Charlie Bears, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, LEGO, Other Toys

A Surprise! And More 🌈🌳

Leave a comment

This morning I woke up to the most wonderful surprise! 🥺 After our morning cuddles, Christopher told me to go check the door for a package. This was waiting outside for me! I can’t stop looking at it! 😭🌈✨🍪

Of the sets that appeal to my special interests this topped the list… I would have been so bummed to miss it, but I was fully resigned to that fact because I did not expect new sets for a while. I can’t wait to put this together with Christopher on another date night! 🥰

🎀 Marzi 🎀

During the recent effort to remove stuff out of storage and donate what we do not use, I came across my little Marzi. Marzi is my only “true” doll. I do not often post about her because I know that, unlike my teddies and dinos, many people find dolls creepy. 😔

So I had to make the decision, either display her properly or donate her no matter how much I love her, because it is a pity to keep such a beautiful, high-end dolly in a bin. I could not bear to part with her, so today I gave her a little TLC!

Her beautiful long hair was clean but a little frizzy so, following online advice, I combed it perfectly, wet it, combed it again, conditioned it, and combed it again.

I read I should let the conditioner dry hard before rinsing, so I did that. She was very patient!

I really love Marzi as much as my teddies… I wish people didn’t hate dolls so much or find them so creepy but I know it is nothing personal. 😅 I just love most toys though.

Soufflé kept her company and took selfies with her, I think he might have been flirting though. 😎

After I rinsed most of the conditioner off Marzi’s hair, Soufflé helped to comb it.

Here’s the end result! These two photos are very similar, but I wanted to properly show the ribbon on Marzi’s hair.

I love how poseable she is. She looks so cute with her little hands behind her back.

Marzi had actually been on display in my library for a long time. But when our partner moved in, I gave up my library (a very small sacrifice for the reward). A ton of my things got moved or donated, but Marzi went into semi-permanent storage. I’m really happy to have her out again.

Date Night, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, LEGO, My Hug, Trips And Outings

Breakfast Out + Date Night! 🥑🌈

Leave a comment

Mwako had to leave today. 😔 But before he did, we got to have one nice little goodbye breakfast together! 🌻 Then I was able to catch up on some housework, and in the late afternoon, Christopher and I played with LEGO again. It’s a really nice date night activity, and our partner even joined in for a little while after his nap. 🥰

🌞 First Watch Breakfast 🌞

I had never been to First Watch before! I wish we knew of it sooner. We really miss Metro Diner (ours shut down to become a funeral home, of all things) and this seems to be practically the same restaurant. Very similar menu and atmosphere. I can’t wait to have a little morning date with Christopher here.

I had avocado toast and grapefruit juice. The servings weren’t too big and the meal wasn’t otherwordly or anything, but it was good. I want to come again.

Mwako happened to snap a photo of me getting ready to snap a photo… 😄

I saw my friend off right after breakfast. Then I caught up on my blog and on my chores.

🚉 Date Night 🚉

After that came date night, and more LEGO fun was had! We put together our brand new freight train. Christopher was happier all throughout than I have seen him in a long time.

If I’d known how much he would enjoy this and how we would bond over it, I would have made it a priority in our lives and entertainment budget ages ago. I feel a bit sad in that regard over the lost time, but at least we can make up for it now.

Excited for the first test run!! 🚅

It’s really powerful and fast! 🤯

Here our partner took the controller. The scream is him. That, my friends, is the soundtrack of our lives, every day (and neither my husband nor I could live without it).

After this, they opened a pack of glow sticks that Mwako got for me as a little surprise and began to have fun with them…

I had to admit it looked pretty neat!

All in all it was a really wonderful day. I’m looking forward to having more fun this weekend!

Charlie Bears, 🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, My Hug

A Relaxing Afternoon 🌞🌈

Leave a comment

Today Mwako and I stayed home! It was a more relaxing sort of day. After I finished all my chores, we watched cartoons, colored, and made bead necklaces. I also played some Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX while Mwako took a short nap, and then he watched me play for a little while. Below are some photos I took!

🌈 Coloring ‘n Cartoons 🌈

Cartoons and coloring was our first activity! We watched Courage The Cowardly Dog, and Mwako colored giant Bluey coloring pages while I worked on (finally!) finishing my squirrel page:

Totodile helped!!

All done! This page took me forever. Now I have to laminate it.

At this point Mwako laid down for his nap. I played Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, and when he woke up again, he watched me play for a while. Then I did more chores and brought down all we needed to make stuffie bead necklaces!

🌈 Making New Name Necklaces! 🌈

I was overdue to make necklaces for Totodile, Beta, Ludwig, Soufflé, my pyroraptor Fajita, and my incoming polar bear, Igloo. I didn’t manage to finish them all, but I finished a few.

We had juice boxes and watched Franklin while having our fun with beads. Franklin is one of my all-time favorite “kiddy time” shows. Nothing makes me feel so small as watching this cartoon. It is so very lovingly done, and watching it on out giant CRT is a huge treat.

I know this CRT is on the way out, having occasional issues, and I have to say that now that the game room is looking so nice and neat, I really don’t want that to happen. 😞 I feel like I’d rather invest a little to keep it going longer. It doesn’t have the best picture, but it has that special something, particularly in this room.

Here is Mwako’s puppy, Patch, with his awesome new necklace!

And here he is showing off the page that he helped Mwako color:

For dinner I made panko-crusted chicken breast which turned out really good. I’ve started to add a little milk in my egg mixture for breading and the result is amazing. I went to bed fairly caught up with my chores.

Mwako goes home tomorrow, but tomorrow is date night. So it’ll be a day of chores and then spending time with my partners. By Friday I’ll be back to commission work!

🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, LEGO, Trips And Outings

More LEGO Fun! 😄

Leave a comment

Today Mwako and I went on another outing! We went to Sawgrass Mills and to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. In the afternoon, the three of us (Christopher, Mwako and I) put our LEGO sets together! I took some photos which you can see below.

🌈 At The LEGO Store 🌈

This location had some items I have not seen elsewhere, such as the Pooh set and the treehouse (the latter being very high on my list) as well as some neat sets put together and on display:

They also had these really cool LEGO statues. I loved the Bowser one, I’m a Bowser fan after all:

My biggest reason to want to go to the LEGO store again is that I wanted to create minifigs to represent me, my husband and our partner. They’re not perfect (well, our partner’s turned out pretty damn perfect) but they are hilarious. Mine has freckles so I need to update that at some point. And ideally get me some pants/skirt. Lol. Oh and I accidentally gave Christopher boobies. I was concentrating too hard on finding him a green top and didn’t realize it was a female torso. Whoops! 😁

I gave my minifig a croissant. She has a helmet but that is okay since Mwako got me a set with a bicycle. Christopher has a pizza and our partner has a toolbox:

🌈 Time To Build! 🌈

After Christopher got home from work, we sat down to put our sets together:

Mine was a tree with a picnic table, two squirrels, a bicycle and a little gardening cart of sorts!

Some close-ups…

My custom minifig on the bike! 😊

Here are all our sets put together!

Christopher riding his train!

Mwako is taking his aquarium home, of course. I put ours in the game room shelves:

Later this week for date night we will build even more. I can’t wait! It’s probably safe to say I have a new special interest… 😅 but I can share this one with my husband so it is all the more special.

🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, LEGO, My Hug

LEGO Store!! 🌈

Leave a comment

Today my friend Mwako and I went to the LEGO store! We got there very early and the store was empty except for this member of the armed forces completely engrossed in the “build your own” minifigs bin:

I guess we are all kids on the inside in the end. Warmed my heart. Maybe he was shopping for his kids but he was so utterly absorbed that I like to think it was for himself.

Christopher asked me to take photos of all the sets I thought he would like. Ultimately I took pics of those and also of sets we could both do together.

The freight train is the one we got!

This one was simply amazing, SUPER high on my list!

These are more up my alley than his. So adorable!

Loved the Christmas sets… I know I’d build the Home Alone one every year!

Here’s a fantastic Star Wars display!

We are VIP members now!

Then it was time to eat! Here are our stuffie friends waiting for lunch with us… 🌈😋🐊🐶

Thai milk tea is here!

Lunch was bao buns. Very delicious! 🥟✨

Now it is time for a nap and some chores. Hope everyone is having a lovely day!

🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug

Mwako’s Here Again! 🦁

Leave a comment

My friend Mwako arrived today for his week-long visit! Today was a calm day, we had burgers for dinner and hung out, but first we went to take care of our friends’ dog and kitties, since they are traveling at this time. Mwako and Soufflé came along!

Here’s some pics of them: Louie, Tammy, and Sienna!

And a cautiously friendly stray in the neighborhood.

Back home, after dinner, we played giant UNO! Christopher thought it was extremely silly and complained a lot during shuffling. 😂

They were very unwieldy but we laughed a lot!

Afterwards, Mwako tried to stack the cards high!

A short moment of triumph before immediate disaster. RIP 💀

Now I am very tired and off to bed. Hoping we can go to the mall and the LEGO store tomorrow!

📓 Ramblings 📓

JUST WALK OUT: you can leave!!

…except, of course, when you can’t.

I’m sure you have seen the (pretty wholesome) meme I am referencing above. It’s very popular on Twitter, a reminder of the constant dread and anxiety shared by everyone using the site. Twitter is absolutely horrible, yet we feel like we can’t step away, to the point its users constantly remind themselves and each other that YES, you can leave the site, just log off, it’s okay. Sometimes nicely (as in this meme) and sometimes harshly (go touch grass/you’re terminally online/etc).

But few of us do. When we do, we come back rejuvenated, singing the praises of having touched said grass for a few hours, or read a book, or walked the dog. We feel so much better! So why are we back? Above all, connection. Or work. Or both.

Recently I had another upsetting event, barely so if I’m honest, considering what I used to deal with. Yet it sent me in a terrible spiral. I spent hours muting words, until I hit the Twitter mute word limit (didn’t know there was such a thing).

When I was done, I felt no better. Instead all I had was the horrible nagging need to wipe my existence off of Twitter AGAIN, except now I know for a fact that if I do it, that is it. There is no more making a living from my art.

I know everyone is tired of these gripes. It’s always the same. I’m really sorry. It’s just that this site is hurting me. No matter what I do, how many hours a day I block it. It’s hurting me.

A couple of years ago I deleted Twitter entirely, wiped all my accounts, and I felt so much better. I had a lot less work though and that sucked. But my brain worked better. I got better. I legitimately do not know what to do.

I want to be able to keep drawing. I hope I figure something out eventually.

🐌 My Pets 🐌, Snails

Snail Pool Party! 🐌💦

Leave a comment

The snails were having a social gathering last night. They love soaking in fresh water!

My apologies. I didn’t notice the snail’s extended peepee. It was that kind of party, I guess!

Here is one of my deeply-buried snails coming out just enough to eat. The rest of their body was still buried. I thought it was so cute. 🥬🐌

New snails are born! 🐌🍼

Bad picture because they are so small at this stage, but here is one up close! 🐌🍼

Marina's furry art, fantasy writing and daily life!