Category Archives: Trains

🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Dinos, My Hug, Other Toys, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains

Mwako’s Here! 🦁🌈

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Hello, everyone! First of all, I want to apologize for my absence/commission delay which I hinted at but did not fully explain. Being sick three times (never COVID but always sucky) having a weekend-long Easter visit with family, an almost week-long visit of my dear friend Mwako during which time I did not work at all, dealing with important travel paperwork AND having my period on top of it all, meant that no commission work got done whatsoever.

I am now back at the tablet and getting things done, so you all will be getting your WIPS and/or finished pieces over the next few days. But before that –here’s this week’s summary!

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday was a special day. It was the Jurassic World Dominion street date for the new toys! Christopher and I made a deal: I could spend up to $200, and anything I purchased would be set aside for my birthday and Christmas. This suited me fine! I went to Target and Walmart and came back with a cart full of things. 😁 Although, the new displays were not out at Target, a very nice employee got me everything I wanted from the back.

I also passed by Five Below on the way back and scored a few nice Super Mario finds!

A Super Mario Easter egg and Mario Kart UNO cards! The UNO cards I plan to use for scrapbooking. I loved that the puzzle below had Bowser Jr. in it!

It was otherwise a quiet, busy day, prepping the house, doing chores, and drawing.

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

On Tuesday, it was more and more prepping. I had a lot to do. But I did take some time to myself in the morning, walked to the mall, had a snack there, and bought some pins to decorate my new Galactic Pal bags:

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

Wednesday I was up at 5:00am to finish prepping the playroom. It took more work than you imagine, simple though it looks (lots of lugging stuff downstairs, plus putting the mat together, moving furniture, building the tent –tricky on my own) but I think the end result turned out really nice!

The couch looked cozy…

Stuff for outdoor play!

Ricky Parky had not been down to play in quite some time!

Tomoyo was really interested in all the toys…

At least she couldn’t bite this. She definitely tried to bite other things.

I used my travel pillow as a chair for Cookie:

Everywhere you looked it was colorful and full of toys and things to do, games to play, books to color…

Out of the Jurassic World Dominion release, there were a couple of cheaper dinos that I bought for myself so I wouldn’t have to wait to play with them, such as this cute Imaginext gal. She’s really expressive! You can move her up and down and side to side by the tail, open and close her mouth, and change her facial expression! Her arms move too!

Coloring books and games…

I love this Jurassic World version of TOMY’s classic Pirate Pop-Up game!

My new T. rex friend was looking for trouble…

Here’s Ricky all ready to “pretend” camp indoors!

Bluey was ready to welcome Mwako, too!

Crayons!! 🌈✨

More friends and fun things to do! 🌈🌟🚂 Socks was a little surprise gift for Mwako.

On Mwako’s first night with us, we went to Blue Ginger, a fancy sushi restaurant where the food is served in little floating boats. It was wonderful, I was so happy we got to go because it’s one of Christopher’s favorite places that we can so rarely afford, and Mwako treated us all.

🌈 Thursday 🌈

On Thursday we took Mwako to my (currently) favorite park, Marhham Park. I picked a very colorful outfit, and brought Cookie along on her first outing:

First we did a quick Starbucks run for breakfast at the house.

Cookie tried her first cake pop!

Once at the park it was time to explore. I love this place, with its pine-needle covered floors. It looks kind of otherwordly in places. The more I explore Florida the more I find beauty I didn’t know it had.

Here’s a couple of pics I got of me and Mwako:

It was overall a super nice time. I did at one point get chased by a few bees and really panicked and ran for a long, long stretch, leaving Mwako and my partner well, WELL behind. Later they told me that as I did that, they heard what had to have been a gator jumping into the water, mere feet from us. They said it definitely sounded like something bigger than a grown man.

What makes that a bit scary is that on recent Googling I found out a woman was attacked by a gator during a jog at this same park. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was that same area. 😬 I guess it’s a good thing that I was running!

