OMG! I AM BACK!

I finally have my computer up and running again since I`ve moved about two weeks ago. A very long MIA, I know. Anyway, out of curiosity, I went to dig up when I bought Snowball (which would be in my books, his birthday). Turns out his birthday is on December 12, 2011 :) I know, I`m really silly!

Nothing is incredibly new for me, but I am taking summer courses which isn`t too bad. Here`s a short list of homework due this week already:

• Research paper for PSYC 217
• Debate powerpoint for KIN 161

I think we`re nearly through half of the semester and course material, which is nothing short of mind blowing to me. My midterm is next week, and I`m a little flustered and bewildered. I haven`t felt like we`ve jammed too much material into the last week so I can`t imagine what will be on the exams. Well, I`m back :’)

As for my nail posts, they`re all on instagram/twitter!

(via l0llercoaster)

I have finally finished moving!

Of course that means I’ve been unpacking for the last little bit as much as I can since I am still missing a bit of furniture :’) All the same, I’m really happy with the new place, and it’s cured my insomnia. Isn’t that amazing? I apologize for the lack of posting, trying to get my life back in order first haha! I have yet to set up my computer, so this post from my iPhone will have to do for now :)

Be back soon!

(Source: felix-tha-cat, via cutesecrets)

I spent almost all of today packing my life up into boxes..

Thankfully, I didn`t have to do it alone. So it wasn`t all work, and the task became a bit of fun and laughter too. On the surface, my room still looks the same, but cleaner. We conquered the underside of my bed with all the creepy crawlies, and all of my drawers (besides the ones with studying material in it) have been cleared out. So if you open one of them, you get the empty-ass drawers you see in TVB shows that make you wonder “how the fuck do you keep your desk so empty of shit, and all you have is like one little box?” We definitely did a lot more today than I thought we would, and thanks a million Sely! This is definitely going to help me study and not freak after finals :)

But of course, I accumulated a pile of clothes and stuff that I want to get rid of, but it`s not like rubbish, just stuff I don`t need/use anymore. Just going to ask a few friends to come by and look at the stuff and see if they`ll find any of it useful or interesting, cause Sely walked away with a new jacket, a new hoodie and a new rack for makeup/stationary or something. There`s this thing about me, where I`d rather give away my stuff to my friends than donate it, cause then at least I know where it`s all going. Am I weird?

Despite the chaotic state of my room.. We still managed to watch the game and watch the Nucks win game four! WOOOT SCHNEIDER, *DREAMY SIGH* The stress is not over yet, we still need game five! But we can do it! Until then, back to the books for me. I really wish finals were over already, but I think the worst part for me is I haven`t even started. To all those suffering with me, in the words of a bestie, “GLHFDD.”

(Source: Flickr / stodmyk, via elynnnnn)

FINALLY! I used this ‘manicure’ to get the hang of water marbling. Despite watching so many youtube tutorials, I was still never able to do it. I figured out a few tips that should probably have been made more clear in those tutorials! Hope they will help someone out there who has been struggling to ‘master’ marbling like I have.

First, which polishes I actually used. This might get confusing because I tried a few different ones, but bare with me. I do explain which nails I used them for and why I used so many different ones:

• Fiercely Fiona by OPI (pale yellow with a tint of green)
• White by JOE (the average opaque white)
• Planks A Lot by OPI (a muted purple)
• A Grape Fit! by OPI (a bright purple)
• Needs Sunglasses? by OPI (a bright yellow)
• Secret Peri-wink-le by China Glaze (a periwinkle)
• Angel Blue by Nabi Nail Lacquer (a more purple periwinkle)

The reason I used so many colors.. I did not plan this manicure out very well, and began with a manicure using Fiercely Fiona, which is a pale yellow. The colors I intended to use for water marbling were Fiercely Fiona, Planks A Lot and Secret Peri-wink-le. I later discovered that this yellow base was a bad choice, because as you can see in photo 1 on the thumb, Planks A Lot really doesn`t show up. It almost makes the yellow a sort of.. Tan color which still looks alright but isn`t what I wanted. So I swapped to a few other colors that are more opaque and more bright to try for some success. Here are a few tips for water marbling, I have six :)

