Vacation! + Grail Doll
05/21/2024I'm on vacation! I'm very excited to relax and get some sun, since where I work I don't get much, and hang out with my partner since we've been working so much. So far its just been stormy, which is fine because it gives us time to recoup before we go out on the town a lot.
Most of my plans are to shop for new doll releases and eat a lot of local food. A few new places have opened up that I really want to try. I'm hoping to find something that replaces a local ice cream shop I loved that recently rebranded :'3
I also got this doll recently! She's "Super Secret Lipgloss Laundromat Cloe", what a name right? Bratz Kidz is one of my favorite doll lines of all time. I love them a lot, more than regular bratz, and plan to collect every pre-reboot doll. Since its an older doll line, they can be tricky to find in good condition and the playsets (outside of the two seater bike) are extremely hard to find in my experience. I was very estatic to find this one complete and new in box, and affordable for me if I took some extra hours! This my bday present to myself ♡
Celebrating finishing my queue!
05/20/2024I finally finished my last piece of artwork I owe, and I'm pretty proud of myself. I finished my commission queue last summer, but I still owed some art to friends that has been sitting on my to-do list for months. I hate to leave people waiting, and my few online friends are precious to me so I didn't want to half ass it.
Thankfully, this piece turned out to be one of my favorites of the year so far. I've been experimenting with bringing sub-surface scattering into my work, and this piece helped me learn alot. Its still quite a ways off than what I want, so I'll be doing some studies of it in photography next.
Animating
05/10/2024I did a quick little character reaction animation after work. Its nothing special, since I was tired and it was just meant to keep from getting too rusty in the middle of my work week. Now I'm paying for not drawing the OC on model, because I decided its good to make myself finish it. I have a habit of not finishing my animations, and thus my actual clean up, coloring, and shading in animation is super rusty. Hopefully I'll have it done in a month or so...
Check out my art website!
05/01/2024Sorry for the break! I've been focusing on my art website! I'm really proud of it you should check it out click here. I really wanted somewhere away from social media to share my art. I hope you guys will check it out!
Bratz Kidz Haul
04/28/2024
I got my tax return back, so you know what that means! I went on an ebay shopping spree for Bratz Kidz, one of my all time favorite doll lines. I ended up buying 7 dolls and two playsets and I'm so happy with my haul. The tandem bike is a really unique piece in my collection, and the scooter even still works! I've been having a lot of fun driving it around my kitchen. I think winter vacation cloe and summer vacation sasha are my new favorites of my collection!
Storms :(
04/25/2024
Its been storming and raining so much lately! I do really love the sound and smell of rain, but due to my leg injury the weather shifting causes me a lot of pain D: I hope May is a bit less rainy, but not hot yet. I can't deal with 90 degrees again so soon :'0
Birthday soon...
04/22/2024
I'm turning a big milestone age this year and idk if I'm ready. I don't think I feel old at all. I don't really believe anyone is old before 40 at the earliest, and I'm honestly pretty annoyed by other people my age when they talk about how old they are. But it definately is a weird feeling I can't put down. I think I'm proud of myself for getting this far though, thats for sure. I think seeing my peers showrunning entire productions and going on tours has made me feel a lot younger by comparison. I'm not sure. I've heard a lot of people say they didn't feel like a grown adult until their 30s, so I hope I'm just like that instead.
Rewatching Steven Universe
03/22/2024 at 7:15amRecently, my partner and I finished rewatching Steven Universe for the first time since it last aired, so general spoiler warning for the rest of this blog entry! I had a lot of complicated feelings about the series, because I spent a bit of time in it's fandom and dealt with it's terrible airing schedule (I hope future gens never have to go though the frusteration that is the Steven Bomb lol).But nowadays the show really shines as just, a really great show. I really really loved it on a rewatch. I also fell in love again with Amethyst's character even more than I already loved her. I love her developement and growth so so much. Steven Universe Future also hit me a lot harder now, since I was going through a similar spiral when it aired I guess it didn't click. But after my own PTSD diagnosis last year, the "growing pains" episode really hit hard. I really love this show so I might have to write more of my thoughts as an article...
