She’ll Be Comin’ ‘round

 

 

It’s taken a lot of thought, but I think I’ve figured out what I want to do blogging wise. 

Everyone has been super supportive, and I’ve been really glad to hear from you, but it’s actually a little chat I had with my sister, who is also a writer as well as my co-authoress, that really clinched the matter!
I just mentioned it to her in passing, but she really laid it out for me. 

She very sweetly encouraged me to keep at it, because she enjoys my blog{!! ♥ }, and she thinks I should keep it up.  Plus, she reminded me in a very timely comment that sometimes it doesn’t matter how frequently or non-frequently I might post, it’s the quality of the content that matters.  Like on Youtube, if the posters there take the time to post quality videos that are interesting to them and to their users, people are much more likely to appreciate that work, rather than someone who may churn out a video everyday, but doesn’t take the time to make quality content.

That, plus your very reassuring comments make me feel that if I do keep posting on DT!, it doesn’t matter if I stick to any sort of schedule, but focus on posting when I can/feel like it. 

It may be twice a week, it might be twice a month.  I honestly don’t know right now, but I promise that I will try to make every post worth reading.  I think it’s going to be fun that way, don’t you?

xox,

bonita

P.S.  ~ This isn’t a proper outfit post ~ more like the daily co~ordinate or something….  Anyway, if I do these types of quick clicks, I won’t put up a list of the clothes that I am wearing.  If you do want to particularly find out about a certain item, just let me know in the comments and I’ll fill in the details.  
> __ <

Wordless Wednesday ~ 3rd July Ed.

    

    

xox,

bonita

Wordless Wednesday ~ 2nd June Ed.

    

    

xox,

bonita

How to ~ A Quick & Easy French Manicure Tutorial

Hi everyone!  Today I want to show you a cool trick I used the other day to do a French manicure by using a rubber band.   It’s really simple, and makes fiddly French tips sooo much easier!   To do this tutorial you will need:

• Nail polish ~ I used BYS Nail Enamel - 02 French Pink, N.Y.C. Color – Blue Bird, Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Top & Base Coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat.
• An elastic band; I personally think that a thin rubber band is better than a thick one, but that’s up to you.

Really simple right?  So let’s get started.

   Step 1:  Prepare your nail base.  I wanted a two-tone manicure, so I painted my nails pastel pink first.  Make sure your polish or base coat has dried thoroughly before proceeding to Step 2. 

   Step 2:  Stretch the rubber band over the top of your nail, placing it where you want the French tip to end.

  Step 3:  Holding the band in place with your other fingers, paint the tip of your nail. 

   Step 4:  Release the rubber band one side at a time and take it off your nail being careful not to smudge the wet polish.  Rinse and repeat. 

 
Extra Tip: The pinky nail is the hardest one to do, so here are some pictures of how I held the band down.  Also, I found that if you accidentally made the tip too short, you can re-lay the rubber band down lower on your nail and paint the tip again.  It works really well!

 

Step 5:  Coat your manicure with a top coat for extra protection and enjoy your cute nails.  ᵔᴗᵔ

xox,

bonita

P.S.  ~  I used a toothpick to dot a heart on the bottom corner of my thumb nail.  Just in case you were wondering where it came from.   ; 3

The Nail Art Times

 

~ *  Enjoying the BYS Matte Aqua nail polish & the best application technique I have ever seen!  This is with no clean up whatsoever!! I blogged about it here: Nail Art ~ Blue Lagoon * ~

~ * Chickadee manicure with Prêt-A-Polish in C'est La Vie using Konad Plate m11 * ~

~ * My latest polish haul ~ four BYS polishes. L to R: 05 Light Purple, 03 Gold Glitter, 02 French Pink, 10 Silver Glitter.  Totally unimaginative names, really cute colours!

