Tag Archives: Overalls

Week 25 Summary: Goodbye, CTS ๐Ÿ˜ข

WARNING: Short little video at the end of the Saturday summary, which shows a tiny, tiny snake that really looks just like an earthworm! But might still give some the heebie-jeebies.

Well, it is finally over. No more Christmas Tree Shop. I will miss it, sincerely… but now I am free to finish the last three commissions, to work on scrapbooking pages, to read, to game! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ To binge Prehistoric Planet and The Mandalorian, and to finish 3,000 Leagues In Search Of Mother. ๐Ÿค“ For a while, free to kinda do anything –I won’t seek another job until after my Alaska and Orlando vacations. ๐Ÿšข๐ŸŽˆ

But for the rest of this week, I worked a lot, determined to give my last week at CTS my all. โœŒ I must have cried like three times, twice on the last day. I wondered why at the time… I’ve only been there three months.

It’s true that I grew very fond of the team, above all, and the work was pleasant. But I think that I may still be reeling from the recent drastic actions to altogether remove myself from my online home and community of almost twelve years. ๐Ÿ˜” CTS closing is a small ending in my life, but that other, far more significant ending is still in the background of my mind and my heart. Perhaps my brain connected the grief of both.

Anyhow, let me tell you all about this week. Hopefully, you’ll find it interesting!

Thank you in advance to anyone who comments on this post! Though it may take me a little while to reply, your comments mean so much to me! ๐Ÿ’˜โœจ๐Ÿ’•

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Monday I worked on commissions and housework for most of the day. I also played a little WoW. I finished the last official commission for Snow. Just three to go!

I’ve still been going back and forth in my mind regarding Instagram. I know it’s pointless to have it and yet do not feel quite ready to delete it. Maybe once I adjust to being without FA. I found myself trying to browse the site still (FurAffinity, I mean) so I blocked it on Cold Turkey Blocker.

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

This day started off badly. I overslept. Barely made it to work on time, and was cranky and tired. When I got to work, the discount was even lower:

This meant people behaved even worse. They always do when the price goes down, for some reason. The store was even more condensed and empty…

There’s not much of a store left at this point, really.

Lunch was the usual salad, but I had a Petit Pot for dessert, which felt special.

On this day I finally finished most of my leftover purchases. Here’s a cute rat card I got for scrapbooking:

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Last workday before my day off –at least it was a short one! After I got back, I showered, changed into my deer kigurumi, and had Kid Cuisine for lunch. Can’t beat that!

I’d run out of coffee the day prior, so I had a caffeine-withdrawal headache until the late afternoon when Amazon delivered it. ๐Ÿ˜– I coped by napping until it arrived.

We had pizza for dinner and in general, it was a nice relaxing evening. I went to bed excited about my day-off plans.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

This was a special, and very wonderful day. I recently got paid. While my prior paycheck went entirely to my mom’s fund, I had different plans for this one. Since I do not intend to work again until September, I needed to make sure all of my bills are covered until then. I paid the ones I could pre-pay and set money aside for all the others from now through December.

I also bought a couple of gifts, and set aside spending money for the cruise and for the Orlando trip. Finally, I had a “me” day, just a day in which I allowed myself to dress cute, go out, have breakfast, enjoy my own company, and spend a little money on myself without regrets or guilt. Ok, maybe just a little guilt. ๐Ÿ˜…

I took a selfie before heading out; I hadn’t done this in a while.

My first stop was Target, where I found (and bought) this amazing Smurf and Snail hoodie!

I have been wanting to change my pillowcases for a long time but never saw any I liked enough. But this time I found two!

They are a bit wrinkled, but here are my favorite sides. I threw them in the wash which should smooth the wrinkles out.

I also found Bluey bowls to match my plates, cutlery, placemat and cup!

This is something that I didn’t buy, but seeing it filled me with nostalgia:

When I was very little, this is what TMNT toys used to look like. I never really liked them; they looked angry and… veiny? Lol. I remember being upset because I liked the cartoon and wished they looked friendly like they did in the show.

A little boy in my neighborhood had some of these toys, and seeing it now I very vividly remember holding it in my hand, moving its limbs, and just how it felt against my skin; its weight, all of its sharp edges, the shell, etc. So it was nice seeing it again, and remember.

I took a photo of some bright, weedy grass because it had many different shades of yellow and green, and was so pretty. Wildflowers were popping out of it here and there.

Then I made it to the mall! I passed by the quirky dino rider thingies. This time I took photos of different ones. One looked kinda like an axolotl but also somewhat like Toothless… only pink. My favorite was the parasaurolophus, hands down!

