Mani Monday: Shadow and Bone

So a while ago, I wrote about how much I LOVED Shadow and Bone. You know, "one of the best books of 2012." The book that gave me a "book hangover" for days and made it impossible to read anything else! I still haven't gotten this book out of my head. And in honor of the book club I was attending where this book was to be the topic of conversation, I painted my nails with a Shadow and Bone inspired motif. This actually doubly cool because I was looking around on author Leigh Bardugo's website and discovered she used to be a make up artist. She even had special Shadow and Bone nail polish she was giving out at some of her events like Comic Con (which I would have loved to be at!). Since I didn't get the official polish, I had to make do with my own supplies. Here's what I came up with:

I love the cover. After you've read the book

you can see all the symbolism there.

Close up on the nails.

Matte gray with 

black with glitter on 

ring finger accent.

Here's the polish I used to create the mani.

Wet 'n Wild: Black Creme

Spoiled: Shuffle the Deck

NYC: Steele

Hard Candy: Matte-ly in Love

(top coat to matte the gray)

Mani Monday in Morganville

Today is a MEGA post. I'm just finishing up reading Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine, book 8 in The Morganville Vampires series. (Approps title, lately I've been feeling like I've been kissed by death! Hmmm, a lil too ironic, don't you think? Bonus points for an Alanis Morissette reference! Score!!) I really enjoy the Morganville series, they are easy, fun, YA reads. 

The first book in the series is Glass Houses. I read it about a year ago so I won't even try to review it but obvs I liked cause I've kept reading! Basically, there are four main characters, Claire a 16 year old college student, Eve resident Goth chic, Shane the cute, cocky slacker, and Michael the gorgeous, sensitive musician. They all end up living together in some kind of catch all Frat house of sorts in a town of vampires. Each installment of the series focuses on the four dealing with some major (vamp) related problem.

Here's a summery of Glass Houses (from goodreads ):

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

Per wikipedia (which I know isn't always correct but seemed to have the most comprehensive list of the Morganville books) here are the Morganville books in reading order:

1. Glass Houses
2. The Dead Girls' Dance
3. Midnight Alley
4. Feast of Fools
5. Lord of Misrule
6. Carpe Corpus
7. Fade Out
8. Kiss of Death
9. Ghost Town
10. Bite Club
11. Last Breath
12. Black Dawn
13. Bitter Blood (scheduled November, 2012)

As of September 2011, an extra 3 books were contracted to the Morganville series bringing the total up to 15 books. The books will be released in hardback.


(Just 4 more to read and I'll be caught up with the books that are already out! YAY!)


I checked this copy of Kiss of Death out from the library and it looks "much loved" but I loved the cover with all the pink-the hair the words. (I love pink!) And there were several mentions of pink throughout the book, not always complementary to my color but that's ok. I got to thinking, it's been a while since I've done girlie girl nails so I decided to let the Kiss of Death cover inspire me. (Oh, yeah, there's a kick butt librarian in this book too! YaY! Goooo librarians! I know I love mine!)

Summary of Kiss of Death (from goodreads):

Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big- time producer who wants to cut a demo and play some gigs-which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he's been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael's all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell...

I loved this quote from Kiss of Death:

"Eve," Michael said, "horror movies are not documentaries."

Annnnd, I just wanted to mention I got to meet the author, Rachel Caine when she appeared at Dragon*Con last year. She was super sweet and even posed for a pic with me! Here we are me in all my Steampunk glory and Morganville mastermind, Rachel Caine.

Not too shabby for a Monday, you got 2 books and manicure. (Better late than never, right??) Have a MARVELOUS week!

OOOOO, I almost forgot today is the first day of Once Upon Readathon! I've gotten a slow start today with too many non-reading things to deal with today but tomorrow is gonna be my intense reading day!! Wish me luck!

Mani Monday (on a Tuesday): Independence Day Edition

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood

I love having my nails "themed" to whatever is going on. Since Wednesday is July 4th, Independence Day, I decided to do my nails in a patriotic design. I did a image search online saw lots of cool designs and finally just decided to try out a few of my own.

These are the colors I had to work with.

Here are some of the designs I was toying with. 

(These color wheel things are awesome! You can get them at the beauty supply store and they are pretty cheap!)

My patriotic heart beats red, white, and blue.

~Author Unknown

These are the colors I finally picked to use.

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all!
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
~John Dickinson

And here's my final manicure, kind of flag inspired if you will.

I painted my thumb and index finger with the dark blue and then a coat or two of silver glitter for the stars and then I painted my other three fingers with red and then used the white to make stripes. 

Hope you like it!

Happy 4th of July!