Happy New Year: Best of 2012!

It's time for my yearly "Best of" post!! These are the top 12 best nail polishes and/or nail designs I came by in the year 2012!

12. Black and Pink Moonicures

11. Gold and Black leopard manicure

10.  DV8

9. Galaxy nails

8. Pinterest inspired "Pretty Polka Dotties"

7. Fireworks from the 4th of July

6. Summer Olympics 2012 nails

5. Thanksgiving "Thank You" Manicure

4. Inspired By: Raspberry Lemonade Blistex nails

3. Hunger Games "Girl on Fire" Nails

2.  Mi Mini Minion Manicure from September:

And my favorite manicure of 2012 is.....Monarch Butterfly nails:

Happy New Year's Eve everybody! I'll be doing what I also do on NYE....nothing. Jk, hanging with fam drinking champagne!

Workout for today!

Then I did some leg work on a few gym machines:

                                                  Leg Extensions - 15 reps x 2, 20 reps x 1 @ 25 lbs

                                               Seated Leg Curls - 15 reps x 2, 20 reps x 1 @ 25 lbs

                                               Seated Leg Press - 20 reps x 3 @ 70 lbs

                                                   Calf extensions - 10 reps x 3 @ 70 lbs

GO DRINK SOME WATER!

Thankful Thanksgiving!

This is one of my two planned nail designs I mentioned a few posts ago. It's sort of a big, fat THANK YOU to anyone who checks out my little nail blog here..and it also fits to be posted around Thanksgiving.

For this design I used my blog readers as inspiration. In blogger it tells you the top 10 countries with people who have viewed your blog (if you have a blog I'm sure you're already aware of this!).  My 10 top pageviews by countries are the United States, Israel, Japan, UK, Philippines, Canada, France, Mexico, Germany, and Italy. This is an idea I've been wanting to do for probably a year and I've finally gotten to do it! Yay!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Walk for a Cure: Alzheimer's Walk

This past weekend a friend of mine (S) and participated in Walk For A Cure, a 5k fundraiser for Alzheimer's Disease in Philadelphia. There were a ton of people supporting the cause and the walk went by so quickly. 

My maternal great-grandmother had Alzheimer's so I received a purple flower to walk around with. I even had painted my nails to match the purple. Coincidence?? I think not.

 At the end of the walk all the flowers got put into "garden." The colors were based on if you lost someone to the disease, if you knew someone with the disease, or if you had the disease yourself.

It was a beautiful day and I hope to be involved again next year!

Inspired by: Monarch Butterflies

Today's nails were inspired by a photo on pinterest that caught my interest (ha, pinterest interest). I went to youtube to find a tutorial I could follow (I honestly did end up following this tutorial even though I don't normally follow tutorials) because the nails looked so awesome. I found this one "Monarch Butterfly Nail Design." The video is included below my nails. 

For this design I used: OPI Flit a Bit, Orly Liquid Vinyl, and Orly White Out.

The tutorial was made by Cutepolish. I think I've checked out her designs before. She's super talented and has tons of cute designs so you should totally check the channel out if you're looking for some inspiration!

Award: Liebster Award from Iris

I am long long long overdue with this post. Iris over at Nailart by Iris nominated me as one of her 11 nominees for this award on August 12th! That's almost three full months ago. Anyway, a huge THANK YOU to Iris, one of my favorite nail bloggers I've found online (seriously you should go check her blog out right now!). Now, to the rules!

For the Liebster Award (don't ask me what it means I am sad to say I have no idea! Anyone who DOES know please comment below! =D), you have to do 3 things:

Numero Uno: Post 11 facts about yourself.
Numero Dos: Answer the questions the tagger has asked and then create 11 questions for my nominees.
Numero Tres: Choose 11 nominees with less than 200 followers.

Ok, so kicking off with 11 facts about moi.
#1: Nikkisnailfiles is in its third year! Yay!!
#2: I study law in the United States (where I am also from).
#3: My nail polish collection is just about 150 or so bottles.
#4: I have the most perfect boyfriend in the whole world.
#5: This blog is pretty much a manicure diary of my life since I usually paint my nails for some reason (people's birthdays, holidays, big events, etc.). I always look through the photos and catch myself saying things like "oh yeah, that was when my friend was going to a wedding" or "Those were my birthday nails!"
#6: I never use tutorials to show me HOW to do a design. I usually just jump into trying to get to the end result my own way.
#7:  My nails completely FAIL at being long. I am too rough with my hands so long nails don't last very long with me! Anyone else love short nails?
#8: I am OBSESSED with France. I even took 4 years of French in high school.
#9: I wouldn't be surprised if people thought my cell phone was physically attached to my hand....I'm ALWAYS on it. Seriously.
#10: I like to run.
#11: I am an indoors kind of girl. I enjoy a beautiful day....by looking out a window. You will not catch me camping.