Anyway, I’ve been doing stops at Walmart/Target/Dollar Tree/etc, and here are some finds. First, a couple of Uncaged Wild Pop-Ups:

A couple of super cute cups from the dollar store, Berenstain Bears and Arthur-themed:

And some Jurassic Wold stickers:

🌈 Friday 🌈

On Friday, we went to Butterfly World. This is truly the perfect time of the year to go! The amount of butterflies was off the chart, like stepping into a fairy tale world.

First, here’s an all-butterfly set of photos. They were just so pretty.

A cute caterpillar friend!

The birds here are very tame and friendly:

This one was taking a little bath:

This one was… feeling territorial?

I didn’t know canaries ate lettuce, did you?

This little guy was tucking in for a nap. 😊

In the museum and insect area, the moths were my favorite, but everything was beautiful and interesting:

Here’s a wriggly mealworm. These guys are small, but they can bite! If they didn’t I might want to have them as pets.

We bought a couple of plants before leaving. An almond bush which was part of the reason behind the trip, and a mimosa plant as a gift for our dear Christopher. 🥰 After Butterfly World, we went back to the house to play some games in the playroom I’d set up.

We played the T. rex pop-up game first. It was lots of fun! I jumped every time. 😅

Then we played Yeti In My Spaghetti for a while, before it was time to set the table for our burger dinner.

I had special fancy dino paper plates for the occasion! I had to get another one though because someone spilled his drink all over me and my T. rex… 😑

🌈 Saturday 🌈

Let’s start this day with a photo of Tomoyo, laying elegantly as she does:

Mwako continued to humor me by driving me to Targets so I could look for more Jurassic World Dominion stuff. So in the morning we were off, first breakfast at Starbucks and then to Target.

I was very excited at this particular Target because it was my first time finally seeing a Dominion display!

Some neat things I saw (but didn’t buy) were this Pokémon themed Labyrinth game by Ravensburger and this Jeep Wrangler R/C car, Jurassic World themed. I was really tempted by the car… 😅

Ultimately, I came home with this super cute Elmo backpack and Jurassic World Dominion set of minis, both of which Mwako was kind enough to treat me to:

Once home, it was time to move on to some backyard fun! Well… back porch fun. We blew some bubbles, for starters, but I don’t have photos of that. It was fun, though. Ricky sat and watched, it had been a while since he came out to play, as I mentioned:

New T. rex was excited to get into the chalk so we quickly moved on to that.

Playing with chalk was so much fun. I never got to do this as a kid, believe it or not. Chalk was something we only had at school, and colored chalk? What is that, anyway? So, silly though it may seem, this made me really happy.

Ricky Parky had a blast too!

The cats were very curious about the chalk, smelling it, rolling in it, and just being generally very interested and wanting to be involved in our playtime.

Rosie was arguably the most interested of all:

I tried drawing Mwako, a snail and a subrosian for Christopher (that one ended up being my favorite):

I also drew one of our house “soots”:

Mwako did a pretty spiffy job of drawing Stitch!

After that it started to sprinkle, so we went back inside to continue our fun.

A pause for more Tomoyo, this time giving me a half-hearted but playful air-swat:

Time to play some more! First some Jenga…

We each had a cute snack. Since today was special, I picked one of my Good2Grow Podz. Grogu is so cute!

I had my veggie chips in my Bluey bowl, not that you can tell…

The movie for the evening was Brother Bear, an old favorite. It’d been a while since I last saw it. We colored with crayons while watching and just had a nice time.

After the movie, Mwako, my partners and I all went to mini golf. That was a lot of fun to do late in the evening! They closed just as we left.

🌈 Sunday 🌈

Today, Sunday, was the last day with activities, since Mwako is leaving tomorrow.

I opened my minis in the morning while having some quiet time to myself. They are so cute!

Look at that adorable tiny carnie, a perfect little chonk:

Being time for another outing, I got dressed up, new backpack and all:

I picked Dusty to accompany me today:

We took Mwako to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park today. This was a lovely setting to take photos of Dusty in, just like Marham Park with Cookie:

Here are some random pics without Dusty in them. Of course I still have to add stickers.

Here’s Mwako looking super cute in the outfit I picked for him to wear. Pink looks great on him, I think!

