#well though out presents

[lymphomalass]

"Find yourself joy in giving!

To my mind there's nothing quite like the joy of that "gotcha!" moment when you've found and given someone a truly great gift and you can see they really love it!

I remember when my brother gotcha'd me one big 0 birthday, giving me an album of carefully selected old family photos he'd scanned and had printed up. I was entranced and delighted by the photos of him looking in my crib, of us playing cowboys in the back garden and then sailing together. No pretence was needed. I just loved the gift and everyone could see it!

A few years earlier for his big 0 birthday I'd asked a really lovely fellow artist to paint an oil painting, of my brother helming his sailboat to victory in a race. My brother had not been sure he could top that, but he did!

My brother likes games that double as ornaments, and so for one Christmas I made a little embroidery of playing cards, set it in the top of a hand made wooden cards box, and added a couple of rather nice card sets. Another year I won him a beautifully hand-carved soapstone chess set in a little church raffle, by buying more than 50% of the tickets. I then wrapped each piece individually.... because I am the little blister! I remember my mother rescued him from all the unwrapping...

Obviously, some years it's just not on the cards. Time's too short or an idea just doesn't come, however hard we try, and then expressions of politely simulated pleasure may be the result. It can take months of looking around for ideas and preparation, but by really listening and thinking from the other person's point of view, it is sometimes possible to think of that special gift that'll be treasured for decades, and that's just magical!

One of my lovely customers picked up a commission today, which she asked me to paint as a Christmas present. She'd thought of it more than a couple of months in advance, and I think that painting may also turn out to be a gotcha gift! Well, I'm hoping!

I'll not say more as I'm keeping that piece secret till after Christmas Day, so the art I'm using today is of a pumpkin farm that my husband and I visited last year. Now, that was a lovely day too!

The art (without the text) is available printed on all kinds of lovely things at: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/129079869

Thanks!

Sam aka LymphomaLass xx

[starflungwaddledee]

Have you noticed that Red Butterfly is keep following you?

And no, most of the butterflies don't follow anyone but scents of nectar.

starstruck regained +5 points of emotional health! she remembered this is meant to be an adventure, and looks forward to seeing some exciting things! just not this particular butterfly, it seems.

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[coyotecares]

1-a somehow finding out that their stoic, hardass homeroom teacher is absolutely stupid head over heels in love with their goofy, ridiculous, eccentric english teacher and subsequently reading WAY too much into how they interact in passing when they switch periods every morning

ie: in that scene where shouta takes too long to conclude class and makes mic wait, there's a slight pause in his canter before he calls hizashi "mic"-- class 1-a would be gripping their seats to bring that up in the dorms later about how aizawa-sensei probably almost accidentally called mic-sensei "pookie bear" since that's most DEFINIETLY what he calls him at home

they talk every morning when shouta is leaving the room and hizashi is walking in, and every day, class 1-a will watch for subtleties in behavior so closely that some of them don't even breathe or blink

[katierosefun]

modern family is all fun and games until you get to the scenes where you burst into tears because the once-vaguely homophobic dad now refers to his son's husband as family, and also the academically gifted daughter realizes that her dorky, clumsy dad was always really proud of her and just never surprised because he just assumed she could do anything, and also the eldest daughter who eloped comes crawling back to her parents' room and whispers that she still wants her parents to be present for her wedding, and also the anxious queer lawyer character admits that he was terrified that his husband would just leave him alone with their baby daughter, and also that the once-vaguely grouchy dad looks at his stepson and tells him that what makes a family is who sticks around, not who you're blood-related to and anyways what was i saying

[getdarkerthandark]

Some Food for Thought

[hellohellowelcome]

People who haven't interacted with MHA content in 8 years now coming out of the woodwork to give the worst takes possible on the ending / characters / ships I've ever seen to appeal to toxic dudebros for clicks and likes....it's getting hard to block it all out

[jinxed-lemon]

Some of y’all completely ignoring the parts of the book that show/strongly imply that Solangelo is a healthy ship who both completely adore one another and help balance each other out despite their flaws, show that despite the huge difference between them both socially and mentally-love can still grow only so that you can make Will out to some whiny, toxic, and somehow racist(?) character who doesn’t deserve Nico

[sonicunleash]

society if the dungeon meshi anime actually had texture and kept ryoko kui's personality in the artstyle instead of doing generic thin-lined flat colors flat shading streamlined anime face style. i know ppl have mixed opinions on some of these examples but i reallyyyy wished they went stronger on the mangas artstyle like say haikyuu season 4 and demonslayer did.

like i think heavier shading and use of lineweight and black shading would already do a lot for the texture... more frequent use of that nose shading ryuko kui uses a lot, like here? ALSO BRO THEY GOT RID OF LAIOS' UNDERCUT like okay tbf in some of the colored manga references he doesnt have that but also how else do you interpret his hair in this panel

anyways in general just throwing in some more hatching like using it more common as an art style for texture instead of just roughed up clothes/appearance would do some wonders. also softening the palettes i feel like theyve made things too dark and idk how to explain it its like they filmed the manga through a samsung camera

disclaimer i know most of these changes would cost more money and time and effort to do. the solution to most of this would probably just be to give them a bigger budget

[thecrowsart]

top fav matobas (and natori) i've drawn so far i must say

[jichanxo]

sunday six already!?

tags: @four-white-trees @phantasy14 @passthroughtime @overdevelopedglasses @skysquid22

not much writing from me lately (i think the pendulum has swung the other way and i've been drawing a bit more), but i've poked a little bit more at sensei fic... here's more school club exposition lol, aside from that i've only made minor changes...

Much like the Dance Club, things had been picking up for the Robotics Club, who were preparing for their next skirmish in the RB Robot Rally. It was more common to see Itokura here than in the MRC clubroom because of that, and he liked to keep an eye on her. Though outwardly abrasive, she seemed to have settled into school again, or at least the clubs, and despite what she said, he thought she was going to stick around. Mystery was still her great love it seemed, but she liked being good at things, and didn’t want to leave Sakura-kun out to dry, programming alone, so she hung around here instead of the MRC. 

The MRC kept them both very busy, though funnily enough it was outside the club itself. Yagami’s previously clear phone calendar was now filled with reminders and dates for club deadlines and competitions. Amasawa just had a way with people he supposed, and his own natural curiosity hadn’t helped.

[pickletrip]

No one in Dead Friend Forever is innocent. Absolutely no one. Everyone played a part in Non's disappearance/death. I was really holding out on Jin and Phee, but Jin, my boy, that's not something you do to someone you love. Phee, I get that you are extremely hurt and really really upset, but don't say "Go die".

[deus-ex-mona]

i miss her…

[legolasghosty]

🐑 Alternate Universe- Magic, Mutual Pining, Demonic possession, Furbies

Oh dear...

Alex is attending one of the most prestigious magic academies in the country, on the orders of his parents of course. Even though Laiz Fier Academy reviles even the name of the only type of magic he's ever been good at. His parents swore he'd find another specialty here, and he'd let himself believe them, like the idiot he is. He's scraping by in classes. Barely. At least he's managed to make a couple of friends and figure out how to sneak into the library stacks to find books that will actually help him hone his skills.

However, Alex realizes now there's a reason why it's not recommended to do your first summoning alone. Because, while he does manage to summon a demon, it doesn't exactly end up in the silvery urn he'd laid in the center of the pentagram.

So now he has a talking, demonic Furby to hide. One that, despite its too-wide eyes and disconcertingly smooth voice, Alex thinks he might be developing feelings for.

(Fake fic ask game!)

[epicdogymoment]

god i cant believe i made it over 500 days with that daily len blog. i started that thing in late 2020..... what............

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

I really hate the inconsistencies that exist just to make SB (and CF technically) work, but also how hard Petra basically simps for Edelgard to the point it deconstructs aspects of her character.

In Houses she mentions her siblings being in danger if she died, but in SB she just doesn't even make any mention of them in this situation. She's just willing to possibly die all of a sudden for someone who never actually treated Brigid like its people were independent (which she could've done at literally any time from the moment she became emperor). She was relatively vocally I guess you could say "good" to Petra, but the way the writing handles Petra's response to all of it feels like Petra's just been brainwashed.

Petra says she would always choose survival and makes a point to emphasis that, but in SB she's completely and carelessly willing to risk her life and possibly throw it away... for Edelgard? Who still has not actually officially freed Brigid? And if Petra were to stop being Edelgard's ally?

"Reconsideration". Because Brigid was never freed and now they're not going to be as long as Edelgard is in charge, because their queen is no longer bending to her will and fighting for her. If she was ever truly planning to free Brigid, Petra's decision alone not to fight for her shouldn't have changed that fact (especially since she supposedly gives her the choice in Houses to fight for her or not, and on non CF routes she does this by sending a letter, to which Petra refuses).

It should, of course, be obvious with this that everything is very not hunky dory between Adrestia and Brigid, but then...

...eh wot hooligans???

I mean sure, if you considered forced vassalage to be "peace" and not being a free people "peace" then sure. But like... it's not a peace her people want and she should know that, but the game tends to do this back and forth with this topic. I hate it though because it makes it come across as being forced into submission and not having the means to fight back is "peace".

I know this game has lots of issues with uh, if you're attacked or if you were defeated by another military force you should submit and be happy about being taken over, and when you can't fight back anymore that's "peace" because nobody's fighting... but uhh... why is that only an issue with the Empire? I mean, we know why - the devs wanted to walk with her and they admitted it! But like... they should still know when they're writing something reeeeally icky.

Duscur doesn't have this problem and they're not under Edelgard's foot. Anything under Edelgard's foot though is treated like they should be thankful for her control and/or invasion(s). That just overall sends a really nasty message. I don't know that the devs meant to do that as far as an Empire, but I do think it's because they went a little hard with the Edelgard bias and somehow forgot what it would look like to an audience playing the game.

It's like they know it's not a good thing but they keep pushing the "Brigid isn't actually free but it's still peace because nobody is fighting" narrative.

Like... I don't care how much you love a character you're writing. You can't tell me that oppressed nations would just call oppressions "peace" or that their leaders would be more than happy to fight and die for the leader of the nation oppressing them. It gets even worse when you get into the racial territory of it, but that's a topic I've already covered so I'm not gonna go over it again here.

[pinkyjulien]

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