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| Hey there. |
Several of the pics are unfortunately blurry because those darn animals just wouldn't stop moving to pose for me! But I hope you like them anyway. There are a lot, so I'll put them after the jump...
Monday, October 7, 2013
Visit to the New England Aquarium
Hey all! This weekend my parents came to visit us, and we took a trip to the New England Aquarium in Boston. This place is definitely worth a visit if you're interested in nature at all--it has a ton of exhibits with a huge variety of species! I took a bunch of pictures there and I thought I'd post some of them for you.
Several of the pics are unfortunately blurry because those darn animals just wouldn't stop moving to pose for me! But I hope you like them anyway. There are a lot, so I'll put them after the jump...
Several of the pics are unfortunately blurry because those darn animals just wouldn't stop moving to pose for me! But I hope you like them anyway. There are a lot, so I'll put them after the jump...
Six-month bloggiversary giveaway!!
Well, dear readers, today my blog has been alive for exactly six months. The time has gone by so quickly! I'm so grateful for everyone who's followed, liked and left comments. And to show my gratitude, I'm having a giveaway!!
The prize has been generously donated by Andrea at Indigo Bananas, which is fitting, since my very first blog post was a review of her polish Anansi (still one of my favorites!). Indigo Bananas is becoming well-known throughout the indie polish world for beautiful glass fleck, multichrome and holographic polishes. And now she's making glow-in-the-dark polish too!
That's right, the winner will get their choice of two polishes from Indigo Bananas' new collection! Here are descriptions of each polish (visit her Etsy shop to check out swatches):
Now for the nitty gritty: the giveaway is open internationally. You have to give your email address to enter (so I can contact you if you win!), but all other entries are optional. The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise I'll choose a new winner. All entries will be verified, so no cheating!
Giveaway ends on October 21 at midnight (EST)! Good luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The prize has been generously donated by Andrea at Indigo Bananas, which is fitting, since my very first blog post was a review of her polish Anansi (still one of my favorites!). Indigo Bananas is becoming well-known throughout the indie polish world for beautiful glass fleck, multichrome and holographic polishes. And now she's making glow-in-the-dark polish too!
That's right, the winner will get their choice of two polishes from Indigo Bananas' new collection! Here are descriptions of each polish (visit her Etsy shop to check out swatches):
- Medusa Transducer: charcoal jelly with orange-gold-green shifting iridescent glitter, a mix of microshimmers, and glows teal in the dark!
- Enchante: red jelly with black glitter, glows blue in the dark
- The Secret to Life: dark purple jelly filled with a complex mix of flakies - pink, purple, silver, blue predominantly are visible, along with larger (real) silver flakies and violet iridescent shreds that shift color from green-blue to blue to violet
- Moonlight (Clair de lune): real silver flakie based polish that has purple, black and holographic microglitter
- Earthshine (Clair de terre): dark green jelly polish packed with many types of shimmer, flakies and glass fleck pigments. Larger silver flakes are interspersed with pink, blue, black, violet, red, gold and silver flakies
- Wise Up, Janet!: glass fleck based linear holographic polish that is lavender leaning lilac with a strong silver flash to it
- Great Scott!: medium blue heavy fleck polish with strong green-gold shimmer, and scattered holographic microglitter, glows strongly blue in the dark
- Hope: released for breast cancer awareness month, a linear holographic pink polish with subtle pink/gold shimmer
- Lime Warp: bright, lime green glass fleck shimmer, with scattered holographic microglitter, that grows a bright green in the dark
- green, teal, and blue glow-in-the-dark topcoats!
Now for the nitty gritty: the giveaway is open internationally. You have to give your email address to enter (so I can contact you if you win!), but all other entries are optional. The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise I'll choose a new winner. All entries will be verified, so no cheating!
Giveaway ends on October 21 at midnight (EST)! Good luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Friday, October 4, 2013
Swatch: Indigo Bananas Immortal Game
The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Today I've got some pics of an Indigo Bananas polish that came out this summer in the Fiery the Angels Fell collection (inspired by Blade Runner). Immortal Game is a teal crelly with pink-to-gold shifting glass flecks, plus some purple flecks and holo microglitter. My pics really don't do this polish justice--the pink shimmer is way more prominent to the eye than it seems here. It's mesmerizing to look at!
