Fruit manicure!

So, as a follow-up of sorts to the vegetable nail art, I hereby present a fruit manicure (also my first attempt at using fimo nail art decorations):

Looking at this actually makes me hungry for fruit. Like tangerine. Mmm... tangerine.

All in all, I think not bad for a first attempt. I basically had to press down on the fimo fruit slices with the very tip of a toothpick the entire time the whole thing was drying, including the clear topcoat (this took about 20 minutes)... otherwise, the edges of the slices would've curled up. But still, overall, not a crazy amount of effort for how well I think it turned out, though I think I would press the fruit into the nail polish less firmly next time, because it sort of made the pink nail polish squish up around the edges and between the fruit slices. The base color is Essie French Affair, my go-to plain pink polish.

As with the veggie manicure, I think it's helping me remember to eat healthy... and maybe thinking that helps me feel less guilty for spending so much time doing my nails?

Anyways, I enjoyed the fimo more than I thought I would. Maybe fimo adorable animals, for next time.

Because: awwww... how could you resist?

Tooth-holding tooth

So, as promised in my previous post, here is the result of my desire to have a non-creepy storage place for my wisdom teeth:

A plush tooth with a tooth-shaped tooth storage pocket! That's not creepy... right?

So, the story is, I got my wisdom teeth out a few weeks ago. After the good doctor removed the teeth, he suggested, nay, insisted that I take those beauties home with me. (The nurses had me promise to soak the teeth in bleach when I got home in order to clean them, which I did, because otherwise, ew.) I later found out, after talking to a few people, that it's more likely for oral surgeons to be hesitant to pass along extracted teeth than to push the matter, but that's ok- even though I hadn't thought of it, at least now I had a creative opportunity on my hands.

My lovely muses

My first thought was, ideally, I'd like to be able to somehow turn my teeth into colonies that would evolve into an advanced civilization that could then use their great technology to shrink me down to their size, in the manner of Lisa Simpson in The Genesis Tub:

Not what happened.

...at which point they would treat me like a queen or a deity of some kind...

Also, this did not happen to me.

But since that didn't end up panning out, I bounced around a few ideas, including making a necklace, but I was pretty sure that's I'd be too lazy to bore holes in it, and even if that happened, I'd probably end up leaving it in a drawer somewhere forever. But then I thought of this cute little guy:

Adorable polar bear/kangaroo hybrid, with baby polar bear in pouch

...that I'd made from a pattern in this book:

...and I thought that a tooth with a little pouch in front would make for great tooth storage.

Tooth storage!

I tried to make the plush with the twisted roots effect of the real teeth.

So there you have it. Maybe someday I'd make some variation on this idea for potential future kid's teeth, but in that case add some sort of zipped pouch on the inside to store teeth.

Matryoshka time!

Матрёшки (Matryoshki), Russian dolls, nesting dolls... whatever you call them, you gotta admit, they're pretty adorable. I've always been fascinated by Russian dolls, and I admired them from afar when I was little (and from a-near, too, whenever I was able to get my hands on one at a friend's house and take it apart and put it back together then take it apart again, etc.) When I studied in Russia junior year of college, I brought home Russian dolls as souvenirs for nearly everyone. Then a couple of years later, I ran across this book of adorable stuffed felt toys and had to buy it, because just look at the adorableness on the cover:

http://www.amazon.com/Felties-Make-Cute-Fuzzy-Friends/dp/0740785117

 

At first I made the teacup sized doll (3rd from the right in topmost picture), then over the years added to the collection until it became the family above. It took me years because it took forever to hand stitch and stuff everything, and because I'd pick up and put down the project at various intervals. The littlest one is my favorite.

B'aw!

I've only just finished the largest one pictured above, in this project that has lasted for years. The question is, do I keep going on? I have plenty of extra felt lying around; indeed, enough to make a pillow size one à la those pillow pals that you may remember from the 80's:

...or, if you're my age, as you may better remember as DJ Tanner's pillow friend from Full House:

So, whaddya think... does the world need a pillow-sized matryoshka? 

'Til the next post, wherein I'll share my newest feltie (inspired by the little polar bear on the book cover above, and also a solution to my wisdom tooth problem)... 

Veggie Nail Art!

Veggie nails! This idea originated because I've been trying to eat healthier, and I was looking for new nail designs to try, so it seemed like the perfect creative marriage... I get a reminder of my favorite healthy snacks, and get to try out my freehand nail painting skills! (People have at times approached me and asked me how I paint my nails freehand. The answer: "Carefully.")

From left to right, we have all my favorites: carrot, broccoli, eggplant, pepper, peapod, onion, tomato, corn, avocado and tofu! Next time I would probably make the tomato a bit of a lighter red, but overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Maybe soon I'll do a similar theme, except with fruit.

A list of the colors I used in this design:
Base color: Brucci, Kathy's Baby Blues
All Black throughout: Wet N Wild, Black Crème
Carrot: Jesse's Girl, Crush; Sephora, Prom Night
Broccoli: Sephora, Prom Night; Color Club, Edie
Eggplant: Prevail, Coney Island Sweetheart; Color Club, Edie
Pepper: Maybelline, Racy Red; Sephora, Prom Night
Peapod: Color Club, Edie; Sephora, Prom Night
Onion:  Prevail, Taxi! Taxi!; American Apparel, Butter; Color Club, Edie
Tomato: Sephora; It-Girl, Sephora, Prom Night
Corn: Prevail, Taxi! Taxi!; Sephora, Prom Night; Color Club, Edie;
Avocado: Sephora, Prom Night; American Apparel, Office; OPI, Suzi Loves Cowboys
Tofu: Sally Hansen, Whirlwind White; American Apparel, Cotton

By the way, any future nail art suggestions/requests welcome in the comments!

Why did I start this blog, anyway?

Why did I start this blog? What are we doing here? Who are we? Why man's inhumanity to man? Wait, I went a step too far. What was I saying? Ok, so why did I start this blog? If I may borrow a phrase from Mean Girls (which I may do early and often): I just have a lot of feelings.

I'm a twentysomething recent graduate with a master's degree in speech pathology, trying to find a full time speech therapy position. I live in Manhattan. I'm American, but my hobby for past 8 years has been learning Russian. Why? Some would argue it's because I'm crazy. However, I would argue that it's because Russian is an unbelievably rich, fun, fascinating language to learn, and because I'm crazy. My dream is to do accent reduction training full time... so far, I have a number of weekly clients. In this blog, I'll talk about whatever pops into my head, including, most likely, things about the following subjects: nail art, wedding stuff, cooking, knitting, cross stitching, making plush felt toys, stand up comedy, other things that are humorous, relationship stuff, science fiction, politics, Broadway plays, TV shows, or some combination thereof.

Til soon...