Nails: there's a red stain!

Another quick home manicure. Instead of using the brush, I used a smooth facial cotton pad, swiped some red polish off the stick and dabbed it slowly on the nail.

It was easy creating the gradient effect - just dab heavier and with more polish towards the tip. Next time, I would even leave a little of the bottom untouched.

There are also some areas which I left the polish unblended on purpose. It creates sort of a contrast.

I looked like I just murdered someone while I was doing this. But it all looked cool after a quick clean-up.

And nope, the strawberry was not just a prop.  It was my lunch. Yummy, yummy strawberry (stained nails).



Nails: shades of purple

Shady purple instead of a solid dark tone. A gentler look to welcome warmer weather and complement the Spring flowers? Dresses and skirts, here we come!

Nails: the imperfect black tip

My nails were totally ruined on the Seattle trip.

Struggling with the brolly in cold, wet weather. Uncapping the camera lens at the most inappropriate times. Wiping off snow from the windshield.

Another story, another blog post.

So even though I was dead tired from the trip (which turned out to be awesome despite the weather) I stayed up last night to re-do the manicure. I need something simple, something fast before I doze off face down on the LED lamp.

It would take me longer to do a full coat or a nice round tip, so I decided to draw some thick black lines near the tip and make some scratches across them instead. Fast, easy and mess-free. Perfectly imperfect. No one would know I did it with one eye closed, literally.

What do you think?

DIY hair and nails: a milestone?

Sometimes I don't know who's braver: Is it I, for cutting my husband's hair? Or is it the husband, for letting me cut his hair? 

I figured the husband is braver.

And he has a great sense of humour too. 

Check out what I did to him over the past year:





Jan 2013 - I need an onion for my fried rice.



Feb 2013 - Too soon to be celebrating the passing out parade, recruit!



Jul 2013 - Which farm were you from again, and how many cows you were looking after?

You can say that his patience finally paid off after a year of putting up with my (lack of) hairdressing skills. We got some tips from my hair stylist friend - pin up the top and shave the sides! - and eventually came up with a look that MAY pass off as a salon-cut:









Feb 2014 - hello Oppa!



I think that's by far the best I've done, and I'm tempted to celebrate this as a milestone in our DIY home salon.

But then again, I always feel accomplished as long as there's no bleeding involved and his ears are intact. Safety above all else, right?

On a related front, I did my nails again. This time round, Panda agreed to help with the nail art bit. See the black dotted lines? His work.

Not too bad for a first.

Giving my now wrinkly, housework-battered hands some colour

I think there's something sweet, something fun about doing frivolous stuff for each other.

Another nail post!

My nails reflect my schedule the past two months...

When there's time to do something a little more fancy:

When the only time I have is in between the 101 stuff on my list:

It's funny how my hands survived the snow at Mount Rose, but not the dry weather at Yosemite. Felt a little cheated too, since we didn't get to ski at Yosemite due to the freakish warm winter. Humph!

I love polka dots

Black nails for Halloween? But the polka dots made it look more Kate Spade-ish! There's something classic, something girly about polka dots. Heh...

Friday madness

It's so chilly today! Quite unusual since we had warm weather the past few days. Normally I would curl up in bed and not wake up until lunch time. But I surprised myself by accomplishing much.

First, the girls came over in the morning and we had an extremely fun tennis session. Then, we had a fabulous brunch! Check out the spread. It was meant to be a small brunch after exercise, but one thing led to another and we eventually had jumbo scallops, mussels in white wine source, garlic bread and mini burgers!

After the girls left I did the laundry (gasp!) and vacuumed the house. Then I went to the gym to do another 2.4 miles on the machine and some exercise with a medicine ball. I need to get back to my 3.2 mile mark soon!

Next came the overdue manicure. I had bought a tube of gold glitters from Jo Ann (it was only $0.99!) In an attempt to be more festive, I painstakingly arranged these tiny gold flecks one by one against a red background. By the time I was done, it was 8pm. But hey, I'm ready for...... Christmas?

I'm now waiting for my hair to dry. And while waiting, I'm going to do my last task for the day.  That is, to start preparing for this Sunday's lesson. Time to quieten my heart after a day of activities, and experience God's presence.

I saved the best for the last, hein?

Reversed French manicure

It's meant to be a reversed French manicure i.e. dark tip on a nude colour. But I should have known (never can draw proper lines without a ruler!) Two hours later, I ended up with this... stripe-y pointy looking tip?

Oops. I shall try harder next time.

Still hoping that it'll look nice despite the failed lines

On a related note, am getting a little bored with the colour range for gelish. I've had glittery nails before but the brands at Target only carry block colours for gelish. I'm thinking of heading over to Michaels or Jo-Ann to buy glitter and sprinkle it on next time.

Speaking of Target, I've finally earned enough 'kicks' to redeem a $10 gift card (yay!!!) Panda downloaded this awesome App for me eons ago but I always thought it's a waste of time, until he redeemed $5, then $25, and then another $25 from this App. Part of our new vacuum cleaner was paid with this!

Hunt for the said item and scan it!



Panda said I finally learn to appreciate his enthusiasm over Apps like that. The other one is survey.com where you earn a few cents for every survey you do, and once you accumulate enough you can cash it. We have yet to earn the minimum amount, but let's see how it goes!

I'm ready for the wedding!

Loving the simplicity of the new nail colour

  

We will be heading to Edmonton, Canada tomorrow to attend a wedding. Panda will be flying back almost immediately for work and I will be staying on to have a few days of vacation with my aunt in Whistler, Vancouver. Life is great!

SensatioNail was having a promotion on their gelish polish at Target so I got the taupe colour (confession: I have no idea what taupe is before this). I must say this nudish colour is rather pretty, just nice for weddings.

Dad and Mom gave us some money for the traditional Chinese red packet for the wedding couple. Panda and I also decided to get something for the hosts (the parents), my aunt (who sponsored our tickets) and the wedding couple.

We got something from Coach for the older folks earlier at Gilroy. As for the younger couple, we decided to go with a photo frame. Not very original but I thought it's always good to have nice photo frames at home to remind us of memorable moments.

Added a little personal touch to the frame to celebrate the start of a new family. What do you think? :)

  

Sprawled on the living room floor in my PJs doing a little craft



Their name in pearl beads and a felt flower for the wedding couple.

New nails

Did this last night at 11pm with the same Sally Hansen gelish set. The lines are not perfect but the duo colours add some colour to the outfit. :)

DIY gelish nails

I haven't done any manicure or pedicure ever since I came to US. Something which I missed terribly. Main reason is cost - it's gonna be pricey especially if I opt for gelish nails which will last much longer than normal polish.

So Panda very sweetly got me the Sally Hansen Salon Gel Polish Starter Kit. It's available in Target for around US$60. (The last I checked it's not available in Singapore yet!) It'd already be worth my money if I use it more than twice. The cheapest gelish manicure I've done back home is around US$32.

The set comes with this:
· 1 LED Lamp
· 1 Gel Base Coat
· 1 Gel Nail Color
· 1 Gel Top Coat
· 10 Nail Cleanser Pads
· Acetone Remover
· Cuticle Stick
· File & Buffer
· Instruction sheet

The steps are very easy to follow. For someone like me who is not used to painting my own nails though, it can be rather tricky! But I got the hang of it after a while and amazingly my right hand turned out to be nicer than the left, simply because I had much practice by then.

Here are more photos of the kit, and the results of my first attempt.

*Tip: Although instructions call for nails to be cured for 30s each time, I find it better to let them stay longer under the LED light. Average no. of times I've pressed the light for each coat = 5.