2011 Las Vegas Weekly Awards!

This past Wednesday I was invited to attend an event held by the Las Vegas Weekly, a weekly magazine here in Las Vegas. I was selected as the recipient of the 2011 'Best Blogger' award in the 2011 Weekly awards!! SO exciting!! :) Of course, since I was going to the event, I had to do Las Vegas Weekly nails, so I used one of the copies of when the story about me was in the Weekly last May to work into the manicure. (I was a tad overzealous in getting spare copies to keep, so I had a few issues to spare :-P) Check out the blurb about the award here!

Forgive me for not including my thumb in the picture- I swatched another color over it without thinking before I got around to photographing it. Stupid me. For the texture in the background, I transferred bits of the original article using alcohol onto the white background, then painted the Las Vegas WEEKLY logo over it. :)






My name on the big screen! :)

I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with Claire's Stiletto for the red, and American Apparel Hassid for the black. Topped it all off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Get Your Groupon On!

Many of you may have heard of Groupon by now, but if you haven't, it's amazing. Businesses in your area (or sometimes online businesses) will over products or services at a hefty discount if you buy during the Groupon sale. I've used Groupon for Barnes & Noble gift cards ($10 for $20), Gap ($25 for $50), American Apparel ($25 for $50), Zipline Rides down Fremont St ($10 for $25), Restaurants for 50%, Redbox coupons, admission to LV shows, Mani/Pedis, movie tix, all sorts of things. You can even purchase them as gifts for a friend! :)

Right now they're running a special where if a friend signs up and purchase their first Groupon by June 13, you get $30!! So Sign up, and then get your friends to sign up so YOU can get money towards free Groupons!!!

I wouldn't recommend something that I don't already use (way too much), so check it out, I think you'll like it- and it's offered in cities all over the US! :)

If you like me, and want to sign up with MY link, here it is! Melissa's Groupon Signup Link

The Real Dill

I know it's been awhile, and for that I apologize. Time slips away too quickly, and things never seem to get caught up on. However, I'm posting tonight, and I hope you dig it, because as the post title says, it's the 'Real Dill'. ;)

I grew up in a very small town, a town where farming, fishing, and hunting were mainstays of the local lifestyle. One of the crops grown in the area was cucumbers (or, as I've always called them... pickles!), and those cucumbers got made into dill pickles in the very same town. These pickles still remain my favorite pickles ever. I grew up on them, and even love to drink the pickle juice from the jar when the pickles are gone. (Gross I know, but SO delicious!!!!) Anyway, as an homage to the vinegar soaked bites of awesomeness, I did pickle nails! To achieve the pickle bumps, I used nail pearls from Born Pretty, then painted over them, and to get the mottled look of the pickle skin, I sponged several different greens.



I used butter LONDON Dosh as a base for all nails, and over top of the nail pearls on the bumpy nails. On the bumpy nails, I used Dare 2 Wear Rio De Janeiro, Icing True Beauty, and RBL No More War, and MAC Dry Martini to sponge over butter LONDON Dosh. For the pickle inside nails (thumb and ring) I used Dare 2 Wear Rio De Janeiro over the base color, then mixed with American Apparel California Trooper and some Icing True Beauty to make the highlights and shadows of the seeds. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Mmmmmm, pickles.

Adam Bird Photography

As a general rule, I detest pictures taken of me. There are only a handful of photos that have been taken of me that I can A. tolerate or B. actually like. Oddly, Adam Bird has taken 90% of them. I've known Adam for years, we've been friends since my college days when I dated his friend, and Adam shocked my roommate and I by climbing the balcony to our second floor apartment. Adam is an extremely unique individual (the very sort I prefer to surround myself with), a phenomenally talented photographer, and someone I count among my closet friends. Last weekend, I went back to Michigan because he was getting married, and it was a great time seeing everyone. (AND getting Yesterdog!!) The day after, when Chris and I went by Adam's studio so Chris could fully submerse himself in photography nerdiness, Adam decided he wanted to take pictures of the two of us, and that he did. What you see below is a small portion of the product of that 10 minutes of photographic genius.

Adam is one of those rare photographers that can capture someone's insides. Their soul, their emotions, and something very important to me, the exact feeling of what is going on at the moment that shutter closes. He took one of my (and my family's) most prized photographs, a photo of my grandfather and I at my sister's wedding, which was just a month before he passed away.

Anyway. If you need photographs, wedding, portrait, fashion, artistic, anything, Adam is someone I would recommend VERY highly. He never asked me to make this post, honestly, other than my posting of his photos (of course I asked him permission!!) he has no idea I am writing this post. Take some time- hit up his website, his blog, and if you want photos- HIM!

His website:

Adam Bird Photo

His Wedding Site:

Adam Bird Weddings

Amazing. I love him! :)


Beware: Goofball pictures ahead!

A Whole Different William

This guy is the 'Wooly' variety...

Like the newly-wedded dapper young Prince William, this 'Willy' also has a bit of a bald spot. However, unlike the dear prince I speak of, with a flick of a magnet, you can cover this guy's bald spot up. :) Of course I speak of Wooly Willy, the simple children's 'toy' that consisted of a cardboard printed with the face of a bald man with a very red nose, a raised plastic window, a magnet, and some iron filings which you repositioned to create hair, mustaches, eyebrows, etc.! Really high-tech toys that we grew up with that will always hold a place in our hearts. Today's nail design is inspired by all the days I spent in my childhood drawing mohawks, fu manchus, beards, and unibrows on that flat bald man.




I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with CND Bicycle Yellowto create stripes on the ring finger. For the faces, I used Urban Outfitters Nude 3, China Glaze Hey Sailor! for the nose, and American Apparel Hassid to outline and for the hair. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Do you think Wooly Willy was a Wooly Bully?