My so called life - weddings, houses and some nail polish! Pic heavy!

Oh wow - it's been so long since I've posted as my life has been chaos! 

As I mentioned in my last post, as well as house hunting and job hunting, I'm also planning a wedding - STRESS! Things are looking up though - we've found a house we love and have had our offer accepted; it's so exciting to think that we should soon have a house that we can start a family in. On this note, I've been banned from watching One Born Every Minute as fiance is a bit worried by my obsession with babies, birth, pregnancy, nurseries..........:)

Anyhoo, I've been making all the decorations for my wedding and I thought I'd share them with you (partly as proof that I'm not just a slacker lol) so here goes;

First off, I've made buttonhole for all of the groom's party, as well as one for my Dad and one for my gay best friend who'll be in my bridal party (bride-male instead of bridesmaid?) As I'm totally obsessed with buttons, I took the term buttonhole quite literally!

I then made 4 bouquets for my bridesmaids - keeping with the button theme. These seemed to take forever! But for the last few months I've been coming home to find packets of buttons and ribbons awaiting me - sheer joy:) They've been so much fun to make.

As well as these, I've been making metres and metres of bunting - 75 metres so far, only 25 metres to go. This has been less fun than the bouquets and buttonholes - I've had to cut out a billion triangles of fabric, tack them onto the bias binding, sew them on using my sewing machine and then unpick all the tacking. Sad face. 

The craft that has given me the most joy however has been making my bridal bouquet. I knew I wanted a button bouquet as soon as I saw them on Pinterest. As much as I love flowers, it makes me sad that once they're picked they die so quickly - also, the sheer expense of them put me off! I honestly couldn't find a bouquet I liked for less than £100, and button bouquets were even more expensive, so I decided to make my own. I used broaches and buttons from my grandmother's collection and topped it up with many, many purchases from ebay! It has taken months but I'm so proud of it! Here it is................

This hasn't left much time for my nails, but I have been buying and applying, just not posting. So here's a very brief update on my nails for the past few weeks;

The gorgeous Aquatic collection by Barry M - Mediterranean, a lovely pinky-gold...... 

......the even more stunning Pacific from the same collection........LOVE.......

 ......the adorable Barry M limited edition released for Superdrug's 50th birthday (purple, white, red and pink glitter in a hot pink glitter - er, amazeballs much?!) .......

.....and the lovely White Splatter by Maybelline - this goes with EVERYTHING! If you don't already, invite it into your life, it will make almost everything better:) 

Wow - that was a long post. I'll (hopefully) be back asap peeps, thanks for baring with me for so long:) Toodle pip! 

Barry M Sour Apple over Maybelline Blackout

Happy Wednesday peeps! Hope you're having a great week? Ok, so embarrassingly I'm still working on my untrieds, including using up some of those polishes that, as the time, I needed sooooooo urgently and then.....ahem.....lost in the pile of others. Shame faced. Barry M Sour Apple is one of those polishes; and yet it has remained unused.

Until now! I ummmed and arrrrrh about what to pair it with and decided that a dark background would help it pop and boy was I right. I love this combo; what do you think? 

Just lovely:) 

 

Models Own Pukka Pink

Ahhhhh neon - how you brighten up these dark Mondays:) This is Pukka Pink, part of Models Own Neon Ice collection - oddly, despite its name, it's more orange than pink, as you can see. I couldn't help but top this with Monochrome, my current favourite polish:)

I need to see if this neon 'pops' a bit more when I try it over white, bit I really love it topped with Monochrome:) But then I'd love anything topped in Monochrome lol:) 

Barry M Red Black - a blast from the past...............

Ah, another untried down! This is Barry M Red Black, which is 18 months old! Good lord!

I wasn't expecting to like this polish - in the bottle it doesn't look anything special. But it struck me that it was ideal for a cold wintery day, so I sloshed it on and I'm BLOOMING pleased I did. I was overcome with the most amazing deja vu........

I really got into nail polish in the mid to late nineties, while I was in secondary school. Nail art was popular; I remember wearing chequerboard nails to school, buying nail stickers, using matt polish for the first time.........

It was also the time of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I loved BTVS, and watched it every week, wishing my school life was as exciting, or that I has Sarah Michelle Geller's amazing highlights and wardrobe. It also featured a vampire called Drusilla, who, one week, wore what I considered to be the manicure to end all manicures; a reddish brown colour with white tips. I loved it and knew I must copy it, so rushed out to buy a reddy-brown nail polish.

Barry M Red Black is the EXACT same colour. The application is better, bear in mind I had a small budget (i.e. my pocket money) in the 90's, but it's the same colour. And blimey, am I gutted that I haven't been wearing it everyday since I bought it! Shame, shame on me!

