Category Archives: Other Toys

Week 7 Summary: Valentine’s Day And More ๐Ÿ’˜

Happy Sunday, friends! Here I am with another weekly summary. So far, I still haven’t been able to recover my determination for all my yearly resolutions. It’s very frustrating when life gets in the way of them, even if it’s fun things that get in the way, but I haven’t completely fallen of the wagon. Anyway, let me tell you about our Valentine’s week!

๐ŸŒˆ Monday & Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Not much to say about Monday –I spent it getting everything ready for Valentine’s Day, which was Tuesday. Tuesday morning I gave Christopher his present. I wish I’d taken a picture of how I set it all up –the canvas all wrapped up, his bunny next to it, the card and the chocolates. It was there for him to find when he came down to breakfast. But, I can at least show you the drawing I printed on canvas for him:

Our partner ate his Valentine brigadeiros throughout the day. Around noon he took me to Best Buy to pick up some pretty Razer RGB headphones he bought me as a surprise, but they ended up being the wrong ones, so we returned them and ordered different ones later. We got lunch while we were out and it was still a really nice outing, especially since I’d still been feeling pretty low from the week before.

In the evening I went to see my mom, but before leaving, I left his card on his nightstand, and Christopher gave me mine. ๐Ÿฅฐ It was actually one of the nicest cards he ever gave me.

When I got there, my mom had a whole fondue spread prepared!

Then we played the new chutes and ladders game. It was really fun and reminded me of playing it with my grandma when I was little!

I gave my mom a card, some chocolates, and a little potted orchid. She had a card for me too!

This was actually a really fun evening. It cheered me up.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Wednesday morning, we had mate as usual. E.T. had some, too!

And Sweeney enjoyed some cat grinder time:

We found out that E.T. can cross his fingers! Doesn’t this snack spread look nice…

Also, man, it’s so weird but E.T. has always reminded me of my dad. Even when I was a toddler, he was really old and wrinkled. My child brain always thought they looked similar, and I know I even said so… poor dad. ๐Ÿ˜…

Also isn’t this Daniel Tiger juice cap super cute?

With Shampoo gone, Sweeney has gotten more and more affectionate with my mom…

Don’t mind his swishy tail at times, Sweeney is a bit of an oddball. He was really happy, purring intensely.

This was a really enjoyable visit. I was home with enough time to do a bunch of chores which is always good.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

I was very busy most of this day, but here’s a photo of Christopher’s (slightly) late Valentine’s Day present!

Always thrilled to get Godiva, I’d be surprised if they last me a week, haha. The Santa chocolates were an extra sorta freebie. ๐ŸŽ…

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

On this weekend, Christopher’s Grandma and my mom-in-law came to visit. They brought the little ceramics we painted on our last visit. I think they turned out adorable!

Friday night was really special. For no particular reason other than family visiting, we all went to a nice, fancy restaurant, “Jaya at the Setai”. It was a very glamorous place! There was a huge pool in the middle. Not a swimming pool, I mean a decorative pool:

Here’s Christopher and Grandma…

I had a Fig Old Fashioned. It was my first time drinking whiskey. I LOVED this thing! The cinnamon stick had been burned just a little. It smelled so good.

It had an odd menu –some Thai stuff, some Indian, some Japanese. At first glance, I struggled to find something I thought I’d enjoy. But everything I ate was an amazing experience, it didn’t feel like simply “eating dinner”. I think it might be my favorite fancy restaurant that I’ve ever eaten at!

There was a colorful gallery attached to the hotel/restaurant. While a lot of the stuff was cute (and I love anything with Harvey characters) the idea of rich-ass people buying stuff with these moneyed characters and even Bitcoin symbols is SO cringy to me, haha. ๐Ÿ˜… But it made for some fun photos:

When we got home, we saw this pretty beetle hanging on our door:

I’ve gotten to a point with my manuscript where I desperately need guidance of a sort that many, many Google searches have proven unhelpful with. I tried to use my old Nook e-reader to just get free e-book versions with my accumulated credits, but it was sticky and gross (the material that it is made of degraded horrible with age) so I bit the bullet and got some manuals. They are very useful and are being pivotal in preventing a block I can’t get past at a key moment in the book:

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

To start this day, here is a cute photo of Kotoko napping outside in the late morning…

We had Mod Pizza for lunch!