Errands and Thrift Store Find
02/27/2024 at 11:13pmToday I had my first therapy session since my therapist took her medical leave. I brought up my religous trauma that I've been particularly struggling with recently and afraid to bring up, and thankfully she was extremely kind, understanding, and experienced with it.
While I was out getting my meds, I stopped by the thrift store too since its already near where I have to walk. My thrift store is pretty much 99% bootlegs or happy meal toys, and if they have any dolls they tend to be overpriced now :'(. I did find a singular yellow Peep bunny plush in the easter section! Will update this post with pictures once it's fully washed and dry!
New sketchbook!
02/24/2024 at 9:35pmI bought myself a sketchbook recently! Since last year, I've been facing a lot of art block, imposter syndrome, and feeling like I've fallen behind my peers. I've always felt like I draw slower than everyone else, made less art, and felt like everyone else's art is effortless to them. Of course these are just insecurities and absolutely not true, but it weighed on me enough to completely paralyze me whenever I opened my ipad to draw. So, I got a physical sketchbook like the old days.
Buying my sketchbook felt like a meet cute honestly. I was at the dollar store buying household supplies and passed by the toy section like usual, hoping for the rare restock of offical my little pony figures, and glanced to the other side of the aisle. I quickly spotted a familar black sketchbook, the same type of sketchbook I started with back in 2012. I went with my gut, and now I have my own 80 pages of dollar store sketchbook paper!
I've decided this sketchbook will be properly dated (something I wish I had done when I was a kid) and completely private. Being an online artist, with the pressure to post or deal with algorythm punishment, I think I make a lot of art knowing it will be public. I think this is really damaging in general, but especially since I'm going though a transitional period with my art. I might not even show them to my wife, who knows. What I do know is that what I've drawn so far has made me happy.
Japan Haul Part 2!
02/23/2024 at 8:18pmSo, I may have gotten addicted to Suruga-ya. Oops! They did another free shipping event last week, so I couldn't resist grabbing a couple things. Having access to so many collectibles from Japan for reasonable prices is so game changing for me. The Licca doll I bought for $17 would've costed me over $40 if I had bought her in the states! I'm so excited to have access to anime merch I'd miss out on otherwise.
As for the actual items, I ordered a set of Yuru Camp mini figures and three more precure mini figures! Yuru Camp is one of my favorite anime series, so I really wanted something from it on my shelf. I settled for some mini figures of the whole group that ended up being MUCH smaller than I expected, but they're so cute and capture the characters so well I don't mind. As for the precure figures, I got Cure Chocolate and Cure Macaroon to complete my kira kira precure a la mode set! Its one of my favorite precure seasons, so I'm so happy to have them on my shelf. I also bought my partner Cure Papaya's mini figure!
Japan Haul! First Licca-Chan doll!
02/14/2024 at 6:57am
I've finally gotten over my cold and sinus infection, and thankfully just in time for Valentine's day. We usually go out shopping and getting our fav coffee, but since we were still tired from being sick and Covid numbers still being pretty high, we decided to mostly say home this year. Thankfully though, my package from Suruga-ya arrived a little earlier than expected! Yay!
A couple weeks ago a mutual suggested Suruga-ya for Licca/Jenny dolls and anime merch, and since they had a free shipping event I picked up a few things I've had my eyes on for years! Licca-chan is a huge Japanese doll brand, but she's a little hard to find and pretty expensive to get in the US. So this is my first Licca doll! She's so cute, I love her face and her style is so soft. I'm really excited to have her! I also picked up a few precure a la mode figures, they're SUPER small but detailed and very cute. I also picked up a couple Anya Forger keychains for my partner and I for Valentine's! I let them choose first, so they got the one with Bond and I got the one with Penguinman, which is a-okay with me because I love Anya's pajamas outfit!
We spent the rest of the night finishing Zombie Land Saga REVENGE, cried, and made some fancy shrimp alfredo! After a rough xmas, it was nice to have a decent holiday.