Then I went to “Cutie”, a store that is very fun to browse but I almost never buy anything there. They sell toys that were sold on close-out at other stores in the mall, only super overpriced, and a LOT of Aliexpress junk as well as fake Sanrio stuff sold for the price of the real thing. With that said, it’s a super cool store to just have fun in, and they have this giant raptor statue!

This guy looked so friendly:

I took a photo of this particular toy because it looks so much like the sort of weird, made-in-China hodgepodge I would get at markets when I was a little girl. Just look it over carefully and keep reading; it gets consistently more hilarious.

Finally, it was time to go to Build-A-Bear! This guy was greeting (er… guarding?) the entrance. I get that he’s supposed to be waving, but he also kinda looks like he’s gonna deck you one…

I really scored with my BAB finds this time! Put together three whole outfits:

Freckles was the main reason I went to Build-A-Bear. He needed clothes, and now he has a proper outfit! Although I think he needs a hat, still:

He doesn’t look very happy, but that’s okay. Freckles is hard to please. Hard, get it. Because he has a wooden face.

Moving on…

Cool dress at Hot Topic!

Loungefly backpacks are a work of art. So unaffordable though… I only own one (and a tiny bag). It’s rare I even take photos of them but I love this one:

Here’s a decoration at a Toys “R” Us display:

Looks like a Christmas decoration that got left behind, but it’s still cute.

My dream Cranky keeps taunting me everywhere I go… ๐Ÿ˜ž I want him so badly. There are a bunch of Cranky models, I only want the one that comes in this very specific box. It is the “Brendham Docks” model by Fisher-Price and has a woodgrain band to the right of the box. This one, specifically.

Unfortunately, he’s really expensive and I can never bring myself to blow an entire special day’s budget on him. I’ve had him on my wishlist for so long now, updating it as different versions of him come out. He never goes on sale, at least not this new version. Someday…!

See, the problem with other Crankys is that either they aren’t compatible with regular track, or their faces are wrong. Cranky HAS to look cranky. It’s Cranky after all! And this line has made the best facial expressions by far.

Anyway, here are a couple of cute plushies I saw:

One of my favorite finds of this outing was this Child’s Play shirt and lounge pants. They were sold separately, I just really loved the pants so I looked for a shirt that would be a good set:

I think it’s a pretty perfect match!

In the afternoon, I repotted my Norfolk Island pine. It’s in a massive pot now. Here’s hoping it shoots up nice and strong!

I also managed to make time to install my new lights: purple lights over the bookcases, shamrock lights in the bed, and heart lights by the window:

I was SO delighted with my Chucky loungewear!!

Then it was time for wine and WoW. I kinda wasted my time since I tried a couple of dungeons but it is obvious I cannot solo them yet. Oh well.

An otherwise happy and relaxing evening for all of us took a bit of a downturn as Kotoko, who hadn’t been quite right since the morning, refused to eat and acted more and more unlike herself, clearly uncomfortable and not purring at all the way she usually does. We are hoping it’s a blip… she’s been doing so well. But we also know that she could go at any point, given her condition.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

In the morning, Kotoko came to look out the window which meant climbing from the floor onto my lap and then the table. I also heard her open her food bowl but I’m unsure if she ate very much. She wasn’t interested in fresh wet food, but she did take some treats from me and actually purr while eating them.

Throughout the week, my relief at deleting FA has only increased. I did, however, notice that not every old friend wants to stay in touch with me, even though I haven’t had anyone explicitly come out and say it, in a couple of cases it was pretty obvious. I’m not gonna lie, it does sting a little, but the reasons are precisely the same reasons why I am leaving the community as a whole. There is a certain attitude towards certain things that I personally find toxic and preposterous, and this puts me at odds with a lot of people.

But it is each person’s prerogative to stay in touch or not. They probably feel the same way about me. On the one hand, it reinforces my decision: I read the room accurately when I chose to leave. On the other hand, it feels sucky to be right.

I know this is pretty rambly, so I will quote what someone else said elsewhere: come the day that FA’s grace period regarding their updated AUP ends, a lot of people are in for a painful wake-up call. This includes many people that consider their work to be “totally SFW and non-k!nk”.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t exactly want to see people upset. But I’m not gonna shed tears when they, too, begin getting takedowns and bans. We warned them, after all. ยฏ\_(ใƒ„)_/ยฏ

Here’s a Random Raikes bunny I ordered. Couldn’t resist his “I’m trippin’ balls” face. I’ll name him Romaine.