It was tricky to capture the gold color shift, but I got a little bit of it here:
The formula, as usual, was lovely and easy to use. And I only needed two coats! Teal is, of course, one of my favorite colors, so I'm gonna be wearing this for as long as possible (good thing Indigo Bananas polishes tend to wear like iron!).
By the way, there's another reason why I'm showing you an Indigo Bananas polish right now, but you'll have to check back on Monday to find out why. ;-)
Immortal Game is available at Indigo Bananas' Etsy shop ($10 for 15 ml or $6.25 for 8 ml); she ships internationally! You can also find Indigo Bananas on Facebook and Instagram
The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Today I've got some pics of an Indigo Bananas polish that came out this summer in the Fiery the Angels Fell collection (inspired by Blade Runner). Immortal Game is a teal crelly with pink-to-gold shifting glass flecks, plus some purple flecks and holo microglitter. My pics really don't do this polish justice--the pink shimmer is way more prominent to the eye than it seems here. It's mesmerizing to look at!
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| Indigo Bananas Immortal Game, two coats, plus Out the Door topcoat. |
It was tricky to capture the gold color shift, but I got a little bit of it here:
The formula, as usual, was lovely and easy to use. And I only needed two coats! Teal is, of course, one of my favorite colors, so I'm gonna be wearing this for as long as possible (good thing Indigo Bananas polishes tend to wear like iron!).
By the way, there's another reason why I'm showing you an Indigo Bananas polish right now, but you'll have to check back on Monday to find out why. ;-)
Immortal Game is available at Indigo Bananas' Etsy shop ($10 for 15 ml or $6.25 for 8 ml); she ships internationally! You can also find Indigo Bananas on Facebook and Instagram
The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Swatch: Incoco Bone Rattling nail polish appliques
The product in this post was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Is anyone getting excited for Halloween yet? This is the first year we might get trick-or-treaters coming to our door, and I can't wait!
If you're already thinking about your Halloween mani, check out these creepy-yet-cute appliques from Incoco's new Fright Night collection! They're made of nail polish and are very stretchy, so they're easy to put on and remove. (For an in-depth review, read my first Incoco post.)
Like previous Incoco nail polish appliques I've tried, the Bone Rattling wraps applied nicely with no wrinkles thanks to their stretchiness. It might be my imagination, but I think these were a little more resistant to tearing than the earlier ones--maybe they've tweaked the formula? The one issue I had was that occasionally the strips didn't want to stick on the corners of my nails. For that reason I added topcoat after I photographed my nails, even though you're not supposed to need topcoat with these.
Oh, and did I mention they glow in the dark??
Spooooky! You do have to charge these immediately beforehand, or the glow will be weaker. I had my nails under a bright light while swatching, and then took this pic, but twenty minutes later (after sitting in normal indoor light) I went back into a dark room and they weren't glowing as much.
Bone Rattling appliques are available (along with five other Halloween patterns) at Incoco.com for $9.99. You can also follow Incoco on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram!
The product in this post was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Is anyone getting excited for Halloween yet? This is the first year we might get trick-or-treaters coming to our door, and I can't wait!
If you're already thinking about your Halloween mani, check out these creepy-yet-cute appliques from Incoco's new Fright Night collection! They're made of nail polish and are very stretchy, so they're easy to put on and remove. (For an in-depth review, read my first Incoco post.)
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| Incoco Bone Rattling nail polish appliques. No topcoat. |
Like previous Incoco nail polish appliques I've tried, the Bone Rattling wraps applied nicely with no wrinkles thanks to their stretchiness. It might be my imagination, but I think these were a little more resistant to tearing than the earlier ones--maybe they've tweaked the formula? The one issue I had was that occasionally the strips didn't want to stick on the corners of my nails. For that reason I added topcoat after I photographed my nails, even though you're not supposed to need topcoat with these.
Oh, and did I mention they glow in the dark??
Spooooky! You do have to charge these immediately beforehand, or the glow will be weaker. I had my nails under a bright light while swatching, and then took this pic, but twenty minutes later (after sitting in normal indoor light) I went back into a dark room and they weren't glowing as much.
Bone Rattling appliques are available (along with five other Halloween patterns) at Incoco.com for $9.99. You can also follow Incoco on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram!
The product in this post was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
31-Day Challenge #31: honor nails you love
Well, I made it...the final day of the 31-Day Challenge! I almost can't believe I managed to do 31 manis in a row. There were definitely some days when I really didn't feel like painting my nails, but in the end I'm glad I stuck it out. This month I tried several techniques for the first time and expanded my repertoire of nail art by quite a lot; I also discovered many great blogs to follow! I'm looking forward to doing the challenge again next year (but not before, heh!).
