Pretty Plumerias

When I was 14, I went to the Philippines on vacation with my parents. There were these cute white flowers that I would pick off trees and magical stuff like that, just collecting them and putting them in my hair.

These flowers are just so darned pretty! I hadn't thought much about these flowers until I saw them when I went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens at the beginning of this summer.

And then again when I bought these really cute earrings at the CNE!

Obviously, the last step was to put them onto my nails.

If you notice the black spots underneath the pinky, that was simply an experiment to see if permanent marker would mark my nails permanently. They did. But the focal point is really the flowers, so please pay the spots no mind. (They also spell out OMG, which is kind of embarrassing, so...don't look at it, LOL)

The base colour is Coral Reef from Sally Hansen, and the flowers were painted in white and yellow acrylic paints. I would have wanted the flowers to be more white, but I only had slightly off-white acrylic paint left, and since I did this on Labour Day I could go and get some. 

It turned out just okay, but I have to work on my art skills, clearly. I really liked the white on this pink, though. PRETTY.

Smells Like School Spirit

Now, I am willing to bet a moderate-sized amount of money that if you were to ask 10 students who trudged down St. George St. on any given weekday morning if they loved (and the word is loved) U of T, at least 8 of them would hesitate, kick the toe of their shoe against one of the various potholes in the sidewalk/crosswalk/you name it, and give you a very half-hearted, "I guess..." (emphasis on the ellipsis).

I would also be willing to bet a significant amount of money that if you asked 10 students inside a certain glass building on the corner of University Ave. and College St. if they loved U of T, 11 of them would tell you a flat out "NO", and then go on to talk about how much they loved wherever it was that they came from. (Unless, of course, you went to U of T before, in which case you never knew what you were missing and instead you moan about how difficult your life has been up to this point, the robots you interacted with in your x number of years in undergrad, yadda yadda yadda.)

There are a number of inexplicable reasons for the results of the first thought experiment, and a truckload of perfectly good and solid reasons why the hypothesis of the second experiment is true -- in fact, it's not even a thought experiment anymore...it's 110% tested and true.

But, this reverses once each year in March, when every man, woman, and child-like individual in said glass building (or, at least the ones who have a pulse and actually have a social life) suddenly gets their school spirit on and believes for just a few hours that they are #1. (Not second rate, like the stuff they've been learning over the last few years has caused them to feel.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, today is the OPA Cup.

This is me and my friend, Susan, who I am going to blog about on another day, since I have managed to turn her over to the dark (nail polish) side. I would post another picture that conveys that the OPA cup is indeed a hockey game, between U of T and Waterloo, but all the ones that I have either don't have me in it (since I took them all), or involve shirtless men who may or may not approve of me posting the pictures up here. :P

In preparation, I did a manicure, of course:

Left hand, with flash

Left Hand, no flash

Right Hand, no flash

This actually is my first manicure using my Konad kit. The stars are from the M3 plate, using Konad Special White Polish on top of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red. The ring fingers are painted with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Thinking of Blue, and the Blues logo is painted on with acrylic paints. I felt as though Konad was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but then again I wasn't taking care to align any designs perfectly, and I messed up my right middle finger, so it's hard to tell. Additionally, acrylic paints are the best!! You can make a mistake and it just washes off. Sally Hansen Nail Art pens do the same, but they are less flexible in terms of design, and they also go for $5 each, so...

Also, is anyone else impressed by how I can seemingly draw maple leaves better with my left hand than with my right?

So, I guess that's all for now. Come tomorrow night at this time, I'll be back to my hating on U of T self, so I'd better enjoy it while it lasts. I know that last year Waterloo thrashed us like they're probably going to do to us in the future with their knowledge and general preparedness for LIFE, but...here's to hoping. Go U of T! :D

17 days down, 23 to go!