Wait, Rebecca Does Nail Tutorials Now?

     Well, no, not in general, that would be terrible (I have a near perfect record of messing up my nails before they dry every time I paint them), but I was having a glitter-fit last night, so yeah, just this once.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it's basically an ombre thing, with the glitter solid near the base of the nail, and gradually fading to just barely sprinkled on towards the tip.

Really blurry close up.  Hey, I never said I was good at taking pictures!

The materials needed.  Just glitter and clear nail polish!

      The thing about clear nail polish is that dries faster than regular nail polish, and also, because it's clear, if you do mess it up, you probably won't be able to tell.  In other words, even I can use it.
 
     The first step is to mix your glitter on a paper plate.  Of course, you could just use one color, but that would label you as a super boring person, and who wants to be that?  I used pink and gold, because I love pink and gold.  It reminds me of rose gold, which is the prettiest kind.

     Now, once you've mixed them, one finger at a time, paint the nail and, holding it over the plate so it doesn't get everywhere, sprinkle the glitter on over the base.  After that you may want to sprinkle it really lightly over the rest of the nail, but I found that it scattered enough that I didn't usually have to in order to get the look I wanted.  By the time both hands are done, the base coat on the first hand should be dry, and you can give it a topcoat to keep the glitter where it's supposed to be.  I actually gave it another topcoat after the first one dried just to be extra secure.  It's doing a great job of staying put!

     Because I said that I did it because I was already having a glitter-fit, you may have been wondering what it was I did to get into it.  Well, BWSC (my favorite conference) has a tradition that a couple students started before my time, of people sticking clothespins on each other, and it's great fun, and usually they just have quotes, or jokes, or random fun things to say on them, but this year I decided to cover mine in glitter instead!  I used more or less the same technique (base, glitter, two layers of glaze) as for the nails, except that I used a glue and water mixture instead of clear nail polish, and coated them instead of sprinkling them in glitter.

Just a Little Exultation

     THE PATTERN ARRIVED!  Ahem, unless you've been following my recent strain of posts, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  I am currently preparing to make the Portside Travel Set from Grainline Studios.  Except I'll probably just make the duffel bag to start with, but we'll see.

The back of the booklet.  I'm pretty excited to get started!

The instructions seem to be quite clear, although it's a little hard to really get into your head what's going on with any pattern unless you're actually doing it.

      So I'll probably be going to get the supplies in another couple weeks or so, but in the meantime, keep voting on that poll on the sidebar for your favorite color scheme!  Also, I would just like to point out, to anyone who may be interested, that I'm blowing Maggie out of the water in our sibling rivalry.  Eheh.

COLOR CHOOSING TIME!

     I have officially bought the pattern for my latest project, and I would imagine it will get here within a week or so, therefore, NOW Y'ALL GET TO HELP ME PICK THE COLORS!  I've come up with several color options (along with descriptions of how I'd use them), and you get to vote in the poll on the side!  Of course, it will partially depend on what fabric I can find, but I'll do my best!  I can't guarantee that I'll follow the majority opinion, but given that I like all the options, I agree to at least consider it.  IT'S GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!  Okay, let's get started.

1.  In this color scheme, I would be using black for the bottom half, some black and white pattern for the top (I was thinking some kind of abstract floral.  Feel free to chip in an opinion in the comments!), and a solid hot pink lining.

2.  With these colors, the bottom would, again, be black, and the lining solid grapefruit pink, but the top would be polka dotted.  If you vote for this one, please tell me in the comments whether you think black with white polka dots, or white with black polka dots would look better.

3.  Black on the bottom, black and white stripes on top (wide stripes, I think), and red with white polka dots for the lining

4.  From here on out, all the whites look a little gray, but trust me, they're supposed to be white.  Hey look!  Finally one without black!  This color scheme would have navy blue on the bottom, navy blue and white stripes on the top (again, kind of white stripes), and a solid yellow lining.

5.  Ugh, stinky gray!  Everything looks a little darker than it's supposed to here, actually.  Here I would be using an orange bottom, an orange and white chevron top (That's probably Maggie's favorite choice, just because she loves chevron.  Don't click on that link, her blog is terrible.  Just kidding it's really good, but still don't click on it.), and turquoise lining.

6.  It's a little hard to tell here, but that color on the left is brown.  I've always dreamed of having a tower bedroom with mint green wallpaper with brown polka dots, and that would be the primary fabric here!  The bottom half would be solid brown, and the lining light pink.

7.  I love purple, so I couldn't just make a list without ANY purple options!  Envision, if you will, a purple bottom, narrow purple and white stripes for the top, and a mint green lining.

8.  Strawberry lemonade is one of my favorite color schemes that there are, so obviously I had to consider that for my first ever really cool traveling bag.  Here, I would be using this raspberry sorbet-ish shade of pink for the bottom, ideally finding a pink, yellow, and white pinstriped fabric and using that vertically for the top, and using solid yellow for the lining.

9.  Ooh, watermelon!  If I used this color scheme, I would be putting green on the bottom half (I haven't decided yet which shade of green to use, so if you vote for this option, tell me in the comments which you like better!), a pinstripe of all four colors in the above palette, also vertical (keep in mind, that this is an idealized image, and it will also depend on what fabric I can find), and lining it with solid pink.

     Okay, now you have all of my color schemes, go vote!  The poll will be open for two weeks, but that's not an excuse to procrastinate, it's just an excuse to vote once a day, and give you more time to get as many people as possible to vote.  Thank you all for your input!

Duffel Bag Project

     As you are all most likely aware from my last post, I love sewing.  I've thought for a long time that I should blog about some of my sewing projects, but I never think of it until after I've finished the project, and then it just seems like a dum-dum-head thing to do, because I wouldn't have any in-progress pictures.  I also keep thinking that I ought to blog more (not least because Maggie recently surpassed me in pageviews.  If you click on that link, I'll kill you.), but can't think of anything  good to blog about!  However, I just recently decided on my next sewing project, and I want y'all to keep me accountable and make sure I finish it!

Thread Theory

Four Square Walls

Stones Throw on Kollabora

Effortless Attention

    I've been pining over the Portside Travel Set for months now, after seeing so many beYOOtiful versions around, so I finally decided to make it!  I haven't bought the pattern yet, as I'm waiting to figure out whether it's a paper version that gets sent by snail mail (preferable), or one that must be printed out at home, but I hope to get it, and get started on it, soon!  I don't know my color scheme yet, so any suggestions on that would be very helpful!  I'm thinking maybe black on bottom, some black and white pattern on top, and a hot pink lining, but K Beff thinks I would get tired of it, and she may be right.  I think it's probable that the hot pink would help me avoid that, though.
      My goal is to get it done before my summer traveling starts (So if you want to see it in person, come to BWSC!  Oh, I'm sorry, was that an accidental plug for the best conference in the world?  Nope!  It was an ON PURPOSE plug for the best conference in the world!), so it's y'all's job to make sure I stay on track, and harass me if it seems to be taking too long.  I will try to post about my progress periodically, and especially when it's finished.  SO MAKE SURE YOU'RE DOING YOUR JOB!  See ya!