Monday Monday - the stuck in because it's apparently winter again edition

The new embroidery frame is a bit fighty, it likes to explode without much warning* so I didn't do work on it much. I have to work out some sort of stabilization beyond occasionally going over the whole thing with a rubber mallet. 

Most of my stitching this week was on #yearofstitch pieces which I generally do without a stand. I'm actually up to week ten though I've only posted through week four.

I didn't hate stitching this like I thought I would! Sadly I started it in two strand and found it a bit weedy, but I was kind of stuck with it by then so I soldiered on with the sides and switched to three strand for the middle section. 

Hooray for laying tools! You can do satin stitch without one, but I certainly wouldn't want to. Finishing off on the back was really annoying though.

I've done some on my HAED Shades of Red piece and it's starting to pick up speed but it still doesn't look like much yet. So much confetti stitching. I had been using a magnifier and light but I think I'm going to ditch the magnifier. It's a lot of hassle and my stitching just seems wonky in the parts where I used it.

There is a cross country stitching challenge at the HAED forum I follow I'm considering but I don't think I have any projects lined up which suit it very well and the prize images they offer aren't typically my thing. I feel like I should join for the sake of challenging myself but it really will cramp my style. There are a couple of months left to join (this is no small challenge) but I suspect I'll leave this one to others.

I did finally try my new Limited edition  Limecrime lip colour Beet It and though sadly I did not get a pic with it on my face I'm REALLY happy with the shade. It looks a bit mauve in the tube (see the small dot to the left) and I was almost pissed at having snagged yet another blah tone but it dries to a really nice intense shade right on that cranberry border between berry and red. I feel like it looked a touch more pink on my face but I also had a much more even application. Putting lipstick on your wrist is surprisingly awkward feeling.

I include the other Limecrime shades I own and a fairly true red from NYX in a similar formula (longwearing matte cream with a doefoot applicator) for comparison. So far all of these have proven to be pretty much bulletproof. Any lippy that will hold up to a dinner party and a mildly absurd amount of wine gets my thumbs up.

Utopia is the color I wore for my wedding!

*The embroidery stand actually exploded again as I got off the couch to set up the lip color pic.

What was supposed to be a simple clean up of my fatally chipped grey and gold polish turned into a subtle but (I think) cool French manicure. The base is Twinkle Twinkle by NailNation3000 and the tips are Love Me Fear Me by IncidentalTwin.

Sadly it doesn't photograph very well AT ALL as the camera really wants to pick up the yellow tone of the flakies instead of the opalescent goodness and I feel like this pic makes my nails look stained even though FOR ONCE they actually aren't.

I may use a pink tinted topcoat next time as these translucent manis seem to yellow out and get dingy really fast.

Nail Art Challenge #17 - Rock Some White While You Still Can!

A clean and simple manicure in piano-key white to ride out the last week before Labor Day.

I just took this mani off and re-polished my nails last night, so I figured it was high time to post the pic I took over a week ago!

The original plan was to do...something...? with this once the white dried, but it was so clean looking and I was so busy with wedding stuff I decided to leave it alone and let it speak for itself.

This is hands down the best white I've found so far and I achieved great opacity in two coats with a bit of additional touch-up in places though I'm still on the lookout for something that will be 100% opaque in two coats.

I don't know which product is responsible for the current state of my nails but I've been using the Orly Bonder Basecoat with the Gelous coat as a second layer for a while now and it's REALLY REALLY working.

I spent much of Monday moving a friend into a new apartment. At that point my nails were one week's growth longer than the pic above and I packed, lifted and carried all day with pretty much nothing but tip wear and a little bit of cracking/crumbling along the sides to show for it!

Nail Art Challenge #16 - Supermoon

A softly marbled, glow-in -the-dark(!), cling-wrap manicure inspired by the face of the full moon.

It took me a while to figure out what to do for this fortnight's challenge. My original plan had been to do a half-moon manicure but obviously I just did one. I didn't want to go too white because the next challenge is Labor Day/white themed.