BYS are well known in the nail world for having a great lacquer at a fantastic price.  For instance, these polishes were $4.00 AUD each; I brought all four for the price of one bottle of Revlon nail lacquer.  Sweet!  Plus, don’t you just LOVE the leopard print lids??  I usually pass on leopard print, it’s not my style, but I am LOVING these.  I had to buy them as soon as I spotted them.  * ~

~ * The Gold Glitter in action ~ I would have to say that it’s no where near as impressive as I would have liked, but the three different sizes of glitter is nice and I think that if you layered it over another colour, this polish would really pop. * ~

xox,

bonita

Konad Nail Art Tutorial

 

Pretty nails! > w <

~ * ♥ * ~  The finished manicure  ~ * ♥ * ~

Polish Details:  N.Y.C. Color in Redhead 

Top Tip:  Use a top coat over the Konad to make the nail art last longer.  You want to be super careful applying a top coat though, because it is very easy to smear the designs.  I find if you use a big blob of top coat and only stroke over each part of the nail once, the designs stay reasonably intact.  My favourite top coat is Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat.  You can buy it at supermarkets, pharmacies, or online here.   

I have listed everything I used in the video for easy reference.  You can find everything you need regarding the stamping kit at wowsocool.com. A basic starter kit would involve:

~  a stamper and scraper {which you can buy together}; make sure you get the double sided stamper kit as the smaller side can be really useful for transferring smaller designs with precision.  
~  a stamping/design plate
~  a Konad polish

Other useful tools:

~  Nail polish remover
~  Cotton pads for removing nail polish
~  Paper towel, newspaper, anything that can get messy and protect the surface you are working on

I hope the tutorial explains the technique of stamping nail art clearly for you.  If you have any further questions please feel free to put them as a comment or email me bonita{at}bdotdepictions.com.  > ω <

xox,

bonita

P.S. ~ I have a dressage and show jumping competition on Sunday, so I shall be away this weekend.  However, I hope you have a good one, and I shall be back on Tuesday with a thrift haul vlog! : D

Quick Share ~ Top 5 Nail Tips

Jaci from You’ve Got Nail is very knowledgeable and has gorgeous nails so when she gives out her 5 top tips for keeping your nails in tip~top shape you know I am going to sit up and listen!  My personal favourite piece of advice is to stop using your nails as tools, i.e. don’t pick at sticky tape, your other nails, use them like a screw driver….  Okay, so the last two crimes are my very own, { –___-‘ } so that just goes to show how badly I treat them.  Well, no longer!   For more tips please check out the rest of her post. 

Top 5 Nail Tips

One of the most common questions I get asked about my manicures is how I maintain my nails.  What tools do I use?  What techniques do I employ?  What secret witches brew do I use to get my cuticles soft.


Really, I have no secrets.  I’ve just found methods and techniques that work for me.  Today, I will be sharing with you guys my Top 5 Nail Tips for keeping your nails looking their very best...

xox,

bonita

Nail Art ~ Blue Lagoon

Before we get to the good stuff I just had to share this amazing diagram I found on Pintrest yesterday.  And the best thing about this is that it works!  I used the technique it depicts when I did this manicure and proceeded to paint the neatest job I have ever managed to achieve…   See ~

And that’s before the tidy up! 

Top Tip:  For the best tutorial on cleaning up a manicure that I ever come across go here.

~ * ♥ * ~ 
On my nails:

~  BYS Polish in Matte Aqua
~  Konad Plate m80 & m40

~ * ♥ * ~

I am really loving solid cream polishes at the moment. This lovely blue by BYS is more of a sky or bluebird blue rather than an aqua ~ so it’s a bit misnamed in my opinion, but it’s still a gorgeous colour.  And as always, any excuse to add a bit of sparkle to my nails in the form of these tiny deco gems is more than welcome!

I really enjoy creating nail art ~ there is something about the small, temporary canvases that are your finger nails that holds a strong appeal to the artist in me.  I am not sure whether it’s the limited space, or the myriad of different colours you can use, or the multitude of looks that you can create, or the fact that you can start anew any time you like. 

Either one of those reasons are good enough for me ~ I like to give myself a manicure whenever I can{which isn’t always as often as I would like these days!}  It is somewhat of weekly ritual now, so of course my polish collection is slowly expanding!  I am keeping my eye out for a good light purple polish, because I don’t have one yet.  I am really craving lilacs and duck egg teals, and of course you can never go wrong with fairy floss pink.  Pastels are great for spring and I think they work really well with a vintage wardrobe as you can see from this delightful 1950s Revlon ad. 

