal before it dried out since it was more work to make than the cat.  If I had waited any longer I would have missed my chance.  It was already very brittle and the application of it did not go smoothly.  😕

First of all, I had to apply a clear polish to the back of it to soften it up.  Secondly, I dropped it on a fuzzy blanket right after applying the clear polish.  THEN, when I was trying to shape it to my nail, it cracked.  Thankfully, I had the good sense to use the same base color as the background of the decal; otherwise, you'd probably be able to spot the crack.  It was almost a huge nail fail.  🙁  But lots of patience, acetone, and topcoat saved it.  🙂

Overall I think it looks nice, but I'm not as in love with it as I was with the scales.  I'm glad I could make it work, but I'm bummed that my decals aren't storing so great.  I knew they wouldn't last forever, but I didn't even get a solid week out of that.  I guess I can't make them too far in advance for now.  I read that one polish blogger stored hers inside sheet protectors for 10 days.  I was thinking that surely a closed-off stamper would be more air tight, but I guess not.  😕

For anyone who's interested - my pointer finger is FingerPaints Nail Color Ink-Cognito, my middle finger is China Glaze Nail Lacquer Below Deck, and my pinky is the lovely Barry M. in Dusky Mauve.  I wanted that polish for ages before I finally bought it.  I know that the shimmer isn't showing in that one on the nail in photos like it is in the bottle, but I promise you it's there.  It is SO pretty and I'm so happy to finally call it my own.

This will be the third picture that I've posted of this ONE FREAKING NAIL...

This will be the third picture that I've posted of this ONE FREAKING NAIL, but seriously JUST LOOK AT IT.  😳  I finally got her in a sunbeam!  LOOK AT THE RAINBOWS!  I guess it's no secret that I am a HOLOSEXUAL!  (<--  If you don't get that reference then you're not watching the best nail art channel on YouTube right now.)

So my beautiful scales are coming off today because I've had to re-paint all the rest of my nails save for her and the pinky.  I don't know if it's just that the decal is, (for some reason), very tough or what, but it's lasted all week.  It would probably last a few more days, too, but if I'm having to re-paint the rest of my nails anyway then I really want to put on another one of my decals - if they haven't dried out too much by now.  I have no idea.

Anyway, I made a 92 on my history test so I deserve a treat.  Off to paint my nails!  I have to spend most of my weekend studying and doing Trig homework so I might as well have fun now if I can.  

(I don't even know if I can because I really don't want to melt this prettiness off me.  /sad)

I made a couple of more decals last night.

I made a couple of more decals last night. I just really really wanted to - and like I said - it relaxes me, which I need x1000 lately.

Since I never have time to do super cool things to my nails during the week I'll use these decals when my current polish starts chipping in few days... assuming they hold up. We'll see if they do. I hope so. 

There is a really cool nail art mat that I want SO BAD that would allow me to make more decals at a time instead of storing them on my stampers, but I'm not buying it yet. For one I don't actually have extra money for now and two it's not like I have a ton of time to devote to this right now anyway. But one day... 🙂

Thankfully, these two awesome clear stampers were SUPER CHEAP and came with lids that protect the sticky heads from lint, etc, so they are great for storing the decals for now. They keep them safe from being damaged and also stop them from drying out. Unfortunately I only have two, but I have other stampers I can use for nail-doing for a while.

Anyway. I guess I'm off to do Trig homework. Can't play all weekend, unfortunately. 😕

I know this is yet again not my best photo...

I know this is yet again not my best photo (yay for cloudy days and crappy house lighting!), but check out my freaking decal.  I made it by myself with only nail polish and stamping plates.  I don't know if every stamping plate would allow me to make a decal this well, but I'm betting that most of them would work - meaning that I have a binder full of images just waiting to be filled in and worn in a whole new way.  😳

I'm really missing this thing called "free time" right now because I want to do this about a thousandy more times.  😂  The filling in of something so tiny is really tedious, but I think it's kind of meditative for me.  And right about now I think that's something I need.

Anyway, I read that decals can be stored for about 10 days before becoming too brittle to use so IN THEORY I could make decals for you guys if I have something on any of my stamping plates that you'd like to wear.  Best of all you could probably stick these down yourselves because that was the easy part.  🙂

To stick it down I put down a clear polish on top of my base color, let it dry a little, then stuck the decal down.  I trimmed as much of it down as I could with cuticle scissors, then buffed it off the tip of the nail, then used a thin brush dipped in acetone to clean the edges and seal the sides down.  Threw on a nice topcoat after that and I was good to go!  (I know that might sound like a lot, but there was really nothing to it.)

Anyway.  I felt like that was pretty freaking neat.  Jamberry ain't got nothing on me!  😃

Sally's was having a great sale, but my heart just wasn't in it.

As I'm sure most of you know by now it's been a very tough week, but I'm finally starting to feel a sense of "normal" creeping back in.  Not "normal" enough to buy nail polish today, but normal enough to look at it.  😂  Sally's was having a great sale, but my heart just wasn't in it.  Shaun ended up buying me 3 polishes - he got one for himself.  There was a BOGO on FingerPaints Nail Color so that was pretty awesome.  🙂

I used one of my new polishes called Ink-Ognito on my middle finger and also on the decal that is on my ring finger.  I haven't had time this past year with work and school to really try this before, but I've wanted so badly to successfully make my own nail decals using my stamper and just nail polish.

As much of a mess as this might appear to be it actually turned out pretty amazing after clean-up and topcoat.  I'll post a nice photo tomorrow when I get into better lighting with a real camera.  I just thought this looked kind of neat and I was really happy that I was up for taking a few hours to just do something for myself - for no other reason than that I wanted to.  I feel like that's a sign that my stress levels are starting to drop.

Anyway.  Goodnight, all.  Or good morning.  In any case - see you whenever I wake up!

I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to do Valentine's nails...

I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to do Valentine's nails to go with this ring, but I didn't.  Life isn't working out like that right now.  Maybe next year.

Might share a few nail pics from when I had time in my life.  😂  I used to look festive... on my nails - at least.  😛

I am Grumpy Cat this week.

I am Grumpy Cat this week.  Oh well.  😂

I was getting ready to chop my nails off yesterday, but then I remembered this plate and thought "I bet I could fit Grumpy AND her "NOPE" on there if I do this now."  I just barely got it all on there, but that's ok.  Since I was too tired and brain-dead for homework I painted my nails.  It cheered me up so it wasn't a waste of time.  🙂

My nails are almost long enough to make my nail beds sore.  I generally don't like them to be too far over the ends of my fingertips because I type a lot and I'm clumsy.  😂  But I figured I could live with them for a few more days to wear this.  🙂

Grumpy's pattern that you can't really see around the edge of her is a triangle pattern that is the same (but a smaller version) of what's on the rest of my nails.  I didn't really think about it not showing up because I have small nails, but that's why the rest of my fingers are done in a triangle pattern.  It's not like I have triangles on the brain or anything.  😛