I ended up Googling pics of the Moon and realized how beautifully marbled it looked, so I thought that may be something to work with. I'd never done a marbled manicure before so I wasn't sure how to approach it. I knew I'd seen what I was looking for, but all I could think of was sponging, which would be too even. 

img source http://www.oocities.org/~cphilg/astro.html

A bit of nail blog searching later and I stumbled over saran wrap or cling film manicures (link is to a Google image search) and I knew I had it!

I've linked to a tutorial here but basically you do a base layer of one colour which you let dry. In my case this was a dark taupe. I wish I had something a bit cooler grey but you got what you got. Once that layer is really dry you apply a coat of the second colour (white, here) and while it is still wet dab at it with a piece of crumpled plastic wrap until you achieve the desired effect. I ended up going back in a few times with the white as it is very sheer and I wanted a really diffuse uneven effect.

Some people just topcoat it there, but you can also put a coat of something sheer over the top for added depth. I used a yellowy glow-in-the-dark polish to smooth out and soften the design... and also because glow-in-the-dark makes everything better! I couldn't get a pic of the glowing that made any sense, but here is a brief video from my instagram.

I'm beyond psyched at how this came out. I think it is probably the closest I've gotten in any of these challenges to nailing PRECISELY what I had pictured at the outset. This technique was quite easy and also works spectacularly well to make lapis, turquoise, and tarnished copper effects so I will DEFINITELY be revisiting in the future.

I hope you all had a fantastic view of the Supermoon on Sunday, I ended up going out for a late run with my Fiancée and while we usually don't like getting caught out after dusk it was absolutely worth it to watch the moon rise. We even got to catch a small group of bats on the wing.

Nail Art Challenge #14 - Light Up the Night

A dramatic inky black manicure with a fireworks inspired set of feature nails.

I was going for an explosive firework effect on the ring finger with trailing sparks on the middle and pinky fingers. Sadly any shot I could get in focus completely flattened the fire of the micro glitter, but hopefully the inset gives you a little better idea of the twinkling "spark" effect of that polish. It really is quite pretty in real life.

The Midnight Glitz (middle and pinky fingers) is a combination of large black and pale gold larger sized hex glitters with flat black and holographic micro glitters. Below is a swatch sample with two dabbed layers. I feel a little better about my shots after doing an image search of this polish as it seems NO ONE can get a good picture of it. This is as close as I've seen anyone get.

I always find pairing base colours with (non rainbow-y) multi-coloured glitters to be a challenge. This one seems  to work best with a dark metallic grey.

I don't know how well it would work over a brighter polish and I'm not terribly thrilled with the larger glitters, but it was EXACTLY the combination I needed to coordinate with the larger holo in this manicure. I wish I had used a layer of it under the polish I used for my ring finger. It looks pretty sexy in the bottle so it might be cool on its own if you can manage to build up enough layers.

I will definitely be either thinning the base of the large scale holo glitter or seeking another like it. I love the glitter but the base is like jelly.

Bonus shot: I FINALLY did my toes too.

Lemon Meringue Pedi- Shoes by Børn

Double extra bonus link: This is a shot of all the products I used to achieve the Light Up the Night manicure, including the non-polish pre prep and post mani quick dry stuff.

Nail art Challenge #10 - MomMommaMomMommyMumMomma WHAT?!?!

A no nonsense, in your face, but still somehow incredibly cheery mani in a bubble gum pink creme and a midnight blue jelly with silver hex and micro-glitter for Mother's Day.

If you've ever met my Mom this combo probably makes a great deal of sense.

I've already had to touch this up a fair amount but that could be due to a number of factors.

I have been trying the Orly Bonder base coat lately because my CND Stickey is getting low, but I don't think it has the staying power.

I like that the Poshe topcoat doesn't shrink on me like the Seche Vite, but it doesn't seem to have the gloss or strength.

It could also be the Sinful Colors as it's not the best quality polish. Though I can't complain too much considering the price.

You may or may not have noticed that I COMPLETELY SPACED on the May the Fourth be With You mani (pun intended) so I'll be making that up at some point. Wedding stuff happened, work is INSANE right now, and I simply lost track of time. Sorry!

