I'm so excited to share with you a fun nail diy! First of all, I must apologize for the blurriness of some of these photos. Left-handed Lauren + right-handed camera does not always get perfectly in focus photos. These are probably my favorite nails yet and they're so fun and colorful! I can never keep polish perfect on my nails for very long though as I'm always running around doing random things, so I didn't get to enjoy them very long. After you get the hang of creating this design, it's fairly easy, though time consuming, but I always do it in front of the tv as a relaxing thing to do.
First things first, I'm starting to be obsessed with the Milani brand. I've made it my personal mission in life to own all of their neon laquers because they're so fun and bright. For this design I used the Fresh Teal, Pink Hottie, and Totally 80's shades, as well as their Yellow Whiz fast dry polish. The orange was gifted to me (and at the moment I don't recall the brand, but it's not very good). For the white I used another random polish that I can't recall the brand of. For the black I actually used a Prismacolor premier pen that I had laying around, which is so much easier than black nail polish and a toothpick. For a topcoat I used good ol' Milani again.
Step one: Base coat! First of all, I always paint a clear coat underneath my base color so as not to stain my nail. For a design as crazy as this, you just have to go all out with the color and paint every nail a different one. It's only fitting.
Step two: Draw a curvy line from the middle of your cuticle to about 2/3 down the side of your nail.
Step three: Then draw a smaller curved line down to about the halfway point on the opposite side of your nail.
Step four: Thicken the first line just a bit.
Step five: Then you'll add the next section of the wing by drawing a slightly crooked "U" shape.
Step six: Create two more "U" shapes, making each one just a little bit smaller.
Step seven: Following the connecting line of the last two "U" shapes, you'll draw a slight diagonal line to the 1/3 point of the remaining negative space.
Step eight: Then draw two curving lines on either side of the diagonal line.
Step nine: Fill in the remaining space, and add polka dots!
Step ten: Then simply add your top coat. If you go the sharpie/pen route like I did, there will be a bit of bleeding from the pen reacting with the top coat. Once the top coat dries, just touch up a bit on your color, add another top coat, and you'll be good to go!
If you have any questions about this tutorial, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or shoot me an email.
Have a great day!
Hello all. I just arrived back in town from a weekend in the wild jungles of Alaska. I'll do a more in-depth post about my adventures at a later date, but for now I just wanted to give you a quick update on myself, Introvert's Introduction, and the month of August (don't worry, nothing too horrible!). As most of you know, the internet at my house was shut off (but the reason I'm able to be on the internet now is because my dad bought a little bit of extra usage for emergencies, such as checking email and blogging). I should be back to normal bloggy-ness by August 10th, when our new plan starts. On a less drastic note for you and a more drastic one for me, my phone is showing signs of biting the dust (ie the screen is a black box of death). I'm trying to do some pressure mechanics (which, in laymen's terms, means hitting it against the nearest hard object), but thus far it hasn't worked. The only thing that it will effect as far as your end goes is my instagram, which, if you know me at all, is a pretty big deal for me. I'm scheduled to join the iPhone family (I'll finally get all the cool apps) when I fly down for school on the 27th, so I'll see all you instagrammers then!
So yeah. I think that's about all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful week! How was your weekend?
dress: handmade // shirt: target // tights/shoes: thrifted
It seems these days that literally every person I know is getting engaged. Kids younger than me, kids from my class, it stopped being funny at around the tenth couple when three different couples got engaged within a four day time span. Now it's just really annoying (except I am excited for one because she's one of my photo friends and she's actually been dating her guy for a considerable amount of time and they both -appear- to be prepared for marriage). I'm not even twenty yet and people younger than me are getting hitched? Staaahp. But don't worry, I'm not gonna turn this into a complaining post. I save those kinds of things for tumblr, hehe. It can easily be said that I won't get married until I have enough money to pay for such an event and subsequently keep myself alive for at least a couple of months. Also having a job that actually pays might be a good idea too. I don't think anyone (not even me) realizes how hard it is until they actually tie the knot and actually have to live with someone else and all their flaws. But flaws are part of character, and I also think marriage would be a grand adventure! Doing fun things with your best friend all the time? Sign me up! But at the same time, don't sign me up just yet. I know I'm not ready for it. I'll just suffer in silence while everyone else around me gets married.
On a totally different note, I recently submitted this outfit to H&M's 50 states of style contest on instagram, and I would love it and be forever in your debt if you liked my photo here! If by some miracle I actually won the regional section, you can guarantee there will be a fun giveaway for those who liked my photo! Thank you so so much! (Also, I apologize in advance, but I'll be encouraging people to "like" the photo every spare moment I get, haha.)
I hope you have a great day!
Today I am very excited to introduce you to Tieka, the beautiful blogger behind Selective Potential! She kindly allowed me to interview her, and it was so fun getting to know a little bit about her, her love of lighthouses and seasons, and of course her personal style! I love how she often incorporates bright colors into her ensembles and loves to be matchy matchy with her surroundings.
First things first, can you tell just a little bit about yourself?