Our time at the park was fun but exhausting because it was so hot. Once we got back home and freshened up, we sat down to have some “kiddy time” again. First we laid down the Richard Scarry’s Busytown Eye Found It! board game:

It’s a high quality game, with a massive board and very cute pieces:

It’s a collaborative game, either all players win, or the “pigs” win. We enjoyed it, and it certainly has lots of replayability.

At some point, I don’t remember when, I ate this cute chocolate Easter sheep:

After the board game, we played with blocks. It may seem silly, but don’t knock it til you try it. With LEGO, you still have to “think”. There’s something incredibly relaxing about playing with big-ass blocks. Once you let go, all your adult worries melt away, if only for a little bit.

I “play” in a bit more of a conventional manner, making “houses” for my Thomas The Tank Engine Mega Blok figures:

In you go:

Incidentally, I was wearing my bear kigu. It really helps put me in a certain kind of mood when I play with toys such as these. 🐻

Mwako, for his part, is far more chaotic, creating some impressive (and sometimes slightly frightening) creatures:

This here has to be one of my favorite photos of this visit…

HE COMIN’

We drank as we played and ended our evening in the little tent, just laughing and kinda pouring our hearts out to each other in a tipsy haze. This ended up being the most memorable portion of the week for me. It was such a lovely end to the visit, and left me feeling much closer to my beloved friend of now quite a few years, and looking forward to another visit later this year.

I know this was a very long post. If you read it all, I’m so grateful! Hope it was enjoyable. 😊

Cats, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Dinos, My Furbys, My Hug, Otome, Trains, Trips And Outings, Visual Novels

Welcome, April! 🌷🌼🌈☔

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Happy April, everyone! Boy, this was one stressful week, but it did have good moments regardless. Not only was our house painted this week, but we cleaned the back porch (a grueling task every time as you might recall) I was on my period for half the week, had to do our taxes, go to an appointment at the Social Security Administration office, I visited my mom to celebrate her birthday, and went on a couple of outings with my husband and our partner.

This is my sorry face

So if you are among the multiple people I’ve left on read these past few days… I am so sorry, and you are still on my mind, and not forgotten… it’s been a heck of a week… I’ll be catching up with messages as the week rolls on.

I also played a lot of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ (I’m on Cantarella’s story right now) and we are watching Tenchi Muyo so I felt the above GIF was appropiate. ^_^

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday was fairly quiet. I worked on commissions and did housework, but was a bit subdued due to my period. Our house began to be prepped for painting on this day.

For lunch, I made toasted rice balls for our partner and I. He’d never had them before.

Got to use my new Bluey plate, cutlery and bowl, so that made me happy.

And speaking of Bluey –here is a coloring book I got recently:

The pages are kinda thin, so I’ll just scan and reprint on thicker paper when I want to color it. This is actually how I preserve most of my coloring books, including many vintage ones!

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

Tuesday was the Social Security appointment (for my name change). It went smoothly, other than the security guard at the entrance being so intimidating towards everyone, especially older people who could not understand English nor understand what was going on. Even though inside plenty of signage indicates accommodating if you need an interpreter, the officer was aggressive and angry towards these poor mostly Latin people who barely spoke English and were so confused and even frightened by his demeanor. 😠

Once that was done, I walked to Target. I saw these traffic cones on the way that grass had grown right through. Seems the grass around them was mowed without the cones being moved a few times. I thought it looked interesting enough for a picture:

By the time I got home, a lot of progress had been done on the house painting. Here is a before and after at that point in time (I’ll have a final update next week):

I didn’t have much time to admire the house. I had to finish all my chores, and pack, and then our partner drove me to my mom’s. She and I went to dinner pretty soon after I got there to celebrate her birthday:

I had primavera pizza! It’s my favorite because it has egg:

Once we got home, my mom opened her birthday present. Christopher bought her a laptop (her computer was ANCIENT). She was really happy –Sweeney tested it immediately! Meanwhile, Shampoo enjoyed laying on a crinkly paper bag. To each their own.

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

Wednesday was my mom and I’s usual peaceful morning of TV, mate, and conversation. I also drew and played a bit of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ here and there.

Gumdrop had his first taste of mate!

My mom had a really big surprise for me! She was able to find my favorite childhood cookies, which I have not had for over twenty years!

