10 Things I'm Thankful For

Sometimes in life we must cling on to the existence of anything that keeps us going and makes us feel positive, and for those times, I am preparing this list of good things that make me feel happy. Only some of them are food (they should have all been food).

1. Sandwiches

You can put anything in a sandwich. Put your regrets in a sandwich with some cheese and tomato and suddenly, mmmmmmm, delicious regrets. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that you can't actually eat regrets.

2. Synchronised dancing

Yes it makes me feel very jealous, but it also cheers me right up and gives me a sense of awe that will never leave my body. This is a major reason why I can sit and watch music videos for excessive periods of time. In my fantasies I am a majestic dancer with impressively fluid movements, instead of the wobbling rock that I actually am in any dancing situation (it's fine, I like rocks, I'd be a great rock).

3. Rocks

Speaking of rocks, actually, they're quite good and I think we should all appreciate them a bit more.

4. Learning

The vast wealth of information available to me across my lifetime is really cool, and definitely one of the best things about being a living being. I can read all about how caterpillars live their lives, or about evolutionary chains. It's cool.

5. Particular smells

I'm not sure what's better than the smell of fresh bread or a sprig of lavender. Love those smells.

6. Water

You can drink it, you can put it on your face, you can wash a fork with it - it's pretty great. I've always thought it was delicious (yes, even London water with all its dastardly mineral deposits). Also, droplets are cute.

7. My nose

I used to dislike my nose, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. It's quite alright, really.

8. Imagination and fantasy

You know when you go to bed and you imagine a vast fantasy world in which you are basically the same but everything is very nice and good all the time and everything goes your way and you are wearing a really good outfit and everyone likes you? Yeah? It's not just me that lives in a parallel world of perfection just before I go to sleep, right? Well, that is really, really enjoyable. I appreciate that a lot.

9. Cats

They pay me a lot of attention and it's awfully nice of them. I love to meet them and touch their heads.

10. Books

There are too many books, since I can't get anywhere near reading them all, but I am glad they are available to me for when my own personal fantasy worlds aren't quite right. Or for when I want to consume a lot of information about something. Non-fiction books are some of the best, actually.

Profile Picture

I have been thinking about my profile picture. I've been using the same one for a long time now and thought maybe I could do some exciting digital editing to make it a cool and fresh new image without bothering to take a new photo. A good idea. Put some cool flowers in it. Put the sky in it. Glorious, I thought. Wonderful.

Am I too childish? Are these colours representative of my inner being? Is this an expression that is recognisably mine? Perhaps I am relying too much on Totoro, my assistant, but then he is a never-changing constant, unlike me. He is an emblem who will be with us until we are no longer here.

Here are some new pictures I took, all rejected to continue on my journey with Totoro in hand.

I want to take school pictures again, with those backdrops all grey marble and sky, where they tell you to sit this way, look that way, smile, and you end up with the most perfect, gormless picture of yourself.

Anyway, I'm not changing my profile picture (ever again) (until actually, I feel like it). Business associates, know me by my Moomin jumper.

My Favourite Songs: A Spotify Megamix

A little while ago I got very into Spotify and spent far too long organising some of my favourite songs of all time into a nice, big playlist. I'm considering this a playlist that I will continue adding to indefinitely, but it is a super special one as all of the songs on it are songs I love with my whole heart.

Here it is if you'd like to listen:

It's funny - it shows such a bias towards synthpop and post-punk influences, but hey, that's what I love. I'm hoping to keep it varied, but it's main purpose is to collect the songs I love the most.

If you'd like to see all the other playlists I've made and am working on, please click on the follow button below. I'm currently keeping a playlist of new finds, a 'dancersize' mix, and a selection of my favourite k-pop tracks, but I'll probably make a really weird and specific one soon. Perhaps 'Songs To Eat Babybels To'.

Eyes & Arms

After recently seeing William-Adolphe Bouguereau's 'The Birth of Venus' and lots of other neo-classicist and realist wonders in person, I really wanted to try drawing and painting some more traditionalist stuff myself. At school I remember doing lots of still life redraws and Van Gogh analysis and so many things to do with form and technique, and I miss it so much.

College was still somewhat experimental in terms of using techniques and different mediums, but after that there was no real push towards that sort of learning. My favourite thing to see in art museums is people sketching from the paintings.

I decided to start keeping an art journal again, like I did at school and college, with annotations and sketches and pictures taped in. I'm more of a pen person than a pencil one, but maybe I should draw with pencils more. Exploring shading is fun. There's something therapeutic in the concentration of it.

I want to draw endless parts of the body. Eyes and mouths and hands.

Bouguereau is my favourite. His colours and gestures. His flesh tones and taut muscles and clouds and foliage and fabric. I'll gather them up and stuff them in my book.

