#but it needs to be super fluffy and squishable

[im-on-fire-today]

No thoughts, just vibes

[yuuxhan]

Venti x reader headcanons

Angst + Fluff

(I can’t sleep rn and I’ve been listening to angst all night!! So enjoy!! I tried to keep this as canon as possible)

He has these cute nicknames for you, “Darling” “Love” but his most common one is “Windblume~”

Poor guy is very self conscious, he’s always thinking the body he’s in is not his and he hates it.. he wants you to love him not the nameless bard.

“Please.. oh please.. You don’t.. like him.. right? You love me right? You love ME right??”

Please.. please don’t let him near a mirror.. he will have a breakdown right then and there. Seeing himself reminds him of the past

Gifts! Give him lots of gifts, it’ll show him you really do appreciate and love him.. in return he’ll give you hugs and kisses.. maybe even a bouquet of Cecelias <3

The thought of you not being from this world makes his heart break.. he knows you’ll leave Teyvat and him one day forever and he’s never going to forgive himself for not stopping you

Aftercare at the tavern is always important, if he’s super drunk take him home immediately, give him a warm bath and water before he goes to bed, he’ll appreciate it in the morning

If he ever sees you standing and talking to a someone, he’ll run over and jump on you like a friendly tackle. He’s very embarrassing to be around but you’d get used to it.

“Venti!! I was trying to buy some supplies..!”

“I couldn’t help myself! I saw you standing there and.. it was a clear opening~”

He absolutely loves cuddles, especially with a warm blanket when it’s cold outside. You two, sitting by a small flame. He’d love to hum you to sleep on him, it’s the best feeling ever.

Every night he goes to the huge statue of himself near the church and sit on the hands, he loves laying down on it, it reminds him of when he was a small whisp on the nameless bard’s hands. He’d love to bring you up there too, the wind and the view is gorgeous up there for sunrise.

“Thank you for coming up here with me.. this spot makes me feel more at home, especially now that you’re here with me..~”

If you ever need to find him feeling down and depressed, check windrise.. the spot by the statue feels somewhat comforting for him. Maybe because the statue ‘heals’ him..

He loves to play you songs and sing to you! If it’s private or in front of a crowd, you always get the first spot up close! He also rehearses around you once he’s comfortable with you.. your feedback is always important.

He loves absolutely everything about you, from your head to your toes, from your personality to your eyes.. he gives you compliments all day out of nowhere, it’s quite the tease sometimes but he loves your reaction. He can go on and on and ramble to strangers about you.

“Hey hey hey! Majorie! Have you seen (name)!? When was the last time you saw them?? Was their hair down today? I love it when their hair is down.. it looks so fluffy and it blows in the wind so perfectly..~!”

Even though he seemed tough on the outside, he’s quite sensitive, some comments just get to him and he can’t help but to believe them.

“Oh.. is that what they mean..? Alright..”

Nightmares are a major thing.. flashbacks to 500 year ago during the archon war frightens him.. seeing Mondstat in nothing but flames makes him horrified.

His cries are soft and quiet, you can barely hear him.. though when the time comes for him to scream and sob.. it’s like all of Teyvat can hear it through the wind.

Please comfort him, even if it’s just hugs or a simple nudge of affection.. anything to help him. He’s not used to human emotions still, especially crying so he shakes and gasps for air a lot

“What’s.. going on.. why can’t I.. breath.. help me.. please.. please.. Windblume..”

Dragonspine still scares him till this day, he fears that one day the protection he put over mondstat will break and Durin (the dragon created by Rhinedottir that Dvalin & him took down) will return.

Playing with his cheeks makes him blush, he’s very squishable and he loves it when you do. He ends up laughing when he sees your mocking face and he might squish yours too!

“Ou ou ou.. yoush shqushing tuu haurd..! Stuup ut~!”

Tickles!! He’s so ticklish!! Under his arms, his waist, his neck.. anywhere gets him to laugh.

Braid his hair! He loves intimate touch like that.. he would sit on the bed beside you with his eyes shut, staring as quiet as possible while you fix his hair for him, he feels pampered and taken care of <3

He never celebrates his birthday.. he always thinks of it as the day the nameless bard died. So he doesn’t tell anyone and spends his day drinking away at the tavern..

