Pretty in Pink

Greetings Children of the Night!

I've been crazy busy since Friday night. I am now the volunteer coordinator for this year's Party Like A Pinup event at the Cuban Club, Ybor City, Florida. All the proceeds will benefit Pinups for Pitbulls. We're being hosted by Little Pet Project as well as Pit Stop Bully Rescue. If you live in the Tampa, Florida area please come and join the party! If not, Pinups for Pitbulls does take donations. *wink wink*

Anyway on to polish! Here is the color I chose to wear for our event Friday night. It's a lovely rosy pink, berry-ish color by Mary Kay called (funny enough) Roseberry. I have no idea how long I've even owned this color and I almost never wear it. I'm not a huge fan of pinks. This color went amazing with my dress for the event though. So 40s and retro.

Here it is with one coat of Nail Life Gripper, two coats of Roseberry, and one coat of Sally Hanson Super Shiny. I'm not impressed with the wear on this one. I did my nails Friday and I already had tip wear by Saturday morning. In these pictures you can actually see some chipping.

It was a really cloudy day so my pictures didn't come out nearly as good as I'm used to. *harrumph*

Today I have another meeting with the PLAP crew and Saturday night we have an event with Gaspar's Grotto in Ybor.

Have a Morbid Monday and thank you for reading.

Ren Faire stripes

Hello Children of the Night. It's been awhile since I did a nail post and this one (again) is not one of my best. I got really sloppy with the striping and you can see some serious bleeding around the tape lines. Next time I'll make sure not to rush it. 

It is Bay Area Renaissance Faire time here in Florida or BARF as we call it.  Here is a link if you're a local. Make sure to come out and see it. My ren costume (yes I'm one of THOSE people) has a green striped underskirt. I figured I'd do my nails to match. I didn't actually end up going, funny enough. The weekend I do go though I'm going to repeat this mani but much more carefully. It's two coats of Nail Life Gripper, two coasts of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and the tape stripes were done with scotch tape and two coats of Finger Paints, one coat of Sally Hanson top coat.

My cuticles finally look good *grin*

Ignore the chip in the pinky

Here is the skirt I used as inspiration.

Ren skirt with overskirt

Ren Skirt without

So here is the picture I promised of my V-Day mani. It was taken on my phone so not the best but you get the idea.

I'm going to be doing some work for Party Like a Pin-up (here's their link) so I'm going back to my red nails for awhile.

Face Off - Episode 207

Greetings Children of the Night!

It's a dismal day here today is sunny *ahem* Florida. I, however, wouldn't even notice because I slept last night! Yesterday a lovely friend came and adjusted my neck and massaged my shoulder. Holy Cow is there a HUGE difference. If you've never had it done, find yourself a licensed professional and go have it done! No more pain, no more headaches... oh it is bliss.

Anyway, last night was the new episode of Face Off. Is it just me or is Sue a whiny pain in my a** and deserves to be shoved to the curb?

This episode started with an awesome floating police car and some sketches by Patrick Tatopolous for the new Total Recall film. Each artist was to take Patrick's sketches and turn them into an alien creation with Patrick as their client. 


Tara: She had a grand idea for these massive arm extensions. It really didn't work out. As a matter of fact, none of her creature worked out. She ended up ditching all the teeth as well as the arms. Not a good move Tara. 

(image source)

Ian: He made this really cool pig vampire creature. His appliances had some massive flaws including a huge tear. He managed to turn it all into battle damage. Patrick loved his creation more than his own sketch and Ve was impressed with his paint work as was guest judge LeVar Burton. 

(image source)

Jerry: His monster resembled some aqua-demon. At the risk of sounding unoriginal, it did resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Ve felt it looked like a bad Halloween mask (I felt that way about RJ's creature). LeVar said the paint job made it look aquatic and Jerry threw a mini snit fit over that, not too mature. 

(image source)

Rayce: His was this incredible cyborg thing where the tubes have been fused with it's skin. Glenn was very complimentary; he felt the sculpt was massive in scope given the time given. LeVar loved the eyes as well. The biggest concern though is that the "actor" can't see out of the mask.

 

 

(Image source)

  Sue: Her biggest point were the spikes coming out of her creature's skin. They didn't come out properly so she fashioned them  from nail extensions. Ve was impressed with her improv skills but she lost major points for the fact that she only did the face and painted nothing else (including her model's hands.)

