And, usually on the same day or quite near to it, we have Chinese New Year. 2026 is the Year of The Horse (Fire Horse, to be exact), so it should be an interesting one. I hope that will be in a good way, since I am tired of “unprecedented” and “new normal.” So here’s hoping things look better this year.

I haven’t been on the ball for Valentine’s Day nails, because I feel most people like to look at those rather than buy, but I’ll see if I can get myself together for St. Patrick’s Day. I am suffering from design paralysis, since I’m trying to do something on-trend or that I think will be popular, rather than just enjoying the art like I used to. This is definitely an area I need to improve upon.

Weird and/or extravagant backgrounds and over-edited images are common in wedding shoots, so that’s not necessarily a dead giveaway for AI. However, the hyper-smooth hand skin and oddly aggressive knuckles are super suspicious. Also, check the strange arch and thickness of the thumbnails, the different shaped nails, and the rather perturbed looking face on the index finger. (Not gonna lie, I kind of love that part and would like to sneak in a wedding set for a quirky bride. With her permission, of course.)

This poor human has some thumb issues going on, this is not a natural human angle, plus it’s smaller than the other fingers. Check out the areas with super-smoothness and exaggerated wrinkles, both on the same finger. The blurring just doesn’t make sense. On the middle finger, the large copper jewel is just floating hthere.

This poor ring finger had a terrible mishap along the way, so this is pretty obvious AI. But I wanted to highlight the stretch issues that come up in AI when it doesn’t proportion correctly. Nail weirdness aside, note the fingers are way too long in relation to the palm and the palm has too many wrinkles by the pinkie, considering the fingers are just folded over. Also, the thumbnail is totally different in shape and width- it’s like the AI just gave up and said, “whatever, I’ll fill in a nail shape that doesn’t overlap.”

And then AI just says, “Meh, I’m so over generating images today” and we get this.

But…I see a LOT of AI nails that are just not possible. I get clients asking me how to get looks that are clearly AI, and I want to say “With Midjourney,” but that seems a bit too curt. I’m getting sick of AI invading creative spaces and duping people who don’t look closely.

First, any nail that appears to glow from within or has a strange thickness is AI. Yes, there’s cateye and magnetic pigments which are very cool, but they do not generate their own ethereal glow.

AI is doing better generating hands, but there are still some dead giveaways: the nails are in a completely different lighting than the hand. See how they seem to have a radioactive glow, and the star on the pinkie is generating its own light? Dead giveaway for AI.

Another dead giveaway is background details that don’t make sense. Look at the wrinkle on the left side- it just kind of turns left slightly and bends around the red key nail. Also, there are 9 nails and most of them are all the same size. Other clues? Check the rose on the right hand side- one of the petals (?) just disappears into a wrinkle on the cloth and is totally separated from the main flower. Last, the reflections aren’t consistent-they appear on the top of the nail but should go across the whole surface.

Here’s a trickier example, since wedding nails tend to have professional photography with a blurred background, fancy details, etc. I’ve gotten a lot of requests for similar sets, and they are completely not out of the realm of reality….but expect to pay at least $250-400 for this level of detailed 3D work. See the crown? Look at the band on the bottom. This is total master-work- like “I do movie star nails for major award shows” kind of skill. AI generated this crown based on a 3D deco part, but the profile is too low for that, and the way the lines intertwine would make painting it by hand extremely difficult. I realize these things are hard to understand unless you do art yourself, but the dead giveaway here is the cuticles. There is no separation from the nail and the skin around it- just a line that’s supposed to serve a a shadow to mimic a nail bed. Also, on the thumb, the fingerprints start way too close to the edge of the nail.

These are a few examples that I just generated with ChatGPT for this post. I have a few more examples to break down for you next post. I am not an AI expert, but I am a “what kind of nails can we make with existing technology” expert.

While I don’t inherently hate AI, I recognize its dangers to artistic endeavor and human creativity. It has its place to spark ideas, but should not be the start and finish of creative thought. It has value as a springboard, but when we don’t use our creative skills, they diminish. Once we stop creating- whatever it may be, we lose a part of what it means to be human. And no, prompting AI doesn’t count as creating in my book.

As a nail artist going on almost 20 years now, maybe I should do some real vs AI nails, just for fun and to show what’s really possible.

What are your thoughts on AI and nail art? Is it a useful tool to spark ideas, or is it destroying creativity and tricking people?