That’s the eBay photo; I’ll show him off again once I’ve dressed him in a proper outfit and all that.

The workday was good. Kotoko appeared to be feeling a little better when I got home. I gave her more meds, had lunch, and then, a snack:

Then it was time for housework… lots and lots of housework. When I was done, I sat down to work on art until bedtime, with a break for dinner.

I switched my pillowcases with the new clean ones. They’re still a bit wrinkly, but I love them! It’s only two but I do love both sides of the Jurassic World one:

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

For most intents and purposes, this was the last day at CTS. We told all customers today was the last day, and it was the last day on which I would see several coworkers.

This photo is of how the store looked when I came in. If you compare it with a photo taken just about four hours later, the difference is quite stark.

I got this unexpected message when I logged in to my register…

A silly joke by a customer:

For lunch I had an egg salad sandwich and one of the jelly donut holes I found in the break room.

I shared it with Bargain:

Bargain and I partook in some “strong apple juice”. It’s just something that happened throughout the day on the down-low, though “strong apple juice” wasn’t everyone’s comfort drink. We didn’t go nuts of course, but it was a nice little thrill on this last difficult day…

Here’s a pupper photoset. This guy was a bit shy, which you can tell in the photos, but also friendly, and did little jumps at me and licked my hands all over. He wanted to be friends, but was also somewhat reserved. His name was Loki.

I took a few selfies with some of my favorite coworkers (mind you this is not all of them):

In the first photo is Sandra, whom I originally spoke to the day on the day I first applied to work at CTS. She was the first one I ever met. Sandra is no-nonsense but very kind and very hardworking; you can tell she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, yet she still was very patient with me all the time that I was there.

In the second photo is Carolina, or just Caro. She is a very sweet person with a warm and caring demeanor, who has an incredibly contagious and loud laugh, which you could hear from the other end of the store, even over loud music. Invariably it would cause customers I’d be ringing up at the register to raise amused eyebrows and to comment that “it sounds like someone is having fun over there”. Hearing her laugh was always a highlight, and on the first few days after we found out about the store closing, it would make me tear up thinking I’d no longer get to hear it every day.

In the last photo is Lucy. Lucy is kind of the “star manager” of the store, the one customers always ask for, and whom everyone else (other employees as well as other managers) invariably speak highly of. She trained me, and thanks to her, I gained a lot of self-confidence in areas that ended up bettering my life outside of work. I learned a lot from her and I really will miss her terribly.

There are other people I like a lot with whom I didn’t get to take photos (yet)… I either didn’t have a chance or felt too shy to ask. Some I would have a chance later in the week –my boss, Lazaro, being one of them. He is one of the best bosses I ever had, with a very strong but caring, honest and hardworking personality. I always really wanted to please him, but I also annoyed him a lot. ๐Ÿ˜…

Here’s the other photo I was talking about. It’s less than four hours later, yet you can see how much emptier the store appears. You can see Caro and Sandra posing for me in the middle (this photo, like the other one, was taken from the upstairs office):

In the last few days at the store, even this TV gave up…

A photo from my register when it was close to my time to leave, around 6:30 pm. Hardly anything left by this point.

Christopher came into the store a few minutes before 7:00 pm and chit-chatted with my coworkers as I said my goodbyes to those I wouldn’t see again. I was really glad about this, so he could meet the people I’d come to care a lot about, if only for a little while.

I took a photo of this punch-out, because even though I’d punch in and out on Sunday, this day felt really momentous and I didn’t want to risk my Sunday schedule perhaps being changed or canceled and then I didn’t take one last photo. After all, this was still the “last” day (technically) so this punch-out felt more significant.

Christopher took me to The Pub for dinner:

Our partner was with our other friends on this afternoon, discussing arrangements for their wedding, and going out and having some fun with them, so Christopher and I had a rare night out by ourselves. ๐Ÿฅฐ It felt special. We also walked around Target a little just for fun, holding hands, and he showed me that he’d bought me these ugly but adorable Raikes beavers from eBay that I really wanted. He’s been spoiling me a LOT lately.

Actually, both he and our partner have been spoiling me so much. Since March and until now, I have been extremely difficult to be around as I try to adjust to schedule changes that simply do not work for me and my delicate-ass psyche. At times I even inferred extremely hyperbolic stuff like basically not wanting to be alive (and at the time, it felt like I meant it) because I was basically in an extended mental breakdown.