 

 

 

(image source)

RJ: He too had some major molding issues, and just like Ian made the best of it. Due to a switch in molding materials his headpiece came out really really stiff. Over all though it was an impressive build including the arm pieces Tara couldn't pull off.

(image source)

Matt: His albino creature was middle of the road and got almost no feedback. Shame, I loved his paint job.

(image source)

Beki: She did the other cyborg. Her's had some incredible fluid-filled tubes. I found it interesting that both cyborgs were bright red.

(image source)

Ian won this round (yay hometown boy) and instead of getting immunity he received two tickets to the premiere of Total Recall. This week was a double elimination round and Tara, Sue, and Jerry were all put on the block. Tara and Jerry were cut. Tara saw it coming but Jerry (surprise) threw a fit. His attitude was making him lazy but I would have rather seen them cut Sue. I'm so over her nasty, whiny, attitude. 


Next week *drum roll* is Tim Burton!!!!!! That is going to be in competition with Tom Savini for my favorite episode and i haven't even seen it yet. See a clip here. I'm so excited.

Shoes!

Hello Children of the Night! How many of you celebrated Mardi Gras yesterday? We did. We had dirty rice, king cake, and hurricanes. Dinner was amazing but my king cake was a mitigated disaster. Oh well try again next year.

For those of you that are unaware, I have an affinity for shoes. I had a girlfriend this week send me a link to a Glamour Magazine contest. Tweet them a picture of your favorite shoes. How am I to pick one pair? Here are the three pairs I'm deciding between.

Iron First Zombie Stompers

Torrid

Not Rated

Help me decide my leaving me a comment!

Tonight is Levar Burton on Face Off. Can't wait! That and I get to have my neck and shoulders adjusted today. Thank you Jesus!

Have a Wicked Wednesday.

Face Off- Episode 206

Well day late but here it is, the Face Off Episode from Wednesday night; Triple Threat.

Here we see the end of the cliffhanger from last week. The foundation challenge started right away. There seem to be a lot of challenges this episode dealing with exhaustion and sleep deprivation. As the artists enter the stage again a series of runway models come out. Their challenge is a 'make under.' Turn these models into Plain Janes. Kim Greene (Scream 4, Terminator Salvation) is the guest judge. Rayce and his librarian win the challenge and immunity.


The spotlight challenge is old age make-up. Each team of three is given a set of twins to do an age progression. One is to be aged to 75, the other to 100. Greg Cannom, Oscar winning make-up artist (for Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is the guest judge. McKenzie then returns to inform the contestants that they are not actually twins, but sets of triplets and the third sibling joins to be aged to 50 years. 


Beki, RJ, and Heather: Their concept was that as their model ages she becomes more gaunt so they start with a really overweight 50 year old (Beki). RJ does the 75 year old and when application time hits, RJ's model has a major allergic reaction to her makeups. Is it just me or does it seem like they're intentionally putting in models with allergic reactions just to see how the artists react? They substitute in another model but this model is significantly smaller, with a more delicate bone structure. RJ must "cut and dart the appliance like clothing." Heather has the 100 year old and hers has significant anatomy issues and looks more like a "melting zombie."

Beki (50)

RJ (75)

Heather (100)

Matt (50 year old), Tara (75 year old) and Sue (100 year old): This group did not work well together at all and I'm going to blame it on Sue's nasty attitude. She can't seem to work well with anyone. Their concept was an aging mobster and instead...well... no. Matt's creation was described at a 'were-chia' with it's puffy head and bad hair. Tara's make up was lovely but the shoulder length hair Ve found "distracting." The judges found Sue's make-up amazing. I don't think she took it far enough, I didn't think he looked old enough. 

Matt (50)

Tara (75)

Sue (100)

The final group was Rayce, Ian, and Jerry. They did and aging hippie. This one was my favorite. The judges felt that Rayce's 50 year old was far too subtle and she had diseased looking skin. Ian's 75 year old was also too subtle and his coloring was off. Jerry saved the group even if his was generic. 

Rayce (50)

Ian (75)

Jerry (100)

The top three were RJ, Jerry, and Sue, with Sue winning the challenge. They sent Heather home. 


