Fifteen Shades of Holiday

Well after a tough couple of weeks, I'm on a break from work, hurrah! I'm back in to one of my jobs in the week but only for a few afternoons, so I can take a huge breather. Except in terms of studying...still got to do that one. I'm trying to think of June when I'll be done with studying for the summer, but it's a long way away at the moment!

To celebrate the first day of my holiday combined with usual Saturday cheerfulness, I wanted to do my nails in a multi-coloured not for work style. By chance I came across the technique above via  Summer's blog design is mine, which linked to a guest post on Amanda's blog Here Comes the Sun, featuring  Katie at Katie Jessica Creations's tutorial for 'Retro Cloud Nails' (phew, long linky sentence there). Any of those three links will lead you to the 'Retro Cloud Nails' tutorial.

Haven't removed the overlap polish onto skin in the pic, a bit smooshy.

I love them, they're so cheerful and bright. I took the picture above right after they were finished and didn't notice how much polish I had smooshed around until after it was up here and good daylight was gone. (Excuses excuses, I'm just a messy nail polish-er).

If you do yours I'm sure they will be much neater.

Tools of the colourful trade pictured and named below. Enjoy any attempts you make at them, it's well worth it if you have the time and a well-ventilated room - so much polish open at once can be nasally overwhelming.

O.P.I. Big Apple Red, Maxfactor Nailfinity Earth Stone 708, Barry M 307 Lemon

Barry M 304 Mint Green, 294 Cyan Blue, 292 Navy

Barry M 309 Strawberry, 272 Shocking Pink, 273 Raspberry

Barry M 308 Berry, 303 Bright Purple, 349 Rose Quartz Glitter

Barry M 320 Foil (Gold), Rimmel 080 Black Cab, Barry M 354 Amethyst Glitter

Alice

Running Towards Darkness

Sorry for the radio silence the last week. Having a tricky time managing to live between work and study blegh. Getting back to drawing and painting for an evening saves my soul a little, as does looking at all of your lovely blogs. Hope to be back soon with more...something. Not sure what, all I want to do lately is draw and paint and write. Great for free time, rubbish for my real life right now. Here's to all the people trying to be creative.

Alice

Rich Findings

I love finding new writers with the ability to glue me to their ideas. Wanting to be an author means that I need to read - fiction, non-fiction, journalism, blogs, short stories, epic novels, newspapers, poetry. ANYTHING!

Whether it's stuff that I love or bad writing or ideas I don't necessarily agree with, when I read I get better at understanding what kind of writing excites me, and how I want to write my own ideas. And sometimes you find something beautiful to read, or something stomach-achingly funny to make your day. Here is a writer I was recently introduced to whose ideas excites me, who creates the kind of writing that keeps me stuck to my computer screen for an evening.

THIS guy!

(Simon Rich)

Simon Rich's wikipedia bio tells me that he's age 28-9, has been a published writer since he was at college, wrote sketches for SNL and now works for Pixar.

Gah. He's good.

Picture found here

His novella "Sell-Out" (serialised in The New Yorker in four parts, all available to read online via the link) is incredibly funny, endlessly satirising the Brooklyn hipster scene through the eyes of a working class immigrant Herschel, who is from Brooklyn in the year 1912. He fell into a vat of pickle brine in a factory and is revived one hundred years later, meeting his great great grandson in 2012 (who happens to be Simon Rich) which allows him to see how his family tree progressed and what the world has become.

If you haven't read it already and you have spare time, hop on over to The New Yorker to read the story. It's incredibly worth your brain space in my opinion. See if his ideas excite you too :)

Alice

Friendship by Post

I've decided to share the love of brown paper packages tied up with string arriving in the post. One of my bestest buddies from way back lives in Oxford doing her PhD and I think she deserves a treat for working so hard.

That's me on the note, waving like an illustrated goof.

So I've got her a book that I haven't read, but after reading reviews, I'm pretty sure will be right up her street.

And so the fun begins...

Off to the post office tomorrow (I have no idea how much postage this book will require so it's without stamps right now) and hopefully there will be a very happy friend in a few days.

Has anyone got surprise packages in the post before?

Alice

Subtle Sparkle

I'm a big fan of the Barry M polishes, as my fingernails often boast, but I do like O.P.I lately, particularly as a layering polish. My nails are finally beginning to grow back in after The Big Bite a few weeks back (sob sob) and I'm enjoying wearing slightly more risqué colours/sparkliness to work and no one saying anything. Though I do feel bad when the kids ask why they can't wear nail polish and I can. I remember hating that too when I was still school age.

These bad boys in blue are acheived by a coat of Barry M Cyan Blue with a thin layer of O.P.I Austin-tatious Turqoise on top.

Alice

The Letter

It came on a Saturday. As soon as she saw the green envelope she knew who it was from. She could guess what the letter inside would say, but still had to let her trembling fingers tear past the green to draw out a single sheet of paper. She didn't feel the envelope dropping from her hand as the wind whipped it away, a bottle green blur against the mossy garden grass. 

After reading the letter, she looked out over the garden into the fields. Now she knew for sure. Now she had to stop pretending. The cold February wind blew against her but she stood still, unmoved by it.

Alice

Blink and you'll miss it Pink

For when you want your nails to scream "shhh don't look at me"

This pastel/nude nail choice is very unlike me, but since I bit my nails down to the quick a few weeks back (thanks essay stress!) they are now pitifully short and a bit stubby looking. I find that if I leave my nails bare for more than a few days I begin to bite.

I also don't want to keep doing my nails in dark colours every week, as apparently that can cause your nails to discolour over time. So today I have painted on the ever dull nude shade of polish that I barely ever wear, and then tipped it lightly with a pale pink. As I have very little finesse when it comes to doing tips on my nails I had to use a lot of nail polish remover to tidy them up eek!

Come back long nails, I promise to paint you vampy red again.

Barry M - Nude and Strawberry I/C