Tip 1: Keep your water at room temperature. This might sound kind of hard to do, but it`s actually really easy if you fill your cup/bowl/container with warm water, and just let it sit for a period of time. Some people have mentioned that the material of your container might have to do with it, but I`ve seen people use plastic and styrofoam cups and marble without a problem. I`ve been using a ceramic bowl that no one uses for my marbling.

Tip 2: Keep your tools clean of polish. It messes up your design when you don`t wipe off your toothpick or whatever you`re using that`s collected some polish at the end. What you use doesn`t matter. There`s the usual orange stick that you can use; I used a toothpick and I`ve seen people use a needle. Just anything with a point on it will do for making your design, and cleaning the surface of the water.

Tip 3: Don`t try to be cheap with your polish!!! This was the one thing that kept messing up my attempts at water marbling. If you have seen tutorials, you may have noted just how many drops it takes to do 1-2 nails (which is about enough drops to paint my entire hand and half of the other). But I always tried to drop sparingly and couldn`t understand why it wasn`t working.. When I tried dropping more drops, I created a thicker concoction on the surface of the water that wasn`t going to dry on me too quickly. Also take note that if you`re using a fast-drying nail polish, this will affect your marbling-success too ;)

Tip 4: Use the appropriate base color! As I mentioned in the beginning, I initially used Fiercely Fiona as a base color and this messed with the colors I was using. As you may be able to tell, in photo 1 I removed the yellow and used White instead, and the colors showed up much easier. So after three attempts at water marbling, what I have learned is that when you are using cream colors (like this manicure), a white base is best. When you are using a different finish, for example metallic colors, you want to use the lightest metallic shade. This is just what I have noticed works best.

Tip 5: Control the momentum of your drops! I think one of the tutorials that I watched informed me that if your polish sinks, then it might just be the polish that you`re using. I actually notice that it has more to do with the height from where I drop my polish. The higher you drop your polish, the more speed it gains in it`s fall and it will break through the surface of the water rather than land gently on it. So it might not be the polish that you are using!

Tip 6: Clean up water surface easier by blowing on it. I notice that sometimes it takes a while to clean up the surface after I`ve dipped my finger in. Blowing on the surface of the water will dry the remaining polish, which makes it easier to pick up all in one go instead of swiping your toothpick in there ten times.

Overall, this was a trial and error kind of manicure, that actually turned out looking pretty good. Definitely my best attempt so far, and I will be attempting this again! I`m also trying to put more photos of each manicure so you guys can get a better idea of what they look like. Photo 1 is a photo of my left hand, photo 2 is a photo of my right hand and photo 3 is a comparison of my thumbs :) I plan to water marble a lot later to get the hang of this!

Anyway, I hope you found this post helpful :)

Woooooot, last day of classes complete. The day is absolutely gorgeous today; perfect weather for UBC’s Blockparty! (I am not going, since the tickets were too expensive by the time I decided I wanted to go) I finished and handed in my paper yesterday and decided to give myself some down time, doing nothing at all…

Besides painting my nails! I think I finally have water marbling down to the basics and will continue to experiment with colors and polishes before creating a post to explain some important things that make it easiest to do. (Possibly do a photo tutorial, I`ve been meaning to try to do one of those) Speaking of nails, I`ve been working on those nail posts, first one for the next few days should be up later tonight or tomorrow, toooodo!

Been checking out the summer positions on campus, and I`m excited, there are so many positions opening up, and I`m hoping, more to come! Unfortunately, I can`t do the ones that go for the full summer session, since I won`t be here for a chunk of it D: But I still have hope! Now I will be out to enjoy the gorgeous sunny day!

(via somehowshifted)