I'm Getting Married!

Hello!! 

I have some very exciting news!

Y I'M ENGAGED Y 

My Boyfriend and I went to France for three weeks in May and he got down on one knee one special evening and popped the question.

Ok so I kinda knew it was coming... but Paris, oh so romantic.

So now I'm busy putting together wedding plans.  I had no idea how much was involved with organising a wedding and how much it's going to cost. Yikes!  So can I ask a teeny tiny favour? Can you like my proposal story for me?? I've entered a competition that will pay $5,000 toward wedding photography and videography. 

To enter, you need to describe your proposal which I have done here, all I need now are likes.  The most likes win!

To read my proposal story, follow this link:

http://weddingbird.com.au/karen-damien-vic/

and please don't forget to LIKE!

Thank You so much, it's greatly appreciated.

Are you engaged? Married? What's your proposal story?

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

xx Karen

NOTD - French Gradient

Hello Everyone!

I'm adding today a manicure I've been waiting to do for a while and finally get around to doing it.

I recently got OPI I Theadora You and its a gorgeous sheer pink, but not as shear as your usual French pinks or as opaque as a true cream, it's somewhere in the middle.  And two coats is gorgeous on it's own.

I wanted to do a spin on the usual French Manicure and decided to do a gradient French manicure.

I sponged OPI My Boyfriends Scales Walls on the tips using a makeup sponge.  Then finished with my usual top coat of choice, Seche Vite.

Hope you like it :)

xxKaren

Nail Mail! - G'Day Matte from piCture pOlish

Hello everyone.  I am excited to share with you today a another batch of PicturePolish colours I recieved today.

I've been waiting for Twinkle to come back in stock! and OMG it is beautiful!! A gorgeous soft lilac with a very subtle silver shimmer.  It's absolutely gorgeous.

And the lovely girls from PicturePolish have everyday deals, when you buy 4 colours you recieve a free Picture Polish shade (valued up to AUD$10.00) as a FREE GIFT!

But wait there's more...

If you purchase 7 shades you get 2 FREE Picture Polish shades (vauled up to AUD$20.00)

How wonderful is this?? Check out there shop online at www.piCturepOlish.com.au. If you want a look at all the shades, More Nail Polish has a great colour guide of swatches.

I have to admit I'm a bit biased, they're Aussie Grown, made in Australia (just like me) and when they released their own Matte Top Coat, I just had to get it for the name alone.  Such a cute play on words.

Picture Polish are made in Australia!

Thank you girls.  Love your polishes and love recieving gifts with my purchases.

xx Karen

piCture pOlish - Simple Blocking

Hello loverlies!!!

I'm back after playing around with Shellac's for a while (I hope to do a post on my new shellac machine soon!)

However last night I had a creative brain burst.  I've been buying a lot of new polishes lately but haven't got around to wearing them because I've had shellac on my nails... but last night I wanted to put either Beige or Vegas, both from PicturePolish (which has become a new favourite of mine at the moment).

Then I had the ingenious idea, why choose just one when I can have both!!

I created a simple blocking design to seperate Vegas (on pinkie) to the Beige (on remainder of fingers).  I really like idea because of it's simplisity and it's so easy to do, you just need a little bit of sticky tape, that's it!!

You can find on the PicturePolish website many other colours for sale.  You've no doubtfully seen this name pop up around the blog world recently.  I've become a big fan myself.  Mostly because I think they're Aussie home grown, just like me, but also because of the great choice of colours, great price and great product.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked this creation.  I also hope I have more of this idea brain farts more often!

Merry Christmanicure

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

On the Eve of Christmas (ony one more sleep to go!!! I'm a little excited), I had this idea of a gradient manicure with presents.

Using OPI Alpine Snow as the base then applying a gradient affect with OPI Vodka & Caviar and OPI Jade Is The New Black.  I then used two Christmas themed images from plate MJVII (MJ7).

Wishing a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year to you, your families and friends.

