#happy early birthday ACNL!

[teddypixels]

I felt nostalgic for Animal Crossing New Leaf and realized it'll be 11 years old tomorrow.

The entire franchise is also over 20 years old now, but Nintendo didn't really do anything for that, which kinda sucks. I would have loved a special event in New Horizons or something, but oh well.

I think the movie was like a 10th anniversary thing or something but I don't feel like doing the math. It might get my hopes up lol

But yeah. I started a brand new town and already love it there. Isabelle has her personality back, all the NPCs that got demoted to wandering peddlers have their old shops again, and my neighbors are cute.

Yes, even Wart Jr. I've liked that lumpy lil dude since Wild World. I think he's neat.

The only villager I dislike is Barold because he just creeps me out. He looks like he smacks his lips when he eats and breathes through his mouth. His house looks like an office so I feel like he's supposed to be That One Coworker everyone has in life that absolutely drives them insane.

That aside, my fruit trees have apples and I got the best grass shape of all- DORITO!

I think I'll make some clothing patterns and a new flag later today and share them on here, but I do wonder if the fandom is still as active on this site as it was before NH. Shit was wild back then :p

[spacebugarts]

Ik this is late but happy birthday to my boi Cube!!!

[nyrator]

ARE YOU ALL READY

for my first ten days in Animal Crossing New Horizons in picture form (aka the 20th-29th)

because I have close to 3,000 screenshots and it was hard go through them all but I did (mostly because I ran out of the 10,000 limit and had to upload them to my computer anyway)

letsa gooo

The start of the game.

Heck yeah, Tommytown. Also shoutouts to Rocket and Teddy, my first new friends in the town. Can’t say I relate to Rocket, but she’s pink and has a pink house eventually so that’s nice. Teddy’s okay, though not a fan of Jocks in general.

Thanks, random motivational dream K.K.

The start of Nyville

People say Timmy and Tommy are the same, and I admittedly was not a fan of them in ACNL, but I know thanks to this game that Tommy is a true friend and I would die for this tanuki

Also shoutouts to catching like two tarantulas in the first night, jesus

And in one night, managed to get Blathers to want to join our town.

And then the rest of the days came.

DAY 2

Met Gulliver (jerk thinks my head is big all the time)

Made some pro designs and changed my hair

Lots of good friend visits/visiting (though one random guy I added from Splatoon invaded and stole all my apples, rippp)

and that was my second day of playing

AND ALSO I’VE RECEIVED A LOT OF NICE LETTERS FROM PEOPLE... I am bad at writing letters and I’m not sure if people would want them public but aaaa thank you for the letters (shout outs to lala-ko in particular what a good AC frienddd)

DAY 3

Lots of things being built

Got some reactions~

MABLE... but, more importantly, that means...

SABLE... the best NPC in the game...

More friendshippp

Paid off my first loan~

Also shoutouts to local friend letting me get some apples to make some furniture for people to move in after some jerk stole all mine

Also met Harvey, what a dude. ALSO, MY OLD FRIENDS...

And that was only day three of my adventures.

DAY 4

Met Wendy, a Peppy Sheep. You’re okay, Wendy, you’re okay.

BY THE WAY THE MUSEUM IS GORGEOUS

they did not have to go that hard but they did

whoops I didn’t expect it to be that close oh well, I can move things around later so for now everything is next to each other for convenience

also met a ghost friend and he gave me expensive(?) flooring

DAY 5

Got a cute alligator friend, you’re okay too, Gayle. ALSO I SEE YOU MABLE...

Also, finally, new phone, who dis? Dis stylin’ Nyrator. May adjust it later on since I found there’s a template online on how it works.

Did some fishing as well, apparently caught some rare first that day.

Nook continues to ruin me financially, but at least I got more storage space.

DAY 6

Some frog joined, and I think I’d like him if it wasn’t for the burpy noises and the facial hair. Lazy villagers seem great in this game though.

hello Saharah

thanks for all the rugs/wallpaper I guess

Thanks, Wendy.

ALSO SHOUT OUTS TO KOMETA a good friend she got me a lovely heart apron and hair pin and pink hoodie and things and they’re so nice and aaaa thank youuu

Also made more pixel art designs because why not

even wendy agrees

DAY 7

it better, Nook

give me Tommy back to wander the island with his flag and leaf umbrella I miss socializing with Tommy

excuse you Nook told me you wanted this here

more friendship

this game a nice game to socialize in with people (even though I’m terrible at it I apologize especially for never imitating anything with anyoneee)

the letters and the casual tours and having fun are really nice, plus it’s nice to just share things like fossils and DIY recipes, good times

thanks, Wendy

ALSO LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY

It took over 50 bait until I failed a catch and failed getting that one achievement again (farthest was 81/100 fishing in a row and I keep getting into the 60s-80s before screwing up, close to 90 today though so we’ll see how it goes), after failing I was like, heck with it, just throw bait over the small fish until a big one appears, and sure enough, my second-to-last bait, and my third large fish, bam, this baby arrives.

ALSO SPEAKING OF BLATHERS

STAR WANDDDD...

thank you celeste now give me your bow...

