Thursday, December 29, 2016

on 7 comments

Digital Dozen - December Birthday Mani - Rainbow circuitry

It's time for the birthday mani for December for the Digital Dozen. I wasn't going to miss this, because I'm one of the December birthday gals, and I actually chose this picture.  There are actually three Digital Dozen ladies with birthday's in December, myself, Kerry and Kristi. We actually didn't realize that Kerry's birthday was in December under after we chose a picture. So it ended up being something that Kristi and I agreed on. I wanted something with rainbows, because rainbow is my favourite colour.  I saw this picture of rainbow computer circuitry and thought it was perfect, because I knew that Kristi is a uber geek who works with computer chips at Intel. Kristi agreed and thus this picture was chosen.

Even though I chose this photo, I actually had no idea how to translate it to nail art. It was only when I started that I realized that it was ridiculously difficult to do.

I started with a foil base on pink on my index and blue on my pinky, the two middle fingers are actually a gradient foil that go from pink to yellow to green to blue, to it actually was a perfect base.

I then did some stamping of the grid, and again I did that as a stamped gradient going from black on one finger through pale blue to yellow, but it's actually really hard to see.  I then painted some random colour sploges on to try and get some of the blended glowing looking bits.  

This one looks better from a distance than it does up close.







Saturday, December 24, 2016

on 8 comments

Lisfranc, Polish hauls and Christmas 2016

Well well, it's been a while hasn't it? I don't feel like I need to apologise, as I know you all understand that nail polish blogging is just that, nail polish, and real life is so much more important.

Usually this time of year is pretty horrendous for everyone, but this year it's has been particularly brutal to me!  Let's get to the latest on my foot and ankle to start with, as that has what has been consuming my life mostly.

Last I told you was about my CT scan which identified 8 broken bones but nothing displaced that needed surgery. Jump forward two weeks from that to when I went for my 6 week check up at the fracture clinic.  My specialist ordered some weight bearing xrays and this identified the dreaded Lisfranc fracture.  He booked me in then and there for surgery the next day, despite it already being 6 weeks since I broke my foot. He said it hadn't healed at all in that time and needed plates and screws. I went home a googled the hell out of Lisfranc, and quite honestly was horrified by what I read.  It is considered one of the worst fractures you can get in your foot because of it's poor outcome, usually leading to lifelong foot pain and limping - something really to look forward to hey!

I then had two weeks of recovery following the surgery and finally yesterday I went to get the bandages off and stitches out.  It was the first time I got to see what mechanics they had added to my foot.  I had two plates and fours screws. The first plate attaches the first metatarsal to the medial cuneiform and the second plate attaches the second metatarsal to the intermediate cuneiform.  They also used a Lisfranc tightrope which diagonally connects the medial cuneiform with the second metatarsal. I may end up getting the two plates removed some time down the track depending on how they feel and if they restrict movement too much.  I've already been non weight bearing on my foot for 8 weeks, and I have another 4-6 weeks ahead I was told, so that's 3 months of being on crutches. My left calf has already lost about 5cm of muscle compared to the other leg, so it's going to need to tough work to get back to normal. I'm afraid that my high heel wearing days are over now.

My wound still looks pretty nasty on top of my foot, the site incision looks good though.  At least I was able to put on a water proof bandage and have a quick dip in the pool.  It's gonna be a hot Christmas down-under so I'm so glad I can get back into the pool.



I also missed blogging about my birthday back at the beginning of December. I did do a lovely birthday manicure, because I was briefly back at work for week and a bit before my surgery.  I'll get to that post in a few days I hope.  

I was luckly enough to receive a gift voucher for Femme Fatale from my local nail polish friends. Here is a quick swatch of the polishes I got.  Left to right they are, Cirque Halcyon, Cirque Idyllic, 
ILNP manor House, ILNP clockwork, ILNP that other girl, FUN northern lights and FUN TGIF.


I have been wearing polish this whole time I've been absent, well except for the day in hospital where you have to remove it.  But I've not done much nail art.  So I made myself do a little bit of stamping for a quick Christmas mani.

My base is one of the polishes I got for my birthday, ILNP Clockwork and I stamped some holly on it from one of the Clear Jelly Stamper plates I got last year.





So with that, I will head off to do final Christmas Eve preparations. The kids are in bed, although are too excited to be asleep yet, just got to wait for them to drift off before we can finish everything.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah and all that jazz. Love your families and friends and thanks for another long blogging year!

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

on 7 comments

Digital Dozen November Birthdays - Drip Marble

It's not often that I get to try new nail art techniques. I generally feel like I've tried them all, but this is a relatively new one called drip marbling.  The technique involves putting drops of polish onto a plastic bag or plastic lid or something and then holding it different ways so that the polish slides and drips over itself creating random marble like patterns.

