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...

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 Albums - The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta

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Hey there!  I have a confession to make.  I honestly hadn't even heard of the album I picked for my final Digit-al Dozen mani this week.  I just had the itch to do a gradient and this album cover starts with a gradient so I went with it.  The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta was released in 1980.  I wasn't even 2 years old and it doesn't have that many big hits on it so I guess it isn't a big shock that I don't know it.  But it did make for some fun nails!

The Digit-al Dozen does Textured - Textured Snowflakes

Hey there!  It's Day 2 of The Digit-al Dozen's Textured week.  Of course when we decided on this theme, the only thing I could think of was textured polishes.  When my sister lived with me I had far more access to them because she seems to like them more than I do.  I went through my spreadsheet and made a list of the ones I own but that list turned out to be pretty small.  I remedied that by buying a couple of new Zoya Pixie Dust polishes that I used for today's mani.  I didn't know then how appropriate my winter theme for today would end up being.  Edmonton is currently in its 12th day in a row of extreme cold warnings, with wind chills of -40 to -45 degrees.  It's currently -28 C (-19F) and I have to say that I'm pretty tired of the weather.  But it's not actually snowing so I suppose it could be worse...

The Digit-al Dozen does Recreating Your First Blog Posts - Night Sky Nails

Hey there!  It's time for a brand new Digit-al Dozen week.  September marks the 6th anniversary of the beginning of The Digit-al Dozen's creation (though none of us current members are original) so it's sort of fitting that this month we're going back in time and recreating our first blog posts.  I went back through my first 6 months (give or take) of blog posts and found some that I wanted to re-do.  I like to think my photos are a little better now but I still do like my original manis.  Actually I like some of the originals better than my recreations.  Today I wanted to redo a night sky gradient that I did almost 5 years ago when I noticed how short our days had become.  I'm noticing that already this year even though it's only September.  It's amazing how quickly our seasons change here...we might even get snow this week!

The Digit-al Dozen does Tropical - Beach Nails

Hey there!  For my second Digit-al Dozen Tropical mani, I went with an old favourite.  I will never ever tire of beach manis and I was pretty happy with how these turned out.  There was so much to it - a gradient, pond-ish stamping, sponging and water decals.  But well worth it since I really enjoyed wearing these.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - End of Summer

Hey there!  In addition to being the end of the Digit-al Dozen's theme this week, it's also time for 26 Great Nail Art Ideas.  This week our theme was "End of Summer" which I refused to acknowledge since it's only the middle of August.  Then, at my ultimate game last week, I saw a little V of geese flying south.  My heart dropped.  That's a surefire sign of summer ending here.  I don't know where those geese go but I hope they know they made me very very sad!  On the plus side, they inspired today's nails.  That evening also had a beautiful sunset, as though the sky knew I needed to be cheered up a bit...

The Digital Dozen does Gradient+ and 40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Pink & Lilac

Hey there!  Today I have a combination of three themes (yes, three) and two full manis (yes, two) that, to be honest, both kinda suck.  If you've been following along this week, you'll know that The Digit-al Dozen is doing Gradient+, ie. gradients with a bit extra.  This week 40 Great Nail Art Ideas has the color prompt of pink and lilac and I had the personal prompt of saran wrap and I thought it'd be easy to combine saran wrap and gradient nails.  I was wrong.  These two techniques don't mix particularly well or, at very least, I didn't manage to do anything I liked.  First I tried saran wrap over a centered gradient...didn't like it.  So then I tried gradient stamping over a saran wrap mani but my stamping colors are so faint that it's barely a gradient.  I refused to try for a third time so I'm stuck with these two looks.

The Digit-al Dozen does Spring/40 Great Nail Art Ideas 3 Shades of Green

Hey there!  I'm so proud of today's look.  It's one of my personal favourites that I've ever done.  And I managed to combine three prompts which is always fun!  If you've been following along this week, you'll know that the Digit-al Dozen are celebrating the beginning of spring since the first day of the new season is on Sunday.  In addition to that, the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas group is using three shades of green and I have the personal prompt of reciprocal gradient.  Normally I don't love reciprocal gradients, possibly because I'm too impatient to do two gradients, but I'm starting to really like them with certain patterns of vinyls.  In order to make my reciprocal gradient spring-themed, I purchased some awesome leaf vinyls from Snail Vinyls.  The trees starting to turn green is one of my favourite parts of spring so I think I managed to get all three themes combined.  I'm including both the matte and glossy versions here because I really couldn't choose which way I liked more.

The Digit-al Dozen does Nail Heroes - Clairestelle8, pipe dream polish and China Glaze

Hey there!  For Day 2 of The Digit-al Dozens week celebrating our nail heroes, I wanted to re-do a mani from one of my favourite instagrammers, @clairestelle8.  There's a couple of reasons why I love Claire's account so much.  Not only is she an amazing nail artist but she tends to use a lot of bright colors, all at once (which I LOVE) AND she's absolutely hilarious.  If you've never come across her account before, seriously, go read her captions.  They never fail to make me laugh out loud!  Since Claire's accounts are filled with neon, I used it as an opportunity to also celebrate a couple of my favourite neon polish makers - pipe dream polish and China Glaze.

