Best of British - Weekly Roundup - 23/0912

Wendy from Wendy's Delights is feeling purrrfect with her Blue Furry Mani with easy to apply nail stickers!

Emma tries her hand at dry drag and becomes The Girl Who Plays with Fire at Emma's Little Corner.

Helly at the Nail Newbie is showing British brand W7 some love by showcasing their gorgeous Lava Flow.

A little recreation of some Bee style nails, with actual stingers from New York Fashion Week, a Fred Butler Creation from Enigmatic Rambles.

Has twenty three days gone by already? Northern Nails' 30 Day Challenge is still going strong, the themes now are all full of inspiration!

Lyndsay from Pie's Eyes is back from her holiday and showing off her colourful Rainbow Manicure she created with her latest Kiko haul!

Sally of Nail Pron is talking about a nailmas Christmas challenge, adding to her stash and doing nails to match her mood.

Sam from Polished Art re-created an old nautical-themed manicure for day 12 of the 31 day challenge (19 to go!).

PishPosh and Polish is featuring Red and Black polishes on her blog this week. See them here! Which is your favourite?

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing is still continuing on with the 30 Day challenge and her favourite so far has been TRIBAL NAILS. What's been everyone else's favourite challenge?

Ruth goes overboard with the half moon effect to create an easy curved stripe look!

Want some inspiration for elegant nails? Lucy from Lucy's Stash did Lace & Roses nail art featuring OPI, Konad and A England.

Feeling the need for something pretty and super sparkly? PrettyKittyClaws has Smitten Polish You're Turning Violet, Violet blinging out her nails!

Vic's feeling a little behind with the times as she's only just done her first set of galaxy nails. She found a fabulously blinging star to go with them though.

Lou had a quiet week this week trying out her new Indie polishes from KBShimmer which is quickly becoming her favourite polish brand

Alexis at Glitter Tips tried some Autumn butterfly nail art

Sarah Louise plays with her Image plates from MoYou / OMG Nails and creates a Crosses & Dot's Manicure

Despite being poorly, The Crumpet has kept up with the 31 Day Challenge and has even had time to launch a Zoya Giveaway - so make sure you enter!

Autumn Butterfly - NOTD

It's Friday and this is my first post of the week!

Bad blogger.

I have a whole array of excuses though, first off, I have not been able to get a single manicure to go right, I've tried everyday but it just wasn't happening. Secondly, I have run out of everything, cotton pads, nail polish remover, sponges, Seche Vite, base coat and now tea bags!

This is all because I have had to do 3 school runs a day leaving me very little time to go stock up on these things, but the boy is now full time (a week and a half early by his choice!) so I have some free time again!

It feels so good.

Today's nail art is something I have wanted to try since I first started taking an interest in nails.

I had forgotten about it until recently on the school run, my son started counting butterflies.

I'm so pleased with how these turned out, although I'm not sure if it's because I love them or because I'm so relieved they turned out well enough to blog!

They are super pretty though, I just wish I had some Seche Vite as they are looking a little bumpy for my liking. But it's nothing another coat of topcoat won't sort out.

The base colour is a Nails Inc that I got in a set from TK Maxx and was yet to try, it's called New Burlington Place and it's so pretty for Autumn, I took some photos before I started the nail art to show you!

Does that earn me some good blogger points back?

This was two coats with no topcoat. 

Just beautiful!

For the nail art I used Barry M Black and Matt White.

♥ A ♥

China Glaze Bohemian Gradient NOTD

I had a whole other mani and post planned for today, but when I woke up this morning and saw THIS post from The Polished Mommy I changed my mind!

All of a sudden, the need for a Bohemian Gradient became urgent.

How pretty is that?!

This is done using the three colours that The Polished Mommy used on her ring finger.

I'd apologise for all the photos but I don't want to.

Just look at them!! 

They remind me a bit of oil on water.

There are just no words that do this justice.

I used my usual damp kitchen sponge technique over two coats of Barry M Black.

The China Glaze polishes I used are Swanky Silk, No Plain Jane and Want My Bawdy all from the Bohemian collection.

Must get back to staring at my nails.

♥ A ♥

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 14 - Delicate Print

I originally wanted to do lace nails for Day 14 but every time I tried I ended up taking them off and starting over. I just couldn't get them how I wanted and if I'm going to do lace nails I'm going to do it right so I decided to give that one a bit more practice.

But that left me with no ideas for Day 14, until I spotted THIS lace/henna style design on Pinterest. It's another Robin Moses design that I fell in love with, the video is HERE.

As you can see I didn't follow her video completely, just took a few bits that I really liked from it and added random bits of my own pattern. Also I didn't use pink foil because I don't have any (yet). 

I did toy with the idea of using pink glitter instead but decided it wouldn't give anywhere near the same effect so I just used some small diamantes.

I really like this henna look, it doesn't have to be perfect to look good either. Next time I want to try THIS one!

The polishes used are - 

Base - Barry M Nude.