Evil Girls

evil girls
spread wings
fight fire
see things

evil girls
crouch low
eat hearts
breathe slow

evil girls
touch gold
watch worlds
unfold

evil girls
stretch thin
crush souls
then grin

Kawaii Box ☆ Review & Giveaway

✶✵ This post contains affiliate links and items gifted to me for review purposes. ✵✶

What's that? Yep, that's right, it's time for another Kawaii Box review! This is the September 2016 edition. Let's take a look at what's inside (as always, there's a giveaway at the bottom of the post, so don't forget to enter!).

Rabi-Dango Plush

Here's a cute little spherical bunny. I'm not sure what more anyone wants in their life. Please surround me with spherical bunnies.

I Love You Purse

This purse is nice and chunky, and the keyring feels quite satisfying too. Perfect for storing strange items in if not your coins. Also, I think all animals should be given some snazzy Elton John star shades.

Kracie Nyokinyoki Kororon DIY Candy Kit

What would a Kawaii Box be without some kind of sweetie thing that pretty much requires an engineering degree to properly enjoy? Well, I still love adding water to things (teabags, my floor, an enemy's trousers), so I'm okay with this. I will attempt to recreate Botticelli's Birth of Venus with it.

Harajuku Hair Loop Set

Here's an unusual one. Some tiny hairbands with very cute little hearts on 'em. The Harajuku influence is clear, and whilst I'm probably not going to leap into full Fairy Kei right now, I am happy to have a small pop of cute in my hair, at the end of a plait probably. Can I wear these to the office? If the answer's no then you can stuff your job.

Happy Day Notebook Set

It's a little notepad! My favourite thing about this is the little sticker sheet it comes with. It also comes with a strap so I can attempt to wear it as an anklet (best idea I've had in ten years, actually).

Diamond Deco Stickers & Sweet Animals Sparkle Stickers

Here we have some very chunky stickers, and the ones on the right here are even scented! I'm considering bedazzling my own face with them. For art.

Pastel Cupcake Pen

This is a nice thing. Quite an understated, but very sweet, mechanical pencil. It has a cupcake on it. Isn't the world full of nice and pleasant things?

Invisible Secret Pen Set

Yet another bit of novelty stationery wonder, it's only a bloomin' invisible secret cool pen for cool people! Write a funny word with it and no one will ever know (unless they have access to your torch of revealment).

Pokémon Ramune Candy

Pikachu sweets! They're sweets! Pikachu is here on the packet! Pikachu perhaps enjoys the flavouring of a pineapple. Thank you, chef Pikachu, for your pineapple present.

Dream & Explore Notebook

This is quite a smart notebook, and I'm quite impressed by the quality of this. It is really nice to get things that feel substantial and decent in a subscription box, and this is the best example of that here, alongside the coin purse. And y'know, I do like to dream and explore when I'm not burying my entire head in a massive cheesecake.

☆☆☆

That concludes our look at the contents of the September 2016 Kawaii Box, so now I must initiate the giveaway. Entry is open worldwide via the Rafflecopter widget below and its list of fearsome demands, so throw your email address in there by 14th November and you get the chance to win a Kawaii Box of your own!

Please note - the giveaway image is for illustrative purposes only and your prize will vary from the contents displayed.

Good luck! ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

The competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winner: Keith!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Favourite Video Game Enemies

Here's a list of terrifying, weird, silly, and fun enemies from some of my favourite video games. An enemy hall of fame, if you will. The greatest and most bizarre adversaries. I love them.

1. Abstract Art (Earthbound)

I don't think ever laughed so hard on encountering an enemy before or since this, although Earthbound has a lot of strange and hilarious enemies. There is nothing more enjoyable than battling a painting in a false reality.

2. Master NORG (Final Fantasy VIII)

Bujurururu! NORG is a sudden revelation, hidden away in the school basement, belligerent and waving huge yellow hands around. He is both humorous and terrifying (backed up by the spooky organ music that plays when you meet him). Kinda reminds me of some of the stuff from Parasite Eve, but definitely lighter in tone.

3. Lesser Dog (Undertale)

As a big fan of all the Earthbound enemies, it was inevitable that I would love all the creative Undertale enemies too. I chose the Lesser Dog because that endless petting is just excellent and good.

4. Darkside Heartless (Kingdom Hearts)

I love the atmosphere Kingdom Hearts managed to create within a cartoonish world full of Disney characters - there's a lot of good use of shadows and clouds and spooky things throughout the game. There are many different kinds of Heartless, but I like this one a lot because it is so imposing, and a great introduction to the game's enemies. Also I just like those times when I get to jump onto an enemy's shoulder.

5. Ram (Spyro the Dragon)

Finally, we end this list of fearsome foes with the most terrifying of them all, the ram from the Stone Hill area of Spyro the Dragon's first world. Fear him.

☆☆☆

Special bonus mentions: Bowser (Super Mario Bros. series), that evil tree that eats you in Misty Bog (Spyro the Dragon), Temmie (Undertale), that one Sudowoodo (Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal), Hell House (Final Fantasy VII).

Don't Look

Evening Standard Magazine had an 'art issue' earlier this month, so obviously I had to make some collages with it - ft. Björk's eyeball.

My favourite part, however, is not the Caravaggio painting or the bust covered in dripping colour-correcting concealer, but the berries from a granola advert. Thanks, granola advert.

Art is one thing, but I'm mostly inspired by berries.

10 Favourite Fictional Characters

I hope you are ready to see all my favourite characters, because here they are! Here they come! I've compiled ten characters who I love and appreciate a lot from various kinds of movies and TV shows.

1. Yukito Tsukishiro (Cardcaptor Sakura)

Yuki may just be the sweetest angel who ever lived in an anime. A soft and gentle boy who loves eating a lot of food. So kind. So nice. He's supportive of everyone around him, super soft-spoken, and just the most pleasant bespectacled teen with hidden magic lurking within.

2. Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time)

I love Regina so much. She's such a great villain but also an incredibly sympathetic character. I want her to have good things and to keep being kinda rude forever. Special mention also goes to Rumplestiltskin from this show, because Robert Carlyle plays him in this incredible and deliciously sinister way.

3. Winifrid Sanderson (Hocus Pocus)

I love each Sanderson sister dearly (I'd probably be Mary), but as the mastermind and leader of the trio, I had to pick out Winnie. She's too good.

4. Joan Ferguson (Wentworth)

Ferguson is such a powerful character - both viciously sadistic and deeply suffering. She's intensely clever, manipulative, and completely fascinating. Pamela Rabe plays her with incredible nuance.

5. Flik (A Bug's Life)

Flik is just trying to make everyone's lives better and be a good person (ant) and he gets blamed for everything. He is the political scapegoat of the ants, creative and inventive, a little awkward (okay, a lot awkward) and he's nice to Dot (who is also brilliant). I feel strongly about this computer generated ant. Please respect and celebrate him.

6. Denise Hemphill (Scream Queens)

Denise Hemphill is a no-nonsense security guard who ain't afraid of no ghosts campus killers. She's the greatest. That's all I have to say.

7. Georgia 'George' Lass (Dead Like Me)

I love George because she is the apathetic teen-turned-grim-reaper we all are deep down. This screenshot itself probably says enough about why she's my favourite.

8. Marvin the Martian (Looney Tunes)

He's angry. At everything. All the time. #relatable

9. Dewey Wilkerson (Malcolm in the Middle)

Dewey is the smart and carefree kid who is really the only thing keeping us stable in Malcolm in the Middle. He is a treasure and a delight, and his happy-go-lucky soul is indestructible.

10. Jillian Holtzmann (Ghostbusters)

Jillian Holtzmann is the weird yet super cool engineer we all need and deserve. She can probably defeat any potential enemy with a strange homemade weapon and then do an excellent dance with two blowtorches to ease the tension. I love her a lot.

Hair Goals

I like the way you can curl hair around stuff. One day I would like to use my hair as a tote bag to carry assorted vegetables. That's the dream.

I also strongly enjoy the idea of having enough hair to be nude in public without technically breaking any indecency laws. Just seems like a good idea. A back up plan for some kind of unexpected naked disaster.

Incidentally, "Unexpected Naked Disaster" is going to be the name of my new band.

5 Games I've Been Playing Recently

I've been playing a whole bunch of fun Steam games recently, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts on some of my favourites. It must be evident how much I love pixel art, since all of these games incorporate it in various interesting styles, however the gameplay styles vary plenty. Let's delve into some video games!

1. Bloody Walls

This game is a short free-to-play zombie shooter that has you clearing out enemies through several storeys of a building. It's cool, a little spooky, and really neatly done. It's challenging to complete, but doable (I've even written a guide on how to easily complete it, which you can find here).

2. Stardew Valley

You may already know about my love for this game, so I had to include it here. It's engaging yet relaxing. You get to live out your days building up your farm and your life and your relationships with the locals. There's lots of things to do, the music is great, and the game has its own subtle humour. I love turning my fruit harvest into jam.

3. Trick & Treat

This is another free-to-play game with a cute and spooky Halloween theme. It was released last month, and follows two girls who go trick or treating at a strange house. It's a kind of 'choose your own adventure' RPG combination, and it has some good puzzles and a fun story. Again, I really like the pixel art here and it's quite a breath of fresh air for an RPG maker game.

4. LOVE

LOVE is a very simple platformer in which you must navigate levels without being killed by obstacles or falling to your death. The fun part is that you get to reposition your spawn point with a button press. This mechanic makes the game pretty hard to put down. The music is a big strong point in this one.

5. Timberman

This is a very simple game that was originally a mobile game, but it's another one that's hard to put down. You just chop as many logs as possible. That's it. That's the game. It's fun.