With this big lull in competitions right now, I’m finding it hard to fill space here. I suppose if I wanted to compete some more this year, I could go over seas but I can’t find anything that I’m really interested in competing at. I know a lot of people think that I should go to the Nailympics in London. But I won’t (well, won’t is a very strong word, how about “I’d prefer not to and if I’m paying for it, I won’t,”) I’m not happy with their setup and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

But that doesn’t mean that I won’t encourage other competitors to go out and find some competitions to attend. I know that here in the US, we only have a few events per year, but in other countries, you could find competitions almost every month. Just yesterday for instance, I found a website advertising the Scottish Nail Championships. Just because it says “Scottish” doesn’t mean Americans, or anyone else for that matter, could not attend.

When I was first building my competition reputation, I traveled to four competitions in Canada in one year. Here’s a funny side note....At the time, you could still drive across the border from the US into Canada or Mexico without a passport. But instead of just biting the bullet and getting my passport, I would fly to an airport that was close to the Canadian border, rent a car and drive across to whatever competition it was. I actually made fabulous trips out of that. One of my most memorable trips to Canada was when I competed in Toronto. I flew into Buffalo, N.Y., and drove over Niagara Falls. What a beautiful trip! My only regret was that I made that trip by myself, but I met some very nice Canadians who offered to take my picture by the Falls. I won that competition by the way.

So if you want to keep your skills up during this low period (if you are here in the US), and you can afford it, don’t hesitate to go to another country to compete. My only warning would be to stay away from competitions where one or more of the judges are launching a product line with a competitor in the arena.

Peace out.

— Lynn