I have never really liked social media or been good at it. (By the way, watch out for people reaching out to “help” you with this issue, it has been a flat-out scam every time I tried it.) One borderline scammer duo of “social media experts” tried to charge me several hundred dollars to advise me on how to MAKE MY OWN VIDEO. So I will be the first to say I can’t really do it well myself and can’t hire anyone else to do it for me, so I’m kind of stuck in IG no-man’s land. And I refuse to pay Meta for advertising. If anyone has other ideas, I’m open!

So this is how I find myself on WordPress blogging in 2026. But at least it’ll be real. No AI words, no AI photos. Full disclosure: I do edit photos for color correction and light adjustment.

It’s not all gloom and doom, though. One great thing happening in the nail world is that the skill level of nail artists has risen exponentialy in the last 5-7 years. Before this the Japanese had the lock on crazily advanced nail art but I feel it’s become a more worldwide phenomenon and that is largely due to social media.

I do get clients seeking the extreme nail they see online art because it’s beyond their local nail tech’s ability or takes too long, but they are not always reasonable about costs necessary to get an artist to create those nails. Americans in particular have gotten used to cheap salons and forgotten that nail art is still art, and artists have degrees of skill that needs to be compensated. You are not going to get a perfect copy of a fully bejeweled Grammy look for $9. The actual price is in the hundreds if not more. But AliExpress and AI have convinced people that sub-$10 nails should be the norm.

AI nails will be getting their own post soon, as the folks out in the wild are generally not great at figuring out which nails are AI and which aren’t. Hint: If the nails glow from within, it’s AI. Unless you’re radioactive, this is not currently possible.

But rambling aside, this is about how to make nails fun again for me. I think I’ll start by going totally analogue and dusting off my binders of Japanese nail magazines and using them as a basis to build some new designs as a creative challenging. No copying*, more taking an element I that catches my eye, practicing and making it my own.

*I went to nail school in Tokyo and there was endless amounts of copying- that’s the way they teach nails there. Heck, that’s the way they teach everything in Japan, but especially art. You cannot do originals until you can exactly duplicate the teacher’s example. I will say the approach seems to work, since Japanese art in general is on a higher plane, but in the interest of just having fun, I’m not going to pressure myself to make a perfect duplicate of my inspo shots.

I think I’m also going to try and work with some new techniques. I’m not really a sculptor at heart, but there’s lots of new materials that have less odor and are easier to work with.

How do you get your spark back for a creative hobby that turned into a high-pressure side hustle and lost all its enjoyment?

We need actual human voices and images, not AI. All my writing is my own, all my art is my own, handmade be me. In a world where we honestly can’t trust what we see or hear, I just want to put my real self and art out there, not chasing algorythms or trying to go viral, which leads me to…

I don’t want to give any money to evil social media companies. They are an unfortunate part of modern life, but the ways they scam people, promote hate speech and even influence elections are something I don’t want to give advertising dollars to. I am not naive and don’t expect my blog will even reach anyone but at this point it just feels refreshing to put words down without worrying about click through or conversions.

Which then leads me to the dumpster fire that has become Etsy. It was my main venue for selling my nails, exploring creativity and generating some income but it’s turned into a total dumpster fire. Actually it’s an insult to dumpsters. They allowed factory-made mass produced nails, sweatshop nails and dropshipped crap as long as some aspect of it is sort of vaguely dreamed up by a “maker” somewhere. Now, I found Etsy kind of twee in its heyday but at least the stuff was handmade. Anyone remember the front page with the same four featured artists every day? All oatmeal-colored, all the time

But at least there was handmade stuff by real people going on. Now it’s basically overpriced Ebay, which makes sense since they hired the former CEO of Ebay to run Etsy. So, the nail market there (and most others, I suspect) was flooded with factory junk and sweatshop nails and my work got buried. To be fair, I was not on top of marketing, trends or even risks to my business. After all, this was supposed to be a fun hobby that allowed me to connect with people and share my art.

Etsy then all but forced sellers into advertising for their products to be seen. Instead of clients seeing popular items, it became straight up pay to play, with pages of sponsored Chinese factory nails, in my case. Trying to play the Etsy game without advertising, plus having to push social media to get eyes on my work was honestly exhausting, depressing and ultimately a failure. I can admit it. I am not good at grabbing attention, either online or in real life. I am not flashy, self-aggrandizing or trendy. And suddenly *having* to be able to do that to be successful made me miserable, made my art suffer, and shriveled my creativity.

