New Layout for 2013 - Kitty Picture Outtakes!

  I realized a couple of weeks ago that I have had my old layout now since September of 2011, and I thought it might be fun to shake things up a bit and try out a new one!  I looked and looked.... but I wasn't able to find one that really seemed perfect.  So I decided to make one!  Using a digital scrapbooking kit from Just So Scrappy I came up with this layout featuring cherries and butterflies and I am super pleased with how it turned out!  I had so much fun, I am putting a layout together for Becky too.  Thanks to my wonderful husband Dan for his help with some of the HTML/CSS work that went into getting everything to look right!

  Of course, a new layout means new kitty pictures!  Shockingly (or not), Leo wasn't too cooperative - the only way to get good pictures of him is to catch him naturally, it's hard to get him on a particular background.  Plus I swear he hates the camera.  Luna hammed it up like always.  Here are some of the most fun outtakes from the session.

Leo giving me a death glare.  Overall he was just not too pleased with the situation.

He's such a handsome boy.  Too bad he hates getting his picture taken.

Luna was pretty interested in the polish at first

Ready for her closeup!

She was looking at me right before I took this - would have been a great shot!

My pretty girl

And... I think we're done.

   If you enjoy kitty pictures, I posted a few more outtakes on my new Facebook page - feel free to check it out and like us there!  I plan on posting all new manicures there, as well as previews and possibly some special giveaways... more to come on this later!

  Let me know what you all think of the new layout!  Also, let me know if anything doesn't work right or looks messed up - just because it all works from here is no guarantee it will work for you all.  New polish post tomorrow! :)

Another Year... Another Layout! And Kitty Picture Outtakes!

  One of the comments I have seen a lot in the survey is that the old layout of Polishology was too busy.  Since I had been thinking it was time for a change anyway, I thought... why not now?  It is a nice birthday present for the blog... ;)  So I'm here to present our new layout!  I have gone with a simpler (but still gorgeous) background, and rather than two columns on either side there is now a large column on the left.  Eventually that column splits into two, to show my blogroll as well as labels, which I am in the process of updating.  I also changed the text around a bit to make it easier to read (I hope).  It is now in a less curly font and darker.  Let me know if it is better.

  The biggest new addition are the tabs at the top - this is now where you will find giveaway info, info about me, my wish list, and more.  I hope soon to have a spreadsheet of all of my stash up there as well.  And hopefully soon there will be a tutorials tab!

  So what do you all think of the new layout?  I hope you enjoy it!  I am really loving it.  You will of course notice a new header with now both of the kitties!  You know what that means.... kitty photo shoot outtakes!

Luna has the sweetest face!

Even if she is a bit evil :)

Majestic.

Aw, love. <3

Of course, Leo turns his back to me

And prefers nomming the blanket to playing with the polish

  You will notice I included more of Luna... that is because I got about 10x more pictures with her.  She hams it up with the camera, while Leo is rather afraid of the camera, so it is hard to get up close pictures of him when he knows I am doing it.  I almost gave up on him and did two Luna photos but I finally got a couple of cute ones!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures, and please feel free to comment on the layout!  I love hearing your suggestions!

Luna Nails

  Last October I did a manicure in honor of my sweet baby boy Leo.  I decided it was about time that I did one to honor his slightly diabolical but still very loving sister, Luna!

 

  For these nails, I started with two coats of Zoya Dove as the light gray base.  I followed this up with leopard print stamping from BM-221 for all but the ring finger, and the design from M57 for the ring finger, using Konad Special Black.  I then added darker gray dots to some of the leopard spots using Zoya Kelly, as well as adding the kitty image to the ring finger in Kelly as well, using BM04.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite and was good to go!  I had a lot of fun with this one, especially with the accent finger.  I don't often do accent fingers but it was really fun, I may have to do more in the future!

Luna!

Kitties

  Gotta love them kitties.  :)

New Blog Layout - And Kitty Photoshoot!

  I have been thinking about setting up a new blog layout for awhile now - and I was finally compelled to do so!  This morning while my previous template was temporarily out of service, I went fishing for another one, and came up with this!  I have a few questions for you all about the layout -

  Do you like the new template, or did you prefer the old version?

  Do you like this font/text color?  Would you prefer something more basic?

  Would you rather have the giveaways on the sidebar (as current) or on their own page (as they were over the Holidays)?

  You may also notice that there is a new header!  I wanted to share a few "outtakes" from Luna's Polishology photoshoot!

"Let me just see if I can cram this down in here..."

"Yep, got it!"

Polish snack...

This is when I got concerned for the safety of the polish (and Luna, of course)

Smug.

"Really, I have to keep playing?  This enemy has been defeated"

Luna heard some birds outside...

... and our photoshoot was soon over.

   Hope you enjoyed the kitty photos!  Sorry no pictures of Leo this time, he does not cooperate at all with things like this, haha.  Let me know what you think of the new design!

Midnight Gardens Konadicure

  Becky came over a few nights ago and wanted me to do her nails.  She liked the MULTI-COLORED KONAD that I did before quite a lot, so we decided to do a similar design on her nails!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

  For these nails I started out with two coats of China Glaze Midnight Mission, which is a very gorgeous shimmery dark blue with silver microglitter.  Application was really great, dry time was very speedy.  Overall a fabulous polish!  This is such a pretty blue, I can't believe I haven't gotten around to wearing it myself!  Soon, Midnight Mission... soon.  :)

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

  After applying Midnight Mission, I used Konad plate m54 to create the multi-colored rose design on the nail.  For the majority of the design, I used Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, which is a fabulous silver for stamping.  For the rosebud, I used Sally Hansen Lilac Chrome, which is a very old metallic pink that I have had for many, many years.  I had read elsewhere that the SH Chromes work well for stamping and I am pleased to report that they do indeed!  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite and was finished!

