Merry Christmas.

So it's that time of year again, just done wrapping all the gifts. And I did my nails earlier today.
I used OPI Die An Other Day and Sinful Colors Gold Medal as base colors. Then I picked an image from Dashica SdP 114 and Bundle Monster H03. For stamping polishes I used Dashica Jade Green stamping polish, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red and SC Gold Medal.

Last night we got some very sad news from a SLC officer. My father in-law in Huntington Beach had passed away. All we know that he passed away sometimes in between Sunday night and early Monday morning, we won't know anything else until sometime Friday afternoon. But it's still shocking, and my grandmother in-law who turns 91 in January is of course heartbroken. Right now we are worried about her health, the last few weeks she has lost 3 long time and close friends who has passed away. And now her only son has passed before her. I am trying my best to be there both for her and my husband. My 2 youngest kids doesn't understand what is going on, my son was 3 years old when he saw his grandfather last time. And that is now 4 years ago. We will still try our best to make Christmas special for the kids. 

And for to all of you who stops by and read my blog, I want to thank you all for your support. And I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday with your loved ones.

Merry Christmas

Hugs always 

Silje

Yay, it's Friday.

Happy Friday!!

A short post about the nails I did today. I used 2 polishes for my base color, on thumb and ring finger I used White Orchid from Julie G. It's applies really well, I only needed 1 coat. The other fingers I applied 2 coats of OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender. Then I pulled out one of my Bundle Monster plates BM 301, and picked out the lavender stamping polish from Dashica and stamped over the white polish.
Then I used 2 coats of my SpectraFlair topcoat and added some bling to thumb and ring finger nails.
The trick was getting a good picture of the finished manicure, not easy when you have holo and bling on your nails.

Have a great weekend.

Back to stamping.

Yes, I know I haven't done any stamping posts or videos in a while. Not been feeling it the last couple of months. I miss my brother who lost his battle to cancer a few years ago, and when it comes to holidays I always miss my grandparents. It didn't help that I broke my nails twice, so I was back to short stubs.... I hate it when my nails are short. But I guess I just have to kick my self in the butt and start doing my nails again. This Sunday's challenge in AIS is With An Accent Nail. And I was trying to figure out what to do. Then it hit me, lol. I have started to watch Korean TV dramas on hulu.com The first one was Jewel In The Palace/Dae Jang Geum, now I am watching Hwang Jin Yi. And one of the gown the main character is wearing just got my attention, so I decided to do a mani inspired by that.

I used a white Sally Hansen as base color on 4 of my nails and on the ring finger I used SH Insta Dri Rapid Red , I also used Rapid Red as stamping polish for the red flowers and the black French tip I used black stamping polish from Dashica.  The plates used for this look Bundle Monster 318 and Konad M19

Ring finger is like the skirt of her gown, and the other the top with the black ribbon.

                                     

Hope you all have a great week, and thanks for taking your time to read my little blog.

Wanted to do an other manicure again.....

A couple of days ago I got some really sad news from a friend, who had to face something horrible a few months back. The loss of a little baby girl. October is SIDS or Infant Death awareness month. So I felt like I have to share my awareness manicure again in my friend's and the little baby girl's honor. But then after a while I decided to make an other one and also make a youtube tutorial  out of it too. So many nail gurus' have done one for breast cancer, so I tried to figure out what kind of images I wanted to show on my nails to support  Infant Death and SIDS awareness.

This is a collaboration (my first since I started the blog world and youtube) post with Pamela a very sweet lady I met in one of the nail groups I'min on FB. She also wanted to show her support to Infant Death Awareness and SIDS awareness month. Thank you so much, Pamela. I am so blessed I met you in AIS, you're an amazing person that have become a really good friend.
Here's the link to her blogpost and her nails supporting this cause, please go and check it out:
http://nailsoup.pamster.net/2012/10/special-tribute-manicure-sids.html


But I also wanted to add two beautiful poems I found. I hope you will take your time to read them.


