Random Mani, Planned By Children.

As some of you may know, I am a nanny. The family I am working for at present has 3 kids; J-8yrs, L-5yrs, and A-3yrs. They told me what I should do on my nails next. Miss A had it all planned. Pink nails, with a boat, umbrella, beach ball, and-somewhat randomly-a blue jacket. I have full awareness of my (lack of) abilities, and asked if blue togs would be ok. She considered it, and gave her permission.
Here is the A hand.

Colours used-base is Aqua brand-I got this free when I bought vodka one time. Drawings are all done with dotting tools and wee brushes, and are Maybelline Electric Blue, Miki black, Sinful Colors Nirvana, a couple of my JulieGs. Thumb has a coat of SC Hottie.

Miss J and Mr L came together for the plan for my left hand-a tree, a book (heehee, I was thinking. Nice and simple)...and ducks swimming in a river. EXCUSE ME?! My god, they started out so friendly, and rapidly descended into little balls of devilish horror. I said I could try. TRY.
In the end, I wasn't all that unhappy. Here they are.

Base is Maybelline Party Blue. I had never used it properly before this mani, and I like it.
I really loved the book, and have plans to do some nail art involving books soon.
The kids were all super impressed with my nails (one of the many reasons I love children), and raved about them. Awww, warm fuzzies!
I'm sure I'll have more child-directed manicures in the future. My sister has just moved in with her family-including 4 kids, aged 6, 5, 2, & 1. Total madhouse, very loud, and extremely amusing.

It's my birthday!

So, I did some birthday nail art. As you have seen from previous posts, most of my nail art is very basic-dots, stripes, stickers etc. This time I tried drawing things.
I admired nail artists before, now I am in complete awe. The mani you'll see in the following photos took me 2 hours. I was half dead before I even got to my right hand, hence the very basic design on that side.

My table at the end of it all. Prior to starting, the table was tidy-all polishes in containers, brushes in the glass and so on.

Left hand. Colours-at least most of them-are: Bases first-Sinful Colors Snow Me White; Rimmel Grey Matter, Revlon Cloud, Australis Peek-a-boo, Sally Hansen Good To Grape. Colours used in the art-Kleancolor minis, LA Colors Art Deco pens, LA Girl 3D Effects, and the dots are all Kleancolor minis, with the exception of the gold dots. That is SC This Is It.

Bases on my right hand are-HD 25, Maybelline Party Blue, Revlon Minted, SC Unicorn, and SC Snow Me White. Letters were done with LA Colors Art Deco, glitter topper is an LAC mini, and the cupcake is a selection of Kleancolor minis. Nameless ones.
Thanks to Jessie at Nailed It NZ for the cupcake tutorial.

Here is my birthday badge:

I have since been given another-a lot smaller-that says "Oh no, 30!" Yes, I went shopping with this on today.
So far, my birthday has been great. My only complaint-my car decided starting was a desperately uncool thing to do, so I sat outside a dairy for almost an hour.

For anyone wondering what is happening with my heart-I have a monitor. It is part of a research trial; not only do I get a record of what is going on with a cardiologist, but the results could potentially help others, I'll be wearing it for the next 3 weeks. Thankfully, it is fully removable for showering.

You can just see the top 2 electrodes. There are 2 more under my ribcage. Hanging white thingis where the date is collected, and sent to the hospital. I need to change the electrodes each day-tonight my latex intolerance is showing. I'll need to move them around each day to prevent awful skin soreness. As it is, I have 4 very tender, red, circles.

A very polish weekend.

There was a big cosmetic sale on here in Christchurch this weekend-including polish. I planned well for this.
 That isn't true. I found out about it on Tues, had a tantrum about not getting paid until Friday, and bought polish before I bought anything else. My only regret was not having more money. This is what I got.

Apart from the two SC polishes; I bought those later that afternoon.
The LA Colors minis have no colours on them, and I haven't found any numbers either.  As for the others, from L-R they are: Rimmel Mermaid Green; Rimmel Mysterious Girl; LA Girl 'Rock Star' Head Banging; Revlon 'Dark Pleasures' Talk Dirty; Sally Hansen Good To Grape; Maybelline Electric Blue & Party Blue; and the Sinfuls are Nirvana and Island Coral.
Once I got home, the Mr handed me a package. My brushes/dotting tools! 

I didn't expect them to arrive for at least another week.

I have not used any brushes yet. I need to read/watch some tutorials first.
On Friday night I was overwhelmed by 27 new polishes, and new things to play with, so I got drunk and did no painting. I did a bit of polishing yesterday-the same as what I have on my left-but I am puppy-sitting. Almost dry polish does not like puppy patting.
Here is what I have today-please excuse the mess. I need a better way of cleaning up than cotton buds. I always seem to lose control of my hand and swipe the polish from my nail.

Left hand-Rimmel Mysterious Girl. It is really difficult to capture the beauty of this purple. I am so glad I bought this one. I was unsure at the time-I have a few purples-but nothing like this one. I love it. ONE COAT! Which is always a bonus, and Rimmel's wonderful flat brush just makes it perfect. Dots are, from base to top-Maybelline Party Blue, SC Snow Me White, and SC Island Coral.

Right hand. Jeebus, it is SO BUNG. Look at where the white dot is on my ring finger. I could have fixed it, but I had already had enough of the smell of remover. And honestly? The odds of it improving were slim. I wish I was ambidexterous. I wish I had a little (in my fantasies, my slaves are always little) nail-painter person that painted perfectly. I wish I was able to stop shaking.
Anyway base is Rimmel Mermaid Green (2 coats). Dots from base up are SC Nirvana, SC Snow Me White and Maybelline Electric Blue. I prefer my left hand. Not only because the purple is my current favourite, but I think the dot colours look better overall.

I am currently waiting on more swatch sticks. I got 50 a couple weeks ago, but I have another 60 polishes to do, so I have more on the way. Once they are done, I need to decide how to organise them. Fun!