Grail Monster High Dolls!
01/31/2024 at 7:08am
I'm still very very sick, but today was a good day anyways because my new monster high dolls arrived! I bought Elle Eedee and Mouscedes from a mutual and they arrived safe and sound today! These two particular dolls were part of a 3-pack of dolls I've wanted since Boo York, Boo York came out. Unfortunately at the time I thought I was too old to collect dolls and they likely never showed up at my local particularly-poorly-stocked Walmart anyways ;_; They've been on my grail list for years, so I jumped at the chance to get 2/3 together in great condition!
As for the dolls themselves, I'm pretty blown away! Late generation 1 monster high sculpts never disappoint! First up is Elle Eedee, her skulpt is one of the coolest of my collection. Every inch of her is covered in metal plating and computer parts! Her outfit is pretty basic, but that's just because her boots steal the show! Though I think my favorite of the two is Mouscedes King. I can't explain it, but she's just really really charming to me. Part of it is probably my affinity for animal dolls and underrated/over-hated dolls lol. I think her design is very cute, dainty, and unique! I'm so happy to add them to my collection!
Doll Shelf Dusting Day
>01/29/2024 at 9:56am
Today I'm feelings pretty sick :( I'm pretty sure I caught whatever my partner has, unfortunately. Hopefully we'll make a fast recovery! For now, I need to pass the time while also resting... So I dusted my doll shelf. It took me over 3 hours lol.
I ended up dedicating the center shelf to some of my favorites -- bratz kidz, delilah feilds, and fancy gurl! I'm on the lookout for a bratz kidz playset, so I made space for that. My rainbow high dolls were by far the dustiest part, so I'm glad I was able to get it taken care of. Dust during the wintertime is such a nightmare, so I like to stay ontop of it.
Snowed In and Stardew Valley
01/14/2024 at 2:06am
My last post was a warning apparently... In the last four days it hasn't stopped snowing, to the point we got snowed into our building. It's been pretty stressful honestly, but we are safe and thankfully our bosses and coworkers have been very kind about my partner and I not being able to get to work. BUT lucky me, this happened the same weekend I got back into Stardew Valley.
I was always more of a Minecraft fan, but Stardew has been slowly and steadily making its way into my heart. I dropped off of it awhile ago because I ironically got too stressed and overwhelmed with how much stuff there was to do, which was very much not the point of the game. This weekend I got back into it, because I missed my wife, my girl, Penny. I haven't actually married her yet, but I love her so much. I always related to and had a giant crush on Ms. Honey from Matilda, so Penny stole my heart too! I'm planning to propose to her soon...
I'll share screenshots of my farm soon, I'm currently on the first of winter and my farm is a MESS because I've been putting off planning stuff.
New Years Snow and Mermaid Dolls
01/10/2024 at 8:31am
Hello world! First blog post! Hoped to write this earlier in the new year, but I'm glad I didn't because it finally snowed here! Four inches of fluffy pretty snow! I was bummed that we didn't get any snow in December, but I'm very happy now! I also recieved my box of antu mermaid dolls!
Last year, my partner and I split a full set of Antu Dreamlike Tea Party Daydream centaur dolls, and we became hooked. My experience is mostly in mass produced fashion dolls (monster high, bratz, rainbow high, barbie), so ball jointed dolls are a completely different world for me. They're so satisfying to move and pose. And these are particularly unique due to to their animal features! My favorites were Hazy, Dazzling, and Light Dreams (photo attached).
We had to pick up the Antu Tidal Secret Language Mermaid Series dolls as they were avaliable outside of China! They're gorgeous and extremely well made, just like the centaurs. Unfortunately these are blind box figures, but if you get a full set like we did you can get a set of 6 with no repeats! I was able to get all of my favorites- Dawn, Leaf, and Ruppia! The red mermaid's dress is just as gorgeous as their pictures!! I think my favorite ended up being the green seashell mermaid, something about them is especially elegant, and I love the full skirt thats short enough to show off the tail in full!
