Winter Manicures: Sparkles and Blue Ice

Sparkles and Blue Ice

Hello!  I thought it would be fun to start off the winter season with an original nail design.  My nail polish collection is a little limited, so I had to be a little creative with what I have!  And I have to say, the results were pretty cool.  I call this design Sparkles in Blue Ice because it is exactly that.  I'm not very good at naming things (or people for that matter), so if you have a better name for this, let me know!

Sparkles and Blue Ice

Revlon: Multi Care 965

Sinful Colors: Love Nails 282

 I USED...

-Claire's Cosmetics nail polish: this one didn't really have a name.  It was mainly just sparkles with a slight blue tint.  However, any sparkly polish will do the job.  

Sinful Colors: Snow Me White 101

Claire's: Sparkly Blue

-Sinful Colors: Snow Me White (White)

-Sinful Colors: Love Nails (Blue with a shiny incandescence)

-Revlon: Multi-Care base and top coat 

MY STEPS...

1.  Spread your base coat evenly on all of your clean, dry nails.
2.  Put on your white polish and make sure it is even.  This will be the supporting base for your blue.
3.  Paint the SHINY blue on all of your nails.  It doesn't need to be very even, since the white will show through and make it icy-like.  Because you have a white base, you only need to paint the blue on once.
4.  Take your sparkly polish and apply it lightly.  It doesn't need to be very thick unless you didn't have a SHINY blue nail polish.  
5.  Finish everything off with a nice liberal coat of your top coat.  Make sure to cover every millimeter of you nail so that your blue doesn't start to rub off in only a couple of days like it did with mine! 

Here is my thumb as an end result. 

I hope you liked the design.  Please let me know how it goes for you if you try it!  And if you decide to copy any pictures, give credit where it's due.  Thanks for reading!

Cimorelli's Believe It EP Part 2

Hey everybody!  I'm here on a brighter note to rave about Cimorelli's EP!  

The Believe It EP came out on December 11th.  I was quite wrong about the song list, since there's only one Christmas cover, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".  I still haven't listened to all of the songs yet due to my CRAZY homework loads, but from what I've read in the comments, they're pretty awesome.  

Song number one is of course, "Believe It".  I think I posted an acoustic version from YouTube already if you want to see them do it live.  Here's another version of it, also from YouTube.  I like this one a lot because of the setting of the music video is on an amazing California beach.  I'm assuming because they live in California.  They caught the sun at the perfect angle in the sky and it just makes you want to Believe It!  Whatever "it" is, haha.  And I've already said this before, but I love the parasols.  They add the perfect touch to the video and have very pretty designs.  The girls themselves made it look like tons of fun, which I'm sure was really fun.  I mean, who wouldn't want to run around on a beach with beautiful parasols and the sun setting behind you?  I guess I'm the only one that would.  

The second song is called "You Got Me Good".  I'm not very sure if it's a cover or not, since I haven't heard it yet.  But here's the interesting-looking video...

 
Song number three is an original called "Wings".  It's with an acoustic guitar (not in this video) and really beautiful.  It's a must-listen and has a message kind of like "Skyscraper" (by Demi Lovato, but covered by Cimorelli).  Also, I really like Amy's voice.  You can hear her singing in the first verse of the song; she's the one sitting on the piano.  I'm not sure if it's very good for the piano, but her voice is so good!  I'm not sure if they have a music video for this.  I just know that it came out a while before the EP was announced.  

Anyways, I really really enjoyed listening to what I could of the Believe It EP so far.  It's available on iTunes, Spotify, and music videos are available on YouTube.  Make sure to like the videos if you enjoyed them, and also to add Cimorelli's new songs to your playlists.  I sure have already.  :)  Happy listening!

Connecticut School Shooting- Prayers to the Hurt

As most of you in the US know, there was an elementary school shooting this morning in a Connecticut school.  About 26 people died, most of them children.  When I heard this, my heart was filled with sadness.  I don't understand why someone would want to shoot people, especially kids.  It doesn't bring satisfaction and it manifests hate.  Regardless of my opinions, I'd like to ask that you keep the victims, their families, and their friends in your prayers.  I can't even begin to imagine the kind of pain and loss they are feeling.  Especially the anger.  For more info on the shooting, check out the link here.  Thank you.