Didn’t see a meteor shower at this point, but you better believe I just crafted one today and boy is it good (though stores clothing in the wand which is a bit weird but saves my storage space a bit, I just need to buy multiple hairpins)

DAY 8

there she is, the jingly girl herself

also I put a podium there but misplaced it, sorry Nook I’ll get it right tomorrow- oh wait you don’t do these outside anymore... ripppp

However, before any of that silly nonsense

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LALA

you don’t know how heartwarming it was to be invited to this and celebrate this that morning, had no idea it was happening until it happened, but aaaaaaaaaa so wholesome...

SERIOUSLY THIS WAS ONE OF MY MOST WHOLESOME ANIMAL CROSSING EXPERIENCES...

so anyway back to Nook and Isabelle

and getting this immediately because heck with all the inventory management in this game

So Project K, got it. Heck yeah, K.K.

Also made a town theme (forgot to screenshot it but it’s the Yume Nikki save theme, might change it to Mary Had a Little Lamb though), and also a flag design was already prepareddd

also hi Gulliver again

and a campsite...

heck yeah it’s all coming together

YEAH WHAT OF IT

WENDY YOU WERE JUST COMPLIMENTING ME

jerks all of you are jerks but you’re all still pretty okay/10 (not Merry/Kyle level though)

DAY 9

seriously though rip that podium idea

thank you mabel...

And a campsite~

EXCUSE ALL OF YOU WITH YOUR PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE SUGGESTIONS

Kometa gave me this apron and I will continue to cherish it

But yes, that’s about it for today~ Town’s unweeded, campsite’s built, things have been slowing down while at the same time picking up~

DAY 10

okay cool

okay AAAA YESSSSSS SABLE TIMEEEE FASHION TIMEEEEE...

also hello Daisy Mae, the internet loves you for some reason, can I have some turnips

that is expensive you little snot nosed brat but fine I’ll play your stalk market games, cover my whole town in four million bells worth of turnips again like ACNL...

Also thanks Lyle, I’m a B apparently.

Wow okay I don’t even have a choice, rippp

at least he’s smug, smug villagers are the best personality of villagers

heckk yeahhhh bad placements all arounddddd

I can’t wait to start fixing this island up to a better shape, rip my haphazard placement (I admit I kind of miss the randomness of earlier games, having this much control is weird)

AND THAT’S THE FIRST TEN DAYS OF ACNH...

I may have ran out of screenshot space early the next day and thus uploaded them all to my computer because I need that space (10,000 screenshots, man...)

Got a lot accomplished, I feel~ Still haven’t paid off my back room loan, but I got a bridge paid, got another bridge on the opposite side being built, and I saw some meteor showers the past two nights AND GOT A STAR WAND...

Got Gwen and Hamphrey also moving in and can’t get Merry in town just yet but she’s in the campsite, watching, waiting... debating if I should get ten randos first before moving cards in, though

Also met Gulliver/Celeste/Wisp again the past few days, and also today is the beginning of Easter stuff (so many eggs, also random esports fish guy, he’s weird, also NO BLANCA, rip my empty-faced April Fools cat dude thing (apparently a girl in the US? but I will continue to be a weeb and think of them as their Japanese selves mostly because the voices tend to be masculine)

but yeah made like over 100 wishes in two days and got a bunch of neat star things (not as many as I’d thought I’d get but I’ll take it)

Also, SABLE IS A FRIEND and I love the clothing store but am weirded out that I can’t seem to order things in bulk, just what I’m wearing in the dressing room, which is awkward. Oh wellll

(also may have realized I never got a recent passport screenshot so went and did thattt, should think up more titles maybe)

[beedalee]

This year’s goodiepile!!! I... I got a lot this year! I worked so hard to be well prepared for freely shopping and enjoying myself and I DID IT, go me!!!! I’m SO HAPPY because 95% of it was things on my amazon/ebay/christmas/birthday wishlists or bookmarked etsy shops so I feel like I had my own personal little christmas!!

I will do my best to list all the artists, so here’s a lowdown of each photo:

Row 1

Photo 1: The Moana/Lilo crossover, Tinkerbell, and FFX-2 Sunset Shimmer prints were by Skirtzzz! The Art Nouveau Steven Universe print was by @qnq​ ! The Lightning Fairy print is by Zeiva and I thiiiink the lilypad print was by @phaisty​ (i hope laughs i took the card out too early and forgot!! orz) 

Photo 2: I bought volumes 1-5 of houseki no kuni at the kinokuniya booth and store, the dvd set of princess tutu (we just finished it before we left) and a ahiruxfakir print by @veloursrose​ / ghostly goods!!  The small houseki print is by @robodumpling​ and the houseki stickers on top of it are by @ieafy​ !

Photo 3: Thennn we bought Bride’s Story 8 to add to Dye’s collection, a Morrigan noodle topper figurine (IN P2 COLORS?!) and a cool heart choker for Dye’s cosplay. The sailor moon print is by https://www.ashleyriot.com/ / JocelynAda! 

Row 2

Photo 4: The two artbooks I was hunting for; Smile Precure/Yes 5 Precure and Heartcatch/Doremi, and After Hours.

Photo 5: My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Kase-san vol 3,  a jupiter charm, and then a ton of little things you get a closer look at in photo 6.