Part 2: 11 questions from Iris
1. What is your favorite food? Sushi.
2. What is your favorite series? TV show series: Revenge, Nashville, Gilmore Girls
3. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for anyone? Ohhh, I have no idea.
4. What is your favorite game? Chess
5. Name a positive trait of yourself: my attention to detail
6. What would you do if you won 1 million dollars? Buy nail polishes of course! (and pay off my student loans)
7. If you had to choose between a boyfriend or a friend what you choose and why? I would choose a boyfriend because then I get both!
8. Name a book that you liked: Daemon by Daniel Suarez.
9. Which country would you like to go to? FRANCE!!!
10. What hobbies do you have? Painting my nails and blogging of course!
11. Are you a morning or night person? Why? I am a night person. I blame it on the years I worked as a late night waitress. I'm just always much more active at night.

Part 3: Nominees
I nominate anyone who wants this award! By reading this post you have earned it! Make sure to comment below so I can check out your blog though! And for my 11 questions to you:
1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What is your favorite color and why?
3. Name one polish you love but do not currently own:
4. Name your favorite nail polish type (glitter, shimmer, cream, matte, etc.):
5. Where is your favorite place to shop?
6. What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?
7. What is your favorite type of movie?
8. If you and one other person were going on vacation, who would you bring and why?
9. What is your favorite nail design that you've done (include link)?
10. What is your favorite blog to check?
11. Name one of your favorite things about yourself:

Don't forget to add a link to your blog below in the comments! I love checking out new blogs!

Rosy Reptile

After breaking out my BundleMonster plates for this recent manicure I was reminded of just how neat I thought stamping was. I really enjoy how absolutely perfect each nail comes out (every single one looks exactly like the other) and how quick and easy it is to use a stamp and jazz up an otherwise plain manicure. Stamping lets me add some pizzazz in literally no time at all! 

I call this my Rosy Reptile manicure because, at least to me, the stamp I used reminded me of scales. The two pinks I used were two of my favorites: Zoya Nicole (which my boyfriend bought for me...and it's obviously my favorite because it's my name =) I think everyone should own a polish named after them!) and Zoya Kristi. Nicole was my base on the eight fingers and then Kristi was the stamp. Then I inverted the design for my ring fingers. I was online yesterday looking at Zoya's new polishes (I'm way behind in all the new polishes that have come out this summer/recently) and I'm definitely feeling the itch to splurge on a bunch! But I'm trying really hard to wait until the summer before buying any new ones!! The stamp was BundleMonster plate 208.

Also, I have two nail posts already planned. I'm at school right now waiting for my next class to begin and all I want to do is go home and polish!! Thank god it's a weekend!!

Cherry Blossom

This isn't one of my best nail designs...it's sloppy and wonky but I wanted to post it anyway because I always say how this blog is for all the designs I try to do...which includes both the good and the bad. So we can just add this one to the "Just Me and My Jack" pumpkin glow in the dark lumpy manicure from last October on the bad list.

For this design I used Orly White Out for the background, Orly Holiday Glow for the tree, FingerPaints I Pink I Can for the outer leaves, and Zoya Kristi for the inner leaves. It makes me want to go the the Cherry Blossom Festival in Philly every April.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody! My Halloween nails aren't exactly spooktacular BUT they do have a tie to Halloween. Has anyone ever seen the movie Hocus Pocus?! It's one of my favorites and I always watch it on Halloween!

The three Sanderson sisters...characters in the movie of course. They inspired 3/5ths of this manicure and I hope you can tell how!

My index, middle, and ring fingers are all inspired by the corsets! Purple and pink for Sarah Jessica Parker, green and blue for Bette Midler, and orange and red for Kathy Najimy. Then on my pinkie is Frankenstein (a cute frankenstein if you ask me) and on my thumb is a mummy.

Inspired by: Raspberry Lemonade Blistex

Inspiration really does come from everywhere. Today, my inspiration for a nail design actually came from a bottle of Raspberry Lemonade Blistex chapstick. Seriously. There was something about the red and yellow combo that got me thinking about a nail design. I don't think I've ever paired yellow and red before in a design. For this look I used China Glaze Solar Power, Zoya Kristi, and BundleMonster plate 208.

I have to say, I really really like this pairing. And it makes me wish I had raspberry lemonade to drink! (Especially while I wait for Hurricane Sandy to come through here..)

Hurricane Sandy...YIKES

I'm ready for Hurricane Sandy to come through. I live pretty close to the east coast (close enough they're evacuating the city to the South of me) so they've been warning us of the danger Hurricane Sandy poses. Law school already closed for tomorrow AND Tuesday via text alert so they must be thinking it's pretty serious. I hope everyone stays safe and the hurricane blows through here with minimal damages. I've stocked up on water, non-perishables, batteries, matches, and candles. For right now I think I'll enjoy my tea....and do some yoga. I want to get back to my gymnastics days so bad!!!

At it again: Zebra

After posting my leopard manicure I wanted to do yet another manicure....more zebra! I liked the glitzy-ness of the gold in the leopard mani so I wanted to have a sparkle element in a zebra manicure too!

For this look I used China Glaze Recycle, Orly Liquid Vinyl, and Essence Silver Surfer.