To be honest, I hardly know how they dealt with it. Particularly as it’s reaching the end, I realize that the last few months were, for them, a constant battle to accommodate to my desires, whether by ordering what I wanted to eat, giving me attention/petting me when I demanded it and then leaving me alone when I wanted that instead, taking me out to eat, buying me stuff to cheer me up, giving me rides to and from work, listening to SO much bitching and crying, being on the brunt of random explosive fits of rage, and more.

I know most of all for them, my next job *has* to be something I can handle better, without falling apart. I cannot do this to them again and I am lucky that it didn’t damage two of the most important relationships in my life. Here’s hoping I’ve learned a thing or two and can do better next time.

WARNING REMINDER: Short video below which shows the tiniest snake!

In the evening Christopher and I found a tiny wee earthworm-like snake in the movie room. Well, Rosie did. It turned out to be a Brahminy Blindsnake, also known as a Flowerpot Snake. They are non-native, but very common to Florida, and completely harmless.

Some fun facts I learned:

“During the hot summer months in Florida, we receive numerous reports from people finding small, shiny black, thread-like snakes on the floors inside their houses, especially the bathrooms.”

“Blindsnakes eat termites and the eggs and pupae of ants. Therefore, if you are seeing several of these snakes inside, it is possible that you have ants or termites living in or near your house as well.”

From FloridaMuseum.ufl.edu

Indeed, we have plenty of ants and termites. Our tenting should occur within the month. We placed the little lady safely outside.

Another fun fact about these snakes is that all are female, and a genetic clone of their mothers.

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

The week comes to an end… and so does my time at CTS. I started this day doing all the chores I could. I wanted to come home to relax and draw when the workday was done. After doing all I could, I went to work. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of what we would be doing, but when I got there at noon, the store was still serving customers:

I said hello and went upstairs to put my lunch away. I noticed no one was hiding the comfort drinks anymore…

We no longer had the official store music going on, everyone was playing whatever they wanted, sitting on the desks at the registers, no one cared much about anything, but we were still unfailingly serviceable to any customer that came in.

Customers were very few. After all, there was very little left at the store…

While we waited for stuff to sell and some of my coworkers did some cleaning here and there, I took another picture and a bit of video of the empty store:

It was super eerie and echoey (though I removed the sound, as it was loud and annoying):

Ultimately, while we had a few customers buy something here and there, a single couple would buy all that was left, to resell it. They came with a cute doggy friend:

And with that, we were done. Closed forever. All the stores across the country that are also closing were supposed to close today. We managed to be the first store to do so. My coworkers then began to take all the signs down. They shut the doors. And well, I finally kind of lost it a little, and did some proper “ugly crying”.

But then, food arrived! For lunch, we all pitched in for pizza (Christopher pitched in for my part). Normally I take my photos of Bargain on the down-low, but today I really didn’t care:

We had a very pleasant meal all of us together. Afterwards, I took some more pics as we disassembled stuff…

That last pic is where the carts used to be stored.

Then we went upstairs to continue the clean-up and I got to take a selfie with another favorite coworker of mine, Letti:

Letti bought a bunch of these cute St. Patrick’s Day decorations and gave one to each of us. She wrote a very sweet note and her contact info on the back of mine. Letti and I both grew on each other while I worked there, even though we both have strong personalities. I’m really happy that I met her.

The calendar from the upstairs office…

Before I left, we all took a picture together. Well, some people left before this could be arranged, but as it turned out, I still managed to get all of my most favorite people in there –at least, the ones that worked today, and that I worked with the most. There are definitely people I still wish had been in the photo, though:

We actually got two really good shots. They are different, so I wanted to share them both –and, appropriately, this is my last CTS-related photo ever:

I am so, so glad I got to work here. In spite of me not dealing well with the closer-to-full-time hours near the end, it’s still a really happy memory that I won’t forget. I hope you enjoyed my sharing of the experience with you on the blog.

Once we were home, Christopher asked me to go check the closet. I did, and he’d hidden a surprise for me there!

He’d bought it secretly after dropping me off! I was really touched, it was such a sweet and unexpected gesture. ๐Ÿฅฐ

I did lots of chores, and then sat down to dinner:

At some point in the evening, I found that Rosie had gotten cozy with Chucky. I’m not sure that’s such a great idea. He doesn’t have the best track record with cats.

At the very end, people called dibs on store stuff that was being thrown away or not being sent back. The Ty display would be trashed, so I removed this plastic heart logo from it, as a memento, and later stuck it to my bed:

And that is it for this week! Next week I hope to finish all the due commissions. Not sure if I’ll make it –they are all complicated pieces. But once I do, then I am actually going to resume my for-fun endeavors and my book progress.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! As a reminder, if you haven’t yet –you’re welcome to join my Telegram chat. I am quite active there! Just read the rules before participating. See ya there!