Photo 6: The BJD eyes I bought are from deastar@etsy, and the ACNL + peridot stickers and Teto wood charm are by @sleevedraw ! The four pushpin pokemon are also by @ieafy, the fairy bottle pin is by kawaii-eek on etsy, and my new adorable bumblekitty charm is by @tastypeachstudios. alas, I cannot for the life of me remember who was selling the meringue charm (so if you recognize it hmu!!)

Row 3

Photo 7: one big houseki print i couldn’t get in the big picture (it was behind my SU print sharing a sleeve) but this one is by @nonomononano and a part of the @hnkcandyzine !

Photo 8: a photo of @dyemelikeasunset posing with their little goodie pile this year, including a alolan marowak charm that my sister gifted them!!!

Photo 9: and the items that were bought for @caiterprince all together!!! (sorry it’s so blurry YwY) <3

whew that took a while but i didn’t want to post it until I had all the credits in place so there you go <33

[littlestspider]

Hello! I haven't updated in a little while! I've been busy lately. Working lots (as always) and preparing for the holidays. Some recent updates:

It snowed last week! Like, a lot. They told us we would get maybe an inch or two. Instead we got an entire foot! It was super wonderful. I ended up having to walk a mile in it just to get to my apartment complex because the hill to get in was completely impassable by car. We also lost power for a good 18 hours. But I looooooved it!!!! I wish it would snow like that all the time. I'll post pictures eventually!

I also decorated the apartment and made it all festive. I've been feeling REALLY Christmas-y this year. I put up decorations and lights and we all put the ornaments on the tree and it's all so cute. I also got a frasier fir candle (since our tree is fake) which makes the apartment smell amazing. Christmas stuff has been making me really happy!

I also started a new town on ACNL and have become re-obsessed with it. I'd forgotten how calming it is. Between it and Pocket Camp I've been playing a looooot of Animal Crossing. It's been helping my anxiety a lot.

This week I'm finally getting my nose pierced! I've wanted it for a couple of years and I finally decided to just go for it. @cutiebi and I are going together to each get one for our birthdays (mine's an early present to myself). I'm very excited!

That's everything I can think of. I hope everyone else is doing well!

[nerdymaxie-blog]

Ah, greatly apologize for being inactive. Just highly nervous and shy. Please go wish @cheapkrabs a happy birthday for March 10 they turn 16 (I think! Or 15? Sorry if I am incorrect!) Posting early in case I end up busy or knocked out.

They are shy, and like gamzee/caliborn, bumble bees, venture bros, ACNL, frogs. They have an OC called Kyle that is absolutely waaaaacky and gets into all sorts of craaaazy weed adventures with Ryder. Hoo boi, wonder what that zany Kyle is up to now.

Tl;dr, IOU on a gift art! Sorry for the lateness, trying to reteach myself how to draw. Happy birthday and hope your day goes well!

[dandelliongirl]

It’s May!

And I’ve been so sick.

So basically it started on the 16th of April when I went in to get a mole on my back looked at. I thought they were going to just examine it and we’d book a different time for the actual operation if it needed to be removed. Well, they said they’d remove it immediately and it wasn’t until the knife was on my back that the doctor cared to mention that I couldn’t move my back for 2 weeks until the stitches get removed. Well, I had a bunch of ballet rehearsals and a recital and my own students had their recitals so yay? Obviously I had also gone to the doctor’s office by bike and with a backpack so coming back was quite difficult. I managed to make my way to work for a few hours until the local anesthesia wore off and it started to hurt a lot. I cannot believe how people go through liposuctions or breast lifts and live to tell the tale.. I only had a tiny 5cm scar with a few stitches and it hurt so bad. I also didn’t want to take painkillers because I was afraid I would tear my scar open if I forgot about the pain. Anyway for the next four or so nights I had to sleep on my stomach and that wasn’t great.

I guess the stress from the mole removal combined with the lack of sleep made a flu flare up. I had a practical training for understanding and supporting motor development difficulties the next day and that was also interesting with an aching scar on my back. On Wednesday I started getting fever aches but had meetings and work to do so I relied on flu medication and kept going despite feeling miserable. Naturally that was a horrible idea since my flu kept getting worse and it dragged on for almost 2 weeks. On Sunday the 22nd I lost my voice completely after teaching my dance classes. I know I’ve “lost my voice” in the past but that just means you sound croggy and your throat hurts. This time literally nothing came out of my mouth even if I tried to scream. Naturally I had a job interview the next day and with gargling salt water, steam breathing with herbs and eating honey with a spoon I managed to cough out a few words for the interview. Probably won’t get the job though but at least I got interviewed out of a total of 80 applicants - which is amazing considering my age and experience. Regardless after that interview I had to go bring some printouts to a course that was starting and make sure everything was okay with them, and after that I cancelled everything for the rest of the week. I didn’t go to ballet on Monday but had to go on Tuesday because I’ve already missed 3 weeks of spring recital rehearsals. I had to cancel a meeting and office work from tuesday, another meeting from thursday and a substitute gig from thursday evening. I stayed in, drank insane amounts of ginger tea and laid on the sofa feeling miserable. On Wednesday me and mum went to visit grandmum in the hospital because she fell and fractured her spine.. Luckily she can walk and everything so no mobility was lost but she’s in a lot of pain and obviously the quality of physiotherapy isn’t great over there and she’s already old and has a hard time moving around so it isn’t looking too great.. If only she managed to keep moving despite the pain and didn’t get completely stuck in bed. I brought her some of my favourite books to keep her company while she recovers.. Poor grandmum ♥

I spent my birthday on Thursday the 26th silent and miserable but at least I had a friend come over to play ACNL with me for a bit. Needless to say other than that it was a pretty sad birthday..

