Happy New Year!!! Here are my new years eve nails for the N.A.I.L. linkup! I went with a mix-match snake skin manicure. I used two different magnetic polishes in this design and I also hid ‘2014’ in there as well. 🙂

GREEN NAILS- My green nails were painted with Sinfully Magnetic Snakeskin nail polish in a green shade called Force Field. I applied one coat and let it dry. Then I applied the second coat and then immediately held the included magnet over top. The magnet reacted with the polish and created such an amazing criss-cross snakeskin effect (see my other post about Force Field here). This is probably my absolute favorite magnetic polish & magnet of all time! I also applied some pearl-toned studs to these nails for a feminine sexy touch.

BLACK NAILS- These nails were painted with China Glaze Liquid Leather. Then I stamped MoYou Pro 05 snakeskin design over half of these nails using a silver magnetic Orly polish called Paint on Electron. I’m so glad that the silver stamped so well! The puny Orly magnet that came with the polish really sucks…so I’m happy to find another use for Paint on Electron which didn’t even require a magnet. *Another thing to note about stamping with magnetic polish- it didn’t smudge at all when I applied topcoat!

Oh and about the hidden ‘2014’- I placed my studs strategically to represent the year 2014– I put 20 studs on my right hand and 14 studs on my left. 🙂 I also patterned my nails differently on each hand just for effect.

Do you think magnetic nail polish has a fun ‘party feel’ ? I love it and I think it’s just perfect for the holidays. Plus, I did magnetic nails last new yrs eve… so I’m sorta keeping up with traditions by doing another one tonite. These nails are also just in time to say goodbye to the SNAKE. Au revoir 2013, year of the snake! Bonjour 2014, year of the horse!

While we’re on the topic, I’d like to show you a pic of my new horse calendar for 2014. I got it as a Christmas present from my uncle! Isn’t it purty?

I look forward to a new year! See you in 2014!

View the other N.A.I.L. entries here:

N.A.I.L. December Theme 1 – Snowflakes

N.A.I.L. December Theme 2 – Shopping

N.A.I.L. December Theme 3 – Winter Solstice

N.A.I.L. December Theme 4 – Festive French Manis

N.A.I.L. December Theme 5 – New Year

1) This week’s N.A.I.L. theme is animals/pets. I did these black and green nails a few days ago and although they look cool…. I decided not to submit them to the inlinkz for our nail art challenge. I did stamping for these nails but for the NAIL Linkup I think I’d rather do some nail art.

On the left hand I did an owl accent nail using MoYou Pro 07 stamping plate↓

On the right hand I tried a ‘bird on a wire’ accent nail using that same MoYou Pro 7 plate ↓

The black that I used is China Glaze Liquid Leather and the green is AVON Garden Green. The ivy on all the nails was stamped using MoYou Mother Nature 03 plate. These are cute, but I’ll do something more original for the linkup.

Stay tuned to the blog ! I’m hoping to tackle some kitty cat nails for the ANIMALS/PETS theme! ♥

2) This time last year I posted my Financial Aid Fingernails that I wore to the big federal aid conference. Well, it’s almost time to do that again. See, I’m a financial aid counselor so I have to keep up on the ever-changing federal aid regulations. They change constantly, so my college sends me to a conference every year so I’m on top of it all.

last year’s Fin Aid fingernails

In fact, right now I’m working on editing non-disbursed direct loans to include the new increased origination fee that kicked in because of the sequestration. This is a change that’s occurring in the middle of the aid year (mid-year changes are the worst)! The new fees will only be a few pennies different, and since computers always round off the dollar amounts- most borrowers won’t even see a difference. But the amount of work it takes for me to update all that in our system is quite a rigmarole! The U.S. Dep’t of Ed keeps us aid administrators on our toes- I might as well be a ballerina! Anywhooo, the big conference is right around the corner so I will be traveling out of town soon. I painted my nails for last year’s conference using OPI Don’t Pretzel My Buttons (see pic on the left) but unfortunately, they chipped so fast! I had to buy an extremely over-priced bottle of nail polish remover in the hotel gift shop, and then I proceeded to drag my boss all over God’s creation to find stores that carry nail polish. She must’ve thought I was ridiculous, but she went along with it! I’ll try not to push my luck this year, and I want to avoid all that hassle too. So hopefully I can find some extremely long-lasting nail polish to wear. I might go with textured! I have a bottle of Pixie Dust in my untried’s stash so I should definitely try that, right?

3) I’m trying to get into better shape and I joined a month-long fitness challenge at work. I’ve been hitting up the gym after work each day and I’ll continue to exercise like a fiend for a few more weeks still! That means I don’t have as much time in the evening to blog. So you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as much during M-F. But… I’m still painting my nails, and I will be able to catch up on blogging during the weekends! I’m still in the groove, I’m just adjusting my blog schedule a bit I suppose. 🙂