Jus Cleanse - the long view

A week later, my view on the Jus by Julie three day cleanse.

Day One - Jus by Julie Cleanse - Three juiced up days
Day Two - Jus Head

I'm not a fan of cold drinks, or bananas, or really sweet things, or tannic/astringent aftertastes, or drinking lots of liquid... 

Okay, so in retrospect maybe this was not the best idea for me. 

img src: http://toomanybananas.com/

I do want to start by saying that I never felt underfed. As much as I wanted to eat food at points, that all seemed to be issues of missing the texture or flavor of my normal eats. The only times I felt hungry were the two points where I was significantly delayed in starting my next drink on time and that went away immediately once I got to my supply. If anything I found my drinking "schedule" kept skewing late because of a combination of being a slow drinker and not being terribly thrilled by the flavors.

I'm kind of glad I did it now, but there were points I was definitely not having fun.

The first issue was thawing. I took out Sunday's supply pretty early on Saturday evening and put it in the fridge to thaw. I woke upon Sunday expecting a cold but immediately drinkable breakfast and found six blocks of ice. It wasn't the biggest deal, but it did put quite a delay on breakfast. I didn't want to heat up the juices too much so I carefully thawed them in warm water baths. If it had been a work day I would have been pretty much screwed.

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, FILE)
from http://thebigcatblog.tumblr.com

I also got to experience my biggest dose of food jealousy that night, The Fiance and I met my Mom and Best (Wo)man at the wedding venue to get some pics and measurements, and afterward we went out to dinner. I got to watch them tackle a massive plate of nachos and their delicious smelling entrees while I nursed a lemon water. It's probably best that happened day one and not day three or I probably would have cheated.  

Monday daytime was okay, but the evening was VERY unpleasant. The giant headache I mentioned in my last post was compounded by a hefty dose of  carsickness-style nausea. My mouth also felt like it was lined in moss. Anything outside of lying very quietly in bed with my head slightly elevated became pretty much out of the question. Supposedly the headache and nausea are among the expected "detox" effects of juice cleanses.  It's pretty ironic that this thing that is supposed to make you feel better can make you feel so very terrible. Happily I had no *ahem* gastrointestinal problems at any point. Even when I felt nauseous it was all head nausea rather than belly nausea.

Tuesday was WAY better but I did get a brief nasty headache again in the late afternoon. I also had to talk myself out of the idea of eating a real food once I was done with the last drink *cough*several times*cough*.

Last gulp of the last drink.
Yes I was excited enough to immortalize this.

I am not a fan of tanking my digestive system so, as much as I kind of wanted to throw Fondue Fest 2014 on Wednesday, I ate very light for the first couple of days after the cleanse.

The aftermath:

I dropped 6.5 pounds over the course of those three days and I've actually managed to maintain that so far.
I think that weight was sort of "extra" winter weight (and by that I mean all my pants fit properly now!) and I have been eating somewhat better since so it seems to have been a good reset in that regard. I seem to be happy with smaller portions, I'm making smarter decisions about snacks, and I'm taking more time to make sure I have good meals available rather than trusting that I'll find "something". 

My friend who did this cleanse and is big into sweets was hoping to tone down her sweet tooth but didn't feel it had done much in that regard. I didn't feel like I had to tone down on the sweets but that's exactly what has happened. I felt like I was drowning in ripe banana the whole time so while I wouldn't turn down something like a cookie from scratch, I'm now actively disinterested in prepackaged sweet junk. I tried to drink some Cherry Coke yesterday and got exactly one sip down. I don't even put sugar in my coffee anymore!

I haven't tested this since, but I had one mini bag of Doritos on Friday which tasted oddly cardboardy and disappointing. I'm very torn on the idea of not eating Doritos as they are kind of a double edged sword. I find them so tasty I can go through a large bag  in one sitting.

My skin looked *great* during the cleanse and my lips were particularly soft. It was a fantastic reminder that hydration makes a real difference.

I would not do this particular cleanse again due to the unrelenting sweetness, but I would definitely buy blends by the Jus by Julie company if I had a local source. I'm actually pretty sad I didn't get to try the Island Coconut blend at all.