Happy Celebrations.

xx Karen

Red Hot Leopard Spots

Hello Lovelies

The Mani you see today was inspired while I was waiting at the car wash.  Goes to show inspiration can come anywhere, anytime.  I saw a lady in car wash next to mine wearing red jeans and a grey singlet with leopard print with matching red spots.  I used this as an inspiration for an accent finger and I knew exactly which red to use too.

I used Zoya Rekha, on the accent nail I used China Glaze Pelican Grey and leopard print from image plate BM-221 from the second Bundle Monster series.

Hope you like it.  I'm constantly looking out for more nail art inspirations.

xx Karen

Nails, Shopping & New Hair-Do

Hi everyone.  So it's not a complete nail blog, but I'm sharing my week of retail & hair therapy.  I went into Zara on Saturday and I think I spent all my Christmas present money (and some more) a month early :P

I saw these red flats and fell absolutely in love with them.  That very night I put on OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where? I love the pair up.  I wear a lot of black and neutral colours and not very busy patterns, so I love having a statement item that just stands out.  And to pair it with my nails, I think is very chic.

Do you do this?  Do you match what you wear to your nails?

I also had a makeover this week.  I cut my hair! You're probably thinking, what's the big deal?? I've never had hair this short before, in fact I've never had short hair, full stop! I've always had long hair, so don't know what made me go the chop besides cutting off the yucky split ends. I feel I need to mention that I follow PlasmaSpeedo on YouTube and if you haven't seen her earlier videos she had mega long hair (right down to her butt) and chopped it short before entering the Navy.  I think she was my inspiration (even though my hair was not as long as hers) and was thinking of her when I was having my hair cut.  So now it's short and much healthier, and I'm getting used to it.

So drum roll... here is a pic of me with my short hair.

Thanks for sharing your day with me.

xx Karen

Movember Special #2

Hey There! Yep it's still Movember month.  I was reminiscing and thought what do I think about when I think of Mo's... men going to barber shops and this the barber shop pole.

Here is my rendition of the blue/red/white barber shop pole.

I used OPI Alpine Snow as the base.  Using image plate Bundle Monster BM20, I stamped with China Glaze Man Hunt and Zoya Rekha to make the stripes.  On my ring finger is the moustache image from MJ plate VIII.

I have to admit that the orinal Bundle Monster "full nail" images are just too small.  It took me quite a few attempts to get the lines going across my entire nail.  The image only covered one half of my nail, and is most evident on my middle finger.  But I enjoy stamping so was happy with the challenge.

Again if you want to find out more about Movember or make a donation for Men's health you can visit the movember website.

xxKaren

Nail (Polish) Mail! Zoya Ornate Collection

Hello!! I had completely forgotten that I had ordered this a little while a go, and when I opened up the package left on my desk I was very excited when I realised what was inside! (I love when this happens!)

So my Zoya Storm and Zoya Blaze arrived from the Ornate Collection, and they are BEAUTIFUL!!

Thanks to Scrangie, ThePolishAholic and ThePointlessCafe, for their excellent swatches on this collection, I fell head over heels in love with these two colours and I can't wait to get home tonight and do some swatches of my own.  oooo... what about a gradient with these two!?!?!

 I might have just squeeled...

 

On first inspection. Storm is a black base with magnificent rainbow effect glitter, almost looks holographic when i move the bottle around.  Blaze is a gorgeous deep plum red with amazing purple undertones.  The glitter iteslf has more of a purple bluish theme to it as well.

Zoya Storm (Left) & Zoya Blaze (Right) 

Do you sometimes forget you've ordered mail, or lost count of the orders you make then get a happy surprise delivery (even tho you've paid for it)?

And if you were wondering I'm wearing, OPI - Red Lights Ahead... Where?

Thanks for popping in and having a look.

Have a great day!!

xx Karen

  

Movember Special #1

It's November already and that can mean two things:

Christmas is only one month away; and

It's MOVEMBER!!

It's becoming more and more popular every year, MOVEMBER!! and why shouldn't it?? It's for a great cause and brings attention to mens health.  If you want to donate to this great cause head straight to the Australian Movember Website or find out more about what it's about and how it began.

