Under Construction

All we have left to watch is Andor, but we have to wait for Spouse to get home before we can watch it. I am so obsessed with so many people but I think the clones, just in general, are my favorites. God I wish I had a Wolfpack series.

Anyway, I'm trying to wait on Andor before I update my muses, but while we wait for Spouse to get back we've been watching other random stuff of D+. I have, for the first time in my life, watched Over the Garden Wall. I had a great time with that one. I've also discovered my absolute favorite adaptation of Sherlock Holmes ever:

They're so cute. The stories are so cute. I love everything about it aaaaaaaaaa. Not me considering picking up Watson, too. Man he's just such a cutie. Everything here is such a delight!

In other news, we've finally gotten our cabinets done and our kitchen put back together:

The days are bleeding into each other lately. For the most part, that's what's been happening to me. I wake up, have my coffee, and then just wait until Sibling wakes up so I can be told what to do.

We've been watching a lot of Star Wars. At this point we have watched the Prequel Trilogy, the Original Trilogy, the Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian, and 3 seasons of The Clone Wars. And it has been a bit of an onslaught of content, only broken up by crochet and scrapbooking and planning our next Disney Trip.

Aside from that, I've been doing a ton of cooking, and this interrupts a good bit of the time we're meant to be watching movies, so I'm trying to watch more later than I usually go to bed to make up for that.

Despite the fact I haven't been online very much, I'm actually kind of tired. 😂

I've also been spending a lot of time on @mystical-strawberry-sheep , just waiting for something to happen. I know that's not a good way to handle it, but it's much easier to post a few memes and then just wait while I watch these series instead of trying to split my attention between those and a more active blog.

Though let me tell you the deep desire I have to jump back onto @museflocked ! I miss my old men already!

I just also miss my girl!

Today I was in the kitchen basically all day, lol. I made some things I've never attempted before and I had a great success all around!

First, I baked bread! :) My last attempt at using yeast went really really bad, but it actually worked this time and I made a beautifully lumpy little loaf of bread! Bread has always been the most intimidating thing in the world to me, so being able to do this has really brought me a tremendous confidence boost in the kitchen!

Then, I made these little snacks from my 1950's Mirro cookbook. They're called Scotch Kisses according to the recipe, and they're like little butterscotch candies that you roll in powdered sugar. They're soft and chewy and really delicious! And a soft butterscotch candy! From scratch! I was so proud they came out good. :)

As soon as I finished that I got right to work making supper for today, and I managed to use just stuff that we had tucked away from our first dinner of the week and whatever odds and ends were in our pantry and it just felt really nice to just look at what I had and whip something up without needing a recipe right in front of me. It makes me feel like I'm learning, you know? My grandmother would have been so proud of me, I know it.

And maybe it is also that I'm consuming so much media lately. I'm trying to watch stuff to inform me on some rp partners' muses, but also since we are considering a trip to Hollywood Studios, we have been trying to binge watch the Star Wars franchise. That with my work feels like maybe a lot of information all at once.

But by God, I cannot allow this to stop me forever because like. Idk how long this is gonna take.

I hope I get better soon and feel more writing energy. I am. So excited about all of my new partners and threads and ships. It's all been so fun since I got back from vacation and I want to keep that going.

On more exciting news, I got this pillow with Mickey and Minnie on it years ago and unstuffed it and cleaned it up, then forgot that I had it. Well, I started restuffing and sewing it back up recently, and literally like the day of or one day later, I found this awesome full sized Mickey blanket at the thrift store. It was just so cool to get these in a usable state at the same time!

I'm back from Vacation! Let me tell you about it!

We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort, which we had heard was a nice moderate resort but really boring. But frankly, I loved it! I thought the theming was really tasteful and I loved the pictures up in our room. I had a blast with this place and always felt like I was coming home to crash for the night. 😂

We did two days in Magic Kingdom, and honestly, we totally crushed it. We literally managed to ride and experience absolutely everything we set out to and then some. :) I think my favorite show was Enchanted Tiki Room and my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom was probably Pirates of the Caribbean. I still cannot get over the show scenes in that ride. I really loved Tomorrowland's visual aesthetic the most though, and I got to meet Chip and Dale in their Cosmic outfits!

