New year!!! Whoo!

I've decided that since it's a new year and I've had this blog for years and have never really used it...it's time!!! Nobody really knows about my blog right now so it's perfect. Every day I'm going to write a little something about how my day went. I think it will be fun and interesting to read later...even if it's just a few months later. Besides, isn't that the point of a blog anyway??? 

For years I have struggled to love myself and it's a breath of fresh air to be on the write path for that journey. I've lost a lot of weight this past year...but it's not enough. Not only am I no where near the body I want...I'm still not comfortable in my skin. I feel awkward and embarrassed and I'm nervous people are looking at me and talking about my appearance...I know that I'm being crazy...but in those little moments I can't stop it. But I have finally decided to love myself as a person. I'm funny and loud. And I don't care. If somebody thinks I'm annoying, that's his/her problem. I'm pretty awesome. If you don't like me, don't be my friend. Nobody is forcing you to be around me.

 

Anyway, I'm off track. Like always. That's kinda my style. 

So...everyday...gonna take a picture and document this year. Plus, it will be a good reminder of how far I have come with my weight loss...nah, let's say body and mind transformation. Because that's what it is. Changing how I treat myself and my body. What did I do? How's wedding planning? How's the self-love going? Did something awesome hapen? Did nothing happen? I don't know yet. Guess we'll see the direction of this experiment. 

So...how today is so far...it's pretty great. Went to a New Year's Eve party with some great friends and I even got to kiss Dan at midnight. So that's pretty awesome. My kitty is happy and so are we. I work at 9am and I still haven't taken my makeup off and it's 2:30. I should probably get it together and do that....

Post-party selfie. 

Before the party! 

Gingerbread nails!

 

More holiday nail fun! Whoo!!! And like always, I didn't feel like doing 4 gingerbread men...so I did just 2...that's plenty!! 

Anyway, here are the colors I used:

Ciate and Essie 

Which look like this when they're "not decorated:" 

Obviously, before I even started I had already decided on only 2 gingerbread men! 

I had a bit of a problem though...no polish that's the color of a gingerbread man. I know. I couldn't believe it either. I have a serious nailpolish problem and I didn't have one!!! So...I mixed two! 

There's really no point in telling you what the colors are because they have been discontinued for such a long time...but the Lancôme is a light gold sheen and the Mac is a nude cream shade. 

Together they make the perfect gingerbread man color!!!! 

Of course the week after I did this mani I found the perfect color for $4. Haha. Oh, well.

Here's my first little gingerbread that I made using nail dotters! 

He's a happy little booger!

This polish's glitter is so pretty!!!

Peppermint Swirl nails

Another fun holiday mani!!!! Whoo! This is one of my favorite manis ever! Like always, they're not perfect...but I still love them!!! The little peppermint swirls are just so cute!!!! 

 

The colors used are Wet and Wild in French White Creme with a coat of a pearly white from rue21, OPI in Big Apple Red with a coat of OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It and an ultra-thin coat of rue21 green glitter. 

No flash

With flash

No flash

No flash

With flash 

Christmas lights nails

So...I have to accept that it's December...and take advantage of all of the cute nail art ideas I have!!! 

The base is Rue 21 Cactus Flower. The lights are a bunch of random Rue 21 polishes that I have collected over the past year. 

The color is actually a lot darker than this picture depicts...but it shows the lights better so I'm gonna go with it! Haha! More details later...

Snowflake nails!

Here's some fun snowflake nails! I did make a pictorial...and I posted it on here...but it didn't post...so I will add those details later! 

Colors used: 

Ciate Pepperminty and Blizzard for glitter nails and Butter London Victoriana for Snowflake nails. 

Blizzard is from Ciate's "Tree Trinkets" collection! It's just too cute! 

Before adding Blizzard

Halloween nails

Here's my first Halloween manicure of October!!! I love it so much! It turned out so cute!!! 

In case you're not sure what's going on: 

Thumb is a mummy.

Index finger is a spider on a web.

Middle finger is a pumpkin.

