Polish Review: Spiffy Polish

If you were a teenaged girl in the 90’s, you understand the resurgence then of the word “Spiffy”. Used mainly in the 50’s and later in the 90’s; spiffy is another term for awesome, neat, swell, etc etc. And I over used it, and still do to this day LOL.

When I came across the Etsy Shop A Girl Named Spifficus I was set back… Surely she didn’t use the hallowed term and created an awesome shop name with it. So I messaged her, and told her that I thought her name was fabulous. Come to find out, she too, uses the term freely.

Now I have a spiffy bosom friend.

Anyways, I digress. Heather, the owner and creator behind Spifficus not only makes beautiful, one of a kind polishes, she also does some AWESOME work with journals and the like, making completely handmade gorgeous little works of art. I’ll be purchasing one of her journals very, very soon… But until then, you can get a glimpse of her stunning polishes.

The first up is 11 Meters Per Second, designed after Month Python and the Holy Grail’s ultimate question… Just how fast can an European Swallow fly?

11 Meters is a beautiful deep blue jelly base with golden bar glitter and semi-transparent white square glitter. It also has a gold-pink shift to it in the sun, but I couldn’t catch it very well in the watery sunlight we have going on today.

This is three thin coats by itself. Please, excuse the poor cleanup on the top nail, I had a small acetone accident.

Next up is Rules of Acquisition, a Star Trek inspired beauty:

The Rules of Acquisition is a beautiful golden holographic topper, full of different sizes and shapes of gold and silver glitter.

This is three coats of The Rules of Acquisition by itself.

Sooo beautiful. And even with all that glitter, it lies so flat and smooth.

Lastly, I have The Ambassador, modeled after Firefly’s character Inara, The Ambassador.

The Ambassador is a beautiful burgundy crème shimmer.

It is truly stunning and flawless. Three coats make sure of that, but only two would have sufficed.

Without flash

With flash.

It also works great as a base for The Rules of Acquisition.

It really makes this beautiful topper pop.

You can find most of these polishes in her Etsy shop, with more beauties to come soon. Also show her some Witchie-love on her facebook page.

Polish Review: Literary Lacquers

I have three gorgeous polishes from Literary Lacquers up on the blog today. All of Amy’s polishes are phenomenal but these three are works of holo genius!

Goodnight Moon, a part of her Community Collection is a beautiful mix of “holographic sparkle, chrome silver glitter, and blue holographic and silver moon shaped glitters” in a sparkling deep blue jelly base.

It of course, appeals to my want of all things blue, and the moons are a pretty danged cute touch if I do say so myself.

It goes on line a dream and is relatively opaque in 3 coats.

And it’s so freaking pretty. But then again… I really, really love anything blue… And sparkly….

As the Waltz Was Ending is up next, another in the Community Collection, this stunner is listed as a pinky-purple crelly holographic polish.

It has a very strong holographic sheen to it which just sparkles like mad.

Two coats was all it took to reach opacity with this baby.

Sooooo prettiful!!!

Love You Forever is a medium blue holo crelly in the Community Collection.

It’s a stunner! and such a pretty sky blue with just a hint of electricity.

Just happened to catch the last of the sunlight before it went to stay behind a cloud.

While it’s stunning, it’s not all up in your face and obnoxious… Unlike me.

Last up is Phenomenal Woman, the last up in the Community Collection. It’s listed as a “burgundy to purple-y color shifting holographic” and that’s certainly what it is.

It is so multi-faceted it’s ridiculous.

With flash

As always, Amy never fails to please. You can purchase these and her other gorgeous polishes at her Etsy store and make sure to like her Facebook page for updates, restocks and the occasional coupon code.

Witchy Stitches: Back Stitch

The first few stitches I will show you will be super easy. They’re usually used as outline stitches for your projects.

Your first stitch will be back stitching. As you see here, it’s used as a border, but also as a filler stitch, using three different colors of floss to make the bubbles.

Most of Witchie’s stitches in her hat, the cat, her eyes, eyebrows, mouth and face are back stitching.

Step one. Start out your thread with a teeny tiny little knot at the end and snip off any tail that might be left. When you’re first learning how to embroider, knotting the end is the best bet to secure your stitches. As you become more familiar with it, you can leave the end strand loose and just stitch it into the back of the piece you’re doing. I’ll show you how to do that another time.

Go up through your fabric.

Then go down one stitch length behind your beginning hole.

Pull the thread taut.

Go up through the thread one stitch length from the first beginning stitch and down through the fabric right next to the first beginning stitch.

Pull taut and continue until you have your first few rows of back stitching.

To end your line and tie off your stitches, turn your hoop over and using the needle, go through the last stitch.

Pull your thread carefully through and when you have a small loop, thread your needle through.

Pull taut and snip your tail.

You’ve just finished your first stitch!!! Keep a look out for our next stitch, the running stitch, shown here: