Arrow and Lace Nails

I've been browsing around looking for some doable lace nail art on Pinterest and I found some things that were inspiring. I didn't actually copy anything that I saw I was just inspired. And once I thought of what I wanted to do I still had 3 days before I'd have time to do my nails so I just constantly thought about it!!! It literally kept me from sleeping one night! I have problems...

So without further ado this is how my nails ended up

I actually love this picture as a whole because of the nail polish in the background.  So cute I think :)

Anyway for my thumb nail I did my version of lace. I used O.P.I.'s "Sorry I'm fizzy today"(pink) as the base then put white over the top at an angle.  I did little designs that turned out to look like little hearts along the top and bottom of my line and then I simply drew lines out from the bottom to make it look like lace. 

I used MissJenFabulous's idea for my pointer finger nail. I think it looks beautiful.

I wanted to do an arrow so I looked around on Pinterest and decided the cutest arrow was the one that went across two nails. I used my new O.P.I. "My signature is DC" silver polish which is as beautiful as it looks in the picture.  From there I did a white arrow and once that was cured I went over it with the pink so the pink was "pinker.."

On my pinky I did a cute "spray" just from the tip of the nail.. super cute I think! My boyfriend was blown away at how good they look. He's so sweet to give me compliments on my nails even though he probably doesn't care at all about them! (He just likes that I'm not paying to get them done!)

Seya Nail Bag Review

After hauling all my nail stuff to my friends house last weekend I knew I needed a better way to carry everything around.

So I went to my favorite store.. Amazon :)  I discovered I couldn't find a $20 bag that was big enough to hold all my polish and my light but I wasn't going to spend $150 for one either! 

I did spot a gorgeous bag by Seya called the Soft-Sided Nail Polish Storage Bag Makeup Case in "Silver" for only $59.95 SCORE!

It just arrived last night and I packed everything in it today. It's way cute and it's more of a Pink-Silver. It's a gorgeous color.  It is perfect for me now but I can see myself running out of nail polish space in the designated slots.  I can always put the polish in the bottom storage area after I run out of space up top. Right now I had a huge bag of cotton balls that takes up a lot of the space in the large bottom section but that's not a big deal.  Here are some photos of the bag with all my stuff in it.

My OPI polishes are a little tall so I couldn't put my nail tools in that top mess zip area.  I was able to fit them in the front zipper just great.

Girls Nail-Night!

I promise I do other stuff besides nails but like most people once I get excited about something I'm become a smidge obsessed for a bit.. That's most people, right?

Well anyway.. My sweet friends from Draper Crossfit were all pumped to get together for a girls nail night!  Hill, Staci and Tasha have nail lamps and an arsenal of sweet gel polishes and glitters and stuff I don't know the names of ;) Apparently Tasha use to do gel nails a ton in high school (her mom taught her) to make extra money.  Staci just does them for herself for fun I believe.  She use to do hair at a salon so she may have done nails for money as well.  Hill was actually the person who ultimately inspired me to get a gel nail set.  She always has the cutest nails and is a big time crossfitter so I've alway been envious.  

Tasha was sweet and let me practice on her gorgeous nails.  She literally has the perfect long nails.. but of course she just wanted simple turquoise and one white accent nail.  Then she had me do a super cute glitter on one of her turquoise nails that looks kind of like sea shells.  You just put a clear coat on the nail (either base or top, I used base) then sprinkle the glitter on top and cure.  WAY CUTE. I've got to get some of that glitter stuff.

For some reason Hill and Staci didn't think they could do cute little accent designs on nails (they really could have because the ones I did were way easy..) so they applied base coats and I did the accents. First, Ellen (who just announced her pregnancy to the whole group -even though she's spilled the beans to most of use before :) ).

(Pardon the poor picture background!)

She chose a cute mint that Hill had and my glittery gold.  Then I did a cute spray design... which they all named a firework which I feel is a better name than spray... on her thumb with white and gold.  Then different sized polka dots which ended up way cute on her middle finger.  I did gold chevron which was way cute and then just a white line with a gold line on her pinky.  

Next was Staci and she was really easy.  She just wanted one accent nail which was inspired from MissJenFabulous.

I had her put the orange base coat down and then I drew some curvy lines in turquoise and purple then highlighted them in white. 

Kamrie's nails were next and I was really pumped to do them because she asked for cheetah print! I've watched a tutorial on cheetah print and it's way easier than you think.. she also wanted a firework and a feather!  I gotta work on my feathers.. they look okay but I am not thrilled with them...

