#hs:closed

Dorothy hummed to herself as she glided around her kitchen, relaxed and in her element as she baked. Her father and sister knew she enjoyed making her own birthday cake and wouldn’t bother her, though they always made a point to have dinner together on birthdays. Cammy even refrained from giving her any insects! It was always an exciting day.

It was strange though, she could admit to herself, that she felt absolutely no different just for being older. She knew objectively that not much really changed from one day to the next, but still she had expected some kind of difference now that she was twenty-one. It was really just another number, but when everyone made such a big deal of the age it was oddly underwhelming when her birthday was, so far, the same as every other for the past few years.

Even if the actual birthday didn’t change her though, she was sure the year would. She was determined for this to be the year she brought herself out of her shell, even slightly. She wouldn’t throw herself head first into anything stupid of course but… it couldn’t hurt to broaden her horizons, could it?

Maybe she would do something new. Ask Natalie for a few days off and visit Bokumo maybe, or somewhere else she had never been. Not that she had ever actually left Alvarna.

Her pockets were lighter, her money satchel practically empty. Though there was hardly a reason to rejoice at the idea of such, for Minori, she could not be happier. Her grin stretched from ear to ear as she handed over the bills to the merchant, and in return they offered her the blueprints she so desired; 

...the sewing studio. 

The moment the blueprints were in hand, she wasted no time in racing off towards the carpenter shop. She had the materials, she had the blueprints, now all she needed was the help of Gunther to put it all together.

Prepare all the materials, he told her, have them out and ready and I’ll meet you at your farm in an hour.

She had a handful of other chores to do, but she placed them on hold, racing back to her farm and gathering all that was needed. She had done nothing but stock her lumber and stone stores, made sure the spot she wished the studio to be built stayed clear of any and all debris. 

Minori could hardly contain her excitement, waiting as patiently as she could as the minutes slowly ticked by. But soon she had seen the familiar sight of the carpenter walking up the pathway, his own tools in tow on a horse-drawn wagon. 

@illumxnadi

Running the ranch was certainly a full-time job in itself already when you didn’t have much by way of staff and lots and lots of animals.

But it only happened to get so much worse when you are prone to a scatterbrained moment now and again, and you accidentally leave the gate open for a good portion of the baby chicks to go toddling away from the ranch and into harms way.

When Ellen noticed this, the first thing she did was went to close the gate before the bigger animals could mosey out, and hopped over the fence to capture the little puffballs that were getting themselves into trouble.