November Round-Up

Wow, November went quickly!  What happened?

Here are all my nails from this month. I had quite a lot of swatches, and lots of stamping. 

My favourites were the grey snowflakes. I also really liked the stamping over the Barry M Silks.  What do you think? 

October Round-Up

I was really pleased with my October nails overall!

I liked both sets of Hallowe'en nails, and I wore some stamping that I was very happy with. I tried two UK indies that I won in the Digit-al Dozen giveaway and I really liked the lightning bolt design using the Barry M Glitterati.

I also got the funniest spam in a while:

Which was your favourite design this month?


 

Share the Love!

I'm off work poorly at the moment (horrid sinus infection, ew) so I'm lying on the settee feeling sorry for myself, and hitting 'refresh' on Facebook and Blogger every so often.  I'm not painting my nails, so instead, here are a few blogs I've been reading recently and which you may not know about!  Why don't you check out their blogs? I guarantee there'll be something to make you smile on a boring old Wednesday!

Nail Art Novice, aka Jenni, is based in Nottingham. I LOVE this cute monster mani she did this week! Isn't it adorable?

  Photo: Nail Art Novice

Tracey blogs over at Bite No More, and this week has posted a BEAUTIFUL freehand rose design...

 Photo: Bite No More
 
 ... and these gorgeous polka dots!

Photo: Bite No More

Roz posts over at Rozs Nail-Scapades and is based in West Yorkshire. Look at this lovely galaxy mani she did this week!

Photo: Rozs Nail-Scapades

Pretty Quirky is based in my old neck of the woods, North Wales (I haven't lived there in a long time now, but I do go back to visit regularly). She has some beautiful nail art, including this week's gorgeous tribute to her dog, who is quite possibly one of the cutest dogs ever!

Photo: Pretty Quirky

Enigmatic Rambles has all sorts of interesting posts, but the one that caught my eye this week was this gorgeous stamping affair, which reminded me of corsets and stockings... 

Photo: Enigmatic Rambles

Simona is Italian, and blogs over at Light Your Nails! Her blog posts are bilingual, which is great, because I can practice my Montalbano accent while reading out words I pretend to understand, and then I can read it in English afterwards!  My favourite post this week was her gorgeous autumnal stamping (with HOLO!) 

  Photo: Light Your Nails!


Please do check out their blogs! There are some real treasures to be found out there. :)

 


 

My Most Viewed Posts of 2013 - and some you might have missed!

As everyone seems to be doing it, I thought I'd recap my blogging year today.  I've had this nail blog since 2010, but I have to say, I still feel like a newbie. I don't have the followers or comments or post views that the blogs I really love do, and I know that my blog doesn't really have anything particularly unique or special.  I'm going to make a lot of effort to improve this in 2014!

I was a bit surprised with some of these results! You can click on any of the titles below to go directly to the post. My most popular posts this year, in reverse order are:

10.  Grey-Pink Gradient Tape Mani

  9.  Leopard Print, Red + Studs

 8. Rimmel Cocktail Colour in a Flash

7. Born Pretty Store Large Glequin Skittle

6. China Glaze Travel in Colour Topcoat

5. Glitter French Tips

I was really surprised at this one being so high in the list!  I spent about five minutes on the nails one evening when I was bored and wanted to jazz up plain nails!

4. Flocked Nails Skittle

3.  Bright Skittle

2. Kinetics Sweet Little Lies

I'm rather baffled at this one! It's a very ordinary swatch post of something that's very unexciting. I can only assume that maybe it's being linked to from somewhere, but I can't find out where. Very odd!


1. Pastel Skittle with Gold Leaf

While I think this skittle is pretty, it's really nothing special, and it didn't take very long, and it wouldn't be in my top 10 posts from this year, or probably even in my top 20.  It just goes to show that I have no idea what people really want! The posts you spend hours on can get a tenth of the attention of a post which you've done in ten minutes flat!

To finish off, here are 7 more posts which I liked best this year, or which I was most proud of, but which didn't come anywhere close to the top 10 (or top 20 in most cases) with my readers this year, so you might have missed these! Click on the titles to see the full post.

1.  Black and Gold Art Deco Nails

2. Pink & White Mish-Mash

3. Nail Varnish Christmas Decorations

4. Louboutin Red & Gold

5. Diagonal Polka Dot French Tips with Roses (inspired by my duvet)

6. Pink & Gold & Rhinestones

7. Born Pretty Store Rose Decals

So there you have it!

Do you have a favourite post from this year? Please let me know if you do!