The Digit-al Dozen does Nail Heroes - The Crumpet

Hey there!  It's a new Digit-al Dozen week!  With Valentine's Day being just yesterday, this week we're giving our nail heroes some love.  For me that means I'll be focusing on bloggers/Instagrammers/brands that I love and who always inspire.  And it means I get to copycat lots of manis which I love doing (hence my blog name).  As a group, we're starting with our friend and fearless DD leader, who just happens to be one of my biggest nail heroes - the always amazing Debbie from The Crumpet!  Debbie never ceases to amaze me with, not just her nail art, but who she is as a person.  Debbie recently announced her transition into nail blog retirement which breaks my heart but luckily we'll be able to keep up with her new blog, Debhoorah.  I've never met her in real life but I truly consider Debbie a friend, a mentor and a hero.  She is responsible for starting almost all of the  groups I'm in (seriously, who has that much energy?) and these groups give me so many happy feelings.  Because of them I've been introduced to the loveliest of ladies (I'm looking at you Digit-al Dozen girls) and for that I'll be forever grateful to Debbie.  So thank you for everythingDebbie!  Love you!

HPB Presents Northern Lights Gradient

Hey there!  For those of you who don't know, the Hobby Polish Bloggers is a Facebook group of amazing folks who, unsurprisingly, all love nail polish enough that we post pictures of our fingers on the internet.  Every month this group does a link up and this month our theme is my absolute favourite nail look - gradients.  I'd been wanting to do a northern lights style mani for awhile but wasn't sure what technique to use.  I'm lucky enough that I get to see the northern lights fairly often (I even posted this pic on Instagram in the summer) but I've never done nails inspired by it.  Then I saw this post from Cathy of More Nail Polish and immediately fell in love and wanted to copy it which fell in line perfectly with our gradient theme.

Holographic Gradient

Hey there!  I have a short post today to share a gradient I wore a few weeks ago.  I love gradients but don't usually do them with holo polishes so I thought it looked pretty neat...which is a good thing because I had to keep in on my nails for a few days when I had overseas company last month.

Construction Crane Nail Art

Hey there!  In case you're wondering why I have poorly painted cranes on my nails for this post, I promise it's not as random as it looks.  This past Saturday was my dad's birthday so, for the first time, I decided to do my nails for him.  Not only was it his birthday but he was "performing".  My dad is a crane operator and is currently working on a huge project in Edmonton known as The Ice District - part of which is a new hockey arena that has been years in the making (very exciting for our hockey-obsessed city).  This weekend there was an art event called Nuit Blanche here (originally started in Paris) and one of the exhibits was Dance of The Cranes where my dad and his coworkers had choreographed movements for the cranes set to music.  He thought it was silly but I could tell he was secretly proud of it.  And he even liked my nails enough that he asked me to text him a pic of them so he could show his crane buddies!

Dark and Grungy Chevron Nails

Hey there!  It's the final week of The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.  I'm sad to see it go but have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for managing to do all 52 prompts.  The final prompts were dark/grungy and zig zags.  I think chevrons are zig zag-y so I thought a saran wrap chevron mani would be cool....little did I know that I'd pretty much lose the entire chevron effect.  Trust me, the chevrons are way more visible here than they were in real life!

Orange Swirl Watermarble

Hey there!  I'm actually on holidays this week but I thought I'd schedule at least a few posts so you guys didn't think I disappeared off the face of the earth.  Today's post is for The 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.  The themes for this week are Swirls and 3 Shades of Orange/Red.  I knew I wanted to do a swirly water marble but didn't count on how hard it was going to be!  This was the second one I did after the first one was a complete failure.

The Digit-al Dozen does Neon: Day 3 Sunset Nail Vinyls

Hey there!  It's the middle of The Digit-al Dozen's Neon Week and for today I have a double gradient that I did with B Squared Lacquer's EDM Collex and some sun nail vinyls from Twinkled T.  I thought, it's summer so why not do something hot and sunny?  Keep reading to see all the details...

Sunday Stamping: Let's Go Fishing

Hey there!  This week's Sunday challenge is a call for summer-themed nails.  I haven't been able to go fishing yet this summer so I decided to do some fishing-themed nails (a fun summer pastime for my family) to try to call on the weather gods to not make our lake so wavy so I can actually get in a boat without risk of seasickness.  And it's the second time in 3 weeks that I used this Winstonia plate for a Sunday stamping post.  I must like it!

Neon Diagonal Gradient

Hey there!  It's an exciting day here in Alberta.  It's our provincial election day, possibly the most exciting election we've ever seen.  Our current governing party has been in power for longer than I've been alive so it's exciting that the polls are suggesting that that might finally change.  My good friend Brandon is even running in the election with The Alberta Party.  I've been helping him out a bit along the way and I'm so proud and impressed with the campaign that he's run that I couldn't resist doing a gradient with the colors from the party's logos to show my support for Brandon and his team.

Lace Nail Stamping Over Gradient

Hey there!  I've been wanting to do a purple/black gradient since I saw this dress on Pinterest.  But gradients with black at the cuticle side of things can be hard to clean up.  At least they were before the discovery of latex/masking fluid products to help in clean up.  So I bit the bullet last weekend and did the gradient.  Then, because I like messing with things, I stamped some lace and made them matte and really liked the final look.  I liked it so much that I took about a million photos so prepare yourself for a photo-heavy post.