IIHF World Juniors

The first games of the World Juniors (Buffalo, NY) were held on Boxing Day. Stores in Newfoundland are closed Boxing Day (very sad) so my sale shopping had to be done Monday. This left Sunday to watch some hockey (particularly since the Liverpool match was postponed due to a frozen pitch) and repaint my nails. Christmas is over, time to move on. The original plan was to have Germany on the left hand and Canada on the right. I want Canada to win, but I'd like Germany to do well. Unfortunately I broke my thumbnail on the right hand trying to get something out of a box (an endeavour in which success still eludes me) and decided not to risk getting nail polish remover in the somewhat open wound. With the hands uneven I opted to have Canada on both hands with a little shout-out to Germany on the left thumb. I decided to experiment with a landscape set up which gave a bit extra space to include hockey sticks and have the boards in the background. Granted, this layout has been done before (Canadiens, Vimy, Discworld) but this round was undertaken with a bit more intent. Germany lost their first game 4:3 but Canada was victorious against Russia with a 6:3 final scoreline.

Christmas 2010

The intention was to keep the Hogfather nails for all of Christmas but when the dilemma of Hogfather versus proper holiday nails was put to a friend, the latter won out. The original plan was to have at least 5 different designs but I really liked the idea of the candy cane stripes and decided that they should be over-represented for my own personal enjoyment. This also cancelled out another early plan to do all gift boxes with different wrapping paper and bows. I decided to stick to a red/gold/green basic palette with some white and tonal variations thrown in. There are two shades of red on the candy canes, but it's likely too subtle for the camera to pick up. The gift plan remained in red and gold on the index fingers, while Christmas trees and mistletoe made the cut on ring fingers and thumbs respectively.

The Hogfather

To get in the holiday spirit I painted my nails like my second favourite holiday movie, the Hogfather, based on the book by Terry Pratchett. (My first favourite holiday movie? Muppets Christmas Carol). On the left hand I had the villan, his employer and a few hired associates - Mr. Teatime (the assassin), Mr. Sideney, Banjo and one of the Auditors. On the thumb is Discworld, a flat world resting on the back of four elephants who stand on a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin. On the left hand Death is given the honoured thumb placement, complete with his Hogfather getup. There are also Susan (his granddaughter), Albert (the servant/stand-in elf), the Hogfather himself, and Quoth (the raven). Happy Hogswatch all!

World Cup Hosts

After I misjudged the amount of time before Christmas I realized that my proposed holiday nails would not survive 3 weeks. Fortunately, FIFA made their announcement for the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on December 2nd. A simple flag design with gold bacgrounds and gold years on the pinkie fingers both commemorated the event and filled up an extra week and a half.