Mermaid Tail Nail Art

I’ve always liked nail polish. It’s an easy way to be adventurous and bold with color without having to commit.

Recently, I have gotten into indie nail polishes. I like them because they’re unique, often sparkly, and I’m supporting an individual or small business instead of some major company.

As I search the Internet for more nail polish, I came across a blog Nails by Kayla Shevonne which has great info on all sorts of nail polish brands, manicures, and nail art.
She’s currently running a nail art contest showcasing indie polishes and I thought I’d give it a try (I like trying to win things).

It took awhile and a few disastrous attempts before I came up with a fun idea for a design – Mermaid Tail. With a handful of polishes, a toothpick, and some patience, this is what the nails on my left hand look like:

Here’s what I used:

Base Coat- Essie First Base
Sky- Lucky 13 Lacquer A Leaf on the Wind
Water- Sephora by OPI Mermaid to Order
Tail- NerdLacquer The Dwarf Breathes So Loud We Could Have Shot Him In The Dark (TDBSLWCHSHITD)
Outline- Lucky 13 Lacquer Big City Dandy and Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey
Fins- Moon glitter from Lucky 13 Lacquer Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey
Ring Finger Scales- Lucky 13 Lacquer A Leaf on the Wind, Hex glitters from NerdLacquer TDBSLWCHSHITD and Lucky 13 Lacquer Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, and Sephora by OPI Mermaid to Order
Top Coat- Seche Vite

Find Lucky 13 Lacquers here and NerdLacquers here, NinjaPolish.com, and Harlowandco.org.

Reading material

I used to love reading as a child. I was a voracious reader. It didn’t hurt to be rewarded with a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for the Book It program. But I loved books! I would watch Reading Rainbow to add books to my list. Library days in school were some of my favorite days. I’d get lost in a book so quickly that I wouldn’t realize that my class had taken a turn in the courtyard to head back until I heard laughter.

It got to a point in middle school that I had no idea what to read for book reports or for pleasure. I’d ask my dad for suggestions who would wrack his brain for some title he could remember. In the fifth and sixth grades, my book report posters were so much fun. I’d incorporate things to make parts 3-D or move. I was so creative! By the seventh and eighth grades, I was reading tons of mysteries by Agatha Christie and Mary Higgins Clark. Almost every free moment was dedicated to reading.

I love books so much that I ended up working in two bookstores, and would still visit other bookstores on days off. But I don’t know where that girl with the voracious reading appetite is anymore. Don’t get me wrong. I still love books. I even have a small collection of autographed copies. It’s just that I don’t read as much anymore. I can’t get lost in a story as quickly.

Often times, I feel like the characters and plots are a bit dull or stupid. Instead of feeling sympathy for the character I want to yell at them and throw my book across the room.

I’ve been trying to fuel my love for reading by picking up “fluff.” The books I’ve been eyeing nowadays tend to be more science fiction/fantasy based. The stories feel richer, vibrant, and sometimes funnier. The characters also feel smarter. They tend to use common sense and are wittier, too.

Do you have any favorites I should pick up? Any books that I should avoid? Or any anthologies that are great? Short stories work well now that I have a 17 month old.

Catch Up

I’m enjoying blogging again, but I’m definitely not updating as often as I’d like. So, today is a bit of catch up.

First, I have no idea where lumpy amigurumi mouse is. If I find him, I’ll take a picture to share.

Second, Valentine’s Day came and went. I received two dozen red roses, which I love! It’s super cliche, but I really like roses. They’re lovely to look at and smell wonderful, too. I gave James Sees chocolate. It was fun to pick out the flavors so that he received a personalized box. I did have to stand in a long line because I waited until the 13th to buy it. We’re a one car family, so we have to figure out scheduling so that I can have the car for the day.

Third, we went to ScotsFest at the Queen Mary on Sunday. It was a lot of fun and brought back some sweet memories.

For our first date, James took me to the Scottish Highland Games in Orlando, FL back in 2005. He wore his kilt, and I soaked in all the sights and sounds that day. On Sunday, we got to share the Scottish games experience with our 16 month old. While he won’t remember it, James and I will treasure the day of celebrating our love, our lives together, and of their Scottish heritage.

Patience

There’s something to be said about patience. I have been told I have the patience of a saint, and for the most part, I agree. However, that isn’t the case with crafting. At times I can slow down, appreciate the process of creating something. I can really take time to work on details like when I draw or paint, but when it comes to the creation of something physical, I want my finished product NOW!!!

