3-D Nail Art

Winter 2011 Graduation

Tonight is Graduation and I'm very proud of these girls they have worked hard!!, Shannon Anderson, Jenny McKnight, Kristin Herring, Yamila Chamorro, Yoana Corona, Shanel Naoni Makalika Samifong, Marlenne Solis, Afton Wentzel, Leydy Pantoja, Andrea Castaneda.. Good Job Ladies

Full Scuplts By Rebekah Towers!!

JJ'S Nail Academy is Ready for Christmas!! Jeff, JJ, and the students have spent a lot of time decorating.

Some of the students wanted to try a life skills parenting class!! Now they have Flour Sack Babies to take care of for a week!!

December is a time for giving, and we are giving you a lot of discounts!

Manicure and Pedicure $19.99
Glitter Toes $10.00 (red and green glitter only) regular price at $15.00
Pedicure $20.00 now $17.00
Full Pamper Package: included Mani, Pedi, Glitter Toe, Full set and Parafin Wax, Now just 49.99

New Students

We would like to Welcome our Two New Students Mckenzie Thacker and Alejandra Zavala!! We are looking forward to working with you.  Good Luck!

Meet the Diva's in training...

JJ has 3 grand kids and counting. Jaxon is 8, Jaci is 2 1/2, Olivia is 9 months, and Bently is due to join the family in December. Jaxon, Jaci and Olivia are Ashley's children. They have been part of JJ's Nail Academy all their lives. While Ashley tries to work around her kids and husband, there are many days she has to bring them in with her. Jaxon is in school so it's usually Jaci and Olivia. Thankfully, our staff and students are wonderful with them and are very understanding. I (Ashley) am very appreciative of this!

Well, Miss Jaci is definitely a DIVA! She has taken under Grandma JJ's wings and thinks she can fill her shoes some day. She LOVES to have her nails painted by the girls who aren't busy, and to paint their nails in return. She loves glitter and glam... She is, the next JJ!

This is Jaci getting her nails done by Bobbie Jo

Then, she painted Austin's toes..

(and skin, and her dress, and her finger.....)

This is Olivia exploring

This is "a great idea for a babysitter"......


While Olivia is still young, I can only imagine she will follow in the Peay Girls footsteps too.

Summer Graduation 2011

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE GRADS!!

We had our Summer 2011 Graduation Party and it was so fun! We had 16 graduating girls and a packed house with them and all their families....

Part of the student's and their families

Another group of students and family members

Refreshment time!

Some of the girls helping to cut the graduation cake.... no cake fights girls!! :)

Our little mimic Jaci... so helpful!

Starting a new tradition... letting the graduates write words of inspiration on the checkered door. So much fun to look back and read.

Thank you to JJ and Clint for pulling off a great graduation! And to giving the students a great education to help them be the best they can be. We had many hugs and tears over gratefulness and the bitter sweet of moving on and not being in class everyday. We will miss everyone of you and hope you are all a shining star in the nail field. Keep in touch!!

Career placement

Do you know where you want to work when you get done with your nail course? At home? At a salon? A spa? We want our students to get a job doing what they love and will help them get started. Our office manager Clint, will work with students to find them a position in a salon, or help them with ways to open their own salon at home. Our staff can help answer questions and help with contacting salons to get you in their door.

Are you a salon that hires nail techs? Call Clint at 801-373-0633 and get on our referral list. Keeping in touch can help our best students help make the best of your salon. We love word of mouth and helping the business grow!!

New Students!

Welcome!

JJ's would love to extend a big welcome to our 3 new students! Jenny is joining us on our day classes. Cindy is going to do a mix of day and night classes. And Afton will be in night classes. We are happy they are part of our team and can already tell they are going to be great at what they learn! Thanks for comin on board girls and we can't wait to see what you can do!

Graduating students

We have some senior students graduating soon and getting ready to take their state test! Congratulations Mikki, Michelle, Alma and Karla! We are so happy for you and have enjoyed your talents at our school. You each bring something different to our school and we will miss that. We wish you best of luck on your test, and know you will do great at doing nails. You all deserve the best and we hope you find a great place to work, if you haven't already, and you build up a huge clientele. Come back soon and keep us updated!

New student Marlenne

We have a new student on our night class. Her name is Marlenne. She is a wife and mother to a little boy and girl. She wants to finish her nail technician license and open up a beauty shop with her husband, who is a barber. She is great to work with and is already showing wonders on the practical floor! Welcome to our school! We can't wait to see your talents shine thru!

Catching up...

As we all know school can be tough. All the hands on practical stuff. All the theory and testing. Practice, practice, practice. We always try to make our students practical time on the floor as productive as possible, and want them leaving our school confident in their full sets and glitter toes and such. But, we also strive to make sure they are on top when it comes to textbook learning and life skills classes. They are just as important. When your clients ask why something is happening to their nails, or why your do one of the steps you do, wouldn't you want to be educated enough to tell them the right answer, and have them look at you with admiration for being the best you can be in your field? At our school we spend lots of time going over this exact stuff. History, Regulations, Diseases, Chemistry, etc to make sure our students are well educated when they walk out the door. As our motto states that we strive to provide our students with the best, this involves going beyond just painting fingernails.