Pattern - Barry M Mushroom.

♥ A ♥

Inspired By - NOTD

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, it seems I forgot how hectic the first few weeks of back to school can be! Especially when one of the critters is only doing half days for the moment. 

Hopefully now I'm getting back into the swing of things I'll be able to put some more time aside for nails.

Todays nails were inspired by some cushions my Mum gave me at the weekend.

My bedroom is decorated in shades of grey and silver and the other day my Mum gave me a couple of cushions that used to be in her room as they match my bedding so well and I thought the pattern would make for a nice mani!

I used the cushion as the back ground for these photos so you can get an idea of what I was working from.

I really like how soft these look. I'm not quite ready to pull my darker shades out for the Autumn but I'm starting to feel less and less summery everyday so I think the leafy pattern with the pale grey and silver make a nice compromise for this in between stage!

The colours used are - 

Base - Nails Inc Charlotte Street.

Pattern - Barry M Matt White and Silver Foil.

♥ A ♥

Blog Award - Versatile Blogger Award

I was Nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Maria Veronica at Diamond In The Rouge.

She has a lubbly jubbly blog which I very much enjoy reading!

Thank you very much for nominating me!

The rules of this award:

-Nominate 12 bloggers who are relatively new to blogging.

-Let them know you have nominated them.

-Share 7 random facts of yourself.

-Thank the blogger(s) who nominated by linking to their blog.

-Add versatile blogger award to your post.  

I'm not going to nominate anyone in particular for this one because I don't even know if I read 12 relatively new blogs! I'm sure I do but with over 200 blogs on my reading list it would take me forever and an age to find them so if you are new to blogging and want to do this too then I nominate you! Please do leave me a link in the comments if you do, I love to read these things.

7 Random facts are...

1. I am scared of moths. Like run from the room screaming scared. Highly amusing to all who see, or so I am told!

2. My Nan says I am distantly related to Elton John. I haven't checked this for myself though.

3. I hate ABBA with a fiery passion.

4. All my friends tell me I look like Christina Ricci. For those of you who don't know who that is she played Wednesday in the Addams family and the girl in Casper. Last year I dressed up as Wednesday for Halloween much to the delight of all my friends.

5.  I have never knowingly broken a bone. I'm guessing I'd know if I did, but they say everyone breaks their little toe from stubbing it don't they.

6. I am socially awkward. I am that girl that when wished a happy birthday or a waiter says enjoy your meal I reply with 'Thanks, you too'. That's one of the tamer awkward things that has come out of my mouth. There are others much worse, but they are a bit rude (unintentionally!) so I won't say them on here!

7. I have 14 toes.

Not really I just ran out of things to say. 

♥ A ♥

Polish Days - Polish Geometry

This months Polish Days theme is Geometry free to interpret however we please, be it a tricky tape mani or something simple with dots.

Once again I had no idea where to go with this one so Google became my friend!

I searched geometric patterns and sooooo many amazing patterns came up I just picked a few that I liked the look of, selected some polishes and went about painting my nails.

This is how they turned out.

I'm not in love with these. They looked so much better in my head and I kinda wish I had used brighter colours.

The colours I used are:
Barry M Matt White for the base.
Thumb - Essie Mint Candy Apple.
Index - Barry M Lemon Ice Cream.
Middle - Barry M Blue Moon.
Ring - Barry M Peach Melba.
Pinky - Barry M Berry Ice Cream.

♥ A ♥

Back To School Nails

This week is a big week in our house.

Today is my little lady's first day in Year 1 and her first day at her new school. Then Wednesday is my baby boy's first day at school!

So obviously I had to do some 'Back to school' theme nails!

It's nothing we haven't all seen before on Pinterest, YouTube and many other blogs but they were just too cute not to recreate!

*Edited to add links to similar nail art posts/ tutorials.

Apples - Rebecca Likes Nails

Pencils - Cute Polish and The Daily Nail

Polishes used are:

Barry M Yellow for the Pencils, then I mixed a little bit of Block Orange in with the Yellow to make the slightly darker stripes.

Barry M Silver Foil for the metal part of the eraser and Boots 17 Sweet Kisses mixed with a bit of Barry M Pink Flamingo for the eraser.

Barry M Peach Melba mixed with a bit of Mushroom for the wood of the pencil and Barry M Grey for the lead.

Barry M Bright Red, Mushroom and Spring Green for the Apple.

Barry M Matt White, Blueberry Ice Cream for the paper and I used the same pink mix for the margin as I used for the eraser.

Then the thumb I used Barry M Matt White, Bright Red, Yellow, Spring Green, Block Orange and Blueberry Ice Cream.

I was so nervous for my daughter this morning! But she walked straight in there, announced she was the new girl and told the teacher she drew her leg?!

So proud of her!

♥ A ♥

Best of British - Weekly Roundup - 02/09/12

Lucy from Lucy's Stash shows how to do a perfect Fishtail Braid manicure

The Nail Newbie tries a braided manicure too, but it is a peachy plait or a fishtail fail?