They have zodiac signs on them:

A close similar cookie was Pepperidge Farm’s chessmen chocolate cookies, but I think they were discontinued in my area a long time ago. I can’t find them anywhere anymore. Anyway, my mom got me like three bags of these, so that was a wonderful surprise!

For Wednesday night dinner, my mom made fries (my favorite)!

As if that weren’t enough, she made a legit Argentinean bizcochuelo for dessert, another big treat. The mix was yet another childhood favorite that she was able to acquire recently through a shopping service.

After dinner, my guys picked me up. At home I had yet another wonderful surprise waiting for me! At first I couldn’t find Yoshi anywhere and I was sure our partner had hidden him or placed him in some sort of unfortunate situation, as he tends to do to my toys. But Yoshi turned out to be waiting for me on my desk, and he was holding the Limited Run visual novel I’ve been begging Christopher for!

It’s The House In Fata Morgana. I’ve heard many good things about it.

That, and watching TV and cuddling all together, made for a wonderful end to my day.

🌈 Thursday 🌈

I forgot to share this other surprise my mom gave me during my visit! Last time she got me the Mafalda figure and magazine. This time it was Manolito:

On Thursday I walked to Target to pick up an online order. I wanted to get one of these dino clickers, mostly as a desk fidget toy. His head and legs click when you move them. He’s really cute.

For date night, I made another massive snack spread, while the guys continued playing Kirby and I watched. Didn’t get quite so drunk on this day, but it was still a nice time.

Also, on this day, more engines arrived!

They are so, SO well made, utterly perfect in every way! I received Thomas, Percy, Gordon, and my favorite boy, James!

The facial expressions are great; Percy’s in particular is hilarious:

I wish they’d given James his angry face, but I love them all.

Can’t wait to get my hands on Henry, and Cranky when they remake him too.

🌈 Friday 🌈

Since we had our date night in on Thursday, Friday was our day out. First we went out to ramen!

The atmosphere outside was spooky. Not only was it rainy, but the Everglades were on fire, and you could clearly see the smoke amidst the clouds. Our car was covered in ash!

After lunch we went to Monster MiniGolf. It was really fun! We took this photo of one of the animatronics:

I don’t even know who won. I just know it wasn’t me and I had lots of fun. Before going home, we passed by Dollar Tree, where I got a couple of Arthur puzzles, a giant dinosaur coloring book, and a velvet dino coloring stand:

I also got a little bandana for my Grogu:

Then we went home to bed and watched TV for ages, it was very cozy. 🥰

🌈 Saturday 🌈

Saturday was exhausting. I did lots of chores, and helped a bit with the porch cleaning (I did a bigger amount of that yesterday, but on Friday our partner did most of the remaining cleaning). Then I put all the furniture back. It looks wonderful, even if it was a lot of work:

I also redecorated the litter box area a bit. 😸 Some things still need to be hung back up (a lot was taken down due to the painting) but there’s only so much time in a single week…

The porch and chores such as laundry basically took my entire day, but I was able to relax a little in the evening.

🌈 Sunday 🌈

On Sunday our partner and I went on a little solo date, it’s not a common occurrence since we generally prefer to do everything the three of us together, but Christopher had been desperately craving some alone time to just veg at home without us being our usual obnoxious selves around him. 😅

We went to the Perez Art Museum Miami, and to Wynwood for lunch and a little ice cream. We saw some cool stuff but I didn’t get any photos other than these:

After that we were on a quest to find fancy soaps, which we didn’t find, but I got these cool crayons:

Then I made dinner and we just relaxed. That was the end to a week that was at times fun, at times stressful, but good overall, as most weeks have been lately. There’s a lot of love in our home and I feel very lucky, even if things are hectic sometimes and it seems like we never stop doing things. 😊

Cats, Charlie Bears, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Novels, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains, Trips And Outings, Weekly Summary

Just A Bit Left Of March 🌷✨

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Happy Sunday, everyone! More and more, you can feel spring in the air. Of course, with it also approaches hurricane season, and since it’s Florida, unbearable heat. Still, I try to find enjoyment in the changes.