My New Years resolution of crafting has created a really ugly finished project. I thought a nice, easy, amigurumi mouse would be fun to crochet. I know how to crochet a chain and there’s YouTube for some of the other stuff. The pattern was one that I saw on Felicia Day’s The Flog, found on Ravelry, and is available from Knit Culture. I printed out the pattern, gathered my supplies and started.

First problem is I don’t know how to read patterns. No worries, look up how on Google and I find a nice blog with tons of info on all the crocheting basics. So I glance over it and figure I can wing it.

Let’s start on the ears. I get one done and then the second. Did I do this right? Eh, it looks close enough even though ear 2 is slightly bigger.

Ok, tummy! Crochet a loop, more crochet, increase, rows…. Um, I think I did enough rows and it looks round like the picture…

Now the body. Yay! Chain 1, 2, 3, keep going, increase. Am I doing this right? How many chains did I just do? Which chain do I connect to? Lets see… maybe here, do this, it’s taking shape! What pattern? I don’t need a pattern! I can figure this out!

And I’ve turned out an ugly, lumpy, holey mouse.

Resolutions

For New Years, I decided that my resolution was to improve myself, but not in the traditional “Get fit and look awesome” kind of way (that’s a life goal that I’m doing poorly on). I want to learn skills that will benefit me AND others, especially in the event of the apocalypse. Mostly, I want to create. I want to feed and nurture my creative and artistic side.

Now, this resolution did not come to me like light bulb flash. It grew, or rather slapped me in the face after reading a Cracked.com article – http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/
These truths are pretty harsh and when it said to name 5 impressive things I can do, I sort of blanked. Yes, I am an acupuncturist so therefore I can tend to the sick, but I haven’t really done that in 4 + years. I’m a mom so I can make babies and feed them, but so can any other fertile female. I paint, draw, play guitar and French horn, but all of those things I do mediocrely. And I’m not sure how those things are really marketable if I don’t feel like they’re awesome. They also don’t seem like great skills if the zombies do come. Unless I’m planning on sacrificing myself to the zombies, sounding like a dying elephant on the horn is just not a skill that is impressive.

This quote pretty much sums it up

Do the math: How much of your time is spent consuming things other people made (TV, music, video games, websites) versus making your own? Only one of those adds to your value as a human being.

I want to add to my value as a human being. So, I’ve taken up crochet and knitting.

As I improve my skills, I’ll be able to make nice things that I can eventually give and sell. That and I’m working on my archery so I can drop zombies silently from yards away.

A Fresh Start

I’ve been seeing more and more friends blogging and doing podcasts, and just being creative all over the place. All the creativity and ballsiness is pushing me to try blogging again.

I started blogging back in 2003 when I graduated from college, moved out and was starting my masters. It was a very juvenile attempt at writing because practically every post felt like a high school journal entry minus the “Dear Diary”. I had a few friends who read it and it was fun to write about my new experiences. However, when I looked back on it years later, I’m pretty embarrassed at some of the childishness of it. It’s still out there on the Internet, although I did delete a small portion of my whining, but this is a fresh-ish start.

What’s really funny is that I completely forgot I had a WordPress blog. I started out on Blogger, but I wanted to start over with something a little more mature. I log in and find two posts from 2006. Maybe I’ll be better this time around.

I hope to use this space to improve my writing and communication skills and to share my thoughts, interests, and personality. I don’t plan on making any earth shattering revelations or being amazingly entertaining (although I can dream) but I hope that those of you who read this will smile and enjoy.

So it begins….

So here I am obviously sitting in front of my computer trying to figure out what to say and what needs to be done.

James and I begin our pre-wedding “honeymoon” trip on Wednesday. We leave here and fly out to LAX then to Seoul then to Bangkok. We spend a few days in Thailand then fly off to Japan with sister-in-law and friends.

We land in Tokyo on Saturday and from there we’re in Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Osaka. Hopefully we’ll throw in Okinawa as well.  Then back off to Thailand for a few more days and back home.

As of right now I’m listening to the Pimsleur Japanese Instant Conversation CDs and I am so not doing well. Konnichiwa, O-hayou gozai masu, Kanpai! I know a bit more than that, but my Caucasian fiancé seems to speak Japanese better than little ‘ol Asian me! And it won’t be the first time!!!

Once we were in Epcot and walked through China. He decides to strike up a short conversation with one of the women there in Mandarin! It was just the 1st lesson of the Pimsleur Mandarin set, but he shows off his skills. The woman looks at me assuming I taught him how to speak. “Oh great! I’m the Asian person here and I don’t even know what they just said!” You want me to rattle off some Chinese herbs? No problem. A few acupuncture points? OK! But a sentence in Mandarin?! Nope, not possible. Not yet anyway. But I can say “thank you” or if I butcher it, I say “Diarrhea”