Our third day was in Epcot and we were all so dog tired by the time we got there that we barely managed to make it around World Showcase. 😂 But I met a ton of characters and I got to ride Journey Into Imagination! I'm so glad I finally got to experience that ride so I can officially start obsessing over Dreamfinder and Figment, lol. I didn't ride as much in Epcot, but I loved Journey and Spaceship Earth, and I had a great time on Living with the Land after our dinner reservations. We went to Disney Springs on our checkout day, and then we had a long but peaceful ride home. :)

As soon as we got home I got right to work putting Dreamfinder on my muse roster, lol. I'm sad I got to miss out on him being in the parks, but I'm happy I can finally feel safe learning about and portraying him. :)

I'm trying to get my schedule back in line now, though that's difficult because Sibling is on their summer break. The saving grace is that they're working their PD right now, so they're still gone a lot during the day. It's been a struggle for my animals, too, who were all in boarding or being sat by someone that doesn't run on their usual schedules. Marbles keeps coming down in the middle of the day to get me to feed her. 😂 We're struggling a little, but we're slowly getting there.

Oh! Also! My new phone case came in while I was out, so now I have a little lamby case! :)

It's exactly my aesthetic and it makes me so happy. :) Little lamby for me~

So first of all, we are getting right down to the nitty gritty for our Disney trip, and our preparation and excitement for it is amping up considerably! It's admittedly keeping most of our attention as we get closer to the day. :)

I've done more artwork for my autograph book, and now I only have like 2 images left without ink and color. But I'm super proud of how these have been coming out!

I've also been busy helping Sibling get their band room clean for the end of the school year, and while it was super hard work, I did get to keep some of the kids' clothes that were left in the lost and found bin. 🤭 I only had to repair one and the rest were easy to clean.

Another very exciting thing is that we! Found this VCR at the thrift store! For $6!!! IT WORKS!!! I have never been quite so excited for a piece of tech before. I was even more excited about this thing than the next, which is...

New phone! I did lose some apps that I really cherished, but overall I'm really happy with it. I was carrying an S10 before now and while I desperately loved it it had started refusing to keep a charge. I couldn't quite charge it, either, because it wouldn't hold a charging cable all the way. The cable would just fall out of it. So, alas, I had to retire my S10 right before the trip.

On that note... Does anyone know a kaomoji app for Android that lets you paste and save kaomoji...? I can find plenty that will let you build kaomoji with pre-selected parts, but none of them seem to have a place where you can just input ones you find around on the Internet.

It's similar to books, too. When we were setting up our "favorite book" display, Sibling asked me what my favorite book was, to which I gave a shrug and said, "I dunno. I'm not sure I have one." And then they asked, "Well, what book has shaped you the most?" And I thought about it for a while and then shook my head and said, "I don't think any have ever shaped me..."

Sibling was really surprised because we all love to read in this house, but I just had never felt like anything I had ever read had made a significant impact on the person I am today. And the same can be said for most video games. TWEWY's message continues to impact and influence me to this day, and I feel like the more I grow the better I understand it. The same can be said for Kingdom Hearts. The story may be all over the place, but the core message of the connectedness of people and the impact our friendships have on our lives is something that had a big impact on me. I haven't had that experience with literally anything else I've played.

So what I have here is those two games and then games that changed the way I looked at games and shaped me as a gamer, which was much more doable. ×-×

Spyro was the first game of my life, and one that I played religiously for years. I still pick up the original title and play it. I loved those games. They are the ones that started my love for gaming to begin with. Pokemon Platinum, Animal Crossing Wild World, and Kirby Star Allies were all the first games of their kind for me. Kirby introduced me to 2D platformers in general, and WW was the AC game that got me into both AC and that cozy style of village sims. Pokemon Platinum was my first Pokemon game, and it got me to play more Pokemon games. And Dragon Age Origins kind of goes on this list as well because it was the first game to introduce me to player-driven story elements as well as storylines you've built being connected across titles (and I think is still the only franchise I've played that does this). Here Comes Niko! and Fatum Betula were both short and fascinating experiences where I thought the stories were really well done. HCN is about making a place for yourself in your world and connecting with a new community, and Fatum Betula explores death and the decay of a place over time, which was really interesting to me.

First thing's first: I've been doing lots and lots and lots of cleaning! I'm trying to get my room and my house spick and span for our visiting pet sitters when we're on our trip. I've just about got it all worked out at this point, I just have to be sure to maintain it for the next month and a half, and I also have some sweeping and mopping and waxing to do.