On Friday I had my voice somewhat return but that only gave way for an insane cough and a near continuous nosebleed. My friend came over again to play ACNL and I had ballet in the evening. The entirety of Saturday was spent at our dance recital for the international day of dance. I went to buy groceries in the morning and then we rehearsed our staging and lights at 14:10, had a dress rehearsal at 15:00 and a show at 17:00. We had to stay until the end because we all got a rose and had to wait for that. We also satyed behind to take lots of pictures so it wasn’t until 8-ish at night that I was back home. And yup, the recital was bad because of my cough but I managed and had fun with my friends.

On Sunday my 7-9 year olds performed their Waltz of the Hours from Coppelia. I tried to save my voice in the mommy and me class before that and somehow managed to address the parents of my little ballerinas and wish everyone a happy summer. It all went surprisingly well though and one of my two groups is now on summer vacation. My other class performs next Sunday.

As my cough started getting better and there was less snot coming out of every orifice of my body the gums on top of my bottom right wisdom tooth got insanely inflamed and sore. It hurt all the way to my jaw bone and I couldn’t swallow or make any facial expressions. Even coughing hurt a lot and I had to constantly be on painkillers. Sunday through Tuesday was very painful but now it’s subsided into a dull ache that flares up when I eat or open my mouth. I just want to be healthy again and this experience has been really eye opening in regard to those with chronic pain or illnesses. I’m this miserable and weak from 3 weeks of stitches, a damn common cold and a tooth ache so my heart really goes out to those people who have to suffer day in and day out...

I woke up early on Monday to wash my toilet and vacuum the house because I’ve had to neglect everything during my sickness. then I went to get my stitches removed and I thought that would mean that I’m in the clear with my back but nope. Obviously now that the stitches are gone it’s at a high risk of ripping open and I still have to spend a couple of weeks not bending my back or lifting heavy stuff. I also need to apply a silicone cream on it for 90 days to help the scar so that it forms normally and doesn’t become a keloid scar since my body tends to do that. Anyway I spent the rest of Monday with my (pretty much only) university classmate and my friend who came to play ACNL with me and go shopping for May Day (Labor day) in the evening.

May 1st was spent celebrating. My tooth hurt real bad and the weather was cold and rainy so that we couldn’t go out for a picnic this year. I didn’t even wear my graduation cap or student overalls, which is kind of sad since it was my last labor day as a university student (unless I go back in for a PhD).. Anyway my ACNL friend and two other friends from high school came over, we made pizza and played Amiibo Festival. We also played some card games and finished off the evening with some awesome cards against humanity shenanigans. I had a lot of fun even though it didn’t really feel like May 1st because of the weather. Spring is super late this year.

Today I’ve written a job application (like I tend to do at least once a week..) and paid my rent. I’m trying to get back into playing the piano and I’m enjoying it a lot. I just feel like I need to revise a lot of my scales and chords because all my favourite songs tend to be in C major and I’ve pretty much forgotten everything else. I also have very little patience for learning new songs which sucks. I keep learning the start of a new song and then getting bored. I want a job so that I can afford a piano tutor or classes again... I want to get better. My guy’s little sister is an insanely talented singer and she plays the guitar really well and so I wish music could be an even bigger part in my life as well. I admire her a lot but at the same time it makes me sad knowing that I have no talent for such (or for anything else for that matter) and even if I did learn something cool I’d never want anyone to hear. It’s like I want recognition but I’m terrified of people knowing about me and this is a bad combination. Anyway for now I just want to play because it’s fun and it makes me feel accomplished.

I’m attending a website training for work tomorrow morning and going to the office after that. I’m a bit scared since it’s been a couple of weeks and I bet there’s a ton of stuff that’s been piling up. I just have to think about the money, especially now that I won’t get paid from my summer job until the end of June, and I need something to pay June’s rent with... Overall this is a pretty chill week and I’m happy about that. I need to make this a chill month since it’s practically my summer vacation.

[basicgrayson]

I had a nice birthday. I spent the early afternoon at home just lounging around with my cats. I played some Splatoon, and I think I'm getting better at it. I also played ACNL for a while. Fang, Roald and Kitt threw my birthday party, and I got gifts in the mail from Lopez and Mitzi. Everyone on Pocket Camp also wished me a Happy birthday, and apparently Eloise has the same birthday I do.

Once my partner got out of work, he and I picked up my mom and we went out for dinner. We had shrimp, crab and lobster, and it was all very delicious. Then we went to Target and my mom got me almost the entire set of DuckTales Funko Pops as a birthday gift. Unfortunately, they didn't have my favorite triplet, Dewey, but I've already ordered him from Amazon and I should have a complete set tomorrow!

All in all, I had a nice time. Definitely more pleasant than yesterday. I'm glad my partner and my mom were able to celebrate with me.

