Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

 SPOILER ALERT!! This post reveals information from the seventh series, if you haven't seen it yet you're reading at your own risk.


The countdown has begun. The 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who is this Saturday (27th November) and myself as well as people around me are gearing up. I will, together with some friends, be watching the episode in 3D in one of the cinemas. How cool?!

To give some space for my excitement, most of Sunday was spent painting my nails with monsters and symbols from the series.A Dalek and Cyberman were given, being some of the more frequently returning villains. Two other familiar faces are The Silence, who appeared in the 5th series as the Doctor and Weeping Angels, most recently known for the last episode with Amy and Rory The Angels Take Manhattan.

When the latest companion, Clara Oswald, appeared, she was sat inside a Dalek. Despite dying then, she returned in the 2012 Christmas Special (and its prequel) as the Doctor is found in Victorian London. The Snowmen, villains of that season, was compared to most of the other monsters significantly easier to do and also fitted in well with the relation to the latest companion. 

On my right pinky, the obligatory bow tie can be found, often worn by the Eleventh Doctor. Bad Wolf is one of the main episodes I remember from Rose's companionship and it will be interesting to see how she now re-appears in the anniversary. The Doctor Who logo had to be included somewhere and on the left thumb you find the Seal of Rassilon, which the Time Lords had on display in places of Great Power.

How are you getting ready for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary?

Movember - the female way

'Tis the time of the year. Movember to me is not only a way of raising awareness for prostate cancer but increasingly it's simply becoming an excuse for guys to grow moustaches - whether it suits them or not. Nonetheless, I still find them rather amusing and decided to join in the best way I could - Movember nails!

Vincent Van Gogh paraphrase

When I finished my internship at the end of this summer my team had got together to arrange a leaving present. They had over the 6 months I spent with them noticed my interest in nail art and decided to give me some proper kit. With better tools than just toothpicks I couldn't resist trying something a little more challenging: Van Gogh paraphrasing!

The idea had crossed my mind after I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam earlier during the year but thought that a toothpick might have been pushing it. With the new pens it felt worth a shot and Google provided plenty of inspiration.

I will admit, they took a long time. Was it worth? Easily. I stuck to only dots on my right hand, but was so pleased with these that I didn't particularly mind.

Halloween eyes

Halloween! Last year we both did zombie type nails with spiderwebs but somehow this year the day crept up on me. I've planned to do this design for a while and it seemed well suited to the holiday. The original inspiration, from Wah! Nails, used a darkish blue for the iris, but I felt the green one gave a better contrast. In hindsight, I think it would have been cooler to stick to green but that will have to be a note for next time!

Happy Halloween folks!

Circuit nails

Many, many times have friends shared a circuit board nail design with me, requesting that I replicate it. Not only is it cool, but also related to my degree which means that I've left it until I found something I was happy with. I didn't want to start painting golden lines unless I knew what it actually did, would it be an actual circuit. I finally got around to it, but decided to keep it straightforward. 

On my left hand, I started off with three filters: band-pass, high-pass and low-pass. With the ring finger and pinky not being very big it seemed easier to show diods in parallel/series.

I posted the first picture on facebook and one of the reactions was "Not impressed at all. Needs a Bode plot" (link to Bode Plots). I considered doing that for my right hand, but decided I was too lazy and took an easy way out instead. In the picture you can see the schematic symbol for a capacitor, inductor, resistor and a battery. I decided to spend a little more time for the thumb and made a basic op-amp circuit.

Op-amps and filters are pretty neat, but I've barely touched them since second year. Well, filters are hard to avoid but op-amps easily disappear into bigger "black boxes". However, you should look them up. They are cool.

Animal vibes

Lady birds, from before autumn came!

The ring finger nail ended up a bit wonky, but I found it pretty funny. Animal designs are usually so childish that I can't do anything but love them, even if they're quite basic :)

Duck!

Experimenting with balls

With the nail dotter I had gotten for my birthday (thanks FANTASTIC 5) I felt like trying out different dotty patterns I could do with it.

Have a golden base coat and dotted a dark green onto. I also tried out the free cookies and cream caviar manicure from Marie Claire on my ring fingers. Cheers Marie Claire!

Quite a straightforward and quick design to do on holiday, but looked a bit random :)

- Nail Art Love -

Gem