Or do you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see more of on my blog this year?  I'd love to hear your feedback and your constructive criticism. 

Thank you all for your support and your friendship this year - it's been very much appreciated!  Happy New Year!

Liebster Award

Another award!  This is the Liebster Award (German for favourite) and I was tagged not once, but THREE times! Thank you so much to Jane at Hen's Nest, crimsonsoulfire at So U Nails & Such, and to Robin Sparkles at Robin Sparkles Blog.   

 

For this tag, you need to do the following:

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.

4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.

5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.

This is going to be long!

11 things about me:

• I like languages. I was brought up in a very Welsh-speaking part of Wales, am fluent in French, and have pretty good - if a bit rusty sometimes - Spanish and German. Over the years I've also dabbled in Swedish, Hebrew, Italian and Russian.
• I watch snooker
• My favourite Doctor is the Fifth, Peter Davison, and my favourite Tardis team was Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough.
• My cat Patty is actually called Kirkpatrick, after world-renowned melodeon and concertina expert John Kirkpatrick, who is fabulous.
• My other cat Mickey is named after Mickey from Doctor Who, because initially he just hung around being annoying, but stuck around until I ended up loving him.
• My favourite Springsteen songs today are Glory Days, Prove it all Night, Backstreets, Cadillac Ranch and Sherry Darling. I will probably have an entirely different five tomorrow.
• My favourite European city so far has been Vienna.
• I drove 2500 miles across the American midwest a few years back, and loved it. My favourite memory was a girl waitressing in a tiny town in Nebraska who was all 'oh my GOD!!! You're from ENGLAND?? Why on earth are you in CROFTON??? And have you been to Chicago?? It's my dream to go there!'
• I won a goldfish at the fair once, and he lived for over 15 years. He was called Michael.
• I taught gold medal winning heptathlete Jessica Ennis for a while when she was in Year 7 (age 11-12) and she was lovely. She won everything at the school sports day.
• I did ballet all through my teens, and miss it a lot. 

Robin Sparkles Questions

1. What/who inspired you to start blogging about nail art and where do you get your inspiration for nail art from?
 I had been reading blogs for several months, and started to feel that I wanted to get involved. Inspiration comes from other blogs (I read lots) and from my imagination - sometimes from copying my clothes, or things I see round and about in my daily life.

2. Do you blog about anything other than nail art and how long have you been blogging for? 
I have a Live Journal blog for real life stuff, which is Friends Only. I've had a paid account on there for YEARS - just checked, and I started in 2004!

3. What is the top thing on your "wish list" you would want if you could be given one thing for free today? 
I'm not sure I understand the question - if you mean a free item, then I'd be happy with anything, a cake, bottle of wine, nail varnish, coffee... If it's an imaginary wishful thinking type thing, then longer legs, curly hair, endless money, that sort of thing. Oooh wait! Tickets to Springsteen at Wrigley Field in September please!

4. Favourite nail art technique? (Water  marbling, stamping, gradient etc.) 
I haven't really tried any of these. Well, I tried water marbling once and found it difficult and messy, and I'm not keen on the look anyway. Stamping is something I've never tried, and gradients look pretty on some people but again, I've never tried. I tend to like just painting my nails. Although I do like using tape.

5. What are your favourite 3 nail polish colours & brands at the moment? 
Currently Barry M (especially for cremes), China Glaze, and Nails Inc.

6. What are your hobbies other than nail art blogging? 
I do (well, I do when I'm not injured, currently I have a poorly foot) modern jive dancing and some tango, I like walking, I read a lot, and I like cooking and Bruce Springsteen.

7. What software do you use to edit your pictures before uploading them to your blog? 
Adobe Photoshop Elements - mostly I just crop and resize a bit.

8. What software do you use to watermark your photos before uploading them to your blog?
I don't.

9. How often do you paint your nails and how do you keep them in tip-top condition? 
Not always every day, but usually at least every other day. My nails seem pretty healthy. I use OPI Nail Envy as a basecoat all the time, and I love China Glaze peppermint cuticle oil.

10. What is your favourite design you've blogged? 
I don't know... maybe my Crucible theatre doors.

11.  What is your favourite film and favourite book of all time?

That's crazy, I can't pick one! Although having said that, I'm not much of a film person, I much prefer books. Favourite films today would include The English Patient, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, The Breakfast Club and Strictly Ballroom, although I'll think of loads of other good ones later. Favourite books would include Winnie the Pooh, The God of Small Things, Persuasion, Cold Comfort Farm, Lord of the Rings, Sophie's World... 