Next week they will be creating aliens with Star Trek's Levar Burton as the guest judge. A sneak peak can be found here.










images source

Valentine's Day

Hello to my Children of the Night. I hope y'all had a bloody good Valentine's day. I ended up spending it with my folks instead of the boy (really not sure how he felt about that, he's been kinda snarky.) He an I however, went to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert the Sunday prior so I'm going to count that as our 'date' *giggle*.

For the evil love holiday I was going to paint my nails black but I had a girlfriend request I do something for her. She wanted hot pink, red, and black. I immediately figured I would try to do an ombre (seeing as how that's hot this spring.) Oh my word what a complete fail! In the interests of full disclosure I am going to post the pictures of my fail. Don't worry I did NOT leave the house with my nails like this. I ended up with a red glitter paint with gold stamped hearts. Silly me though broke a nail before I got really good pictures of it. I may be able to find a crappy one on my phone to post.

First I put down a base coat of Nail Life Gripper and two coats of Sinful Colors 24/7. After that I added Sally Hanson Rapid Red tips. I really should have just stamped on some red and white hearts and called this a good job. Oh no, I had to be 'creative.' *rolls eyes*

 I then used a make-up sponge to blur the red farther down into the pink. This is where I started to go wrong. My lines are far too clean. There isn't enough bleed through.

  Here it *almost* looks promising.

After that dried I added Sinful Colors Black on Black tips with the make-up sponge. Again there isn't nearly enough bleed through. I just ended up with really harsh lines and a Toucan Sam effect.

 In an attempt to blur the lines I added two coats of Sally Girl Disco Ball and that just gave me a shiny toucan. *snicker* Yeah this was not one of my better attempts.

Well here is the final product with the bottle of Sinful Colors Black on Black. Yeah.... not really my best attempt. I'm glad I went with a red after all. I'll have to check if I took a phone picture and sneak it into my next post.

Night now my nails are bare *ACK* and I'm out of ideas. This weekend is our Bay Area Renaissance Festival and I might be going on Sunday, depending on how I feel. I've been plagued by really nasty headaches lately but I have friend how is a massage therapist who has offered to help me out. First time for me, so we'll see how it works out. I'm trying to decide if I want to do my nails to match my Ren Faire costume. It's a green stripe skirt. with a white top. Maybe green and white french? Eh we'll see.

Thanks for reading. 

Face Off was on last night. Hopefully I can have my Face Off post up tomorrow.

Face Off-Episode 205

Oh good grief! Sorry Children that I haven't been posting! It's Friday and I didn't update y'all on Face Off this week. It was such an uninspired episode that I guess it slipped my mind?

This week's episode was "Dangerous Beauty." The goal of the foundation challenge was to blend a plant and animal to create a dangerous beauty.

Before we get to that Titanic of a concept the spotlight challenge was much more fun. Sam Worthington from Being Human (the SyFy version, not the *much better* BBC version) was there to inspire Werewolf wounds. There was some pretty messed up stuff that went down. The winner of the challenge and immunity was Beki. I liked it, but I really don't think her's was the best.

(image source)

Once the artists returned to the studio they found that it had been turned into a Zoological garden with plants and animals everywhere. Snakes, lizards, wolves, bears, leopards, even a rhinoceros have been brought in for this challenge.

Heather & Rayce: They blended the monitor lizard and firesticks. First off, what the hell is up with those pants? They have an amazing facial prosthetic and their firestick hair is awesome! Why would they insult their creature with harem pants?   

(Image source)

Jerry & Matt: They picked the leopard and yellow iris.Their creature was some kind of Mayan Goddess. To me it just looked like a kid dressing for Halloween.  Patrick even said the face was overly 'cartoonish.' 

(image source)

RJ & Ian: They had a panther chameleon and an orchid. This creature was incredible! There was almost no human element to it. When the model came on stage it actually unfurled itself form it's orchid leaves to reveal the lizard within. 

(image source)

Tara & Athena: Picked the emerald tree boa and a stargazer lily. While I loved the color combination of pink, yellow, and green, it looked like the creature from the black lagoon invaded Disney (or a gay pride parade.) Why is it wearing a speedo?

(image source)

Beki & Sue: Picked a blue tarantula and birds of paradise. These two equal a match made in hell all the way around. They fought like cats, and their creature is a complete train wreck. Since Beki had immunity, she let Sue take the lead on this project. I understood some the of creative direction Sue tried to take, but Beki's execution was atrocious. The entire thing looked like an alien directing traffic, If it weren't for the cool facial appliance you never would have known it was a spider creature. According to Ve the texture on the body looked like "vomit." When they got called out in front of the judges for their disaster, Beki had no problem throwing Sue under the bus. That didn't go over well with Ve at all!

