Because these are fun and I never do them. Maybe I'll start! It's a guaranteed weekly post, at least! |D

1. Are you and your birth family close? Physically, no, but I'm very close to my mom and my niece. My dad passed away 2016 and I'm not close with the rest of my family (okay, maybe the sister that lives with and takes care of my mom, but I don't really like her very much and her care, from what I can tell, is less than stellar (my mom is not in danger, my sister is just selfish and stupid)).

2. How far away do you live from your various family members? I live about 2700 miles from my mom and about 1300 miles from my niece. We all live in the same country tho!

3. When was the last time you visited with relatives? OOOF. Probably 2022? W and I flew to GA for two weeks to take care of my mom after her surgery.

4. Do your relatives travel to visit you? No.

5. How do you stay in touch with family: phone calls, email, snail mail, texts, other? I call my mom almost every day to chat and my niece and I talk over facebook messenger somewhat regularly.

Whew! I keep meaning to update but battleshipex has eaten all of my time that is not already getting eaten by the island sanctuary in FFXIV. I have drawn so much. I shall continue to draw more. Go Team Mermaid!

*skedaddles back to furiously drawing*

So I absolutely claimed this in my head a month ago and will be going in and linking to the things I've already filled, but here's my 100ships table. :D

( 100ships table )

The very beginning of this month was rough. Various things haven't really worked out the way that I wanted them to and, well. In the very personal, my heart has been hurt in a way I'd hoped would never happen again. OH WELL. It is what it is. I'm pushing on through it.

I've been working steadily on some minis! The Stormcast Eternals team has lots of animals and I've been having a lot of fun with painting those. |D I mean, I have fun with all of them, it's a really excellent hobby to have (and similar, I think, to crocheting/knitting, in the way where you can watch or listen to something while you're doing it) and gives me plenty of listening time for Shayne Reads Reddit on Smosh, lmao. He's basically reading these absurd reddit stories to two other cast members (and the filming crew, and the watcher) and it's just a lot of fun to listen in, like gossiping together, you know? This is the weirdest and most pathetic parasocial relationship I could possibly ever have, lmao. ANYWAY, it's really great for when I need something to listen to while painting.
I've not had the focus for any video games and art has fizzled as well, so I'm really thankful for this way to get some creativity out. I will post pictures when I have them!

Yesterday we went to a local carnival and it was a lot of fun! I somehow managed to take not a single photo of anything, just video, lmao. There was a kids band playing covers; we listened to them play Come Together by the Beatles and it was so good and adorable. ;o; There were also acrobats doing their aerial stuff and I was so disappointed in the crowd. Absolutely no interaction, no cheering or anything when the artists did something impressive. I started whooping and clapping and that did stir them up a little bit to respond. I also heard enough from a band called Clam Slam Jammers to know I gotta check out more of their work. I made out really good with not buying a single thing and just enjoyed talking to people and seeing the sights and making sure a little dog had a good time (she very much did, even tho it was pretty warm yesterday! she got so many pettings).

I've started playing Stardew Valley again and this time it's managed to get me. XD I'm playing as Guilliaman from Warhammer. My little AU/headcanon is that Pelican Town is on a very small planet in the Realm of Ultramar. Y'all know how Warhammer has entire planets dedicated to various dumb bullshit? Well, this small, pleasant planet is dedicated to Guilliman’s mental health. ;o; This is where he goes to unwind and be “a normal person” (set during Imperium Secundus).

The people of this planet know he’s important (he leaves for long stretches at a time but always returns, a tightness behind his eyes and a weariness in his shoulders that seem to lighten and disappear after a few days at his farm) and, of course, he’s huge. But he’s kind and respectful and so, so interested in doing well with his life here that they all welcome him as best they can (and that is made easy when he supplies the wood and stone needed to reinforce all of their social infrastructure to handle his massive frame). He named his dog Thiel, a sergeant of the Ultramarines 13th Chapter. Thiel is very honored.

So anyways, that's mostly what I've been getting up to lately. :3

This was all written on Wednesday.

Lads, the only good thing about working at Whole Foods was that my coworkers thought I was in my mid-twenties. As a 38 year old woman, that was pretty sweet lmao. But I quickly realized I'm over retail work so W and I agreed that I should just hold off until my actual job starts in mid-July. I pulled from my 401k to just keep myself afloat until then; honestly I'll be fine.

The only problem with this is that I'm terrible at staying home. I'm purely an extrovert and interacting with others is pretty crucial to my mental health. Unfortunately, going outside often costs money (especially in this expensive ass city) so I'm holding off doing anything like that (yes, I do go for walks in parks and stuff, for sure, but that's more a nature thing than a socializing thing). It's tough, guys!

There are a couple of things this weekend I want to do and I'm hoping they both can work out. Folklife is happening this weekend and I'd love to hit it up on Saturday. On Sunday, our favorite local game store is having a little kitten popup event with one of the local shelters. I don't want to adopt a kitten but I sure would love to play with some. ;3;

Today was a pretty funky day for both of us so we took a little dog out for a nice walk and some coffee.