This is what I ended up with.


We tried this technique for the Digital Dozen November birthday's, which starts with an inspiration photo.  Here is the inspiration photo.


Here are my drippy bits on a piece of zip lock bag plastic, after they had dried for about 3 hours. This is definitely a mani that you have to plan ahead!






Saturday, November 26, 2016

on 4 comments

26 Great Nail Art Idea - Winter Warmth

Oops, it's been nearly a week since I was last here.  

Latest on my foot and ankle, just because I know you are really so interested in my health and well being LOL!  I had the CT scan on Monday and it was good news.  Nothing was displaced so I didn't need any surgery.  However, as I suspected it did show lots of other broken bones that were crushed.  I have one broken toe, two broken metatarsals, a broken cuboid, all the of the cuniforms are broken and the tip off the medial malleolus of my tibia is broken, so 8 breaks in total.  I'm also heading back to work on Monday.  I'm looking forward to being back as I feel like I lost touch with the place a bit, but I know I'm going to be pretty tired at the end of the day as I've been doing a lot of sitting around as well as little naps during the afternoon.  It will be an interesting week.  

Onto today's nail art, and I'm so happy with how this one turned out.  The prompt for the 26 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge this week is winter warmth, which in it's self is difficult for me, given that we just had a run of 30+ days and it's still a few days from summer here. You really can't beat Australian weather, it really is the best place in the world to live!

For my winter warmth nails I created a brick fireplace, and decided to Chrismassy it up a bit by adding a garland along the top.  I love how this turned out.  I feel like I could just toast some marshmallows right here on my nails!






Sunday, November 20, 2016

on 3 comments

The Digital Dozen does Colour Contrast - Day 5

I'm late with day five, but at least it got done. 

I'm kind of annoyed with my foot and ankle at the moment, actually more at the inefficient public hospital system.  I've had two sets of x-rays on my foot now, some done the day of the accident and then some done two weeks later.  Last week I went to my GP saying I think there is more wrong with my foot than what they doctors at the hospital were saying, cause even me looking at the xrays can see stuff that doesn't look right and I think the doctors missed it. He said he was happy to send me for a CT scan to check, but asked where the reports from the radiologist were. Turns out the hospital sent the reports to the wrong doctor. My doctor followed up straight away and got the reports that day, and what do they say? I need a CT scan because not only is there clear breaks on the end of the Tibia, and on one of the metatarsals, but also a mid foot fracture of both the cuboid and talus and multiple anomalies of the foot.  It pisses me off that I should have had this CT scan three weeks ago, but because stupid people sent paperwork to the wrong place I'm now three weeks down the track without knowing whether I need surgery or not.  I'm booked in for the CT tomorrow morning. Lets see where that takes us.

Now lets look at the nails.  I did another traditional colour contrast of apple green and hot pink. The colours together actually remind me of the toffee apple lollies we used to get as a kid. They were delicious. 

I used a hot pink polish from Jamberry and the green polish from the Street Carnival collection from Pipedream polish.






Friday, November 18, 2016

on 3 comments

The Digital Dozen does Colour Contrast - Day 4

I made it day 4. Yay. You know I've been off work for the last three weeks and I have really nothing to show for it, except my butt is a little fatter from sitting around on it for so long.  Turns out I had segments broken off my Tibia - the medial malleolus, as well as a fractured proximal phalange and there is definitely something dodgy about my Cuboid bone. So with probably three fractures in my foot and ankle I'm going to be wearing this cam boot for about another 4-5 weeks with no weight bearing on it during that time.  My poor husband must be getting so sick of me by now!

I did manage to get to my polish  table yesterday, so I quickly punched out two manis. I took this one off pretty much straight away so I could do the second one, which is a shame cause I really loved the effect and the two colours look amazing next to each other.  I can totally see why colour contrasts are also referred to as complementary colours.

Anyway, this was a simple radial drag marble.  I usually do these with a thin brush, but this time i did it with a pointy ended marbling tool, which meant it did gouge some lines through the layers of polish, but you probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't say anything. 






Thursday, November 17, 2016

on 2 comments

The Digital Dozen does Colour Contrast - Day 3

Day three for colour contrast, and today I actually looked at the colour wheel to help me chose colours. 

I was originally going to do this as a triad of primary colours, but instead decided to do them as a triad of secondary colours, thus orange, purple and green.  You know it never clicked with me that the secondary colours and the classic Halloween colours.  This manigave me a slight Halloween vibe just because of the colours.






Wednesday, November 16, 2016

on 3 comments

The Digital Dozen does Colour Contrast - Day 2

Day 2 of Colour Contrasts for the Digital Dozen and I'm pretty happy with the colours and how they pop in this mani.

