National Day

There are very few things I love about National Day: Bitching about the lack of patriotism, being blatantly disregardful and unpatriotic, and the colours of the Singaporean flag. Red and white is one of my favourite colour combos. And yes, I do realise that I say that about every combination I talk about.

I do love red and white, though. Especially the stripes, which were not well painted, and the polka dots, which are done even more poorly. I did this late at night the day before National Day, you see. I'm glad I at least go the flag right.

Monochrome

I did this for my Toastmasters Investiture, which is like a ceremony to honour the old ex-co and welcome the new ex-co. There was a chess theme, and we (the old ex-co) were told to wear black and white.

I LOVE it, because black and white are the colours of my cat. And I take colours very seriously.

Studs

This was inspired by a bag that I saw in a shop. (By inspired, I mean I totally copied the pattern.) It was a white faux leather bag with colourful fabric circles fastened onto its face with silver studs. I almost bought it, but I was rather poor at the time, so I left the shop without it. Now I'm glad, because although I love its colours, its shape and size were totally irregular and I would never have used it. 

Pretty, though, isn't it? The thumb is my favourite. 16 studs! I can't tell you how much pleasure it gives me just to look at pictures of it. Oh, I love my nails.

Cookie Monster

So, the hiatus has ended a little earlier than I predicted. I've got a new computer. And it's blue just like the cookie monster.

I love cookies. Just like the cookie monster. I wanted to paint a cookie on my ring finger, but I didn't have the right colours and didn't feel like getting my acrylic paint and mixing. So, all monsters.

And yes, the picture quality is bad and there's a big chip on my middle finger. I didn't manage to take a picture until about 5 days in. School, ya know.

Dark Side versus Bright Side

I know, I've been away too long. I've got a few designs accumulated which I haven't written about. I've been meaning to, but school work, sickness and indolence got in the way. I'll get to it this week, though. Hopefully.

We all have dark sides and bright sides. Side by side. This is how I expressed mine. Can you see how the dark side glows with tiny blue and purple glitter? And how the bright side is dulled by gray shimmer? Sometimes dark sides aren't very dark and bright sides aren't very bright.

And yeah, I messed up. There are dark spots on the bright side of my left middle finger. And my right pinkie is smudged. I can make up some philosophical crap that makes them tie in with the whole concept, but I won't. Just ignore them, okay. :)

Cupcakes

Yes, I've finally painted cupcakes on my nails. I've wanted to for a long time, but only figured out how to do it recently. I'm in it for the colours, you see, not pictures. I'm not an artist, just a noob that likes colours.

Once I found one picture of cupcakes on nails on a blog, I kept finding them everywhere. On nail blogs, YouTube, and Flickr. Apparently, it's a popular design. 

But this was not only inspired by those. It's inspired by my friend Rev, who is the best baker I know. We sort of started baking together a few years ago, and she has progressed from a noob who bakes with friends to an expert baker, decorating and selling cakes and entering contests, while I'm still baking all kinds of chocolate chip cookies. Her cupcakes are almost literally orgasmic. You know, I think she should start a baking blog. *Overt hint*

I didn't manage to take good pictures. These pictures are crap. But it's okay, because I was going to paint cupcakes in different colours another time, anyway. I want some chocolate cupcakes. Yummm.

Nightmare Eyes

Ever wondered what a nightmare looks like? Well, that depends on the content of the nightmare, actually. This is what a certain nightmare that kept disturbing me looks like. It was about rejection and abandonment and emptiness. Purple for rejection and abandonment and white for the emptiness. Pale blue for loneliness, and the bright blue just to hold it all together.

I applied mascara only to the lashes on my upper eyelid and didn't comb them so that my eyes would look shocked and afraid. I used purple eyeshadow instead of black eyeliner because there was nothing bold or bright in the dream. It was all pale and cold and almost dead. But not dead, just empty.

School Girl Sassy

School Uniform Blue & White 

Recently, I got back in touch with a friend from secondary school on Facebook. That reminded me of the five long years I spent in a uniform.

