It's been ~1000 years since I've posted a nail pic.

It's been ~1000 years since I've posted a nail pic. Enjoy this beautiful color on my short little nubs. Gosh, I have missed this like you wouldn't believe.

Currently fighting Facebook about my page name with plans to combine Happy Nails and Polish ALL the Things. I'm hoping to be done with that soon and begin posting there again. Until then, I'm only sharing with you lovely folks.

Please don't judge my nail art or camera-wielding skills too harshly. I'm a rusty, crusty mess right now. 💜

Sneak Peek...

Sneak Peek at what just happened to my nails. They inadvertently look like the Instagram logo. 😂😂😂

Ok, I don't normally take nail pics in full sunlight

Ok, I don't normally take nail pics in full sunlight (because of shadows) but considering that I did something weird and I'm not sure how long they'll last, I have made an exception.

So... this time, you get a surprise visit from my Cindy hand! (In the nail art world, Cindy is short for Cinderella - the hand that does all of the work, but doesn't get seen). In my case, she's the left one because I'm a south paw. She doesn't always match the right hand, and is often used as the "test" hand for me to make sure that whatever I'm doing is going to look ok for the hand I'm gonna post. 😜🤣🤣🤣 However, today I made a point of dressing her like the right hand so she would be somewhat presentable. My poor lefty is never quite as pretty (though I'm a good bit ambidextrous), because she is my dominant hand and those nails are always broken and that polish chips first, not to mention the testing.

If you haven't spotted the difference between them yet, here it is: I experimented with a new nail shape at about 4:30 this morning. 😳😳😳 Cindy is wearing baby stilettos! I have been updating my Pinterest with a lot of nail art recently (that whole cleaning out my bookmarks and folder of screencaps thing), and I guess I felt inspired to try something new. To be perfectly honest, I've never been happy with my nail shape, and I figured it was time to put some effort into it.

For those of you who can grow your nails long and they will stay even and pretty, I am jealous. Mine have never been that way. They start to curl once they reach a certain length. Some curl worse than others, so even if I have done the same thing to them all, it doesn't necessarily look as though I have. 🙁 I'm sure that some of this is genetic, but also when I was a kid I did bite my nails for a while, as well as pick the skin at the sides a lot, so I'm sure there is scarring from all of the mistreatment. ☹️☹️☹️

Since the curling happens at my edges, I thought "What would happen if I just took the edges off?" LOL I actually really like the way my pinky and ring finger look on my left hand. My middle finger took the brunt of my picking as a child, so it will probably always look wonky. And my pointer finger is almost always shorter than the rest due to breakage, but it did look better this morning. At some point during all of my painting and prep, it got caught in my scissor and nicked, so I had to file it down even shorter. If you are curious about my Cindy thumb, it is still round (because who cares about her, right?!). 😆😆😆

I read that this is not the strongest nail shape, but if it doesn't work out, that's ok. It's on good old lefty for testing purposes. 😂😂😂 I treat my nails a lot like my hair - if I hate it, I will cut it off and it will grow back. No biggie. But out of curiosity, what do you guys think? Fight to keep them round-ish, or maybe go with the stiletto shape? The ones that turned out nice (pinky and ring finger), I'm really kind of digging.

Also, this nail art is one I've wanted to do for like, THREE YEARS. 😳 I usually don't just straight up rip off other people's work, but I have so much studying to do that I couldn't dedicate my brain power to ideas today. Below is a link is to the blog where I first saw this, and I basically just copied what she did (not exactly, but so very close). She is one of my favorite nail bloggers, so hopefully it would be seen as flattery and not me taking credit for her work, especially since I am minding my internet manners and giving her credit for the idea.

Anyway, I'm off. I've got my nails done for the week, and Calculus is calling me. I'll be back later. ❤

Linky link:  https://www.thenailasaurus.com/2014/02/lacquer-legion-adoration-nail-art.html?

It's late so probably no one will see these...

It's late so probably no one will see these, but that is kind of ok.  🤣🤣🤣  I like them because I like puke colors and nature, but I know that is not everyone's cup of tea.  😜  Anyway, I've decided that these are leaf cells.  If you look closely you can see some mitosis happening.  Yay for biology!  And spring!  😄😄😄  (This totally counts as a spring mani, right?  😆)

Gradients look SO NICE, but I've never been that great at them.  The sponge method doesn't work well for me because my C-curve is so strong that the edges of my nails usually don't get coated in polish.  🙁  There is a new stamping plate out - Make Your Mark 03 by Lina Nail Art Supplies - that has a blank rectangle in it.  The first time I saw the plate was on Instagram and a girl was putting stripes of polish in it and then swiping a couple of times to mix them to create a gradient.  It turned out GREAT.  Needless to say I had to have it.

So my left hand (my practice hand) doesn't look quite as nice as this one, but I gotta say that this method is pretty effective for gradients.  The polish that gets picked up on the stamper is super thin so doing a few layers builds it nicely.

Weirdly, the only thing I ended up painting on these was topcoat.  I did three thin layers of white, and then 2 - 3 of my yellow / green mix, and then the pattern, ALL WITH THE STAMPER.  😳  If you don't like the feel of thick polish then maybe you would like this, but you'd need liquid latex or tape or something to keep from having to drench your skin / nails in acetone trying to clean up the mess (which is what I did - woohoo for not planning!)

I tend to like thicker layers on my nails because they are thin and I clean a lot because of all of my ani-pals, so thicker coats protect my nails and stay on longer.  My nails feel almost naked right now and I'm not down with it.  I keep also feeling like this whole mani is gonna flake right off so I decided to get a pic and post it before I destroyed them.