I always have a couple of male friends who participate each year and these designs are in honour of you guys.  May your Mo's grow long and your donations be generous!

I started off with OPI's Did You 'Ear The One About Van Gogh?, then stamped over with Konad m65.  I dunno why, but this image kinda reminds me of a mans tie (?).

 Oops, I smudged it :P

I bought this image place MJ-VIII from this online shop.  And when I saw the mostache image, I knew I had to have this image plate!

Using Konad's Special polish in White and Black to complete the look.  And of course I finished with Seche Vite Top Coat.

Thanks for stopping by and having a look-see. 

xxKaren

Summer Challenge Day 55 - Surfin USA

I had real fun doing this one. 

I thought Surfin... I thought surfboards... I thought bikini's.  Right?

I will have to give credit to JulieG713 and her youtube video on Summer Bikini nails tutorial here for the bikini designs.  This is where I saw them and got the idea from.  I thought about adding a surfboard accent nail since the theme was 'surfin' in the USA.

Hope you like it :)

I used a lot of colours for this. The base are OPI Did You'Ear About Van Gogh? and on my ring finger is OPI No Room For the Blues

For my bikini's from Thumb to Pinky:  China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?, OPI Kiss Me on The Tulips and China Glaze Man Hunt.  I used white acrylic paint for the surfboard and black arcrylic to draw on the string bikini's.

Yep, I had heaps of fun doing this.  I thought it looked very cute.  And i was pleaseantly happy with my attempt at recreating JulieG's bikini design :)

xx Karen

Next...

Day 57 - Orange + Green

Summer Challenge Day 54 - Bumblebee

Hello Lovelies.  I admit I struggled with this one.  As easy and straight forward as the theme was... I was feeling very low on the motivational scale.  Then I see what the other girls and come up with for this theme and I feel just hanging my head in shame.  They're so much more creative than me.

I didn't have any hexi shapes and used this from Bundlemonster plate BM223 on an angle and left room for a little bee in the top left corner.  I got this from the Winnie Pooh plate OB3

I used Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty for the base colour.  I just recently bought a brighter Yellow from China Glaze, Happy Go Lucky, but didn't have that when I made this design.

Here is the Winnie Pooh Plate OB3 I got from here

I had a bit more fun with the next one.  Less stamping more free hand painting :)

Thanks for stopping by and having a look.  See you next time.

xx Karen

Next...

Day 55 - Surfin USA

Summer Challenge Day 53 - Fruit Salad

I've done a similar manicure to this before in the past.  But thought I'd try give it different spin.  Have a look what I came up with (the older version is below for comparison)

First I started out with OPI Done Out In Deco (this has to be one of my OPI FAVOURITE's)

Applied some dots with image plate OB12 from FabUrNails blog sale

then added the fruits from Bundle Monster BM05 (Strawberry & Grapes).  The cherries came from an unknown image plate M73.  I used it recently for my A Day At the Seaside Summer Challenge.

Here is my similar previous design (without the dots or cherries)

  

Thanks for stopping by!

xx Karen

Next...

Day 54 - BumbleBee

(hmm... I wonder what colour it's going to bee??)

Summer Challenge Day 52 - Sun Flowers

Ok may need to stretch your imagination a bit with this one...

I don't have a sunflower stamp :( so had to improvise.

I started off with half moon with OPI Hot & Spicy. Added some cute bows (to hide the uneven line :P) 

I bet you recognise the bow stamp, right? Yes it's the same but it's not Konad, and it's slightly smaller than the other one.  I found this great plate with both sizes, the original size of the konad and a smaller version, i thought it was cute.  I had in mind using the smaller one for my pinky, but i like this use of it too.  I got this plate from Fab Ur Nails blog sale.  They have their own facebook website with an online shop and there's heaps more there.

Then added this sun/flower i found on Bundle Monster Image Plate BM01

I kept going with the sun/flowers on the rest of the nails but it became 'a bit much' so I'll leave you with this, just an accent nail.

See you next time!

xx Karen

Next...

Day 53 - Fruit Salad (yum!)