Nails for Serious Shopping

I'm going shopping today with my sister, brother-in-law, and my boyfriend, for some clothes. Apparently we have all been running around naked because we all are desperately in need of some new clothes. For some of us *cough*me*cough* it might be because I gained a few pounds. For other *cough*Steph*cough* it might be because she's a major shopaholic and loves clothes. I always like shopping with my sister because I find the best things when she's there. Oddly enough though it also turns out I end up buying a lot and she ends up buying almost nothing. So we shall see what we find today! Can't wait to share if I find anything good. On my list of hopefuls is a gray suit, brown or kahki slacks for work, and a bunch of different shirts. Let's just say my "work wardrobe" is quite small because...well...I've been a student for about 20 years...so most of my clothes are perfect for casually hanging out on weekends and "casual Friday" at work but the other four days of the work week need some major fashion intervention.

My shopping nails are these gradient nails. Perfectly peacock and heavily copied from my Peacock nails!

Inspired by Peacock

I recently received a save the date for a college buddy's wedding and it inspired me....not because of the actual save the date itself, but because she adores peacocks (the coloring not the actual animal) and it's been a while since I've tried peacock inspired nails (remember these I did for S?). Andrew and I attended a friend of his' wedding 4 years ago that was all peacock colors and it was super pretty. The blues, the greens, the purples...beautiful. Ever since then peacock inspired weddings have stuck around so I wouldn't be surprised if that's what my buddy chose for her wedding colors! I might have to repeat these nails for her wedding day!

For these I did a bunch of sponging to get the different colors to look cohesive and pretty. The colors I used for the background are China Glaze Tree Hugger, China Glaze Eyes Like Sapphires, Zoya Shawn, OPI Teal the Cows Come Home, Zoya Kristen, and Liquid Metal Pu (HA that name). Then I stamped Bundlemonster BM212 in Art Deco white for the peacock and the peacock feathers.

Just to illustrate her peacock obsession adoration, here are some Hallow photos circa October 2011:

Andrew was Charlie Brown and I was a Catholic school girl (how original right -- that uniform was my actual high school uniform FYI) so we were pretty lazy that Halloween as far as costumes go. My friend however totally killed it in her handmade peacock feathers!

And finally, you might have noticed I added a poll to the upper right column of The Files. It's just asking you to let me know what kinds of posts you enjoy reading the most and to give me an idea of post ideas. Please please please click your choices and I'll continue to work on bringing the best blog posts!

Inspired by: Fall Foliage

And hello to sweaters, boots, and scarves! I may not get psyched when the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (or "PSL" as my friends call it) hits the shops (I don't drink coffee) but I am excited about sweaters, boots, and scarves, or "SBS" as I call it. It's all so very autumn and cozy AND it means we have officially entered HOLIDAY SEASON. Today I was going through some photos and thinking about all the fall foliage we see in the Northeast this time of year. These colorful leaves inspired me to create these sponged nails:

If you're not from a part of the US (or world) that sees the leaves change from healthy greens to variations of red, yellow, orange, I snapped these couple photos recently:

Collab with NailsNoob: Inspired by Favorite Ed Norton Flick

I'm so excited for today's post! I have to be honest, I painted these on Friday and held onto it to post in collaboration with the fabulous blog known as NailsNoob! Once we found out we both were huge movie-addicts, we decided a manicure inspired by a movie was long overdue and we decided to do a collab post inspired by our favorite Edward Norton film. So for me I went with the Italian Job, a movie about a heist where Edward Norton starts as a good guy and then quickly becomes the movie's antagonist (don't worry I didn't spoil anything)! If you haven't seen the movie, all you need to know to understand my manicure is the movie poster I've included to the right. My manicure is inspired by the three mini coopers used in the movie with the two yellow lines seen in the poster. This is what I came up with:

It's pretty simple and all so it's not that impressive. I used Orly Liquid Vinyl, Orly White Out, Sally Hansen Cherry Red, Kiss Brush On Nail Art Paint in White, Color Club Art Club in Yellow, and Orly Blue Suede for the look.

And now for the collaboration part of this collab: the fantastic manicure featured right now on Nails Noob:

How awesome are they?  Her Edward Norton film inspiration was Fight Club, a movie so intense I couldn't even come up with a good overview description. I mean, the first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club (I laughed when I saw that she says this in her post too). I guess I'll just have to say...it's a movie have to watch for yourself. Also, after you watch it you will never look at soap the same so fair warning! She said she's not proud of them but I think they're superb! I thought Fight Club was going to be so hard to come up with a design for and I'm really impressed with what she did with her manicure. Wayyyy more creative than mine design, that's for sure!

Be sure to comment if you have a favorite Ed Norton movie!

