Mani Monday: Abstract Christmas Tree

Today's mani is a Christmas tree originally seen here. When I first saw this, I thought it would be complicated and time consuming (not that that would stop me!) but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.

My weekend Christmas mani

I started with two coats of Zoya Blaze as my base, followed by Seche Vite. Then I taped off the sides of my middle nail with Scotch tape, making sure to stick it to my hand a few times first, of course. Most tutorials for this show it with cut up strips of tape to make the "garlands" on the tree, but I can't cut my strips that thin or that even, so I used striping tape for it. I taped it off with the striping tape, then applied a coat of Zoya Logan. After that, I used tweezers to stick a piece of star glitter from one of my Bundle Monster wheels to the top of my tree and applied two more coats of SV. I really love how it turned out!

Now, because this blog is called "Aubrey's Obsessions" and not "Aubrey's Nails" I have to share another obsession of mine. They're three of the cutest things on this earth and, even though they can drive me to the point of insanity on a daily basis, I love them to pieces. 

Meet Alana, Avery, and Alexis:

Look at them! How could I NOT be obsessed? :)

The girls are 7 and Avery is 4. I call them my "A-team." I took this pic on Friday night when they had the "sleepover" that Avery had asked for every night of the week. He was so excited when Friday finally came around and it wasn't a school night.

Anyway, I don't know how much I'll be able to post this week. I have another vicious kidney infection causing another RA flare. So if I don't "see" y'all, I hope you have a great week! :)

Winter Snowflake Mani

Just a quick post with my latest mani - my first one in over a week. I know, right?! I've felt practically naked! But it's been one of those oh-so-fun periods of time that those of us with autoimmune issues deal with - kidney infection thanks to the immunosuppressants, antibiotics, side effects, insomia - all of which cause major flares. But, I came out on the other side and I'm back.

Like I said, this is going to be a short post because I'm in something of a chemo hangover haze today so here's the pic:

I love the combo of blue & silver in the winter!

I started with two coats of Blue Bells Ring from China Glaze's Holiday Joy collection. It's such a perfect silvery winter blue color! I used Zoya Purity on my accent nail. Then I stamped the snowflakes on using Bundle Monster plates 319 and 323. After that, I dotted on Zoya Trixie (I simply adore this silver foil...I've yet to find anything it's not perfect for) in the middle of each snowflake and around them.

There's just something about the combination of blue and silver in the winter time. I know it's not the traditional red and green of Christmas, but it reminds me of lights shining on snowy winter nights. I guess that's why we went with that theme for our Christmas tree this year, too:

My awesome BF helped the kids and me with the tree last weekend

So, what are your favorite Christmas color combinations? Are you a clear light or multi-colored light person? Traditional or non-traditional? Let me know in the comments.

Mani Monday - Christmas Stripes and Dots

I've been away for a while. I've had a crazy busy schedule, then yesterday got knocked down by a flare...probably thanks to said busy schedule.

I'm hoping and praying that two days of laying around and resting will have me back on my feet enough to attend the Christmas party tomorrow morning at my women's Bible study. And, of course, I can't go to any kind of party without the appropriate nailwear. Which brings me to tonight's mani -

Elisa, Logan, and Ziv

I started with a base of Zoya's Elisa from their Fall 2012 NYFW Diva collection. I love this color! It is a bright red, perfect for Christmas, with a great shimmer to it. And, as is the case with every Zoya polish I've tried, the formula is smooth and flawless.

Elisa, Logan, and Ziv

To dress up my mani for a real Christmas-y feel, I pulled out two great colors from Zoya's Ornate (Winter 2012) collection. This entire collection is unreal! But for now, I just used a little bit of Logan for the stripes and Ziv for the dots, then of course topping it all with a coat of Seche Vite. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Elisa, Logan, and Ziv

I know it seems like all I use is Zoya, and I'll admit I've been on a bit of a kick with their polishes lately. They're just so gorgeous! I've yet to find one that is not beautifully pigmented and perfectly formulated. But I do have quite a few other brands. I've started cataloguing them all and coming across bottles in my stash that I forgot I had. It's really exciting!

And this manicure has me SO excited for Christmas! This is my favorite time of year and my brain is just buzzing with all the mani possibilities. How about you? Any ideas? Have you seen anything interesting?

Election Night

I know what you're doing. You're sitting on the edge of your seat. You've got the news on the TV and several tabs open in your internet browser, hitting "Refresh" every couple of minutes so that you'll immediately know as soon as another district's results come in.

Calm down! I'm not looking in your window. You're doing the same thing everyone else is doing tonight. But not me. My nerves can't handle it. There has simply been too much drama in this presidential race, too much name calling, too many conspiracy theories, etc. And the race is far too close for my tastes. I did my part last week. I voted. There's nothing else I can do. So, I did what I always do when I need to de-stress - I found something on the DVR (tonight it was Sunday's episode of The Good Wife...I just love that show!) and I did my nails. Tonight, in honor of our great country, I took a patriotic route.

I used Zoya colors here; the red is Karina, the blue is Song. Then I used a silver Stripe Rite down the middle before dotting Purity on top.

