Friday, March 27, 2015

Nail - French Pink Bow

I finally got my pink bow nail charms! I love them!! I have to watch out for the bows snagging on things which is a little weird, but it's also pretty weird having my nails so long. I used to grow my nails all the time when I was younger. They are strong enough, grow fast, and I never really break them or chip them. With the military I usually kept them short even though I was allowed to grow them 1/4 inch (without nail polish.) It just felt too weird to get my hands dirty like that with long nails. Now I can have princess nails!
I stopped by Sally's Beauty Supply and picked up a couple of fresh new pastels to get me in the mood for spring. By the way, did you know it's snowing in Buffalo? Yay. Super yay. My new polishes certainly brightened up this snowy and dreary day. I can't wait to try them out!

OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat
OPI - Bride's Bouquet
OPI - Altar Ego
OPI - Top Coat
Charms - Tie Me Up, Pink
Swarovski Rhinestones  - Crystal Clear (similar)




Sunday, March 22, 2015

Niagara Falls

Nothing reminds me more of a "family road trip" than Niagara Falls. Maybe Mount Rushmore and the Hoover Dam too. Those boring things you go see because it's family friendly and very Americana. Niagara Falls we went to see because it was part of my assignment for a class. I went there as a kid and remember waiting in line forever on the Canadian side in those dumb ponchos to go to the cave behind the falls or whatever. It was okay. 

Before we left we had to make funny faces of course...




Ellie's first state park!


Joe had never been to Niagara Falls before. I thought that was weird because he grew up in New York all his life until he moved with me to Alaska. I thought everyone had gone there as a kid at some point!


We both had this irrational fear of somehow dropping Ellie down the waterfall. 


Those big piles of snow are actually mountains of ice from the waterfall.


Friday, March 20, 2015

Nail - Matte Grey and Glitter

I did little nail polish haul and received the first few of my items in the mail. I got the OPI base coat, glossy top coat and the new matte top coat. I think the matte top coat is the best nail polish purchase I've made in a while!

Essie - Chinchilly
Bedhead - Health Goddess
OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat
OPI - Top Coat
OPI - Matte Top Coat






Wednesday, March 18, 2015

DIY Decoden Phone Case

I know that I'm a grown adult and I probably shouldn't be doing ridiculous things like carrying around a cell phone that looks like someone barfed up candy onto it, but at this point I don't care. It's just way. too. cute. Back in the days of flip phones I used to hang adorable Japanese charms and super glue Swarovski crystals all over my phone, so nothing has really changed. I am, so my husband says, a 7 year old stuck in a 29 year old's body.

Since the iPhone came out I was a little sad that I couldn't put charms on it and make it cute. Most of the cases were just "eh." The most I saw was those little dust caps that go into the headphone jack and have charms attached to it. It's a pretty good idea but I needed more. Then I stumbled upon decoden! It was just as ridiculously cute as I needed it to be.

"Decoden" is a craft where people adhere cute little charms called "cabochons" to things using a silicon cream. The cream can be bought in different colors and many people just use caulking from the hardware store. You pipe it on the item you are decorating with an icing bag and icing tip to make it look like cake icing or whipped cream. Then you place cute charms on it along with pearls, rhinestones or anything else you want. 
I ordered my charms from Happy Kawaii Supplies on Etsy and I was really happy with it. You can order the clear case, the cream, charms, and anything else you would need.

Supplies You'll Need:

Clear phone case (or any color you want as long as it is a slim and minimal case)
Nail file or sandpaper
Puff paint
Pearls, rhinestones, micro beads, glitter or polymer clay sprinkles.
Piping cream (silicon cream, caulking or Mod Podge Collage Clay)
Icing bag and large star tip
Cabochons
Tweezers



The first step is to gather your supplies.