I am not an artsy snob but no, I do not want to do Hailey Bieber donut nails, or nude gradation nails. I don’t want to have to follow some influencers I don’t even like to try and copy their nail looks. That is just total misery for me. I’ll leave it to the factory nails.

I can’t blame Etsy totally for everything, but their changes to squeeze maximum amounts from sellers and opening the doors to mass production really harmed a lot of real artists, including myself. My hope is that a new handmade marketplace will come down the pike, put them out of business and we’ll get a few years on that before enshittification inevitably sets in.

So I’ve begun doing in-person art fairs, pop ups and artisan craft markets just to keep myself going. It’s been a fun time with Mr. NTMG, and he gets to wear a Victorian waistcoat and tophat. (If you’ve seen my work, the fact that we do a lot of oddity-themed shows should not be surprising.)

So, this is not a comeback but a way for me to get out of the doom spiral of having my work unseen, getting discouraged, not making anything, getting further buried and repeat. I need to do something to get my creativity and passion back, cause I got a whole truckload of nail stuff and a lot of art left somewhere in my soul. Even if the rest of the world wants vanilla-girl neutrals, I’m gonna be over here making weird stuff. Even if it’s just for me. Gotta start flexing my creative muscles and just having some plain old fun with nails, minus the pressure of likes and clicks. My online business is pretty dead, so I have nothing left to lose at this point by just creating nails that make creatively fulfilled. 2026 is the year I go back to having a creative outlet rather than a monetized side hustle. Granted, like all of us, I could use some extra $$$ these days, but not at the expense of my health and happiness for a maybe a couple hundred bucks a month.

On a final note if, like me, you’re unhappy with the way things have gone in 2025, don’t forget to vote and make your voices heard when it matters. Challenge the lies and false narratives (this is a huge job for Americans these days), boycott companies trying to divide us and take our rights away, and protect what’s left of our democracy by voting. Happy New Year to all, and may 2026 be better than 2025.

35. I am not sure what is going on here. The middle part reminds me of a striped Laffy Taffy I once accidentally left in the car in summertime. Luckily no one sat on it. I don’t even like Laffy Taffy. Wait, I feel a haiku coming on.

Oh Laffy Taffy

I forgot all about you

You got your revenge

36. A pretty combo of a castle at sunset and some flowers on the bottom. I think I would have preferred the top half being expanded. But I’m on an anti-flower campaign, so maybe that’s just me.

37. Kind of India vibes going on, but I think the orange is more coralish than mandarinish. Pretty work but needs a little something else.

38. Goldfish everywhere! These even feature the same wire around the nails…were people copying off each other? Is it the hive mind at work? We may never know…

39. Some geometry and a bird. I may be missing the theme here, but at least there’s some orange going on.

40. These dogs faces are cracking me up and I don’t know why. The one in the middle kind of looks like a Wookie dog. Perhaps these animals are a three way hybrid of cats, dogs and Wookies.  A cute entry no matter what the critters are, though.

41. Serene autumn scene featuring…mostly yellow leaves. Nice layout and idea but needs more orange.

42. This one is like a whole Mardi Gras parade on five nails. Whoa! Not getting an orange vibe but it doesn’t matter because my eyes are dazzled by this many rhinestones in one place.  Very nice work that shows how nails can be mini sculptural works of art.

43. I like the colors but the abstract work obscures the bride and…no orange.

44. I’m a big fan of ombre, so these appeal. Gorgeously detailed cormorant, some orange maple leaves, and a teeny bridge. I am a bit overdosed on Traditional Japan, but these have a good pop of orange color.

45. Fantastic entry here, the amber looks like kirikko cut glass and the 3D work is top notch. These are not as complex as some other entries, but have great balance, color combination, and all around very neat work that stands out from the crowd.

46. Butterflies. Flowers. Sickly orange.

47. An interesting entry, clear flowers encapsulated. I’m getting potpurri vibes from this…or maybe it was a soap dispenser I’m thinking of? I like things encased in resin, even if they are flowers, so this one caught my eye.

48. The first year of the Reiwa era started as the new emperor took the throne earlier this year, so that’s what the kanji says. It’s a big deal in Japan to start a new era and it seems this New Year will be especially festive. With these nails, you’d be all set to party, but give us a little more juicy orange, willya?

49. Zoom in on this and look at the detail work. The outline of tiny squares that make up the circle outline of these nails is amazingly well done. Someone has an extremely steady hand. The detail work is one of the best I’ve seen in this competition.