Crimsonsoulfire's Questions:

1. City girl or Country girl?
Country girl! I grew up in a very very rural area, and spent my time climbing trees, playing in fields and round streams and so on. It was great when it snowed! It was a bit of a pain as a teenager, with a lack of cinemas, chip shops or other teenagers, but I am really grateful for it now. I have lived in cities, and they were fun for a while when I was younger, but I prefer somewhere more rural now. Where I am now is perfect, because it's not as remote as where my parents are, and I do have things like shops and takeaways, and it's not far to Manchester airport, or Sheffield for the snooker, but I can also get to the countryside very quickly.
 
2. What is your favorite color?
Depends! I couldn't say I had one really. For nails - maybe gold. For clothes, maybe black or red. For hair - red!  
 
3. What is your favorite scent?
I am currently alternating between Jo Malone Pear & Freesia, and Jo Malone White Lilac & Rhubarb.  
 
4. What is your favorite sound?
The opening chords to the opening song at a Springsteen concert, and the huge roar of 60000 people around me who recognise them and know all the words.
 
5. If you won one million dollars, what would you do with the money?
*checks* Apparently this is about  £637,000. I'd hire some financial advice. Pay off my mortgage, make sure my parents have plenty. Give some to my old primary school, especially if they'll spend it on a library, give some to the Observatory in Dundee (I have fond memories) and get my kitchen done. And hire someone to mow my lawn.
 
6. What is your favorite wild animal, and why?
Um... Weasels are cute. 
  
7. Briefly describe one of your favorite memories?
hm... I'm struggling with this one to be honest. I have lots of great memories, but like strangers' dreams, they're probably not very interesting to other people.
  
8. If you could pick one language that you were fluent in, what would it be and why?
Swedish, so that I could read the Wallander books in the original, and watch Krister Henriksson without needing the subtitles.
  
9. If you won a trip for two to Floston Paradise, would you go?
*googles* Nope, still none the wiser, sorry.
 
10. Who do you consider to be your hero, and why?
I don't consider anyone to be my hero, to be honest. There are lots of people I admire, but I wouldn't say any of them was my hero.
  
11. What is your favorite architectural style?
I like buildings! I really like weird buildings. Style wise I suppose I lean more towards modernist - I have really really liked the Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier buildings I've seen, but then I also really liked some of the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona (not so much the crazy ornate bits, but the plainer, simpler ones) and I love the look of the Calatrava buildings like the art gallery in Milwaukee. But then again, I loved the Hundertwasser buildings in Vienna, and there's nothing simple or plain about them. So another concise, clear answer there, sorry.

Jane's Questions:

1. How did you get into nail blogging, and why do you continue?

I've mostly answered this above, I think.

2. Whats your favourite brand of nail polish and why?

Barry M do great cremes, very pigmented and glossy and smooth, and last well. And cheap. I like China Glaze a lot too, especially their shimmery/glittery ones. 

3. How do you get a perfect manicure?

I don't! Not by a long way!

 

4. What 3 products (nail/beauty related) could you not live without?

I could live perfectly happily without any of them. But I would like to have Seche Vite topcoat, Opi Nail Envy and a glass nail file available.

5. What 3 other material items could you not live without?

Apart from the obvious such as air and food and a large glass of wine at the end of day, I'll say a decent bra, my camera and my mouse, Petit B'lin.

6. If you could create a colour what would it be like?
I think all the colours already exist, don't they?? Unless you mean a nail varnish colour, in which case... no, they all already exist! My imagination is a bit mad, but it's not that good!
 

7. What colour polish do you have most of in your collection?
GOLD!

8. If you were an animal, what would you be?
Something lazy I suppose, like a cat.
 

9. What inspires your nail art?
It can be anything. My own imagination, bits of stuff I see around in daily life (there was a pretty cool vandalised wall I saw yesterday, dark blue matte paint with shiny black gloss paint spattered all over it, and I thought it would look good on nails), my clothes (I quite often do stripes to match my tops, I do love stripy clothes!) and of course, other nail blogs.
 

10. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?
PEANUT BUTTER M&Ms!!!
 

11. What tips would you give to nail bloggers starting out?
Take better photos!  No really - unless you're The Nailasaurus or Scrangie or Nihrida, you need to take better photos! And I include myself in that. But don't hold your hand like a claw, don't show the mess on your bedroom floor in your photo, please crop out all the wasted space, don't put up photos that look as though you've just dipped your fingers straight in the bottle! Make sure the light is clear enough to see the actual nail varnish, and make sure your photos are in focus!   
Then, don't spam all the other blogs! Follow lots of blogs, and actually read them and comment, join in debates. If people keep seeing your name, they will click on and to your blog. Don't just drop links to your blog on other people's blogs though, because they'll either get deleted or ignored. 