Poem 1:
I'm going to tell you something
I hope you'll never know.
I'll tell you how a heart can break
And tears can constant flow.
I lost my baby girl you see, 
An angel in my eyes.
God chose to take her hand one day
And led her to the skies.
But please do not forget my child
She was a person too
And forever she will live 
Inside of me and you.
So, please don't tell me
That time will heal my pain
Because not even time
Can bring her back again.
Just tell me she is happy
In that land way up above
She's snuggled in an angels wings
All wrapped in Mommy's love

Poem 2.
Remembering
by Elizabeth Dent

Go ahead and mention my child.
The one that died, you know.
Don't worry about hurting me further.
The depth of my pain doesn't show.
Don't worry about making me cry.
I'm already crying inside.
Help me to heal by releasing
The tears that I try to hide. 
I am hurt when you just keep silent,
pretending he didn't exist.
I'd rather you mention my child,
Knowing that he has been missed.
You asked me how was I doing.
I say "pretty good" or "fine".
But healing is something ongoing, 
I feel it will take a lifetime. 

To my dear friend, I love you forever and am blessed to have you as a friend. Together we will remember little J forever. This post is also  to my other friend Lin that I showed my support for when I posted this manicure the first time this, is also for your little angel. And anyone who has lost their little sweet babies so sudden, I hope you can find some comfort in these poems.  

A heartbreaking but  beautiful song.

Thanks for taking your time reading this post.

Cloud Atlas Inspired Nails.

I wanted to do these nails after I saw the 5 minute trailer for Cloud Atlas for the first time. I had an idea in my mind but had to figure out  how to get the design onto my nails. After a couple of practice rounds on practice stones and nail lollipops I was ready to do this look on my nails.
If you want to see how I made the base I have the link to that post below.


Now onto the stamping part the lady and the gentleman on the thumb meeting each other, in the trailer they show a lady in a day gown meeting the gentleman that is shown moments before wearing a top hat. The writing on index finger is for the old letters Halle Berry's character is reading  and the half written old journal that the lawyer wrote. And the piano and music keys are the composer. The image of the couple on ring finger is for all the characters falling in love in different ages. And last the ship the lawyer was on when he wrote his journal. I  used plates from three brands Bundle Monster, Cheeky and Dashica.
And the plate I used for each finger: thumb, Dashica SdP 80, index finger BM 311, middle finger BM 207 and CH 31 (picked out single music keys), ring finger Dashica SdP 60 and little finger CH 49 (1 ship from the full nail image). I started out using my Konad polish in Black, but that was too thick on some of the images so I swapped to Dashica's stamping polish in Black.
I had fun doing this one, and I am happy how it turned out.

The background.

Finished look.

Closer look.

Close up of thumb.

And here is the youtube video of the stamping part, I hope you like it.

                                         

I can't wait to see this movie in the theater. My hubby has been watching the trailers like crazy, I have lost count. And he wants to get the soundtrack for this movie, yeah he is hooked on this movie already. LOL. But I can't blame him, of what I have seen this movie is going to make my jaw drop to the floor. Bet it's going to be the big winner of the Oscar's next year. And just in case you haven't seen the 5 minute trailer I added it down below. Enjoy and start drooling, I can't wait, I'll be armed with a drink, popcorn and Milk Duds when I go. And I know hubby is even more exited about this move than I am, so he can't wait either. LOL.

                                  

  Until next time, take care.

Breast Cancer Awareness Nails.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. So time for me to do my Pink Ribbon nails too. I know there are a lot of bloggers who have done the same. I decided to do this in honor of one of my mother's 3 best friends who lost her battle to breast cancer a few years ago. She was an amazing lady, I loved talking to her. So many fond memories with dinner parties with her and her family and our gang.  I know my mother miss her, we talked about her a few weeks ago. Just as my parents she and her husband adopted a child from South-Korea too, a boy. He's a few years older than me, but that was one of the things they had in common. They also worked together for years, and I had the pleasure of working for my mother and her for a few weeks with people with special needs. She had this amazing laugh and her uplifting spirit could turn your day from bad to great.  So this manicure is for you, Aase. We miss you.

For these nails I used China Glaze Dance Baby as base color, 2 coats of my SpectraFlair topcoat, then Essie Miami Nice to stamp and Bundle Monster 321.

My First October Awareness Manicure.