This was a very busy week. Less art got done, but it was productive in other ways. I felt pretty unwell and cranky on the weekend due to my period and the hecticness that surrounded it, but I’m trying to do my best.

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday I worked on art, on chores, played a little more of my Code: Realize fandisc, and I went out for a long walk. The weather was lovely, I felt pretty happy.

I had a pretty colorful outfit on this day, which included one of the designs I created myself for ODU:

During my walk, a tree I often come across was in full bloom, the floor completely covered in its flowers. It was a pretty sight.

At the store I got a new drying mat since our current one doesn’t really match the kitchen:

And, as it often happens when the spring items come out, I got my hands on two snail items! A decorative towel…

…and my favorite, a little welcome stone! I placed it next to all the other snail things:

I walked for like three hours, and came home starving. So I had a snack of crackers with pate and cheese, strawberries, and a little wine:

I also acquired these hilarious little alien things to have fun with later during the week:

Here’s a little random something from last week which I forgot to share. Diesel arrived! The box he came in is really, really nice:

The face design is wonderful, it’s very encouraging to see how much they’ve listened to customer feedback on the new line.

Next week the others should be arriving, I’m very excited about that.

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

On Tuesday I placed an order for some items I want to bring during the (sometimes quite long) car rides that happen every weekend. My husband and our partner always sit in the front, so I’m a bit bored in the back seat. I do love the seating arrangement, as it makes me feel very small and happy. It definitely appeals to my inner child. But I want to make it more fun and cozy to be there, and to that end, I ordered these things:

I also got a pink trash container (not pictured). The other things, as you can see, are a seatbelt cover (because it really digs into my shoulder sometimes) a lap desk for my iPad/coloring books/sketchbooks, etc, and an organizer with a little tray. You’ll see a bit further down how I used it.

On this day the little aliens or “soots” as Christopher calls them began popping up all over the house:

They are still being discovered 😁

Also, two games arrived. The one I am most excited about is the collector’s edition of Rune Factory 5! And the other one is Grow: Song Of The Evertree.

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

I can tell in retrospective that Wednesday is the day I started to get REALLY cranky from PMS. I think we were all cranky this week, and I feel that it is my own crankiness kinda being passed around like a cold, so I feel responsible. 😞 But good things happened anyway.

First, I have a very cute photo of Kotoko being harassed:

We went to a very flat and blah park on this day. It did have an interesting rock formation, so at least I took a photo of that:

The park was otherwise boring and not one I want to return to. But this was the first time our partner made an attempt at running since hurting his ankle so badly, and the fact that he could do it without issues was a major highlight of the day as it had been a lingering worry all this time.

In the evening, I felt too crappy to make dinner, so I whined my way into having another Happy Meal while the Mario Kart toys are still available, and this was provided, in spite of me being such a pain in the ass this week. It cheered me up a lot.

For the toy, I got Peach!

🌈 Thursday 🌈

Thursday I went on my longest walk of the week. I walked for about three and a half hours. Here’s a squirrel I saw on the way to Walmart:

On the way back, it had started to sprinkle. These crows were eager to drink the drops, and stood with their beaks open and heads upturned:

I got a few things at Walmart. A black dress, a Yu Yu Hakusho shirt for me and a Cowboy Bebop one for Christopher (Walmart is getting to be really good for anime shirts) some bows, a new blanket and a Turning Red blind box:

I was hoping to get Mei’s panda form but I got this… oh well lol.

After I got home we went out to dinner and then to a huge liquor store to get wine for tomorrow.

🌈 Friday 🌈

Friday evening was really nice! It was the long awaited Kirby release day. As soon as Christopher got home, I had a spread of snacks and wine and his coffee all set up.

It was just him and our partner playing co-opt while I watched and drank my entire bottle of wine, but that suited me fine!

Rosie joined us:

The game was my mom’s birthday present for Christopher. He really liked it.

Once they were done playing and my bottle of wine was totally polished off, I went to drunkenly make dinner. I made way too much and destroyed the kitchen in the process, but it was pretty good:

🌈 Saturday 🌈

Saturday was our weekly adventure day, and a LOT of fun! I got to use my new little setup for the first time. Now I can play my Switch without getting car sick:

You can’t see it here, but my little pink trash can hangs from the other seat. I also have a colorful pillow and my blanket in the back seat, and a coloring book in the pocket of the passenger seat. It feels very cozy.

