Last year I added Instagram to my regular routine and, in doing so, have learned a lot about the non-professional nail art community. I also discovered how many nail art “challenges” are out there.

I never have time to keep up with them but they’re fun to watch.

Then NAILS rang in the new year with its own nail art challenge. All 31 days of January were accounted for and I just had to let it go. There was no way I was going to keep up with that.

But when they posted the challenge schedule for February, I decided to go for it. And so I have been diligently rummaging through my photo collection and working to create new designs that fit the challenge subjects.

Not only is it fun to try to keep up with the challenge myself, but I enjoy checking the hashtag (#31nails2014) to see what everyone else is coming up with.

I have a sneaking suspicion NAILS is planning on doing this all year. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to hang with them that long. But I’m definitely following along.