[dandelliongirl]

Weeks

fly by.

But at the same time I’m getting a lot done and days feel long. I like it that way.

I spent the weekend of the 9th-11th at our summer house with mum and dad. Dad and I visited my twin cousins for their 18th birthday party on Saturday. It’s so weird, we watched videos from their christening and first three birthdays and here they are all grown up... I’m glad we got to hang out and talk again, my cousins should be coming to visit us during the summer and we might visit them as well since my guy is leaving for his exchange year soon.

At the summer house I cleaned up my own little cottage and we reorganized it to the way it was when I was younger. I loved being there again. There was one year when the air holes were left shut and the air got really musty, but now it has been all good and it’s once again good to sleep in. I hosted a little tea party to some of my toys that live there at the tiny pink cottage.♥

It rained on Sunday so we came back to town. Monday was spent with studies, laundry and tidying up. It was a cold and rainy day so I burnt some candles, drank heaps of ginger tea to get rid of my cough and watched TV. Grandmum came to stay the night with me and so I got to talk to her during the evening. I watched all of Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s E3 stuff - and no Animal Crossing for the Switch (yet)... Assassin’s Creed looks pretty good so far - I’m cautiously optimistic about it. As for Anthem I (as well as all other fans) hope it will have the signature BioWare squad characters and an actual story with RPG choices and not just a multiplayer sandbox. Not too keen on it yet.

I went to the office on Tuesday morning to take care of some work stuff before me, granny and mum went to visit granny’s childhood home and put flowers on the family graves. It was cold and rainy but we got things done and stopped by for some tea in a local bakery.

On Wednesday I studied Japanese with my friend, went to pick up my ACNL butterfly dress for this summer’s casual cosplay from the post office and tried to get my internet connections sorted out. It turned out to be more complicated than I thought but it should be all taken care of now. I still need to make sure it gets fixed but all in all I should have a lot cheaper internet connection next month.

On Thursday I studied Japanese again, and prepared for a new photoshoot for our photography project. My friend came over for a makeup/clothing test, we finished up ME2 and finally started playing ME3. I took mum to the train station and took her car with me so that me and my friend could go to the cottage on Friday. We bought a baguette, some cream cheese and bananas with us and spent a good couple of hours in the birch forest. The photoshoot turned out to be completely different from what we had planned because of the lighting conditions and everything that happened but we had fun and from what I’ve seen the photos are pretty cute. We did some scouting for our next location, sat on the little dock with our feet in the water and did some sunbathing after the photoshoot. Then we drove back to town to continue with ME3.

On Saturday mum came back from her work trip and I picked her up from the train station. We drove her colleague home and went to buy some food for the summer house and some pizza and ice cream for the ride there. The weather was beautiful and my mango froyo was delicious.☼ At the summer house I went to the sauna, we ate dinner and I went to bed in my little pink cottage. ♥ I slept until 11am on Sunday and after I had breakfast we packed up, cleaned up and came to town since it was rainy. I played a bit of DAI and for dinner I made some waffles with whipped cream and strawberry jam because I can. My guy made nachos in the evening, and I watched Mischacrossing’s stream again. I also played a bunch of Happy Home Designer. It’s starting to be a lot more fun now that I’ve unlocked a majority of the items. It was boring picking out the same five items for every single house but now it’s interesting and an actual creative outlet. Much like the sims but in handheld mode and with cute Animal Crossing characters.

This morning I woke up early to go to the office. I’ve gotten a lot more extra hours for the summer - which is super good. I bought ME: Andromeda from the Origin summer sale since it was only 30€ as opposed to the regular 60€ price and I would buy it in September anyway. Aside from MEA I’ve spent a lot of money on food, clothes and just household stuff so I was definitely getting concerned about my financial situation for the summer. I need to apply for housing aid as soon as my guy gets his address changed since he won’t be living with me next year. In any case I’m happy to take on more hours at the office and won’t be refusing any extra money. And I’m going to try and live off of other people’s food (i.e. my guy and my parents’) until my next paycheck trying to keep my costs at a minimum.

After doing a good 5 hours at the office my dad and I went to take care of my internet provider stuff. I came back to do some JLPT revision and then we attended my apartment building’s housing cooperative meeting. I became a board member there, which should be interesting. I might even get the parking spaces in the yard repainted, or at least that’s my goal.

It’s warm and almost feels like a thunderstorm might come. Going to work on my thesis and JLPT tomorrow morning before a meeting at 1pm. Seeing my kindergarten friend in the evening - I’m not even sure if we’ve seen each other yet in 2017... Got a insurance company appointment and a meeting on Wednesday, as well as my first summer ballet class. A Japanese study date on Thursday and midsummer celebrations for the weekend. A super busy week but that means a lot of stuff is done and taken care of after clearing this. Midsummer weathers look pretty bad so far but my family is probably going to our summer house in any case so I’m probably tagging along.

Might also get a bunny friend soon... Exciting!

[dandelliongirl]

It’s been

three weeks.

Wow I’ve been both busy and lazy.

So Eurovision, right? That’s where I left off. I had an amazing evening with two homemade pizzas all to myself and a bottle of disgusting non-alcoholic wine. I loved Portugal’s song and it was one of my favourites. Actually all of top 3 were according to my list so it was definitely a good result. Now I also have many new songs that I actively listen to.

