Friday Fav Five V.3

1.  The beautiful art of Vivianne du Bois, particularly her Little Villains series featuring kawaii little Disney villians such as Ursula, Cruella and Maleficent.  She has a Society 6 shop for prints.  ^w^

 Aren't they adorable??

2.  Mario Kart meets Olympic Speed Skating

3.  Damn you, Think Geek, you are dangerous store...

I need this watch in my life, haha.

4.  More art!!!  This time the art of Craig Davidson which I discovered from this post at Nerd Approved where they talk about how he brilliantly captures kids pretending to be their favorite characters but sadly the collection they show is only Star Wars characters and he's done more than just Star Wars!!

 A Life Bionic

Are You With Me, Men!  Aye Robin

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

5.  Naps.  Freaking naps are my bestest friend in the world right now (sorry besties, that's my third trimester exhaustion talking) and on that note, I need to stuff my face with a little food and go to sleep.  Hope you all enjoyed something on my list this week!

Tell me what you've found this week that you're in love, or at least like, with! ^w~

Weekly Intentions

 Crappy cell phone pic FTW!

I thought I'd share my Weekly Intentions this week.  This is something I saw Kaelah over at The Clueless Girl's Guide do and I immediately fell in love with it.  It feels like a lot less pressure and honestly I think I get more done off this list than a list I have to get done by a certain time, haha.  Maybe not but it sure feels that way anyway.

I've actually already checked one off completely, though it was one of the easiest of the list, but considering how terrible I've been at getting things done on time lately I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment, haha!  I got a cute new expandable file at Target (love their "$1 or $3" section) just to keep my receipts more organized than shoving them all into an envelope after I write them down in my ledger.

 Cute!  Though I'm still not convinced I like this whole zig-zag/chevron trend...

The difficult ones will be getting photos done and listings updated simply because I'm so tired lately I usually end up napping when D does, which isn't going to get any better in 2-3 weeks so hopefully I can muster the energy to get it done now.  My problem was that I was doing my product photos to focus on just the product but now I want to go a different direction and show some personality with them.  Plus we've made my studio space a little less accessible so I need to work out a new setup, too and lighting in this house is awful and moving my studio lighting is currently exhausting to say the least, haha.  Anyway, really hoping I can get that done as well as update each listing that I have one RTS (Ready to Ship) before I really don't have time/can't stay awake.

So what to-do list item or weekly intention are you happiest you've done this week?  ^w~

Friday Fav Five V. 2

This week's post is kinda late but in my defense we've been getting prepared for our little warrior princess and been buried in piles of pink clothing, haha.  And new clothes for D, too.  Mostly there's been a lot of laundry and errands this week.  *collapses from exhaustion*

1.  This video.  Sometimes you just need something that restores your faith in humanity a little.  Especially with our media's obsession with prefering panic and distress over something positive.

2.  This Lily Munster Maquette... GORGEOUS.  Sadly out of my price range but The Nerd Store does have a Lily Munster action figure so I may have to settle for that.

3.   This roman candle thieving wiener dog from AFV.  So thankful that Sakura is no where near this brave. (Which will not embed the way stupid facebook claims it will to save my life. >.< )

Post by America's Funniest Home Videos.

4. Jelly Splash  I have a lot of games on my phone that I play with my friends (Zynga, I wish I could quit your crooked ass) but I also like to have a mindless game for when I'm just killing time while waiting for D to give in and finally fall asleep at night or when pregnancy insomnia hits (which has been a serious biznatch this pregnancy.  With D I was out by 9 pm, no problem) and that game used to be Candy Crush Saga until I found out what massive dickwads King, the creators of Candy Crush Saga, were as they decided to sue another game for simply using the word "saga" in the title despite it being a completely different game and that they were trying to steal the trademark of a game they appear to have ripped off in the first place (a game other than Bejeweled) but I digress.

After removing Candy Crush from my phone I added Jelly Splash and it's a lot of fun.  Similar to CCS but you make chains rather than swaps but you have little obstacles and missions the same way.

(Oh and bonus for King haters, this article of BS claims about how they shouldn't publish "cloned" games and aren't trying to go after these people for using words from their game except to protect themselves.  Yeah, okay.  *eye roll* Have I mentioned how glad I am I never paid money on CCS??)


5.  The Match Game Productions channel on YouTube.  I was raised on older TV, movies, and music and the old game show Match Game is always good for a laugh.  This YT channel has lots of episodes including this one (part one of two) with a very spirited contestant.  Lol.

What are your favs this week?  ^w^

Friday Fav Five V.1

Once upon a time I tried doing a favs list on Wednesday titled Geeky Getsuyoobi but it got exhausting focusing only on geek stuff even as geeky as I am.  *eyes sparkle at the thoughts of my overwhelming list of fandoms*  So I'm gonna give this a go.  It might be every week.  It might not.  I don't know how long this burst of blogging will last.  Especially since I should have a newborn in addition to a toddler with more energy than I know what to do with in the next month or so... so yeah.  Anyway, here we go.