We hit about mid term for our current students, and they realized just how important these book studies are. Hate to say it, but there was a lot of make up tests to do, and study habits that had to be changed to keep our students on top. Our staff has spent alot of time working with these students, which includes many, many extra hours of 1 on 1 time. By doing this though, the students gained a better perspective of what needs to be done to stay on top, how hard it is to catch up, and how much better they do when they stay current with the course and how it can make life less stressful when you do. Our staff is here for the students when they need us, and strive to do what we reasonably can to help them along, but to see the sparkle in their eyes when they see that CAN do it by themselves and CAN achieve great things on their own is priceless!! Thanks girls for putting in the effort to make your lives better and realizing how important it is to do well in these studies. It may be a tough 8 or 12 weeks, but it reaps a lifetime of benefits!!

Thanks to our clients...

Hey Staisha...

Thanks for bringing your "hobbit feet" in for us to work on!!

This joke brought to you by your friends, family, and the funny staff at JJ's Nail Academy :)

Car wash fund-raiser for Allie

As a school we want to be a positive influence to our girls, and show them that one person can make a difference. We love teaching our students and building up their self confidence. Pay it forward. You do something kind and giving to one person, that person carries it on to the next person, and so forth. Well, we as a school are working on helping a young girl get the surgery on her face she needs to remove a big birthmark. It is on her lower right cheek and is significant in size and needs to be shaved often. Allie is a great young lady and such an example! She is a 4.0 GPA student, sings in choir, loves to read, is active in her church and would love to go on a mission someday. She wants to be a massage therapist when she gets older. We are trying all summer to help raise money to get it done before she starts high school in the fall. We know high school can be tough already, and even as humble as Allie is, why not try to get it removed before she has to take on the experiences high school brings?

As our first of many fund-raisers, we held a charity car wash. We had a great turn out and had a lot of fun for a great cause!

We sold donation tickets for a Little Giant Ladder and JJ's Nail Academy gift cards raffle that will close in August when we run our 5K.

I want to thank all our friends and family who helped volunteer their time for a good cause!

It was a great kick off start to the fund-raising season!!

It's Monday... back to school

It's Monday and time to get back to learning. I (Ashley) was at the school Friday and learned that the girls have a test today on the muscles. Who knew?! Who would think that studying the muscles would have anything to do with artificial nails? But when you think about it, you do massages on the hands, arms, feet, legs. That's all muscles you need to know about when you are doing client care. Our course is great because it covers all the aspects of nails. It's wayyyy past just slapping paint on a nail bed. There's hygiene care, chemistry, muscles, OSHA, money management, public engagement. Theres so much to learn so everyday we learn something new!

Home Sweet Home!!

We are excited to say we are home safely and in one piece. It was a shorter route coming home than going out. Who let Clint do the navigating?? We had a lot of fun and are eager to put our new knowledge to good use. We know it's just a step in a long line of many, but it's a step forward!

 We wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July and will see you all on Tuesday the 5th for classes.

Playing in Pennsylvania

We finished all our training and received our certificates of completion. YEAH!! One more step done and closer to the big goal. Whew! Boy did NACCAS make ya work for the certificate.

Now that the works done, it was time to play. Clint, JJ and Steve were able to cruise along the Ohio River and sight see. The views are so pretty and it's so green in Pittsburgh.

They were also able to take a trolley ride

Along the Ohio River

Then for lunch, we of course had to stop at the J&J restaurant... convenient huh?

This trip is coming to a close and were excited to come home and share our experience. Looking forward to 2000 miles of driving about as much as we can muster :)

Day two of NACCAS conferences..

Training, training, training....

One of the seminars

Clint and JJ posin' for the pretty camera guy..

(Yep, side pic's the best I got)

Look innocent enough, right??

Only cuz they have to be behaved during training. We know what's goin on outside classes... TROUBLE!

And were off........

We are in the process of becoming NACCAS accredited and boy is it a lot of work!! One part of the process is conferences. So JJ, Clint and Steve (JJ's husband) set off for the road trip of their lives!!

Steve and Clint bonding over 2000 miles. EACH WAY!

Clint's good luck flamingo. Even risked his life (okay, his hat and glasses) over it trying to save it as it blew off the antenna. (Forgive the side pic!)

Bugs, bugs, buuuuggggssss!!!

Kansas and beyond!!



Road trip gas $800. Hotel $2000. JJ's shopping habit can't disclose. Finding a sculpture of Clint along the way
PRICELESS!!!!





Bridge in Pennsylvania

View from the coffee shop in Pittsburgh.

Be sure to check out our post while we were in Pittsburgh, and the trouble we get into.

Mother's Day Party

Friday night we had a bunch of ladies come in for some well deserved Mother's Day pampering. Besides the pedicures and manicures they recieved, they got a big dose of fun. We had the stereo going, conversations flowing and lots of laughs! Moms deserve more than 1 day of extra special attention....

Meet out new night class

We have a bunch of new night students who are wonderful! We love having fresh faces and energy join us. Were glad you joined us!

Rosa, Marinda

Cynthia, Mikki, Echo

(not pictured is Michelle)

The Business side...

Not all of class is hands on. There's book work, theory, guest speakers and lectures. We had our office administrator Clint teach the students a business class.

Though we all enjoy furthering our education and getting a broad knowledge of what's involved with working in a salon...... let's be honest..... Clint enjoyed the class the most!!

American Fork High School Career Day

Last week we went to American Fork High School for try to spark interest in the girls (and boys!) about our school. We were overwhelmed with response and Megan and Taffy had their hands full!!

We had so many students who wanted to get involved that we had to have girls come after school. They came in their groups of friends all the way down to JJ's in Provo.

There was even a young gentleman who was dared to get his done... in blue of course.. and he did it!

He was definately the talk of the hour that day!

Thank you AFHS for allowing us to come by, and we hope to come visit you again. Spread the word to your friends about us so we can come visit their school too!