Just A Bit Left Of March ๐ŸŒทโœจ

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.

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

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.

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

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 ๐Ÿ˜

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.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

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. ๐Ÿ˜ž 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!

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

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.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

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:

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

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!

Visiting Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park

Today was our sorta-weekly Adventure Day! We went to Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. I liked this park a lot more than I expected from the photos I saw online. And it was really empty, which was lovely and peaceful.

Parks generally make me feel very small, so I tend to wear my kiddy outfits when I go. I took my froggy backpack and wore one of my favorite shortalls, and an ODU print that I like a lot.

I brought one of my stuffies today too, Gumdrop. I managed to make him a bandana before we left the house. Sometime next week I’ll get him some pins for it so it’s not so plain.

We got Starbucks on the way, since it was quite a long ride to the sandwich place where we would have lunch in Downtown Miami. And I had one of my cute snack holders with strawberry and cream gummies that I bought at The Fresh Market.

I had a breakfast sandwich for lunch. It had chorizo and cilantro and lots of cheese. I couldn’t finish it, but it was great!

I was actually a bit upset when I realized where we’d be having lunch. The last time I ate at this place was some three years ago, during one of the worst times of my life, and the experience of that entire day, and the meal itself, was a really bad memory. I felt like I just did not want to be again at a place where I had been so deeply unhappy and trying not to cry through my meal back on that awful day.

But in the end, I’m glad we did eat here, because now the bad memory is pushed away by a much happier one, and I’m looking forward to eating there again. It’s a nice place other than the music being super loud all the time.

๐ŸŒณ At The Park ๐ŸŒณ

Cars couldn’t go into this part at all. You just parked in the little available area at the entrance. There was a place to pay for entrance, you just left the money there, as there was no one to monitor who came or went.

There were a couple of bodies of water which were very pretty and calm.

Gumdrop had fun exploring some rock formations. He even did some cave exploring!

Just some random pretty pictures…

CW: SPIDER

We didn’t see much wildlife, other than lots of tiny lizards, a random snake, some orb weavers, a beautiful big butterfly, and a tree snail. Oh, and a wild chicken. I guess we did see some stuff. Here’s one of the spiders:

I was out of my mind excited to finally see a Florida tree snail in the wild!

Oh and wasps. WASPS EVERYWHERE. I’d never seen so many in one single park. It was a little scary. I spotted three nests I believe.

I tended to walk a bit ahead or behind, just taking pictures of things. Christopher had my umbrella to shield himself from the sun, and it made things extra colorful.

All the other random photos of Gumdrop enjoying nature:

This is a trail that we really wanted to explore. But it was closed due to debris, so we just stared from a distance… ๐Ÿ˜ž

I will now take a brief intermission to show you Tomoyo’s attempt to contribute while I work on this post:

Moving on…

On the other side of the park there was a stone wall that looked like something out of a fairy tale. Like it would lead you to some secret garden. In the end I only took this couple of pictures.

It was very cool looking! After a couple of hours we headed home, passing first by Wawa for snacks and drinks. Then it was a lovely evening at home, just relaxing after our fun day out. I can’t wait for next time. I’ll never get tired of park outings!

New Skirtalls!! ๐Ÿ‘€โœจ๐ŸŒˆ And A Thank-You

I got suddenly taken to the mall by Christopher and he bought me new skirtalls?! What?! ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ

Really wasnโ€™t expecting today to go in this direction, Iโ€™m losing my s**t from utter delight!

That aside –I completed all the YCHs today! Over the past 30 days I have done 42 commissions/gift art, some fairly complex and with multiple characters. I’m not counting multiple book illustrations in that! Holy crap. Iโ€™ve never been so happy or confident in my artistic abilities before. Thank you for supporting me on my journey!

โœจ I hope I can continue to make you smile! โœจ

Today’s Odds and Ends ๐ŸŒˆ

Hi everyone! ๐Ÿ‘‹ Iโ€™m still working hard on final LAN party prep. Today I went to the craft store and to do some last minute grocery shopping. I wore one of my most outlandishly kiddiest outfits:

I also got a good walk in, so that was nice. ๐Ÿ˜Š

Hereโ€™s some video and such of Tomoyo being her good old destructive little self:

She seemed satisfied when she was done.

Some postcards I ordered for scrapbooking arrived yesterday!

The packaging was so delightful that I honestly feel tempted to get back into Postcrossing. I was big into it a long time ago!