The juices themselves - Day one

1 Morning Glory ROMAINE, CELERY, SPINACH, KALE, APPLE, BANANAS, STRAWBERRIES
I guess it was tolerable but it was a lot sweeter than expected. All of the "green" drinks left a strong astringent sensation in the mouth afterward which got REALLY old.
2 Spicy Lemonade LEMON, CAYENNE PEPPER,  MAPLE SYRUP
ACK - VERY SPICY for me but flavor-wise pretty good. It actually didn't taste mapley at all and the lemon was pleasantly tart without being too sour. I was hoping the spicy would get easier to tolerate as the days passed but if anything it got worse.
3 Sweet Spin  SPINACH, KALE, PINEAPPLE, BANANAS, MANGO
The headaches started during this juice all three days. This really is pretty sweet, I really wasn't previously aware of how much I dislike sweets. I was however previously aware that I dislike both mango and banana. Bleah. Of all the drinks to have twice in one day this is the last one I would have picked.
4 Acai Blend    ACAI,  STRAWBERRIES, BANANAS
Not bad flavor wise but but the texture was kind of a miss. The fruit pulp kept precipitating out of the liquid. It probably would have been way better if left icy enough to be a smoothie. The flavor was a bit too banana for me to actually enjoy it.
5 Not So Chunky  BANANAS, PEANUT BUTTER
One of the more okay flavors. I pretty much live on nuts and seeds - peanut butter in particular, so even sweetened this was a sort of a flavor oasis in the midst of things I dislike. It tasted like a banana flavored Bit O Honey candy and I could really feel my body responding to the GLORIOUS PROTEIN.
6 Sweet Spin (yes, again)  SPINACH, KALE, PINEAPPLE, BANANAS, MANGO
After a full day of fruity juices this got hard to finish.

Day two was the same as one with the exception of #5 which was
Choco-nana  CHOCOLATE, BANANAS, STRAWBERRIES
This was not bad at all, it read like a chocolate shake. I didn't really taste the strawberry and for once the banana wasn't overwhelming 

Day three was the same as one with the exception of #4 which was
Chia Berry CHIA SEEDS, STRAWBERRIES, LEMON, POMEGRANATE
Probably the only one I actually enjoyed and would seek out again. This was a really nice tart "red berry" flavored lemonade. It would be a pretty amazing drink mixer.


Disclaimer: I paid for this entirely out of pocket and have had no contact from or affiliation with the Jus by Julie company or any related entities outside of the actual purchase.
 

Jus head

I have kind of a giant headache tonight so no big update on the Juicing.

Though perhaps that *is* the update on the juicing?

I've now had all but one juice flavor and I can say so far that it's not horrible and I can see this working pretty well for some people, but I personally won't be doing this again. 

I can say however that my skin does seem to be appreciating it and I still have not had much in the way of hunger issues.

More post when I'm not freezing and huddling with the cats in dim lighting.

I will leave you with this pic of tomorrow's spicy lemonade drink thawing on the stove. See that dark bit at the top? That's where all the solids collected before freezing. 

That warm orange tinge is from all the cayenne pepper. 

Woo!

Nail Art Challenge #6 - Celebration of Spring

A dead simple active length manicure in an eye catching tender new leaf green.

Not very arty as nail art goes, but that green was just so beautiful I had to let it shine.

A little late I know, I'm sorry. I got the painting done last night but the silver polish I was wearing prior took SO LONG to remove I ended up finishing up after bedtime and I cut my sleep pretty tight as is.

I went to bed so fast afterward I was dead sure I was going to have to fix sheet marks today! Have I mentioned lately that I love Seche Vite?

I got the creme polish from Color Club in a Birchbox shipment sometime last year and I'd been pretty dubious about trying it, but looking at it now this mint colour looks so amazing on me I'm tempted to find some matching clothes. Sadly I dont think it's going to be very durable but I'd love to revisit it, so I may try it again with a couple of layers of Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat as that really seems to extend a mani. I got surprisingly good coverage in two fairly thick coats due to time constraints, but I think this would do better with three thin coats.

