Just in under the wire, I got it done this weekend!  My personal pledge for this week: More balance.  More me time.  Which means, more manicures.  Last week took all the gas out of me and that’s just no way to function.  And I can’t take care of other people if I don’t take care of myself, you know?

So!  For posterity, I snapped a pic of the polish before I went and doodled all over it (or cleaned up my hands) — this one is OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh, and I dig it.  And I don’t generally get into the more muted/nude tones (I’m a color girl!), but this one… it’s lovely, and perfect in two coats.  Keep on keepin’ on, OPI.

Then last night after the memorial celebration for Dr. Klimitas at Belladoggie I sat at home and painted in some of the wild things, having really been touched by the passing of Maurice Sendak this last week, and receiving multiple requests for it (everybody, stop. dying. please.)  I wasn’t a super fan of the movie, but I absolutely adore the book and story.  So I put (from pinky to index) Aaron, Moishe, Max and Tzippy, who was a little more purply than I intended, but once it got started I couldn’t stop, and I’m never mad at purple anyway.

The illustrations were a little tricky though, at least at this scale; the detail of his illustrations for this book very are minute, with dots and fine lines every which way to create shading and depth.  Since that didn’t quite float on a nail (I can’t get hundreds of dots into a square millimeter, I’m just not that good… yet.), I tried to use color shading to give it the same effect, instead of going to my safe place and doing it all cartoon-y style.  I like it.  And maybe just because I enjoy the original so much, but it was fun flashing these around all day.

So thank you Mr. Sendak…and thank you Dr. Klimitas.  Your works both touched me, and I hope can inspire me to be a better person in my own life.