July and August

 Done at the end of July, a couple of my favourite mystery stars envisioned as cats. My pre-paint sketch turned out much better so I'm not thrilled with the end result here. But we have Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, and Father Brown, plus a little magnifying glass on the pinky.

At the beginning of August it was also time for another season of football, so some new FC Bayern nails were done. Unlike the 'cat-ectives', I did do both hands for the Bayern nails but also attempted to dye my hair with red streaks and the other hand turned really pink.

End of the Season

April 2015 - I did these at the end of April in support of Bayern and the Canadiens, unfortunately it was not to be and Bayern lost on aggregate in the Champions League while Montreal lost to Tampa in the playoffs. 

FC Bayern 2014/15

 For the start of the new season, new Bayern nails. Retro crest on the thumbs, and then the new kits. Home kit on the index fingers, away on the middle, Champion's League kit on the ring, and Neuer's CL kit on the pinkies. My home kit is all ready to go this season but I wouldn't say no to picking up a 3rd kit as well. 

World Cup 2014

 In just under two weeks I'll be heading to Europe (and will be hopefully watching Germany win the World Cup while in Munich). These are my group stages nails. The Eagle on the right hand with stars, and Deutschland 2014 with German flag colours on the left. On the thumbs, 16 (Lahm) done in the colours of the 2014 kit.

I'll have to do knock out round nails before I leave and am currently thinking about possible ideas.

2013/14 Bayern Nails

 Done in the second week of September, new Bayern nails for the new season. The standby classic on the thumbs, partial crests. On the fingers of the right hand edelweiss flowers. Symbolic of Bayern hopefully continuing to climb to new heights and prove themselves again this season. Or because I had that song from Sound of Music stuck in my head. On the left hand "mia san mia".

Round of 16 and Rrroll Up

 Rrroll Up the Rim to Win and Bayern's first leg against Arsenal in the Champions League fell within a day of each other so these are double duty nails. Rrroll up thumbs (for rolling) with little coffee cups. On the left fingers is one of Bayern's mottos (Mia san mia = we are who we are) and a heart. On the right hand is the crest done in red and white with a bit of blue sparkle to decrease the contrast.

Euro 2012 Knock-out Rounds/Canada Day

The finals of Euro 2012 fall on Canada Day this year, so these nails serve a double purpose. On the thumbs is a mini-Canada tribute with 1¢ on the left thumb and the maple leaves and 1¢ on the right thumb. This is also a tribute to the penny, which is being phased out. In a rare shout-out to the nailpolish used, I've included a pre-design image of the thumb using "Magnetic Force" polish. The variations in colour are achieved by hovering a magnet over the wet polish. I thought it was pretty cool and turned out really interesting. 

The fingernails are stars in the German colours and little football player silhouettes also done in the German colours. Nothing too complex, but hopefully it'll be lucky for the knockout rounds. So far so good, with Germany moving on to the semi-finals.

UEFA Euro 2012 - Group Stages

 UEFA Euro 2012 nails.

Both thumbs have the Poland-Ukraine Euro logo with "EURO 2012". On the right hand, German eagles. On the left, the flags of all the group countries. Group A: Poland, Greece, Russia and Czech Republic. Group B: Netherlands, Denmark, GERMANY!!!, and Portugal. Group C: Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, and Croatia. Group D: Ukraine, Sweden, England, France.

 In preparation for the FA Cup final on Saturday, Liverpool Nails. On the left hand is the top of the Liverpool crest (though I inadequately factored in the curve of my nails and the centre gets a bit lost). On the thumb is just YNWA.


On the right hand thumb is the FA Cup. On the first three fingers Liverbirds and "FA" on the pinkie.


C'mon you Reds!

Champions League Quarters

I couldn't decide what to do for the Champions League quarter finals so I went very simple. Red and white (for Bayern) in a plaid on a black base on the fingers. On the thumbs, an attempt at the Champions League stars in gold.

Liverpool Carling Cup

For Liverpool's Carling Cup game on the 26th of March, and the return of Roll Up, and Bayern's game with Basel in the Champions League, there was a new set of nails. On the thumb's were Rrroll Up cups. On the right hand were parts of iconic Liverpool buildings - from left to right the Liver Building, Port Authority, and Town Hall. Aslo the Carling Cup on the pinkie. On the left hand, two FC Bayern nails (they didn't turn out very well), the Liver bird for LFC and the Bluebird for Cardiff City. And Liverpool won (at the last possible moment... but won!)!