Then take your nail file and scratch up the top of the clear case so that the cream will stick to it a little better. Don't worry, you won't see it after you are done. Don't scratch up the sides of the case though. Now take out your cabochons and see what you want to use. I chose a sweets theme and purchased the large 25 piece assorted sweets pack so I had many options. I also got two large pink bows to use as the main focal point.


Arrange the pieces on the case approximately where you want them to go and take a photo with your phone so you can refer to it later. This is very important since you don't want to make a mistake and mess up your nice piping work.


Take your puff paint in whatever color you would like. I chose the Scribble Pop "Hot Chocolate" so it would look like chocolate sauce. You can do strawberry sauce, green ooze or even a blood color if you're into that. "Pastel Goth" is a thing, right?


Drizzle the puff paint onto the edges of the case to look like it's melting. You can purchase hot glue in various colors and do this with a hot glue gun if you want to. It hardens faster that way too! I chose puff paint and I like the results, but be careful not to touch it as it dries for a few hours. I added some rhinestones and polymer clay sprinkles around the camera area since I have to keep that part clear of the cream. 


These clay sprinkles were a great buy! It was a last minute addition to my cart and I'm glad I got it.


The only thing disappointing was that the light purple "simulation cream" I ordered was in too small of a tube to cover my entire phone case. Also the icing tips it came with were very small. I decided to use this for another project and went out to Michael's to pick up Mod Podge Collage Clay. It comes with enough cream for a ton of projects, comes with three large icing tips and you can get it in "Vanilla" (white)  or "Strawberry" (pink) and it only cost $9. I'm really happy this exists!!!!! Mod Podge had a whole new collection of products that I was happy to see too, including puff paints in brown, pink and red, and hot glue sticks in similar colors, I assume for projects just like this one.


Pipe the cream on your case and add your charms, sprinkles and everything else! Let it dry for a day or two before touching it.


I just love the little strawberry dipped pretzels! And the biscuits!! I should have ordered some more clear cases. I feel a collection coming on...





Monday, March 16, 2015

Ink Inspiration #5

Happy Monday! I'm enjoying my spring break this week and getting some more unpacking done. 













Saturday, March 14, 2015

Ellie Nova Ottati - 11 Months!


Growing? Her molars are coming in and she probably has 10 teeth total now. 

New and Exciting? She can walk along furniture and can go from sitting to standing up by herself without holding on to anything.

Loves? She loves music and dancing to all kinds of stuff like Mozart, Rancid, Sublime, Sade, Goldfrapp, The Black Keys and many others. Ellie's favorite items to play with (or try to) are her play house, her books, anyone'e cell phone or ipad, the computer mouse, my laptop, nail polish bottles, coasters and power tools. She is always trying to get her hands on a wrench or a hammer.

Hates? She doesn't like being stuck behind the baby gate very much unless Murray is there with her for entertainment.

Looking Forward to? Her first birthday.

We've been behind on the updates since we moved and got a little too busy for it. I also just found the quilt I've been taking photos of her on. 
BTW, Happy Ultimate Pi Day everyone!







Friday, March 13, 2015

Nail - First Junk Nail

Today I just said screw it. I'm putting sparkles on my nails. It's my first attempt so I didn't expect it to be brilliant but I'm posting it anyway.  I'm still waiting for all my cute nail supplies to arrive so I can practice for now.
Spring break is here! I can't believe it's been that long since classes started. I still have so much to do and time just keeps flying by. Ellie is going to be one year old soon, how insane is that?

Essie - Mint Candy Apple
Essie - Ballet Slippers


Monday, March 9, 2015

Ink Inspiration (and some piercings!) #4

I'm a little late on today's post! I added a couple of piercing pictures too. I've been thinking about all my old piercings I used to have. They are all closed up now except for my little extra earlobe piercing on my left ear. I will always have a little navel piercing scar, a reminder that I grew up in the 90's. I have a scar on my nose too but you can't see it unless you really look. The rest are all distant memories, although once in a while I will get that weird feeling on my tongue like I want to play with the bar but it's not there. A ghost tongue piercing I guess!












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