The Perfect Day

Today was perfect.  It was my tiny best friend's birthday, so we celebrated all day.  There might even be some nail-painting going on tonight, so you all might get yet another tutorial!  Anyways, some of the things I did were delicious.... Such as the making of violet jam and birthday cupcakes.

 This is violet jam... it tastes a little flower-y (who'd a thunk it?), but also like lemons and sunshine.  I like it, and it was super easy to make.  If you want the recipe, click here.  It's a little more pink-ish than I had hoped, but I think if I make violet jelly instead, I might like the results better.

Also, here's a really cute picture of the teeny best friend and my puppy.  

What have you been doing with the lovely weather? 

~Hannah

Back In Black

Hello, my Pretties!  I have returneeeddd! With a tutorial, and some photos, and some fashion.  What a glorious renewal!  I'm so sorry about the absence, I'll try harder, I promise.  On to the tutorial!
   1)  Start with supplies.  You'll need: Two colors of polish that contrast nicely.  Something to make lines with is a nice thing to have as well.  I forgot to take a supplies picture, sorry!

   2)  Begin by polishing your nails a solid color.  I prefer to use the darker shade first.  You want the polish to be opaque, so more than one coat will probably be the best way to go.

    3) Next, use the lighter color to make a nice "tip" on your nail.  Do this by putting you finger on a hard surface, and holding the brush so that it is angled against your nail.  Then slowly roll your finger from one side to the other so that the brush drags along the nail, arching with it's natural contour.  This takes a little practice, but after that you can always have beautiful French tips!

    4) Then, using your selected line-making tool, draw an arching line that follows the arc created by the tip.  Make sure to leave space between the arc and the tip! The line should only cover the middle of your nail, not extending towards the edges.

    5) After that, make two connecting lines that cross each other from each endpoint of the first line.  You should have something that looks kind of like a picnic table.  Be sure to leave a little triangle of space in the middle of the cross.  Also, don't make this too large or you won't be able to finish the design.

    6)  Repeat step 5 from the ends of the second two lines.  Voila! Shoelaces!

    7)  Finally, add some silver dots to the ends of the laces to look like those little metal hole things that sneakers have, if you want to.  You're finished!

Now that that's through with, here's a cool picture from my flight to New Orleans a couple weeks ago.

And for the fashion! I was feeling super sassy and good about myself after the weather started getting warmer, and I broke out my spring/summer wardrobe! More cute ones will probably come!

 Dress: Thrifted

Jacket:  Mom's, Gap

 Shoes: DSW 

And another one,

Shoes: Old Navy 

Shirt: Aero

Cami: Target

Shorts that look like a skirt: Forever 21

I hope you lovelies all have great weekends.  Soak up some rays! Comments make my day :)

~Hannah

This Is Terrible-----and some ART

I am SO sorry.  Really, I am.  I promise. I can't believe I let it go this long, I'm awful.  But here I am again, with a new Salvo/Old Nave haul to boot.  And new nail polish!  But tonight I don't have any time for nails, or pretty model shots to display the new clothes, so here's some photography instead :)

 THIS is perfect.  My favorite of the bunch.

 Artsy ;)

 Sad... <3

 All right.  Ode to Claire above.  Here's some others...

 Sunset

And, to finish it off, something tasty.  

Love you all, and I promise I'll be back soon!

Neon Lights Shine Bright (On Broadway)

    Hey everybody!  We're growing in numbers!  I'm up to a whole 7 followers.  This is great!  Also, see how I kept my promise? #manicuremonday, we've got this.  Maybe I'll even post more often!  Who knows? Okay, into the tutorial.
    1) Gather supplies.  You'll need a dotting tool and polish.  I used Revon: Knockout, Lacura: 406, Love & Beauty: Orange, Yellow, Wet n Wild: Screech/Nerd Alert, I Need a Refresh-Mint, and Claire's: Flashy.

This is a pretty easy design.

    2) Polish all your nails black.  This would probably work with white too.  

    3) Using the dotter, make dots n rainbow order from one top corner of your nail towards the opposite bottom corner.  I found it helped to do all the reds at once, clean the tool, and then proceed to the oranges.  Being the bad blogger that I am, I totally forgot to take pictures of this step.  However, its pretty simple, so here's the finished product.

      As repentance for my slip up in forgetting to photograph the steps, please enjoy these photos od my puppy laying on the floor with my Daddy and my henna.  

Love you all, comments make my day!

~Hannah

Flower Power!

  My blogging mojo has returned!  With such force, in fact, that I'm already here with another post.  Just 5 days after my last post!  I am on FIRE.  Speaking of the girl on fire, did you all see Jennifer Lawrence's new brown Katniss hair?  Thoughts?  I liked the whole honey-blonde business she had going on a bit better, I think. 

     Anyways, I've just been watching Doctor Who by the hour, and now I'm jamming out to a Straight No Chaser mash up of You & Me & the Bottle Makes Three and Single Ladies.  I think yes.  You all have heard of them, right? If not, you must go listen.  You won't be sorry, I could drown in their a cappella wonderfulness all day.

