Fall Fun Series: Colours of Fall

Those colours coming from Fall leaves, of course, which – wonder of natural wonders that I’d probably have to be a scientist to understand – are still clinging to the trees in my part of the global woods, weeks (and one nasty little snowstorm) beyond when they should have long skipped town. This is probably some evil portend of impending environmental doom, but I’ll take it when the view, both on my nails and off the balcony, is this spectacular.

Still, it’s hard to deny that winter is indeed on its way, especially when you compare today’s view across the Ottawa River with one from two weeks ago (cue The Byrd’s Turn! Turn! Turn!)

 

The Impression That I Get (31DC2016)

Day 27’s always-daunting theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge was artwork, and so I thought I’d simply whip up these very Impressionistic nails – you know, just dash off my interpretation of one of the Masters hard at work (in this case Monet.)  Nuthin’ to it!

But actually, aside from a bit of a time and a lot of patience in wrangling about 15 different bottles of nail polish, these nails were not that difficult.  Best of all, I think they’re full-on Monets – all right at a distance, but a big old mess up close.  And considering the source on that bit of wisdom (Cher Horowitz of Clueless) I’m feeling quite positive about my first attempt at art forgery. 😉

Children of the Huh?

Right, so these nails are…well, I don’t know what these nails are, actually! This manicure started off life as depicting a shrouded path meandering through the woods as the night sky twinkles prettily above – that’s that business going on on my middle two fingers. But owing to my amazingly inexpert tree work, those jagged black silhouettes look more like sinister, broken-off cornstalks, and now we’re back in Stephen King territory again.

Anyhow, I had just finished this wuh? of a manicure and was disappointed that it had turned out nothing like I had intended. And I was actually just about to remove it and start again when I remembered that in one of nail blogging’s weirder little ironies, the manicures I dislike are nearly always the ones that get the biggest, most positive response, so go figure. We’ll see how this one plays out then!

Leaf Me Be!

Because I ate far too much for Thanksgiving supper (last night’s official and this evening’s almost-better leftovers) and I might need to go and be temporarily comatose for a bit. I’m sure you understand. 😉 So no post-dinner leaf walks for me this evening, but when there’s this sort of pretty right outside your windows, you don’t need to stray from your couch (even if you could after eating all those mashed potatoes)! Bonus!

Aurora Borealis

Here’s a small lesson in why you should never overthink things. I’ve had the idea for these Aurora Borealis nails simmering away on the back burner of my mind for an eternity now, because I rather incorrectly assumed that they were going to be super difficult. A galaxy manicure background AND what I thought was going to be some labour-intensive watercolour-type work? Count. Me. Out.

Then I actually took stock of the nail art tools and techniques I had at my disposal, and realized that I was needlessly fretting. That galaxy manicure background? As easy as swiping on a single coat of Enchanted Polish’s Instant Galaxy, a holographic glitter topper that makes every dark polish it touches look like the twinkling night sky. And as for the watercolour work I was contemplating for the hazy, diffuse look of the Northern Lights themselves, I decided my free-handed colour-blending was already pretty perfect – no need to involve excess brushes and acetone and what’s sure to be a lot of swearing if we don’t need to, right? So fret not, nail art enthusiasts (or at least fret less) – sometimes even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles turn out to be nothing but tiny little anthills of annoyance once you really get down to it. You’ve got the power!