After that, everyone went inside JOANN to find a frame for the Asuka puzzle that was recently put together. I stayed in the car to avoid temptations, and our partner surprised me with a Blue lollipop holder when they came back!

Later, I spent some time drawing for myself and reading about mapmaking. I spent time outside with our partner doing these things. The weather was mild and it was a highlight of my weekend for sure. Kotoko even kept me company after he left:

Later in the day we went out to buy coals for our partner’s hookah, and he treated me to a geode which you could hammer open. I didn’t actually know what it would be like inside, so it was a magical experience for me. And it looks like a perfect little dinosaur egg!

In the evening, after dinner, we watched the work-in-progress version of Beauty And The Beast on Laserdisc.

It was a really fun experience!

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

Grandma and my mom-in-law went home on this day, but first we went to have breakfast together:

It was the first time I really didn’t like my food at The Village Tavern. The potatoes were undercooked, and the crab cakes were really fishy. But the little muffin was delicious.

Now I have to tell you about a definite conscious decision to make an exception to my no-new-toys rule –one I would and will do again if another release like this happens. Outside of the Colossal line, my most favorite Jurassic toy line is their Imaginext toys, and within them, the SUPER cheap, super sturdy, XL dinos.

These are released rarely. It’s been such a long time since the last one. Well, they decided to come out with a rainbow chicken I mean pyroraptor. I was not going to pass it up, especially not under $10! I finally opened the box after family left:

I love the art on these boxes and had to save it for future scrapbooking!

You can see next to my hand what a sizable boy it is, and so colorful and cute. I was over the moon when it came in. A colorful highlight to my week! Absolutely no regrets about this one.

I’m gonna call them Salsa, or maybe Fiesta. ๐Ÿค” I still haven’t decided.

Anyway, that’s all for this week! Also I want to say, if you are reading this on your email, MANY times I edit mistakes immediately after posting, but you’ll always see just the first version in your email, I think… sorry about that. You’re generally better off reading posts directly on the site.

Have a great week, everyone!

Week 4 Summary: Old Friends ๐Ÿฅฐ

This was, for sure, a much better week! Itโ€™s been a bit of a battle, but slowly Iโ€™ve been clawing my way back to more successful days, with more goals accomplished. This week we got to have dinner and hang out a little with our beloved friends Kitty (whom you might know as Blankit) and her husband Dan. That was a huge treat, as we hadnโ€™t seen them in forever. Let me tell you about that, and about the rest of my week, below!

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

The week started off a little rough. Work has been deeply stressful for poor Christopher and it was having the worst effect on his mental health at the end of the weekend and start of this week (you might recall me mentioning last week that he wasnโ€™t doing so well). So that was on my mind a lot on Monday.

I did a lot of laundry and worked a lot on my fantasy novel on this day, to catch up on what I couldn’t do the previous day. I wrote a total of 1,540 words which was really satisfying. Other than that, I donโ€™t have much else to share about this day beyond this photo I took at bedtime:

I was feeling so cozy in my little corner playing Pokรฉmon that I decided to take a photo to remember that pleasant feeling. ๐Ÿฅฐ

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Another day on which I missed writing, but since I caught up so much on Tuesday, I was still good for my weekly goal. I also exercised and gamed a decent amount.

Tuesday I made the decision to set up a cohost account, finally. It wasnโ€™t as hard as I thought, and I was very pleased with the result:

I think it looks pretty nice! I also got cohost Plus! to help support the site. Staff activated me for posting the same day, and I have been enjoying interacting with people over there since.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

This was a special day –and a very busy one! As usual, it started with breakfast on the couch, reading a book, having mate and enjoying Elliot’s company:

Afterwards, I spent a few hours doing chores and straightening up the house. This included cleaning the snail tank:

At noon, I had the usual Zoom call with my mom. I worked on commissions and did more chores before hopping in the shower. Soon after I got out, Kitty and Dan arrived! We showed off the house to them and then left to go to Nine Five PhแปŸ together for a nice little dinner.

Kitty and I talked a lot about all sorts of things, including many recent fandom debacles. It was really nice to discuss these things in person with someone. We also caught up on each other’s lives, and got a couple of photos together…

Afterwards we went back to our house, where we had snacks and played the Fronks game on the Wii U. Then we switched to the latest Mario Party. I performed horribly as per usual, but Dan really gave Christopher a run for his money the entire game. It was close at times, but eventually Dan won!