Liverpool FC - Yet another incarnation

At the end of August I did a new set of Liverpool FC nails. Originally, the plan was to have the red background and mini portraits of the starting lineup (for the Bolton game) done in white. It would have not included Reina since I lack an extra finger for the entire 11 men. I hit a snag, 3 times, in the attempt to do Enrique. Because of his facial stubble he kept turning out looking like Santa Claus. In a fit of frustration, all the portraits that were completed to that point were removed (there were only 3 others) and a very simple design with the outline of the LFC crest and the squad numbers was included. On the bottom was a banner with TIA (This is Anfield). So, on the right hand: Suarez (7), Kuyt (18), Downing (19), Adam(26), Leiva (21). On the left: Reina (25), Kelly (34), Carragher(23), Henderson (14), Agger (5). In this set, Enrique didn't get make cut.

My toes were done as well this round. The grey nailpolish was already on the coffee table so I just used that but added hearts on the big toes for... interest?

FC Bayern 2011-2012

I finished these nails a week ago in honour of the DFB-Pokal campaign beginning. And Bayern won, moving on to round 2. Not so fortunate today when the Bundesliga campaign kicked off with a 1 nil loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach. I did the toes as well this time round with the colours from the centre of Bayern's crest/the Coat of Arms of Bavaria.

UEFA Champions League Final 2011

A quick turnaround of the playoff nails was necessary in order to show my support for FC Barcelona in the Champions League. It's the end of another season. Well, the seasons were already over, but now with no more club football to watch (minus friendlies and not including MLS) the emptiness is really noticeable. I went for Barca because I did not want Man U to win (thanks for obliging Spanish FCB with that 3:1 final scoreline). I don't have a Spanish team so there wasn't really a conflict of interest. But next year the German FCB will definitely win. Anyway... On the right hand I had mini Barca crests with "FCB" on the pinkie. On the left I incorporated elements from the crest. The St. George cross, the Catalan flag, the team colours and the old school football. They were completed Friday but were short lived only lasting until Tuesday (today). As I type my Stanley Cup Playoff Finals homage is drying. Go Canucks Go!

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

So I planned a trip back to the province I grew up in that (not coincidently) coincided with the first Whitecaps game of the season and their first in Major League Soccer. As such I had to do Whitecaps nails. Being a procrastinator, they were done far too late in the evening the day before my flight so they weren't, perhaps, as polished as I would've preferred but I had quite a bit of fun with them anyway. And it was nice upon arriving in Vancouver that people actually knew what it was as opposed to just commenting on the nice design and asking what "Caps" meant. If it were possible for me to write "Vancouver Whitecaps FC" on a single nail, that definitely would've happened. But, it was a great game, with a fantastic final scoreline. Despite the fact that I'm a 'Caps fan, I'd been following TFC in the seasons before Vancouver was promoted. As such, it was good to be able to see De Rosario (who has since been traded to NYRB) alongside Hassli, DeMerit, et al. Definitely worth the trip.

Philipp Lahm

This was the original design plan mentioned in the previous post. Philipp Lahm (captain of Bayern München and the national team). I had thought of going greyscale but I don't have enough variants to make it work so I went with black and white and did his kit in colour.

It was only fitting that I eventually pay a proper tribute to Lahm. He is my favourite player. When I started watching football during the '06 World Cup, his was the first goal I saw scored. I followed both Germany and his progress for the rest of the tournament. When it ended and I decided to follow club football, I chose Bayern because Lahm was (and still is) there. Granted, he was on loan at the time to Stuttgart, but I figured he'd come back, and he did. Last year, Ballack was out of the W.C. with injury and Philipp was captain. Wonderful. Last month, Bayern traded Van Bommel and Philipp was made captain. In addition to a contract that runs for the next 5 years, this was all very good news despite Bayern's poor performances. And that is the background on why I love football in general and Philipp Lahm in particular.

Kenny Dalglish

The corseted nails were short lived as Liverpool announced Saturday that Roy Hodgson was leaving the club and Kenny Dalglish would take over as interim manager. King Kenny has a long history with LFC as both a player and a manager. This gave me the opportunity to work on a portrait, something I'd been considering for a while. Shockingly, while I own two 'natural' shades, which appear quite different in the bottle, this didn't translate into effective shading. As a result the product is a bit flatter that I would've liked and suggests that in the future I experiment instead with greyscale. On the right hand are 5 Kenny's with his player number 7. On the left, 4 Kennys with the number 7 on the pinky finger. Also included is the inspiration photo