The glitter topper (macro shot here) has perfectly matching satin green glitter in bar, tiny dot, and hex combined with a superfine holo glitter, in a very slightly green tinted base. The base and glitter makes it look a touch darker than real life in this pic. I really love glitter polishes with satiny glitter (rather than reflective) so I will definitely be revisiting this colour as well. I have one other shade in this line and may go back for more.

Nail Art Challenge #3 - Fashion Week

I'm not gonna lie, I really wish I had been able to put this challenge off until a bit later in this week as I really have not been terribly keen on the collections I've seen so far.  Luckily something about this particular look by Custo Dalmau caught my attention just in time.

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/F2014RTW-CUSTOBARC/#7

Overall it's a bit much but the base lines are pretty cool. I have done a vertical fuchsia and nude look before and really enjoyed it so I thought it'd be cool to revisit and tweak.

Also I want those purple aviators something fierce.

Like seriously. Reflective purple aviators. Now.

I translated that look into a curvy vertical neon and nude (almost a putty, really) with black triangular accents.

I resisted the urge to tape it off in favor of free-handing and in retrospect I'm regretting that. I had texture issues with all the coloured polishes and that made it very difficult to clean up my lines. In the bottle and in the pic the fuchsia is perfect, but in real life it is noticeably more purple. Still a great colour for me, but not exactly what I was aiming for. The coverage on the Ulta nude is outstanding and it leveled beautifully, but the thickness made it difficult to manipulate the line.

I was originally planning to go much larger on those triangles and add a bit of purple at the base if possible, but no battle plan survives contact with the enemy (Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder 1800-1891). I keep planning out designs and then realizing that even when my nails are on the longer side I have very little space to execute them.

Okay, I just checked and the nails on the swatching wheels I have are nearly the size of my thumbnail! No wonder I am having problems with my design scaling.

What? I'm a child of the 80s.

I do really like the use of transparency in fashion lately and was originally thinking of doing something in a sheer and black windowpane like this gown from Christian Siriano (one of the few pieces so far that's really stuck with me this season) but just couldn't figure out how to do it justice without the giant pile striping tape that is currently on order and certainlytakingitssweettimetogethere.

*ahem*

I also really liked the tone on tone marbled look on some of Siriano's other dresses and it gives me some ideas for experiments in water marbling.

In all I'm not terribly thrilled with this particular look, but I learned a few things and have some ideas for the future so I'm calling it a positive learning experience.

Darkest Winter

2014 Nail Art Challenge #2 - Darkest Winter

A crisp clean semi-ruffian manicure in shades of glass flecked taupe and glittering white.
My aim was to echo and elevate the salt and sand grimed snow which is now blanketing my late January Northeast winter wonderland.

I will also be using this manicure for the Lacquer Legion January theme of Reinvention as this was the THIRD design I had attempted for my winter theme in as many days, and it is about as far from my original plan as you could imagine.

I may show you guys a pic of the first attempt someday, but I wouldn't put money on it. The first step came out absolutely gorgeous, and I should have left it RIGHT there.

A Ruffian manicure involves kind of a "short sheeted" look where the base of the nail shows a different colour from the body. This look was created by the CND team for the 2010 Ruffian show during Fashion Week.

So glittery!

Apparently a proper Ruffian covers the full side, I didn't do that, which was silly of me because it probably would have been WAY easier. The white here is very sheer for this application so it ended up pretty thick, but I think the topcoat smoothed things out pretty well. The taupe covered well in two coats, the white will take at least three for any kind of real coverage.

Please 'scuse the bit of cuticle mess above. This was taken while I was still waiting for this to dry, and it seems taking off navy polish will leave a fair amount of cleanup!

Just a shot which I thought would be neat while I was still doing the base layer.

All other pics here are of the left, here is my right. As you can see I don't do too bad for my off hand.
I did the same ruffian treatment on the ring-finger of my right and it came out pretty okay, but not *quite* as clean as the left. Practice practice, of course.