If he’s using you as comfort on a bad day, the both of you would be sitting down somewhere, his arms as legs would be wrapped around your back. He would want you to hold him like a child but he’d be embarrassed about wanting such comfort and he’d stay silent with a blush on his cheeks, even though he enjoy every moment of it.

“Um.. hey.. do you, mind if I um.. hugged you.. for a moment..?” His cheeks all flustered and his gaze looking away from you.

Venti is terrified of thunderstorms, as a whisp, you can imagine how scary it would be for someone so small and fragile to whiteness something so loud and terrifying. He still has that fear to this day and with you by his side, he’d latch onto you like a child, begging for some sort of comfort to sheild him from his scary it would be. Every flash and bang the storm creates, he’d jump and hide himself in your grasp.. it would make him seem so small, fragile and weak at that point.. but he didn’t care.. he’d want to feel safe.

He HATES to be strapped down to things.. he absolutely despise it.. even if it’s like a ride or for fun, he will not do it. The whole point of his freedom is to be free to do what you want, you know? But even so, he has a fear of being tied to things and he will do anything.. and I say ANYTHING to get out.

When he cries, he tends to find something to distract him.. wether it’s just a pebble on the concrete ground he picked up or just staring at a flower beside him. And when you hug him, he holds onto you tightly, his finger making small patterns on your back to distract himself for comfort. If you giggle from it feeling ticklish he’d laugh with you.. it would most likely make him feel better

He loves it when he’s being held in your arms, cradled so closely. He feels so loved, even though he was never used to it from all those centuries. He loves when you sing to him like that, especially that one song… even if it makes him feel like a baby, being pampered by you is something he’ll never get over.

“You are my sunshine.. my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.. please don’t take, my sunshine.. away.”

Venti is actually weightless. He’s the god of wind, not to mention he’s a spirit, not even human. This guy is very easy to carry like a baby, which helps since he’s always jumping on you in surprise hug attacks. Him being weightless makes it easier for you too, you’re able to carry him home like nothing when he’s drunk or just wants to be pampered or worshipped somehow.

(That’s all for now! I’ll add more later on!! :>

I’ll be making a venti angst fic soon! Stay tuned for it!!! 🤗)

(Update, fic has been posted! Along with a fluff of venti preforming Solider, poet, king!)

[gluevah]

Went to the mall yesterday with Jeremy to see IF, which was a really lovely film. It made me super emotional though, I was crying at parts where I didn't even know why! Definitely recommend going to see it though.

We went to the Squishable store, I was hoping they had the weevil and the rainbow caterpillar but they didn't. I did not leave empty-handed though; they had a sale going on and I had just gotten paid, which is a recipe for trouble.

I ended up getting these guys!

I immediately picked up the bone dragon when I first came in because the spooky ones always look like they need love. I love all the different kinds of textures he has! Long fluffy fur, and 2 different types of minky. He does not stand up by himself, bless his heart. He is very cuddly and I love his bone wings! His finger claws are flat but the feet ones are 3D plush claws. His teeth are soft, not made of felt, but the edges are a bit rough.

The strawberry crocodile is one I've wanted since it came out, the shape is very nice for hugging and the fur is so soft! The underbelly is long minky. I love his little teefs, he's just a baby 🥺 Also he matches my bed so well lol

I wanted to get the micro nurse for awhile but just hadn't gotten around to picking one up. I got Jeremy the plague doctor, and I wanted us to have matching ones! The caterpillar is so cute, and they didn't have the rainbow one, so I picked him to be another lil portable buddy!

While we were at the mall, Jeremy and I got our ears pierced c: I used to have mine done but they closed. Jeremy had been wanting to get his ear pierced for awhile, and we figured hey why not while we're here. I'll ask him if I can post a photo of him here Here's us with our new earrings c:

We held each other's hands while we got it done; he was nervous because he didn't know how it'd feel, I was nervous because of who I am as a person.

[thegoldenshi-shi]

Sunny Simp Anon here!

Someone just randomly came into my inbox and was like “Meister was right” and to say I panicked was an understatement

I worried both me and my cat by choking on my drink so that’s fun

Also i have yet to receive the Azul card so i hope your luck is better than mine

Alao you look super pretty in the Golden lion being art and the little lion is so cute and squishable!! And the hair looks so fluffy and flowy and soft i love it!

Plus the colours all are very pleasing too the eye! And also i love how you do hands! They look so nice! And holdable in a nice way!

