Creative Uses – Framed Nail Art Designs

Posted on by

Nail art designs are a statement of your personality. Your statement of the moment stays with you for the next two weeks, ideally longer. You have to pick the right design. The proper method of display can make this choice a thousand times easier. In my experience, nail designs are listed in a binder or not at all. You either have to flip through pages, or give a description of what you want and pray it doesn’t look like a nondescript blob. So it was a pleasant surprise when I started going to a new nail salon and saw that each nail design was neatly displayed in a grid, within a frame, creating the perfect display case for any nail artist’s talents.

Framed nail art designs

All nail art designs created by Courtney Tracy, at Flip Salon

Displaying nail art designs in a frame has many advantages, both for the customer and nail artist. Speaking as a customer, viewing each available design in a frame is convenient and makes choosing one easier. With so many options, it’s hard to choose quickly unless you’ve already had something in mind. This, of course, only gets worse as the holidays come around or the seasons begin to change. With each design option lined up and organized in a grid, I can glance over and easily pick out which nail art design I want this week, with limited indecisiveness. All of the options are clearly laid out and easy to choose from.

Displaying nail designs in a frame also makes it easy for the nail artist to choose which designs they want to offer. During the holidays, every day designs can be swapped out for those more holiday related. Nail art designs popular in the Winter can be replaced with brightly colored designs for the Summer. By keeping everything lined up and organized, decisions are made easier and in less time, helping to keep each appointment on track.

Using a frame as a display case for something like nail designs is convenient and efficient for both businesses and customers. As a customer, you want to be able to relax and enjoy a treat to yourself without the hassle of flipping through pages of options, or having none at all. As a nail artist, by displaying each design offered you make sure that the customer knows exactly what they are getting before you begin.

5 Things You May Not Know About Game of Thrones

Posted on by

For many who watch Game of Thrones, Sunday night has become an event. Each week, the hour long premiere of a new episode concludes in jaws dropped, frantic Facebook posts, and quickly typed texts as we can’t wait to talk about what happened. In light of our anticipation for each new episode, here are some facts you may not have known about the show.

  1. Game-of-Thrones-postersTo maintain authenticity, many of the fabrics used in the Game of Thrones costumes are woven on a loom, on sight. If you’ve ever wondered how the show’s costume designer, Michele Clapton, manages to keep the costumes looking so authentic, now you know. She and her team literally have a loom, on which they weave their own fabric to make sure that it looks authentic and is suited for the part. They also have their own armorers and embroiderers on set. It’s no wonder their costumes look amazing.
  2. The author of the novels has already told directors how he wants to end the series, in case of an untimely death. Long time fans of the show likely know this. For those of you who have any doubt that the series may end abruptly (like so many other popular series have), you can breathe easy. George R. R. Martin has made sure that there will be no permanent cliffhangers. Should he die before his life’s mission is finished, the ending is already in place.
  3. If you’re new to the show, and confused about which character is from where, just pay attention to their costuming. Each costumer does more than dazzle viewers, it tells the story of the character wearing it through cut and color. Every detail serves its purpose. Those from the North wear skins. Those living on rocky islands, like the Greyjoys, wear costumes designed to look like the rocks themselves. But even more so than their origins, each costume can tell you the character’s situation, beyond whether they’re poor or rich. The best example is Sansa’s wardrobe. As she goes through the many changes forced upon her from her childhood, to the death of her father, through living with the very people who killed him in front of her, her clothes change according to social status and the challenges she faces.
  4. There is a Game of Thrones beer. Yes, HBO has actually created a Game of Thrones beer. While the book series gives in depth descriptions on what the characters eat and drink, HBO is trying to bridge that gap by giving fans a series of beers made with the themes, characters, and nuances in mind. The first, Iron Throne Blonde Ale, is specifically inspired by Cersei Lannister. Head brewer Phil Leinhart explains, “She [Cersei] has a certain sweetness on the outside, but on the inside she’s pure evil, so we used different malts to create a certain sweetness, but with a firm bitterness to give it a little bite.” The beer was introduced on March 31, when the third season premiered. There is already talk of three more beers with the show’s theme.
  5. There will be more seasons than there are books. For those of you who have read the books, you know just how closely the series follows – an unusual occurrence that only sets Game of Thrones further apart from lesser series and movie adaptations. Luckily, instead of cutting out detail, the directors have chosen to split the third book into two seasons. Will they do this with other books as well? Knowing George R.R. Martin’s descriptive writing habits, my guess is absolutely.