You know, I sometimes miss those days, when I had 2 sets of the same outfit to wear to school. Now, there are so many decisions I have to make in the morning. I can't wake up, throw on a uniform, chuck some pens and files in a bag and leave for school (late) any more. I have to decide what to wear.

While I spent most of the five years feeling angry and left out, as stereotypical teenagers do in cliched television shows, there were high points. Like having friends who were just close enough, listening to the radio and goofing off instead of studying during free period, shocking my friends and developing some style by cutting off my hair, eating french fries and Snickers for lunch, eating ice cream and reading in the school library, trying to rebel by wearing a stud in my nose and six studs in my ears, and getting away with it so easily that it wasn't even fun. Going to school ridiculously late and sleeping during class, not doing any homework and playing games on my phone during lessons, and getting away with all of it because I got good grades and spoke well. Damn, those teachers were no match for me.

Also, I found a picture of myself in secondary school. Look!

Adorable, I know.

Yin and Yang

Yin Yang

The best philosophy ever. There's a complementary opposite to everything in life.

Whenever there's pain, there's a tiny dot of pleasure in it. When there's joy, there's a little bit of suffering in it. Happiness grows, and when it reaches its maximum, dissatisfaction begins. And the dissatisfaction grows, reaching maximum where it turns back into happiness. It's the circle of life. (Stop thinking about lion cubs.)

Many people I know are unhappy. And they try to be happy by trying to get rid of the unhappiness. Fools. That's not how happiness is found. Happiness is found inside the unhappiness. There's a little bit of happiness in misery, and in order to be able to see it, you have to embrace the misery and let it grow. Feel miserable. As the misery grows, so will the little seed of happiness inside it. And eventually the seed will become full-blown happiness with misery inside of it. And as happiness grows, of course the misery seed will grow too. It's a circle, like I said. It never ends.

I know yin and yang are supposed to be two fishes or tadpoles forming a circle, but I don't have the brush skills to paint circles or curvy lines on my nails. Thus, I drew almost straight lines. It still works, don't you think?

Bonus! Look what I got in the mail today. 

Rhinestones! I'm going to do awesome things with them. Anticipate! :D

bavani's colours

I've always found beauty in colours. It's what I love most about nature, and wildlife and all that. Bright flowers in green trees. Light from the sun captured in water in the sky, forming rainbows. Black stripes dark against the brilliant orange stripes of tigers. Iridescent wings of huge, scary black insects. Clear rain water mixing with sandy soil to make chocolate-brown mud. Shiny gray dolphins jumping out of deep blue seas. White-blue Husky eyes. The contrast of the pure white and stark black of my cat's fur, and the clear, sharp yellow of his eyes. The same colours on mynas - yellow beaks, black bodies and white wing tips. The thick, rich red of blood that rushes through all of us.

These things are why I love colours. Colours make me feel calm. That's why I always paint my nails. People think it's because I'm insecure about my naked nails, but no. It's to remind myself of things that make me happy. When something upsets me, I can look at my nails and feel composed. When I look at my nails, there's nothing but my cat's eyes or a flower in a tree or the blood that's pumped through my lungs. Everything else fades. Nothing can make me unhappy when my heart still pumps blood and flowers still bloom and my cat still looks at me with love. I don't paint my nails to hide myself from the world. I do it to hide the upsetting things in the world from myself. The more troubled I am, the more colours I put on my nails.

I feel in colours too. I don't know it when I'm feeling them, but when I think back about times when I experienced strong emotions, everything's tinted a certain colour. Every emotion in every situation has a unique colour. Painting that colour on my nails or my eyelids is a way of releasing the emotion.

I hope you didn't expect this blog to be light-hearted fun, with manicures and makeup tips. Nothing about me is light-hearted. My heart is very heavy.

Here are some of my best expressions:

 Black Cat With Yellow Eyes

 White Cat With Blue Eyes

 Day And Night

 Patriotism

 Orange Juice, Blueberries And Chocolate

 Rainy Sky Over Trees

 Melted M&Ms

 Bird Park

 Warm Side Of The Rainbow

 Mad Hatter

 Citrus

 Chinese New Year! One of my favourites.

 Claws

Empty Blue Sky

Look forward to a lot more pictures.