Well October has hit! We've been busy unfortunately not in the way I thought. The friend who has been living with us for a year and her son were due to move out last weekend, but alas they gave us one more parting gift croup. Her son was sick and he sneezed and spit (not malicious kid thing...hard to explain) in my son's face. Unfortunately my son got even sicker than hers did and we ended up going to urgent care with him having croup. He woke up unable to breath with the classic barking croup cough. Luckily croup sounds much worse than it is. We took him in and they gave him a dose of medicine to help and now we're recovering. Delayed the move for a week as we went into sick mode. I was holding up ok and got my first couple OC-tober drawings done when it hit me. I'm now woefully days behind! I feel a bit like OC-tober is cursed for me....
Aaaaanyways....enough whining! On a different note I just finished up Black Summoner and Parallel World Pharmacy. I loooooved Black Summoner...definitely had that harem feel, but the story is great and I'm looking forward to another season! I really like Parallel World Pharmacy, but I feel like it ended kind of abruptly. I like the whole idea and it was a little different from some of the isekai tropes we've been seeing a mess of lately. Book wise I've been reading The Abandoned Empress....I love this series so much! It's a manhwa (Korean comic)and it's just beautifully done. It is fantasy and takes place in a time of nobles etc. I liked that it wasn't just "reborn in another world" comic. The main character always existed in that time period, but gets to go back and relive her life differently. I've been buying it as it comes out, but not going to lie I got so into it I HAD to go and find it online so I could read the rest! It started off as a webtoon so it's all out online already. The books are lovely though and completely in color. They're a bit spendy, but they're really good quality! I also got caught up with Something Must Be Wrong With Us....which can best be described as a steamy soap opera! I mean there's murder, lust, mystery, and betrayal! It feels a bit like a guilty pleasure. I'm not sure how Japan does it, but they can make the most banal things into something really interesting. In this case it's wagashi (traditional Japanese tea sweets). Thinking about it though there was Chihayafuru which is based around karuta or Shion and March Comes in Like a Lion both based on shogi. Bravo Japan! There's a brief summary of what I've been up to. Let me know what you've been watching or reading I'd love to know! Thanks for reading to the end! 
Yep you read the title right we have snow right now on the ground in the middle of April. Woke up to around three inches this morning. I think most of the state is being hit with it though. Luckily none of us have to leave the house for work. Not that three inches around here is a lot by any means, but there are definitely people out there who are not prepared to drive in any snow. It reminds me of years past when I was walking to work and fought a polar bear and ended up fracturing my elbow and tearing the ligament in my wrist (Mind you I remember a polar bear, but other people might just remember me falling gracefully on black ice). It was a cold April 2nd...the day is imprinted into my memory...but that's a story for another time. This is generally just a quick what's been happening to me update so if these type of entries bore you I will not be offended if you stop now.
Anyways moving right along for those of you who have stuck with. The roommate and her child decided to bring a cold of epic proportions into our house. My husband, son, and myself have been sick for nearly two weeks at this point so I'm hoping it goes away soon. We've spent a few nights on the couch the ends of which are reclining so that my kiddo could sleep at an angle. Being slightly propped up made it so he could actually sleep without coughing the whole night. It's been a rough patch, but we're getting through it. During this time we've been doing a lot of chilling and just relaxing due to the low energy levels. We started watching a clay-mation children's show called Pingu. I'm not sure how many of you have seen it, but it's all about a family of penguins. They don't actually speak except according to my closed captions in penguinese. It's a little weird, but oddly cute? You have to watch it with closed captions! I can't stress this enough. I nearly died at the "stern penguinese", "cautionary penguinese", "cheerful penguinese".
I finally got my second volume of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-Kun. I have to say the manga is even funnier than the anime. I've had moments where I'm should my husband wondered if he married a mad woman as I was laughing loudly at something that happened on the pages of my book. There's more characters and some of the situations are just so insane that you can't help, but giggle at the events happening. I also finally got around to reading all of the Toilet Bound Hanako-kun books that I have. I think they came out with a book 0 that I want to snag it's a prequel and I'm looking forward to the next volume. It's such a fun cute series with that slightly creepy supernatural/horror twist that I really enjoy. On the anime front the second season of Rise of the Shield Hero is finally out! I've been debating watching it as it comes out or just waiting until most of it is out so I can binge it without being left hanging when they toss in the expected cliff hangers at the end of an episode.
For those of you who have made it this far thanks for sticking with me! I know my posts can get a bit rambling! On the art front I've been working on trying to get back into the flow of things. I just haven't been feeling at my creative best lately, but video games and books definitely help. I did the drawing and commission for my friend and I think that's helping. Moonfini gave me permission and some inspiration to draw her character Joy again so I am in the middle of working on that piece currently. I hope that by the time I recover from this dumb cold I'll be feeling back up to snuff for creating new and fun pictures. Thanks for hanging in there with me! Hope you all are staying healthy and having fun!
Alright it's definitely been a while since I last posted on here. I will admit that things have been improving as we're all settling into a groove and adjusting to each other. I think as bad as it sounds the fact I know we're already 5 months into the one year agreement is helping! I have noticed that the stress has been sucking on my creative motivations. I just haven't had much of a pull to draw or create and that does make me sad. On a brighter note my kiddo has continued to be pretty amazing. He turns three in March and I'm trying to figure out where the time went! I feel like I just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. He's getting so tall too! In a moment of mom insanity I splurged and bought him a fancy play set on Amazon. It wasn't suppose to arrive until March 1st, but it got here just last Friday! My husband, his grandfather, and I had a good time spending two days putting the whole thing together. My son ran out and said "It's the park!" and we've used it.... three days? It of course got cold and then snowed within a few days of finishing it! Darn you fake spring! Apparently the way to summon very late snow is to build a play set. In other news I've been reading all the Jujutsu Kaisen manga that are currently out. Like Demon Slayer I loved the anime and couldn't wait for more of it to come out to find out what happens in the story. I'm really enjoying it! For something more light hearted I started Monthly Girls' Nozaki-Kun (the manga) as well. Again I've watched the anime, but hoping that the manga of course goes further. I'm still waiting for the second volume to arrive though as it was currently out of stock XD.