I spent Mother’s day with mum and dad. We went to the cottage and I got to work on my landscape and macro photography. Mum and dad assembled the little pier/dock for the summer and I went around taking photos. We came back as it started getting cloudier. I started working on a post-BoTW fic. I have a lot of issues with the writing and story of that game, some of which obviously come from the genre and can’t really be fixed because the story is completely optional but I kind of want to put my spin on the story a little bit and take the headcanons from my head onto paper. I still haven’t finished my post-TP or SS fics either so we’ll see what happens with this one but it’s not like I publish my fics anymore so...

On Monday I worked on school stuff and ACNL. I also cleaned the house a bit. In the evening my guy took me to see Kimi no Na Wa. It wasn’t my favourite, mostly because I couldn’t relate to either of the protagonists on any level. I was impatient and couldn’t wait for the movie to end. It just wasn’t for me even though most people seem to love it and usually I’m all up for time travel stuff. Anyway after the movie my guy’s sister came over. We stayed up until 2am talking and watching stupid YouTube videos. I can’t believe she’s graduating high school in a week!

On Tuesday I walked my guy’s sister to uni entrance exams and went to do my office hours while she was taking the test. Then we walked back and spent a few hours hanging out at the apartment. Then she went to visit some family friends for a night. I went to a housing cooperative meeting and rushed off to ballet. The dance mat was completely ruined and wrinkly so we couldn’t do anything with our pointe shoes on so we scheduled some extra rehearsal time on stage for Wednesday morning.

We had to be on stage at 8:15am. Our dress rehearsal started at 8:30 and the show at 10. It was over in a flash but it was pretty tiring to do two pointe choreos almost back to back. We did our Coppélia variation and then me and my friend performed Pearls in the same outfits. After the show I came bcak to the apartment and worked on school stuff again. I revised for my methods exam and my guy played DAI. His sister came back over to spend the night with us.

My guy’s sister went to another exam on Thursday morning. I went to study Japanese with my friend and then we had lunch together. I had a sort of an exam and self-evaluation/peer evaluation class for Methods. I hated every second of it but at least it’s over now. We had to write an essay and then evaluate and grade ourselves. Then we graded ourselves for the rest of the course and then we took a break before evaluating course assignments in groups. Then we discussed the course and how to improve it in the future. It was a really tiring experience spending four hours in methods class.. After class me, my guy and his friend played some BoTW before I had to go to my last ballet class. We had our last rehearsal with lights and clothes and the camera crew checking angles and edits.

On Friday I had my last master’s thesis seminar. We went through the last seminar paper and then gave feedback on the course. Our teacher also told us about finishing the thesis itself and we discussed employment and future plans together. It was stressful and I think it has really hit home that in a year from now I have to have a plan of sorts. Right now I have three options: either to stay at the uni and get a PhD in history, study to become a dance teacher or get a degree in education management. If none of these work out for me or if I don’t feel like studying any more after finishing my MA thesis I need to start job hunting after Christmas. Super scary.. I have some serious soul searching to do over these next few months.. Anyway the rest of Friday was spent relaxing and mentally celebrating the end of the academic year. I also picked up a new internet modem from the post office and prepared everything for the weekend’s dance shows.

Saturday was a full day. I went to dress rehearsals at 11 and got out around 2pm. I had some lunch, took a shower and put on my hair and makeup for another dress rehearsal at 5:30pm and a show at 7:30pm. We did Pearls for the last time, and it went pretty well.♥ After the show I listened to a concert that was happening out on our street right opposite from my livingroom window. It was a warm and summer-y day and we had a city festival with lots of events and lots of people outside. I also Facetimed my parents.

On Sunday I had two shows; at 3pm and at 6pm. At 12 I went downtown to pick up a flower for our teacher on behalf of the whole group and I had to be on stage at 2:15pm for a last minute check. Mum and dad watched the 3pm show from their AirBnB apartment and I hear granny watched the show as well. ♥ Makes me happy. Both shows went pretty well, although there was some drama between them. My guy was out getting his car back up and running and him and I were supposed to go look for a new phone for me inbetween my shows. Well he was an hour late and I was super pissed off since I had hurried off stage, handed my responsibilities to my friend and skipped the end of the show where all dancers come on stage to receive applause. I ended up sitting outside for an hour and giving up. I was seething with rage and it really screwed with my performance. My friend ended up covering for me in the second show as well. My guy did drive me and my friend over to her place and we dropped her off at the bus station though.

So this Monday my guy and I went to get me a new phone. The Huawei Honor 8 lite was on sale for 199€ and since it was under the 200€ budget I had set for myself I had to get it. The entire day was spent on configuring everything and learning how to use it. So far it has been a very good phone but honestly my old one was so bad that you don’t need much for the new one to be an improvement. It’s dark blue though so I’m desperate for my case to arrive because I can’t find it. My old phone was bright pink with a bright blue case so it was easy to spot and this one is dark and flat and sneaky. I had a dance feedback discussion with my teacher at 5:15pm and I went off to another housing cooperative meeting that started at 6pm. This was a long and tedious one, and there was this one asshole who saw fit to nitpick over every single detail of the printed materials. I was out of there after 8pm-ish and went to pick up my friend from the park. She came over to test hairdos for a wedding she’s attending this weekend. We played ME2 while I did her hair.

