Breast Cancer Awareness Manis

Hey Everyone!! I AM BACK!!! Sorry for going silent there for awhile. It has been a really long and hectic month and I just couldn't find the motivation to blog. I didn't even change my polish as much as usual. It started with the passing of a family friend and just remained bad after that. Poor little Neil was so sick that every time I checked on him I was afraid I would find him gone. He has recovered and is almost back to his normal self but it was bad for awhile. It also cost a fortune to get him treated so that triggered even more stress. I have some issues with anxiety and they decided it would be a good time to show up and cause chaos. I also went to the GI doctor finally and he basically told me what I already figured. I have reflux/gerd which was not a shock. He gave me some meds which help a little but I need to avoid pretty much all the foods I love. I am still trying to work out what and how to eat to avoid my stomach trying to escape my body. Between my stomach issues and my anxiety attacks I pretty much am in no state of mind to do my nails or blog but I am going to try and force myself to get back into a routine. 

I am pretty much over the month of October which is sad because it is one of my favorite months. My birthday was Sunday and we had cake and all that jazz but I am still over October. I am hoping November brings more calm and less crazy. T was finishing up his first quarter as a high school freshman this month too. I am so very proud of that boy! He hasn't gotten his report card yet so I don't have the printed paper yet but his grades are final in the system and he got all A's and one B. I snapped a picture of the monitor and texted it to C with the question Is this real life? I am so proud of that boy and yes, it did make me cry. I don't know how, when or why he has decided to do well in school but it is awesome! He still struggles a little bit, especially with geometry but wow! I am going to frame that report card! 

Well, I changed the look of the blog a little bit just because I wanted to give it a new look. If there is any weirdness or anything wrong please let me know. I am only somewhat knowledgeable in the whole website arena and even with a pretty fool proof system I am pretty sure I could mess something up. Hopefully the chaos and crazy stays in October and from here we move into smoother waters. I am not holding my breath though seeing as C's car has a check engine light on. 

As we all know October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I wore two different manis this month for Breast Cancer Awareness. I am going to add them here together since we only have two more days in October. I actually wore these for several days each. My nice pointy nails all broke somewhere in the course of the month and are back to nubbins. My goal is to grow them back out to points but we all know how my nails cooperate. 

For this mani I used Essie Bottle Service from this year's neon collection on my index and pinkie. I used 3 coats of Barielle Buddha-ful from their 2011 Karma collection on my middle and ring finger. I also used a coat of Buddha-ful over Bottle Service on my pinkie. 

I stamped pink ribbons with Bottle Service and the ribbon design from Vivid Lacquer plate VL001. 

In the car shots Bottle Service looks crazy neon. The first pictures show it much more accurately. 

I had planned to do the first half of the month with pink ribbon manis and then the second half with Halloween manis but that was before everything went nutso. 

I really like the delicate look of Buddha-ful and how the ribbons look over it. I was a little concerned about stamping with Bottle Service since it is on the sheer side. It worked pretty well for stamping but I wouldn't attempt to use it to stamp over a darker color. 

I love that ribbon image. It is just a simple ribbon but it is the perfect size. I love all of the Vivid Lacquer plates and highly recommend them. I have three or four of them and the rest are on my wish list.

Since I already had Bottle Service out (I have a whole tub of polishes I need to put back in the helmers) I decided to do another mani with it. This mani was all sorts of fails but in the end it was good enough to wear for a few days. 

First I will tell you what the mani was supposed to be. I started with three coats of Sinful Colors Full Spectrum from their upcoming Holiday Glitz and Glittered Collection. Unfortunately it didn't give me the base I was looking for to stamp over. When I did stamp the ribbons they were not easy to see and it just didn't look nice. I thought to myself that Bottle Service was pretty sheer so I could probably just put it over top and still have the glitter show through. 

Well, that almost worked except that the glitter didn't really show through enough for my liking. I used white polish and Bundle Monster plate BM-321 to stamp ribbons on the pink. I guess I could have probably stopped there but I kept thinking jelly sandwich. 

I actually did leave my left hand like this with the white ribbons showing. 

My jelly sandwich idea would have probably looked much better had I used and actual jelly polish. I covered the right hand with another coat of Bottle Service and it pretty much hid my ribbons. You can still see them, vaguely, if you look hard enough. 

Not exactly the mani I was looking for but it wasn't horrible enough to make me take it off and start again. 

I liked the hand with the visible ribbons better than the other hand. Next time I will have to just go find the right polishes for my idea instead of being lazy and using what is out.

That's all for now :)