50. This one says, “Retro Drops,” and it is indeed retro. I like it because the color scheme really does give me mandarin orange vibes, plus it lives up to its own tiny sign.  It seems like there should be a groovy mushroom in here somewhere.

51. Goldfish, this time on a clear/whitish base. I do prefer the darker base but these have a nice summery feeling to them. There’s a pop of orange with the flowers and mountain, too.

52.  I see yellow and brown barely any orange.  This is a person who either delights in breaking the rules or didn’t get the theme.

53. These nails have their own doors. I wish they swung back and forth like saloon doors in the old cartoons, but they appear stationary.  Probably too much going on here but I do like my nails to have doors.

54. Something a little different, a jolly yet slightly pensive looking sun and some orange yellow gradations.

55. All hail Emperor Orangehead! That part’s a bit odd, but the kimono work is exquisite. The details, the folds…a real work of art. I hope there will be no clashes between Emperor Orangehead and his various fruity nemeses. It’d be a shame to ruin that kimono.

56. This reminds me of another entry we saw earlier, with the bold black lines over a vaguely tie-dyed base. Hive mind again? Are the artists all friends?

57. I don’t know if it was intended, but these look downright threatening. Killer Dragonflies are coming to your town! Well rendered, but the background just gives me an ominous feeling. Perfect for Halloween!

58. Did anyone have a grandma who had a little cloisonne jewelry box that sat on a lace doily? This is the nail version of that. Whoever wears these also has on ruffly underwear.  Very skillful work, plus a cute fox as a bonus.

59. I’m going to forgive the flowers, the detail work is so good. The fish looks a bit mutated, but those flowers.  Fabulous. Please do something else next time for us and show us your skills.

60. An uncluttered view of Mt. Fuji, a bit simple but a good layout and solid color choices.

61. Amber cut glass pattern with a somewhat superflous clear bloobala and lonely rhinestone, but I like the the white geometric details against the amber.

62. Another entry with doors. That lattice work is very well done but I think it obscures too much of the nails.

63. Hmm, got a case of the randoms. Cute chonky unicorn, baby bottle, heart, key…?

64. These fish are crazy. The angle and perspective of the shadows are wonderfully done, plus the little rocks, lily pads and translucent base underneath are perfection.

65. Jewels galore! The expression is a bit hard to place but the stones are just right.

66. I’ve been a bit down on Traditional Japan themes, but this one is exquisite. These are true miniature paintings done on nails instead of canvas. Probably the best detail work in the show so far. I don’t even mind that they sort of missed the orange boat here.

For all you 12 people out there reading this, thank you! It feels good to be blogging again, at least for now. I just don’t have as much fun writing Instagram captions, and I’m perpetually frustrated by the platform itself. I just don’t like it. I’ve tried but I just can’t get anywhere with it, but instead of being frustrated, I’m just going to use it how I want to instead of worrying about Content and Likes and Engagement and all that. That took all the fun out of it and nails should be fun, right?

13. Richly detailed cormorant nails. I really like the texture, design and balance of these. Beautifully done.

14. Cute rising sun nails done in orange vs the traditional red. I’d like to have seen a bit more detail but it’s a good solid start.

15. Stunning traditional pattern in white- think it’s supposed to look like kirikko cut glass-topped off with orange maple leaves and a 3D kanzashi (traditional hair ornament). This work is top notch from the painting to the sculpting. I wish there was a wee bit more originality here since we’ve seen this type of design over and over, but I can’t fault the work.

16. Deer, shrine gates and a sunset, plus a few orange flowers for the deer to nibble on if he gets hungry. Animals, even really familiar ones, are surprisingly hard to render and the deer is done well. Don’t believe me? Try drawing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck without looking at them first. The results are usually hilarious.

17. And here’s an example of animals being hard to render. I do love the rabbit’s hopeful expression, though.

18. Am interesting retro-ish take on the theme, but it’s a little hard to see what’s going on here. It reminds me of those wacky print leggings everyone seemed to be wearing when I first moved back to America. Hopefully these nails won’t rip in the wrong places like those seemed to.

19. Fantastic faux metal bronze detailing, but the flowers. Nooo! Please apply your prodigious talent to another theme, you could do magic.

20. Slightly creepy yet also cute caterpillars transform into well done butterflies. It’s a garden theme, not a straight floral, so it gets the thumbs up from me! Nicely balanced colors too.