On Tuesday morning we went shopping. It was a sunny day so I decided to screw thesis-writing since there’ll be lots of rainy days to waste on that stuff. It did give me anxiety to throw away my plans like that but at the same time it felt kind of nice to spend a sunny day with a friend. We spent a good hour or so at the park eating take-away salads and soaking in the sun and warmth.☼ We came back to the apartment, I dyed my friend’s hair and curled it for the official hairdo test. We ended up going for two simple waterfall braids combined in the back with corkscrew curls. In the evening my friend went for the movies and I got a really big anxiety attack from skipping my responsibilities and throwing away my plans on two consecutive weekdays. I did check my emails on Tuesday morning but I hadn’t even looked at my calendar and I realized how much stuff I had left to do. I had to do something to feel productive so I scrubbed our bathroom basically from floor to ceiling for no other reason than - well yes it was dirty but I felt like I needed to do some form of actual work.

On Wednesday I was really productive. I went to study Japanese with my friend at 9 and to a meeting at 11. Then I went to the office to delegate a bunch of my work to our intern. She is a real angel since I was just realizing how badly I was drowning in work. I’m spending two full workdays next week at an event so I won’t be at the office at all and she is a huge help in doing office stuff for me. ♥ It took me until 6pm before I was back at the apartment.

Mum and dad came back from Hungary late Tuesday/early Wednesday. Their flight was postponed because of a broken weather radar on the plane and a huge storm. The electricity was cut at the airport security and water flooded in through the ceiling. Apparently subways in the city were not operational either because of all the water. Anyway after Wednesday’s office day I biked over to spend the evening with mum. We went for a bit of a run in the warm sunny summer weather, did some Pilates workouts and went to the sauna. I’ve really taken to heart spending the few sunny and warm days outdoors and saving thesis writing for the inevitable rain and gloom. I wasn’t back at the apartment until 10pm -ish. Mum got me a super cute almost tie-dye -ish lace dress and I love it!

Today I caught up on my thesis writing for this week - finally. What a relief. It was also rainy and colder today so it was fitting. Around 1pm my friend came over and we played ACNL until around 6pm. She gave me three of my dream villagers as a late birthday gift. I got Chevre, Carmen and Annalisa. She also got us Felicity to share and a bunch of cards of her own that she can scan in using my NFC reader. Even my guy played ACNL with us and we went on a bunch of island tours together. ♥ ♥ ♥ I worked on Sonetia’s layout/landscaping and I’ve decided where I want to put Carmen’s house. I’m replacing Henry with Carmen, Lolly with Chevre and probably Pekoe or Melba with Annalisa. Then all I need is Merengue but she’s expensive and hard to find. Also Marshal but I already have a piece of land set out for Merengue, which is currently empty. I did some reconfiguring with my paths to get a little plantation going. I finished my illuminated tree project and next I’m either building the scarecrow or taking down the fence to get Carmen to move in. I’m also doing lots of gardening to get some more hybrid flowers to decorate town with.

My guy made some dinner and me and my friend baked chocolate brownies with mocha frosting. They didn’t turn out that great but at least the taste was on point. We played BoTW for a while and then she left. I’ve been typing this catchup blog post for at least an hour now.. I really hope I have more free evenings now so that I can blog more often. This is such a special time in my life and I don’t want to forget a single day... I find it super sad that even a week or two is enough for me to forget lots of details and events. I want to come back to this day, the 25th of May, Ascension day, in the future and remember that I had the best time playing ACNL with my friend.

So yup, spending tomorrow doing JLPT stuff and playing ACNL. Doing my friend’s hair for the wedding on Saturday morning but other than that it’s a free weekend. Finally! I need time off after the past few weeks.

[dandelliongirl]

More or less

back in action.

What a crazy two weeks it was! Unforgettable in the best of ways ♥

Mum came over to stay with me and dad last weekend. We went to see the ladies race on Saturday, and I joined mum for the awards ceremony. On Sunday I had a day off so me and mum went to watch the latter half of the men’s 50km race. It was an unforgettable day. The sun shone warmly and we went to the forest stands to cheer for the skiiers. Mum bought me a crepe, and we got to cheer with the audience as we took 3rd place! Such an almost unbareably exciting moment! We drove back home in the evening, and stopped to buy groceries on the way.

Needless to say that after a two weeks absence from everything getting back to work and studies was a bit of a struggle. I noticed how fast my deadlines were approaching and had to do some serious planning and scheduling to survive. I had very little freetime all week.

On Monday I watched a video lecture, worked on my thesis and my game development essay. I went to work and to a meeting with the board of the organization I teach dance for. I was chosen as the secretary, which gave me a few added tasks such as compiling meeting records and updating our documents. That kind of threw me off the loop on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I watched a lecture and went to the office on Tuesday. I had a whole bunch of IT issues but after an hour I got to actually log on to the computer and do work. In the evening I did some reading for methods class but was extremely tired. My two weeks at the world championships was basically a vacation, but even so I didn’t really take a single day off apart from the last Sunday.