1.  Crash Course from the Vlogbrothers, John & Hank Green, is a love of mine with all its educational awesomeness but I've been watching the History playlist in particular as of late and wanted to share this one on Islam.  It's one of those things I've had very little understanding of to be honest and I know very few who do.  I suggest checking out the whole series or just this episode if you're interested or even one of those "omg all Muslims are terrorists" (in which case I strongly suggest you check it out because you are of of the people that make me crazy with your unfair generalizations).

2.  This video from a guy with some brains about Michael Sam coming out as a gay football player about to enter the NFL and how people are saying no one is going to want him now.  *eye roll about stupid people running their mouths*  Regardless, he makes an excellent point.

3. Classic Doctor Who on Hulu Plus.  I put off watching Doctor Who for years because I wanted to watch it from the true beginning but DVDs were outrageously expensive and Netflix and pretty much everywhere online had a "best of" kind of smattering of episodes but now Hulu has finally added at least most of, if not all Classic Who.  So if you're one of those that's been putting off starting it for that reason then what are you waiting for?  Off with you!  Wait, wait!  Come back.  Maybe finish this post first. ^w~

4. Heaven Knows by The Pretty Reckless.  Freaking love this song and pretty much all the songs I've found on YouTube.  This album this one is from is going to be released March 18th.  Definitely going have to snag it.

5.  Quotegrams and Anagram Magic Squares.  While Cody was on a work trip, D & I spent some time back home with his family and mine.  My grandparents have always been big on crossword puzzles and the like.  They usually do a puzzle or two together in mornings (so sweet, right?) and while we were there they got me hooked on Anagram Magic Squares and Quotegrams.  In fact I just put down a Quotegrams to come back and finish this post, lol.  They're in the variety puzzle books from Penny Press that you find among the magazine section. Super excited to find out they offer full volumes of the Anagram Magic Squares and super bummed they don't offer the same for quotegrams as I tend to get very little done in the variety issues.  I've started and left so many puzzles already.  LOL.

Well that's it for my first Friday Fav Five!  (Oh I should make a cute banner for these...)  Hope you enjoyed it and I apologize to those that are also my facebook friends as half or more you've probably already seen, haha.  Happy Valentine's Day to those who celebrate it.  I really don't even though I'm married, I'd prefer flowers or something for no reason than a forced day of romance so I don't really observe the love and romance part of it, but if you do I hope you have a good one!  And if you don't or you hate the holiday then Happy Friday!

^w^

Oddly Liberating

Tonight I deleted a lot of my blogs.  Not posts, but blogs I had started.  Now I'm down to this one, my photography website and my family blog.  It feels good, too.  For years I've felt I needed everything separate.  Manga reviews here, makeup etc here, book reviews here.  In fact here I still struggle with what I want to include on this blog as for a long time this was meant to be my "secret" part of the interwebz.  This way it made sense to keep it and the family blog separate but now I'm not sure as I really don't feel like keeping this blog that way anymore so then I wonder if I shouldn't just combine it all.

That idea is a little bit anxiety-ridden for me for some reason, though.  It's kind of funny to me right now, actually.  Though I guess it goes along with how I felt once earlier today.  This blog is wholly ME whereas the family one focuses on the family (uh, duh).  This week I lost another lip ring and I thought, as I have the last dozen times it's happened that maybe it's time to give up my last lip piercing, so I didn't put it back in.  Then, suddenly, I started to miss it on day 3 and tried to put one back in.  It's gone.  My last lip piercing (of only 2 originally) is gone and I was crushed.  I honestly cried and wondered WTH I was thinking by leaving it out.  Then today I took out one of my ear piercings to clean the hoop and my ear and it's one of my first piercings besides my lobe piercings so it's been one I could always put back in without looking.  Until today.  I kinda lost it for a bit, suddenly feeling like these things that were a part of me, just me, were suddenly all fading away and they were doing so so much faster than I was ready for.

I did get the hoop back in, but my ear is pissed.  For some reason when I'm pregnant my ears get really angry about my piercings.  It's weird but it happened when I was pregnant with D, too.  They get very sensitive and after Cody tried to help me he said it looked like some of the skin was torn, so I'm babying it and the rest of my ear piercings with some Bactine and love.  Now that I think about it I had to start doing that last time, too but I think it was earlier on.

Funny story, as I started this post I thought it would be all about how I was trying to convince myself I needed to keep the two blogs separate and in the second paragraph I realized I really do need them separate.  I think it's hard when you're a parent, you give up a lot for your kids but you also really need to keep you in tact to a point.  They won't always be there needing your every moment and if you give up everything what are you going to have when they get to that point?  Or when you do get breaks?