After the game, it was time to say goodbye. We hadn’t seen one another since Megaplex 2019… I didn’t realize it had been so long. Truly, COVID warped my sense of time. I haven’t been to any conventions since. I was starting to think I never would again, honestly, but seeing Kitty and Dan put an ache back in my heart for memories of those days. Then again, can those days be recaptured? I’m not sure… but I feel maybe I should return to the con scene, and to old friends.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

I worked hard all day to have all my chores done and still have time to watch TV. I wanted to finish binging through The Book of Boba Fett, and finish an overdue commission for Kiba. But first, here’s a photo of Elliot and Tomoyo doing their usual morning window watching, while touching butts:

I feel regret about sleeping on Boba Fett all this time. I hadn’t realized it was pretty much a continuation of The Mandalorian. I enjoyed it immensely, the ending was so awesome and adorable, honestly to a fanservicey degree, lol. I just loved it.

I finished Kiba’s commission and then left to do the grocery shopping so that the timing would be just right for Christopher to pick me up on his way home from work. Once home, I put the groceries away and he started cooking. He made this really weird chicken chili soupy thing with tortillas that was extremely comforting to eat and I can’t wait to have again.

Then it was LEGO time! It was date night, after all. I got some nice progress in on my Sesame Street set:

The guys worked some more on their lighthouse. Then we cuddled and watched anime together.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

This day I felt very accomplished. Not only did I get over 700 words written on my novel, but also exercised for over an hour and burned over 600 calories. It felt like a very successful day! I also got more gaming done, and reading too:

I really thought I’d have to read a few other books alongside Stephen King’s “It”, because it is over a thousand pages long and seemed so overwhelming, but it’s been so utterly engrossing, I just can’t put it down to read anything else! I’m making good progress on it, too.

On another topic, you know those fuzzy caterpillars everyone here calls woolly bears? In Argentina, people called those “gatas peludas” meaning “furry cats” (specifically, female cats, for some reason). When I was looking at the misshapen lump that was Rosie on the cat tree, it made me remember that… she might as well be a giant fuzzy caterpillar for all you’d know:

After getting all my chores done, I made dinner (salmon croquettes) for me and the guys. We watched Chucky again (the TV show –we’re on season 2). It was a very wacky episode. Just like with the movies, I both love and hate the show. It truly is exactly like the movies in feel. If you dare take it seriously/get attached to anything or anyone, or expect it to make sense, it’ll slap you on the face, give you the finger, and laugh.

I was unable to have Project Day on Tuesday as is normally scheduled. Didn’t plan my day out properly and also just wasn’t feeling it. So, I did it on this night instead, right after dinner. Since all of my scrapbooking stuff was now organized, I figured I’d give it a go and finish a new page for my Squelf-Book:

And, to add another tick to my “enjoy my toys” resolution, I brought Clicky down for company. I really love my little clicking dino, but I’ve not played with or enjoyed him at all, so it was about time. Clicky helped me pick scraps and cut-outs to decorate the page with!

He even helped stick some of them in place:

When it was all done, we were both pleased with the results!

By this time next week, I’ll be on to my next video game. I truly loved Pokรฉmon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, it’s a game that will remain in my heart forever, so I wanted to do this page to commemorate my playthrough.

After this, it was time for anime and cuddling. We are watching the original Trigun. We were going to watch the recent remake, but not only were Christopher and I slightly put off by it –we also found out that our partner has never seen the original Trigun, and this situation must clearly be remedied.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

This was a very busy day! I did lots of chores, and exercised + gamed a ton. I finished Pokรฉmon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX! It was such a lovely game that I’ll always remember fondly. Tomorrow, I’d pick up Legends: Arceus where I left off.

I also did lots of outlining for my novel, and worked lots of commissions, catching up on the changing table badges:

I got a little video to show you that I took on Saturday. This is how snails groom their shells so the edge doesn’t hurt them:

Not unlike a cat grooming, snails do this daily. Usually, they do it after they wake up and before starting their daily roam for food, water and, er, companionship. ๐Ÿ˜

At bedtime, Rosie was waiting for me:

I took my Switch to bed and after about an hour, I’d beat the game:

I took one last picture of Rosie cuddling next to me and purring up a storm before we both fell asleep…

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

Sunday was utterly exhausting. It was time to make a proper dent on commissions, so I practically did nothing else and finished eight by the end of the day. No exercise, no writing, no chores… just art until my eyes bled. In spite of the progress, I ended the day a bit unhappy because being able to exercise and write are the two things that make me feel the most accomplished.