Anyway, what do you guys think?  Too fugly for spring?  😜😆🤣

Did my nails for the first time in over a month....

Did my nails for the first time in over a month. I just couldn't make it happen in May. It's good to have painted nails again! 😃

This is the neutral color...

This is the neutral color I was complimented on so long ago.  It was really hard to find something that worked with my skin tone and I actually think that Shauna gave me this.  I don't think I even picked it out.  😂  So she did a great job!

I've wanted to do the glitter gradient tips for SO long.  Finally, here they are.  And a little heart because I don't know when to stop.  😂

This is the neutral color...

This is the neutral color I was complimented on so long ago.  It was really hard to find something that worked with my skin tone and I actually think that Shauna gave me this.  I don't think I even picked it out.  😂  So she did a great job!

I've wanted to do the glitter gradient tips for SO long.  Finally, here they are.  And a little heart because I don't know when to stop.  😂

Tape / gradient mani.

Tape / gradient mani.  I love the way the pink and green blend.  Thank you Emily for the green.  😃

Two for one!

7:50 am:  Lazy nails.  Holo glitter gradient and a butterfly for good measure.  Woo.

4:25 pm:  I don't really know what to say about these except that I wanted to practice gradients again - and other than that I had no actual plan at all.  😂  Despite that I think they turned out really neat.  I used three colors for the gradient and then stamped the weird rainbow-y pattern over it.  They are really happy colors and I enjoy looking at them so hopefully I'll be able to keep them on for a few days.  🙂

Nails from last night.

Nails from last night.  Nails I FINALLY put effort into.  Yay!

The middle stripe is an orange to red gradient and the sides are just a fine pattern I found and stamped to fill the space.  Not really hard.  But you know - there was some effort involved.  🙂

Gradient + stamping.

Gradient + stamping.  I like these, but I only have a tiny bottle of white stamping polish and it's drying out - as you can probably tell by the missing specks in my design.  That's a bummer, but I'll buy some more as soon as I'm working more hours.

These are the bizarro, fugly nails I did.

These are the bizarro, fugly nails I did.  I'mma go ahead and admit that I did NOT have any plan when I sat down to do these other than that I wanted to practice my gradient-ing.  😂  So the base is one of my FAVORITE EVER greens.  Then on top of that at the tip I sponged a lighter green glitter, and on top of THAT I sponged the edges a very dark green.  Since that just apparently wasn't enough going on I added the round disc glitter things at the cuticle.

It's like, glamorous Swamp Thing or something.  😂😂😂  They are definitely INTERESTING if nothing else.  And I think that my gradient skillz are coming along.  I just don't know about these.  I look at them and I kind of like them for their weirdness, but on the other hand... ehh... I just don't know about that.  😛

This is the gradient I did on Saturday.

This is the gradient I did on Saturday. The gradient consists of two different glitters and an extra pink polish. I also stamped on that little flower because one fancy thing is just never enough. 😂

I have been up for the last few hours doing my nails.

I have been up for the last few hours doing my nails.  These are not them.  😂😂😂  These are the ones I did before the ones I just did.  It's a unicorn!

TRANSFORMERS. More than meets the eye.

TRANSFORMERS.  More than meets the eye.

I REALLY, REALLY...

I REALLY, REALLY didn't want to take my purple nails off last night, but I had a couple starting to peel and that's always terrible news for me. 🙁 If I don't fix that as soon as it starts I'll pick and pull at my polish until my nails are sad and damaged. 🙁 It just never ends well.

So this is what I did. I like it well enough, but they aren't stunning. There was something about that purple I used last time that was so bright and vibrant. It just made me happy to look at it - even with all this cold and rain. These are more muted, which I do like, too. I guess they are more season-appropriate - not that I ever think about that, though. 😂

I did get some gradient practice in, which is good. I'm happy with how my fade turned out this time. It's much easier to pull off with glitter than regular polish, but it's a neat look and I would like to get better at doing it. Anybody up for being practiced on? 🙂

These nails have been the most fabulous thing about me all day.

These nails have been the most fabulous thing about me all day.  I dropped Maya off at the spay / neuter transport this morning so I've smelled like dog all day.  More than usual, I mean.  😛  Not to mention that I went to work looking and feeling like a drowned rat.  Mom was driving me around this morning since my tires are bald and scary and that was awesome and sweet of her.  But when she pulled into my driveway she got stuck.  We probably spent a good hour out in the mud, standing water (yay for low yards!), and rain trying UNSUCCESSFULLY to get un-stuck.  Finally one of the many trucks driving by decided to stop and pull us out.  Yay for the kindness of strangers.  🙂

Anyway, yeah.  I didn't have time to shower or change - I just needed to get to work.  I have felt icky and cold and gross all day.  I am going to take a nice, hot shower shortly.  That's gonna be awesome.  🙂

First fancy nails I've done in about two weeks.

First fancy nails I've done in about two weeks. Another gradient (different technique) with stamping on top. It was pretty easy, but not as blendy as I would have liked. Oh well. I might go back to the sponging technique again and see if I can do that any better. I'm not great at either one (yet), but I'm determined. We'll see how it goes. 🙂

Gradient Nails, Take 2.

Gradient Nails, Take 2.  😁  I think the fade on these is MUCH better than on my first try.  I think the thumb is still too harsh and the middle finger too blended, but the rest I'm pretty pleased with.  I think I'll try it again this weekend with colors that are more different.  We'll see how that goes.  🙂

My first attempt at gradient color.

My first attempt at gradient color. The ring finger DEFINITELY turned out the best. The others don't have such a great fade, but perhaps with practice! 🙂