The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2!!!!

OMG guys!!!!!!! Today's the day!!!! Can you Twihards believe it's been 5 years of the Twilight Saga movies???? I know I was mad & impatient about waiting an entire 12 months from the last Breaking Dawn to this one, but now im just sad that it's all finally come to an end...the The Twilight Saga is actually over. Don't judge me but I've already cried about this.  The Twilight books were the 1st series of books I actually sat down & devoured & read from start to finish. Now here's my backstory: when the books were huge around 2007-2008, I didn't pay much attention & thought they were silly stories for young teens.  **SLAP** Boy was I wrong! I spent the Spring of 2009 in Mexico studying abroad. The summer I got back, my brother Tyler had bought the first Twilight movies & had received the Twilight books earlier for Christmas 2008.  We watched the first movie together & he harped on me & convinced me that I just HAD to read the books because the books were so much better.  After we finished the movie, I sat down & started reading. I WAS HOOKED!! I spent the rest of that summer/fall reading the entire series.  I fell in love. I saw New Moon in theaters & even waited till midnight to go buy New Moon on DVD from Wal-Mart. By this point I was getting seriously addicted & obsessed.  For Eclipse, I bought midnight premiere tickets & saw it with Tyler. Then for Breaking Dawn Part 1, I bought my midnight premiere tickets nearly 2 months in advance & saw it with my best friend Jessie & her mom.  I own all 5 soundtracks. I have posters from every movie up on my walls.  I have Twilight puzzles & boardgames, magazines, collector's edition dvds, and have the entire set of books in both paper & hardback. I havent loved a book-movie series more than this one.  I love vampires & I love the idea of this impossible fantastical love. Now, this final movie, Breaking Dawn Part 2 is here.  I bought my early premiere tickets on October 1st.  This year the theaters are releasing it at 10pm the first night instead of midnight because it's a school night, and not in the summer or on a holiday/vacation time. So now in less than 12 hours I will be sitting in the theater watching this last epic finale!  Mrs. Bella Cullen is a vampire now & she's had a `child...Renesmee! This movie is going to be freaking amazing...i wish they had made it like 3 hours long!  I have watched every single trailer & tv spot there is, over & over again.  I've seen all the stills. I've bought the merchandise & have been listening to the soundtrack.  It's a bittersweet feeling - excitement to see it & sadness for the end.  Who else out there is seeing the early premiere tonight???

Now this is the first time I've done a specific mani for the series.  It's a varied assortment of things, something different on each nail in a range of red, black, white & grey.  

• On the thumb nails I used 2 coats of a bright true red jelly by L'oreal "Caught Red-Handed" then topped it with a coat of "Static TV" by Rainbow Polish, compiled of black & white matte glitters in hexes, squares, & sticks
• On the index nails I used 2 coats of Essie "Marshmallow" then topped them with 2 'Twilight' water slide decals made by RLR Creations
• On the middle nails I used 2 coats of Essie "Licorice" then used L'oreal "Caught Red-Handed" & "Greycian Goddess" & Essie "Marshmallow" for water marble
• On the pinky nails I did the same water marble with Marshmallow as the base
• Finally on the ring nails I used 2 coats of "Greycian Goddess" as the base for the star of the show.... "BELLA" by I Love NP!!!!  "Bella" is a clear base with shiny red squares & small shiny hexes mixed with medium & small matte black hexes & matte black sticks
• This is all topped with a coat of Out The Door topcoat 

"The Forgotten" by Green Day

...some loves last forever......theirs will last forever

Now Amanda from Nail Polish Enthusiast & I wanted to do some 'twinsie' Twilight nails because we both share an obsessed love for all things Twilight & we have the same Twilight water decals.  I am seeing the movie tonight so I'm posting my nails today.  Amanda is seeing the movie this weekend so she will be posting her nails on Saturday for all the fans who cant make it to the early premiere or who prefer to avoid the massive lines/crowds.  Be on the lookout for her Twihard nails!!!! Is anyone else out there a Twilight lover? Going to see the premiere tonight?? Gaaaahhhhh I cant wait & cant believe it! This is it guys! The end.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. 

Are you ready for some football??!