No matter who wins today's election, I must say I am so thankful to live in a country where we can freely vote without fear of any retaliation. Where we can worship, work, go to school, etc. I don't think that we, as Americans, truly realize how blessed we are by that. There are so many out in the world that don't have those rights that we take for granted. Many men and women fought and died so that we could have those rights. And men and women, and even children, are dying every day still around the world so that others can have the same kind of rights. We get so caught up here by the petty things around us (yes, I know this is coming from someone who blogs primarily about nail polish, but just go with it), about who disagrees with us, about who's to blame for what, etc. that we forget about just how rich we all are.

If you're reading this, then you have access to a computer and the internet. You most likely live and sleep somewhere secure with a roof over your head. You have enough to eat every day. You have clothes to wear. Those things make you wealthier than the vast majority of others in the world. I'm not saying you have it easy. I'm a single mom making it by on disability and child support. I know it's not easy for most of us. But just take a moment. Look around you. Be thankful.

Happy Halloween!

It's here! It's here! That magical day is finally here! It's the day that our kids go out and beg for free candy that they then bring home for us parents to pig out on after they go to bed. And being that it's a "holiday" all those calories just don't count, right? At least that's what I was always told. I'll choose to just go on believing that. And that is why a large portion of my kids' chocolate will be eaten tonight while I try to catch up on some DVR goodies.

Now, moving on from my chocoholism to my crack addiction. I went back and forth for what seemed like forever about what to put on my nails for Halloween. I thought about a candy corn mani, and even tried a couple, but I just couldn't get it to look as nice as I wanted it. And I've seen a few combos this year of green and purple and I really liked that. My twin girls were wearing costumes to school today so they were also trying to decide what they wanted on their nails last night. This was a serious ordeal!

See if you can spot the boy child that I didn't realize was there. :)

 I finally got their nails done and got them off to bed last night. It took quite some time to get the 4-year-old boy child and the 7-year-old Aspie girl child to calm down enough to go to sleep. They were SO excited about Halloween! But I was finally able to focus on my own nails and this is what I finally ended up with:

Without flash

I'm not completely sure how happy I am with how this turned out. I liked it more before I topped it with glitter, but I went ahead with it because there were a couple of little imperfections from the taping that I was too tired to re-do. Glitter is a great cover-up for things like that!

With flash

I also topped it with China Glaze's Ghoulish Glow, a glow-in-the-dark top coat, which kind of dulled the purple. I was disappointed by that because I love purple, but hopefully it will pay off when we go trick-or-treating tonight.

The colors I used here are China Glaze* I'm With the Lifeguard (I was SO psyched to get to use one of my summer neons again!), Zoya* Suri (one of my favorite purples), topped with China Glaze Make a Spectacle, then Ghoulish Glow, and as always, Seche Vite*.

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween! Stay safe, stay warm, and don't get sick from all that candy! :)

*China Glaze and Seche Vite can be purchased at your local Sally's Beauty Supply and Zoya can be purchased from zoya.com or your local Ulta store.

Mani Monday - Halloween

It's October! Y'all know what that means...temperatures are dropping, leaves are changing colors, creating beautiful views of the mountains from here in the Tennessee valley, and we're gearing up for Halloween. So today's manicure is a Halloween inspired one.

I started with two coats of Zoya's Arizona - a creamy orange that is perfect for autumn nails - and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite.

With flash

Without flash (please ignore my sad, torn cuticles)

After that, I taped off each nail at a diagonal for a sort of funky french mani, then used a good, thick coat of Sinful Color's Black on Black to do the tips. After that was dry, I finished it off with a coat of China Glaze's Make a Spectacle and another coat of Seche Vite.

Finished mani - with flash

Without flash

I have to add that I have a lot of glitter polishes and Make a Spectacle is by far my favorite now. It's from CG's "Wicked" 2012 Halloween collection and it is gorgeous! It completely transforms its look depending on the color it's topping. I am in LOVE! My autoimmune issues have been giving me a hard time lately, but as soon as I can get a break from them, I plan to swatch it on top of several different colors and share the pics here.

*Zoya can be found at zoya.com or your local Ulta store, Sinful Color can be found at Walgreens, China Glaze and Seche Vite can be found at Sally's Beauty Supply

Everyone Has Their Crack

I have a saying - "Everyone has their crack." You know, that thing that you just have to have or do. For my mom, it's shoes. For my dad, it's fishing. For my daughters, it's music. For some, it's running or tennis. Sadly, for some it's, well, actual crack.

I have lots of obsessions, but my "crack" is nail polish.

Exhibit "A" ~ My current collection

And not just nail polish. Stamping plates, rhinestones, striping brushes...anything nail art oriented. Now, I can't do a lot of the freestyle drawing that some of the other uber-talented nail bloggers do. RA has made my hands far too shaky for that. And, let's face it, I'm not as young as I used to be and I can't pull some of that stuff off anymore.

Exhibit "B" ~ Swatching set-up after a China Glaze haul

But something about keeping my nails looking pretty keeps me sane. There's something soothing about getting the kids to bed at night, turning on the TV, and sitting down to do my nails. It's not an every night thing, but almost. And I started this blog so I can share some of my experiments as well as swatches of my collection. Eventually I hope to have a page with links to pictures of each color in my collection so folks can see before they buy, so to speak. That could take a while, though, because there are a, ahem, few.

My boyfriend calls me an addict. I don't deny it. Besides, if I admit I have a problem, it's not really a problem, right? Right? Hello? I mean, I can quit any time I want.

Oooh! Is that a new Zoya collection?!