I had ballet class in the evening, and turns out I have to learn a duet variation by the end of April. Me and my friend chose the pearls’ variation from the Little Humpbacked Horse and she’s already been ordering costumes online. It’ll be super cute even though it’s a bit of extra burden on my spring semester. ♥ My friend is also moving away next summer, so it’ll be kind of a farewell choreo for us...

On Wednesday I stayed at home working on my thesis, game dev essay and methods essay as well as seminar comments. My friend from high school and my guy’s current classmate visited, and they worked on physics homework. I got a bar of chocolate from my guy for women’s day, and our friend gave me a coffee/tea ticket to the uni café! How sweet! In the evening me and my guy lay on the sofa watching animal videos on YouTube.

Thursday was busy. I woke up early to watch some video lectures for game dev class and work on my thesis. So far thesis work has been going really well. I’ve gotten some good results from my analysis so far, and I’m really proud of it already. Let’s hope I don’t get crushed or sutuck in a rut at some point.. We had a double methods class with a visiting lecturer. Nobody really understood the reading materials that he sent us beforehand and I was afraid it would be super awkward. Luckily he loved to monologue and a few of us had actual questions for him so we survived the almost 4 hour torture. The second part of the lecture was a lot more entertaining, so time went by reasonably quick. I came back to the apartment to plan Friday’s dance classes for my students and rush off to ballet in the evening.

By Friday I was exhausted from the week. Our study group met for the last time and we tried to finish up our report. It didn’t exactly work out as well as I had planned, mainly because my guy hadn’t finished any of his work. It stresses me out so much to know that it’s going to cut really close to the deadline but what can I do... I just have to wait and kick him into finishing his part. Friday’s thesis seminar was bad. The poor guy whose seminar work we were commenting on is super bad at taking feedback, and his work sucked majorly. We tried to stay positive but eventually our teacher flat out told him he wouldn’t succeed unless he started taking feedback seriously, and fixed the issues in his text. For a nonconfrontational person like me that was a pretty awkward situation to be in, but I’m glad our teacher was strict with him. I was really annoyed by his dismissive attitude. I didn’t read and write down comments on this 20 pages for you to laugh it off? I’m trying to help improve your grade, at least respect it.

Anyway after my seminar I came back to continue writing the report. My guy had bought me a veg burger. ♥ I had to rush off to work and I didn’t even have my parent-child dance group’s spring show CD with me so we had to practice without music. Other than that (and a terrible tantrum for one of the kids which embarrassed the mother more than it inconvenienced me), work went great. I went home to eat dad’s baked potatoes and salmon filling and take a shower. Mum took me back to the apartment where I played a bit of ACNL. My friend finally got her copy and I’m so excited to have a friend who plays the game. She got wifi to work on her 3DS so we could finally visit each other’s towns and it was a lot of fun. ♥

After 9 I met up with my friend in the corner store. She came over for the weekend to play DAI and Mass Effect with me to celebrate both her and my birthdays. We bought chicken nuggets and mozzarella sticks, and came to eat and play DAI. I watched the Pax East stream of Mass Effect Andromeda while she played. It was past 5am when we went to bed and didn’t actually go to sleep until around 6am, but we had tons of fun finishing up Trespasser with her inquisitor - finally.

On Saturday we went to buy some groceries. We made veggie soup and bread rolls with carrot. We played a bit of Mass Effect 1, she went for a quick excursion to her boyfriend’s parents’ place and I edited my and grandmum’s poem project. My friend came back around 8pm. We baked a delicious carrot cake and continued playing ME1 until 3am. We talked a bit about dreams and nightmares but I was super exhausted so I passed out pretty soon.

This morning we snoozed the alarm and stayed in bed scrolling instagram until almost 1pm. We had a bit of breakfast and started up ME1 again. For dinner we made some pizza, and I got to play ACNL for a few hours visiting dream towns and doing some landscaping in Sonetia♪ for the first time in a while. We continued playing ME1 until 9pm -ish and then she left. So yeah, we sat gaming for the entire weekend, stayed up late/early, ate a ton, talked and laughed. It was amazing and much needed after a tough week at school and work. I feel so blessed and happy even though I’m incredibly sleep deprived :)

I finished editing the material for the poetry project and copied an early version of it on a CD. I’m going to take it to granny next week so she can listen to it, make comments and decide on a name for it. I need her to write an intro text for it and we need to decide on a cover picture as well. But at least we have a concrete CD now and it’s awesome! Some of the poems hit so hard on granny’s own life and she’s an amazing artist so I teared up several times while editing. I have one blooper track saved on my computer for times when I feel like crying.  It’s rough to edit stuff this emotional, personal and important to me, but I’d do it a hundered times over for my granny ♥ She truly means the world to me, as do each and every one of our artistic projects together over the years.

My guy is still at his friend’s working on his studies. He’s been working incredibly hard this past few weeks to arrange things for his exchange year and get enough study credits to get his financial support back up again. I’m incredibly proud of him. He’s also holding out on Breath of the Wild, and won’t start it until the start of April even though he’s getting his Nintendo Switch next week.

I’m probably going to call it a night, it is past midnight after all. Another busy week with two written works to complete.. Man I’m tired - but emotionally well rested after my girls’ gaming weekend.. ♥