Meet My Pets

Happy New Years Eve!
I hope you all have fun plans for this occasion. Sadly, mine are to stay in bed and watch my Downton Abbey DVDs and fight this dreadful cold I currently have. But I figured with this free time I would make my very last blog post for 2013!

Meet My Pets

I will admit I am one of those "Crazy pet people" who think of their pets as their babies. So I decided why not introduce you to them, and show off their cuteness!

Reese

Reese is my eldest cat at about ten years old. She was named because of her tortoise shell coloring looking like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. At only six pounds, she is the tiniest of my cats, but the most ferocious! And she'll make sure all the other cats know it. She's also freakishly smart, and seems to enjoy giving me a fright at night by standing in random locations and waiting for me to turn the light on.

Orion. He's much sweeter than this picture suggests.

Orion is the second oldest. My family and I adopted him a month or so after Reese. He's also the biggest, weighing almost fourteen pounds! But I like to say he's not big, he's just fluffy! Though his name is Orion, we mostly just call him Puff. While he looks grumpy in this picture, he is actually a big scaredy cat! A forgotten shoe on the floor will leave him petrified. He is also a softy, and will befriend all the animals we bring into the house.

Molly

This lazy bones is Molly. She is actually the daughter of Reese and Orion, so I've had her since the day she was born. I even have a picture of her when she was just a day old. Now she is around eight! How time flies. She is the twin sister of Jojo, who recently past away this year. (I talk about it a bit here.) They were identical, though you could tell them apart a bit by the cute little multicolored patches on their faces.
Her nickname when she was a baby was Milkdud, because when she was tiny she fell into a bowl of milk butt first! :p It started as Milkbutt then evolved into Milkdud.

Jackson

Jackson is my spoiled baby! He is Molly's only litter with a cat we sadly had to give away, so I've also had him since the day he was born. Molly wasn't very good at mothering, so I used to have to bottle feed him with the most vile smelling kitten formula. But now he is grown and healthy. Though he is six years old now I still see him as a kitten! I assume that is why he gets away with murder.

Nova

This little cutie is Nova. She is 8 months old and quite the food connoisseur. I like to joke that she is like the rat Templeton from Charlotte's Web. Though her favorite food seems to be Cinnamon Toast Crunch, a rat after my own heart. I was an Avon rep when I adopted her, so her name is actually Avon backwards. This picture is her enjoying my new knit hat.

Xavier

Xavier is the youngest of the bunch. I adopted him in October (here) and he has been a cute handful ever since! He is six months old, and his favorite pass time is to wreak havoc and chase Reese to his hearts content. Though Reese isn't too pleased about it. His full name is Charles Francis Xavier, because my nerdiness knows no bounds, and Professor X is my favorite XMen character.

Francisco

Diago

These two cuties are actually my brother's. They are two year old guinea pigs who care more about their supply of carrots than us. But they are cute, so we put up with it.

Callie

Though she is my mother's dog, I consider her to be my god-dog. She is four years old and a total diva. She was adopted after a vacation my mother took to California, hence the name Callie. She is cute and knows it!

Mittens

And finally don't be fooled by the furry face, this terror is Mittens. He is a year old and full of trouble! If something can be climbed, knocked over, broken, or scratched, he will be all over it. He is also my mother's, but also my god-cat. I thought his name should have been Gandalf, because of his big white whiskers, but my nerdy request was overruled.

Thanks for reading! I hope this post wasn't too long, but I couldn't help showing off their cuteness. I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
- xo Brittany

Do you have any pets? Let me know in the comments!

Let it Snow...

I can't believe this is one of my last posts for 2013!

And what better way to end the year than with a nail design!
I missed making a Christmas themed design because of work, but I still wanted to celebrate my favorite season. And one of my favorite parts of this season is snow, so why not make some winter/snow themed nail art. I made a snowflake design last year, before I had this blog, so I already knew how to make them, so I just expanded on that design. -I'm thinking about making a tutorial on how to make the snowflakes, since I haven't made a tutorial in a long time. so hopefully I actually remember to do that! :p -


For this design I used Sally Hansen Gray by Gray as the base color for all my nails. For my striped nail I applied some striping tape, two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, then quickly removed the tape. I used the same white polish and a fine nail art brush to free hand the snowflakes on my ring finger, then applied some accent dots using Milani Art of Silver and Snow Me White. I finished both nails with a coat of my Essie Matte About You top coat for some interest next to my super glittery index finger and pinkie nails.
For those I used my new gorgeous Sally Hansen Triple Shine Sparks Fly. I used three coats over a coat of my Sally Hansen Gray by Gray. I finished both nails with a coat of my Revlon Quick Dry top coat, which I am retiring soon! It chips like mad, so I replaced it with an essie top coat from Ulta. Hopefully it's an improvement. If you have any suggestions for a good top coat, please let me know in the comments! I have been on the hunt for a good one Forever, and keep getting disappointed.

In natural light.

I like this design, though I was mad that I smudged my snowflakes a bit when I got too impatient to apply my top coat. And then when I tried to fix it, I just smudged it more! So I basically had to step away from the nail art brush and live with it, painful as that was... I was also thrilled to get to use my new Sally Hansen Sparks Fly, which is a beautiful blue based glitter that was just perfect for this design. It's just so cool and wintry.

I will have a post up tomorrow, so this is technically not my last post of the year, but I just want to wish you a Happy New Year, and thank you all for reading my blog! I know I don't have thousands of readers, but the fact that anyone finds my ramblings interesting is awesome, so thank you! Hopefully my blog will grow even more in 2014, and I can meet some more awesome bloggers along the way.
Though 2014 hasn't even started and it's already big for I Heart Nail Art, because later this week -Jan 3rd.- I will be posting my first PR review! -Eek!- I'm very excited, and I hope you like it.

Ok, I'm done being a soppy mess, I swear. Thanks for reading! To check out my previous nail designs click here.
- xo Brittany