    On to the tutorial!  I felt inspired by the sunshine filled day yesterday, the snowdrops sprouting by my front door, the rising temperatures, and the shedding horses at the barn.  Could spring really be around the corner?  To help coax it along we have an awfully cheery flower manicure :).  

    1) Start with your supplies: Something to make dots/thin lines with, and a surface to drip polish on, as well as polish: I used NYC: French Tip White, Wet n Wild: Nerd Alert/Screech, Finger Paints: Picture This!, Klean Color: Cobalt, and Maybelline: Bold Gold. 

I think that one of those cuticle sticks works really well to make dots of different sizes.

    2) Polish your nails entirely white.  You might need two or three coats, depending on how thick your polish is.

Make sure the polish is really opaque, you won't be covering much of it.

    3) Using the small, pointy side of the cuticle stick, make thin green lines.  Do this by dripping some green polish onto a tupperware lid and then making a straight row of lots of small dots.  These will stand for stems for your flowers.

They should be a little longer than half your nail.

    4) Now, using the other "chisel" tipped side of your cuticle stick, make petals.  Do this by dipping the flat part of the chisel tip into polish and gently touching it to your nail where you want the petal to go.

This doesn't take much pressure, be careful!

    5) Repeat step 4 until you have five-petal flowers on each nail.  Flowers with 5 petals, that is.

Alternate colors!

    6) Using the pointy end of your cuticle stick, make gold centers for each flower with small dots.

And with that, you're finished!

    Hope you guys enjoyed, comments make my day!  More on Monday!

~Hannah

I Pulled Through!

Hey all! So I have a few things to attend to before today's tutorial:
1) Claire!  The dumplings are called Vege Potstickers (No, I didn't just spell that wrong), and we buy them at the Oriental market on Meadow Street.
2) Lill - your photos put my crappy point and shoot tutorial shots to shame. You rock.

Okay!  I have been painting my nails, I just didn't have a chance to upload the tutorial yet.  Here we go!  
Start off as always, with clean, trimmed, polish free nails, or you can put a base coat on if you prefer that.  Then gather your materials:

There's too many polishes here to name, so I'll just tell you what you need:  A light and a dark shade of every color you want to use. I chose to go with the whole rainbow and then some.

All right!  Polish your nails with the lighter shade of each color you'd like to use in your design.  I went from left pinky nail to right pinky nail in rainbow order. 

Like this.  I won't show the right hand, seeing as the nail on my broken finger is kinda gross and the wrong color. Ew.

Then, take scotch tape and place it straight across your nail horizontally, leaving a tip of untaped area at the tip of your nail.  This works best if your nails are square or "squoval" shaped, it just doesn't look as good with rounded nails.  You need to wail until your nails are completely dry before you complete this step.  If you don't, you'll rip off some of the polish and have awkward patches.  Don't be awkward, exercise your powers of patience.

Next, take a the darker shade of the same color and paint over the exposed part of your nail.  Feel free to go a little ways back onto the tape, as you'll get a crisper line in the end between the light and dark shades if you let the tape peel off the excess polish. 

Wait a minute or two for the darker shade to set before removing the tape. Now, very slowly, peel off the tape.  I find this works best if you go reaaaaaaaaaally slowly and pull the tape back along itself instead of up.

Ta-Dah!!!

There you have it, easy, two tone french tips!  This works really well with any color pairing, and can really jazz up your manicure when you're out of ideas for new designs.  Always rely on the old standby!

Here's another example of another way to wear this look:

Black with blue pinkies for Bullying Awareness!

Okay all, there you go :) I hope you enjoyed.  Also, I'm actually really liking this #manicuremonday business.  Maybe that'll be our new thing... a new post every Monday at the least.  We'll see!  Love you all, comments make my day!

~Hannah

  

I'm A Bad Blogger

I really am.  I'm so terribly sorry that I've forgotten you for oh so long, and I will promise it won't ever happen again...when in reality, it totally will.  Not to make excuses, but I really am quite busy.  What with training for hose shows, scaling massive hills of homework, and spending way too much time as a vegetable absorbing countless hours of Doctor Who, I just haven't been feeling super creative or motivated.  But that time has passed!  I'm going to go right now and paint my nails, broken finger and all. We'll see how this turns out.  Love you guys.
~Hannah

Take Your Pick!

Hey all,
So I know it's been forever, and I'm so sorry, I've just been super busy with polo and horse shows and studying for a multitude of midterms.  Sigh.  I have been painting my nails though, I promise!  I have a few designs that i've done recently, but I can't decide which one to show you all.  So, I'm going to post pictures of them all, and you guys can pick which ones you want the tutorial for.  Sound off in the comments!

 Number 1:  White with black outlines.

Number 2:  Designs via tape.  Sorry about the bad image quality, I had to use my old camera.

 Number 3: Blue gradient

Number 4:  Dripping.  This photo is REALLY poor quality... you can't really see the design.  Sorry :(

Okay!  So pick your favorite, and post in the comments!  Also, here's some music I've been loving:

Lisa Mitchell: Neopolitan Dreams

STRFCKR:  Rwanald Gregory Erikson the Second

Eric Hutchinson: Rock and Roll
More Pandora-given amazingness as it comes.  Love you guys :)
~Hannah