October is awareness month for Breast Cancer, Domestic Violence, Downs Syndrome just to mention a few from a long list. But I wanted to start my October Awareness Month with an other cause that I believe should get as much attention as breast cancer, SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. SIDS is the sudden death of an infant under the age of 1 that can't be explained after a thorough investigation has been conducted, inc a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene and review of the clinical history. Each year SIDS is the cause of death for around 2500 infants a year, in the US alone. Thousands more if you count word wide.

I also decided to do this first for one other reason. Some of you know that I plat a MMORPG Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game  called Final Fantasy XI Online. A bit over 2 years ago my husband and I met a very nice man in the game who has become a very good friend. And we noticed that he would get very quiet when we talked about or little girl who was a newborn at the time. Later we learned from a mutual friend that he lost a baby girl to SIDS. So this manicure is for my friend DM (character initials) and his little princess. And to every parent out there who has lost their little angels to SIDS.

                                                                  http://www.sids.org/

My Ovarian Cancer Awareness Manicure.

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, so I am doing my manicure to support this cause.

Every year 20.000 women in the US get diagnosed with this disease, and about 15.000 die each year of Ovarian Cancer. And that is just in the US alone, just think of how high this number is world wide.... 

For this manicure I used OPI Teal The Cows Come Home as base color, then I applied 2 coats of my topcoat w/SpectraFlair, and Bundle Monster plate 321 and stamped with OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui.

It looks amazing in the sunlight, but is a pain to get the effect on a picture. To end this post I am adding two links:

http://www.ovarian.org/index.php

https://www.ovationsforthecure.org/index.php

Have a good night.

September is here.

This weekend wasn't any fun, I have two kids with really bad colds. And now I guess it's mommy's turn to get sick too. But yesterday my dear husband asked if I could make Pasta E Fagioli soup, you see he loves the one they serve at Olive Garden. So I looked up a recipe that says it's the one from Olive Garden, so I gave it a try. Pulled out my 10 qt pot and started chopping veggies and stirring. Guess that Olive Garden make their own marinara sauce and beef stock, but hubby said it was the closest he had had. And it made him super happy, he's gonna have some yummy lunches with him to work this coming week. Plus we have a few for dinners in the freezer. But it was really yummy with some good bread, tasted really good when you feel like you're getting a cold and there's a thunder storm outside.

Now on to nails.
This Sunday's challenge in AIS was Something you have learned from AIS or Inspired by members in AIS.
A few weeks ago a sweet lady showed us some pictures of some stamping she had done on those glass crafting pebbles you can make into jewelry or magnets. She had this phoenix image on two for earrings, I remember I thought WOW, that's so stunning. And I wanted to do that image on my entry for today. So I did some stamping tests on my nail lollipops, and showed them to hubby. He suggested to add some flames too, so off I went to do some more testing. And then I remembered an other sweet lady in AIS did a youtube video a while ago with flames and skulls. Base color is a white from Sinful Colors, name sticker came off.... For the flames I used 2 BM plates BM 202 & BM 312 and Wet N Wild Club Havana, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Rapid Red & Lightening. Used BM 314 and the phoenix image and Rapid Red and Bold Gold from Maybelline. I added a trail of gold glitter on the red birds and for that I used Orly Too Fab. But it's really hard to see the glitters on the pictures.

Now I am gonna take some cold meds and head off to bed, almost 1 am. Hopefully I can fall asleep even with the dam people next door being loud and drunk outside....

Have a great Labor Day.

Last Day Of Summer.

