Well hello, there! Long time no post.
Sorry I've been MIA recently, but life just got in the way and will continue to be pretty crazy until after my graduation at the end of the month. I hadn't checked Bloglovin' in a little over a month and I almost had a heart attack when I saw the number of unread posts: 3,582. Wow. I guess you know you've been slacking in the nail blogging world when you start looking through on Bloglovin' and you see all these new spring/summer collections came out without you knowing... :( But, I have a whole bunch of polishes to swatch as well as some nail art stuff to squeeze in this month! So I'm glad to be back and catching up. :)
Anyway, this post has been long overdue but I have been nominated for the Liebester Award twice in one week by two fellow polish bloggers: Frankie from
Frankie Hunters Nails and Angela from
Older Ladies Like Color Too!
So here's Frankie's questions:
1. What was the first polish you purchased and why?
I don't have it any more so I don't know the name of it, but it was a black Sally Hansen polish with rainbow microglitter. I got this polish to go with my pirate halloween costume when I was 10. It's hard to believe that it was 8 years ago when I bought my first polish!
2. Would you move to the other end of the world for love?
Hmmmmm...good question. I love living in the Chicago area, so I think it would take a LOT for me to leave. But if it was true love, then maybe :)
3. What does your dream polish look like (it doesn't matter if it exists or not)?
You know those sea green-colored crayola crayons?
Well I LOVE that color so my dream polish would be a sea green color with a slightly darker green microshimmer and mini silver hex glitter. If anyone knows of a polish like that let me know! But if one like this ever comes out, I can promise you I'll be one of the first people in line to buy it haha. This polish would make me think of Lake Michigan :)
4.
Show us your nail art masterpiece so far (please add a link if possible)!
Well...I'm not very good at nail art, but I would say my favorite one of mine recently is just the one I did with some blue
ombre stripes and a little gold heart. Even though it's very simple, it was pretty cute!
5. Tell us about a nail art technique you haven't tried yet and why!
Water marbling. I always wanted to try it and I have seen some really cool water marble designs by people who make it look real easy, but I just feel like it would take me a while to get the hang of it. So maybe when I have time this summer I'll try it!
6. Which person, doesn't matter if dead, alive or fictional, do you want to meet?
This is a hard question, but I would want to meet my great grandmother. She died about three weeks before I was born, and my Mom tells me that my great grandma really wanted to be able to meet me, but knew that she wouldn't be there by the time I was born. So I'd want to meet her :)
7. What's your favorite book and why?
Literature wise, my favorite is probably
A Tale of Two Cities. I loved reading about some of the themes in it, and I had an English teacher who really went into depth about the imagery behind some of the scenes which made it interesting.
Outside of the books I read in English, there are just to many that I liked to name a favorite! Some of my favorites are the
I am Number Four series by a couple people under the pseudonym Pittacus Lore, the
Divergent series by Veronica Roth,
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz,
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, and anything my Nicholas Sparks. What can I say? I still love teen fiction in a variety of genres!
8. Wellness trip or adventure holiday?
I would have to say adventure holiday. Even if I were to go on a trip to get away for a little while and relax, you wouldn't find me just chilling the whole time. I love to explore new cities and places, and see all they have to offer!
9. How would your friends describe you?
Probably as nice, good friend as well as a good listener. My friends sometimes joke that if I'm not listening, no one is listening.
10. Burger King or McDonald's?
I would have to say McDonald's because I love McDonald's iced coffees!
11. What or whom wouldn't you want to miss in your life?
I wouldn't want to live without my family. My family is always there for me, so I wouldn't want to be missing them in my life!
And now for Angela's questions:
1. What was the inspiration for the name of your blog?
Good question...my little sister came up with the name! The first nail art I attempted was clouds, and when I told my sister that I was going to start a nail blog/showed her the cloud design I had done on my nails, she correlated clouds with "dreams" and came up with the blog name Dream It Up Nails!
2. Do you have a dedicated nail/beauty room or just a small space?
I don't actually have a dedicated room where I paint my nails, I just use an old night stand that I have in my room. Not only do I use my night stand for a surface to paint my nails, but I also keep my nail polishes in my night stand's drawers.
3. What is your favorite mainstream polish and your favorite indie polish?
It's so hard to pick favorites!! But a couple of my favorite mainstreams right now are China Glaze Seahorsin' Around and OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-Go? As for indies, I haven't actually owned any indie polishes before...sad right?! I've been absolutely drooling over all the gorgeous spring indie polishes (especially glitters!). However, I literally just got my first indie polishes in the mail yesterday from Ellison's Organics, and I can't wait to try them! :)
4. What are some of your hobbies?
Other than blogging and painting my nails, I play the violin! I've been playing for 9 years in school orchestras, as well as the pit orchestra for my school's musical productions of Les Miserables, Disney's Beauty & the Beast, and The Sound of Music. And I don't know if you'd count this as a hobby or anything, but I might be a (slight) shopaholic lol.
5. If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I would have to say Rome, Italy for this one. I've always wanted to go to Italy mostly because it's so rich in culture and history, but I also wouldn't mind some authentic Italian food!
6. Do you see yourself blogging 5 years from now?
Hopefully! Life gets in the way sometimes, but I don't see my nail polish obsession stopping anytime soon! I also started a lifestyle blog that I'd like to do in addition to this one, that will be about anything from college life, to beauty products, to fitness, or anything else that comes to mind. I guess we'll see how the new blog goes, but I will definitely try to keep blogging on Dream It Up Nails!
7. Do you like it quiet while you blog or do you need background noise?
I generally like it quiet while I blog because otherwise I get distracted!
8. What do you
want to be when you grow up? (I believe we are all kids, at heart, and
it's never too late to be what you want to be!)
I'll be going off to college next year and I'm planning on double majoring in Accounting and Finance. So hopefully after graduating from college, I'll be able to work for a company in the city! You know what would be even cooler? If I could work for a beauty company! :)
9. Morning person or night owl?
Can I say both? During the week I have no problem getting up early. However on the weekends, I usually stay up later and sleep in pretty late.
10. Any special plans for the summer?
Not really...just getting ready to go away for college. I have orientation for my school in late June, and I also have a little summer job teaching swim lessons at a local park district. So I'll be keeping myself pretty busy!
11. And last, but not least, what lead you to starting your own blog?
Long story short, I always loved nail polish. I used to see all my friends go to the salon to get their nails done, but my Mom never let me because she never understood why I would need to get my nails done if I owned nail polish of my own. So after seeing my friends get cute little designs drawn on their nails at the salon, one day I googled "nail designs" and thought that maybe I could recreate a design onto my nails. And when thousands and thousand of nail design images came up, I was utterly amazed. After clicking on some of the pictures, I was led to some nail blogs and couldn't believe how awesome their nail art was. I had no idea that there were so many people out there who like nail polish as much, if not more, than me. So after looking through a countless number of nail blogs, I finally decided that I wanted to join in on the fun and make a nail blog myself. And the rest is history... ;)
So thank you again to Angela and Frankie for nominating for the Liebester Award! However, since I had already been nominated once before, I think I will pass on nominating anyone...but if you are reading this, have less than 200 followers, and haven't been nominated before, I nominate YOU! Feel free to pick one of the sets of questions above to answer! :)
Thanks for stopping by!
♥ Colleen