(image source)

Rj and Ian won the challenge with RJ being the winner for his Lady Slipper back piece and providing the creative direction. Team Tara/Athena and Team Beki/Sue were the two teams that were at the bottom but only one could be eliminated: Athena. The judges had been continually disappointed with her body makeup skills, despite the fact that she claimed this was her specialty.

This was not a good episode. The spotlight challenge felt like an afterthought, I don't care for Vivica A. Fox (the guest judge), then after Athena was eliminated McKenzie goes back stage at tells the contestants, "We're not done yet." The episode then ends. This was not a well designed cliffhanger. Yet according to Face Off on Facebook that was their most watched episode. *blarg* Why couldn't they have watched last week with Tom Savini?

Sorry about my absence kiddos, I should have some more manis for you next week. Until then take care my Children of the Night, and thanks for reading.

The Woman in Black

Greeting to my Children of the Night.

Happy Sinful Saturday. Hope y'all have some amazing plans for this weekend. I got my night out last night so today is spent cleaning to make up for all the crap I didn't do yesterday, Went out for The Boy's birthday dinner last night. Went to a local sushi place and it was PACKED! Honestly, I was shocked. I've never seen anyone in there. I'm glad to see them busy though; good food at reasonable prices, We walked out of there for under $40. That's pretty damn good for sushi, drinks, and dessert.

(image source)

After dinner, we saw Daniel Radcliffe's new film, A Woman in Black. I really should have known better than to go see this film on opening weekend. We were the oldest people in the theater and it was *packed*. I've spend enough years teaching that my idea of a fun night out doesn't generally include a room full of teens.

(image source)

Based on a novel by British author Susan Hill, the film is directed by James Watkins and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer, just nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Albert Nobbs. The synopsis is: a young lawyer (Radcliffe) travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorner woman is terrorizing the locals. -- (C) CBS Films.

(image source)

Over all, it's a solid B movie. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 63%. The biggest observation that all the critics seem to have is that it is a standard British horror. There are no big budget effects, there aren't a lot of big "gotcha" moments, and there is absolutely no gore. For the standard American audience that has become used to the gore of Eli Roth's Hostel series, the Saw franchise (yuck), or even some the physicality of the latest possession films, this movie may seem to be lacking. I, on the other hand, love the haunted house genre. This film reminded me of Henry James' Turn of the Screw. Having been based on a book (cover seen right), I may now have to read The Woman in Black.

(Image source)

The 2012 version is actually a remake of a made for TV film from 1989 staring Adrian Rawlins as Arthur Kidd, Bernard Hepton as Sam Toovey, David Daker and Josiah Freston, and Pauline Morgan as The Woman in Black (seen left). There has also been a play version that has spent 23 years on London's West End. Here is a link to their website and if I ever make it over there, seeing the show is now on my to-do list.

Seeing a grown up Daniel Radcliffe was a bit surreal. His character, Arthur Kipps, is another reluctant hero and you can't help but draw parallels with Harry Potter. That, and the foggy, marshy, wasteland of a set, has you peeking around corners for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. 

Would I recommend seeing it? Yes, and in the theater too. Some of the visuals definitely benefit from the large screen format.

Birthday Mani

Freaky Friday my Children of the Night!

As you may remember Wednesday was The Boy's birthday. He turned 30 this year *eek!* and he's not too happy about it. I just refer to him as 29.99 with shipping and handling. Well when I asked him what mani he'd like to see for our dinner out this is what he asked for. I really had a hard time getting this color to photograph right. It's Sinful Colors 24/7 and I have since found out that it actually has a China Glaze dupe (Shocking Pink). It's an insanely shocking neon pink. One of these day's I'll swatch it on it's own. I love pink but this is a holy cow, day glow pink. Not anything I think I would ever wear on it's own.

Shade

Sun

Shade

As you can see some of the pictures give it a slightly purple cast in the shade that his color does *not* have. There is nothing purple at all about this color. The third picture is the most accurate. The formula is kinda streaky. It took three coats and the brush is terrible but for a $2 polish I am *not* going to complain. It's not bad enough I'm going to go out and buy the China Glaze dupe. I think the Sally Hanson Ink Splatter over it makes the pink do-able without being "holy cow look at that woman's nails! She looks like she belongs in an 80s movie!"

