Staying Positive during COVID-19 Times...

Hey there!  I truly come back to this space to say I hope all of you out there are safe and healthy and happy during these stressful times.  I knew I'd been absent from the nail world but I didn't realize it had been two full months.  Since this virus popped up, I've definitely had my fair share of stress.  But I'll admit most of it is self-inflicted.  I have mostly been paralyzed with anxiety watching and reading the news 24/7.  Now I know that's soooooo unhealthy for me so I'm trying to reduce my media diet to mostly just Alberta's chief medical officer's daily update.  She's incredible and calming.  Overall Alberta isn't doing terribly (*knock on wood*) but we are definitely in shut down.  I have to go to work at the university every couple of weeks but mostly I've been at home.  Part of the anxiety I'm feeling is likely because my sister is an ER nurse and a single mom so I'm just hoping that she can come out of this with her, my niece and my parents' (who have been watching my niece most of the time) uninfected.  I'm also worried for myself since I know that it'll be tough on me if I get it because I have garbage lungs (I've had asthma my whole life and then I smoked for ages, so dumb of me).  

I would've thought that if I was forced inside for weeks on end that I would've jumped at the chance to do my nails all the time but I've been neglecting them as much as I have this blog.  But hopefully I'm out of my dark place now and will be appearing here more regularly.  Last night I started cropping my backlog of photos and I must apologize to the companies that sent me stuff that I ended up late on.  But today is a mani I did just for me.  I couldn't sleep and my sister was on night shift so I texted her and asked her her favourite colors and she said "charcoal grey and blue".  This is what I came up with...

Maniology M114 Forkin' Love Ya Stamping Plate

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Hey there!  Hope no one is tired of me posting more than once a day this week.  I mentioned that I had some catching up to do and it was time to get my butt in gear and I meant it!  Speaking of butts, the plate I'm looking at today is a bit on the naughty side (but only if your mind leans that way, as mine tends to do sometimes).  Technically the Maniology M114 (Forkin' Love Ya) plate is all about food but take a look at it and see if that's all you see.  My sister was over one night and I passed it to her to ask what I should do with it.  She looked at it for a minute and then very slowly said "this is the funniest plate ever" and even asked me to quote her.  She wasn't wrong.  This plate is forkin' hilarious with all it's foodie innuendo.  There is one Happy Valentine's Day image but other than that this plate isn't limited to Valentine's Day at all.  After all, we do eat all year round...  As with any regular-priced Maniology item, you can use the discount code COPY10 to save yourself 10% on this plate!

Maniology Mani X Me Box December 2019

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Hey there!  Today I have a look at Maniology's latest Mani X Me box.  December's box is all about gems/marble which makes for some really fantastic designs.  For the uninitiated, the Mani X Me box is a monthly subscription box (also available on a month-by-month basis) that contains two exclusive stamping plates, two polishes and an "extra" which changes every month.  While the full box is really affordable (at $20-25 USD/month, depending on subscription length), it's also available in an Express format which doesn't include the polishes, for $15.30-18 USD/month).  I normally do two manis per plate but this month just screamed for a mix-n-match so most of them included both plates together.  This month's box is available until December 23rd so you have until Monday to decide if this one is for you!  And, if you're new, you can use the code COPY10 to save $5 off your first box which makes it even more affordable!

UberChic Beauty Jingle All The Way, Christmas Companion Layers, Flourishes & Ornaments, Pretty In Plaid 02 and Stand Together Stamping Plates

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Hey there!  Well I did say recently that I had a lot of UberChic Beauty posts coming up and I'm sticking to my promise.  In today's post I have the 5 most recent UberChic plates.  All of these were single plates (not in a set of 3, like her collections are) and all upheld the standard that I now have for UberChic quality.  The plates measure 9.5 x 14.5 mm with 17 x 21 mm full nail images though most plates also have some smaller images of various sizes.  Here we have some amazing holiday plates as well as a couple of the plates she released in the fall.  I'm terribly behind on blogging but luckily the fall releases are appropriate year-round.

The Digit-al Dozen does Accent Nails - Winter Stamping

Hey there!  Since I started Digit-al Dozen's week a day late, I thought I better try to catch up so I'm doing two posts in a row.  Since we're doing Accent Nails, it made me think of images that I LOVE but that wouldn't really make sense to do a full mani with.  This image from Whats Up Nails B035 is a great example (hence I used it here).  I love the deer with the trees and grass but it would look funny to do every nail with it....so it's an accent nail.  Luckily the plate also has some lovely tree images that mix-n-match with it perfectly.