The store I bought this from, as you can see, is geared towards Postcrossers. So yeah. Might do that again.

They even included a tiny envelope with bonus stamps! ๐Ÿ“ฎ

I canโ€™t get enough of collecting more scrapbooking stuffโ€ฆ ๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐Ÿ‘ˆ๐Ÿ’ง So, uuuh, hereโ€™s some more I guessโ€ฆ

I also made a new necklace today with some stuff I got at the craft store. Iโ€™m really happy with how it turned out!

Not much else to say because Iโ€™m so busyโ€ฆ Iโ€™m sure Iโ€™ll have a lot to post about next week, though!

An Outing And A Little Bit Of Fun ๐ŸŒˆ๐ŸŒž

Yesterday afternoon, before our date night, Christopher drove me around for a little bit so I could take care of some errands. I wore my new dino shirt for the first time. I love it!

My errands were all fun ones. I went to JoAnn where I was both delighted and a bit eye-rolly at all the Pride stuff. Michaels, Target, JoAnn, have all embraced this. Unsurprisingly, Hobby Lobby has not. You can find some very obviously pride rainbow ribbon, but I think they just consider that “rainbow” and that’s it. However, particularly Target and JoAnn, carry items with the newer, updated Pride flag, with the Trans and Ace flags, and I know, I KNOW it’s all capitalist pandering, but at the end of the day it still makes me happy.

So now I have another pair of Pan socks, a more random rainbow hearts pair of socks, and that’s actually all I bought in that regard though I enjoyed seeing everything else they carried.

I bought their last two bags of Alpha beads because I’m determined to make necklaces for all my toys and stuffies that do not have them before this week is over. The paw and candy beads I’ll probably use for stuff for myself… the bells are for my stuffies too.

After JoAnn we went to Petsmart together, where I bought several toys for the cats (well, really, it’s for Tomoyo, whom I’m trying to shower with love and attention.) Then we went to Kimchi Mart and I got a whole bunch of yummy goodies.

In the evening we had a leisurely dinner, and then watched The Blair Witch Project, which I had never seen. It was pretty damn good. It was a wonderful night together, just the two of us. Watching horror movies with Christopher is one of my most favorite things.

Here is what I made for myself with my new beads today (Friday), having finally had a chance for some “me” time. A bracelet and a new necklace:

I also finally made necklaces for all my toys as planned. No one is unnamed. It’s a small indulgent activity but it really fills me with happiness.

Later in the day, my Amazon package with the new drawer-sorting things arrived. I forget what you call them, but my socks and underwear are nicely sorted now:

I can’t really say why, but this sort of thing is very relaxing for me, it’s kinda like… defragmenting my brain. Remember when defragging your hard drive was a thing you had to do? ๐Ÿ˜ It feels like that. I’m also in the process of sorting all my necklaces and bracelets. โœจ

That’s it for this post… hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lawyer Appointment With Mom ๐Ÿ’•

Hello, everyone, how are you? Today my mom and I had an appointment with our immigration lawyer. It went very well. We are working on her case now which looks to be quite easy (hopefully –apparently.)

I’ve been enjoying dressing “fun” again, this was my outfit for today:

I’m really over the moon about this new bag that I got on Teepublic, it goes with a lot of my outfits:

After the lawyer we had a little late lunch. I can’t wait to have my mom here so on some days we can take a leisurely walk to a cafe like this one and have brunch together, and with all she’s done for me, to always be the one treating her. I want to see her smile more, and more easily, and be less tired.

We parted ways at Don Pan. She took a car home, while I walked the two miles to my home:

I got a whole bunch of things at Dollar Tree for the citizenship party on the way. It was hot outside but bearable since I walked in the shade. I happened upon a feisty crow who was probably guarding their nest:

When I got home my friend Al (once my boss, who along with his wife officiated our wedding) was already there. He’s been staying at our house often due to work. Christopher was home early since he’d been to take his second Covid shot, and feeling the first side effects.

After this I just worked on art all day. It was a good day. ๐Ÿ˜Š

Happy Monday, Friends! โค๏ธ๐Ÿงธ

Hello, everyone! I hope you had a happy day. Mine was alright. I caught up on the warm-ups, read some manga, took care of the snails, was able to track my food and such today (which I’ve been struggling to get back on the wagon with) and went on a walk. I hadn’t tried to dress cute at home for a while, but today I did:

We had milanesas for dinner. My mom prepped them and gave them to me frozen, so I just had to fry them. They were great, but I think we’ve had enough milanesas for a while. I need to cook something I haven’t made in a bit.

