Blogger Friends Forever: City

For my second challenge day, I chose cities!!! When I came up with it, I though of doing New York City, but then I remembered my favorite city in the world!

When I studied abroad in Rome I didn't like it all that much. Until I went to the Vatican. I absolutely LOVED it! I want to live there. Swiss Guards actually live in the Vatican and their families can too, so my plan is to marry one. This, as well as their requirements for the job make them match up almost perfectly to my list of desired qualities in a spouse. To symbolize Vatican City I painted Pope John Paul II's papal crest (Totus Tuus!), the Vatican flag, a spiral representing the spiral staircase in the Vatican Museum (or any of the many spiral staircases leading up the cupola, and the Swiss Guards' stripes!

I couldn't find a decent key that faced the other way for the gold key :/ Otherwise, I think it turned out pretty well!

Check out these virtural tours to see parts of my favorite city!

St. Peter's Basilica

Sistine Chapel

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Summer Challenge: Olympic Opening Ceremony

As I've mentioned before, I really love the Olympics. I'm so pumped to watch the Opening Ceremony and start watching some Americans win medals! The prompt was Opening Ceremony/Flag so I did the good ole stars and stripes. I know this is practically the same as my 4th of July mani, but I really liked it. 

What I love most about the Olympics is the whole nation uniting to cheers for our athletes. Usually, everyone has all sorts of crazy rivalries and get in ridiculous arguments over sports, but once every four year (if we pretend Winter Olympics don't exist) we're all on the same side and can watch sports in harmony :) And even though we're rooting for different teams, the world unites to watch one event. It's amazing.

P.S. Are the Olympic-themed commercials making anyone else cry? Like this one:

Tears. Lots of tears.

And I even broke out a new hand pose to show USA with the linear flag. Materials used: Pure Ice French Kiss, China Glaze Salsa, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, Sally Hansen Rapid Red (for stamping), Cheeky plate CH 4, Konad plates M17 and M18.

Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet

Danielle at Little Book of Beauty

Neivys at Maquiclub Girl

Jo at Northern Nails

Arlene at Nails and Vanities

Helena at Nail Wish

Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les

Katee at A Girl and Her Polish

Sarah at Y Nails...Why Not?

Bec at Lacquer Dreams

Misha at Enigmatic Rambles

Sharon at What Color Is My Coat

Melissa at (Mis)adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Laurie at Dressed Up Digits

Lucie at Lucy's Stash

Emma at  Manicurity

Caitlin at Caitlin's Creative Corner

Jane at Absolute Varnish

Amber at Never Naked Nails

Vic at Glowstars

Jackie at Mema's Manis

Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails

Stella at My Wet Nails

Missy at Missy's Manis

Kim at A Polished Addiction

Christine at Lost in My Reverie

Angie at Our Painted World

Bazzia at Polish My Mind

Missy at The Manicured Maniac

Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her

Nikki at Lil Green Heart

Elizabeth at Nail Polish is My Crack

Ana Cris at Esta Cerrada la Drogueria

Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year

Dina at Secretary's Nail Art

Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity

Karen at Nails by Kaybel

Independence Day!

Here's my mani for today's holiday! I used to have a t-shirt from Old Navy with a glitter American flag on it, so I used that for my inspiration.

The blue is China Glaze Dorothy Who, the red is Barry M Red Glitter and the stamping is Cheeky plate CH 4 with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. 

This stamp and polish combination worked so well! I didn't even have to start over on any nails!

Every time I look at my nails I get Stars and Stripes forever stuck in my head haha.

Also I keep wiggling my fingertips to make it look like it's waving in the wind. It entertains me to no end.

Now I'm off to help work a fireworks stand and then go see Magic Mike! Have a happy (and safe!) Independence Day!

31 Day Challenge: Day 28-Inspired by a Flag

This challenge is so random, but ok. Like most Texans, I really love Texas. A lot. So I decided to recreate our flag since I love it so much. And since it's simple :)

I swatched a bunch of different blues and reds to pick out the perfect colors. Then I asked my dad (who loves Texas and its flags) to choose which ones he thought were best. I painted the index finger with one coat of Pure Ice French Kiss and then free handed a star with Sally Hansen White Lightening. Then I painted the other three nails white. After that dried, I decided it would be a good time to dye the tips of my hair again. Random, right? Anyways, in doing that, my nails got kinda stained blue and green, but I didn't have enough time to redo it so I channeled my inner Tim Gunn and made it work! I then taped my nails and painted two coats of China Glaze Winter Berry. You'll notice I did not use any OPI Texas colors. That's because I think that collection was made by someone that's never been to Texas. Texas is known by so many things like oil, cotton, insane love of football, the Cowboys, a giant Mexican influence that's rich in colors, cattle, the Texas Rangers (not the baseball team), the Alamo. All these things could've been pulled from to inspire a collection. Instead we got a green called Don't Mess with OPI?! And Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear. The phrase is "Y'all come back now ya here?". Come on! Lame. Rant over.

Fun fact: six national flags have flown over Texas (that's where they get the theme park name). They were Spain, France, Mexico, Texas republic (because we were and independent country for a time), Confederate flag and finally U.S. I thought about doing the six flags of Texas, but the Spanish and French ones were very complex and I didn't think I could do them justice. Also, the Confederate flag is kind of controversial, so it's just best to steer clear. Sorry for the long blab about it, but I really do love Texas :)

No finally the pics. They're crappy because my Internet isn't working and I have to post from my phone. Voila!