Also sorry that this one isn’t as ling, I just woke up and you can see how my morning started(see first paragraph) and I am trying to figure out what it meant

-Sunny Simp Anon💛

I'm happy you thought my Golden lion being was pretty hehe.

I decided a long time ago that I would use the tiny little lion for any avatar needs I have, so don't look for much art of the pretty lady. I don't have the patience to draw that every time I want to react to something or draw a mascot so

Tiny literal golden shi shi it is.

As far as the way I draw hands, it's literally just the easiest/ most accurate way I found to simplify drawing them hehe.

Oh and no luck on Azul here either. He is playing hard to get and dodging my keys.

Stupid shady octopus man... (I say with no salt whatsoever hehe)

I hate that your inbox keeps startling you first thing in the morning. At this rate, you're gonna have to keep drinks far away when you open your inbox so you don't keep choking.

I hope your day is going better now.

[oftenderweapons]

Introducing the girlfriends: the looks.

Hello puppets! In this post I’d like to show how I imagine the OC Girlfriends in terms of face and looks, mostly in terms of fashion.

I won’t state how many times my self esteem abandoned the conversation as I made this post, so let me do a disclaimer before I make y’all suffer with me (sorry). These pictures come from my Pinterest board called “Simply incredible people”, which contains mostly photos of people that have very unique facial traits and that I use for reference. Now, ALL OF THESE ARE MODELS. They were photographed BECAUSE after hours of makeup and hair and clothes chosen perfectly for them, a set made up specifically to enhance their good looks, a fair bit of photoshop and unfairly good genetics they were put in the position of being beautified. Don’t think that these gorgeous folks are The Thing: I picked them because of specific reasons explained under each picture, and in my opinion all the guys are pretty far from dating perfect young women with perfectly symmetrical features and flawless complexion and... all of that. However, yes, in my mind they date regular, “unbeautified” versions of these women. If your self esteem can’t handle disgustingly beautiful models, then please, don’t open the “read more”. Also, you’re absolutely free to keep imagining your ideal girls and not check out this post, no hard feelings ✌️😘

However, if — like me — you are incredibly attracted to girls with pretty unique facial features, then do open. If you’ like girls, I’m sorry, you might have one (or more) new crush(es) after this post.

Now, all of the girls have Asian traits — because according to my plots and headcanons, (which you can find in my masterlist) the guys have always met their s/o while in Seoul/Korea and also because I’ve always imagined the girls Asian. However, I’m not saying that they like these specific types or looks, or that they’ll end up with a person with traditionally Asian traits: I am simply assuming in statistic terms. Also, since I write memberxFem!reader, they’re obviously all girls.

I only know two of the people inserted here (that is Vixen and Kitten). I might have accidentally inserted someone famous, however that was not my intention. Also, the girls have been chosen exclusively for facial features: there is no shipping going on between real people here.

After this lengthy introduction, let me move on to the real deal.

In case you need my masterlist, here it is! (Remember to vote for next prompt!!! Link in bio 🥰)

Enjoy✨💜

Vixen - (Namjoon)

— The face —

Baby face: yes

Doll lips: yes

Very intense, borderline scary, November-baby glance: yes.

This is Vixen, with her baby cheeks, her sharp, refined looks and a doll-like face that mixes innocence and seduction. Top that with deep red lipstick and artsy jewellery. Her eyes show ten thousand different feelings and her face is suitable for acting, being extremely expressive: every little sensation and emotion can be found in a quirk of the mouth or an arching of the eyebrow, a little curl of the nose or a pursing of her lips.

— The Look —

Total black winter look, basic and classy, thigh-high boots for her long legs, simple, plain bags and purses, and finally a long coat to keep her warm over her dresses usually characterised by a high neck and a generous slice of leg. But don’t let that fool you: her favourite looks are oversized sweaters stolen from Namjoon’s wardrobe — that obviously fit like dresses on her —, fluffy woolen tights or stockings and comfy shoes when they go on breakfast dates, but also thick jumpers, large jeans and comfy sneakers when they go for walks and bike trips.

Angel (Seokjin)

— The Face —

Traditional Korean Beauty: yes

Big eyes: yes

Soft pink lips: yes

Angel is the definition of Korean Beauty, looking young and innocent. She could easily have the face of an idol, with the purest of charms. And her cute bangs... yes.