  I was really pleased with this manicure.  For the most part, I was able to get the design to transfer much more smoothly than the previous multi-color (although you can see I had a bit of problem on the middle finger with the pink rose).  The blue is such a pretty color, I only wish I could give you some daylight pictures to show how gorgeous it was!  But seeing as how it was 10 pm when we did this, no daylight.  The late time is also why the final product is a bit on the messy side, since Becky had to get home there was not much time for cleanup.  Anyway, Becky loved it and I did too, so overall I declare this a konadicure success!



  On an unrelated note, I have to share this photo with you.  I walked downstairs yesterday while holding my phone, and found my babies curled up on the futon having just woken up from a nap.  They looked so perfect I had to snap several pictures.  Apparently Leo does not see the phone as a camera (yet) so he is not quite as freaked out by it - good to know for the future!  Here is one of the many amazing photos I snapped.

Leo (r) and Luna (l)!

  Aside from the tan pillow, I think this picture looks like a photoshoot - I may have to edit the pillow out at some point, but for now this is the raw image (cropped).  Aren't they precious?  Haha, I hope you all meant it when you said in the giveaway survey that you wanted more kitty pictures!  :)

  Speaking of which... make sure you ENTER MY GIVEAWAY if you haven't yet!

Leo(pard) Print Manicure

  Last week I received my package from Magic Maid's blog sale.  Included in the package was a Konad plate I have been wanting for quite awhile, m57.  I just had to take a break from Halloween nails and use it!

Outdoors, full sun

   I have had the idea for this mani for quite awhile now.  I actually picked up the two polishes I used with the specific intent of doing this exact manicure!  For the base, I used Wet n Wild Craze Goldmine, a gorgeous golden shimmery polish.  It was very sheer, taking four thin coats to reach full opacity, but the dry time was great and the final effect was gorgeous!  Three coats left just a touch of VNL, which is why I sprang for the fourth coat.

Shade, left hand - the nubbins are finally starting to get there!

   On top of the golden color, I used Konad plate m57 with Konad Special Black to add leopard print spots to the nails.  Then I used Wet n Wild Craze Rustic to dab a bit of a darker brown, shimmery color into the middle of some of the open spots.  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite and was good to go!

Outdoors, shade

  Sorry for the slightly messy cuticles here, I had no time before the sun went down so I did a super speedy clean-up just to get a couple of larger messes, and didn't really get a chance to clean up the rest of the cuticles.  Overall this mani was really fun, wore well and I loved the colors.  I am so glad I finally got a chance to do this mani.  I had some awesome inspiration!

Manicure inspiration

  I know what you are thinking.  "Oh, what an absolutely gorgeous and fabulous leopard print, where did you find such stunning beauty?!"  Or something along those lines. ;)

Leo!

  On Leo, of course!  Not only is he like the sweetest kitty cat ever (even if he is super shy around strangers, unlike Luna who thinks that she is a dog, or perhaps "a people" as Dan and I say), he is also in my opinion the most gorgeous cat I have ever seen!  So it is no wonder that he would be inspiration for art - nail art or otherwise!

  I wanted to get a picture of my nails on Leo, but he is not such a fan of cameras.  Even when they are not on, he does not seem to like it so much.  I think the photo shoot I put him through last spring traumatized him.  So that is the only picture I was able to get.  I think the nails were a pretty decent representation of Leo's coat.

  What do you think of my Leo print mani?  Have you ever done nails inspired by your pets?

Jessica Funkytown Toes - And Kitty Pictures!

  Several days ago I ordered Jessica Funkytown from the Paint The Town collection online.  It looked really pretty on swatches and I loved the bottle.  I received it yesterday, and was dying to use it - but I wasn't quite ready to take off my fairytale bubbles mani yet.  So... new pedi time!

Outdoors, partial sun, no flash

  I know that some of you are not the biggest fan of toesies pics, but this polish is too pretty not to share!  It is an absolutely gorgeous purple/pink/blue chunky glitter polish that is super sparkly; the pictures I was able to get simply did not do it justice.  The downside to this polish is that it is very sheer - this is five coats of Jessica Funkytown for full coverage!  In the future I may choose to use a base of a darker purple and try for less coats to see what that looks like.  However it was worth it, as it is totally gorgeous.  Not too bumpy either, a coat of Seche Vite smoothed this out to perfection.

Up close and personal with the glitter

  The polishes from this collection come in little paint can bottles, how cute is that?  Overall very pleased with this polish, it will probably stay on my toes for quite a while!

The cutest bottle!

  UPDATE: After a long day (which is why my toes are even more nasty, so sorry!) I noticed tonight at 2 am that the lighting in my room right now gave me a nice photo of this polish.  This gives just a slight feel for how sparkly this polish is, and also shows a bit more of its true color; it is a bit darker than the original picture, and a bit more red toned those pictures show (they are very blue).  It is still impossible to capture how pretty this is, but this may help for those who are interested in the polish - which you should be! :)

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

 I figured this might be a good time to show a couple of kitty pictures, to make up for only having pedi pictures to share today.  And because they are just so adorable!  Here are my two babies!

Leo, chilling on my couch in my study

Luna outside

  Luna loves being outside on her leash.  Leo hates it, which is funny because Leo probably enjoys looking outside the most out of the two (of course they both love staring out windows).  I just realized today that I hadn't shared any kitty pictures with you all other than Luna up there on the banner so I thought you should see the crazy babies!  Hope you have a great weekend and I should have new nails for you very soon!