Week 32: Needle Marble

Yet another week has gone by, and that means another theme for the Year's Challenge. Head over to Jenna Froggy's page to check out the full schedule and see a list of other blogs participating, but for now, this week's theme is Needle Marble. If you're not already aware, needle marble is a technique where you put drops of different colors of polish on your nail, and use a sharp instrument - toothpick, tiny dotting tool, or needle (hence the name, duh ;) - to draw swirls directly on your nail. I don't remember who it was, but the blogger I first saw using this technique linked to a Robin Moses tutorial for how to do it, so I'll give credit for where I learned how to do this where it's due. You can find the video at the bottom of this post. :)

Without further ado, here's what I came up with!

I had an inspiration for this manicure. I don't know how well I captured it, but I was basing it on a particular painting, Rebirth by Oni Hazarian, which is available in multiple types of prints from Fine Art America. I love browsing their website for inspiration, which you can tell from browsing my "Inspirations for Nail Art" pinterest board. ^_^

To do my best with how this beauty inspired me, I used a base of China Glaze Smoke and Ashes. The various swirls were done with Primark Beauty neons yellow, blue, and orange, Sinful Colors San Francisco, and NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost. This is one of those manicures where I think it really looks much better in person than in pictures. I did manage to get a certain depth to it that I don't think really shows up here. Ah, well. Even if I didn't capture the effervescence of the painting, I still have pretty nails!

And, as I promised, the link to the great teacher of technique - Robin Moses teaching "Marbling Without Water":

Neon Glow Beams

Different people react differently to crises. Some people panic, some people don't know what to do but will follow directions, and some people automatically react to adrenaline with a cool and clear head. I'm one of the latter. So when my husband called yesterday to tell me I needed to get home right away, he was calling 911 because he was having chest pains and felt like he was about to pass out, I went straight into action. (He turned out to be okay, thankfully, though he needs to get a primary care physician to find out what caused it, but everything was functioning fine and they did the EKG, X-ray, and blood workup to verify he was not having a cardiac event, and had not had one in the last 72 hours. A paramedic friend of mine, after discussing his full history with me, said that it's probably stable angina, which isn't life-threatening, but will need to be seen by a doctor and possibly treated.)

I shut down my computer, grabbed my coat, stopped to tell my supervisor why I was leaving, and headed straight out. Drove at the maximum safe speed I could drive in the rain, called my best friend on the way to let her know what was happening because she would need to watch the kids if I had to go to the hospital with him, and the paramedics were packing up when I got there. He wasn't in danger, but they wanted him to go to the hospital, either with them or with me, to get fully checked out. So I sent him on in the ambulance, called my friend (who said her boss had said she could leave right away) and got her on the way to my place to watch the kids, explained to the kids what was going on, posted on facebook to let my family know what was happening, grabbed some water, hit the bathroom, and I was ready to drive out to the hospital as soon as my bestest friend showed up. Sat with Chris 'til the tests were done, got home, got some dinner...and about an hour after we got home, I crashed. I panic AFTER the emergency is over.

So, needing something to make sure I didn't sit there thinking about all the things that could have happened and working up into a panic attack? I did my nails. <3