— The Look —

Even though her job requires a total black look, which often means pretty flats, black trousers and a turtleneck, in her free time she likes wearing preppy looks, with lots of plaid prints and cute dresses that match Korean standards, with not-too-revealing necklines and a skirt that hits just above the knee. Match it all with cute, warm coats and small bags.

Kitten (Yoongi)

— The Face —

Intimidating look: yes

Angular jaw: yes

Plush lips: yes

Kitten has angular, almost aggressive facial features, characterised mostly by the rectangular shape of her face and her jaw, and quite jutting cheekbones. She has a rough, tough beauty which can be difficult to understand but absolutely charming to observe.

— The Look —

Another one with total black, but unlike Vixen, who likes coloured clothes once winter ends, Kitten keeps the black look all year round, inserting tiny splashes of colours with accessories and jackets. Expect a lot of turtlenecks and blazers for her work attire, but also fancy shirts for more elegant occasions, mostly silk blouses that offer a generous view of her bosom.

Giggles (Hoseok)

— The Face —

Strawberry blonde: yes

Freckles: yes

Too cute: yes

I’ve always imagined Giggles with a mop of messy reddish-blonde hair, may it be natural or dyed. I know the combo is pretty rare; still, she’s a fictional character so... a girl can dream.

— The Look —

A vintage mess of prints. She messes around with flowers and stripes and plaids and colours. You could most definitely spot her in a crowd. Even when she’s working (remember she’s a vet), she has very colourful scrubs and bright coloured clogs/nurse shoes. Overall too cute and tiny for her good, her being so small makes it easy for her to shop in the children department and find even more coloured, fancy prints.

Princess (Jimin)

— The Face —

Overall cute: yes

Gaze to command a photo shoot: yes

Borderline scary both in terms of beauty and power: yes

This small girl has the power to supervise everything, you can read it on her face (remember she works for a fashion magazine and organises photoshoots). Sheer calculating, organising force. And with a gaze like that, ready to make you wither and die were you to deny her, you see specifically why I chose her.

— The Look —

Smart attire, comfortable flats or slippers to dash from a place to another. Comfy, fashionable, practical. She’s always on a rush from an appointment to the other and she uses bags big enough to hold a skirt and a pair of heels in case she needs more elegant attire for a last-minute evening appointment in fashionable clubs and restaurants. She’s more than happy to play Barbie for Jimin, letting him choose how to dress her.

Lace (Taehyung)

— The Face —

Louder big dick energy than your ex: yes

A neck to die for: yes

Eclectic charm: yes

Honestly, I think Lace is too particular — strange even — to find someone who could possibly embody her. What made me pick this specific woman was her very incisive choice in clothing and accessories, but I’ll update her sooner or later, I think. As me and my friend said: you don’t find Lace, is Lace that finds you. (Also, if anyone has a Lace to suggest, please send links 💖)

— The Look —

Black tight dresses, all the time. Tight pencil skirts and anything that screams Fifties housewife; lots of robes, unusual cuts and premium fabrics — she is a designer and lingerie maker, after all. She doesn’t follow trends, she makes them. She is literally one of those people who looks good even with the most hideous, unfashionable things on. However, the moment she wears a silk slip dress, her power intensifies by a few thousand times — do not expect Taehyung not to get weak in the knees. In the house she’s absolutely comfortable wearing a robe with nothing underneath — and sometimes she doesn’t even tie it close. Taehyung is perfectly okay with that.

Candy (Jungkook)

— The Face —

Biggest smile: yes

Cutest lil nose: yes

Very squishable: yes

The small happy bean is a very gentle bean too. She is a graphic designer and a cartoon artist and it shows in her whole being, even in her facial features. I imagine her hair not too long, soft and wavy — though the most valuable asset to Jk is their scent. And look at those sweater(shirt) paws!!! Adorable.

— The Look —

First rule of Candy and Jk’s relationship is “my flannel shall be thy flannel”. Their wedding rings will probably be flannel shirts. Candy likes to pull them off with oversized sweats or coloured jeans. She also wears oversized sweaters — probably stolen from Jk’s wardrobe — together with leggins and mid-calf socks, especially since her workplace is not too strict with dresscode. She likes oversized and layered fits, using light cotton shirts and tank tops in the summer and fleece/flannel shirt and warm woolen turtlenecks in winter. Comfort always comes first. Expect her to use biker shorts and giant T-shirts and bulky shoes in the summer on her spare time.

