CND Tutu banishes Monday blues with childhood nostalgia.

I used to own a bunch of tutus. Not the Halloween costume kind, but honest to goodness ones, along with the tights, leotards and ballet whathaveyous. See, my mom had me take up ballet when I was 6 but it was such a demanding activity that my grades started to slip. I enjoyed it, yes. But it got so tiring that when my very concerned parents asked if I still wanted to do it, it was an easy choice.  This is how my weekday schedule looked like: 7:30am - 3:00pm school, 3:00pm - 5:00pm academic extra curricular activities, 5:00pm - 7:30pm, even 8:00pm sometimes, ballet class. Looking back, that does seem like a pretty tough schedule for a 6 year old to keep. So by the time I got home at about 8:00pm, I would be so tired that I'd end up skipping dinner and crawl into bed. Suffice to say that I got no homework done, either. I ended up quitting when I was 10 and one step away from toe shoes level. I would have wanted to keep doing it, if only to finally get toe shoes, but I just wasn't that good (unfortunately, I lacked the flexibility required so no Black Swan here :P) and it was interfering with my academics. Besides, I'd be so tired that the prospect of more sleep seemed a better choice. No regrets, but I would definitely want my future daughter(s) to try their hand at it. Now, continuing in the vein of Valentine-esque colors, I whipped out this soft, pale pink that reminded me so much of the color of my tights:

A soft pretty pink!

We wish you a prosperous Year of the Dragon!

In lieu of the usual polish review on Mondays, we decided to showcase my Chinese New Year mani instead. It is, after all, the start of a new lunar year, the year of the dragon!

Apparently, the year of the dragon is big news as having a baby in this year is believed to guarantee the family good luck in the years to come. Not to mention that the dragon baby, especially if it's a boy, is believed to be destined for much success and prosperity throughout his/her life. I've even heard of stories where babies born in the year of the dragon are invited over to neighbors homes so that they can play in the house and hopefully rub off some of their innate luck. Needless to say, I wanted to incorporate a dragon into the design but my freehand skills aren't quite up to par yet so I ended up with something that looked distinctly Asian (to me, at least) instead.

新 年 快 乐! 恭 喜 发 财!

Xin Nian Kuai Le/Happy New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai/May you become prosperous!

MEGA Truckload Tuesday: I think I accidentally took Santa's gift rucksack.

I have a confession to make. Remember how I kept telling myself I was on a no buy (wherein you try to control all spending/splurging urges in an effort to control the growth of your nail polish family)? Well, with all the holiday collections coming out, I thought it wouldn't hurt to lift it during the holidays. Understatement of 2011. Truth is, I went a bit crazy. So crazy that I was more than a little hesitant to show my loot. It really feels like I must've accidentally taken Santa's rucksack by mistake. Amusingly, there seems to be interest to see it (them?) and so I caved.

I thought this seemed appropriate, don't you think so?

(Image Credits)

But before I do, I have a some teeny tiny disclaimers (don't worry, I won't go defensive mode on you). All the items you'll see were acquired only during the months of December and early January. The photos need accompanying paragraphs in lieu of comments ergo, this will be a fairly lengthy post as there are quite a bit of photos after the jump. Okay, all set? Here we go!