Hey y'all!!!!!! Ok so today is NICOLE and I's very last post for our little Friday Football Nail Series we've been doing together for the past 5 weeks! It went by so fast! I hope we inspired you to try some nails to support your personal favorite teams! This Friday for our last nails & posts we are doing 'General Football' nails...just something to represent football as a game & as a whole.  If you couldn't already gather, I love me some football. I didn't always watch it. I really started getting into football my freshman year of college in 2005. My parents arent sport watchers at all. They started watching pro tennis on tv when I started playing tennis. And once I started attending the University of Arkansas & was going to the games as a student, they just had no choice but to start watching & loving the Arkansas Razorbacks.  To end this series I will give yall an update on my 3 teams:

• My alum, the Bentonville HS Tigers are now 10-0 for the season & won their 6th straight Conference Championship.  They have bye for the first round of play-offs tonight. Their first play-off game will be next Friday. I hope they pull off another perfect season & win the State Championship again! Go Tigers!
• My Arkansas Razorbacks are making some slight improvements - We are 2-3 in SEC Conference & 4-5 overall.  Sadly we don't look like we'll be playing in any Bowl Games this season :( Tomorrow we take on the #8 South Carolina Gamecocks there. GO HOGS! Woo Pig Sooie! 
• The New Orleans Saints are 3-5 right now & play the Atlanta Falcons Sunday night. GEAUX SAINTS!!! 

To interpret my overall love of the game of football on my nails - 

•  I did 'football' laces on my thumbs by painting the whole nail with L'oreal "Downtown Chic"...really impressed with the formula on this polish! And then i used a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white to paint on the center laces
• On my ring nails, I wanted to do the '50 yard line'. So I painted the the whole nail with Essie "Mojito Madness" then used the SH pen to draw field lines & a number 50. 
• On the rest of the nails I painted them with 1 coat of Butter London "Tart With A Heart" then freehanded the tips with more of the L'oreal "Downtown Chic"
• I finished it all off with Out The Door Fast Dry Topcoat....im making a switch from Seche Vite to OTD because I'm tired of the shrinkage + chemical hazards of SV. Im loving it so far!

Head on over to Nicole's blog - Polish Me, Please! to see her interpretation of 'General Football' nails!!! 

We hope yall have enjoyed this little 5-week series Nicole & I did! It was so fun just like Nicole, and it helped keep me on my toes of trying to be creative & attempt new nail art. Maybe somewhere down the road we can come up with another nail series for yah! Stay tuned in for next week's BREAKING DAWN PART 2 'Twinsie' post that I'll be doing with Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast!! We are doing our nails for this last Twilight Saga movie premiere! 

Friday Night Lights: Bentonville Football

Hey y'all! Ryan here again for my Friday Football series with Nicole from Polish Me, Please! This Friday's nails, as we promised, are our personal high school alma maters & their mascots! Get ready for my gloating & bragging on my team: The Bentonville High School Tigers Football Team!!!!! I live in the NW corner of Arkansas, home & capitol of Wal-Mart...where it all started & where the Wal-Mart Corporate Head Office is.  Everyone in this corner bubble of the state either works for the WM Office or for vendor/suppliers. And a lot of this big Wal-Mart CEO money is poured into my high school - BHS. Millions have been invested in the football team & our stadium & the team's endorsed by Nike.  The stadium has a glassed in press box, the largest opposing team bleacher section in the conference & a full 2-story indoor practice field - fully equipped with a gym & physical trainer room & offices for the Athletic Director and coaching staff. Our stadium also has the biggest megatron screen of any high school team in the state. The Head Coach Barry Lunney has been coaching since the Fall of 2005 which is right after I graduated. He has led the team to 5 consecutive Conference Championships & 2 State Championships in 5 years. The Tigers had a perfect season in 2010, the perfect 13-0 and State Champions. They had a near-perfect season in 2011, 12-0 until they got to State & lost by a 2-point conversion in the last few seconds of the game. And they are currently 9-0 right now, ranked #23 in the entire nation of high school football teams...tonight playing their last conference game & taking on the Fayetteville Bulldogs, one of their biggest 7A West Conference rivals...and hopefully continuing their winning streak. 

The school's also developed a cool tradition with the student section, which is called "The Jungle".  In all honesty the organized student section is louder & better than our cheerleaders.  BHS Football has a very loyal & dedicated student body.  'The Jungle' is known for being the loudest and largest student section in the 7A West Conference, winning the "Best Student Section" title awarded by SportsTalk.  They created a tradition of "The Smokescreen".  When the side door of the practice field opens, releasing fog/smoke & the Tiger Team runs out, the entire student section has handfuls of baby powder they release into the air at once creating this huge explosive cloud of white into the air. It's a fun dramatic effect. The Jungle leads organized cheers & chants & has designated males that run flags up & down the field during the games. You can't deny we have the best student body support for high school football games....Welcome to Tiger Stadium, Welcome To The Jungle!