Homemade Hummus

You know how everyone has little obsessions? I am no different, I am obsessed with a few things too! On the list is my car, scarves, nail polish, learning to cook, running, avocados and HUMMUS. Seriously. So while I sat at my computer in my Civil Procedure class I decided...why not make some homemade hummus when I got back to my apartment? I always buy it and then I think to myself you can do that, there's really nothing to it. I finally decided to go for it when I saw chick peas were on sale last week. I bought three cans and used half of one to make this yummy salad for dinner last week.

Today I broke out the second can and decided to whip up some hummus. I used this recipe I found online (could it get any easier?? I don't think so!). It was so simple, I only used chickpeas, olive oil, some salt, and some of the liquid from the chickpes to make it but obviously the recipe calls for things like tahini, lemon juice, etc (I didn't have that in my cupboard...maybe at some point I'll make legitimate hummus with all the spices and such--perhaps roasted red pepper hummus. Yum!!). Talk about simple ingredients and no time at all spent preparing!

It's l-e-o-P-a-r-d not l-e-o-T-a-r-d!

Obviously after posts like this one, or this one, or maybe any one of these, it's pretty clear I have been bit by animal print fever for a while now (It's sort of like Bieber Fever...only better). I've done mostly zebra since it's my favorite print but I've also tried some leopard and even peacock. This time I decided to try a bit more leopard in gold and black.

Dinner tonight

My delicious dinner for tonight. Lettuce, cucumber slices, tomato, chick peas (I'm obsessed), Tuscan Italian House dressing (from Giant) and homemade croutons! Yes, that's right, I actually made my own croutons!

Got my torts midterm grade!

SERIOUSLY SO PLEASED WITH MY PERFORMANCE ON THE TORTS MIDTERM! Can't even believe it. The class is 43 or so students and I got the fourth highest grade (law school is graded on a forced curve--best gets the A, worst gets F, and the rest fill out the A-, B, etc based on their performance compared to everyone else). Intentional torts are officially my absolute favorite thing in the world! Wahooo! I think I'll celebrate with some yoga!

Lunchtime

Love my lunch breaks between classes! Let's me do some work AND eat :) Turkey, cheese, and lettuce wrap along with some Special K cracker chips and Ferrarra Rocher for dessert. Yummm. 

Feeling blue?

Hey everyone, just a quick post of the nails I painted during the presidential debate tonight. How do you like? I feel like I'm running a marathon with this whole law school thing and I have a list of manicures I can't wait to get done!! They seem to be having to wait until my winter break though in December unfortunately. So much to do, so little time!!

7 PM to 11 PM tonight is taken!

Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and 666 Park Avenue. Awesome!

Renaissance Faire

Fare thee well all! Before you think I've lost my mind and went head over heels down a rabbit hole into the middle of the 16th century let me explain. My dad's birthday was this past Monday and so I thought as a neat gift idea (he prefers doing things instead of just presents) for me to take him to the Renaissance Faire. My boyfriend and I have gone with friends for the last two years but I don't think my dad's ever been at all. While we were there we entered an archery tournament just for fun....we didn't know that we would taking home 3 of the 5 prizes. My Dad got 4th, my boyfriend got 2nd, and my brother (for not knowing what the heck to do) got the "spirit" award. Ha, it makes me laugh every time. Now they all got some type of mini-knife (leave it to the Renn Faire right?). Here are some action shots.

 My brother..trying really hard to figure out what the heck to do. And my friend Sarah who actually took an archery class for fun in college.

 My Dad, fourth place winner, really looking like he knows what he's doing. He told me later it was just luck.

 My boyfriend and I getting ready to kick some butt. Well, he kicked some butt. I didn't even hit the target. Ohhhhh yeahh!

 My brother got the "Spirit Award" haha

And then we all got turkey legs so...yumm!

Workouts

It feels so good to be getting back into my workouts. Law school and working this summer really killed my plans for working out...there just wasn't any time! I couldn't fit it all in and I got super lazy. Anyway, on Tuesday I went for a run to explore the neighborhood. 2 miles later my legs were like jelly.

Then today I decided to go for a bodyrock workout. You guys know how much I love bodyrock.tv :

I'm a foodie...

How delicious do these look?! I saw them on a tumblr called Back On Pointe.

Seriously want to bake these up right now! Oh wait....I did!

My H&M Haul

My sister and I went shopping the other day and visited one of my new favorite stores: H&M! Seriously, I carried so many clothes into the fitting room....and only put back about 5 items. Here's what I ended up taking home with me:

First up, as you guys know I'm in law school. I thought some blazers would be in order! I went with the hot pink because it was adorable and navy blue :)

I also saw these adorable shoes and I wanted them so badly!

And this black lace shirt. I thought it would be perfect for date night :)

 

In the fitting room with all my loads of clothes.

I chose the polka dot one of my boyfriend's friend's wedding. It was in August so I wanted something summery but also something I could wear with a blazer if I had an event in the winter. I thought it was a good choice.

There you have it! My H&M shopping haul!

We got Gaga Tickets!

Yes, that's right! This girl is going to see Mother Monster for the second time in February!! Steph and I went last time she was in Philadelphia and naturally I got so excited when I found out she was coming back to Philadelphia again in February! Yayyyyy, now I just have to plan my outfit and makeup!

Excuse me while I do my Gaga happy dance!