An extra — since I’m sooooo gay for these two

Sora Choi and Yoon Young Bae are the two models that I immediately spotted respectively for Kitten and Vixen and the fact that they posed together made me super soft (I literally fell in love with both of them). Oh also!!! Yoon has posted on her insta the sweetest picture of her with a snow bear and it was like... a sign, but also so endearing and I’M SMITTEN, HEAD TO TOE IN LOVE WITH THIS SMALL CUTE LIL POTATO. She’s a cutie and Sora has the prettiest smile I swear to God I’d give the world for these two. *bisexuality upgrades*

Did you imagine them differently? Are there any of the girls that match or challenge your ideas? Leave your impressions in the comments!!! 😚☺️

[danceswithunworldly]

Rate My Jenny

Alright Jenny has gone through a lot of different looks, I will rate each Jenny on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being n o and 10 being most valid. More under the cut, theres lots of pictures its a long post

Original Manga:

Psychogenie

The original babe, Messy hair, bright eyes, has an actual body, probably blonde, needs more representation, cute smile, looks like a friend to me 10/10

Devilman 1972:

TentaMom

Not the design we are used to but damn is she powerful! Tentacle hair, can hypnotize children, wants to spare children from pollution but has a bad technique of doing so, 6/10 teefy chompers +1 so 7/10

OVA design concept art and full sized Jenny from CB World: (following ova designs)

Its My Turn to Use the Xbox

SO MUCH HAIR very similar to the original but a much bigger head, sharp teeth, kinda looks like a night/light fury dragon with that closed mouth, wants a turn on the Xbox, let her, she looks like she could make you disappear. 8/10

CB World:

“Sister Satan I love you”

Very good eye contact sweetie. Pudgy. soft, delightful eyelashes, squishable cheeks, precious little girl must love and protect her and if you dare talk shit about her I will kill you 10/10

Amon Apocalypse:

METH AUNT

no, just.... no. The weird coonskin hat style mullet? uncomfortably muscular legs?? the dishplate eyes!? spider legs for eyelashes? Gloves and socks??? This is cursed, this is not my Jenny, this is an abomination. Get this out of her Jenny deserves better than THIS what the FUCK this is -666/10

009 Jenny:

Pointless

she literally had no purpose in this crossover, it was almost like they wanted to make a devilman series after this and it was scrapped because there was a lot of pointless foreshadowing.HOWEVER the purple hair is a nice look, not so fond of the eyecolor it looks more like “caution:radioactive” however this is the only Jenny most like the original manga Jenny and I have to give her a +1 for that, and shes really creepy and cute at the same time. 9/10

Devilman Crybaby:

M o t h e r

Oh boy a human design! Vapid and doll-like, yet has a soccer mom/milf vibe effortlessly blended into a solution with Secretary Barbie, and reduced into this delightful woman. Oh also nipples, helloooo Totally not a demon how dare you assume, shes trying her best leave her alone

Demon form is amazing, not entirely like the original but VERY FLUFFY OH MY GOD and the FEET so cute, they curl. A+ smile, awesome fucking party power, probably a metal head when she was younger and would trip out at all the parties and BACK TITTIES 10/10 step on me mommy

Devilman Grimoire:

Nightmare Creature

Still better than Amon Apocalypse Jenny. This one is a lovechild between Jenny and our favorite Addams Family hand [insert fingering joke here] Hair is wavy yet wild, fidget spinner eyes so you know shes cursed, big smile though, probably would run away if she came after me, I don’t like creepy disembodied hands crawling around. 4/10

Violence Jack:

“I got drunk and got this weird tattoo, also my licence has been suspended would you believe that?”

“Technically” human most likely a blonde, cute face, weird... (tattoo? birth mark? im guessing here, body paint? its not her face thats for sure, but i cant read spanish or japanese) Loves her jeep, I’m so glad she has found her perfect car because oh my god look shes having so much fun. Squishy thighs, This is the metal head we warned you about. The only time nagai has ever drawn tits that showed some sign of gravity’s existence. 8/10 

 Mazinger:

Super Mecha Transformer Jenny

oh, okay then, carry on ma’am you look busy

5/10 Not my jenny but thats a fuckin cool design okay?

