This is really super not my style...

This is really super not my style, but I try with holidays sometimes because my stamping plates often have holiday images and when else am I going to use them?  😂

The candy hearts were a stamping plate image and usually they would be all one color, but I used the image several times with several different polishes, top-coated them while they were on my stamper, then painstakingly cut them apart and applied them to my nails.  Totally kicking myself after the fact for not using a pink, but it's too late now.  😕

I really need to make a collage of my Valentine's Day nail photos.

Ember of Glass by Great Lakes Lacquer;
Bundle Monster plate BM-421;
Stamping Decal technique

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. 💜

Saffron Crocus by Kathleen & Co.;
BornPretty plate L002;
Sponging and Stamping techniques

I've done a bunch of miscellaneous...

I've done a bunch of miscellaneous "getting myself in order" over the last few weeks. This is a fun part of that - swatching my gel polishes. All of them came in black bottles that look exactly the same with little information on the outside. I decided to swatch the polishes on an old crappy nail wheel that I don't care about so I could remove the nail forms and glue them to the bottles.

The first photo is magnetic colors. If I get good with a magnet I'll be able to make designs other than a line, but that will suffice for swatch purposes.

The second photo is neons, obviously. You can tell that I legit used a crappy nail wheel to swatch on because the nails were thin and you can see through them. (I didn't want to waste multiple coats of polish on doing this - I just needed to be able to see what was in the bottle).

The third photo is my boyfriend being a great helper. 😂 He's seriously been into everything with me lately. Me and Kira were going through polish the other day and he wanted to look at them, too. He bit some of them. I don't know if that means he liked them or not, but that's always a positive sign coming from me. 😂😂😂

I've only got about 20 gels to go. I'm hoping that I get them finished up tonight. But for now we've gotta run some errands so I'm off to do that. Later, friends! ❤️

I SUPER hate being disorganized.

I SUPER hate being disorganized. It messes with my brain in a bad way. So recently I did some research to find a good app to help me get my nail stamping plates in order. I found one called "Color My Life" that's meant for paper crafters, but it's working out surprisingly well for my purposes.

The app lets you tag your items so that you can find them easily. Some stamping plates have themes (like holidays), but others have random images or patterns so there was no easy way for me to organize those and later be able to find what I was looking for. The app also lets you add a location of where the items are stored for easy retrieval. Yesss. My brain is happy. 😁

I put a solid 7 days of effort into cleaning, organizing, tagging, and cataloging my nail stamping plates (I'm closing in on having 600 😬). Now I can search my plates in a variety of different ways and see where they are stored. I'm SO pumped about this because I haven't done nail art in so long. Part of it was because of college and then moving, but another big part of it was because I was overwhelmed every time I looked through my plate binders, which was the only way I had to see my plates or get ideas. 

Now if I'm feeling a dog mani I can just type "dog" in the app and see all of my plates with dog-related images. I can decide what works best for my idea and immediately know which binder it's stored in. I 👏 am 👏 so 👏 EX 👏 CI 👏 TED. 😂😂😂 Y'all really don't even know how stupid giddy I am right now. 😂

Since the app lets you have different categories of items I'm seriously considering adding my water-slide decals, nail wraps, stickers, and foils to the mix. I don't yet know if I'm going to do all of that, but I did add a few of my decals in and I think it makes sense. Anyway, we'll see. For now this is a great start. 😁

I've seen a lot of posts recently...

I've seen a lot of posts recently about supporting small and local businesses because of the pandemic and the supply chain issues so I thought it might be an appropriate time to renew my Etsy listings.  For anyone who didn't know me back when I was heavy into making jewelry:  I made it with nail polish.  Some of it came out pretty nice and I traveled (usually with my mom and brother) doing events and selling there.  It was a good time, but between some health issues and college I could no longer find time to make things or do events and well, then the pandemic and etc...  basically all of my supplies and already-made items ended up in the closet.

I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't know if I'll actually end up reviving Polish All the Things for really-realz... I'm kind of more health- and career- focused at this point in my life.  I would love to get back into nail art just for myself because it's a self-care thing.  I've already starting making time for keeping my claws polished so that's a step in the right direction.  I don't know if making jewelry will ever be a part of my life again, but if it does I can't imagine it being a MAJOR part.  I don't know.  It's fun and stress-relieving and I DO have a ton of polish...  But anyway, if you see something you want I'd say get it before it's gone.  I really can't make any guarantees at this point.

So without further blah blah, here's the link to my shop.  I've got a table full of jewelry that apparently never made it to Etsy so that'll hopefully get up there this weekend.  But yeah, that's all for now.

Thank you, friends.  ❤

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PolishAllTheThings

My mood has been so up and down lately.

My mood has been so up and down lately. I spent a couple of days having fun and skating, then a couple of days on the couch with a down mood, then a couple of days going hard on the housework, and today was back on the couch. Somewhere in all of that I painted my nails for the first time in AGES and it almost made me cry because I'd missed it so much.

Update before I get this busy day started:

Update before I get this busy day started:

Yesterday while we were in Talladega we got a notification that a package was delivered in Anniston. I didn't think I was expecting a package, but we decided to go ahead over there and see just in case. Turns out that the large nail polish order I placed when I was consoling myself for doing what I thought was terrible on my final exam had arrived much earlier than expected. Since I passed the exam and my class I guess that makes it a celebratory package now. I let Kira know that we had nail mail and she came over and opened it for me. I love watching her open things. She Hulks out on packages and it's wonderful to behold. 😂😂😂

As we were looking at our goodies we were talking about what all we could do with them and I started to get really excited thinking about having time for my hobbies once again. That was the first hint to me that things have changed - knowing that I'll be able to spend time with the kids and do things we enjoy together. We're so busy moving that we haven't had time to relax, but just knowing that the down-time is coming made me super happy.

I think I invited most of my nail art peeps...

I think I invited most of my nail art peeps who would be interested in these custom stamping plates to the group for purchasing, but if not, there's going to be a second round of orders so comment below if you want in. I received my plates today and they look great.

I did my nails twice recently.

I did my nails twice recently.  One time, I had high hopes but hated the way it turned out.  The second time (pictured) I was just going to wear a polish but Shaun told me I should stamp purple on it, so this is the result.  I actually really like how it came out.  Sometimes less is more, I suppose.

Humbled by Tonic;
Harunouta plate L034;
Stamping technique

My claws are SHARP.

My claws are SHARP. While changing into my pajamas just now I literally sliced my nip-nop to the point that it's bleeding. I'm definitely repainting these bad boys tomorrow to dull them. Gotta cap those edges!

Ouch! 😬😬😬