21. Cmon, let’s not start our projects the night before!

22. This is the sum of all the fall decor at TJ Maxx, miniaturized and put into nails. Reminds me of a potpourri bowl, but in a good way, not as in, “He gave me a potpourri bowl for our anniversary.”

23. Another set of nails with a gray background and orange fish. Is there a famous reference here I’m missing? Seems odd to have two sets with black water and orange goldfish, but still nicely done. I’m surprised the artists didn’t choose blue water and both went with black, but a nice set.

24. I love me some iridescent Mylar flakes, but this one is a bit hard to sort out. A mandala? Also, no orange.

25. Heartbreakingly detailed kimono pattern with…no orange. Another very skilled artist who didn’t really go with the theme. I think we’ve got one group of artists who do flowers no matter what, and another emerging group who do Traditional Japan Stuff no matter what. Shame since the work is gorgeous, but has no Juicy Mandarin Orange going on.

27. Look at this detail! The black details on the gradated base are just stunning, plus thr orange bird makes for a very strong entry.

28. I’m not sure who the figure is (anyone into manga?) but it’s a very well rendered set with nicely done details. I’m just not feeling enough orange, but I like the way the dress flows across the nails.

29. A very astonished girl and two hungry cats take center stage in this set. I would feel the same way if I saw random flying goldfish and swirly marbles flying in the air. Unique, nicely done and does not include any flowers. Phew.

31. This is my favorite so far: it sticks with the theme, is very weird, and shows incredibly talent. We’ve got a scantily clad girl, a cat licking an orange, extremely detailed orange sections (and one orange with a scarily realistic eyeball), a teeny butterfly and a goblet of mandarin orange juice. A+!

32. Pretty beta fish…these almost remind me of teacups, or dinnerware. The border around the “pond” is a nice touch, but after the Eyeball Orange of #31, I must say my heart is elsewhere.

33. Kimono pattern. Kanzashi hair ornament. Bloobalas. Pretty, shows talent and used the orange, but I’m getting Traditional Japan fatigue.

34. Orange Buddha (not sure which incarnation since I’m not really up on the subject), beautifully rendered but I always feel odd about religious figures on nails. These would probably get you beat up in certain parts of Thailand.

All in all, some strong showings so far, plus a few folks who need to be banned from flowers and/or Traditional Japan themes. So far, #31 is my favorite, but I’m drawn to weird things, which is how I got into nail art in the first place anyway. What are your favorites? Tell us in the comments!

Anyway, let’s take a look at some of the entrance. The artist can choose any shape or size nail they want as long as it fits in the regulation size box, and some of the nails are truly works of art while others are…not.

1. Nice work here, But I’m not getting any mandarin orange like freshness impressions. Nope.

2. A cute idea, and they did incorporate  the orange, but you need to bring more to something to a competition this fierce.

3. I really like the striking colors on this one, they’re very Japanese retro. Picture every hospital waiting room in the northern countryside, and this would pretty much be those color selections. I personally happen to like these types of colors, and the design is eye-catching, but I need something else. Maybe I’m just too extra when it comes to nails?
4. Beautifully rendered intricate bird design, this must have taken hours to do. Top quality work but I wish the orange had a little more punch to it.

5. Pale orange kimono pattern. Nice but uninspired. Has the artist not seen the entries in the past? You got to really push yourself to the limit and do something crazy! At least give us a 3D bloobala or something…

6.  A pleasant beach/mountain scene? These feature some very well-done tiny adorable oranges, and an orange blossom. Thumbs up for sticking with the theme, but the nails are a little visually confusing.  They could’ve given a couple of their 3D bloobalas to number five and I think everyone would’ve been better for it.

Now we’re getting into some more intricate entries.

7. Somehow, this artist managed to pull off smoky gray and orange in the same nail. I really like this design-somehow it manages to avoid looking too Halloween-y But is also kind of dark and mysterious. Check out the intricate geometric pattern-My hands will never be that steady.

8. Got some ombre citrus colored swirlies going on here. The sculpture work on the top is simply fantastic, but I wish there could’ve been a little teeny orange in there somewhere. I don’t know if they assembled the parts separately and added it on or did it in place, but this is some top level work.

10. A very kawaii pastel entry here with some actual citrus fruits, which I’m glad to see. It appears these citrus fruits are having some kind of adorable baby shower? Maybe they don’t know if your having a boy Mandarin or a girl Mandarin, so they covered all the bases. Nice work and the colors go very well together.