Gekiman Devilman:

Thicc’n’Juicy

hot.... uuhhh anyway Super Fluffy Jenny redrawn in Nagai’s improved style, very soft, wife, great smile, shes just overall amazing 10/10

Devilman Saga:

*screaming*

Marry Me

Sweet Jesus I have no complaints, Look at her shes so cute, shes got a leather-fishnet top but she has a cute fuckin bow on the back and a super comfortable skirt, nobody said shes a style guru, shes a fucking disaster and I love her. Shes doing so good. Shes so cute, big beautiful Jenny eyes, soft fluffy yet still messy hair? big eyelashes, did i say shes cute? mysterious, delightful. No demon design yet but i assume it will be a lot like Gekiman’s overall 10/10 even without that design. Personal score: 9999/10

Bonus:

uhhhhhhh fuckin..... still better than Amon Apocalypse i give this a 420/666

[catalystic-dragons]

Squishable candy dragon has arrived! :’D her name is Marshmallow and she is a good lil’ derg. Not only is she super fluffy, she’s also super soft and great to cuddle. Beyond that, buying her gave a child in need a squishable too, just in time for Xmas <3

[mistressmaker]

How to Make a Contrasting Pillow Case with Hidden Zipper

This is a walkthrough for how to make a contrasting pillow case with a hidden zipper. There is nothing worse than not being able to remove your pillow cases to clean them, but we don’t want unsightly zippers either!

To start, here are the materials you’ll need:

Pillow, 21″ x 19.5″ (Don’t ask me why this pillow isn’t square, I have no clue.) I am using a feather pillow in this tutorial so this may work better with fluffy, squishable pillows.

1 piece of pattern fabric, 22" x 23″

1 piece of solid fabric to contrast your patterned fabric, 22" x 23″

22″ zipper It does not need to be an invisible zipper, nor does it even have to match your fabric. I used a sea-green zipper, why? Because no one is going to see it.

I apologize for my use of inches, but, when you live in America, products are sold in customary system dimensions. It’s easier to adhere to the standards.

The pillow I had was 21″x19.5″ so the fabric I bought is obviously for a pillow of that size. The tutorial is easily adjustable to any size pillow, just use those brains and do some basic math. 👍

First things first, take your patterned piece of fabric ONLY and make a rectangle (Keep in mind the direction of your pattern. Look ahead in the tutorial if you’re unsure of how to cut your fabric). This rectangle will cover the width and a little over half the height of your pillow. In my case, my rectangular piece of fabric is 22″ x 11.5.″

Using something between a basting stitch and a normal tight stitch (these stitches will be rendered useless later, but you need them to hold well) you’re going to sew down 3 of the 4 sides. I determined the seam allowance by taking the width of my pillow, 21″, subtracted it from the width of my fabric, 22″ - 21″ = 1″, and divided the result by 2, so 1/2″ seam allowance. I then sewed down 3 of the 4 edges, leaving 1 of the 2 wider sides open.

Next, take your contrast fabric out. We’re going to attach one side to the patterned fabric rectangle we just sewed. Your pillow does not have to be half and half exactly. For my pillow, I wanted more blue showing than gray so I accounted for that in my seams.

I marked a 1/2″ inch seam allowance on my patterned fabric and a 2.5″ seam allowance on my contrast fabric. That left me with 10.5″ of height for my patterned fabric and 9″ on my contrast fabric. (23″ height for contrast fabric divided by 2 gives 11.5″ per each side of pillow. The height of the pillow in total is 19.5″, subtract off the 10.5″ for the patterned fabric leaves 9″. 11.5″ minus 9″ gives us a 2.5″ seam allowance.) I marked the seams using tailor’s wax.

I lined up my marks on both pieces of fabric and put pins through. I can’t sew over the pins with how I have it, but when lining up my seam allowance marks, it’s much more accurate. I just take them out as I sew. Make sure to do a nice, tight stitch here. This stitch will NOT be rendered useless later.

You should now have something that looks like the picture below when turned right sides out.

With wrong sides out, fold your contrast fabric in half making sure you fold in the same seam allowance you had in the back. Mine was 2.5″ so that’s what I folded over. Now is a good time to double check your height to make sure it matches with that of your pillow.

