From Me to You (with lots of love)

I don't know if you think it's cool to know where the things you buy come from, but I kind of think it is. DIY Nails is anything but a faceless brand and I pride myself on being really interactive with followers, customers and anyone who shows at least the slightest bit of interest in what I do, even if it does take me a while to reply sometimes (sorry!).

Your ready to wear, hand painted false nails come from a lovely little Scottish town called Stirling. It's roughly half-way between Glasgow and Edinburgh and is where the film Braveheart was set! William Wallace is from here don't y'know? We have a castle, a bridge, a monument and a Mcdonalds and a Topshop. I wish I was joking but I can genuinely hear bagpipes outside right now, the perks of living in the town centre on a Saturday! Here are some touristy pictures:

In the future I would definitely love a little office or a studio, but for the time being I'm working from my bedroom! With the magical art of furniture placement and my resourcing skills, I have managed to create a mini studio flat in one room, complete with living room, wardrobe/dressing area, DIY Nails HQ and sleeping area. Here is a photo of my wee work area:

My Frenchie Karl cushion is pretty awesome

When I'm not working elsewhere, I'm sitting here either trawling the internet for nail supplies and inspiration, writing my blog, fiddling about on my websites, replying to e-mails, buying things from eBay and reblogging like crazy on tumblr. I also like to spend a lot of time on Facebook talking to my BFF Emma.

This is a picture of Emma AND the castle

When I get Custom Nail Orders or make nails for photo shoots and fashion shows I just sit at my desk and paint them when needs be. But when it's time to stock up the shop, get started with some new styles or paint up wholesale orders for stockists - I make sure I have one whole day off to start with. I usually have my lovely nail-fairy/assistant Becki booked in for the day. She is the only person I really trust to paint your nails as is as much of a perfectionist as I am.

This is Becki and a horse. I actually stole this off her Facebook.

We tend to sit from 12pm-9pm with a wee break where we take the dog for a walk (I mix up Becki and Betty's names on a regular basis) and eat spaghetti hoops and waffles and later on we eat pizza. If I'm by myself,  I'll start at 8am and keep working until 10pm. So obviously I love the days when I have company! I usually aim for around 50-60 sets in that day. We sit on my couch and use every flat surface available to perch something on, the TV is just out of shot but it usually has Keeping Up With the Kardashians or Harry Potter on repeat.

See if you can spot Betty in there

The next day I usually have work so I get up early to topcoat each set and check all the nails. When I come home I pop them off their wee sticks one-by-one. file the tips and count them into their plastic packaging! I then print off all the inserts, cut them up (badly) and whack them in. I take photos, pop them all in a big box and update my shop. PHEWWWW! This bit of the process usually take around 4 hours. After that, I print off orders as they come, package up the styles and pop them off to my local Post Office in WH Smith. But not until I've stuck a cute sticker on the front of the packet so you know it's coming from me!

So that's it. I hope I haven't ruined the image you had in your head (Hello Kitty and friends painting nails in a magical pink garden that smells of sweets, duh). xxx

KISSES