Well, my name is Tieka and I run the blog, Selective Potential! I graduated with my BFA in digital media and I work full-time as a graphic designer in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In my free-time when I'm not working or blogging, I spend time with my boyfriend, Eric, and our puppy, Winny. We listen to a lot of music, play music, travel around the state a lot and watch a lot of movies! I also am in love with my mint-green scooter, lighthouses + confetti cake. :)
You've been blogging for a pretty long time (almost four years now!). What has been the craziest or strangest thing that has come from blogging?
I've had some pretty crazy experiences - all good! But one of the oddest ones was... I was checking out at an Urban Outfitters in Chicago. The girl looks at me and smiles and goes, "Tieka, really? Do you really need another one of these cardigans?" I was absolutely stunned! It turned out she was a blog reader and knew I had already owned two of the same cardigan from UO. Haha! I died laughing. It was surreal to be noticed in public, especially in a big city four hours away from home!
I've been loving your lighthouse series! What's your favorite lighthouse you've visited so far?
I absolutely love all of the lighthouses in Michigan. One of my favorite ones has to be Big Sable Point in Ludington, Michigan though. You have to walk two miles to get there (so rare!) and it's black/white striped and so unique. Plus it's on a bay, so it's facing water on the west and north side of it. I love it!
What's your favorite outfit, and why? (hard question, I know. :)
One of my favorite outfits of all time was from a post called "An old silo". It was when the Delightful Dozen was in full swing, and we all styled this adorable floral skirt from Julie of Orchid Grey. I just thought the patterns went together so well + I felt so great wearing it! I ended up spotting a picture of Susan's inspiration board from ModCloth and this outfit was posted to it. I was so flattered!
You're very talented at matching outfits to seasons (such as this one.) Do you have any advice for people who want to dress to match the season?
It's honestly pretty easy! I just think of the best parts of each season and dress for the place I'm going. Like, I knew I was going to be taking photos at the pink trees, so I grabbed pink items from my closet and [saw] how they worked together. Typically if you're dressing to match nature, the outfit will probably go together pretty well. If nature intended it, well then... it must work! When I think of spring, I obviously think of florals, pastels, bright colors. In autumn, I'm constantly dressed in burnt orange, browns, etc. Winter and summer are a bit trickier, but it gives you more freedom to perhaps dress outside the seasonal box?
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want to have with you? (Other than Eric and Winny of course.)
Well, if I had Wifi, 1) I'd for sure be bringing my Macbook Pro - ha! Netflix, Internet, The Sims 2? That'd be pretty perfect. I'd be entertained for months! 2) Burt's Bees chapstick. I cannot live a day without it. 3) An unlimited supply of daily contact lenses. I have the worst eyesight in the world and I absolutely loathe wearing my glasses. ;)
What's one style or type of clothing that you wish you could pull off?
Well, this is going to sound odd, but clothes that require small boobs. Haha! Like strapless dresses, or deep v-necks, sweetheart necklines, etc. I've always had such a hard time pulling those off and there are so many items that I've had to put back on the rack because they just don't fit my boobs!
I recently wrote an article on confidence and happiness here on Introvert's Introduction. Do you have any tips for someone to become more confident with themselves?
It's all about accepting yourself, to be honest. And if you aren't willing to accept yourself, you have to be willing to change. And in order to change, you have to accept that you'll be working really hard. I felt completely self-conscious before I lost 35 pounds. I refused to buy any type of cute clothing that'd show off my body in any way, or draw attention to myself. I wasn't willing to accept myself in that way, so I had to work really hard to change. And even after I lost all of the weight, I had to really work hard at finally "accepting" myself! But once I did, I felt confident enough to do anything! It's something I still struggle with ALL the time, but on the days you can accept yourself and who you are (and not compare yourself to others), you'll feel so much happier.
Thank you again so much for letting me interview you! It was so fun getting to know just a little bit about your life and some of your insights.
And be sure to check out Tieka's beautiful blog here and show her some love.
Have a great day everyone!
*photos (copyright 2013 Selective Potential) are used with permission.
I'm mostly uploading this to say that I'm quitting my 30 day self portrait challenge. My internet got shut off (it took great efforts for me to upload this at work) and it won't be turned on for about two weeks. I hate not posting every day when I'm doing an every day project, so I'm calling it quits. Also I wasn't really having fun with it. At this point in my life, I want to focus on quality and not quantity, and that will be better done if I don't force shoots and allow myself to shoot other people.
On the upside, I'm going on a three day backpacking trip into the wilds of Alaska and will be visiting a ton of cool places. You can expect a couple photos from that.
It's time for me to quit making mediocre photographs.
That being said, I still want to work on the list I made for myself at the beginning of the challenge, so you'll still see a lot of fun behind the scenes stuff and before and afters and whatnot. In fact, I have two processing videos in the works!
As far as the internet thing goes, you don't have to worry about that either. I thankfully had a few outfits all ready to go (still have to write the posts though), so I can do all those internet type things at work (the only thing that's an issue is uploading from my laptop). So you'll still get your fun daily dose of Introvert's Introduction!
I hope you all have a fantastic day. :)
