NOTD: Basket Weave

I swear, my blog has basically turned into a nail polish & nail art blog. I hope you guys don't mind... I've just been so cooped up working on my different art pieces for reapplication to the MFA program (still not sure about which schools to apply to; put all of my eggs in one basket or apply to mostly backup schools? Ughhhhh, this is one process I will never miss) this Winter. Basically, I haven't had much time to do anything else other than draw, paint, get orientation things for my new job (yes, I got the position that I talked about awhile ago!!) done, etc etc. 

The one way that I love to unwind after all of the madness is painting my nails and this is my newest creation. Take the jump, as usual, for details!

essie - mink muffs / Revlon - Gray Suede

It kind of killed me to just type in "gray" for that polish name. I'm definitely a "grey" kind of girl, but this is one of my absolute favorite nail polishes (and coming from a girl that has probably upwards of 100 polishes [please only judge me a little bit], that's saying a LOT); it's an absolutely beautiful light taupe grey with a very slight shimmer to it. I love wearing this on its own, but today... well, today I wanted to do something a bit more extravagant.

So, in addition to my beloved "Gray Suede", I added in essie's "mink muffs" to the mix. I'm actually REALLY surprised that I haven't heard more about this polish... actually, I haven't heard ANYTHING about this polish!! It definitely has one of the better formulations of essie polishes (and, as you may or may not know, I'm not the biggest fan of essie) and the color is gorgeous; it's almost an exact dupe for O.P.I.'s "You Don't Know Jacques!" being only a half shade or so lighter.

I'm actually really pleased with how this nail design turned out!! I pretty much winged it and just went crazy with different hatch lines and this was the final product. All I did was apply the base coat of "mink muffs", let that dry, then applied random lines mirroring that of a nonsensical basket weave pattern with a thin, crappy craft brush.

Surprisingly this was a bit harder of a design to do than my Burberry inspired nails (thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback and compliments, by the way!!) but I got it done and, like said, am quite tickled with the way these look. It's a bold design but I think the more muted colors help balace out the punch these pack.

And what would a blog post from me be without a picture of Galileo included, hmm? He's starting to get so big and his coat is so fluffy and soft!! My little man is really growing up *tear*...

So how has your weekend been?

What's your favorite way to unwind from the madness of the working world?

Are you a "gray" or a "grey" person (silly question, I know, but I feel quite strongly about the 'proper' way to spell it haha)?

Do share!

xoxo - Cassie