I have also been spending a lot of time just walking. Walking laps and laps around my backyard trying to push myself to walk more and prove to myself I am physically capable of walking a Disney day. And guess what!? I did it! Yesterday, I finally hit the 20k step mark, and I am so proud of myself~

Also in addition, we have been going out shopping a good bit here and there to try to slowly collect our essentials when we get the chance and have the extra money. It's been sporadic, but we've been working hard at it. :)

And in between all that, I've been spending time trying to set up my Autograph book!

I got a Sakura multimedia sketchbook and I decorated the outside of it:

The pop-up element on the front is to make sure the title tag can be there and not get in the way or the band that closes the book. I think it looks super cute, too. My autograph book isn't perfect and it's very eclectic and busy, but it's colorful and fun and I think that's what I want my Disney trip to embody. :)

Inside I've also started making up sketches. I started with characters I know I'm gonna meet and am now working on characters I hope I get to meet. Once I finish all of the sketches, I'll line and color them in various ways.

This is just a small selection of some of the ones I'm working on. Chip 'n' Dale share a page because I refuse to separate them. These are all in the corner and fairly out of the way to hopefully give the characters plenty of room to work with, and I think it'll be fun for them to see pictures I drew of them when they're signing for me.

Minnie is the first "not sure if I'll see her" character, and I'm still in the process of working on her sketch. I'm doing an 80s look because I just think all of her 80s outfits were so cute.

So! First and foremost: the Disney trip is getting really really close now. We've only got a little over 2 months left to wait, and as we get closer, we've been sitting down more, making lists and plans and backup plans and dining plans. We're getting very serious about honing how every hour of every day of the trip is going to go so I've been busy with that. :)

Next, I haven't quite finished my first quilt yet, but I went to an estate sale recently and found a treasure trove! A box of quilt toppers and scraps, and a quilt all handmade by the previous owner. The quilt I took was a little tore up, but I patched it up and cleaned it and now it's ready to go on my bed~

I also got this little Furskins bear, and with it this clown mask! This mask is very special because it goes to a cabbage patch kid that my grandmother got when I was really little and cherished forever. Her mask broke way back then, but now I was finally able to complete her again.

I taught Spouse how to use the sewing machine, and they used it to take one of those new quilt scraps and their own cross stitch piece to make a little pillow!

Then, after going out and getting some plants for the spiders, I made a cake for our Easter celebration that we shared with Spouse's birthday. This both fall on the same day this year, but Spouse will be gone on the actual day, so we did it yesterday. I stayed up late the night before, and I made this lamb cake, as well as this tiny personal make I made from spare bits, all from scratch!

So yesterday we dyed and decorated eggs, went out to a park, had our food, and hunted eggs. This year Sibling was the winner of the egg hunt! :) And for my "Easter basket", I got this very cute cake stand! It'll be so nice to have in our kitchen whenever I bake us sweets~

I've run out of photo space, but during all the Disney excitement I also made a little autograph book =v= I'm really proud of how it came out. I took one of those Sakura sketchbooks and put scrapbook paper, duct tape, and stickers over the cover to make something unique. It doesn't sound like much, but I am really happy with the end result.

We had our Christmas and my mother's gift was a little itty bitty baby puppy. His name is Ashe and he's becoming quite the rambunctious little monster. We are teaching him manners, so I'm sure we'll get there. Otherwise he's a very sweet and chill little guy, he's just reached the age where he's got the most energy.

We also went to a recent Repticon and loaded ourselves down with goodies. We got this beautiful but cranky citrus bearded dragon and are keeping him in this enclosure until we get him fully settled. We've got some substrate so now we just gotta set him up. :) He eats great, but we are really struggling with humidity for him, which sucks. We even have a big dehumidifier sitting right under his viv and it's still spiking. Alabama weather, man.

Another thing we got at the Repticon was some stuff to spice up Tilly's enclosure. She's feeling a lot safer now with the less visibility around the viv. It's still not finished, but this is a great start to what will eventually be her final enclosure.

We also got a new spider, but once again I will not be sharing her just in case others are really uncomfortable. She's really big, though! A goliath bird eater. :) It's lovely~

Aaand finally, we finished off the CAT mural in our living room! It's sitting behind the desk where I do all of my replies as well as the rack where all of our reptiles and spiders live (save the beardie, whose enclosure did not fit). I absolutely love being able to work with the CAT mural hovering above me.