Emma's been feeling arty this week at Imagination In Colour, starting with a Purple Dotted Manicure and later a first attempt at 'brush marbling'!

Nada has been busy swatching the Orly Mineral FX Collection Fall 2011 sadly shes missing one of the polishes from the collection to make it complete!

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has been rainbow gradienting it up!

Things have been looking a bit patchy over at Never Mind Suzi as Steph tries out some MUA polishes

Wendy from Wendy's Delights has found W7 Magnetic Nail Polish at New Look in store & on line!

A simple nail tutorial for seaside nails perfect for the last weeks of summer 2012 over at Enigmatic Rambles.

Abi falls in love with A-England's Percevaland doesn't seem to realise its not autumn yet.

While reviewing some of her recent nail buys, Ruth also created a simple blue matte finish with some striking gold tips this week!

Lyndsay from Pie's Eyes discovers some great stamping polishes from the UK High Street and shows off her latest ColorClub purchases

Jo at Northern nails has been Paralympic nail art.

PrettyKittyClaws went to the Paralympic Opening Ceremony and celebrated with a Saran Wrap Mani featuring the new OPI Germany collection.

Rachel-Karina over at Polished Criminails gets ready to undergo the grueling giveaway featuring some holographic and great British Polishes!

Laura at She Who Does Nails has been trying out her new stamping plates and rhinestones with a Tiffany-esque floral manicure.

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails broke her laptop charger this week so has only posted one challenge post for the lazy days of summer challenge

Sarah Louise plays with Laquistry's Placid on Acid over Nails Inc's Great Dover Street to create Sparkly Leaves! , she also thought it would be a good thing to reorganise her polish stash....Bad idea.

The Crumpet has been celebrating her birthday this week. You can see this purple ruffle mani as well as some of her favourite purples.

Alexis at Glitter Tips takes a step towards becoming the craziest cat lady by painting her cats portraits on her nails!

Vic at Glowstars.net has probably pushed her nail art obsession to the limit with her Carnival mani.

It has been loads of nailart week for Dimpal at Crazy Polishes with Sea Life and Flowery Water Decals mani.

Blog Awards

I'm so rubbish at these!

I've been nominated for a few and each time I think to myself 'I will do that this week' then I forget.

So sorry to all who have very kindly nominated me, I haven't ignored it and it's very much appreciated, I'm just a bit crap at remembering them!

I'm going to start with the Beautiful Blogger Award I was given by Caz 'n' Polish on the 2nd of August!

Rules:

1. Thank the person that nominated you and link their blog.

Like I said it was the lovely Caz 'n' Polsh who nominated me. Thank you very much!

And go take a look at her blog, I really enjoy reading it!

2. Tell us how the idea of making a blog popped up and what makes you continue it?

I have been following blogs since 2009 when I started planning my wedding.

I decided I wanted to do my own make up so started researching it. I came across loads of lovely beauty blogs and started following. I fell in love with make up again and went for owning one mascara, eyeliner and foundation to being obsessed with trying everything. I had a little make up blog for a while but I didn't love it, so I stopped.

It was Leanne at Do Not Refreeze who got me interested in nail art and it is still one of my favourite blogs to read. After a while I started thinking about starting a nail blog then at the beginning of this year I decided to go for it.

And this time I love what I'm writing about!

3. Describe a usual day in your life.

Ooh it's so dull! I get up, feed, wash and dress the kids, feed, wash and dress myself. Then if it's a school day I do the school run, come home, make a cup of tea, read some blogs, answer emails, check Facebook, Twitter etc. Do some housework, have lunch, I might pop out to do the shopping or see my Mum. Go get the kids, come home, feed them again, do their reading with them, wait for MrGT to come in, have dinner, bath kids, put them in bed, feed cats, collapse from exhaustion/go back on the computer for a repeat of Blog, Email, Facebook, Twitter checking. 

Recently in the evenings my best friend has been coming round and we have been watching her boxsets of NCIS, or i'll do her nails. 

If it's not a school day replace the school runs and everything in between with cleaning and tidying up after the kids and trips to the park!

4. The best collaboration with a blogger.

I have never collaborated with another blogger, but would love to at some point!

5. Worst collaboration with a blogger.

As above! But I can't imagine there being a bad one, everyone I have spoken to so far has been nothing but lovely!

6. Describe what having a blog means to you.

It gives me confidence in my abilities. It pushes me to be more creative and it gives me somewhere I can talk freely about nail polish to people who want to listen and who are interested. And I like finding and reading new blogs through people who follow me and leave lovely comments! I've found some of my favourite blogs this way!

7. Nominate five other bloggers.

This is the hard bit. Just five? Ok I nominate...

Emma at Imagination In Colour

Katie at Missy's Mani's

Maria Veronica at Diamond In Rouge

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Chrissie at +10 Kapow

...because I love reading all their blogs and they are all such lovely ladies!

♥ A ♥