These probably ended up being my favorite. I love how the cheetah print turned out and I like how one nail is full cheetah while the other two just curve around the edges.

Heidi wanted a much simpler design which is totally her style :)  she chose just to have a gold accent tip.  

This picture doesn't do it justice.. it turned out really cute. 

Finally, a girl I didn't really know very well who also turned out to be a tiny bit picky for getting a free manicure.. 

Tasha did her half moons which ended up cute and I outlined the half moon with a black stripe and polka dots.

Overall it was a really fun night and everyone was really nice and thankful (almost everyone..).  I do have some pretty good friends. I just wish they weren't so far away! 

Gol-itter!

That's me being crazy witty and combining Gold and Glitter ;) 

So the reason for all my amazing wittiness is this little beaut:

I loved doing this! I was so excited that my new OPI gel polishes came in time for my next manicure.  The gold is "Oy Not Another Polish Joke" and the amazing turquoise is "Can't Find my Czechbook". These came from the adorable Euro collection of OPI colors.  All way cute! 

My thumb is my go-to design. I used white in a "spray" pattern (for lack of a better word) then cured the color and did the same spray with the gold. 

My pointer finger is a direct steal of MissJenFabulous.  She does amazing nail art tutorials on YouTube.. check her out.

My middle finger was also inspired from MissJenFabulous.  It's simple but way cute.

For my ring finger I've been hell bent on doing my own free hand chevron pattern.. the way I did this was by first just doing a simple polka dot pattern and then just taking a nail art brush and connecting the dots!  It was way easy and doesn't look half bad if I may say so myself.  

The pink was half white and half turquoise then I put gold down the middle and took a dotting tool and just spread it back and forth to make it look abstract but awesome.  

I'm so happy about how this manicure turned out.  

Great news! I have some awesome friends who are letting me do their nails tomorrow night at girls night while our men are out getting stupid-smashed at an annual horseshoe tournament.

More pictures to come!

The Addition of Mint

As each new gel color arrives I become ecstatic to use it! Good news.  "That's Hula-rious" my new OPI mint colored gel polish arrived not long ago and it came just in time for me to do Kellie's nails.  Immediately I thought of a super cute design that I have seen (likely on Pinterest) with a white base and mint stripes topped with a pink heart. 

These are Kellie's finished nails.  Thumbs with OPI's "Live, Love, Carnival" feathers with a Gelish glitter polish.  Index fingers with the white base, mint stripes and pink heart.  Next a Mint base with pink and glitter "spray" (I don't know what the heck it's actually called".  Mint base with a super cute pink anchor.  Finally, a pinky nail with a white tip and mint and pink Zebra stripes.  

I did my own toes in a very similar fashion.  I did a different design originally for the toe next to my big toe but I didn't love it so I changed it to a cute mint base with a white and glitter bow.  I did a design on my middle toe that turned out okay but it wasn't what I was going for... then a spray design on the next toe and a mint glitter pinky toe. 

I did end up redoing my pointer finger nail because I didn't love how the original nail turned out.  I have since watched a tutorial and am confident I could successfully create the original pattern I was going for.. I do like the way the stripes with the partial chevron turned out.

Finally.. after doing Kellie's nails and my own toes I received my OPI "Black Onyx" polish.  After I pleaded Brad let me polish his toes with the skull design of his choice (of course I added some stripes and polka dots for aesthetics and practice).  

"Black Onyx" was a disappointment because it seemed very diluted (even after much vigorous shaking).  It required multiple layers as a base color but it did eventually look good.  Brad requested "The Punisher" skull so I gladly obliged for the practice :)  I was able to do the white base okay but I had to try a few times to nail the black eyes and nose to the skull.  I had to retry a few times to say the least.  I'm not sure how obvious it is but after I painted on the black stripes to the second toe while we were waiting for his other foot to cure the "Black Onyx" started running a little bit... it just added to my frustration with that polish.  (I am planning on going back and giving a less than positive review of that polish on Amazon.)  I did, however, really enjoy the middle toe with the cute white polka dots.. They are very symmetrical and I think they look clean and nice.  

I have found some really cute OPI Gel Polish Kits from Amazon that come with 6 matching and/or themed colors that I plan on investing in.  Until I decide to invest in them I have a few polishes on their way.. "Oy Anther Polish Joke" (very cute gold) and "You're such a Budapest" a lavender/periwinkle type color from the  Euro kit.