Oh! I almost forgot, but I also made this beautiful little Santa nutcracker! I painted him from a set we got and I made his hair and beard out of yarn. :) He means the world to me, and I love him.

As for me, my health has been declining. I can't exactly tell what's wrong with me, but I've been in the worst pain for the past few days. And not the worst pain as in "I feel a very specific sharp pain that is a 7 out of 10." But the worst pain as in "I feel a very mild pain that's maybe a 3 out of 10. Everywhere." My whole head, neck, and shoulder area hurts, and I have even been very careful to keep my screen time to a minimum. Somehow, I still got hurt. Suspecting my sleeping position to be the cause, so I'm altering and trying to see if that'll help.

Even through all that, though, I am once again considering opening another blog I will never have the time to truly dedicate myself to. In addition to Eddie Wells and Price and every other character Barry Sloane has played, I've been finding myself also collecting these old men from the pet site game I play called Subeta.

Meet Drunk Carl and Vanya. The nasty but wholesome pirate and the sweet and loveable toymaker. I've done a lot of work with Vanya trying to get toys for one of my pets and just love his enthusiasm for his craft. And Every time I learn something new about Carl I love him a little more. He's a quest giver I'm sure to visit every day.

First we had a very small, very quick thanksgiving dinner. We don't hold thanksgiving as close as we do Christmas, so this one wasn't a big deal to miss, but we did it anyway since they were home. However, immediately after that we had our annual Christmas decorating party, and we put up all of our decorations together!

I didn't take a picture of everything, but here are some highlights. :)c

After that, we went to the annual Christmas light festival that is held at one of our local parks! And it was the perfect time to go, too. :) The crowds were down, so we got on the train almost immediately, and within our first hour of being there we got something to eat and got to look around at all of the buildings. We saw some really cool stuff at the petting zoo, and I got to pet a shaggy little cow. :)

The balloon guy was there, too, and usually every year Sibling and Spouse just get themselves a little balloon critter to bring home. But this year they got me a balloon sheepy as well! I didn't hear them talking about it because I had earplugs in, so I was so surprised to receive it!

And finally! We finally started working on painting the CAT mural onto our living room wall! I only realized after the sketch was done that we had used the NA version with the star eyes sksksk, but I don't mind. This is the version I played when I got the game, and I'm happy to have any kind of TWEWY rep in my house. I'm super excited for when it gets done!

Sibling has been edited with Decaf to protect identity sksksk.

But also, this is where my computer usually goes, so I've had to put it away until we get the mural done. Mostly my absence has been all of this paired with it being Sibling's thanksgiving break, so I'm going to try to figure out how to set up my computer in my room until the mural is completed once Sibling starts back at work.

First and foremost, I finally finished that mouse!

Here she is! I got her done right on Sibling's birthday, so I was able to deliver her on time! I'm so happy with how she came out, overall at least. :)c

And since I've finished her, I've started a new project that will not be complete for ages, and so I'm not really giving my full attention, but lookie!

I am attempting to crochet lace for the first time! ☆૮꒰ˊᗜˋ* ꒱ა This is going to eventually be a table runner to go across my mom's dresser. But I don't think I can really explain to y'all how small this is, so this project will likely take literal years. This is also my very first time following a chart instead of a written pattern, so lots of learning all around! I hope I do learn a lot and get better.

As usual, the hardest thing to get right is the tension. OTL

I also finally got to watch Boys from the Blackstuff! Bless the theater for posting their open dress rehearsal to their YouTube!!! I now 100% understand why the role nearly broke Sloane and gave him physical pain. I want to squeeze Yosser Hughes into a fairy bottle and put him on display. What a tortured character augh.

And one last thing! We are finally going to start moving forward with painting the CAT graffiti on our wall! I think we're supposed to start penciling it in today and move forward from there. I'm going to try to move my computer to my room in the meantime, but I might just have to be limited to mobile for a while. >=>; I hope not, though.

And on a much sadder note, we recently had to put down one of our seniors, my mother's boxer hip baby. She raised that dog from birth, and he has always been super attached to her. It was really really difficult having to say goodbye to him, but he was no longer able to hold up, and so we let him go. We love him dearly, and we're always going to miss him.