And yet –in spite of this, I beat the writing goal this week, with 3,611 words. When you consider all the outlining done as well, it’s a huge success. And I beat a video game and finished a scrapbook page!

A nice thing that happened on this day is that our partner finished adding a different band to the Bluey watch he got me for Christmas. The band that came with this watch is total garbage, the watch would come right off a kid or adult’s wrist. It was unusable. But the watch is very cute. It took a lot of work to make the 20mm rainbow band I bought for it fit, but he did it, and it looks great!

Sometimes, if they are sleepy enough, these two get along…

Lately Rosie has been super cuddly, every night… she’s always purring, stretching her little paws to touch me, getting up and then letting herself fall heavily against me. She is so sweet, I adore this little cat.

I played a little of Arceus at bedtime. Still can’t quite get into this game, and I find it a bit difficult, but we’ll see how the coming week goes with it.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving ๐Ÿฆƒ๐ŸŒˆ

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone! I gotta say, other than feeling suuuper queasy on Friday morning for an hour or so, this Thanksgiving was one of my favorites in recent memory. I hope yours was nice, too! Let me tell you all about mine below.

โœจ๐ŸŽ„ Thursday ๐ŸŽ„โœจ

We were off around 9:00am. My companion for this trip was Othello, though I also brought Bluey for sleeping. First things first, we went to McDonald’s. I needed to eat something so I could take my painkillers (I was on my period during this weekend).

Christopher was out at some point…

Getting to my mom-in-law’s house felt really magical. There was a tree this year, and it had lots of presents underneath! Othello was really excited and had fun exploring it:

I sat underneath for a while, looking and wondering at the presents, and playing Pokรฉmon on my Switch. I felt really small and happy.

Pretty soon it was time for dinner. I’m usually not big on Thanksgiving dinner but it was at my mom-in-law’s house this time around, and so delicious! I wish we always had this holiday (and all holidays actually) here.

There were many pies… pumpkin, chocolate pudding, shoofly… I tried a bit of everything.

After dinner, Pan cuddled with me…

We went to bed early, since we’d be up at 3:45am for Black Friday.

โœจ๐ŸŽ„ Friday and Saturday ๐ŸŽ„โœจ

On Friday we did a little local Black Friday shopping (mainly Funko Pops for sis-in-law) and then went to Orlando to drop her off at the airport. After that we had breakfast at Keke’s (a little lackluster compared to the last time we were here) and after a little more shopping, we went back home to my mom-in-law’s house.

Christopher and I did soooo much napping and relaxing. I drew and played Pokรฉmon Violet –kept trying to find a Goomy to no avail. Mom-in-law and partner stayed busy, washing the car, running errands and shopping for groceries. They made a wonderful chicken salad for dinner, and afterwards, we played UNO Flip! and then watched a movie, “Luck”. It was cute.

On Saturday we went to a big local flea market that our partner had never been to with us. It’s always fun to look at all the kitschy knick-knacks. Usually I go off on my own a lot, but I stuck closer to family this time. I found a dolly I liked a lot before we left, and Christopher bought it for me. I’ll blog about her on a separate post. She’s a Horsman dolly from 1973.

After the flea market, we went to The Wagon Wheel for a delicious pizza lunch. Then it was time to go home! If it wasn’t for my worry about Rosie, I would have wanted to stay an extra night… we had so much fun.

โœจ๐ŸŽ„ Buddy And Sarah Return! ๐ŸŽ„โœจ

A big, unexpected surprise when I walked through the door was that already, Buddy and Sarah were back! Maybe I misremembered but I really thought they’d be back December 1st, not today. It really felt like a magical moment as I did not expect it at all!

The two of them were busy opening the present I left them. Maybe they’ll write me back sometime during the month. I think it’d be fun to exchange a couple of letters while they are here.

On a different note, I came home with a new Little People toy! I saw this at Walmart while picking up a toy for my friend Snow. I already have a Little People red-haired guy who looks so much like Christopher. But this one does even more! And he comes with a cat! So he bought it for me.

Speaking of toys, I had a couple of new ones to put under the tree when we got back! Unwrapped, since I’m not gonna wrap my own presents and it’s pointless for our partner to wrap something I’ve already seen. When we went to Target, he got me this Sesame Street figure set I had on my wish list:

And also this Bluey watch! It has games and you can hear Bluey and Bingo’s voice. It’s so cute!

