This weekend flew by!!!! Maybe because I was out of the house so much? idk. The unicorn kigus for my nuis finally arrived, so I just had to get them new accessories ;D


including a second miniature shopping cart to go with the one I already own, so they can each have one ;D
Seriously, it was a weekend of going places so I could get them things XD We went to Towson Towne Centre on Friday- partially to drop off my ps2 at the retro game store for repairs and partially to look at Claire's for accessories. The unicorn kigus are a different aesthetic than their other ones, so of course they need new stuff. I'm trying to go for more of a cutesy deco look to match the brighter colors, which is a little harder to make with just stuff I have sitting around the house.

We also swung by Ebisu (again) to look for cute stuff + get more snacks and then got bubble tea, because what is my life if not a quest for more excuses to get bubble tea? Gong Cha is doing a collab with Line right now and I got a free keychain with purchase, which goes really well with my ita bag imho.

On Saturday, Liz wasn't feeling well, so Pat and I went questing for nui accessories!!!! I had seen something cute in Claire's the night before but couldn't make up my mind before closing time, so we tried going to the Claire's in Security Square Mall by our house. Key word: tried. Apparently, that location has been closed for over a year but no one updated Google or Yelp :T

So!!!! Onwards, to perhaps the most overstimulating place in the world: Arundel Mills Mall. It's sooooooooooooo stressful and way too huge and I fucking love it XD I gotta remember to take my Bakura and Marikku nuis with me someday so I can take pictures of them at the Ancient Egyptian-themed movie theater...I just keep forgetting until I'm at the mall itself.

BUT FUTURE NUI ADVENTURES ASIDE. Liz wasn't there to watch us, so Pat and I were drawn in by the siren call of the Books-A-Million...the manga section called to us!!! I grabbed the newest volume of the P5 manga + Fangs volume 3 - someday I'll get a hold of volume 2, but Tokyopop fucking hates me I guess!!! - and Pat got the first volume of The Summer Hikaru Died (which I think I'm gonna steal and read too).

And then the fucking Lindt store got me!!!!!!!! They were handing out free samples and I can never resist a good piece of chocolate...plus I'd been meaning to check them out for awhile. I used to love picking up a few truffles + a decadent drink from the Godiva store, and I've missed it ever since they closed all their stores ;w; The Lindt store does have fancy drinks, but I hadn't eaten proper food before heading out so I didn't try them- this time. I did get a small bag of truffles, though ;D

I also managed to get all the way to the food court and feed myself without throwing a tantrum, despite being wildly overstimulated and achy...since of course I forgot to take my meds, too. Pat and I were both like "shit we should celebrate, this won't happen again" XD

OH WAIT I SKIPPED OVER THE MOST IMPORTANT STORE!!!! Rumi Life, aka the adorable stationary/accessories/home goods/etc store!!!!!!!! I got a miniature shopping cart there a year or so ago because I couldn't resist it, and I figured they might have some stuff for my nuis. And they did; I got a clip on bow for Madara and another shopping cart. This one is also a scooter! tbh the nuis are great because now I have an excuse for all the cute shit I always wanna buy ♥ I use it for them~~~~


you just know I had to take the boys with me, into the desolate wasteland of a dying store~
Today we all went out to Joanns....our location isn't quite closed yet but it's definitely winding down ;w; Since it's one of the last ones, they keep getting shipments from the warehouse/stores that closed already, which is how we managed to score a great deal on a Cricut EasyPress in its largest size :D Pat's wanted one for awhile and tbh I'm excited for it, since I'm still having nightmares from carefully ironing on all that gold heat transfer vinyl to Double Face's Last Mission coats. This thing has precise temperature control, so it'll make things much easier in the future :D

We grabbed dinner at Red Robin + more cat food for Lumos, since we now have to keep her stocked on expensive wet food. I love her dearly, but girl. She's killing my wallet XD

Oh and then we got ice cream!!! Liz had wanted a milkshake at Red Robin but they were kinda overpriced + we had many more errands at the time, so we ended up swinging by one of our favorite places on the drive home. I'm always ready to fuckin CRUSH one of those soft serve + butterfingers blended things, and they're the best place to get them (especially since Sonic stopped carrying butterfingers for some reason).


( come see more nui pictures from the weekend~~~~~ )

I'm also not feeling great today :T Liz has been feeling sick all weekend (and also the end of the work week, honestly) and I'm worried that I caught it. I know I'm a house spouse at this point, but ever since I had covid a second time I've had so much trouble with being sick. If I get sick, I stay sick for longer than anyone else in the household. I used to shake things within a couple days, and now it takes weeks- sometimes months ;w;

So basically I'm just nervous that I'm gonna be sick for the next month, since that's what keeps happening to me. I'm really not looking forward to it...FINGERS CROSSED I'm not actually sick, or I can at least get over it quickly.

HELL YEAHHHHH THE ENGLISH SERVER GOT THE UPDATE AND MY PROFILE LOOKS SO COOL!!!! Plus I got the new titles that you only get if you've gotten every achievement for a specific character...my months of grinding fans for Kohaku and Madara have paid off~~~


also I just love that you can more easily show off borders + text bubbles now...it's cute!
I went to Costco today, which usually isn't too bad when I go alone, since I'm quite efficient. But something about today was...worse?? Somehow????? I think because it suddenly got a lot warmer in the middle of the day...I dunno, I left feeling super rundown, and then I drove past the exit to get home...as if I've never driven home from that part of town before?????????????? I don't fucking know :T

But I got everything I needed there, so I win anyway!!!! I also managed to unload the fixture that was still in the car, because Pat and I took it apart and just left it there last night. We bought it from the Joanns that was closing this month and had to pick it up before today, so Pat and I went to get it yesterday...and taking it apart was quite the experience. Pat ended up having to partially break it to get it into pieces that would fit into the car, but we're pretty sure we can put it back together.

I got some good pictures of the nearly empty Joanns, though! I remembered to bring my nice camera, so I ended up using a Nikon D3000 + Pixel 8 Pro for ultimate versatility~ I still have to go through all of the, but from the in-camera previews, I got some nice shots :D

Anyway...I'm working on another icon tutorial :D I wanna revisit the sparkle icon tutorial I wrote in 2006, because I've definitely improved since then. Also, it was written for Photoshop CS2, and not all the functions are the same in modern Photoshop.

Writing tutorials just takes sooooooooooo long ;w; I'm trying to be thorough without writing 10k words or something...and sometimes it's hard to tell what counts as general knowledge of the software and what's more specialized that I need to explain. The "curse" of using something for over two decades XD

also I feel like I failed to make a properly "sparkly" icon as an example but WHATEVER

omg wait, I also had a very lucky discovery!!! While looking for something completely unrelated, I found a whole folder of Photoshop brushes I downloaded in like, 2005-2007? Most of them have already been imported into my main massive brush file, but now I can more easily check the credits for them. And there are definitely some that I never got around to, sooooooo it's a really cool find :D

...also I found seven different brush sets that I made in 2005 and have no memory of. Like. What???? I guess it's been 20 years, but I usually have a better idea of resources I've made, since it wasn't that many- or so I thought!!! I ended up condensing three sets of grunge border brushes into one and sharing it @ killiansicons, because what else was I gonna do with them? I'll probably share the rest eventually, I just have to go through them and make new previews.

OKAY NOW THAT I EATEN DINNER I FEEL LIKE I CAN DO THINGS!!!!! Onwards, to writing that tutorial~