I definitely recommend this post by Sammy at The Nailasaurus, as well as this one and this one by Kayla Shevonne.

So finally I need to tag people - but everyone I know has already been tagged I think! So if you're following me and would like to have a go, drop me a comment here and I'll tag you with some questions! 

1. Not a nail blogger, but I'm tagging my lovely friend Lorraine at Squeaky Baby. She blogs about STUFF THAT ISN'T NAILS!! :o but is also a nail polish ninja and keeps finding dusty hidden stashes of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in bargain basements. 

11 questions for you:

1. New York or London?
2. Salad cream - work of the devil or not?
3. Celebrity chef of your choice to call round later today and cook you dinner, and will also stay and eat it with you - who do you choose? 
4. You spill food all down your front but have to go out - change your clothes and be late, or go out with beans stains?
5. Cats or dogs?
6. Are baby elephants the cutest things on earth?
7. Best bit of the Olympics this year?
8. Maple syrup on bacon - genius, or evil?
9. You can have a free holiday to anywhere on earth, but you have to go tomorrow and on your own - where do you pick?
10. How well would you cope if you were stranded on a desert island?
11. If you could swap part of your body, but only part, for anyone else's, which part and who's would you swap?

 
  

 

Ooh, an Award!

The lovely Jane over at Hen's Nest nominated me for an AWARD!

Rules:

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

Well durr! Thank you Jane! Although I don't need to be told to thank someone, I'm British for goodness sake!  Anyway, I 'met' Jane (of brand new sparkly nail blog Hen's Nest) through the Digital Spy forums, more of which later.

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

I have been interested in nail varnish for a few years. I started by reading lots of nail blogs. Then I started taking photos of my nails and putting them on Flickr. Then I started putting them on our shiny Nail Varnish thead on Digital Spy. The thread has been going for 16 months, has 79,000 page views and is nearly 40 pages long. Then I started thinking that I might as well blog, and that although I'd never be as amazing as people like the Sammersaurus or Scrangie or Jane at Nailside, I still had something to offer. I continue it because it's fun.

3. Describe a usual day in your life.

I get woken up at 5 am by a hungry cat. Once she's fed, I go back to sleep for a bit. Then I drag myself up to make a coffee and lie in a bath for half an hour until I've woken up. Then I go to work and tap away at a computer until it's time to come home and feed a hungry cat and paint my nails again. Sometimes I do exciting things like watching snooker, jumping up and down at Bruce Springsteen concerts, or tangoing with young men.

4. The best collaboration with a blogger.

I've never done one. Or not yet. But I have done SWAPS with American ladies who've found me through my blog, that's been amazing. 

5. The worst collaboration with a blogger.

I have no experience of this. But nail bloggers are lovely - how could there be a bad collaboration? And if there was, I doubt I'd share it publicly, sorry.

6. Describe what having a blog means to you.

It means I spend far too many hours taking photos of my nails, then tidying up my cuticles and taking them again. It means I have far too much knowledge of nail varnish, and have been known to stop people at work or in shops to ask them what they're wearing (or more often, to check that what I suspect they're wearing is correct). It means that I have a hard-drive that's rapidly filling up with photos of my own hands. And it means that I have something to do of an evening that is more productive than eating biscuits.

7. Nominate five some other bloggers.

 There are LOTS of blogs that I love - see my list over there >>>

I'm not going to nominate most of them, because they're long-established blogs with hundreds or thousands of followers, and they don't need my help, lovely as they are!  Everyone on my side bar COULD have an award, because they're all awesome. However, I'm going to nominate bloggers I really like who've also not been going that long instead. So:

Ariadne Elise over at Ever Belle's Mani-fest. She posted a plea on Twitter for some Max Factor Fantasy Fire, I replied, and we started a lovely series of swaps of UK-US polishes. After a while, she got sucked in to blogging too!

Alice at One Nail to Rule Them All. She has some beautifully neat nail art, and I especially love her cartoons. 

A Wig Wam is Not a Teepee. She has make-up as well as nails, a sense of humour, and some lovely photography. And poached eggs, yum!

So U Nails & Such. She's an almost brand new blogger, but already has loads of creative ideas, and really nice photos.