You may be wondering why I still care so much about my high school.  I played varsity volleyball & tennis for BHS.  I still live in the town where I graduated.  During my MAT, I had the privilege of being a Student-Teacher Intern for Spanish at BHS. And during my undergrad, I was the Assistant Coach of the BHS Tiger Tennis Team for 3 years, winning 2 State Championship titles & rings during my time as Coach Brandt! I take alot of pride in my high school & our town loves the Tigers.

For my nails, I wanted to portray the 'Tiger' and add an accent flare specific to our team & 'The Jungle' student section's tradition: The Smokescreen.  

• On the main nails, the base is 2 coats of NOPI "The Next CEO"  
• Then I dabbed Wet n Wild Fergie "Glamorous" gold glitter down the center of the nails, clumping the glitter right in the middle. 
• I then followed that with a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in black, freehanding Tiger stripe print.  
• On the ring/accent nails, the base is 2 coats of Essie "Licorice" & then sponged with Essie "Marshmallow" to represent the baby powder 'smokescreen' effect against a night sky. 
• This was my first attempt ever at doing my own animal print. So i hope you like my tiger stripes! GO TIGERS!

Bentonville Football

I can't believe I graduated in 2005 & in just 3 more years I'll be having a 10 year reunion!! Time really flies...it seems like just yesterday I graduated. I'm getting so old! Yet I'm one of the very few left in my graduating class who isn't married & having babies. I'm ok with that though. After coaching & teaching for BHS, I will always love & support my Tigers! They are one talented football team! Do any of you still keep up with your HS alma mater? What's your team's mascot/colors? And don't forget to CLICK HERE!!! to check out Nicole's high school football mascot nails!!! See yall next Friday for the last mani in this Friday Football Nail Series....we will be doing general football manis! 

Jack-O-Lanterns!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!! Today, Alaina from The Little Canvas and I are doing TWINSIE posts on our blogs...we both did some jack-o-lantern nails for Halloween day. My homegirl Alaina proposed the idea to me this weekend & of course I wanted to join in with her. She motivated me to do one more Halloweeny mani & end the spooky month of October with a BOO!  So make sure you creep on over to her blog & check out her pumpkin patch nails! Do yall like my pumpkin carving pic (stole it from Google)?? Today being Halloween means it's October 31st, which means I am now just 14 more days away from seeing the last Twilight movie premiere...BREAKING DAWN PART 2!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO! I am both excited & sad that this is the end, the last one. I am of course seeing it on the premiere night...got my tickets on October 1st! Yep, I'm a total twihard & you will be seeing a pretty vamptastic Twilight Saga mani from me & Amanda from Nail Polish Enthusiast when we do Twi-Twinsie posts in a couple weeks! So be on the lookout for those...and I don't wanna hear any negativity about Twilight. If you don't like it, just keep it to yourself and love me anyways ;)

Now on with the punkin jack-o-lantern nails!!!!! I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Sun Kissed" on all the nails. Then I did one coat of Fantasy Makers Glow In the Dark "Go With The Glow".  I then did 5 different jack-o-lantern faces on each nail using a Sally Hansen nail art pen in black. I then topped all of my nails with 1 thin coat of China Glaze "Fairy Dust". I finished it all off with some Seche Vite. I'm on the hunt for a new fast-dry topcoat though because I'm tired of the shrinkage from SV.  Happy Punkin Carving!!!!!!!! Here we ghost..... (hehe get it?) 

Now that Halloween is coming to a close, I can focus my attentions on my Twilight obsession! Any other Twilight fans out there? Hope y'all enjoyed my jack-o-lantern nails! Have a very Happy Halloween! See you on Friday for Nicole & I's Friday Football nails!! 

Guest Post: Team Swap!

Hey There Polished People! This is Nicole from Polish Me, Please! :) 

I hope you all have been enjoying Ryan and my football nail posts every Friday. Personally, I think half the fun of watching football games is getting all dressed up in  team gear, doing your nails for the game and making snacks for everyone to enjoy. Oh, and I think you need some festive drinks, too, if you know what I mean. ;) For you youngins I recommend some fun punch and some pop, and for us not-so-youngins I'm a fan of long islands, jello shots, cheap wine and/or whatever else floats your boat. It's fun to have watch parties and get all your friends together, even if you're not a die hard fanatic. Speaking of die hard fanatics- Ryan's team, as you all know, is the Arkansas Razorbacks aka The Hogs. We all know how much she loves them hogs! Haha. I remember in the beginning of the football season she was posting pictures on Instagram of all her billions and billions of red nail polishes in order to do her nails in Arkansas Razorbacks colors. In fact, all those posts about red nail polish for her Hogs is what made me want to do these football nails together. Anyway, before I keep blabbing on- let's just see the nails that I did in honor of Ryan's beloved team. :)

Arkansas Razorbacks Nails

How To Get These Nails:

1. Use base coat on all your nails. I like to use Sally Hansen Hard As Nails.

2. Paint your thumb (not shown) and index finger with OPI Big Apple Red.

3. Paint your ring finger with ChG White on White and then a layer of OPI Red Shatter applied in a wavy pattern. Cover the shatter with Seche Vite once it's dry and shattered. 