*Sniffle, sniffle*
Summer is over already, these last weeks have gone by so fast. I feel like I haven't been able to enjoy it, been very hectic the last weeks here. Wish I was back in Long Beach CA, we lived really close to the beach. Loved taking my sandals off and feel that soft sand. Last weekend I wished we were back in CA, my husbands best friend and his girlfriend and the kids had a big gathering on the beach. If we were in CA still we would so have joined them for a day on the beach for BBQ and fun in the sun.
And if I was back home in Norway, we would spend some nice day at my family's cabin by the lake. So nice there, have so many great memories of that place. So many summers of the whole family spending weekends there. My parents have this tradition that every summer they invite the whole gang and my mom's best friend and her family to a crab and shrimp feast. And it is really a feast, my dad will go and get tons of crabs from a local fisherman or big boxes of shrimp. Then there will be salads, yummy breads and spreads and of course great drinks to go with the whole feast. But I think the fondest memories I have from the cabin is when it was my grandparents home for the summer and my brothers and I would run over the fields to visit. And my grandfather would ask us if we could go and pick some blueberries so he could make some blueberry jam and his famous pancakes (the paper thin ones). He made the best pancakes in the world, and with blueberry jam was getting a bit of heaven. Then we would all go down to the lake and have a swim.
Now it's my mother who will ask if you can pick some blueberries and she'll make the pancakes. And yes they are just like my grandfather's. I have lost count of how many of my daughter's friend who has said that my mom makes the best pancakes in the world. And some of them have even said that they wish they were her grandmother. LOL. No, I can't go out and pick fresh blueberries I have to go to Ikea and buy a jar. But it's better than nothing, and then I'll make some too. So lucky that my mom showed me the secret recipe years ago. Not sure f you can call it a secret when it's a cup of this and that and a dash and splash of that. HAHAHA.
Any of you have special family traditions and food you cook with your loved ones in the summer???


Now over to nails, here are the two manicures I've had the last days. I love Party In My Cabana, used two coats and it's stunning. Didn't feel well, so I didn't feel like stamping so I decided to stick some nail stickers on my nails instead. The girl at Kohl's still went WOW when she saw my nails tho. She asked if they were my natural nails. All I thought was Darn, why didn't I stamp my nails???  For my last day of summer mani I tried Bundle Monster 309 for the first time, the full image of the flip flops can be tricky. Having a hard time getting all of the flip flops to transfer to my stamper and then onto my nails. I tried different polishes and was the same, with them. Had no chance with the XL stamper, but got more of the image with my Konad stamper (still not the whole image).  Going to try this plate on some swatches this weekend.

The mani I had a couple of days ago, OPI Party In My Cabana with some nail stickers.

Base color is Color Club Fashion Addict, Bundle Monster 309 stamped with

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

Have a great weekend.

My first test of 2012 Bundle Monster set.

I love the designs on this set, so many cute ones.
They stamp really well, I tried a few images. But these are the ones that are on my
nails now 306 and 317. I stamped with Pure Ice Outrageous over Wet N Wild Though The Grapevine & Black Creme.

 BM 306

BM 317

So what do I think about these plates? Like I said the images are cute and they stamp really well. But I wish Bundle Monster would make their full nail images bigger. They are too small for my nails, and my nails arent even that long right now. Just to show you I will compare the full nail images with the full nail images on one of my Dashica plates. I left the plastic on the BM plate so you can separate the two plates with ease on the pictures. 

Metric: The BM plate is 17 mm in length & 14 mm width. 

Dashica: 20 mm in length & 17 mm in width

BM: 0.66 In in length & 0.55 In in width 

Dashica: 0.78 In in length & 0.66 In in width

I wish Konad and Bundle Monster and other companies who make image plates with images at this size would make them a bit bigger. So us girls who has longer or wider nails can use their plates without double stamping.

But for the price, you're getting an amazing set that works with cute images. For me I think I will use the small images more than the full nail images. Until I get the softer XL stamper it's really hard to double stamp on my curvy nails. I am however ordering a second set to send to my 15 year old daughter, I know her nails aren't as long as mine. So these images will be perfect for her.

Now, I have to start making the chicken fried rice for dinner.

Have a good night!!!

Don't forget to flaunt those nails now.

/hugs

The 2012 Bundle Monster set, MINE!!! And a mini haul.

On Friday 8/3 I ordered my 2012 BM set, I got the normal confirmation mail that it would take 4-7 business days. So here I was hoping I would get it on my birthday. But yesterday 8/6 I went out to check the mail and   my jaw dropped and my heart started racing. Inside the mailbox was the envelope from BM. I ran back inside and opened it right away, and I know I was giggling like crazy. Was so exited that I poured Dr Pepper  in little Bunny's sippy cup and apple juice in my glass..... Lucky I saw what I had done before I handed it to her..... I know. Crazy nail lady. I removed them from the little box they came in and my first thought was: Why did they make the plates smaller? So I went to my image plates and pulled out the other BM set I have and Konad plates. And of course I saw they were the same size, guess that's what you get for being hooked on Dashica plates for so long. You forget how small your round plates are....