I'm not sure if they technically are considered contrasting colours, but the combo of the neon and then then black trees just makes it all some glaring and contrasting to me.

I used two Pipedream Polishes from the ANIVC again for the yellow and pink gradient.  The blue is Picture Polish Alice.  I love that this polish has the scattered holo bits in it cause it looks like light reflecting off the water, whereas the pink and yellow in the sky are cremes.

I was going to stamp the palm trees, but I wasn't able to find the right angle trees looking through  my plates, so I did some free hand.  I have to say that free handing palm trees is pretty damn simple and I think anyone could do it.

Thanks for stopping by. I have at least one more mani done, but not sure if I'll get all five completed. 






Tuesday, November 15, 2016

on 4 comments

The Digital Dozen does Colour Contrast - Day 1

Day 1 of another Digital Dozen week. This is going to be a tough one for me, as I'm not really able to get to polish my nails as often as I used us with this broken ankle. But it's a fun prompt - Colour Contrast! Usually I'm fully prepared with all five manis ready to post at the beginning of the week. Not this time unfortunately.  I've got one more done but I will have to try get another design done today.

For my first design I've gone with something pretty simple using dotting tools and nail vinyls, but it's all about the colours right.  I used two Pipe Dream polishes for this. VIP Pass and Happy Hour from the A Night In Vegas Collection.  

I guess I should have used a brighter green polish to make this strictly a full colour contrast, but I really liked these two colours together when I had the bottles next to each other. 

What I really loved about this was how quick it was to do, as long as you wait for your base colour to dry enough, vinyls are so easy to use.  I definitely consider this one beginners nail art, so I should probably lift my game for my next manis!





Friday, November 11, 2016

on 1 comment

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Black base

Woo hoo, two days, and two blog posts. I'm on a roll. 

Today's prompt for the 26 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge is Black Base. I'm not a huge fan of black bases, except perhaps in the depths of winter, but when you join in nail art challenges coordinated by lovely girls in the Northern Hemisphere, you usually end up with mis matched seasonal prompts. 

For the prompt I did a drag marble. It's ok, but not exactly up to the standard that I was hoping. I created this look using gel polishes, because you can take all the time in the world doing the drags knowing that the polish won't try until you cure it. I also used a peel off base under the gel polish so I could easily remove it, but I found that one of my nails must have got some acetone into the base when I was doing clean up, and it did some wrinkly business. I just made sure it had a thick layer of top,coat and it was all good.

I like the fractal appearance this has, but not the gel thickness, or the blackness.






Thursday, November 10, 2016

on 3 comments

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Halloween in the wrong colours

Yeah - you read that right, this is a Halloween nails post!  This broken leg has really set me back as far as blogging goes and it's a real struggle to get to the PC to write up blog posts, both physically and mentally.  But I'm here now, so I might try get a few written up and scheduled!

I'm pushing myself to post this mani, because it's a full two weeks late, given that is was the prompt form the 26 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge of "Halloween in the wrong colours" that should have been posted two weeks ago.  I actually didn't do any Halloween nails this year (with the exception of these). Halloween just isn't a big thing where I live.  

That said, I totally loved these nails.  Probably because they didn't feel halloweeny at all!  I created a gradient using Picture Polish wanderlust and orchid and then did double stamping with a spiderweb design using blue and white polishes from Mundo de Unas.






Tuesday, November 1, 2016

on 1 comment

Melbourne Cup Jockey Silks Skittles

Ok, so it's been a week since I posted, but I have a really good reason why. I had a bit of a motorcycle crash on my ride into work last Thursday. I went for a ride in the ambulance for the first time in my life, although the details are a bit hazy cause of the excellent whistle drug thing they gave me.  I was lucky to only break a bit off my tibia in my leg, so I have a cam boot on and have to say off my foot for the next 6 - 8 weeks. What a pain in the rear!

Now I actually have several blog posts that I needed to post over the last week, there was a Twinsie birthday mani, plus a Halloween design of the 26 nail art ideas challenge, so I'll try to catch up on those in the next few days. 

Today I was able to maneuver myself to my nail painting table and did this nail art for Melbourne Cup day. You see it's become a bit of tradition over the last three years to create nail art of my favourite jockey silks, and I didn't want to miss out this year.

I chose my five favourite designs and interpreted them on my nails.  Just like last year I had no luck picking any winners this way, so I think it just shows what an absolute fluke it was the first year to get the trifecta.






These are the silks of the first three horses. How boring, there was no way I was going to choose these!!

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I live in Canberra, Australia with my husband, Mr Ten and Miss Eight. My blog is all about nail polish, and a few other bits in between. You can contact me at morenailpolish@iinet.net.au