Ah, nothing like a diary-like blog post, eh?  So now that that's over... uh, new header... updated some stuff in my side bar over there --->  Stuff like my photography logo/link, added my etsy shop preview, updated cosplays and stuff like that.  Not done but feeling a little more me.  Just need to fix up a better about me and possibly add an about me page, I think.  Then maybe I'll be done with the changes I started sometime in the last half of 2013.  XD 

So have you ever given anything up for someone you wish you hadn't?  Or picked something back up that you had previously given up?  Let me know in the comments. ^w^

When to Blog & Some Projects

Guys, I've been trying so hard to blog here the last couple months it's ridiculous.  Especially these last couple weeks.  As in I wish I had a dollar for every time I worked on or started a post that's now just sitting in my drafts folder and then I could buy something worth blogging about or something.

Today I think I discovered most of my problem is I wait until the evening after D is in bed to try to blog and by then my brain is complete mush and all I want to do is crochet and zone out watching YouTube videos.  Oh and eat, 'cause, you know, pregnant.  Thing is I have little time before then to blog because my son has more energy that I know what to do with and having a laptop open around him is playing with fire and during nap time these days I'm napping with him because third trimester exhaustion is in full swing up in here.

Anyway, I want some of this to be actual blogging and not just talking about it so here's some things I've been up to.

I have been catching up on all the Geek & Sundry YouTubey goodness.  I love the channel but just haven't been watching much the past year because most of the TV time in this house goes to watching Despicable Me for the 4 billionth time.  We started watching once we adults go to bed, though and blew through all the Tabletop episodes we'd missed in a few days.  That show is like crack and makes our wishlist get fat and lazy.  And really expensive.

Then I started watching some of the Geek and Sundry Vlogs most of which I've fallen in love with and am obsessed with.  I was going to list a bunch of favorites but I'm thinking I might just have to make that a post of it's own because there are so many I love and still several that I have yet to check out.

I've been crocheting up a storm.  I opened an etsy shop for my amigurumi creations last year (which I recently updated with a logo, banners and all that goodness) and have been doing lots of outside orders and things really seem to be taking off this year.  In fact I'm still trying to finish Christmas presents because of orders I've gotten.  Speaking of Christmas, I'm also making Okaasan (my mom) a Scrabble Board blanket for 2014 Xmas after seeing this on Pinterest.

This particular pattern is available here.  But as with most crochet things I find there's enough I want to change that I'm actually doing my own pattern using "solid" granny squares (chart pattern below).  That and the site was nearly impossible to navigate while on my phone anyway- note to website owners, a lot of your users are mobile and if we can't use your site that way it's unlikely we'll bother once we're on our computer.  Now the granny squares I'm using are called solid granny squares, however, I found one that was more solid but I like this pattern as I prefer them not being completely solid but I didn't want them as holey as your traditional granny square.

When I'm done crocheting 225 of these bad boys, attach them and add the borders I'm wanting to add by my estimates it should be about the size of a full/queen size blanket (90"x90") and I also will have gone through approximately 26 skeins of yarn, lol.  This ought to be interesting.  

Here's my progress so far.  I'm using Caron Simply Soft in Bone for regular squares, Ocean for triple letter squares and Soft Blue for double letter squares.  I'm planning on using Soft Pink for double word squares and the middle star square and Autumn Red for triple word squares as well but just haven't grabbed those colors yet.  Plus I'll be using White, Black and some Off-White but I'll talk more about that later.

So yeah... that would be why I'm starting now because it takes up to 40 minutes per square unless I'm super speedy at them by the end of this, haha!!  It's going to be so worth it, though and I'll keep the blog updated on how things are going.  And hope my mom doesn't find it, haha!

I also made this Ood for a friend of mine and will be adding them to the shop soon, too.  

Sorry for these being crap cell phone shots, not even sure why I watermarked them but when I get time I'll try to remember to update this post with quality photos.

 Oh and I started working on a Sailor Moon collection as well.  This Sailor Moon is not the final but I haven't gotten it remade because of orders (hell of a problem to have, huh?) and I've also done Sailor Mercury but haven't gotten a pic yet because I hate her hair.  Lol.

This is one of the custom orders I've done so far this year.

I don't normally like the hair being so plastered to the doll's head but seeing as how this is for a baby I didn't want it loose enough for her to be sucking on strands or curls of hair.  Other than that I like it, though the embroidery on the front of her little overalls made me want to throw a tantrum.  Lol.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to so far this year.  Also did some cup cozies and am in the process of remaking one of my first custom orders so I'll post photos of those when I get a chance, too!  What projects are you all feverishly working on this year?

^w^