AND NOW IT'S THURSDAY. XD

H/T to misbegotten: Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat. Man, does this truly sum up all the problems I've had with fandom in the past few years. Tourist is certainly not my favorite term; I'm mostly familiar with jerkass alt-right Warhammer 40k fans using it against anyone who is "White male sexless Space Marines" but other than that, I get all of this. The entitlement (which has always been there but seems to have ramped up), the commodification of fandom, the content farming...it's all so very frustrating. Fandom and the internet has changed so much and it's so frustrating and weh! And also, like, as a fanartist, it's like....art theft x20. It's fandom theft lmao. It just makes me real mad lol.

...anyways, I clearly had a lot of feelings about this! Maybe you will too. Who knows.

I've accepted a lil part-time job at a natural grocery store (it's one you know, I guarantee it). Certainly not a forever job but it's something to get some cash flowing in and the 20% discount stacks on top of sales (and I think Prime discounts?) and in this economy, getting groceries on the cheap is something I can't not go for. I'm kind of excited about it tbh. I'm on the customer service team (so basically a cashier) and, idk, I think it'll be good. |3

Will and i went to the local Value Village, which neither of us had ever been before, and omg. There was so much stuff. We went specifically for clothes and walked out with like. Four pairs of jeans, two pairs of shorts, and like seven knit tops for $80. And two pairs of the jeans were Torrid brand; if you're familiar with them you know their jeans are typically $60-$80 new. So that was super excited and I was pleased. :D

I finally, finally finished the art piece I've been working on for ages!


Click to imbiggen!

Aaaaahhh, I'm so pleased with how it came out! This is a style of painting I did a whole series of in college (the idea of small figures exploring a much bigger space, if that makes sense....kinda drawing inspiration from 19th century German Romanticism art) but I've never attempted something like this in a fandom space or digitally before. Also this felt very...creating for me versus creating for an audience, you know? Like this wasn't to get views or to gain followers or anything like that. Fandom isn't a popularity contest. I create because I enjoy it and I want to. An important thing to remember. ;3;

...now for something that is the opposite of what I just said, I've managed two kinky things for Rare Kink Buffet and I'm started a new one tonight. :D I'm having so much fun with it and I'm basically just adding my own little challenges (mostly limited palettes because that helps me so much) and it's just been really inspiring.

monstersmashexchange signups are tonight and I think I'm going to join in. I quite like monsters and I know at least one person who put some tags in specifically to entice me. Plus it's nice to encourage more monsterfuckery in fandom; sometimes it feels like things are getting a little puritanical and we can't be having that!

My interview yesterday went very well! I'm going to keep looking because the pay is frankly terrible for this area, but I'm still happy it went well. And of course if they extend an offer and I've not got any other prospects, I'm very likely to accept it. |D The vibes were good at least!

Warhammer 40k Kill Team: Nightmare released and we managed to snap one up (I'd called the day before released and asked if they might get any extras in and he said maybe. So Will and I headed down and he'd set one aside for me ;o;) and have been hard at work on that! That store (and maybe all stores, I honestly do not know) is having a "New Year, New Army" thing where if you bring a completed army in, that you started this year, you get a cool medallion. And it's only while supplies last so I've got to get this Mandrake army finished! I also have a very new Stormcast Eternals Spearhead army started but it's much bigger than the Mandrake army so I better stick with that one.

...this hobby is so damn expensive. |D; Once I have them looking decent I'll post pictures.

I woke up this morning and mowed the entire back yard! And then I washed a second load of dishes (Will washed the first), and also straightened up and organized our messy, messy countertops. My spice rack is visible now! Speaking of which, we finally got the oven fixed and I made chocolate chip and pecan muffins. So. good. I'm so glad to have my oven back. ;o;

Anyways, that's about all I have going on right now so have a picture of the freshly mowed back yard, with Selphie being a little creeper:


I really love these unassuming types of pictures that are just, like, scenes, you know? idk, anyways

I am working on something that is really ambitious, look:


And a zoom in:


I'm so pleased with how the water is turning out. :D It's another limited palette because they're fun (and I'm terrible at picking colors)

(Yes it is BG3 fanart)

Title: Not For Biting
Fandom - Ship: Baldur's Gate 3 - Astarion/Gale
Rating - CW: Pretty PG, no content warning.
Notes: I referenced a pose from adorkastock and a palette from some palette challenge I downloaded ages ago and don't remember where I got it. ;o;



( Click for the full image! )

I'm pretty proud of successfully make art. ;o; I feel like it's been a while.

I haven't responded to comments for my previous post and I will soon, but today has been a terrible day and I need to vent.

( I'm pretty sure my anxiety is going to cost me my job )

WHEW. ANYWAYS. I've played a little bit more of BG3 and am enjoying it but am also making sure to not overdo it.

I want to plan some nice activities this weekend, since Monday morning is going to be VERY SCARY due to the above. Fortunately it's a three day weekend so I'm going to get some nice downtime. And since dance class is Sunday night, that'll absolutely take my mind off of the horror that is Monday. But I want to find more things to do, lol.

And with that, a picture of Penelope! Looking very grumbley but she put herself there and was purring about it.