That’s all for my Thanksgiving weekend. It was really wonderful and passed too quickly. The next exciting holiday event will be Zoo Lights on Friday, and since now I have a really good phone, I’ll be able to take nice night time photos of all the Christmas lights at the zoo! I can’t wait to share.

Browsing Shops

An elf at the craft store!

I canโ€™t wait for our Buddy and Sarah to return. Christopher just rediscovered a forgotten elf at his office that has been through a LOT. I hope we can adopt him.

On my recent outfit I saw this SUPER awesome Yoshi! He is poseable and talks.

But $50! ๐Ÿ˜ฆ Thatโ€™sโ€ฆ a lot. Heโ€™s big though.

I ๐Ÿ’— McDonald’s Cactus Plant Flea Market Box ๐ŸŸ

Like all the cool kids, I finally got to try the much-talked-about McDonald’s “Happy Meal For Adults” today! Getting it is annoying: you HAVE to download the app and order from it. With tax, the meal is somewhere close to $14! It’s a normal sized meal, though. But still. That’s a LOT.

๐ŸŸ Lunch Time!! ๐ŸŸ

I have a huge soft spot for the original McDonald’s characters, so any of them would have pleased me (other than the cactus boy or whatever he’s called). I had three in four chances to be delighted, so my hopes were high!

Alas, it was not my day.

The nuggets were unusually great though and the little yellow monstrosity did grow on me eventually.

So now he sits on my desk. I’d give it another shot but the meal is too expensive and also it’s just too much food for me. ๐Ÿ˜…

Li’l Toy Hunt ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ๐ŸŒˆ

Today I went to look at toys! I bought a couple of tiny small things, and groceries, and one big thing, but mostly I looked at things and took pictures which is always fun. I also enjoyed a really nice bike ride on the way there! Thankfully the rain that began in the morning stopped by the afternoon.

Here’s a Mei plushie from Turning Red!! It was so cute!

Look at this cute Stitch eating a watermelon slice. ๐Ÿ‰ I wanted to buy him for Christopher!

Even though this is โ€œfakeโ€ Little People I really love this set and may get it eventually to use with my official LPโ€™s. Itโ€™s awesome!

This Walmart exclusive LEGO promo really caught my eye!! ๐Ÿ‘€

This baby kitten doll was very cute too. And big!

This was really cute:

Iโ€™m getting mixed messages from this bagโ€ฆ

After Walmart I went to sam’s Club to pick up the Little People camping set I wanted. I bought it without consideration for the package’s size, shape, nor my transportation method of choice for the day, and once I went back to my bike, a thought fleetingly crossed my mind: perhaps I did not think this thoroughly. ๐Ÿคž๐Ÿคž๐Ÿคž

So began the most awkward bike ride home ever. A woman gave me an extremely amused smile as I awkwardly rode by her on the sidewalk. I was so glad people around didn’t know I bought this for myself.

Then again I was wearing my dinosaur shirt by Wen, my bike has pink decor in the tires and a huge sunflower in a pink basket plus a large perler bead heart, a squirrel bell AND a squirrel horn. And furry stickers. ๐Ÿ™ƒ And with the kicker of having this backpack on me at the time, I probably wasn’t fooling anyone.

Me: ducks to avoid low branches
My giant toy box: smash smash smash smash

Anyway I made it home with my treasures and my groceries. It was a fun outing.

Halloweeny Playdate With Shelly ๐ŸŽƒ

Today my friend Shelly visited! We had some Halloween fun to start off the season (a bit early, but I’m too excited!) I had a whole-ass Halloween Plex playlist for us –all kinds of Halloween cartoons/specials and movies. This isn’t even half of the list!

I dressed up Marzi in her new Halloween dress, we colored Halloween coloring books and pages, and decorated a special Halloween sticker book! It was so much fun. And of course we had lots of Halloweeny snacks.

Here’s Marzi with some of the goodies!

Marzi and I had a surprise for Shelly and Samantha, a Halloween dress of Samantha’s own! She was already wearing a cute autumny dress, as was Shelly, but she changed into her brand new one for our get together:

After our playtime, we made a fancy dinner. Then Shelly’s partner showed up and we all ate together before playing Mario Party. It was a really fun evening and I can’t wait to see Shelly and Ben again! ๐Ÿ˜Š