The final prompt is "honor nails you love". I think my favorite nail art blogger has to be Chalkboard Nails; she has impeccable technique, her nails always look fantastic, plus she takes perfect photos! I decided to reproduce her metallic mani from Day 8 of this challenge. When I saw her pictures, I thought, "whoa, how did she do that??" but it turned out to be very simple! (The best kind of nail art!)
Instead of a gradient, I randomly sponged on several metallic polishes for the base color. (I think it turned out a little too subtle.) I used China Glaze Swing Baby, Sephora by OPI I Only Shop Vintage, Revlon Enthrall, Hard Candy Crush on Tin, and OPI The World is Not Enough. For the "distressed" effect I applied Revlon Stiletto after wiping most of the polish off the brush.
I made another collage for the final third of the challenge. Click to see my previous manis!
I also thought I'd be slightly vain for a moment and pick the challenge manis I'm most proud of. I think my top three would have to be:
#21 Inspired by a Color--my version of a waterfall mani. I just think it turned out really pretty, and apparently it's my #1 challenge mani among visitors to the blog!
#23 Inspired by a Movie--probably my best freehand effort so far. It's not perfect, but it makes me smile!
#30 Inspired by a tutorial--one-stroke flowers. The one-stroke technique is one I've been interested in for a long time, but never managed to get right until this time.
OK, that's all, folks. Now I'm off to give my nails a break for a few days. :-D Don't forget to check out the final challenge posts from all these other lovely ladies! (And thanks again to More Nail Polish for organizing the linkup!)
The final prompt is "honor nails you love". I think my favorite nail art blogger has to be Chalkboard Nails; she has impeccable technique, her nails always look fantastic, plus she takes perfect photos! I decided to reproduce her metallic mani from Day 8 of this challenge. When I saw her pictures, I thought, "whoa, how did she do that??" but it turned out to be very simple! (The best kind of nail art!)
Instead of a gradient, I randomly sponged on several metallic polishes for the base color. (I think it turned out a little too subtle.) I used China Glaze Swing Baby, Sephora by OPI I Only Shop Vintage, Revlon Enthrall, Hard Candy Crush on Tin, and OPI The World is Not Enough. For the "distressed" effect I applied Revlon Stiletto after wiping most of the polish off the brush.
I made another collage for the final third of the challenge. Click to see my previous manis!
I also thought I'd be slightly vain for a moment and pick the challenge manis I'm most proud of. I think my top three would have to be:
#21 Inspired by a Color--my version of a waterfall mani. I just think it turned out really pretty, and apparently it's my #1 challenge mani among visitors to the blog!
#23 Inspired by a Movie--probably my best freehand effort so far. It's not perfect, but it makes me smile!
#30 Inspired by a tutorial--one-stroke flowers. The one-stroke technique is one I've been interested in for a long time, but never managed to get right until this time.
OK, that's all, folks. Now I'm off to give my nails a break for a few days. :-D Don't forget to check out the final challenge posts from all these other lovely ladies! (And thanks again to More Nail Polish for organizing the linkup!)
Monday, September 30, 2013
Ask a linguist: To creak or not to creak?
I got this question the other day from P.D. (who may or may not be related to me): "What do you think of the 'creaky voice' syndrome that seems to be so pervasive among young females in the U.S.?"
I had to do a bit of research before I could respond to this, and it turns out creaky voice is kind of a fraught issue that isn't completely understood. But I'll do my best!
First of all, what exactly is creaky voice (aka vocal fry)? This video gives an exaggerated example so you can hear it clearly--you'll probably recognize it once you hear it (but you can ignore the rest of her rant):
To produce creaky voice, you compress your vocal cords, which makes them slacken and vibrate slowly and irregularly. This is why creaky voice sounds low-pitched and, well, creaky. Here's a visualization of my voice saying "alphabet":
The dark vertical bars each represent a single vibration of my vocal cords. In the first "a" sound, the bars are regularly spaced and close together; this is normal voicing. During the "e" sound, you can see that the bars are more spread out and irregularly spaced--this is creaky voice. (The blue line shows my pitch; the program I used to make this image gets easily confused about the pitch of creaky vowels, which is why I apparently have no pitch there.)