And go check out Nails Noob's post if you haven't already :)

Inspired By: The Voice

Today's post is inspired by a piece of clothing seen on an episode of The Voice, a show where the judges select singers blindly and then have the singers perform with each other in knockout battles until a winner is crowned "the voice" at the end of the season. I love watching this show because the judges are hysterical. Between Adam Levine, Shakira, Usher, and Blake Shelton there are so many quirks and quips that come out during each episode and don't be surprised if you pee yourself from laughing (especially during the blind auditions). Anyway, the sweater(?) long-sleeved shirt worn by Adam Levine in this episode instantly spoke to me (saying "make this a nail design girl") and I got painting while I finished the episode. Not sure how I like the mix as a shirt but...looks good on my nails!

And even if you're not into singing shows like this....who can resist an attractive man on their TV? I mean, just check out Adam...the man can blue steel with the best of them...

Although to be honest if he were to look at me like that I'd probably be a little scared.

Inspired by: Juggling Balls

This is one of my more silly manicures that I've done. It's inspired by one of my Christmas presents from two(?) years ago. When I met my boyfriend he knew how to juggle and I didn't...so naturally I wanted to learn because juggling is supahh cool. As you can expect, a part of one of my presents was then a set a colorful juggling balls. I don't know where to store them so I keep them on my desk and today I was going a bit stir crazy (I've been working on my note for law review all day--I'm almost finished!) and realized they could inspire a fun and colorful design. Feast your eyes:

And the inspiration...

For this manicure I used China Glaze Frostbite, Wet'n'Wild 423B, Zoya Kristi, and China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada.

Also, check out About a Nail's very first ever blog giveaway! Her blog is full of really cute and colorful designs that I'm sure you'll love. Now, go show another nail blogger some support! She will choose a winner in 6 days and is giving away the following three Barry M polishes:

(Photo is from her blog)

Finally, DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE 3 FREE PROMO FROM ZOYA. GET YOUR 3 FREE* POLISHES (*for the cost of shiping--$12)! THE DEAL IS OVER ON 1/13 AND THE PROMO CODE IS "COLOR2014". I can't make my mind up if I'm going to be picking three up...I miss when their shipping was only $6.95.

Trip to NYC and Vintage Cabs

Today's post is inspired by my trip to NYC this past Wednesday with my sister to celebrate her birthday! We had such a great time doing some shopping, walking through Central Park, visiting a restaurant we haven't been to in years (do any of my NYC visitors know about the Cowgirl Hall of Fame??), and spoiling ourselves with some sweet treats from Financier and Cupcakes by Melissa. While we were there of course we saw some cabs so it got me thinking about a vintage cab inspired nail design! I looked online for a photo and found the one to the right (you'll go to the source if you click the cab photo). Also, with Halloween coming up the design reminded me of a costume that I look at literally every single year because it's so adorable. If I had actual plans for this Halloween I'd totally by it but my plans only consist of eating my weight in Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and watching Hocus Pocus (remember my Hocus Pocus nails from last year?) Anyway, for these nails I did a yellow and black checker instead of white and black because I wanted the color and I got to use my BundleMonster plates to get the pattern. Gorgeous!

Inspired by: MKsNailDesigns

Today's post was taken from a YouTube video tutorial I watched by MKsNailDesigns. She has a few really good ones and if you're looking for inspiration or a nail design to do you should check her videos out! The one I used is here.

The original is black and white so I tweaked it a bit by changing the colors to a pearlescent white and navy blue. For this design I used: Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl, Orly Witch's Blue, Orly White Out, and Kiss Brush On Nail Art Paint PA10 Silver Glitter.

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..)

Inspired by Pinterest: Pretty Polka Dotties

It's nasty out today...rainy, cold, dreary as all get out. If my mood matched the weather I'd be fashioning a noose for myself. HOWEVER, I like to take dark, rainy, disgusting days and do my nails with fun and bright colors and designs. For today I chose this one:

I found a picture of this nail design on pinterest:

 All my readers know I prefer to attempt designs I see rather than ones I come up with (since I can never get them done as well as I envisioned). I didn't originally like it but it's definitely growing on me as I sit here staring. I just love how each nail ties in with each other nail. Very neat idea for whoever came up with it!

How are your days going? Rainy like mine?

Inspired by: Victoria's Secret

Hey everyone! I'm in a serious shopping mood right now and this past weekend I went out with the boyfriend and found a whole bunch of great stuff. I'm really in the clothes mood but there are a couple of amazing stores I think of every time I'm thinking of going shopping. This post was inspired by one of them: Victoria's Secret! Everyone knows the two-toned VS shopping bags that you get when you drop some money into the hands of VS sales associates. They look a little (or a lot) like this:

One of my favorite totes, bought by the bf :)

And the VS-inspired digits:

I used Finger Paints I Pink I Can for the lighter pink and Zoya Dawn for the darker. How do you like?