Life is Made Up of Marble and Mud

I apologize for the bad photo quality...  I'm not improving, and I always have someone around to take a photo for me!  My cousin asked me to try the water marbling on her, so if you can see it, here it is!  It's been several weeks (months?) since this happened, so another apology for being busy.

And I know I fail, but I don't remember what I used...  The pink is from OPI.  :(  Better next time!

Here's what I was doing instead:

It's chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream, and a peanut butter cup detail...  I was going to send it to Fred (I wanted to test how mailing a cupcake would go) but I got busy and distracted.  Next time, Fred.

I also made bread for the very first time.  I got the recipe here, and it was so good.  I gave the big loaf to my daughter's teacher right before Thanksgiving, and we tried the little one.  We made another loaf for Christmas, and will surely make more pretty soon!  Next time, my sister suggests we replace some of the liquids with orange juice...

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

My sister loved my first attempt at water marbling, and requested I do her nails (NOW, since she's moving out of state).  She chose her colors, and here it is:

Her left ring finger is my favorite, and I'm glad because I think it was her most attractive nail that day.  A friend who is also a nail tech suggested I put vaseline around the cuticles to keep the cleanup to a minimum - I did this, and it worked!  (Thanks D!)  I coated the entire finger just past the first knuckle with it, carefully avoiding the nail beds, but we wiped the polish off the skin easily and I only had to do a bit of detail cleanup.

MK Perfect Surface Base, Sally Hansen Spark, OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia and A-Rose at Dawn...Broke by Noon, Ulta Dance Teal Dawn, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

As a side note - comments are not being published.  I get them in my email (so thank you, commenters*, I appreciate your feedback!), but I can't reply to them.  Switch to WordPress already? 

*I see that this is apparently not a word.  But commenter is, and I wanted it to be plural.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

I tried water marbling for the first* time.  It's arson awareness week, so I used some fiery colors to do it.
I'm torn.  It is messy.  I'm content to spend two hours painting details with a tiny brush, but to spend it swabbing polish off my fingers?  Not so much.  I think my fingers have aged a decade - acetone is not good for you, and my hands have seen a lot of it this evening.
But, it's kinda cool.  I'm not very happy with how they turned out this time, but I expect with practice I'd get better at dipping into the pretty spots.  And keeping more pigment on the nail.  My results don't really resemble fire, but hey, they can't all be winners.  Actually, it seems to be pretty impressive... Maybe I'll try again.

*Actually, we tried it in beauty school...  but we were instructed wrong; the result was ugly and messy.  It's still messy, but at least has potential.  Youtube it.

MaryKay Perfect Surface Base, Sally Hansen Cherry Red and Black Out, Orly Hook Up, OPI Big Hair...Big Nails, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.