The Digit-al Dozen does Colors That Collide - Autumn Gradient with Stamping

Hey there!  Tonight's post is my attempt at finishing up a Digit-al Dozen theme for the first time in 3 months.  I gotta say, with moving and another major personal life change, nails have really taken a backburner but that's gotta stop.  Nails make me so happy, especially the DD group!  Hence me forcing myself to finish this month, just a week late.  Our theme of Colours That Collide made for some fun ways to make color collisions for me.  Gradients are definitely my favourite way of getting colors all up close and personal with each other so that was my final technique of the week.  Since I stuck with fall-colors for the rest of the week, this one is no different.

The Digit-al Dozen does Christmas In July - Christmas Flamingos!

Hey there!  After my last couple of posts (which were pretty blech) I'm happy to be ending The Digit-al Dozen's Christmas In July week with one that I think is pretty darn cute.  Seriously, what's better than flamingos in Santa hats?  Nothing, that's what!

The Digit-al Dozen does Vacation - My Hawaii Nails

Hey there!  For today's Digit-al Dozen Vacation mani, I decided it'd be a good time to post the mani I actually wore went I went on vacation this year.  I only go on a real vacation every 5 years so when I do, deciding what to put on my nails is STRESSFUL.  Am I alone in that?  I don't know why I get so stressed since I always bring other polish and change it when I'm away but I guess it's hard for me to decide on something that I know will be on my nails for at least the first few days.  For my Hawaiian vacation this year, I decided to use an old Maniology (then Bundle Monster) plate that was put out in a Polynesian bundle with the islands of Hawaii in the shape of flowers.

The Digit-al Dozen does Vacation - Live Love Lake

Hey there!  It's the second day of The Digit-al Dozen's Vacation Week and, since I tend to spend all my vacation time at the lake, I really wanted to do some slightly less tropical nails.  A couple weeks ago my sister and I did a sign painting night and I think one of the phrases you could paint was "Live Love Lake" and I thought I could get that on my nails.  But of course there wasn't a stamping plate with just the word "lake" so I tried to improvise....and failed.  I do love the lake but it turns out it was impossible for me to turn the word love into lake without creating this mess!  Other than that one word though, I did like this mani.  Apparently I just need to convince a plate maker to throw the "Lake" onto a plate so I can do this again, properly!

The Digit-al Dozen does Colors - Purple (invisible) Gradient and Stamping

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Hey there!  This is what we call bedtime blogging...or at least I do.  It's 11:54 pm and I should be getting ready for bed but I haven't gotten today's Digit-al Dozen post done yet so today is gonna be a quickie.  My color of choice today is purple.  I wanted to do something inspired by this awesome mani from @teenynails but where I went strayed from the original idea.  But since I never get tired of nighttime silhouette looks, I loved it.  Most of the products I used can still be found on Maniology's website (even though I purchased these plates ages ago).  If you want to do something similar with them you can use the code COPY10 to save yourself 10% on them.

The Digit-al Dozen does Book - The Great Gatsby

Hey there!  For Day 3 of The Digit-al Dozen's Book Week, I did a book I absolutely hated, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Now, it's bold of me to say that since it's a classic but I more or less detested every character in it.  That being said, it's one of my favourite movies.  I love how Baz Luhrmann adapts stories to movies.  Plus the soundtrack is amazing.  So my nails are a mix of the book cover plus the movie, with it's art deco motifs.

UberChic Beauty Secret Garden and Cultural Harmony Stamping Plates

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Hey there!  I hope every has had a good Thursday.  I personally can't wait for Friday.  This week has felt looonnngggg!!  But the highlight of it was getting to play with the new UberChic Beauty stamping plates the last couple of nights.  I received the Secret Garden plate and the Cultural Harmony plate on Monday after work and they jumped to the top of my "must try" pile.  I definitely wasn't disappointed.  Normally I don't get things posted so quickly but these couldn't wait.  So now you get to see what I've worn yesterday and today (and the ones I had to do and take off right away so I could blog about them sooner...sad face).