Winter-is-Coming-poster

 

Leanne Laine – Wine Art to Admire

Posted on by

Finding new art that speaks to you is an irreplaceable moment. Each piece connects you to the stranger who created it, pouring their emotions onto a canvas for the world to view, hoping to achieve that connection. Knowing that your work speaks to someone you’ve never met is an unbelievable experience for every artist, but also for the person it connects them to. It’s the reason fine arts museums are regarded with respect and protected – to bring complete strangers together through a common love.

Leanne-Laine-Women-in-Wine-Art-isitwineoclockyetSome would say that fine art and great wine should always go together. Painter Leanne Laine combines the two with her amazing wine art collection, Women in Wine, bringing wine and art lovers together. Each painting depicts emotion and desire, moving her viewers in a way that connects them to her art. Her inspiration comes from the ”motion in pouring wine… it’s not just sitting there with grapes and fruit, it’s about excitement and color.” In each of her Women in Wine paintings, the motion found in wine creates a woman with beauty and poise.

To make her artwork even more impressive, Leanne Laine is a self-taught artist. Born with a passion, she worked on her art as a part time job until 2003, when she decided to fully commit to it. After a heated Ebay bidding war over her first few paintings, she realized she was creating paintings that people could connect with and love as much as she did. Eventually, her passion grew into Leanne Laine Fine Art, completing her dream of being her own boss. Her Women In Wine series and Vinogamy series, both centered around wine, “depict the elegance, sophistication, sweetness, and vibrancy of the movement of wine that hypnotizes the palate.” What many people consider an enjoyable drink, Leanne Laine sees as a true work of art.

The sign of a great artist is one who can speak to people of different cultures and generations as though they are one. While Leanne Laine may be known by admirers as “the wine artist”, her vast collection of paintings offer much more. Painting everything from landscapes and cityscapes to still life paintings, she brings emotion and movement to the canvas. What started as a hobby has turned into a dream come true – and we, as wine and art lovers, couldn’t be happier.

Check out this video and watch as Leanne Laine creates a painting for a cause!

Sriracha, My Love

Posted on by

It all started with a bag of Lays chips, Sriracha flavor. For weeks, my co-workers have been trying to explain the greatness that is Sriracha. For weeks, I was able to avoid temptation. A taste here and there, Sriracha on french fries or a sandwich. I wasn’t too impressed. Then came Sriracha potato chips. I’ll be honest, I mostly wanted a salty snack and didn’t care for what flavor. Mid afternoon crashes will do that to you. These however, are like the cool older brother to Ketchup chips (which are real, if you didn’t already know. Try them before Sriracha chips). One chip – no, one handful – wasn’t enough. I was hooked from the first bite, the taste of ketchup chips forever diminished.

Every day, I find myself seeking out the bag of Sriracha chips to sneak a subtle handful. SrirachaI’ve become so addicted to them that, while the Sriracha sauce didn’t impress me at first, I’ve decided to give it a second chance. Even though it looks like molten lava pouring forth from a nozzle, this spicy sauce has stirred up quite the following. I once had a college roommate who would take up a full shelf in our small-sized fridge for her addiction to it. The poor man’s perfect ingredient (only $2.99 for a 17 oz bottle), as I’ve been told it can make literally anything taste better. I’m about to find out.