The first stop was lunch. I had a hot dog. Christopher even went to the car to get Mignon for me so I could take this picture. When he does little things like that for me it makes me so happy.

Next stop was a record store, where Christopher bought me this World Of Warcraft soundtrack CD and Free To Be You And Me vinyl record:

We walked around a sorta ritzy but pretty dead mall. It made for some nice liminal pictures:

After that we went to Barnes & Noble. It was a particularly nice B&N, with TONS of toys. I bought this book while we were there:

As a lover of their Seekers bear series, I was very excited to find another Erin Hunter series about bears. But when I began to flip through it, after purchase, I noticed a vibe that was much more Warriors than Seekers. I guess we will see.

When he and my husband came back to find me, our partner had a little flower for me. I later gave the flower to Mignon. Unfortunately for my bunny, the flower had multiple ant residents, which then became residents of Mignon.

After the bookstore we went to a wonderful vintage toy store. I was too tired by this point to get pics, though.

At home I had an early dinner with Mignon and played a bit more of the Code Realize fandisc.

Mignon got into the cookies…

Overall a pleasant and happy Saturday. Today ended up being super stressful though, since our entire house is being repainted. The painters are coming tomorrow, so today was dedicated to moving anything that can be in their way. I also spent hours working on my bookkeeping, for taxes, had cramps all day, and this week I have an appointment with the social security office and I have to pack to visit my mom for her birthday.

It was a cranky and tiring day for the three of us and I guess this coming week may be a bit stressful still. So art may be slower and I may be quieter overall. Please bear with me.

I’ll see you next week with another weekly summary post, or maybe sooner if I can manage to sneak a post in!

Cats, Charlie Bears, Children's Books, Date Night, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains, Trips And Outings, Weekly Summary

Mid-March Weekly Summary 🎈🍛

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Hello, everyone! I hope you’ve had a happy week! It’s been very busy for us, as all weeks have been lately. So, as has become the norm for my blog, I just have one long post to catch you all up on the week’s happenings.

For starters, I am sick again. It seems I had one week of relief in between head colds. It’s very mild (milder than the prior one). Just really annoying. Anyway! Let’s begin.

🍛 Curry Dinner! 🍛

On Tuesday night, I made Japanese style curry. I’ve had many previous attempts that didn’t turn out so great. Finally I figured it out, trying a new recipe which I doctored a bit. My guys loved it, as did I, and I’m looking forward to having it again with different meats.

🎂 Christopher’s 38th Birthday Dinner 🎂

Wednesday was Christopher’s birthday! He got his remaining presents in the morning, and in the evening, we went to The Capital Grille in Downtown Miami. It was an extremely fancy restaurant, a real treat, so I dressed up a little.

Christopher was… excited.

All the food was wonderful, but I didn’t have my phone (forgot it in the car) so I didn’t take many pictures. Here is one of the appetizer, though, Tuna Tartare:

It was spicy. We also got a picture of Christopher with his birthday dessert:

🧸 Toklo 🧸

Toklo now has a new ribbon and shirt. He still needs his name necklace, I’ll work on that next week.

The shirt is pretty funny, it was a Build-A-Bear online exclusive.

🚂 Date Night 🚂

For date night, we had one more round of playing with our trains before putting them away. We’ll probably play again in a month or two; I’m sure I’ll want to, as my new Thomas things begin to arrive later this month.

A little video…

Toklo got to play with us too:

The cats always love to observe and walk among the track. They don’t destroy anything, they just get excited by it all.

Afterwards we had tea. They gamed for a bit while I kept fiddling with Instagram, setting up my new art account. It was a nice, chill end to a lovely evening together.

🏴‍☠️ Rosie 🏴‍☠️

Have some cute photos I took of Rosie. I woke her up from her morning nap and played with her a little. She is such a soft, sweet little thing!

