Liebster Award!

Wheeeeeee! I got sent this, not once but twice by two blogs I found over #31DC2013. I'm incredibly flattered! Especially since to my knowledge only like four people followed me before I began the challenge.

I was awarded this by Nailpolish in my Eyes and ALIQUID. (I didn't even realize they knew I existed!)

This award exists to draw attention to new and unknown bloggers, because us little people deserve some love too :) You have to have under 200 followers to qualify (so I qualify by a nice wide margin, huh!)

This got kind of long, so the rest goes under a cut.

The rules are as follows: 

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you 
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you 
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers 
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination 
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

Since I got two nominations, the questions were slightly different from each other. I shall endeavor to answer all of them.

1- What inspired your blog name?

I actually think I have this in my profile, but it's pretty straightforward. I have a harp, and I like wearing hats, but unfortunately my head is rather too small for most cute hats, so they live on my harp. I haven't been doing much playing lately, but hopefully I'd like to go back to recording and posting videos one day, and you can see it there! I also made a fedoraharp sketch a couple of  years ago, which I have now commissioned to be developed into a proper logo for my Etsy store! So there's that.

2- What nail polish color can you not resist buying?

Teal. Turquoise. Aqua. Anything on the spectrum between green and blue, predictably :) My first OPI was even one of them! (Cuckoo For This Color).

3- You're rushing out the door and have 10 minutes to do your nails, what polish do you grab?

GA-DE fast dry polishes, definitely. They tend to be really nicely opaque in one or two coats, and they dry rock solid with no base coat or top coat.

4. Your house is burning down/you're on a deserted island/you're being abducted by aliens, etc....which 5 polishes would you take with you?

Oh man, that's tough! I'm tempted to say Hits polish Moonbow, but since it's a layering polish I won't. Off the top of my head: one regular top coat, one matte top coat (that way I have some variety!), OPI Ink, Revlon Creme Brulee, and Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. Not to say those are my three undisputed favorites, but they're staples.

5. What inspired you to get into nail polish in the first place?

I wanted to stop biting my nails. I'd tried a ton of different techniques over the years, and nothing worked. I figured if I started to put cool stuff on my nails, I'd be more aware of them, and less likely to unconsciously chew on them since I'd ruin the pretty polish. It might have worked a little too well!

6. What technique have you struggled with in the past and now mastered? 

Well, "mastered" is being a little generous, but I used to have a much harder time with freehand art than I do now. It's all about refinement and improvement from here!

7. What technique do you still struggle with?

Oddly enough, stamping. I don't know why, I still struggle to get the polish exactly right (I scrape off too much or too little a lot), and aligning the patterns.

8. What is your favorite type of manicure to do? 

It might be the simple French manicure look, nude and white, mainly because I do it so seldom. I like doing unique and loud looks, but every now and then returning to a simple French is refreshing. Maybe with a single stamped accent, like I did here. The charm in it is that it's unusual for me though- I think if I did it more often I'd probably get bored.

9. How do you organize/keep track of your polishes? 

Honestly? I just keep them lined up on my nail polish shelves (three shelves on a bookcase) organized by brand. I'm starting to run out of room, so I should probably look into alternatives. There's a photo from a few months ago here, but I think the number of polishes I have has grown by at least 50% by now.

10. What commercial brand is your favorite? 

Huh. If you'd asked me a month ago Orly would easily have won, but now GA-DE is gaining on it. Also Perfect Chic, simply because they're trying to actually keep up with international trends.

11. What indie brand is your favorite? 

...well I technically only bought from one indie brand, so far. I've made an order to Indigo Bananas, but since it hasn't shown up yet, I'm going to say Glitter Bunny, as always :) She's got lots of adorable glitter bombs and she's also just an all around adorable person!

So, those were the questions from ALIQUID. A bunch of the questions I got from NPIME were the same or similar, so here are the unique ones:

12) What inspired you to start your blog?

This actually started out as a jewelry blog, in 2010! I posted I think twice before abandoning it. It may become more of a jewelry design blog once again over time.

13) What is your favorite nail blog to follow?

Swatch and Learn, definitely. She has tons of followers, but she has never let it get to her head- she's a complete sweetheart and tries to take the time to reply to every comment, and even get to know her followers a little. She also offers in depth reviews of all the polishes she's sent, with swatches in lots of different types of lighting and angles, so you really know what you're buying.

14) Which design are you most proud of?

I... that's a harder question than I thought it would be. I narrowed it down to three of my favorites, sorry! Teal skittles for day 21 of 31DC, Double water marbling, which is a technique I figured out on my own, or Stained Glass, which was the first serious art I'd ever tried, and have since revisited a number of times.

15) What are your future blogging goals?

Incorporate more jewelry design posts into my blog, for one thing! Also maybe some harp videos, but that would mean keeping my nails short, so it's a conundrum. I'd also like to do a giveaway soon- I've already prepared the prizes, I just have to get good photos. I also want to do more geek-themed nail art.

16) And for fun, if you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

I'd love to be a supernaturally quick learner. Like being able to learn skills that should take years of practice in a matter of days or weeks.

~~~

Whew! That was longer than I expected. Here are my nominees, in no particular order:

Flight of Whimsy

Just For Fun

Paint Them All

Colors Frenzy

Nails Done By A Blimbo

A Girl And Her Chicken Named Betty

Vic & Her Nails

Pow Nails

And last but not least- remember how throughout the 31 day challenge my friend Han would post with me? Well after some encouragement, she started her own blog- Nemo Nails! Give her a visit :)

Why 9? Because I'm nominating ALIQUID and Nail Polish In My Eyes right back! Since I would have nominated either one of them but they beat me to the punch, I'm allowing it on a technicality.

Here are my 11 questions (some are rephrases of other questions, some are original):

1. What motivated you to start blogging?
2. What's your favorite design (of your own)?
3. Besides nail art, what else would you like to blog about?
4. What unexpected challenges did you have to overcome, either as a blogger or an artist?
5. Any lemmings right now? What are they?
6. Who inspires you as a blogger and an artist?
7. What's your favorite finish?
8. What nail care item or technique can you not live without? (anything from cuticle oil to dotting tools is fine)
9. If you could make one subtraction and one addition to #31DC what would they be?
10. If you had to start a collection from scratch, how would you go about it?
11. We all know that funky nails can draw the eyes of random passers-by. What's your favorite story of a stranger reacting to your nail art?