Some knitting. Sort of.

I've finished all the pieces for Jewel, and have steamed them.  I even bought some buttons.  Now they are sitting on my ironing board waiting for me to sew the whole thing together.

Sad, lonely knitting.

But I just can't get myself motivated to do it.  I blame it on the weather.  I'm probably exaggerating, but it seems as if it's been two solid weeks of rain, grey skies and cool temperatures.  All I want to do is curl up in bed.

In wishing for spring, I was thinking about how much I like the color combination of navy blue and pink, a la this Vera scarf:

Vintage Vera Neumann scarf
silk, 1960s

 . . . and the ladybug.  Isn't she cute?

So I dug out one of the two OPI polishes I own (if you don't count all the "black labels" I'm slowly getting rid of):  Dating a Royal.

OPI Dating a Royal

I bought this several months ago, when I was dying for the China Glaze Anchors Away collection to be released so I could have First Mate.  But when I got it home I decided it was a poor substitute and never tried it out.  The other day, I saw mention of it on some website or other (honestly, I look at dozens every day and can't keep track!) saying it was a jelly.  What??!!  I love jellies!!  And sure enough, it's gorgeous!  Perhaps I ought to mention that I still haven't gotten around to trying First Mate, so I'm not sure how they compare.

After basecoat, two coats of Dating a Royal, a coat of Seche Vite and ten minutes, I broke out another new Bundle Monster plate, BM224, and China Glaze Admire:

Admire is a pink metallic, but I couldn't get it to photograph as pink.  I blame the murky Chicago light.  And by the way, isn't that little candle adorable?  My BFF gave me a set of five, each with a different flower.  I put them in our guest room because they look cute with the duvet in there!

Kristen commented yesterday wondering how the stamps work.  There are lots of great tutorials to be found on YouTube - just search Konad.  There is also a non-video demo here that shows the technique very simply (scroll about halfway down the page to see it).