Crumpet's 33DC- Dots

Hello, my loves! No, you're not crazy. That title today does indeed say 33DC, not 31DC. You see, apparently I'm a masochist, as I'm not even through with one challenge, and I'm already starting another! I've also decided to join a Halloween challenge which starts posting in a little over a week- I'll be a busy girl! However, I spent most of the weekend drafting posts- for the challenges, to clear out the vault of polishes I've swatched and never reviewed, and because I tend to take photos of my nails daily, so I have tons of posts! I've started using Google's calender app (so easy!- it's right there on my Blogger dashboard page, so why not?), which I think will make my life WAY simpler! I've got each of my challenges listed on their appropriate days, reviews listed as to when they should be posted, series posts on their respective days, PLUS a little task bar off to the right with ideas I have for posts that I haven't set a date for yet! Amazing! I'm pretty much scheduled through the end of the year, although- of course- most things can be rescheduled if need be :)

I went back and forth on this challenge for so long! I had already started the 31DC2013 challenge, and then I saw this one! I participated in the Crumpet's Nail Tarts' NEW 31DC back in January, and loved it! The original 31DC is fun, and I've never participated, but Debbie from the Crumpet has such a creative mind, and I love the new prompts that she comes up with, so I REALLY wanted to participate in this one as well! The fact that it's only 3 days a week helps, but I was already in a challenge, and I knew I'd want to do holiday challenges as well, so I was torn. I sat on it for a few weeks. Decided I was absolutely in, and pre-painted a few days to get ahead of the game. Then I was out- there's no way I could keep up! Then, finally today, seeing all the lovely posts rolling in from those blogs I follow- I knew I had to jump in. 

So here I am! But I didn't have a post drafted today, and I won't have time to do one later. I didn't want to be late on the first day, so I'm doing something that . . . I hope you'll forgive me for, and perhaps even celebrate a little bit: I'm showing you the VERY FIRST nail art I ever created. Before I started this blog, I wore acrylics for more than 6 years. When I first started getting into actual polish and nail art, I stopped getting the pre-decorated acrylics and tried my hand at my own art . . . I hope you'll see how very far I've come from that first attempt a year and a half ago!

As this was approximately May of 2012, I have no idea which polishes I used, although I suspect that the pink on my thumb is Sinful Colors Cream Pink. I freehanded the stripes and french tips, used a sewing pin for the dots (I didn't even know dotting tools existed!), and used the actual polish brushes to create the mish-mash underneath the black crackle. I remember being so proud of these at the time! My nail art certainly isn't perfect, but I like to think my skills have greatly improved since then! As has my photography and lighting setup :)

Check out more dot manis in the InLinkz below, and I'll see you tomorrow with some pre-planned art!