11. Traditional figures from Japanese history in various shades of orange. Well rendered, but aside from the color, we need a little more citrus action in here.

12. The ever present flower and/or butterfly entry. You all know how I feel about these butterfly:flower nails, so I won’t reiterate my dislike. They did use orange so some effort was made, but this one is not gonna make it into the finals.

That’s the first 12, we’ve got a bunch more to go! I’m on my way to go chill out a Japanese hot spring, so I’ll update if I feel ambitious, but it’s equally likely I will crash after a delicious dinner and a hot bath. Unfortunately, due to the timing of the nail show this year and my other work, as soon as I’m used to Japan time it will be time to turn around and go back to New York City. The 14 hour jet leg is the worst!

Anyway, onto the good stuff! It was pretty mobbed, as usual, but they had better organization this year and it was easier to get inside the venue.

The show was split on two floors this year, which was different, and instead of smaller individual vendors, the bigger companies and nail shops had more of a presence. TAT is a major nail art supply store in Japan, and they had a humongous booth representing a lot of brands with an equally humongous line for the cashier. In the past, each company would have had a booth, so it was sort of consolidated into one area. Red Nails, a supply shop/nails school I attended, had almost no presence this year. I hope they’re not going out of business- it was a good solid school and I had a lot of happy memories there.

Of course, we’ve got glitter! I live up to my name and have more than enough to carry me through several lifetimes, but I can’t stop picking up more every time I’m in Japan.

There were a lot more demonstrations this year, usually with a brand rep using the company products to show off some techniques. Nothing particularly new, but it’s fun to watch for a bit. If you want good Japanese nail art lessons, there is a online school called Neiru that features step by step video lessons.  It’s pretty good and I’ve seen the videos in the past, but found myself too busy to really take advantage of it.

I didn’t see any really crazy nails (except for the Art Tip Award- more on that later!) but the usual standbys were all there: lots of textural nails, like marble, plaid, etc. topped off with bits of bling here and there.

Muted colors are pretty in at the moment, saw a lot of mustards, grays and burgundys.  Mustard anything looks awful on me, so I’m waiting for this color to go away, but it hangs on. I actually like it as a shade, it just makes me look kinda diseased.

Must have…maximum cuteness! Pink is an ever-present thing in Japan.

Manga nails are another theme in Japan, though I’m way too old and out of touch to know all the characters.

A little bit of bling, but mostly the nails are going in a more understated direction. Pfft!

When I first got into nails in Japan around 2007, they were insane 3″ long neon bejeweled beasts roaming the streets of Shibuya. Now that nail art has become more mainstream, it’s toned down a lot. Still a lot of nice, subdued nails out there that are very skillfully done, but sometimes I miss those wild nail days!

And for everybody’s favorite thing…the Nail Art Tip Award! Every year, artists submit a set of 5 handmade nails following a set theme. The nails are done in advance by selected artists in Japan. Now, as you long-term readers know, at least one person does flower/butterfly nails regardless of the theme. I mean, a couple of years ago the theme was “Adult Punk” and yep…still flower nails. Maybe they were being punks and breaking all the rules?

So, here’s this year:

The theme is….well, hard to translate exactly but here goes: “Japanese Orange Color: Fresh Like A Mandarin Orange.” For fellow Japanese language nerds out there, this is the first time I have seen “mikan” written in kanji, had to double check that one!

I’m going to need a little time to sort out the contest entries and also go back later to finish emptying my wallet, so check back for the entries in the next day or two!

I also got to meet a long-term reader who came to the show from the US as well, which was loads of fun! Thanks for taking the time to meet- it’s always so much fun to catch up with fellow nail art aficionados.

I did stop over in Hawaii on my way to Japan, so I soaked up a lot of sun and tropical breezes which I’m going to have store up through the miserable winters of the northeastern US.

More varieties of Spam than I ever knew existed! I ate in reasonably large portions of delicious food, did some snorkeling, drove around the island and just hung out in beautiful tropical Paradise.

I’d love to come back to Hawaii to live, but it is really expensive and the jobs that are available are very low salary. I was broke just about the entire time I lived here, and while I’d love to come back, I have kind of enjoyed not having to choose which bill to pay at the end of the month. The other bummer is, it’s hard to watch people dropping tons of money when you’re living hand to mouth. I don’t consider myself materialistic person, but watching people pay thosuands of dollars for a handbag when you’re struggling to scrape together rent is a tough thing. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a high demand for rhinestone appliers in Hawaii.