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.

Today, we made another pilgrimage to our Joanns ;w; I'm very attached to this particular Joanns, because it's the one I went to in college (the first time, so the late 00s) and then I lived basically across the street from it when I first moved back to Baltimore in 2016. It is THE Joanns for both times I've lived in this city, so it's the one that's hitting me hardest.

....to be fair, I haven't been up to Pittsburgh to visit the Monroeville Joanns, aka where I got my start with sewing & cosplay, because I'm just not ready yet. I'm gonna see if we can make a short trip up to say goodbye to it before it closes...but it's so hard to think about ;w;

ANYWAY. In an attempt to fight my depression over the bankruptcy, I had Liz take a couple fun pics of me in the fabric section of the Joanns. I wanna remember all the joy it brought me over the years ♥


also featuring my incredibly good Pusheen cape~
We'd gone with purpose, tho- Liz and I wanna make Kohaku and Madara's first feature scout outfits to wear to DC's Sakura Matsuri this year, and what better time to pick up fabric than during....the closing........sobs ;w;

I'M TRYING TO HOLD IT TOGETHER I'm still very sick so it's hitting me so hard ;w; I want to enjoy working on cosplay and shit, I just...sobs.


the boys with the fabric we got today!!!
We managed to get navy fabric for Madara's pants, the green for his top, the gold for....all his bullshit gold bits, and the light pink for Kohaku's top. We're gonna have to wrangle the embroidery machine for Madara, but I'm honestly pretty excited to figure it out :D

And then we had a time getting Taco Bell for dinner...the one right near the Joanns was randomly closed for the weekend???? And then the next closest one wouldn't let us place an online order...because???????? So we had to loop around and go to yet a different one, which I will always remember for the time they forgot to include the crunch part of my crunchwrap in 2011 XD

I got crunchwrap sliders today and they did include the crunch~ Literally it only happened that one time, but I can't get it out of my mind XD WHATEVER it was tasty!!!!

I've been curled up on the couch since we got home, because I do not feel good. Even with taking more DayQuil, I am not...doing well.....which is frustrating, because I have shit to do! I'm waaaaaay behind on the Switch event- not so much that I can't catch up, but I was hoping to be further than this already.

Also, I barely slept last night, because I was so exhausted and sick that I couldn't fall asleep. I ended up doing quick editing on some selfies from katsu~~~

( click click so I don't destroy everyone's friend pages~ )

Okay....still not feeling great, but I'm gonna make an attempt at playing the JP event some... If it goes badly, y'all can find me...idk, working on sewing my nuis clothes instead? Maybe if I use a tiny, incredibly hot tool (smol iron), I'll feel better XD

I'm trying this thing where I don't only sew things in the ~month leading up to anime conventions. Crazy, I know XD But I made a cute sewing buddy after Otakon - a black and orange plush cat with pockets for various sewing accessories + places to attach pins - and I'm aiming to do the same sorta thing now. Liz found a site with nui-related patterns and I decided to jump right into making some kimonos for Double Face~

Yesterday, I picked out some fabric - finally putting years of hoarding scraps to good use! - and watched one of the tutorials. And then todaaaaaaay, Liz and I went out to check out one of our local crafting stores! I'm distraught over Joanns closing, but luckily we live in a big enough city that we have other options. There are a few, but we left late enough in the day that we only had time to check out one.


and it was really nice!!! they didn't have a ton of apparel fabric, but what they had was high quality :D
And then Liz and I found the most dangerous place: a pay what you want craft supplies store. I can't even get into it right now; we stopped for a very brief bit and still left with a bunch XD We'll be going back later for SURE. I did manage to pick up some very thin cording for the kimonos, which is what we kinda went out for in the first place...so that was good!

( some pics of the fabric I picked out and the beginnings of the project :D )

Anyway! I'm waiting for glue to dry, but I'll be getting back to the teeny tiny kimonos soon~ It's not my normal kind of project - I hate working with such small things - but for the nuis...anything is possible uwu

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~

Hey, so, I've got something to point out...or maybe a question I've gotta ask.....but like, why the hell does Madara's jacket have sperm on it???


Seriously!!! It doesn't look quite as bad on the regular version, but the secret color? Who let this go to print XD

I sat down to make icons today and absolutely did not...I poked around in Photoshop, but I couldn't tell you what I actually accomplished :T I think I bragged about my mood theme a bunch and did some more minor edits to my layout coding...

Oh!!! The household went to Taco Bell the other night so I fiiiiiiinally got to try the limited time nuggets!!!!!! They're honestly really good, so I'm sad that they're not gonna last :c They are kinda pricey tho, so maybe that's for the best :T

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day!!! I have to call the Joanns that's closing, because apparently the fixture we bought is ready to pick up- I just have to arrange a time. I just also have to make a phone call, which is the worst fate D: Liz might have to do it for me, so I guess it's good tomorrow is their work from home day.

ALSO THE CHINESE ENSTARS SERVER JUST GOT AN UPDATE AND IT WHIPS ASS SO IT BETTER HIT THE ENGLISH SERVER SOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!! They did an overhaul on achievements, so I got a shit ton of dia, and they redid the design of the profile in a way that I think looks slick as hell.

( various server comparisons inside! )

....it's not my fault I have ADHD and also jacked up my arm, so typing hurts now D:

Now I'm trying to remember what I actually did for the past month :T I always mean to update here and talk about what I've done and then I forget and then my memory fuckin' sucks and here we are, like always!!! So, here's a bit of a list to start~

• blew a bunch of dia on the jp xmas enstars events, because I wanted to support the newest unit and then Kohaku was one of the rate up cards for the Ra*bits event...which led to me pulling the rate up 5* for it, so I just went the whole way XD
• went harder than planned in the Shinobu & Mayoi xmas tour in engstars, because I love them and wife was doing it and we wanted to match uwu
• saw Say Anything live in concert!!!!!!!!!!! it was supposed to happen back in early May, but the lead singer got sick and the rescheduled show didn't happen until December, but it was so fucking worth the wait!!!!!!!I've now fulfilled a teenage dream and it was incredible
• made the mistake of going to the fountain pen store- I only walked out with one new pen, so I guess I'll count that as a win?
• date night with wife led to us finally checking out a Chinese restaurant we'd been meaning to go to, and we discovered that it serves hands down some of the best food I've ever had
  • extra note: went on a Friday night and were back on Sunday afternoon because it was that damn good, and also we just had to buy a jar of their chili oil
• one of our Joanns is closing, so wife and I went to see the deals...and left with some of the fabric we'll need to do Tales of Antique Double Face + a terrible plan (we're going to hand embroider all the designs on their outfits)
• got the Christmas tree up and decorated it...less than 24 hours before Christmas day, because life is hard, okay?
• Liz met some other local-ish enstars fans/cosplayers at Otakon and we finally managed to meet up with them irl!!! and it was a lot of fun, even if we had to drive to Virginia for it >:O
• successfully pulled demon Madara in CN enstars, so I could complete a goal: putting him in the Ringing evil phone MV with bridal lingerie Kohaku- and it was everything I'd hoped for ♥

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I also have a shit ton of pictures I meant to include with this entry, but tbh my arm still hurts a lot and I'm trying not to strain it too much...especially since I have to conserve all my strength for the upcoming jp event with AKATSUKI + Ibuki that I've been looking forward to since it was first teased back in early November. The song dropped yesterday and I've had it going basically nonstop since~~~

ANYWAY!!!!!!! Pictures next time??? I doubt I'll update before the new year, soooooo I hope everyone has a wonderful start to 2025!