🥞 Pancake Breakfast 🥞

This weekend, Christopher’s mom and grandma came to visit and celebrate Christopher’s birthday. We went to Nami Sushi for Friday night dinner and to a Thai place on Saturday evening. On Saturday morning, we had pancakes. Christopher made me a mouse-shaped one, so I decorated it:

It was very yummy!

Unfortunately I spent a lot of the weekend in a very crabby mood due to being sick. I am not very sick, but it is annoying. It makes it harder to do anything, and I am constantly sleepy. It also got a lot colder on Saturday night, and the cold makes me lazier. Hopefully I get my energy back again real soon.

📦 Goodies From This Week 📦

I have a few new things to share. One is this new top I got on Etsy. It appears very wrinkled in this photo, but it’s really very cute:

I also got a Super Mario coloring/sticker book and a Camp Cretaceous activity play-pack:

Finally, we went on a Goodwill stroll yesterday, and I had two happy finds. One is this lovely old storybook:

And the other is this awesome, massive Sesame Street blanket that I covered my futon with. I love it! It is like new, and only six bucks.

That is all for this week’s post. I am tired, and busy… I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and I look forward to sharing another week of art with you as I get back to my drawing board on Monday.

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, Trains, Trips And Outings

Silver Lakes Garage Sale & More! 🚂

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Yesterday Christopher’s mom and grandma arrived to visit with us during the weekend. We had truffle burgers and fries for dinner, that we made at home, and drank and played video games. It was a lovely evening.

While our friend and I were out getting grocery stuff and alcohol, I came across this really cute whiskey bottle so I had to take a photo:

Today we were up early in spite of drinking late at night, because the day’s main event was the Silver Lakes Community Garage Sale. Our first and only huge score was right at the beginning and I’ll let the next photo speak for itself:

All of that was $65, almost all of it new in package –basically all items were $10, or $5, or such, it was absolutely ridiculous and keeping my cool was a challenge. I can’t wait to have a nice romantic evening with Christopher, playing like dumbasses with our trains again. 🥺💕

Afterwards we had I ❤ Mac & Cheese for lunch (great as always) and Menchie’s for dessert:

Tonight we are dining in again, but no less fancy for that fact. We will be having teriyaki salmon and rice, and I expect another evening of games and snacking, soon as I can finish updating my blog and get back downstairs. I’m almost all done updating it now, sans for one post and a bunch of fitness ones. I’m really sorry I neglected my blog for so long… really trying to get life back to normal. 😅

Charlie Bears, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains, Trips And Outings

A Magical Saturday 🥩✨

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Today is finally over. It was an incredible, wonderful day! Christopher and I are both so exhausted we can hardly move or think straight. We had a lovely time with our friend doing all sorts of fun things, but I don’t think what we were doing mattered that much, just that we were together.

We really missed the sorts of days we’ve been having. I think we both thought at times maybe days like these were gone permanently. And, the exact way these days used to be, is in fact gone. Things change, those are memories. But I think these are even happier days and happier memories. I want to make so many more.

My day was off to a good start right from the get-go. I took my walk and came across a squirrel friend who had a big nut:

After my walk I did all my chores and changed into the outfit I prepared for today. I felt pretty cute in it.

Then I played Legend of Mana and worked on today’s warm-up while we waited for our friend to arrive to spend the day with us. Christopher also showed me a bunch of fun YouTube videos and we enjoyed that little time together.

Finally our friend was there and we headed out to a train store I’d long wanted to take Christopher to, but it was shut down for COVID until recently. I brought Heidi along today!

The train place certainly was fun, I took a lot of pictures:

They had a bunch of Thomas items but no Thomas Wood or Thomas Wooden Railway. However, these O-Gauge of James made my heart leap. I wish I could have bought either of them, I just love James so much.

But, I’ll always have my little wooden James, the first train Christopher ever bought me, on our outing to the train museum, and he will always be very special to me.

After the train store, our friend took us to a French place he knew well. It had a lovely atmosphere and the food was amazing (in particular, the cheese plate we started with) but service was rather poor. They were having a party, and it slowed things down to the point that we didn’t get our cheese plate until the 35 minute mark, maybe longer? And our main meal 15 minutes after that or so. We were so desperately hungry by then.