I would say this is a jelly and you could make a very yummy sandwich with this! This is 3 coats, all of which went on beautifully. The coverage doesn't look perfect in the photos but IRL there's no problem. Finally, Drusilla nails will be mine after all these years............

Black and gold skittle

Ahhh, there are times when  you need leopard print and glitter - I needed it to get me through a tough week last week, so I created this little beauty.

I love it - the black is Betty Jackson black, lovely and glossy, like tar..........or marmite. Let's go with marmite, sounds more delicious:) The gold is Models Own Gold Rush and the glitter is Models Own Ibiza Mix - a total stunner, gold and blue and green glitter mixed together to form actual happiness in a bottle:) 

Have a good evening peeps, I'm off to eat home made chow mein in a late attempt to celebrate Chinese New Year! Nommmmmmmmmy:) 

Purple Leopard Print

It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, .......................etc.

As this scheduled post posts, I shall be pouring a bottle of wine, unwrapping some Ferrero Rocher and snuggling on the sofa with my wonderful fiancee. Happiness is a tipsy Friday night.

These leopard print beauties are the last of the 'oldies' stored on my computer; from now on, it's Christmas manicure time! 

I love the base colour, Electric Purple by Accessorize, so much that I've almost finished the bottle. I'll be needing a back up asap:) The Models Own glitter is Bora Bora. 

Christmas manicures here I come:) 

Duck eggs....

Happy Wednesday - half way through the week, not long til the weekend! I'm off to see my gorgeous friend Sherri and her lovely family this weekend, bring it on! 

So, this manicure I've had kicking round for ages - shame on me:( It's so pretty; I can't believe I've not worn Loreal's Confetti, the black and white glitter below, since this manicure; I obsessed over it for weeks until I finally got my grubby little mitts on it. Ahhhh, the highs and lows of an addiction.......

Am I the only one who thinks it makes my nails look like duck eggs? 

Flutter by butterfly!

Ahhhh, holidays - they're the best!

I've been on my holibobs this week and it's been great! I've caught up with friends, made cakes (photos below), snuggled my kitwits and generally rested. Bliss. 

My relaxed state has also led to me getting back in the mood for some nail art, which led to this creation. I've been wanting to try it for ages and finally had the time and inclination; they're not perfect, but I'm pretty chuffed with them. 

Sadly, my impatience got the better of me, and as you can see, I applied topcoat before they had properly dried! Fail!

The base colour is the gorgeous Pink Fever by Models Own, a pearlescent pink with a stunning blue shimmer. Lush. The art was done using my Models Own nail art pens. 

Randomly, whilst perusing Bloglovin this morning, I noticed that the lovely Laura at She Who Does Nails had also posted a stunning  Monarch butterfly manicure - check it out!

Oh, btw, the cakes I mentioned?

Mocha cupcakes, made using my Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. Nommy!

Halloween nails - Color Club Fly With Me with black drips

Happy Halloween peeps!

Not sure when it happened that we get so obsessed over this somewhat odd 'celebration', but hey ho, I'm not one to avoid a chance to do some themed nails, so here are my Halloween nails. I wasn't actually going to do any, but whilst going through my unused I found Color Club Fly With Me sitting there sadly, waiting to be used. Perfect. Mwaaaahahahahahaha!

I love this colour, although it's a pain in the backside to apply - this is four coats, and I still had to cover some bald spot! Gah! But it's worth it; as you can see in the close up, it's an unusual polish, more lime green than the photos show, and it almost looks like it's made up of teeny tiny pieces of glitter layered to make the ultimate shimmer! 

Anyhoo, this isn't the scariest of manicures, but I really love it - Halloweeny but not too in your face. Also, only my second time doing drips, I think I'm getting better:) 

Pastel chevrons

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what an awesome morning. A lazy get up, Marmite on toast and coffee in the garden, kitty cuddles, happiness:)

I not sure about you guys, but I have a definite summer/winter mindset when it comes to nail polish; I want bright, bright, bright or summery pastels in the sunshine, and darker, deeper polish in winter. This mani is a definite summer baby - glossy, lovely pastels:) Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

This isn't an original idea, but I can't remember where I saw it - doh! Anyhoo, this is my take on it, using my trusty Barry M pastels (Strawberry Ice Cream, Berry Ice Cream, Mint Green and Peach Melba) plus my favourite pastel ever, Adora-Bleu by Bourjois:) 

I used striping tape for the mani which resulted in a teeny mishap; the tape was blue and left a small stain on the lilac nail-grrrrrr! But I do love this; it's summer, but with an edge!