So I knew I was almost out of polish remover so I had to go to Rite Aid, so I picked up 3 polishes too.
I got a Sinful Colors and Wet N Wild in white and black to use for swatches. Then I got the Rite Aid brand of 100% Pure Acetone nail polish remover, and it doesn't dry out as much as other brands I have tried. I also picked up an other color of Wet N Wild Megalast polishes. Then of course you can never have enough buffer blocks.

SC Snow Me White, WW Through The Grapewine, Black Creme, BM set, acetone & buffer.

I will be trying out one or two plates of the new set, I just have to decide what images I want to try first.

Guess I'll sleep on it. Almost 2 am here, and I need sleep.

Have a good week!!!

/hugs

Silje

Update on new set from Bundle Monster.

There was some issues with the first  production sample of the new image plate set from BM. So release date is pushed back to end of May or start of June. So cross your fingers that the 2 nd sample set is ok, so new release date won't be pushed back.
But until then here are the pre-views of the plates they have shown us so far. So until then join me and let us all stare and drool at these previews from BM. I can't wait, I want these now......

The bumble bee is cute, and the key is cool. But the rest, didn't wow me like the other plates.

Easter & Christmas

smileys 

Halloween

I just love this one.

Butterflies are cute, so is the cupcake and handbags. But are those baby bottles???

A plate for a foodie like me.

Oh, my love the flipflops.

So nice.

FYI.... Jackpot!!!!

A few years ago I was so lucky to get my hands on a few of the polishes from China Glaze OMG Collection, and it was love at first polish stroke. And since then I have been a holo junkie on a hunt for polishes as stunning as those polishes. But since I loved them so much I used them up in no time, well so I thought. After I saw a really stunning Easter mani photo by a sweet member in the FB group I'm in Adventures In Stamping. She   used a few of the polishes from the same collection to stamp with over black base color. After seeing that picture I had to go and stare at my old OMG bottles. And  then I saw it, my favorite polish from that collection FYI had a tiny bit left in it and it hadn't dried out...... SCORE, JACKPOT, what ever!!! I just had to do a mani with it, so I used Hot For Chocolate as base and Dashica XXL SdP 1 and CG FYI to stamp.
And oh, my it's so pretty. I can't stop staring at my nails, teeeheee. And the best part I still have some left for some more stamping later, YAY!!!
I never used any of these polishes to stamp with before, and I wish I had.... But I didn't want to waste the polish on stamping.... I know, weird.... But if I ever get my hands on any of those polishes again, I will soooo stamp with them. One thing I have noticed it, tricky to get the perfect picture of holo's, right light, angle to get  whole holo effect to show on the photos. Thank goodness for the age of digital cameras, could you imagine snapping pictures with the ones you had to buy film for???? I wonder how many film rolls we would all waste on getting a few perfect pictures. It's like taking pictures of your kids or pets.

Have a great week, and happy stamping!!

Nail Stampin Haul

So I finally decided to get the Bundle Monster plates Set 2. After seeing so many nail bloggers and youtube nail gurus using them I ordered my own set. I am still trying them out, and so far I have noticed some images are better than others. I have had a couple smudge on me and some not getting the whole image on my stamper, and I have only been using Konad Special polishes.
Then I was so tired of damaging my plates with my normal scraper and tired of not getting even scrape off's with my old credit card, so I got the plastic scraper from Konad. And Oh My!!!! I love it it scrapes off the polishes nicely and without damaging my plates. I am getting a couple more for backup later. I also got two more Konad plates and 2 polishes in the princess size and 1 normal sized. I was almost out of my white so I got that in princess size along with Pop Green and a standard bottle in black. The plates I got was M84 and M85 and I just love these two plates. I am so happy I have some more plates to play with now I only need a few more polishes to play with too. I got one so far Essie's Bbf

 Bundle Monster set 2 & Konad M84 and M85

M84, M5, Special Polishes in Pop Green, White & Black

& Plastic scraper.

First BM stamp with BM-206

Revlon Hot forChocolate and Konad special polish pearl grey