On the video game front I happily discovered just the other day that nintendo added Earthbound to the virtual SNES machine on the switch! I'm so thrilled to play it again! It is absolutely one of my favorite RPGs of all time. The nostalgia of the music and the plot just makes me smile while I play it. Just like rereading your favorite book it's like having an old friend visit that you haven't seen in a while. Truly it's the little things in life that make you giddy. Speaking of old friends one of my friends that I haven't seen in over a year is also coming to visit tomorrow for a week. Super excited for that! I have to say that life has been feeling pretty good lately and it's a nice change. Now if the snow would just melt.... I hope you're all staying safe, keeping healthy, and living your best life. Thanks for reading!
Well as many of you already know I've been trying to do the OC-tober challenge this year and life is truly making it a challenge. I'm officially ten days behind! We have a friend moving in with us along with her kiddo and so we've been adjusting and trying to figure out the new groove of things. We also had an impromptu vacation into the mountains. Chasing after two kiddos and trying to enjoy the scenery left little time for much else. Got to go to the zoo which was actually completely open this time, but it was a bit too crowded for comfort. So with all these excuses I'm finally getting back into the swing of producing my OC's for the month. I did have one idea for day 10, but scrapped it for the current one as I decided I liked it more. My mind has been trying to focus on multiple things like coming up with ideas for characters and where we can move stuff to create more room for everyone. Having a household go from three to five definitely makes things more crowded and it's amazing how much more mess there is from two toddler tornadoes instead of one. I'm not giving up though! Hopefully I'll be churning out more quality OC's it just might take me longer than I'd like. I've firmly given up on finishing them all by the end of the month. To those of you still doing the challenges on time I'm mad impressed and keep up the fantastic work!
Anime updates....man what have I been watching.... Tsukimichi a moonlit fantasy which wow it's so much fun and surprisingly serious at the same time! I've been watching Horimiya and it's fun to revisit. (I haven't seen the anime before, but I read the manga). I'm a sucker for a warm fuzzy anime although I'll take a tear jerker too...Your Lie in April comes to mind.... so good! so sad!! Uuumm... oh rewatching Rise of the Shield Hero as season 2 should soon be on it's way. Manga wise I have some catching up to do. I bought the entire box set for Tokyo Ghoul:Re (already had the first part), still working through Fushigi Yugi, and reading Toilet Bound Hanako Kun. Finding time for everything I'd like to do is getting difficult. Between hobbies, kiddos, friends, and house work life is pretty hectic! I must admit that I miss watching scary movies and horror stuff at this time of year. I've settled for horror podcasts that I can listen to through earbuds away from tiny ears. Kiddo already believes in monsters so don't want to give those monsters any new faces by watching something that might horrify him. I feel like eventually though you have a snapping point and start thinking....my parents showed me that and I'm a somewhat well adjusted adult....Anyway hope you're all doing well, staying healthy, and letting those creative minds spill out onto paper, ink, digital outlet, or whichever way you choose to express yourselves! Thanks for reading!
Hhhhhhmmmm...where to start. Welcome to fall! I think I mentioned that I picked up the manga Toilet-Bound Hanako kun. Which I really really like, but it appears there is no way to get a hold of volume 4! First world problems I know. I did find it online just so I could continue on with the story as it's really quite a good read, but I'm sad I have so far been unable to obtain a physical copy I have 1-3 and 5-9. Fall colors have been invading my color palette as the new season sets in and my thoughts turn to warmer clothes and sitting cozily under the kotatsu with the fire going (still a bit too warm for this.). I also discoverd teeturtle.com where you can get amazing nerdy shirts or just anti social shirts or whatever your current mood shirts. I saw a few I felt I needed...One of which has a red panda on it that says "I'm listening to my murder stories" (I'm a bit obsessed with true crime podcasts). Art wise I'm trying to stretch my comfort zone again in trying poses and angles that I'm not very used to. I'm also trying to draw more male characters. I feel like if I ever truly want to draw a comic I really do need to know how to properly draw them. A friend of mine asked for me to do a more realistic portrait of his mother and her fiance....I must admit with shame I've been procrastinating on working on this. He originally told me about the idea back in July, but didn't get me pictures for reference until the beginning of this month. The large gap in the reference material caused a lack of interest for me in trying it. I feel bad and really need to get motivated to make an attempt at this.
In other news I discovered recently that funimation changed their access in that now you don't have to have a paid sub to watch their content. You'll have ads, but you can watch what they have. I will admit that I've binged a few different shows now that I have them available. I still need to watch the Demon Slayer movie Mugen Train which I was extremely excited to see on there! My anime otaku side has been giddy with all the new and old stuff on there.
In video games I've been playing a lot of Terraria! I've always been a fan of the game, but they've added a bunch of new content since the last time I played and it's just so easy to turn it on and get lost in it for hours! I love that the game has so many options for things to do. You can waste your time building and gathering materials for your buildings or you can progress the game along fighting bosses and increasing the difficulty. For those of you who have played it you know what I'm talking about.
Well once again I feel like I managed to jump topics at random and for those of you still here thanks for reading the rant of jumbled thoughts! I'll continue trying to make fun pieces of art to share and my randomness here! Cheers!