Maniology Fruit Deco Layers (M028 and M029) Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Hope everyone is doing well today.  Personally I've been stuck in a basement at work all day today so it's good to be above ground and seeing the sky again!  Today I'm taking a look at two of the newer stamping plates from Maniology.  The Fruit Deco Layers plates were released last month as their first big leap into layered stamping plates.  The two plates released so far are quite unrelated; the first has a bunch of fruit images (kinda like a fruit bowl for your nails...yum!!) and the second has what they call "kitchen tile" images that are really pretty!  I did 5 manis so far with these plates (for the fifth, you'll need to scroll down since I didn't include it in the collage) and they're great.  If you've never tried layered stamping, now is your chance.  And don't forget to use the code COPY10 to save 10% off these already inexpensive plates!

Maniology Daisy Downer (M026 and M027) Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Yikes, a whole week without blogging.  Last week was a hella work week but I think this week will be easier so it'll be blog central over here!  Starting with a look at some of my favourite new plates from Maniology, the Daisy Downer plates.  These are the grumpy flower plates and I think they are absolutely hilarious.  I think we all think of flowers as pretty and girly but these little guys are angry...in the best way possible!  I know I certainly feel like this sometimes at least!  If they strike you like they did me, feel free to use the coupon code COPY10 to save yourself 10% on your next Maniology order.

Maniology Negative Space Galaxy Stamping Plates

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Hey there!  To start off a new week, I'm sharing two brand new stamping plates from Maniology released just today!  I have to say, I think these plates were secretly made just for me so I'm ridiculously excited to be showing them today.  They are called the "Negative Space Galaxy" plates...which means they're spaced themed AND have a focus on negative space images (which I LOVE).  I'm sure these are going to be popular so if you're looking to grab them, I'd do it soon.  And don't forget to use the code COPY10 to save yourself 10% on your order.  Keep reading to see the plates in all their glory!

UberChic Beauty Basketball Love and Soccer Love Stamping Plates

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Hey there!  Today I have a couple of plates for all you sports fans out there.  UberChic Beauty recently released these two new mini plates, Basketball Love and Soccer Love.  I think the names are pretty self-explanatory.  So whether you watch, play or have family members involved in these sports, these are some must-have plates since I don't think I've seen such focused sports stamping plates before this.  Even though I don't watch or play either basketball or soccer, I had a lot of fun playing with these plates but they'd definitely be even more enjoyable for someone who does!

The Digit-al Dozen does Marble - Baggie Marble Nails

Hey there!  It's Day 3 of The Digit-al Dozen's Marble Week.  Since I don't schedule my posts ahead of time (because I'm rarely that organized) I thought today's winter-y nails would be appropriate since it's starting to snow here tonight.  In Edmonton you never know if that is going to mean just a few flurries or a full on blizzard along with deepfreeze temperatures.  Fingers are crossed for just a few flurries!

UberChic Beauty Art Deco Elegance and Collection 28 Stamping Plates

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Hey there!  I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.  I sure did!  It was cold and snowy here so I stayed in all weekend and played with my newest UberChic Beauty stamping plates!  So today I'm sharing the UberChic Beauty Art Deco Elegance and Collection 28 plates.  Actually I did start testing them out last week but this weekend was the biggest part of it.  These plates were a joy to work with so this pretty much made an ideal weekend for me.  The plates themselves were flawless so the only frustration I had was when I felt like I had too many things I wanted to do with them.  Normally I do two mani's/plate when I'm doing a review but I did an extra one here because there was one mani I just HAD to do.  Now let's take a look!

The Last of 2018's Christmas Nail Art

Hey there!  Like I've been saying lately, I have worn too many holiday manis in the last couple weeks to be able to blog them all separately so for today, I have four designs to share.  One was a bit more intricate, turning a regular image into a negative space image.  There's also one that I wanted to looks like Northern Lights but ended up as a scary Halloween Christmas mani.  There's a simple one that I wore from Thursday to Sunday (partly because I liked them and partly because I was too busy/lazy to change them).  And lastly there's one that I saw yesterday and loved so much that I copied last night so I could wear this as my actual Christmas morning nails.  Hope you like them!

Maniology Mani X Me December 2018

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Hey there!  Today I have a fun new subscription box to review for you guys!  Maniology recently started the Mani X Me (pronounced "mani by me") box.  Since there's not nearly enough subscription boxes for us nail art lovers out there, I think this is a wonderful idea!  Each month you receive 2 stamping plates (made just for the box), 2 stamping polishes and a surprise.  I received the December box which was winter/holiday-themed.  I did 4 manis with the products in this month's box.  I hope you like them!