I forget what I ate… some sort of crépe. It was good and that’s all that matters.

After this, we went to the house to hang out a little. Christopher napped while we checked the needed ingredients for dinner. Then we woke him up and dragged him out with us to shop for what we were missing.

I helped my best with dinner, while Christopher and our friend took care of the meat –the hard part– and some other stuff. I prepared rice (poorly, Christopher had to save it) and made pretty good chimichurri.

The picaña was amazing:

Here it is served with the rice and beans:

And a final photo of it by itself (no Heidi) for good measure. It was so good, I can’t post just one!

I am WAY too full. But, my heart is also full. I feel so loved and looked after, and so happy. In a little bit I’m gonna be watching anime with Christopher while we cuddle, and then I’ll be falling asleep with these warm happy feelings. Tomorrow I’ll wake up full of energy and start the day with my walk… then the lawn… then some art. It’s a good life lately.

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, Outfit Of The Day, Trains

Happy Thursday! 🐦🌞

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Today I was up by 6:00am. It felt great and I think I’ll do it again tomorrow! I mowed the lawn, showered, and changed into the outfit I prepared for today:

Then I went to Target, where I got new sheets for the guest bed since Christopher has been complaining about them. I also got a couple of pairs of tights and a skirt.

Once I got home I worked on chores, gift art, and commissions. I also exercised even more and watched my food intake pretty well today so there’s that. I’m trying to finish my allotted amount of water, too.

These I got yesterday at the dollar store, but forgot to post them:

  • Choo choo, mofo

Tonight is date night so we’re going to play with our “big kid” trains. Well, “big kid” compared to the above. 😁

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains

Mwako’s ’21 Visit 🦁 Day One

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My dear friend Mwako arrived today! He’s visiting for a few days. The last time was a couple of years ago. Normally, unless something happens, I see Mwako once a year, either at a convention or when he visits here or sometimes both at once. But with Covid, it’s been a while.

It’s always a lot of fun when Mwako comes but for this visit in particular, I’ve got a lot of kiddy activities planned for us to do together. I’m really looking forward to that.

I was very busy all morning –chores and commissions– but here is the outfit I picked for today:

After I finished my chores, Mwako and I went grocery shopping. I hadn’t been to Walmart in a while. I saw a really cool dinosaur in the toy area which I may have to get my hands on later… 👉👈

When Christopher got home, the three of us played with our trains and watched Thomas The Tank Engine. That was a lot of fun.

At some point I left them and went to make dinner. I made teriyaki chicken rice bowls with avocado on the side. I tried to make Mwako’s area as cute as possible.

Tomorrow we will start off on our adventures. I’m sure I’ll have tons of photos to post, so look forward to that!

Date Night, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, Trains

Train Time 🚂

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Here, have a train photo dump! After a month of playing, this is our setup before being dismantled. I’m sure we will make another in the future, but for now we need the space. This takes a LOT of room. 😅

Nothing else to add, really… just wanted to share the photos. Oh yeah, and it turns out our three new battery powered engines (Percy, Diesel and Thomas) are actually not compatible with other brands of track. So I’m trying to decide whether to modify or sell them. 🤔

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Dinos, Other Books, Trains

The Weekend’s Treasures ✨🦕🚂

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Good morning everyone! I’m still doing lots of things… even more laundry, still unpacking, very busy… I did say I would make an additional post to share my new treasures and souvenirs, so here we go! In no particular order…

These are the Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway goodies we snagged. Three battery operated engines! Diesel, Percy and Thomas. Very happy with these finds!

Then, as you can see, we got a few “destinations”. A water tower, a search light, a quarry mine tunnel and a winter fuel station!

The store had a lovely friendly attendant who surprised me with a cute little doodle of Thomas when we went to the register to pay! 🥰

Here are some goodies from The Sound Exchange in Tampa Bay. We found a brand new record of the music from Tales From The Crypt (which we are currently binging!) a Laserdisc featuring How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Horton Hears a Who, and another of the Dead Poets Society.

Something else they had at the Sound Exchange was old books and magazines. I decided to take this one, from 1966, partly because it had some pages about dinosaurs.