Pin down the sides of your contrast fabric. Line up the seams of the pattern fabric with those you’re about to sew on your contrast fabric. Doing it this way ensures when you turn your pillow case inside out the seams are perfectly matched up! The width of your contrast fabric, seam to seam, should be the width of your pillow (21″ in my case).

Turn it inside out and now we have a super sleek looking pillow case thing.

Go ahead and play dress up with your pillow just to make sure all is going well.

Hmmm the corners seem loose... Don’t worry we’ll take care of this later!!

Time for the most dreaded part: the zipper. This project is a great way to get rid of zippers you’ll never use. I used a 22″ neon sea-green zipper because NO ONE CAN SEE IT!

Crease your fabric at the opening of the pillow case. Make sure to measure from the top of your fabric to the center to make sure the height is the same everywhere (consistency is key). The height of my pattern fabric is 10.5″ on either side so I measured in a few different places from the top to the crease making sure it was actually 10.5.″ If it wasn’t, I just adjusted the crease accordingly.

Time to pin in that zipper! From the top of the crease to the bottom of the zips, I measured 1/4.″ You could do more, but I wouldn’t do less than 1/4″!! See below for how I measured.

Sew that sucker down. I used a zipper foot and sewed as close as I could to the zipper. These stitches will show on your pillow so take your time to make it nice and straight. 🙂

Crease the contrast fabric in the same fashion as before. The zipper insertion is the same too, however it can be a bit closer to the crease this time. I put mine just below the crease so just a tad of gray shows.

WE HAVE ZIPS! You can go ahead and try your newly sewed pillow case on your pillow, but you’ll probably once again notice the corners are floppy. Time to take care of that!

I don’t have a great way to do this; it’s pretty much trial and error. Start out at smaller intervals and work your way up to larger ones. For my pillow, I brought in the corners by 1.25″ (measure 1.25″ from the top, mark, and then 1.25″ for the side, mark, you should have a cross where they intersect). I marked with my tailor’s wax a dart-ish thing from the seam by the zipper up to where I brought in the corners. I also marked the center of the fabric and darted from where I brought in the corners to the center. (You’ll have a pentagon looking thing drawn on your fabric.)

It’s kind of a hard process to describe. Hopefully the pictures below will make it more understandable.

Do the corner dart thing with the contrast fabric as well (or pattern fabric depending on what order you did it in). As you take in the corners, try the pillow case on your pillow and make adjustments as necessary. Feel free to use basting stitches and when you finally get it right, put in a nice tight stitch!

Lastly, after you’ve taken in your corners, and your pillow looks super sexy, take off the extra fabric inside by using pinking shears. If you don’t own a pair, and your fabric frays easily, I recommend doing a zig-zag stitch around the border of your pillow case where you’d like to cut off any extra fabric. You could also use a serger.

BAM you have a really sleek looking pillow case with a hidden zipper. Reply with your comments or questions, I will try my best to clarify things. 🙌

[stimtoybox]

so i got my first tangle jr recently and ive been stimming with it almost nonstop and the joints in my fingers kinda started hurting is that bad?

Chronic hand pain stimmer speaking! (Six and a half years in pain next month! Great milestone, right?) While I’m not a doctor and cannot diagnose, I can talk about this aspect of stimming safety with some authority.

The short, scary answer is this: it can be bad. Conditions like carpel tunnel and RSI can be caused or aggravated (brought to flare) by repetitive movement (which is, in effect, what stimming is). Underlying conditions you might not know you have (arthritis and its variations or even, I think, something like EDS) can also be the reason you’re in pain, especially if you think the pain happened too quickly/unreasonably. Based on my own experience with repetitive hand movement, I have absolutely no doubt that constant, unvaried stimming over a long period of time - and your own body’s health and makeup is the determining factor of what is long, not our own mental timetable - can cause harm. And while I’ve had repetitive strain injuries heal normally, I’ve had some that have damaged how my nervous system treats and transmits pain in those areas. I’ve had to learn to be super careful in my stimming to keep bad flares to a minimum.

Don’t panic, though. Please, don’t.