4. Paint your middle finger and pinkie with alternating layers of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and OPI Gettin Miss Piggy With It to create a white with red glitter jelly sandwich. Make sure to end with a thin coat of the white jelly. 

5. Use a small brush and ChG White on White to paint the hog's tusks on the index finger, then use FP Black Expressionism to add the rest of the details of the hog's face. Make sure to make him look mean! :) Add tiny dots of white for the whites of his eyes.

6. Use FP Black Expressionism to make an A for Arkansas on your ring finger. When the black is dry, use ChG White on White to paint a thinner A in the middle of the black A to complete the letterman jacket-style letter. 

7. Use Essie Jelly Apple to paint a medium width line down the center of your jelly sandwich nails (middle and pinkie fingers). Use black and white stripers to add the stripes in the middle and on either side of the thick red stripe like you see in the picture.

8. Repeat steps 1-7 on other hand. 

9. When all your nails are completely dry (you do NOT wanna smudge these) apply a careful coat of Seche Vite making sure to never touch any part of any nail twice during this first careful coat. 

10. Apply another coat of Seche Vite when the first is dry. 

11. Show your friends and cheer on the Hogs with a "woo pig sooie!!" ;D

I chose to do a bit of a skittley look to capture all the fun and excitement Ryan has for her Hogs. :) I hope you all liked them!! Make sure to hop on over to my blog, Polish Me, Please! and check out the Oregon Ducks nails Ryan did for me! :) Let us know what you think in the comments below! Thanks for reading my guest post, I hope to see you over at Polish Me, Please! and till next time- Happy Polishing!! :D

WHO DAT!?!?

Who Dat? Who Dat? Do we have any NOLA Saints football fans out there?? Today, Nicole from Polish Me, Please! and I are back for our football nail series with our own versions of NFL team nails...and we both found out that we both love the SAINTS! I'm not gunna lie to y'all now....I don't really like NFL or faithfully watch the Saints games. But I love the city of New Orleans, Louisiana and just love the spirit of the Saints team...and Drew Brees is such a lovable respectable quarterback.  My family took a vacation to NOLA the summer after the Saints had won the SuperBowl.  The city was alive with black & gold & "Who Dat" everywhere you looked! It's a contagious love. So by default I guess, the Saints are my only NFL team I like & would ever get behind and watch. Even though Louisiana's huge college team, the LSU Tigers, are my Arkansas Razorbacks' biggest SEC rival...I can't help but love the Saints. I would love to be from Louisiana. I love the soulful character of the Cajun language, jazz music, and I LOVE THE FOOD, and NOLA is just a city with so much heart. What's not to love? Now if only those Saints could improve their current 1-4 season...

So to bring the glorious black & gold spirit to life on my nails I used quite a few polishes.  I badly wanted to do a 'fleur de lis' for an accent nail, but my fine artistic skills were severely lacking last night. I used Essie "Licorice" on all nails except for the ring fingernail. On that accent nail, I used a base of Essie "Marshmallow".  On the thumbs & pinkies I did a french tip with Orly "Luxe".  On the pointer & middle fingers I sponged on Wet n Wild "Glamorous" from the Fergie Collection as a gradient from the cuticle down. On the ring finger accent nail, I put 2 full coats of Wet n Wild "Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night" also from the Fergie Collection over the white. Love this polish, TGBAGN, small gold hex glitters and lots of very small round matte black glitters in a clear base. Hope yall like this black, white & gold interpretation to represent this NOLA team, GEAUX SAINTS!  WHO DAT!

great trailer set to one of my very favorite artist's songs, "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele

GO CHECK OUT NICOLE'S SAINTS NAILS HERE!

Hope yall liked our Saints nails today!!! Next Friday you can look forward to Nicole & I doing guest posts on each other's blogs and painting our nails for each other's college teams. So next Friday you will see me doing Oregon Duck nails on her blog and she will be doing Arkansas Razorbacks nails here on my blog. Team Swap!!!!

"Laissez les bons temps rouler"