That taupe colour was INSANELY matte before top coat! I almost wish I could have kept it like that but I knew it was going to be a day in between base and finish and I haven't really tested out the matte topcoat I own.

I recently picked up a bottle of Rimmel's Lasting Finish Pro in Rags to Riches (a cool shimmery olive) and I picture that going REALLY beautifully with this taupe. I am really happy with both the white and the taupe and am falling hard for glassfleck finishes so I fully expect to reach for these bottles again, thought the bottle in the white is a bit tall and narrow and feels tippy.


If you want to play along feel free to jump in at any point!
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A Fresh Start

2014 Nail Art Challenge #1 - A Fresh Start

An ultra simple minty springy mermaidy manicure on freshly chopped nails. I knew I wanted to use a bright springy green creme colour for this but I've worn that green before and I just picked up the blue. Happily the glitter has a subtle green flash to it which coordinates beautifully.

The blue seems to be quite brittle and I'm getting a lot of chipping on corners already. I think part of it is that I may do a bit too much typing to keep my corners at all square (squoval?). I think I'm going to turn this into a French with the green on the tips to see if that will extend it. I may use that for my January Lacquor Legion entry (January's theme - Reinvention) but I do also have another idea for that I may be fiddling with. I have a couple of weeks to decide.

I've also finally gotten my camera up and running! Nothing too sexy, just a several year old Canon Powershot, but unlike my iPhone it does macro shots which is obviously better for these hand pics. I think I need to set up a tripod and timer for the outfit shots though as everything I've tried to take so far looks like ghost photography.

Weird factlet about me: that's actually the shortest I can cut my nails right now. After growing them for a while as the "quick" of my nail-bed will actually grow out past the tip of my fingers. This is called an extended hyponychium. Right now this is only happening on my thumbs and pointers but the longer I keep my nails long the more of them it affects (never the ring fingers though *shrugs*). If I want them any shorter I have to cut them back gradually as the nail bed retracts.

Bonus info: if you ever want to have a queasy stomach for a bit I recommend that you do a Google image search for scientific/medical terms having to do with nails!

If you want to play along feel free to jump in at any point!
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Nail Art Challenges posted!

The nail art challenges are officially up and running on the 2014 Nail Art Challenge page up there in my top bar.

First challenge for January 14 is  "A Fresh Start"

Feel free to interpret that however you like!

I will be posting my design here on the 14th and would love if you would join me, even if just for one design.

Comment on that post, email, facebook, tag with #itsybitsy26 on instagram, or get my attention via a comment on Pinterest

Nailed it! or How I learned to stop worrying and love the nail polish.

I've fallen back in love with nail polish over the last few months and because I like a good completely random, non competitive, but heavily structured set of tasks (ask me about my 5k, 10k, and half marathon training sometime) I have decided to set up a Nail Art Challenge (see the Challenge page linked in top bar for all posts and updates) for myself.

I'm not looking to burn myself out or turn this into a nail polish blog, so I'm setting a two week timetable per theme for a total of twenty six designs over the next year. I typically change polish once a week so this should give me a good balance of inspiration and flexibility to do whatever I want (or even nothing) in between.

(Edit: I will also be following The Lacquer Legion Challenge on Facebook but I think they should work out well together).

I think I have a pretty good spread of challenges but I still need to pick a few and would love suggestions. I'll be posting the specific challenges soon and designs will be "due" every fortnight. Audience participation in any way would be TOTALLY STELLAR and links to your designs would be the subject of cross-posting and great affection.

Challenge pics will be posted here but if you want to see the in-between stuff have a look over there on the right at my Instagram feed!

Sadly uncredited (which feels like it should be metaphor for... something)

I've had an off-again on-again love affair with outrageous nail polish my whole life. Back in my day we didn't have it easy like the young kids do today! We had to walk uphill both ways in the snow for wild nail polish colours, and when it wasn't simply peeling off within an hour people called us weirdos for wearing it!

That's all true outside of the uphill in the snow part.
*looks outside at snowdrifts from Blizzard Hercules*
Most of the year anyway, but I actually have traversed a snowy hill or two in my day.

More about me and my nail-polish lovin' ways after the cut.