I’m pretty excited because Christopher bought me an exercise bike. It’s not super fancy but it ought to do the trick now that the really intense heat and rainy season begins. It’ll be here on Sunday.

The deal is that I have to use it three times a week for a whole year or I have to return it/sell it/donate it. But I already exercise almost every day so, I think I can do it. ๐Ÿ˜

In other news, in less than two hours we will have been married a whole five years. We already celebrated it so it really feels like a normal day which I do not mind. It was a wonderful early celebration. I really feel like the day already passed, so it’s a little odd, almost. ๐Ÿค”

Anyway not much else to say… I have to get ready for bed. I am tired and still so busy. It’ll be a busy week. I hope everyone reading this has a great night!

Hi Hi, Time For An Update! ๐ŸŒˆโœจ

Hello, everyone! I havenโ€™t been terrible active on the blog (art aside) because Iโ€™ve just been working tons. I’m going to try to catch up on a few things so this post will be all over the place.

This is unrelated to everything else I’ll discuss on this post, so here is a Little outfit I wore the other day:

I have a few new skirtalls coming, so I’m pretty excited to create new outfits with these:

I finally paid off my PayPal Credit account and closed it (I may already have mentioned that) and a few days ago my last Amazon Card payment cleared so that account is zeroed again –well, until next Christmas. It was a big one, over $400, so I am very pleased.

I also set a little money aside and redecorated the kitchen with it:

This may not look like much, but in seven years I never really did put work into the kitchen, so it was important to me. The most significant things are the new trash can (which is motion activated) and the Instant Pot.

In addition to that, Iโ€™ve made good strides on my next goal of paying an old debt. Itโ€™s the last thing I have to pay before I can begin the fund to move my mom in with us. I wanted something to encourage me, so I put this neat lightbox on the studio wall:

Itโ€™s still a big number (but less as of writing this post, actually $3,950) but I paid a big chunk in just over a few days, so my expectation is that as long as I make this my primary goal, I might be done by June. And then I can begin saving the $10,000 I need to move my mom with us (not counting the money I’ll have to save to renovate the room for her, but I expect that to be under $1,000.)

So, about all that. Recently, Iโ€™ve been contemplating the entirety of last year, how much closer Iโ€™ve grown to my mom during our long Zoom calls, which regularly lead us into conversations deeper than weโ€™d have when we were living together. How Iโ€™ve changed, and how sheโ€™s come to accept those changes in me. And other things… like how tired she looks โ€”more and more every day. How even on her days off, she gets constant stressful calls even during the couple of hours we set aside to talk. Itโ€™s been so long since my mom had free time for any fun. I donโ€™t even remember when it last happened, Christmas aside.

Then thereโ€™s the pandemic, the utter helplessness Iโ€™ve felt as she continues to manage a gas station in this situation at her age… her landlord continually bringing people to see the apartment which he has been trying to sell for years (so we never know when heโ€™s kicking her out once each contract ends. Every yearly contract could be the last he gives her, and every time he raises her rent.)

But I think it was having her for Christmas, just her and I, that really cemented it for me. It was the first such Christmas in many years, and I realized just how much my assumed role has changed. How I want to cook for her and care for her, keep her safe, comfortable and happy. I enjoy my life so much, literally every day of my life is a dream, and were it not for all she sacrificed so we could be here, Christopher and I never would have met.

There’s something that has been eating at me more and more. I think Grandpa’s recent passing reinforced it too. When my mom and I left Argentina, we always hoped that if only we were patient, and worked hard, someday we would see my Grandma again. Actually, the goal was for her to move with us. But time passed without any possibility of this happening, let alone seeing her at all. Same with my dad. Patience, patience. The day would surely come.

But it didn’t. My Grandma died of leukemia in her 70s. My dad died of emphysema in his early 80s. I was 18 years old when I last got to see them.

And now my mom is in her late 60s. In four years, she will be 70 years old. How much time do I have with her? Hopefully, a good number of years still –but how much time I am okay losing until I can enjoy days with her while she still has her health?

I want to have breakfast in the morning with her, and to have dinner the three of us in the evening, and maybe play games the three of us together once her brain remembers how to do something other than work and stress 24/7. I want to go on walks together and have mate in the afternoons.

But most of all, more than anything in the world, I want her to wake up and not dread the day. I want her to think โ€œI have nothing to do today. Nothing to clean. Nothing to cook. No stressful, dangerous job to go to.โ€ I donโ€™t think my mom has ever felt that since she was little. I want her to enjoy her life. And I want to learn to drive so I can take her places. I want to take her to dinner once in a while, something that used to be a once-a-year luxury for us… I want to binge watch tv shows with her, or go to a movie and not have her fall asleep halfway because her body and mind are so utterly and constantly exhausted.