We didn't actually end up going out for his birthday. Instead we opted for dinner tonight and tickets to The Woman in Black. I'm hoping it's as good as the early reviews are saying. It's Daniel Radcliffe's first attempt as an 'adult' actor and I wish his career all the best.

Face Off Episode Four

I actually wasn't going to get around to posting today until I remembered that today is Thursday. That means Face Off was on last night. Last night was Night Terrors. They pulled a Scream movie bit and had Brea answering a cell phone at 3am (the witching hour) and getting everyone dressed and on a bus in 15 minutes. They were all driven to Linda Vista hospital, an abandoned hospital in Los Angeles that was built in the 1920s and is considered one of the most haunted locations in the country, where they were presented with their spotlight challenge.




Fears. We all have them, some more extreme or bizarre than others. This spotlight challenge the artists had to come up with a horror movie villain that personified a phobia. Once they chose a phobia they had 30 minutes, alone, in a dark room of the hospital, to sketch their creations. On day two the mystery judge was reviled; the incomparable Tom Savini! *swoon*




Here is the break down of each character:




Beki: Parasitophobia: The fear of parasites. She created this amazing (hideous) bug like creature. She also was the fastest sculptor by far, earning extra kudos from the judges.






(image source)





RJ: Xyrophobia or the fear of razors. The twisted, evil, doctor creature that RJ created is definitely something that would give me nightmares on the big screen. I could see this kind of character making an appearance in an Eli Roth film.






(image source)





Rayce: Cryophobia or the fear of frost, ice or extreme cold. This was an incredible design with a very poor application. His edges came up and were more than apparent. However due to his very creative design and follow-through of concept he still landed in the top three.






(image source)





Athena: Merinthophobia or the fear of being bound or tied up. Her concept of a rape victim gone rogue was excellent however her execution was just terrible. Her character was almost comical. I honestly would expect to see her creation in a Halloween party, not a movie.






(image source)





Ian: Odontophobia or the fear of teeth. Ian said he was going in a tooth fairy direction. I really expected to see some extension of a Del Toro Don't Be Afraid of the Dark monster. Instead, his slimy, disgusting, and completely MALE character was incredible. Is it just me or does he look like Ron Howard?






(image source)





Brea: Chemophobia or the fear of chemicals. Her creation was supposed to look as if it was covered with mustard gas burns. Instead it looked like a hairless chipmunk! It wasn't scary at all, instead it looked like something to pity.






(image source)





Heather: Ornithophobia or the fear of birds (this is where I make some vague reference to Tippi Hedren.) Her creature had a disgusting a symbiotic relationship with it's little bird minions.






(image source)





Matt: Xerophobia or the fear of dryness. Cool but not original. It looked to me a lot like the scarecrow from the first challenge.






(Image source)





Jerry: Electrophobia or the fear of electricity. His character was a doctor that was obsessed with elector-shock therapy. This moron got overly cocky and completely recast his mask not even bothering to remove it from the mold until he reached the final looks stage. It cost him too. The entire thing was a total train wreck. Instead of looking like his character concept it looked like he left the mask in the car to melt.






(image source)





Sue: Hadephobia or the fear of hell. Her character was a demon (I think) and the elements on their own were really cool but they didn't really mesh together to form a single visual thought.






(image source)


Tara: Ommetaphobia or the fear of eyes. She had no idea where to go with this character. She actually over complicated the entire process by over thinking the fear of eyes. She eventually came up with a half-baked Egyptian thing, She's lucky she was safe.






(image source)





Ian won for his amazing tooth fairy. Not only was it an original and fleshed out concept, his MacGuyver-esque use of cling wrap to texture the chest won him some serious extra points. They sent Brea home. The judges agreed that it was a half-assed execution. Personally I would have sent that ass Jerry home. He's been on the bottom every episode. This so far has been my favorite episode, movie monsters AND Tom Savini!!! *swoon*




Next week Sam Huntington from Being Human guest-stars with a whole bunch of real-life wild animals. The artists must create "beautiful but deadly" makeups inspired by animals. Here's a clip.




I hope y'all are enjoying this season as much as I am.