Cimorelli's Believe It EP!

I really like this cover!  The parasols are a really nice touch.  (Source: cimorellimusic.com)

I'm so excited!  In about 5 days, Cimorelli's new "Believe It" EP will be released!  I've been waiting so long for new Cimorelli songs.  There's an original Cimorelli sisters song called, "Believe It" on the EP that I'll post below this paragraph.  And I even heard that there will be a couple of Christmas tracks!  Could this get any better?  Keep an eye out on iTunes and Spotify for Cimorelli's new EP on December 11th!  There will definitely be more posts on "Believe It" soon.  Happy listening!

 

Libera: Vote for Your Favorite Music Video!

My favorite choir, Libera, is having a Music Video Voting Contest!  For those of you who are also fans, please check out the link and give your favorite video a vote.  Non-fans, please also check out the videos (which can all be found on Libera's YouTube channel).  Who knows?  You could be discovering a new artist(s) to follow!  A couple things to keep in mind, though: You are only permitted to vote once AND you vote through your Facebook account. 

It was a really hard choice for me, since I like so many of the Libera music videos.  If you wanted to know, I voted for "O Holy Night" because I absolutely adore Christmas songs.  Also my favorite soloist, Ralph Skan, is featured in the video and I love the whole church scene.  Actually, I don't even know if it is a church...?  But anyways, it was a beautiful song.  *PLEASE DON'T LET MY CHOICE INFLUENCE YOURS!  LIBERA WANTS TO KNOW WHICH VIDEO YOU LIKE THE MOST!*  Have fun choosing! 

Strawberry Ice and Nail Designs

Hello everybody!  I'm here to post some pictures from when I went to California last month.  By the way, southern California (Irvine, Los Angeles, places around there) is a pretty great place to get really really really good Asian food.  I recommend a place who's specialty is Taiwanese food, Class 302.  :)

These pictures really don't have much to do with anything I did in California (I really went for a wedding), but I really like them and thought I'd share them with you.  I especially like how clear the detail is because I used the "macro" setting to take the close-ups. 

Pictures #1 & 2:  Strawberry Shaved Ice!  I had this on the last day I was in California, and we ate this outside in the bright sun.  For those in the Midwest and other places that are already super cold by October, it was in the 80's!  The only thing I would have added was some chocolate drizzle for the strawberries.  I'm a lover of chocolate-covered strawberries!  Gosh...  These pictures make my mouth water even now!

Pictures #3 & 4:  Yes, these are my wonderfully beautiful fingers and sleek blue iPod!  Haha, just kidding.  A couple of nights before I took these pictures, I was visiting with old friends I hadn't seen in a while.  We ended up doing our nails because one of us brought her whole collection of nail polish.  It was fun and my nails matched the dress that I was wearing for the wedding.  I've got to say, my photography is better than my nail job.  My nails were completely perfect the first night and then I chipped and nicked them all over.  I might have even bitten one of them in my sleep, which is very strange.  Oh well...   

Pictures #5 & 6:  Once again, my fingers are the stars of the show!  I actually did my nails again a week and a half ago.  If you can see the purple underneath the silver crackle, that was my original color for my nails.  Then, being the wonderfully clumsy person I am, I managed to mess them up in one hour.  I feel quite accomplished though, since I had the brains to cover it up with crackle.  :)  And in the second picture, I'm holding these AMAZING Japanese pens called Frixion Point.  I love them immensely because they're erasable!  I don't even mean leave-streaks-of-color erasable.  They're really really erasable!  But...  I think they're only sold in Japan. 

Picture #7:  This picture should probably go along with 3 & 4.  The e-ma circle thing is actually a box for candy.  And once again, it's Japanese!  It's probably my favorite Asian brand of candy.  They're little pearls of sweet tartness that are available in different flavors.  Wow, now I sound like I'm doing sales!  Point of the story, try them out!

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures I shared with you.  If you want to copy them for any reason, please give credit where it's due!  Thank you so much for reading!