Ring finger is a skull.

Pinky is Frankenstein.

I hope that that was all obvious or my feelings are hurt!!!

Anyway...

The background shade to the mummy and the spider is OPI My Vampire Is Buff. The background to the middle finger is Essie Bikini So Teeny. The background to the ring finger is OPI Alpine Snow. The background to the pinky is Milani Hi-Tech. 

The first nail that I did was the skeleton. After painting the whole nail white, I used Stripe Rite in Black to outline the sides of the skull's face...like this:

Then I colored in the sides and added its mouth! I drew the horizontal line before adding the little vertical lines.

I was watching tv while doing these nails and accidentally smudged the black all over my skin! Oops! 

Next I added the skeleton's nose. It's pretty basic; it's 2 small lines that form a 90 degree angle...or a triangle missing a side (in case you can't see that for yourself): 

Its eyes are next! I used a basic black polish and a nail dotter and put 2 dots where the eye sockets would be, but I slightly dragged the "eyes" downwards to create more of a teardrop shape and less of a circle. 

He's all done!!!!

The ring finger's web was created with Stripe Rite in white. It was really hard to capture a picture of the web because its color isn't that far off from My Vampire Is Buff. But here's my effort:

I drew the 4 long vertical lines first then added the U shapes horizontally one at a time per section of web (hope that makes sense). 

I wanted to make the Frankenstein nail pop! Pinkies are always the "reject" nails, so I had to make the pinky extra special!!!

I added the hair first with my Stripe Rite. I used a medium nail dotter to add the white background of the eyes. Then I took a small-medium nail dotter and added the black to the eyes. I created the mouth the same way I made the skeleton's mouth. 

The pumpkin nail was the easiest. I took an orange striper brush and outlined the pumpkin in 2 "rainbow shapes." Then I filled it in with Maybelline Sweet Clementine. The green color for the pumpkin is a Stripe Rite. 

The mummy was the last nail that I did. I arbitrarily placed the lines to create the mummy's wrappings, but I made sure to draw the lines where I could have a good spot to draw the mummy's eyes. I filled in the space with Stripe Rite in black. I took a big nail dotter and put the 2 eyes. I then took my Stripe Rite in red and gently added the veins in the eyes. After I added the red lines, I took a medium nail dotter and added the black dots to finish the eyes!!! 

I sealed these nails with Seche Vite and now I'm going to bed!!! I might do a video tutorial on these nails...which would be my first ever! Eek!

Without flash: 

Piano-inspired nails!

These were requested by my friend Jenny! The directions are quite simples. Here they are:

I painted all of my nails with O.P.I. Alpine Snow. 

Then I added some stripes. 

Then I slowly created rectangles around the top of the stripes to create piano keys!!!! 

Tada! All done!

Thanks for reading! 

-Marissa

Galaxy nails

These are some quick galaxy-inspired nails that I did! I love them! Galaxy nails are great because they don't have to be perfect...and I don't do perfection anyway...so this is "perfect" for me! :)

Nail pictorial of my galaxy nails! 

Polishes used to create this look! Colors are:

The glitter polish is a random Charlotte Russe polish; the blue is Essie Butler Please; the magenta-ish is Essie The Lace Is On; the darker blue is Oh My Gosh Cobalt Blue; and the light blue is Sally Hansen Blue-Away. 

The base is Cobalt Blue. 

I then added a layer of the CR glitter. It has different shades of blue, purple, and silver glitter flecks. 

I lightly sponged on some of the Blue-Away. In case you have never done this method before, just know that you need hardly any polish on the edge of the sponge. 

Like I said before, it doesn't need to be perfect! Yay for imperfections! 

I also sponged a little Butler please on the edges of the light blue "blobs." 

So hard to get a decent image of this look on my phone...at night...haha...

Anyway, I added a light bit of The Lace Is On randomly in the galaxy patches on each nail. 

This is what my sponge looked like after I was finished:

I added another thin layer of the glitter polish and a top coat! 

Different angles of this mani: