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Week 17 Summary: A New Job And A Cruise! 🤯🚢

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Still working on LOADS of art!

What. A. Week! The cruise with my mom got finalized –for the most part. We sail in August! Hopefully. I applied to a new job because of the few hours at the other one –and got it! I (sort of) finished Pokémon Legends Arceus, and started a new game, Grow: Song Of The Evertree.

I visited my mom and got lots of art done throughout the week. I also prepped some new outfits for my dolls. I actually don’t talk about that last bit in this post; I created a separate post for it which you can read here.

🍃🦝 WARNING! 🦝🍃
This post will contain some spoilers for Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Grow: Song Of The Evertree.

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday was an uneventful, but busy day. In the afternoon I made time to play more Diablo II with our partner:

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

Tuesday was a weird day. On the positive end, I accomplished a TON of commission progress. I exercised, and finally got to see the credits roll in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It is VERY frustrating that Game Freak decided not to allow the player to screenshot the end screen.

The basic “ending” feels very abrupt, which makes sense since it isn’t the “true” ending. But this is the point at which I allow myself to put down a game that, at times, I have not enjoyed very much at all. At least temporarily.

Maybe I should have known better than to pick it up, considering it was a game focused on my least favorite aspect of Pokémon (this being, catching them —I’m someone who far prefers to battle). But that I could have gotten past, perhaps… if only it was enough to catch a Pokémon once and you’re done, and if you didn’t have to deal with the ridiculousness that is the subduing of frenzied Pokémon… though I admit I found it easier as it went along.

Avalugg was particularly easy. For me, Arcanine was the hardest. But I didn’t enjoy any of them.

The story was okay. I found the casting out of the protagonist to be interesting and unexpected. Really enjoyed these scenes…

…particularly those of the protagonist contemplating her situation all alone, and being visited by Pokémon.

Looking back as I work on this post, I realize that as much as I grumbled about many aspects of this game, I had enough fun to want to return to really finish it and see its “true” ending. So maybe I will in a couple of weeks.

I also really enjoyed some of the scenes featuring Cyllene, particularly this one:

Very true words. This battle was also very cool as far as visuals!

I needed something completely different as a follow-up, so I started Grow: Song Of The Evertree.

Oh my goodness do I LOVE this game! ✨😭✨ Let me start by saying that I am fed up with so-called “cozy” games. I can only play the same variation of Animal Crossing so many times. There are SO many farming sims and other games of this genre –from Story Of Seasons to Stardew Valley to everything in between. I fully expected Grow: Song Of The Evertree to be a drag, and yet, for some reason, I still bought it.

I find this game’s chores to be different enough, and delightful enough (even the fishing mechanic!) to be completely sold. In addition to the lovely character customization, what really makes this game for me are Book and Copperpot. Here’s Book:

These two have cared for you, the protagonist, since you were a baby.

The atmosphere is so wonderful, everywhere…

There are great side characters to meet and areas to explore:

I’ve only progressed a little so far, but the game is bringing me a lot of joy.

On a less positive note, after all the intense rains and flooding, we found a sunken area in our driveway:

We live in Florida —sinkhole land. So you can imagine seeing anything like that is always scary. I’ve been calling around to have someone come take a look.

In the evening, I went to my mom’s. She’s sick (not COVID, we tested) and she was feeling poorly enough to ask me to cancel our celebratory fancy dinner, which is a big bummer.

But we had our little “picada” as always, though it turned out to be a fondue for dinner.

I played my new video game a little more before calling it a night fairly early. I was very tired.

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

Wednesday my mom and I just relaxed. Natasha had a bad case of bed head in the morning —a reminder of why I don’t sleep with dolls! I combed her hair and she was alright. But I enjoyed cuddling her during the night.

My mom surprised me with a little box full of things she had accumulated for me. Some I don’t really know what to do with, but they all made me smile.

This li’l guy was my favorite (the tiny typewriter is a jewel box I had from before):

Here’s Sweeney being sweet…

And being sweet some more…

My mom made fried potatoes and eggs for dinner. Hers are the BEST!! My favorite childhood meal.

🌈 Thursday 🌈

While out on my morning walk, I passed by a local market, which is about 10 walking minutes from our house, and saw a “Help Wanted” sign for a full-time cashier position. Because my job has been giving me such few hours that it barely counts as employment (I’m talking about 5-9 hours a week) I decided to apply.

The first interview went very well. I was told I’d probably be coming in again to see the owner in the afternoon, but I never received a callback. I kept my fingers crossed, but I was cranky about it.

For lunch, I had a potato and an egg sandwich and kept reading this weird book about wizards:

🌈 Friday 🌈

Still no callback from the market at all on Thursday… I was pretty bummed out about it. It was a stressful day, as the process of finalizing our cruise booking began in earnest, and I was in charge of it. It was finalized by Friday night, sans payment. So, finalized, but kinda-sorta. I can’t emphasize enough how stressful this was! Everything happened so quickly. The cruise is happening in just about one hundred and twenty days.

I was checking the Ring camera, as I do sometimes, and saw the old tomcat that tends to visit our front door area. As I was watching the video in the quiet of the morning, suddenly there was a massive CRASH!!! that seems to come from inside the house. I couldn’t figure out what it was! Take a look (with sound). You’ll notice the tomcat is startled as FRICK and takes off like a bat out of hell:

Later Christopher figured out that this was probably Elliot crashing furiously against the window blinds as the tomcat walked underneath them. What a racket –and what a fright for the marauder! Lol.

On this day I noticed that Buddy had shown up!! In April!

I like to think he’s just trying to watch over me because I’ve been so stressed, and it makes me smile. I wonder how long he will stay.

On this day I also finished this commission for Adri:

🌈 Saturday 🌈

I got up early to cook braised beef on the Crock-Pot for Saturday night’s dinner. In relation to the cruise, this was the most stressful day. The morning involved some very tense discussions about money at home. I found myself crying fifteen minutes before I was slated to go in to work, and pulling myself together was not easy.

Yet, a few minutes after I went in, the atmosphere at work and my coworkers had already perked me up.

I really do enjoy my current job. I love my coworkers, the customers, and the store. If the market calls back eventually, I guess I will be leaving it. But I desperately need more hours, to the point that I’m seeking full-time employment now, after all. So I found myself with a lot of mixed feelings as I worked on Saturday.

Around 5 pm, I took a fifteen-minute break to see if there were any news about the cruise planning… and found a voicemail from the market’s manager!

I figured this meant I had the job… which made the remaining two hours very odd. I still did my best with everything. Getting customers’ emails, helping my coworkers finish some projects… This had actually been the day I felt the most like “one of the team”, no longer a newbie, just, accepted. Fooling around as we worked, everyone doing their best. I felt a lot of sadness thinking that maybe, probably, that would be my last day.

Why couldn’t that place have given me more hours… 😔 But as it stands I’m not even sure the store will survive. [EDITOR’S NOTE: These words will become tragically and hilariously prophetic as will be elaborated on next week’s post.]

I texted the manager at the market during my break as well as called them back when I left work but did not get a response on this day.

I came home around 7 pm. Even though I was tired and a bit down for a bunch of reasons, the evening went well enough. I got some chores done and dinner turned out pretty great.

Here’s some small things I got from work. Candy, primary-colored pacifiers for my stuffed animals, a rainbow plate, and pink “Solo-like” cups (they’re super thick and strong) one for me and one toy-size, for toy photos:

I haven’t made a clip-on stuffie pacifier in like forever. But primary-colored ones were impossible to resist! I gave one to Beanie and one to Tritium. In the end, I didn’t make them into brooch “pin-style” pacifiers. I left them as they were, around their necks.

Here’s a bonus Tomoyo watching us from the couch during dinner:

In the evening I figured I should reinstall the NCL app. The new cruise is already showing up!

🌈 Sunday 🌈

There was no communication from the new job, but it was Sunday after all. Anticipating a potentially busy workweek ahead, I got up early so I could get as much done as possible. I worked a little on the blog, got dressed, showered, did my chores, and then worked on art. Finally, I finished some pieces:

Polenta accompanied me during lunch –leftover pasta with some added radish coins.

On this day I cleaned the snail tank. I have some photos and a video to share, as is often the case on tank cleaning days.

I caught two of the Roman snails going at it. ‘Tis the season!

Afterward, they were spent:

A couple more random cute pics:

We got Jersey Mike’s for dinner, and I got to use my new plate!

And that is it for this week. My goals continue to be on pause. But that’s okay: it is for good reasons. I firmly believe everything will fall into place by the time I am doing an end-of-year wrap-up. 😊 Have a great week, everyone!

Cats, Charlie Bears, Date Night, Dungeon Crawlers, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, LEGO, My Dinos, My Dolls, My Hug, Trips And Outings, Weekly Summary

Week 15 Summary: Dreary, Rainy Season Is Here ☔

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It rained a LOT this week. It rained so much, in fact, that Broward County closed its schools for two days, and Ft. Lauderdale closed down its airport. Some areas experienced unprecedented levels of flooding: a historic volume of rain exceeding 2 feet. I read it described as “an event so intense the chance of it happening in any given year is just 0.1%”.

It felt like the rain would never stop, and while it did stop by the weekend, it’s the rainy season now. We may or may not get flooded areas again, and thankfully I saw no significant flooding where I live, but rain on an almost daily basis will become the norm for quite a while. Then it will be hurricane season. That’s Florida for ya!

The rain, which I normally enjoy, really brought me down this time around. My period wreaked havoc on my mood this month: I would call it, too, a rare event. My crankiness does not usually last this long nor is it this intense, and overall, it made the week unbearable for me and those around me.

There were good, bad, and boring sides to this week. Let’s get on with it!

🌈 Monday 🌈

It began to rain in earnest, but still we had sunny moments throughout the day and the humidity wasn’t too bad yet. It rained more and more as the day got long in the tooth. Anyhow, Monday was a busy day. I did loads of chores, went grocery shopping, played Diablo II with our partner, and completed this commission:

Our partner made a ham quiche for dinner. It was delicious!

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

Rain, rain and more rain. It seemed to drag everything down with it. I felt useless, sleepy and sluggish, with no energy whatsoever. Eventually, I forced myself to move, and slowly started doing things around the house, such as organizing the studio, and setting some stuff aside to put into storage or give away. I wanted to make more room for new toys, mostly dolls.

Something really odd happened on this day. Sarah mysteriously appeared among the bears!

She didn’t have her hat. I am not sure why she is here. Frankly it’s a little unsettling. I hope all is well between her and Buddy.

Something important happened on Tuesday:

At the time, I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but this was an important step in my mom’s paperwork being finalized once and for all. More developments would come later in the week.

Rosie was being a cutie and trying to get my attention while I had lunch:

So I played with her a bit:

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

On Wednesday I completed a commission and a new banner, which you already saw at the top of this entry, and a commission for Pilou that I’m really proud of:

I also had the usual Zoom call with my mom. You’ll notice I make no mention of work so far. That is because this week, I would only work on Saturday. Last week, I only had three days. Next week, I only have five hours again. I’m not the only person dealing with that, but I am not happy about it. From what I read online, it’s a common issue with this company: most people leave due to very limited hours. I hope I won’t have to do the same.

🌈 Thursday 🌈

To say that Thursday was momentous would be an understatement. As mentioned, on Tuesday, I’d received confirmation that my Form I-130, Petition For Alien Relative (for my mom) had been approved by USCIS. We have been waiting for years, just for this specific step. But, my mom still hadn’t been told that her Form I-485, Application To Register Permanent Residency, was approved. Though unlikely, it could still have been denied.

On Thursday, my mom’s application was also approved:

It’s hard to overstate the significance of this moment. I know my mom spent the day crying on and off. I still haven’t been able to process it, myself –though I did tear up a bit when the paralegal CC’d me on an email congratulating her. It felt more real then.

Some of you know how long and arduous the road to legalization has been, both for me and for my mom. I still lived with fear that the response would be a denial and my mom would be deported. Even though I myself have been sorted out for many years (and a citizen for two) nothing really felt done until I could truly stop fearing for my mom’s welfare.

I wasn’t even ten years old when I decided that someday, somehow, I would live in the USA. My mom worked for my dream and made it hers. We would eventually abandon all we had for a huge gamble and an unsure future in the United States, knowing the gamble could cost us everything.

We have been in the USA since 2001: this is the first time I truly breathe in complete relief for both of us. So many years later, it feels complete. I’m numb and not really having an emotional reaction yet because there were so many times I thought this would happen and it didn’t. It’s hard to believe it’s finally over. I am a citizen and my mom is a legal resident, forever. Hopefully someday she’ll be a citizen, too.

And for those who have heard many times my little story regarding An American Tail (which I’ll retell at some point soon) yeah, my mom and I are getting together to watch it. Finally after 15 years I will allow myself to watch it again.

Christopher had the Apple IIe out and functioning on Thursday night. It looked so cool.

Here’s a little lady I have coming to me. She’s a Pat Secrist doll. I’ve been learning about these dolls recently, their high quality and (if you’re patient on eBay) incredible affordability. She’s a big one, too. I don’t have many blonde dolls, I’m looking forward to playing with her. Her dress is so lovely, too! I’m going to call her Nellie. She reminds me of a schoolmate I had in elementary school, who had that name.

For date night we played LEGO. I finished Emma’s Art School!

🌈 Friday 🌈

The sun came out again!! Finally! ✨🌞✨ But, now it’s very, very, VERY hot. That aside –Friday was extremely productive! I finished three Patreon rewards:

Then I did a few chores, before setting everything up for some fun!

🌈 Fun With Pony Beads 🌈

I’ve been putting off making new toy necklaces. This is pretty bad because I don’t really enjoy a new toy until, at a minimum, it has been christened and given its necklace, but ideally until they have an outfit that I’ve put together myself rather than the original one (this mostly applies to dolls), or a bandana, or just something to make it look like it’s my own, and loved.

Between Friday and Sunday I decided to dedicate time to the toy name backlog. I started by setting everything out, surrounding myself with toy friends, and putting one of my kiddy playlists on!

Sometime in between making necklaces, I played some more Diablo II with our partner.

🌈 Saturday 🌈

In the morning, I played with Reddit’s avatar maker thingy today, that was fun and also dumb. This day was finally a workday! I worked from 4:00pm to 9:00pm after getting all my chores done.

Things were tense at work. Because of the rain, sales were very low the entire week so everyone’s hours were cut. As a result, there were less people available to finish a project that has been stressing all the managers out for weeks now. I was put to work on the floor, pricing and placing merch, and even though it was only five hours, it left me completely exhausted.

An upside (or downside??) of the day is that I kinda got called out in front of everyone else for doing better than anyone else in my first week (second only to my training manager) in getting new emails from customers. They really, REALLY care about employees doing this. I’m pretty shy, so it takes a lot out of me, but I do ask and engage with everyone, and most people do sign up.

Apparently, other employees don’t really try, so when they released the numbers of my first week, the manager wrote a note underneath calling me out by name as an example and saying how I’m not doing anything unusual, only what I am supposed to do, and how others are failing to do so. 😬💧

There was an undertone of “It’s unacceptable that this brand new employee is doing better than everyone else, so, get it together” to the other employees, and another manager said to the first that I did that “because I’m an overachiever” which kinda sounded like “you can’t expect everyone else to do that”. Haha… I don’t know. It was nice but also very awkward for me.

Back when I used to hold jobs like this one, I struggled a lot, and was definitely the sort of person to get reprimanded for mistakes, shyness or sluggishness. I’ve changed a bit, I can do things better and push through better. So I won’t lie, all the praise I’ve received since I started feels really good, but at the same time, isn’t a call-out like that the sort of thing that makes coworkers resent you? 😅

Anyway, I only got to help two people at the register on this day, which bummed me out because I don’t want to forget everything I learned, but working on the floor I learned many new things, so there’s that.

At some point today I noted that Sarah’s hat had somehow materialized upon Toklo’s head, while Sarah herself had disappeared. 😳❓❓❓

I keep worrying that this is Sarah trying to send S.O.S. messages that I’m failing to interpret correctly. I hope she’s okay…!

Normally, after getting up at 7:00am, a day full of chores and then going to work, getting comfy and having dinner, I would just want to stay in. But I want to start making a habit of going out with our partner more on Friday or Saturday nights. For one, Christopher really treasures time truly to himself, and doesn’t get much of it. And I want to make sure our partner is having fun since he’s much more outgoing.

Lately, I’m trying to think of different things I can do with him and with Christopher (as well as for them) to make them feel loved and appreciated –as in, individual things, one-on-one. Soon I’ll be able to play visual novels with Christopher again, and with our partner, I’ve been playing Diablo II. I want to start going out for the odd lunch or dinner date with Christopher, and watch at least a couple of movies a month with him, maybe cuddled in the game room couch.

Anyway, my plan was to repeat the outing of last week with our partner, but somehow he convinced Christopher to come! This is a rarity given that it was late at night, and we were really happy about that. We took Christopher to Salt & Straw. I had the same black olive brittle and goat cheese ice cream as last time:

We also went for drinks at the exact same place…

…and had a mediterranean plate for a snack:

On the walk back, I took this photo of a neighborhood’s gate. It looked spooky:

🌈 Sunday 🌈

Sunday was a very nice and sunny day, even if the humid Florida heat is back in full, unbearable swing. My laurel fig continues to grow beautifully. It’s hard to believe it was once a little tiny branch that found refuge in a crevice of our roof!

Later in the day I went for a walk to get more beads. I saw a cute lizard on the way to the stores.

Though I really went out for beds I ended up coming home with this. What a find! Last one left, too.

After a pizza dinner, our partner and I played Diablo II some more. I really liked the Arcane Sanctuary area.

After that, I finished a few more necklaces and actually put them on toys. I’ve made a total of twenty one necklaces. I still have to make a few more, but those are for toys that I have yet to name.

Rosie decided to relax in the area normally occupied by my bead boxes:

She was being so loud, too!

My new doll, Nellie, should be coming by Wednesday, which has me really excited! Hopefully she has no funny smells, since she is a used doll after all. I have her necklace all ready to put on her. 🥰

Card & Board Games, Cats, Charlie Bears, Date Night, Dungeon Crawlers, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, LEGO, My Dinos, My Dolls, My Hug, Novels, Other Toys, Selfies, Snails, Trips And Outings, Weekly Summary

Week 14 Summary: Jury Duty And Seeing Mom 🥰

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This was an eventful week! I had jury duty for the first time in my life, and finally got to visit mom again. I started playing a new video game with our partner, a new doll and book came in, got to have lunch with my old boss, finished a few more commissions, and was finally able to play LEGO for date night again. Let’s get to it!

🌈 Monday 🌈

On Monday I was up by 6:00am, because we had to leave by 7:00am so I could be at the courthouse on time for my first jury duty ever. Normally, I would be super excited. As a still kinda fresh citizen (just two years) I’ve long wanted to be called. But now that I have a new job, it really complicated everything.

For this week, I had to call out on Monday to be there, and even though I got enough days off to see my mom without even asking for them, if I was selected for a trial all that might not happen. Plus, if I couldn’t get rides for every day, Uber would add up a lot. So I was concerned.

Anyway, that didn’t completely remove my excitement. The waiting room was very large and comfortable, plus, there was a lounge for jurors. We were shown a video first explaining the process.

It was a “hurry up and wait” situation until you got called for a jury pool. Sometimes you also had to fill out a questionnaire if the judge requested it. I waited a couple of hours before I was called, and in the meantime had cookies, coffee and read a little more.

I was finally called, filled out a questionnaire, waited a little longer, and then we all walked a whoooole lot, took an elevator to the 16th floor, and lined up to wait outside of the courtroom.

I should mention that the building was huge and beautiful. The view from up there was honestly amazing.

It was a civil case, not a criminal case —a lawsuit between a couple of homeowners and Citizens Insurance. As soon as that name was said I knew I would be excused. We are insured by (and feel great antipathy towards) Citizens. So I definitely have heavy bias. It was a good thing too because the trial would have lasted until Thursday.

Everyone had to talk to the judge, and we passed a microphone down the line. That was a little nerve wracking; my heart was pounding out of my chest by the time it was my turn. But the judge was really nice and kept cracking jokes with everyone.

I told him how I’d been excited to be called. He pointed to the door and said there was mental health counseling available if I needed it, which made everyone laugh (people aren’t usually excited to be jurors). But later, privately, he thanked me for my enthusiasm.

Once I began to explain my feelings toward Citizens he had me stop because it would taint the rest of the jury pool. So when everyone went to lunch, the judge had a few people stay behind and called them one by one to the bench, where the lawyers also were.

A few people were excused due to biases; one woman due to poor English language skills. When I explained my own bias, the judge asked me if I would ignore the law because of my bias if it was clear that Citizens wasn’t in the wrong. I said that I wouldn’t, but that I couldn’t say the same if it came down to a grey area, which is very true. That was enough for him and both sets of lawyers and I was excused for that trial.

I thought I might get picked for another pool, but when I got back to the selection room, they sent me home. So now I am done for at least a year. Even though I wasn’t selected it was still an interesting experience.

After that I went for a walk. Christopher let me have some spending money so I went to Dollar Tree and had lunch at Panera. I saw this cool theater on the way:

Here’s another nice photo I took during the walk:

I got quite the haul at Dollar Tree: a Bluey sandwich box, a Grogu cup, a Crayola coloring page and stickers, a few packs of cards for scrapbooking, dinosaur stickers, a tiny parasaurolophus friend, and a blind bag toy. Oh, and a snail greeting card.

The blind bag has this wee white tiger cub:

After I got home and took a shower I played more Diablo II with our partner. I had a drink and some chips and brought Churrasco downstairs because his “gotcha” day would be Tuesday (2021) and I felt like he needed some attention.

For dinner, we had fajitas. I don’t normally like them because of the onions, but Christopher took them all out so it was pretty good.

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

Tuesday was a pretty good day, even though I began to get my monthly irritables (PMS) and felt quite irate at times for literally no reason. One good feeling I had throughout the day though, is excitement to go back to work on Friday. Maybe I do like the job after all.

Anyhow, Tuesday was a day of chores and of working on art, but I still made time to play Diablo II with our partner. Playing this together is our little “thing” and I really do enjoy it a lot. My character is called Squirrelman. I wanted to play a Druid and it’s been pretty fun having ravens and a wolf and this vine thing with us. And some sort of spirit.

Our partner plays a necromancer so we have a bunch of little skeleton men follow us, plus two hired hands. We’ve got quite the band.

It reminds me of similarly setting an hour aside to play visual novels with Christopher, something I miss very much. I’ll have to see if I can convince him to do that with me again.

I’ve been catastrophically failing at not buying any toys or books this year. Honestly, I’m not exactly upset about it. It’s still helped: I’ve skipped out on a lot of video games and scrapbooking supplies. But I do not regret any toys I’ve gotten this year at all.

I think I may adjust my goal for the year, and, when it comes to toys and books, setting up a rule of getting rid of something before I get something new. That may be more manageable, because honestly I love new toys far too much.

After our partner ordered the little alien doll for me, I began to look at baby dolls, something I’ve never really been into. Babies are just not really my thing, not even as dolls. But I did see two that I liked a LOT, enough to add them to my wishlist and perhaps get one next month. One is another little alien, but two are more conventional babies.

I really like Crabby Cakes and her pouty expression. It’s very funny and unique. She’s more of a toddler doll. The other one is Honey Bunny and more of a simple, sweet baby boy doll. Both look very huggable with their soft bodies. I’d like to get them this year, but I definitely need to make some room first. If I can decide on something to donate/sell, I’ll probably get Crabby Cakes in May.

I should mention that not a single penny of my new job earnings are going towards toys. Instead, I reserve my modest Patreon earnings for my frivolous spending, which otherwise would be zero. Thanks to Patreon I’ve been able to get things like an ice-cream at work, lunch when I went to jury duty, the dinosaur book I saw at Barnes & Noble, some canned coffee and snacks for the month, etc. It makes me really happy to know that the art I still draw is for stuff like this. So, I am really grateful to everyone who is supporting me there.

In the evening my guys took me to my mom’s. I brought her birthday presents with me:

As soon as I got to my mom’s I saw a big slug. I was immediately excited of course. It was a big little guy and rather speedy for a slug.

Here’s some video:

I brought this little carnotaurus friend on this visit. He doesn’t have a name yet.

We were set to play Jumanji this evening but in the end we had too much to catch up on.

My mom always has a lovely snack spread set out, usually by the time I get there, and it’s one of the things I look forward to the most when I visit her.

This time she also surprised me with empanadas!

Here’s a pic of grumpy old Sweeney:

I continued to read Raptor Red in bed. I had my little trike with me, he doesn’t have a name yet either. I really have to fix that.

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

I was up by 7:30am, working on art after my coffee. I took a shower and worked on the blog while waiting for my mom to wake up. It was a pleasant and quiet start to the morning.

Oh yeah, I was looking through the Ring camera on this morning and saw this funny black cat who was a bit suspicious of one of my decorations:

After my mom got up, we had mate and cheese bread!

While my mom did some housework, I had lunch (she had a big breakfast). I had a ham and cheese empanada and read Raptor Red some more.

Then I worked on art some more. I worked on a commission for Nero, on a YCH, and on a badge for Willy Joe.

We went to walk around Target and PetSmart and we had a little snack at Starbucks. On the way there, I saw this weird clock on a building:

Target had this super cool Super Mario basket!! 🍄🌈

At Starbucks I had a pink drink and a banana walnut loaf:

There was a super cute little gremlin of a dog at the Starbucks line:

During the car ride home, I found a ladybug on my clothes! It started flying around, so I caught it and held a finger out of the window until it flew away.

I came home with a nice haul. First, I got these super cute decorations for the snail tank:

Then I got these outfits, the two small ones are for my little alien doll, the snail one doesn’t have a designated stuffie or doll yet, but it was on sale AND it had snails! I was not going to pass it up.

Finally, I got a little Aggretsuko blind box because it came with a dangler and I wanted a new one for my work lanyard but… it is a little wonky, especially for the price…

We had pizza for dinner and watched YouTube, and I cuddled Sweeney, but he wasn’t very thrilled about it… 😅

With PMS and all I was extraordinarily irritable in the evening, but was able to get some chores done and ready for the next day.

🌈 Thursday 🌈

It’s date night again! It was also Rudyard’s birthday. Not his “gotcha” day, but the day he was made at the factory, back in 2020. So Rudy is now three years old. His “gotcha” day, when I first got to hold him, was September 27th of the same year.

Also, I got to have lunch with my old boss, Al, today. We had SO much to catch up on! We went to Cracker Barrel. I tend to only eat there with him, so it had been a very long time since I last was there.

In the afternoon I cleaned the snail tank and put in some new decorations…

Later I accompanied our partner on some errands and then we went shopping for groceries for dinner. At the supermarket he bought me my favorite flowers again –these are the biggest sunflowers I’ve ever had!

I still haven’t named my new little dino gang, but here is my stegosaurus with one of the flowers:

We played LEGO for the first time in many weeks. I finally started working on Emma’s Art School:

Dinner was incredible! Our partner made quesadillas. He put so much effort in them, no shortcuts taken.

🌈 Friday 🌈

Friday was a busy day. It went by quickly. Chores all morning, some commission work too, but I did set some time aside to check out my new dinosaur book:

I do not normally record video of books, but I did in this case because I wanted you guys to see just how beautiful it is. I’ve amassed a respectable collection of paleontology, natural history and dinosauria related books now, but this one blows them ALL out of the water. I got the book on sale, but had it been twice the price, I would have still felt it was a bargain for what you get:

Then I was driven to work, and worked until 8:00pm. Work was very busy and enjoyable. I found out that I and a few other workers have only one day next week due to budget cuts from above, but hopefully the week after that will be better for everyone. I intend to use the time well, and work on commissions all week long.

(On that note, you’ve probably noticed that ever since I got the job, a lot if not all of my goals have been temporarily paused. I decided that this was a better course of action than trying to juggle a million things at once. I need to, above all, to finish the final commissions. Once they are done, using my free time from work to work on hobbies and personal art won’t be stressful.)

Anyway, I got picked up around 8:00pm by our partner and got home to Christopher serving a wonderful meal.

We relaxed together for a while after dinner and then they went for a walk while I got ready for bed.

🌈 Saturday 🌈

Friday I only worked four hours in the morning and early afternoon. But, I got up at 6:30am and, after a shower, finished these three commissions!

Then I went to work. It was only four hours, but being a Saturday, it was quite busy! As always I was a little early, so I doodled a snail for one of my coworkers, who did most of my training. I left it on a post-it note on her mouse. When I went back upstairs to clock out, I noticed that she had stuck it in the place where she keeps all her post-its, haha.

The guys picked me up at two, and we had Mod Pizza for lunch!

When we got home, my new little alien was waiting for me at the door. I opened her right away. She turned out to be even more wonderful than I was expecting! I’ve named her Tritium:

Even though I bought a couple of outfits for her in newborn size, they are still too baggy… I’ll have to figure out something else.

After a shower, our partner and I played Diablo II some more while Christopher napped.

For dinner, I had a potato and a rice cracker with cream cheese:

In the evening we went for a walk together. I took my little triceratops just in case I got a good idea for a picture somewhere. Eventually I did take a photo of it with a baby mango.

Our partner convinced me to go out for the evening which I did though I had a lot of housework to do. Gotta live a little. We went to Salt and Straw in Coconut Grove and I had a black olive and goat cheese waffle cone (as in, ice cream) and even though it tasted just like it sounds, it was truly delicious.

Then we stopped by a little cafe/restaurant and had some drinks and fries before heading home.

We got home very late, around 12:30am. Still, I did as many chores as I could. I was in bed by 2:00am.

🌈 Sunday 🌈

Sunday I worked a little on commissions in the morning and then went out for a stroll. I needed someplace to go to encourage me to walk, because I’ve been feeling very unmotivated and tired. So I decided to see if I could find a better outfit for Tritium, but being Easter, everywhere was closed.

I walked into buybuy BABY, a place I never go into. A store full of baby stuff felt kind of bizarre to walk through. I saw some very cute toys, including this floppy puppy, and I finally ran into a Benny Phant in the wild! I came so close to caving and getting one!

Some cute dinosaur puzzle toys…

I liked these bandana bibs for my stuffed animals, but not at that price!

I came home with what I really wanted, which was a better outfit for Tritium. I’ll make her a bandana myself.

Once back home, it was time for lunch and more Diablo II with our partner. We had açaí bowls!

Diablo II has some effed up imagery… 😳 That aside, Squirrelman has acquired a crowd of critters. He now has five wolves, five ravens, a spirit, and one of those thorny plant viney things.

Have an Eastery picture since it’s Easter:

In the evening we ordered Chinese food and watched Legend!

I’d always wanted to watch this movie. Plot-wise, it is as flat as a board and incredibly dull. The acting is overly theatrical, but that aspect has some charm. What really sells this movie is its unbelievably detailed sets, costuming, and makeup. It was wonderfully trippy, and had I watched it as a child, I’m sure that it would have had a tremendous effect in my young psyche.

Anyway… that’s all I’ve got to share for this week. It was long, busy, eventful, for sure! I wonder what next week will bring…

Charlie Bears, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Selfies, Trips And Outings, Weekly Summary

Week 12 Summary: Mwako’s Visit And A New Job 🐶

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Mwako’s visit was this week! He spent from Sunday to Wednesday with us. We looked at toys in many stores and even bought some, had some nice meals, and went to the zoo which was amazing. Other than that we just hung out though unfortunately I was really busy a lot of the time.

I also started applying to jobs again, and got one! I should be starting next week. I also took a pretty serious decision: to close commissions permanently. And we went to the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science, where I got to see an incredible dinosaur exhibit! So, all in all, it was a pretty eventful week. Let me tell you about it.

OH YEAH: CW for lotsa snakies and a spooder. 🐍

🌈 Monday 🌈

On Monday Mwako and I went to the zoo. I’ve been to Zoo Miami lots of times, so, at this point, I tend not to take photos. But it had been a while I’d been in the daytime, a whole five years (last time, in December of last year, was at night). I had no idea how much the zoo had changed, how the enclosures had been made so much nicer. You feel like the animals are closer somehow.

Not only that, but I’d never seen the animals look so energetic and sociable. This has always been a great zoo, but it’s clear that it has improved even more, and for good reason it is called one of the best in the country these days. It was a huge treat –here’s photos and video!

Wombat…

Tree kangaroo!

Southern cassowary… I think?

Warthogs!

Buru babirusa (I think).

A turtle –not sure what kind.

Lots of lovely snakies!

Got a bunch of videos too –they were active!

Patch had his picture taken with one!

Green and black poison dart frogs:

No idea about this guy, sorry! But he was cute.

I’m guessing a tarantula?

Red-eyed tree frogs, sleeping peacefully…

Amusingly (and worryingly) Steve was nowhere to be seen:

This guy was there, though. Possible a Baja blue rock lizard, but not sure.

Northern caiman lizards, just chillin’:

Southern screamer! These things have detachable wing-daggers, it’s nuts! We got to see it, too.

Just a gator. He’s not real, but he’s still a good boy.

Crocodile monitor (I think).

Plumed basilisk!! A cheerful lad.

I really tried to look it up but cannot remember or figure out exactly which type of (bull)frogs these are. They were very cute potatoes though.
This indoor aquarium was amazing! Some redtail catfish…

Ocellate river stingray:

Blue poison dart frog:

The Mold-A-Matic looked like fun!

In this one, you could make a little otter.

I decided to give it a try!

✨ Ta-daa~! ✨

I think this beauty was a harpy eagle:

A blue-billed curassow!

Four-eyed fish:

Four-eyed fish, or Anableps anableps, do not actually have four eyes. They are surface dwellers and have eyes adapted for seeing both above and below the water surface. The eyes are on top of the head, and each is divided into two parts, an upper half for vision in air, and a lower half for vision in water; hence, the common name.

An anole, maybe?

Mission golden-eyed tree frogs:

I’m not sure if we caught them chilling, or in an amorous moment, but it was very cute.

Black spider monkey:

African bush elephant:

Gulf fritillary butterfly:

This is part of the wildlife that just roams the zoo, and, I’m pretty sure, even my neighborhood. It certainly liked to pose.

Addaxes:

Adorable dholes!

And some Bactrian camels:

Playful and alert African wild dogs!

Watch the whole thing to see one of them jump in the water:

These spectacled bear were having a blast being cuddly with each other:

🌈🐘 That was it for the zoo! 🐘🌈

We were EXHAUSTED by the time we were done. From there we had a really nice lunch at Five Guys and then headed home.

After Christopher got home, we three played LEGO together! Unfortunately our partner was out working. I built LEGO Ray the Castaway 40566:

…and LEGO Creator Panda Bear 30641:

Christopher built yet another train and Mwako built a few different things but unfortunately I didn’t take pics of those before they were put away.

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

On Tuesday Mwako and I went out again. At the craft store they had this ✨ BIG ✨ boy for just $10! He was so well made and so massive. I originally left him behind, but on the way home I just had to stop by again and grab him. He is the cuddliest thing.

Look how big! I still can’t believe it was so cheap.

We went to Buenos Aires Bakery for lunch, it was a big treat. I also got my yearly Argentinean Easter egg. Will have to start decorating that basket soon.

We went to Nami Sushi for dinner and I brought Robito, one of my oldest toys, along. I wasn’t very hungry and Christopher was feeling down, which made me fret a lot. But we went for a walk and still had a pretty pleasant evening on Mwako’s last day with us.

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

On Wednesday, we still had a bit of time before Mwako left, so we went out one more time. We went to Barnes and Noble, Petsmart, and Five Below. I took an outfit selfie for the first time in a LONG time, and took Sugar Lump with me:

I actually felt cute for the first time in a while. I haven’t been taking that many photos of myself compared to before.

But first we got our pals safely strapped in:

At Barnes and Noble I came across this book. I’ll be buying it on Amazon down the road. It is absolutely massive (over 700 pages) and a beauty to hold –just look at this amazing cover! The inside pages did this cover justice, I’ll tell you that much.

At one point I went to the restroom and someone had left this little positive message in the stall:

Mwako treated me to lunch at The Pub. I had bangers and mash and we shared a scotch egg. Everything was incredibly delicious and we wound down talking about all sorts of things.

Then we went home and soon it was time to say goodbye, until we meet again. When we parted, Mwako entrusted me with Tiny Tina, AKA Tina the Tiny T. rex. I’ll take very good care of my new palm-sized Tyrannosaurid!

Christopher was a little down in the evening again (both times it was a side effect of medication) so while he slept it off, I proposed to our partner that we go pick up Pollo Tropical, since I know Christopher’s usual, and it would be nice to wake him up with something he likes. While we were in the drive-thru doing just that, we saw this car’s helpful little skeleton man!!

He just looked so happy. You couldn’t help but smile back!

🌈 Thursday – Friday 🌈

Thursday was a very busy day catching up on all the housework. I also had a phone interview with the place I sent my resume to, and they scheduled me for an in-person interview on Friday. It went well –I was hired, and start on Monday! I haven’t worked retail in a few years, so I hope I can get back into that groove without too much trouble.

It’s also near the house and it is part-time, so it shouldn’t get too overwhelming.

After the interview I went grocery shopping for dinner. I made salmon! It was really good.

I happened to notice my roman snails mating for the first time in many months! So I immediately put the dish they picked for their date in the little tank (AKA “The Love Shack” AKA, later on, “The Nursery”). I hope they’ll lay eggs in it!

🌈 Saturday 🌈

On Saturday we went to the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science! I’d wanted to come again for a few years. The only time I was here was during one of the worst times of my life. It was such an unhappy day. So it was really nice to be able to push those bad memories away with good ones.

The reason we came was to see the Ultimate Dinosaurs: Meet a New Breed of Beast exhibit. First though, we had lunch at Panera Bread:

The dinosaur exhibit was only one part of the museum, but it was really wonderful. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. If you know me, you know what sort of reaction I had in a place like this!

Look at the size of these!!

Little toy dioramas…

Loved this display at the entrance.

Waterbear!!

These things are freaking ADORABLE! Tardigrades, also known as “water bears” or “moss piglets” are a “phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals (Wikipedia).” Tardigrades are among the most resilient animals known. They can live almost anywhere! They have even survived exposure to outer space.

If you’ve never heard of these guys, please watch this:

Some fishies:

And a bit of video:

“Feathers To The Stars” Exhibit:

Psittacosaurus model:
Amazing Yutyrannus model:
Sinornithosaurus and Bambiraptor models:
Space exploration display:

Mammoths: Ice Age Giants Exhibit

Adorable Eastern screech owls:

The view at the top of the museum:

Dogs and Cats Walkway Sculpture Garden:

For a souvenir, our partner got me this little pteradon plushie. It’s the cutest thing!

We had dinner at Tijuana Flats and then hung out together at the house watching TV and watching Christopher play video games. It was a really tiring but extremely enjoyable day.

🌈 Sunday 🌈

Sunday was, at least, productive. All the laundry got done and put away, snail tank cleaned, did dishes like three times, did the grocery shopping, filed the paperwork for the new job, and just did a whole bunch of chores. So as far as getting stuff done –I did.

But come 9:30pm, I found myself pretty frustrated and upset, having done nothing I really wanted to do, knowing I am due to orientation at my job tomorrow, and honestly, really nervous about working retail again. I have no idea what this will be like compared to prior experiences and can’t really plan my week since I don’t have a schedule yet.

Though I spent my day running up and down, I wasn’t able to go on my walk. I haven’t been able to do anything toward my writing goals in like two or three weeks now which is super demoralizing but it truly was due to simply too much going on, rather than moments of “I could write right now, but I don’t feel like it.”

So before bed I made some tea and at the very least met my writing goal. It’s something. Maybe tomorrow I can somehow squeeze some more in. It was a really good week, but everything feels off until I settle into my new routine. We’ll see what it looks like by next Sunday!

Charlie Bears, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, Holidays, LEGO, Snails, Trips And Outings

Christmas ’22 🎄✨ [Advent Day 2 + Zoo Lights]

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Buddy and Sarah may be really small when compared to us, but I bet today they felt like giants looking down on the in-progress LEGO bookshop! The bookshop has lots of little details to explore. Christopher and I are having lots of fun putting it together. One of the minifigs was staring right back.

Today’s Jurassic Advent Calendar surprise was this little worker:

The LEGO City Advent Calendar had my favorite surprise yet. The first minifig!

This little guy is ready to send his letter to Santa. I wonder if Santa’s gotten my letter yet.

🎄 Snail Interlude 🎄

He fell asleep with his head on his friend’s shell…

✨🐘🎄 Zoo Lights 🎄🐘✨

Today we had an awesome treat. The three of us went together to experience Zoo Lights at Zoo Miami. It was a first for all of us, and a very romantic night that brought memories of our Tampa trip of a year ago –the first truly romantic trip together.

The first stop was to get hot chocolate and some treats. Our partner got two hot chocolates, one for me and one for him. Christopher had some of mine. He also treated me to a really good rice krispie treat which I also shared with Christopher.

We got those magic glasses that had things wherever there is colored light. We had zebra, giraffe and elephant glasses. They were very trippy. I think the elephant glasses were the best.

I brought Igloo with me, and had my snail Christmas sweater on, since it was an ugly sweater themed night. The zoo hosts themed nights throughout the many nights of Zoo Lights.

There were magical looking animals all lit up throughout the zoo…

By far the most special thing was getting to see the bears. I guess because it was nighttime, and less busy people-wise, a lot of the animals were out –either from curiosity, or because they were nocturnal.

I was able to get merely a foot away from a bear, separated by glass of course, and I don’t know why, but this had such an effect on me. I’d never been able to see a brown bear so close, and when it locked eyes with me for a few seconds, it made me cry. I was so happy about that brief connection.

Speaking of animal connections –the second best was an american crocodile. There was a large tube going through the water enclosure, and the crocodile was laying on top of the tube. So if you went through the tube, you could see its belly, and put your hand right up against it, and feel the rumble of its tail sliding through it.

That on its own was awesome, but the gator then slid down to the floor, and snapped right at my face, looking at me as it did so. Its teeth clicked against the glass!! I almost lost my mind from excitement, and screamed “HOLY SHIT” completely forgetting that I was surrounded by elementary school aged children, several of whom began yelling “Did you hear that?! WHO SAID THAT?! SOMEONE SAID A BAD WORD!!” but no one seemed to realize it was me. Lol.

Anyway, everywhere there were pretty light displays. Here are some:

I particularly loved this Pridey tree:

Right past the bamboo forest (an experience on a normal day) they’d decorated everything with giant glowing starfish, jellyfish, and urchins. It was incredible!

Here’s some video:

Here’s some photos I took of Igloo. I enjoyed carrying her around.

There were many photo spots, here’s Christopher and I on one of them:

I took this photo at the restaurant we were originally going to have dinner at, but it was SO expensive! We actually had to go somewhere else.

In the end we went to a very traditional Japanese restaurant that had amazing food. I got to try plum wine there and we even bought an extra bottle for tomorrow’s party. I can’t wait for that! It’s turning out to be a really fun month in spite of some stress.

Charlie Bears, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Trips And Outings

A Day Out! 💕

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I got to go out on a date with our partner today! 🐻‍❄️🎀💗✨ It’s been a while. I brought Igloo with me, but just for the car ride.

We began by going to the Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables, where we had brunch at a little French restaurant.

Look at this adorable dollhouse (dollhouse?) display we saw! 🐭🎀

Later we went to Dadeland Mall. I got to visit another LEGO store. Here’s some DUPLO…

Cool spacey sets…

Excited to start seeing Christmas stuff!!

They had a pirate statue! 🏴‍☠️

I also got to stare lovingly at the set I’m asking Santa for Christmas 🥰 Christopher said I might even get it if I’m good!

Our partner treated me to very fancy sweets at a French confectionery. I got to have marzipan for the first time in a long time! Very pretty ones. And macarons!

On the way home we were treated to a beautiful sunset… 🌇

For dinner back home, I made tilapia with rice. It turned out amazing but the glaze was too strong. Less ginger next time!

Charlie Bears, Date Night, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, My Hug

Meet Igloo! 🧊🎀

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Today’s been a really happy day! Last month our partner asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Well I knew I wanted a Charlie Bear from him… I have a couple of stuffies that he’s gotten for me and I really treasure them, but I wanted very badly to have one of my precious, fancy teddies that was from him. So I picked Derek, which I believe is a 2022 Charlie Bear.

It ended up being one of my biggest Charlie Bear disappointments. No charm, and actually sloppy quality, kind of a shock for a Charlie Bear. Maybe they switched manufacturers. I didn’t know what to do because I wanted to just be happy about my new bear and not make any fuss to our partner or appear ungrateful, but this bear cost over $100. 😞 I wanted to love it.

So eventually I decided to go through the return process, and Charlie Bears USA was really sucky with that. Which is also strange for them. Communication sucked, I actually had to contact Charlie Bears UK to get them to make Charlie Bears USA reply to me. The entire process took a long time.

Anyway once the refund was confirmed I’d picked a new bear (Daria) crossed my fingers, and waited. Today she arrived, and it was such a relief to see that she has the old Charlie Bear charm!

I named her Igloo, and she is my first polar bear. I feel like she looks even cuter without clothes, but without an outfit she is just another bear from the shop. When she is dressed, she is my bear:

She’s so cute, and soft, and has some weight to her, and a jingly bell collar. I am very pleased. Here she is keeping me company while we enjoy date night. We were playing Quoridor at the time.

Speaking of, for date night we also opened the T. rex Breakout LEGO set, and have been having a lot of fun with it (it’s not finished yet) but I bet we’ll continue working on it this weekend and I’ll take photos then.

Charlie Bears, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, LEGO, My Hug, Trips And Outings

Aventura Mall Outing! 🍪🐻

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Today was fun! Once I did the grocery shopping for the week, and got the chores out of the way, we had a little impromptu outing after I got our partner out of bed (the GIF above being a pretty accurate reenactment of my efforts).

Like the rest of the weekend, it was rainy, but nice out. We went to Aventura Mall, and I brought Soufflé along for the adventure.

The first thing we did was have lunch (“Chinese” mall food!)

Then we went to the LEGO store, where an employee very kindly let me exchange Christopher’s torso for one without boobies. 😅 I couldn’t find a green one, but oh well. Now he looks like this:

The LEGO store is unpleasantly packed on a Sunday afternoon, but Christopher and I still had fun looking at sets we’d like to have while our partner waited for us outside while having some chocolate milkshake thing.

On that note, the place he got the milkshake at had really cute and colorful cookies, so I took some photos!

I really liked the goofy, Sesame Street inspired one:

I continued doing lots of housework for the evening, including cleaning the snail tanks, and made tilapia for dinner. It was the first time I fried it, I really liked how it turned out. Overall, it was a great weekend and I get to finally look ahead to a full week for arting for the first time in a long, LONG time, as well as visiting my mom on Tuesday and my mom-in-law next weekend! 💕

Charlie Bears, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, LEGO, Other Toys

A Surprise! And More 🌈🌳

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This morning I woke up to the most wonderful surprise! 🥺 After our morning cuddles, Christopher told me to go check the door for a package. This was waiting outside for me! I can’t stop looking at it! 😭🌈✨🍪

Of the sets that appeal to my special interests this topped the list… I would have been so bummed to miss it, but I was fully resigned to that fact because I did not expect new sets for a while. I can’t wait to put this together with Christopher on another date night! 🥰

🎀 Marzi 🎀

During the recent effort to remove stuff out of storage and donate what we do not use, I came across my little Marzi. Marzi is my only “true” doll. I do not often post about her because I know that, unlike my teddies and dinos, many people find dolls creepy. 😔

So I had to make the decision, either display her properly or donate her no matter how much I love her, because it is a pity to keep such a beautiful, high-end dolly in a bin. I could not bear to part with her, so today I gave her a little TLC!

Her beautiful long hair was clean but a little frizzy so, following online advice, I combed it perfectly, wet it, combed it again, conditioned it, and combed it again.

I read I should let the conditioner dry hard before rinsing, so I did that. She was very patient!

I really love Marzi as much as my teddies… I wish people didn’t hate dolls so much or find them so creepy but I know it is nothing personal. 😅 I just love most toys though.

Soufflé kept her company and took selfies with her, I think he might have been flirting though. 😎

After I rinsed most of the conditioner off Marzi’s hair, Soufflé helped to comb it.

Here’s the end result! These two photos are very similar, but I wanted to properly show the ribbon on Marzi’s hair.

I love how poseable she is. She looks so cute with her little hands behind her back.

Marzi had actually been on display in my library for a long time. But when our partner moved in, I gave up my library (a very small sacrifice for the reward). A ton of my things got moved or donated, but Marzi went into semi-permanent storage. I’m really happy to have her out again.