I’d like to think that every girl has a book they read in high school that is transformative. For me, that book was Violet & Claire by Francesca Lia Block. I had never read anything that was so incredibly vivid and beautiful. Her words seemed to sparkle from the page, and they took me fifty miles north from my small apartment in Orange County, to the picturesque dream world of Los Angeles. I don’t think anyone has ever written Los Angeles so beautifully, and the city was as much a character in the book as Violet and Claire. She released an amazing novel (for grown ups!) last year called The Elementals. It had been a while since I had read a book by her, but as soon as I started reading it, I felt myself enveloped in that familiar world. The Elementals is so amazing, and so heartbreaking; I can’t hope to describe it in a way that does it justice. I’m just so happy that she’s started writing adult fiction.

Through reading Francesca Lia Block’s books, I learned so much about descriptive imagery, and I feel like she had a tremendous influence on my writing style. She has a book called Love In the Time of Global Warming that came out a few days ago, so I thought I would do a manicure inspired by the cover of the book! While this post doesn’t have a direct relation to traditional geography, I think the movement from one world to another in her writing is a form of geography, and her description of Los Angeles made me fall in love with LA.

I took all the photos at UCLA, specifically because we have several jacaranda trees on campus, and if there’s anything that reminds me of FLB, it’s a jacaranda tree. They aren’t in full bloom right now, but, luckily, I caught one with a few purple flowers on the branch.

For this manicure I used: Julep Amy, Ashley, & Jane, Chanel Noir Ceramic, and OPI Alpine Snow. I have to say, this is by far my favorite nail design I’ve done. It’s pretty simple, and everything is freehand, which made it a fairly quick process. I just used a dotting tool on my ring fingers, and that’s about the only thing you’d need to do this!

Friday is college colors day, so I’ll be back with a UCLA manicure then. Hope you enjoyed this one! Also, I now have a Facebook page and Twitter feed, so check out my About April page to “like” and follow me!