What are your favourite colours to splash on your nails?

xox,

bonita  

Made it!!

So I managed to create something every day for the 30 Days of Creativity Challenge.  I am soooo surprised and happy that I did it!   I seriously had my doubts, because as you already know, Theodore arrived on Day 3 of the 30 Days.  

Having a new baby sure made it even more challenging than it already was, but I did do it!  Okay, I will admit I posted a lot of the stuff the day after I made it, and some times I had to do a catch up and do two or three things in one day, but I still did it and that’s what counts in the end. 
^  U  ^    Here are some more of my projects ~

~* ♥ * ~  Resin daisies glued onto disc earring findings  ~* ♥ * ~

~* ♥ * ~  Nail Art using Konad plates m59 & m71  ~* ♥ * ~

~* ♥ * ~  Pearl beads threaded onto jewellery wire, finished with an ivory bow  ~* ♥ * ~

And last but not least ~ the Day 30 project….

I made it!  Yay!

xox,

bonita

P.S.  ~  If you want to see all of my 30 Days of Creativity projects I have pictures up on Pinterest.  You can find them here.

Day 22 of 30… It’s a long road.

I thought I would do an update on how I am going with the 30 Days of Creativity challenge. 

So far it’s been pretty fun. I have gotten some projects done that I have been wanting to do for a while and I have also done a few things that I haven’t been planning/that were not on my list.

Yes, being the chronic list maker that I am, I made a list of thirty {Well, really twenty~nine, as the last one sort of does not count.  You’ll see what I mean in a moment.} things that I could do for the 30 Days. 

I think that there are a lot of fun things to do and I have only written down a few ideas.  I do not think that I will actually get to do everything as I have only crossed off a few things and I have repeated a few others, but that’s okay.  So far it has been really cool to participate in this challenge ~ it is my first time to be involved in anything like it, and I am really enjoying it!

Here are some pictures of finished projects:

~* ♥ * ~  Amigurumi Bunny Broach  ~* ♥ * ~

~* ♥ * ~  Crocheted rainbow baby mittens for Theodore  ~* ♥ * ~

~* ♥ * ~   Weekly manicure and nail deco: Mode Cosmetics Polish in Runway  ~* ♥ * ~

xox,

bonita

P.S.  ~  If you want to see all of my 30 Days of Creativity projects I have pictures up on Pinterest.  You can find them here.

Apples & Autumn Leaves ~ Outfit Thirty Two

*Heavy Picture Post Alert* 

 

I do not know how I did it, but I managed to pull off some decent photos with the self timer and now I have a huge picture post!  From one extreme to the other; but oh well.  : )   Looks like I am getting slightly better at this whole “take your own photo” thing.   Mind you, I did take a lot of photos over and over again, particularly at the beginning of this shoot, so that helped a lot.  If you think you’ve got the shot you want, my advice is to just make sure and do it again!

 

I was going to put these shoes up for sale; but then I wore them again and realized that even though they are a size to large for me, they really are too cute to let go….  So they’ve been reclaimed for my wardrobe.   ~ __ ^

 

My manicure for the week:

~  L.A. Girl Nail Lacquer  in “Lemon Ice”  ~
~  Konad stamping plate m71  ~

Accessories  ~  Hair Bow  {Best&Less}   Strawberry Earrings  {Best&Less}    Belt  {Thrifted}
Blouse  ~  Thrifted     Skirt  ~  Thrifted     Tights  ~  Random Stall Vendor {Florence, Italy} 
Socks  ~  Best&Less     Shoes  ~  DFO

Above:  Blooper reel!  Amabelle decided to come and play ‘coz it looked like I was doing something fun.  But then it was too boring so she ran away.    >  u  <

Left:  Baby bump at 37 weeks.  Hip, hip, hooray ~ we have made it to full term! 

~ * ♥ * ~

Yes, our house has blue sheds, blue fences, blue gates and a blue chimney!  Actually, the whole house is blue, except for the roof.   That’s why we decided to call it Blue Birch Cottage {as we also have a lone birch tree in our front yard.}!  I like this corner of our back yard; I am so glad we have an apple tree too.   >   <  

Anyway, enough babble from me, this post is already long enough.  Adieu!

xox,

bonita