Crossfit Open Wod 15.3 and My Bitterness

Be forewarned.. this is going to be a mindless rant :)  I realize that Dave Castro and everyone at Crossfit HQ  could not care less about my opinion or about all the people who participated in this years Crossfit Open with one goal: RX every wod. 

2015 marks the first year that the Open has had a scaled division for athletes who can't perform the prescribed movements.  Before now if you couldn't perform a movement you just got to spend the entire workout trying and for a lot of people succeeding and PR-ing!

As the majority of athletes who do Crossfit, you strive every day and work up to doing as many workouts as possible at the RX level.  For me I have significantly improved my skills from last year.  In 15.1 I did toes-to-bar much faster than last year. In 15.1a I hit a new PR clean and jerking 150lbs!  In 15.2 (a repeat from 2014) (athletes are given 3 minutes to complete 2 rounds of 10 overhead squats at 95/65lbs and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups.  If all reps are completed by the 3 minute mark, athletes are given 3 additional minutes to complete 2 rounds of 12 Overhead squats and 12 chest-to-bars.  Each additional round completed adds another 3 minutes with 2 additional reps per movement.) I was able to reach my goal of successfully completing round 1!  

I get it.. none of this sounds very impressive.  Games athletes squished my score like bugs in less time than you can say "squished like bugs.." Games athletes are easily separated from the pack in any workout given to athletes.  I proudly got 121 reps in 15.1 and the women's Southwest region winner Camille Leblanc-Bazinet got 239 reps.  Quite obvious there that she is indeed a much more elite athlete than little ol' me.  More-so in 15.2 I got 72 reps! Camille got 427 reps.  Even with movements that average athletes like myself can do, Games athletes obviously set themselves apart.  

The Open workout 15.3 announcement was awful.  15.3 is a 14 minute amrap of 7 Muscle-Ups, 50 wall-balls 20/14, 100 Double-Unders.  WHAM. With the announcement of that WOD thousands of Open participants' hearts sank.  Thoughts of swinging on muscle-ups rings for 14 minutes flashed through my head. Giving up flashed through my head.  Do I even care?  What are they thinking? I hate them. They think they are so awesome! General fit-throwing thoughts flashed through my head.  It's very disheartening to have such an elite movement as the Muscle-Up right smack at the beginning of an Open wod.. note even the final Open wod..  Athletes everywhere are undoubtably infuriated.  The one announcement single-handedly soured the one goal that so many athletes were striving for: RX all wods.  At our gym alone I can think of 2 women who can do a muscle-ups. 2!  

It seems unfair and unnecessary to have such an elite movement in the Open since it's very apparent that elite athletes are going to set themselves apart no matter what.  It also seems plain and simply to be a slap in the face to athletes everywhere.  As if Dave Castro is saying "Forget everything we said while trying to promote people into signing up for the Open that it's all about PR-ing and community and getting your box together every year for this awesome event.  If you can't do a muscle up you don't belong.  And I already have your money so you can bitch all you want." 

With all my annoyance and bitterness I can't be mad. There is nothing I can do about it.  They won't change the wod.  I'm not going to get a muscle-up today.. or this week.  But if I don't want to feel this way again I need to make that effort and work endlessly on doing muscle ups.  People who have them didn't just hop on the rings one day and bust out a muscle-up.  Lots of time and effort has to be put into it.  So with that being said I will still feel a little cheated BUT I won't hold on to it.. and I will go to "Friday Night Lights" at our box tonight and do the scaled wod with a majority of the people at our box.. I will use a lighter wall-ball and I will do single-unders and I will still push myself.  

Art with Nails..

I may or may not have spent some time watching YouTube videos of a Miss Jen Fabulous on Nail Art for Beginners...  All of her videos for beginners.. Which led me to become really pumped on doing my next set of nails.  

I don't want to brag.. well kinda, but I think I did damn good for a first timer! I've always loved the spray look on my ring finger so I'm glad that turned out so well.  The pointer finger is the only one that I'm disappointed with and I don't hate it too bad.  Using the nail art tools that I ordered made all of this much much easier.  I even made a cute feather with glitter on my thumb!  AND I was able to do a little nail art on my right hand as well (I'm not a lefty but it turned out okay).  Now I get to redo my toes and my sweet friends Kellie and Amanda are letting me practice on them as well.  I'm really starting to like this stuff :)