picking up hobbies - green yucky fingers

With the world being so small nowadays, all we want to do is travel. 

and now that I have come to understand more of the New Zealand ways of life, I see that all people want to do is graduate then do their OE "Overseas Experience" in London. 

For me, I take it that I have already done this "OE" since I moved here from Malaysia for university. So the last thing I wanted to do was uproot again. However, because you see their travel stories, it makes me think maybe, just maybe, I might do it. 

It is picking up hobbies that actually makes me want to stay in a place for long. For example, recently, I have been reading up on gardening. I bought a mint plant and am trying to keep it alive for once. If you are like me, who loves food, but hates dirt and all things insects, you will understand how this will be challenging hobby. But I love trying new things, so this will be my 2016 to do list! 

I have picked up some wooden pallets (heat treated so that it is safe to use) and decided on building a salad table. This is because they are all moveable and shallow planting, i.e. less soil! 

My goal, is to have some kale, baby spinach, lettuce, coriander and basil. I'm not sure when I will complete this project though. In the mean time, I am trying to save my little mint plant from dying. 

Some people are not meant to plant, i.e. me (I have gone through 2 mint plants and an oregano) but this year I am trying to change things. 

Do you feel this way about planting too? 
Check the link below and you might change you mind! 

http://www.grow-it-organically.com/salad-table.html

BOO - Halloween Art Deco

31st October - spooky. 

Growing up in Malaysia, Halloween was not a big thing at all. It was more like - what's halloween?

So even when I moved here, dressing up was not really my thing. Why waste money on a costume when I'm only going to wear it once and I can spend it elsewhere, like on food :p 

However I did throw the greatest party during my second year of uni with one of my best housemates, which was a Halloween party and Damnnnn.... it was good. We probably went so hard out, that I used up my Halloween quota for the rest of my life. There were dracula cookies, dirt cake, Photo walls, Red accent lights - all in one tiny apartment. Those were the good ol' days.

So few years later and still no dressing up. 

Instead, now I dress up my fingernails. I haven't bothered painting my nails because it has been getting ridges lately so I've wanted to air them. However, I've read somewhere that ridges are usually caused by some deficiencies and not so much nail polish, so to hell with it. Back on nail polish! 

I sometimes use an Essie base coat that helps with the ridges (fill the gap treatment), but today I couldn't be bothered as you have to let that dry and it just means thicker layers. So just normal OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.   

The colours I had were 

- OPI Alpine Snow (white)

- Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack? (black)

- Chinaglaze Starboard (green)

- Chinaglaze Passion (metallic gold)

- Chinaglaze Devotion (metallic silver)

- Jordana Pop Art design (black nail art striper) - if not a skinny art brush will work too and may even work better as the thinner your brush the more precision you get.  

Other tools I used was a dotting tool (if you don't have one, just use a bobby pin (that has the round bumpy end). 

If ever you're in America, you can buy nail polish and tools for less than $5 from Ebay. SO CHEAP! But in NZ, they are super expensive :( So I thankfully stocked up and never regretted it. Even though I don't even use it that often, it is there when you need it. However, given the poor exchange rate going on at the moment, it might not be that much of a difference buying online. 

For the nail art, I got the ideas off various sites when I typed halloween nail art. 

But my favourite easy DIY nail art link is: 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/lazy-girl-nail-art-ideas-that-are-actually-easy

This is where I got the "how to" for the black and white nails (main colours)

Mix it all up and you get nice interesting dressed up nails for Halloween, with minimal free hand drawing since I'm not good at it. 

Frankenstein -
This was hand drawn using the black nail striper, very carefully. Eyes were done using the dotting tool, black then white. 

Ghost face - using the dotting tool
Shadow tree - hand drawn using the nail striper and eerie clouds was done using the dotting tool. 

Look, I'm not a pro and definitely not a nail art blogger. 
So if you have a stash of nail polish with approximately 2 hrs of time (including drying and cleaning errors), just give it a shot! Start with only one unique nail so that there is less "Artsy" bits. 

Who cares if you don't have perfect nails, or smooth cuticles, just start drawing and enjoy your work of art :) 

Also, for some reason, these nail polish usually only last 3 or 4 days before they start chipping away. I think it is the way I use my hands (lots of cooking and washing) but that also means, I can get rid of them and start thinking what my next fun nails should be :D 

Try it out guys and let me know how it went :D  

Have a BOO-tiful night everyone!