FingerFood's 2013 Round up - Favourite manis and other highlights!

Hello everyone! Today I have something new for you (and for me!) - a round up post! I had started my blog before 2013 but before this year, posting was sporadic at best and I used it to post a few challenge manis while I found my feet. This year, and certainly in the last 6 months, I have moved into regular posting so thought it'd be good to put something together :)

One of the highlights of my year was passing my assessments (with a mark of 100%!) and becoming a qualified nail tech back in March. Now I'm insured and I've been able to start painting other people too :)

Another highlight was my guest post over at The Crumpet. It was such an honour to be asked to take part in Debbie's British Blogging Christmas (although the pressure I felt to come up with something awesome wasn't so much fun lol!). Here's the mani:

I was also lucky enough to have these Ikat half moons nails featured in Nail Art Gallery magazine:

And was asked to paint these for NAILS magazine:

I have continued to make nail polish jewellery with the Galaxy pendant being super popular this year. It has recently attracted some press interest too so hopefully you'll be hearing a lot more about it in 2014!

I have taken part in a heap of challenges this year and have joined some groups of lovely like-minded nail art fanatics like Crumpet's Nail Tarts and the Nail Challenge Collaborative. There was the February Nail Art challenge and ABC Challenge hosted by Erica's Nails and More, the Girly Girl Challenge, the Tri Polish Challenge (which will be continuing into 2014 - yay!), the NCC monthly challenges, the 33 Day Challenge, the Crumpet's Nail Tarts Xmas Challenge and the 12 Days of Xmas Challenge hosted by Nail Art Novice. Thank you to all those of you who have organised and participated in these challenges - I have had so much fun :) Here's a selection:

And finally a bit of Christmas:

I think I'll stop bombarding you with photos now! If by some miracle you would like to see even more of my 2013 manis, everything can be found on my Pinterest, Facebook or my Nails Mag Nail Art Gallery.

Thank you all for reading and taking the time to comment on my little corner of the blogosphere this year - I appreciate all your input! The blog has grown much more than I ever expected and I am so grateful to all of you who take time to read my ramblings!

There will be plenty more from me in 2014 (along with a few manis still to come for 2013!) - lots of new challenges and plenty of new ideas that I look forward to sharing with you all soon :D

Sam xx