I want her to be able to pick the colors for her room, to furnish it with new furniture that she actually likes and isnโ€™t used or the cheapest thing she could afford.

And I know I may not always manage it with my art, and taking some “real” work may be necessary, but all that I can manage to do with the money my artwork brings is an extra source of pride. Of course I couldnโ€™t do that without Christopher. He takes care of me after all. But if I can, in turn, use my art to take care of her and of my business expenses, Iโ€™ll feel like I am succeeding.

I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I have a great desire to be reliable, even if it takes me time and effort to become someone that can be described as such. Because of this, cooking is becoming more important to me, as well, and I’m trying really hard to learn. Paying my debts feels important. Looking after our house and after my husband, properly, feels even more important than before. Asking for help less and less becomes more important too.

I want them both to feel proud of me, to feel lucky to have me as a wife and daughter, rather than a โ€œwell, it could be worse.โ€ But above all I want to believe that they are โ€”lucky, that isโ€” as I am to have them. So, I’m trying as hard as I can.

I know, deep inside, that part of what planted the seed for this was seeing my own reprehensible behavior and lack of responsibility to others reflected in someone else. In being disgusted by seeing that reflection, I also became angry with myself. It’s all well and good to look down on someone for being irresponsible and self-centered, but incredibly hypocritical when you are better than that only by some small measure. I knew I didn’t want to be that way, not anymore and not ever again.

So, now, my debt is my priority. And I want the people who love me and look after me to be my priority, rather than always my own self-centered ass. I want to be a source of comfort, not worry.

Anyway, are you all getting ready for Valentine’s Day? I’m working on a small surprise for Christopher but it’s terribly hard and I truly do not know if it will be ruined before I am done. For all the effort put into it, it looks more than a little clumsy (so far.) I’m hoping it will come together once it’s done. I’m working a little bit on it every day, because it’s really tiring.

That aside, believe it or not I’ve been writing (I’d say the next chapter of Meganeea is 80% done, illustrations included, and the chapter after that has the same level of progress in both aspects.) And somehow, in between hours and hours of illustration work, I’ve managed to sneak in a little gaming and reading. But I’ll save that for future posts. It may take a while… this blog is hugely important to me and that will not change. I’m just trying to be as responsible as possible and get my work done.

I guess I’ll end this here, go do the laundry, and then draw some more before it’s time to make dinner. I hope things are going great with everyone!

Recap Of The Week ๐ŸŒž๐Ÿ๐ŸŒˆโœจ๐ŸŸ

Hello everyone! ๐Ÿ‘‹ Itโ€™s been a really nice few productive days! โ˜บ๏ธ First of all the other day I heard back from an old friend after reaching out. It was just so wonderful to know that he was okay, and that heโ€™s happy and doing well overall (aside from the occasional poor mental health that the current state of the country plus the pandemic has caused to so many of us.)

I ended up joining his server and itโ€™s quite fun to be in a place that is adjacent to my interests while also not being my usual group. It feels kinda fresh. ๐Ÿ˜Š

That day I also wore one of the newest ODU releases of my designs. ๐ŸŒˆ Iโ€™m quite fond of it:

Iโ€™ve gotten a ton of artwork done during the week. ๐Ÿ™Œ Got some cooking done. Grocery shopping done. Several baby snails have been born and overall my little clan is doing fine right now. ๐ŸŒ

Kotoko continually kept me company during the workweek. She napped near my feet and got petted a lot:

Today (well, technically yesterday โ€”Saturday) I couldnโ€™t take the stir-craziness anymore and went to Hobby Lobby. A couple of things caught my eye. There was a kit for LINE Friends bag charms. I LOVE Brown and Cony so much, but these are fairly obscure characters in the sense that you rarely see them in mainstream places outside of the internet. The kit itself was crappy but I was excited to have come across it.

I also saw a Spirit stepping stone. I took a photo for Nate to see whenever he looks at this post. ^_^

For dinner I wasnโ€™t very healthy but it was worth it. I made a big batch of homemade fries and had it with a little coke:

After dinner I finished shading all the shinies sketches so I might just finish all four tomorrow. ๐Ÿค”

Iโ€™m too sleepy to be able to write any more… guess Iโ€™ll proofread this tomorrow. Goodnight everyone. ๐Ÿ˜ด