Scotland the Brave!

Hey, everyone!

This weekend marks the 150th Pleasanton Highland Games, so these are the nails I wore to them yesterday! Keep reading to find out more!

For those of you who don't know, highland games are part of Scottish culture and are essentially like Scottish Olympics, but with lots more bagpipes and heavy things being thrown around. If you've ever seen someone throwing a log for sport, it's actually called caber tossing, and it's extremely difficult and probably my favorite event to watch. There's also piping band and traditional dance competitions which are super fun to watch as well. Not to mention lots of kilts! This year marked the 150th consecutive year that the Pleasanton Highland Games have taken place - what a momentous year! I'm so glad my family and I got to go, it was very memorable!

Although I've done my family's tartan on my nails in the past, I wanted to do something more generally Scottish this year. So I started with two coats of Wet n Wild French White Creme on my index and ring fingers, and one coat of Essie Mezmerised on my thumb, middle, and pinky fingers. When those were dry, I topped the white nails with a thin coat of Fair Maiden Polish Fairy Godmother holo topcoat and the blue nails with two thin coats of Ellagee Sexy Old Girl. After those dried I stamped plaid and a thistle on my white nails with Mezmerised and Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-L006 and Messy Mansion MM16. Then I stamped white plaid onto my blue thumb and pink. On my middle finger I used a striper brush and white polish to paint the flag of Scotland, St. Andrew's Cross. I sealed everything with Seche Vite as usual.

Here's my mani with a wee heeland coo (highland cow) that my dad and stepmom brought to me from their recent trip to Scotland. His name is Hamish, according to the tag that came with him! Even though I don't have a lot of Scottish blood in me, it's the part of my heritage I feel most connected with. When I went to Scotland in 2009, I felt like I was home, even though I'd never been there before. Who knows, maybe someday it will be my home! Below is my mani with my kilt that I wore yesterday. It's the tartan for my family, Smith.

I have a lot more pictures from yesterday's Highland Games, but I don't feel like posting them all. So here's a pic of me in my attire. My family kilt, a flowy blouse and bodice, and (though you can't see them), flashes in my family colors on my socks/hose. It was a great day overall, but dang I was ready to take my bodice off after 12+ hours of wearing it!

Materials Used

Wet n Wild French White Creme

Essie Mezmerised

Ellagee Sexy Old Girl

Stamping plate BP-L006

Stamping plate MM14

I really hope I'll be in good enough health in 50 years to attend the 200th Pleasanton Highland Games - wouldn't that be something?! For now I'll be content to attend annually whenever I can, though. Can't wait until next year's games! Thanks for stopping by!