As a novice at Sriracha consumption, I know there has to be more to it than amazing chips. Any one can put this spicy sauce on Ramen, stale french fries, or a recipe gone bad. But is it ever used as a traditional spice would be? In Thailand, where the sauce originates from, it is not only sweeter and tangier, but most often used as a dipping sauce for seafood. Certainly, the Huy Fong Foods version that is so popular in the U.S. had to be used for more than masking bad food. I began the hunt for creative Sriracha recipes and was surprised by this list. I knew that the hot sauce was commonly used as if it were salt, but I never saw Sriracha fridge pickles coming my way. Or Sriracha-Buttered Shrimp, Sriracha brine, Sriracha vegetables – the list goes on, all recipes far from your average dorm room recipe (with the exception of Sriracha Bloody Mary’s. That, I should have seen coming).

Continuing my search into the history and usage of this popular sauce, Google led me to The Oatmeal’s Sriracha comic. To sum the meaning of Sriracha up, perhaps the best quote is from The Oatmeal, declaring Sriracha good on “pizza, sushi, and pretty much any animal who has passed through death and fire and wound up in my mouth.” They also says it’s the perfect deterrent to keep spicy food haters away from your plate. When eating your favorite dish, don’t guard it with your life – just use Sriracha. If The Oatmeal felt the need to spotlight it, make a Sriracha Christmas tree in honor of the sauce, and support the purchase of Sriracha lip balm (a little much, in my opinion), then it must be legit.

While I haven’t yet tried Sriracha pickles, and am admittedly frightened to, I’m adding these recipes to my experiment to-do list. Mentos and coke bottles are way overdone. This year, will be the year of explosive Sriracha recipes. Can a flame inducing condiment be converted into a worthy ingredient in a gourmet meal? We will see.

 

sriracha-the-oatmeal

 

Great Gatsbys!

Posted on by

The Great Gatsby is one of the most anticipated movies of 2013. With it’s upcoming release on May 10th, we can’t keep ourselves from searching for new previews and pre-release reviews. Whether you’re looking forward to the movie for the stars (Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire, anyone?), the infamous 1920′s flapper fashion, or the star-packed sound track (Florence and the Machine, Gotye, The xx, Lana Del Rey…), Warner Brothers has once again produced a film that we can’t wait to see.

gold-picture-frame

Our Great Gatsbys framing project!

While searching for new news and trailers for The Great Gatsby, we came across this tongue-in-cheek comic strip summary of Fitzgerald’s work by Kate Beaton. For those of you who haven’t read Fitzgerald’s novel, or revisited it since your high school English class, it depicts the roaring 20′s and the fall of the American dream to greed for wealth. Many of the columns in Kate Beaton’s comic “Great Gatsbys” portray relationships between main characters and popular themes within the book and movies. In The Real Jay Gatsby, Beaton summarizes the extravagant parties thrown by Gatsby every Saturday, where no one actually knows their host yet readily attends each party. That’s Pretty Old addresses the conflict between old and new money. Later She Dumps Him and Nick’s Lunch Date portrays Nick Carraway’s naïve personality and reaction to many of the main characters in the book.

For those of you who have read The Great Gatsby, each strip in this comic will draw a laugh from you. Combined with many of Fitzgerald’s themes, Kate Beaton throws in her own sense of humor and personal opinion as she summarizes the novel. She even notes that “it’s hard for teens to relate to young aristocrats who are war veterans chasing money and throwing massive bootlegging parties,” saying that she herself didn’t care much for Gatsby in high school. Perhaps that is what makes this particular comic so amusing to read. Similar to Great Gatsbys, Beaton approaches each comic the same, with “witty reinventions of literary and historical figures navigating modern times,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

For a movie yet to open in theaters, the sound track is already growing in popularity, and Fitzgerald fans have been talking about the film for over a year in anticipation for its release. Although The Great Gatsby film from 1974 may be known as the most famous screen version, the upcoming May release has set expectations for “movie of the year”. With all the buzz it’s hard to remain patient until the film opens in theaters. For the time being, we’ll gladly enjoy some Gatsby humor with Kate Beaton’s witty poster.

The Great Gatsby