It turns out that everyone uses creaky voice sometimes, especially at the end of a sentence. It's often correlated with low pitch (also frequent at the end of a sentence). I didn't really try to say "alphabet" with creaky voice; it just happened naturally, and I'm not a particularly creaky talker. And this is true of people of all ages, not just young people.
Researchers have also discovered that creaky voice in English and other languages can have a paralinguistic function: that is, it doesn't directly affect the meaning of what you say, but it does aid in communication in some way. For example, it can be used to signal the end of your "turn" in a conversation. In Australian English, creak can signify that you have low solidarity with the person you're talking to. And if you say "yeah" with creaky voice during a conversation, it can mean that you're allowing the other person to take their turn talking, or that you want them to change the subject.
So creaky voice is not restricted to teenage girls. But it hasn't been fully established who actually uses it the most. (For a longer discussion, see this post at Language Log.) This is what I've been able to glean:
So, bottom line, creaky voice has been around forever and has several conversational and social functions. So try not to let it bother you!
P.S. There are some languages (including several native Mexican languages) that use creak contrastively; that is, a word with a creaky vowel will have a different meaning than the same word with a normal vowel. Creak is a pretty versatile thing!
I had to do a bit of research before I could respond to this, and it turns out creaky voice is kind of a fraught issue that isn't completely understood. But I'll do my best!
First of all, what exactly is creaky voice (aka vocal fry)? This video gives an exaggerated example so you can hear it clearly--you'll probably recognize it once you hear it (but you can ignore the rest of her rant):
To produce creaky voice, you compress your vocal cords, which makes them slacken and vibrate slowly and irregularly. This is why creaky voice sounds low-pitched and, well, creaky. Here's a visualization of my voice saying "alphabet":
The dark vertical bars each represent a single vibration of my vocal cords. In the first "a" sound, the bars are regularly spaced and close together; this is normal voicing. During the "e" sound, you can see that the bars are more spread out and irregularly spaced--this is creaky voice. (The blue line shows my pitch; the program I used to make this image gets easily confused about the pitch of creaky vowels, which is why I apparently have no pitch there.)
It turns out that everyone uses creaky voice sometimes, especially at the end of a sentence. It's often correlated with low pitch (also frequent at the end of a sentence). I didn't really try to say "alphabet" with creaky voice; it just happened naturally, and I'm not a particularly creaky talker. And this is true of people of all ages, not just young people.
Researchers have also discovered that creaky voice in English and other languages can have a paralinguistic function: that is, it doesn't directly affect the meaning of what you say, but it does aid in communication in some way. For example, it can be used to signal the end of your "turn" in a conversation. In Australian English, creak can signify that you have low solidarity with the person you're talking to. And if you say "yeah" with creaky voice during a conversation, it can mean that you're allowing the other person to take their turn talking, or that you want them to change the subject.
So creaky voice is not restricted to teenage girls. But it hasn't been fully established who actually uses it the most. (For a longer discussion, see this post at Language Log.) This is what I've been able to glean:
- Creaky voice has to some extent been associated with men in the past (it sounds kind of tough and growly, I guess).
- There is some evidence that extensive creaky voice is used by young women on the West Coast, and possibly spread from there. But older women might use it more than men too.
- Creaky voice is perceived by many young people as informal, urban and upwardly-mobile.
- Unexpectedly, NPR interviewers apparently use a lot of creaky voice! Maybe it makes them sound calmer and more disinterested?
So, bottom line, creaky voice has been around forever and has several conversational and social functions. So try not to let it bother you!
P.S. There are some languages (including several native Mexican languages) that use creak contrastively; that is, a word with a creaky vowel will have a different meaning than the same word with a normal vowel. Creak is a pretty versatile thing!
31-Day Challenge #30: inspired by a tutorial
Second to last challenge! Can't believe I'm almost done! It was hard to choose what to do for today's prompt, since there are so many awesome tutorials out there. I settled on this "one stroke abstract petals" tutorial at Lucy's Stash--she is really talented!
This is my first successful attempt at the one-stroke technique! The background color is Sephora by OPI Merry Me, and the flowers are all acrylic paint.
And here's your cute Trudy pic of the day:
Is everyone else pumped for the final challenge tomorrow?? Here are the rest of today's manis:
This is my first successful attempt at the one-stroke technique! The background color is Sephora by OPI Merry Me, and the flowers are all acrylic paint.
And here's your cute Trudy pic of the day:
Is everyone else pumped for the final challenge tomorrow?? Here are the rest of today's manis:
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