First, if your pain isn’t severe, give yourself a week of gentle hand stimming or non-hand-stimming to give your hands a rest. If you see a change in your pain - that it lessens/ebbs or stops by the end of that time - you’re very likely to be okay. (Then just look at the info below.) If you feel it hasn’t lessened enough or not at all after that time, or your pain is so severe you cannot function normally, go see your GP/family doctor. I know that doctors are often incredibly stressful, especially for neurodiverse folk, and most of us can’t easily have a conversation explaining that we hurt ourselves from stimming too much, so I do advocate, for non-severe pain, resting first.

(By ‘severe’ I don’t mean some arbitrary number scale. Those scales are absurd. I mean: how much is the pain stopping you from doing your daily activities? Are you constantly aware of the pain? Is the pain making you struggle to think? Cry? Feel depressed and frustrated? Struggle to hold a book, pick up a cup, eat? If the pain is more than uncomfortable, doesn’t respond to over-the-counter pain meds and you answer “yes” to any of those questions, see a GP as soon as you can. Do this, because you do not need to be in severe pain.)

Secondly, I’m going to talk on how to stim to avoid pain. I know what it’s like when you get the fabulous toy and it feels so good and this form of stimming is perfection and you just want to stim with it forever. I know. But it’s actually pretty dangerous. The human body wasn’t designed to do the same small repetitive movements over and over in a - comparatively - short space of time, and it will, over time, make us regret doing so. Temporary pain becomes permanent. I don’t wish that on anyone.

Safe stimming includes:

- Alternating your toys on a frequent basis. I wouldn’t use the same hand toy for more than an hour. If you’re using that toy intensively or quickly, I wouldn’t use it for more than half an hour or even less. I have many stim toys I cannot use for more than a few minutes. (Doesn’t mean I don’t love them, though.) Even if all your toys are hand toys, they’ll use different muscle groups, different tendons. Think on how you use your Tangle and then how you might use a stress ball or slime. You’re holding them differently, pulling them differently. Your body needs that change, and pain is often a sign of that need.

(This applies for chewables as well. Alternate chewing sites - back teeth a while, front teeth a while. If you need multiple chewables to accomplish this, do so.)

- Cultivating a large selection of stim toys. This means you have plenty of options for alternating. (Yes, I’m giving you permission to have or make lots of stim toys.) I don’t mean fifteen different Tangles, as much as I, personally, want to have fifteen different Tangles. I mean different types of toys. Is there kinetic sand in your hoard? Play-Doh? Chewables? Beaded fidgets? Bean bags? Soft toys/plushies? Stress balls? Puzzles? Visual stim toys? Texture toys? Noise-making stim toys? Does your collection include different textures and materials? Does it encompass, as much as possible, all the different ways you can stim?

(This whole blog is about doing just this; here’s the DIY tag if you want or need to make your own toys.)

- Ensuring you own gentler stim toys for alternating. I’d love to use my Tangle Fuzzy non-stop. But they’re less great for my hands. I know my problems are issues of grip and tension, so when my hands are bad or to rest them, I seek out stim toys that don’t involve gripping. I run my fingers over a Disney Tsum Tsum plush for the texture. I wriggle my fingers through kinetic sand or stretch fluffy slime. I also make sure my squishable toys are pretty soft (no firm stress balls) and search out fidgets that can be pushed and moved without gripping them. Use and love your less-gentle toys, but swap them with gentler ones.

- Paying attention to your body. What hurts when you stim? Where? Are there toys you have that cause you less pain? Is there a specific action with a stim toy that causes pain? Are you always doing the same motions over and over? This sort of awareness is really hard for autistic folk - I struggle with it. It’s worthwhile trying, though, to build some awareness of what your pain means.

- Giving yourself stim breaks. This can mean not stimming for a little while. It can mean putting down your hand toys in favour of chewellery or bouncing up and down to the same song five times in a row. It can mean switching to visual stims or non-toy stimming (if it uses different body parts). I have to alternate my hand stimming - which is my favourite way to stim - with non-hand stims if I wish to continue hand stimming. Just like an office worker should do from a computer screen, take regular, short breaks from stimming with your hands (or chewing).

I know it’s awful to not be able to do That Perfect Stim, and I know how hard it is to be aware of these safety concerns when you’ve fallen into the zone of stimminess. If you need to, set alarms or reminders on your phone. Ask someone to remind you to switch stim toys. But please, please do try. Chances are high that with a little rest and care, you’ll be fine, but the pain you’re describing is a message from your body and you need to listen to it.

Not listening to it means you end up with chronic pain like me, and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.