Happy June!

Yes, I know it's June 2nd already, but I never got around to posting yesterday.

Over Memorial Day, my family and I went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Do you know how hard it is to walk downhill for almost two hours when you have weak knees? I do. I have no balance going down slopes because of my knees. Going up is fine, but I wobble and shake like crazy going down. They had signs all over the entrance warning people with weak knees and ankles to reconsider taking that cave tour, but I thought I could suck it up. And I did, mostly, but it was incredibly painful.

Fortunately, the caverns are worth seeing. I've been in my fair share of caves, but I'd never seen anything like Carlsbad. It's impossible to describe, so I'll just post a quick picture:

I didn't take that. And there's no dramatic light. But you get the idea.

I was so excited, looking forward to posting all the pictures I'd take here and on Facebook, but I ran into a snafu -- my brother ran down the battery on my camera and didn't tell me in time to charge it for the trip. So I have no cave pictures :| I do, however, have some good flora photography that I took at the zoo we went to the next day.

... And that's all I'm showing you.

Most of the pictures I took were astonishingly boring, which is sad because the subjects were fantastic. Apparently, though, Soren and Rollin took Memorial Day off, so I was on my own. So sad...

About the cave, though, to be honest, it wasn't my favorite. It was so huge and the trails were laid out. I didn't really get the feeling that I was exploring something. It felt more like a tour. My favorite cave of all time is the Wonder Cave (failname) in San Marcos, TX. It's so narrow and jagged that you really feel like you're exploring it. In fact, they have a height and size limit for even entering it. I loved it so much. I want to go back.

In artistic news, I haven't really got much for now... I've been working on a painting that addresses some of the critiques I received, but I haven't finished it. I may put it on hold a bit to work on a worldwide Fire Emblem 20th Anniversary Collaboration I opted into. Everyone could adopt a character (or two, if they're from different games) and represent them in the collaboration, which will be finished around New Years. I will be painting Leila from FE7 and Marisa from FE8:

I wanted to do Soren, but he was already claimed D: He's my absolute favorite and my muse is named after him... But oh well. Leila doesn't get enough love and Marisa is quite popular. In fact, I only beat Psychorror to her by 30 seconds or so, and he was kind enough to let me have her :D I'm very excited about being part of this collaboration, especially since it's for my favorite game. It will be my first!

Well, I suppose that is enough of me for today.

I'm curious -- what did YOU do for Memorial Day?

A happy me... and a lot of art

I've had a good week so far. Sunday, I got some lovely new gladiator sandals that look really good with the long skirts I wear... Shoe Carnival was having a massive sale.









After we came back from our usual Sunday shopping, I donned a shawl and went for a walk in this cursed sun with my mom. I'm glad I went because I got some lovely spring pictures...

I honestly didn't know how any of my pics turned out until I got home because it was so sunny, I couldn't see the digital screen of my camera... It was really hot and I thought I was going to melt.

Of course, wearing a black shawl didn't help. But it did keep me from burning!







I also started accounting at work.  Normally, I just do brochures or whatever needs to be done, but since if we expand and I run the new store wherever it may be I'd need to know how the accounting works. Honestly, as much as I hate math, I don't hate accounting. It doesn't really feel like math XD

Money makes sense to me. It doesn't have any confusing unknowns or letters that shouldn't even be INVOLVED in math in the first place. It's just numbers and they all have somewhere they're supposed to go.

I actually understand it well enough that I was nationally ranked after high school graduation even though I failed algebra twice (five times including college hehe)

I'm mostly just happy to feel like I'm really doing work.

Also, today I got another package in the mail! When I ordered my tablet, I also ordered the first three tankobon of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge/The Wallflower. As much as I love Bleach and Death Note, I've never actually purchased the tankobon unless you count the free Shonen Jumps I used to get when I worked at Gamestop. I was expecting just a paper comic-type cover, but they're actually book-bound. I'm very happy.

I have only one complaint... While the translator did a good job of making everything more clear to people who may not understand a lot of Japanese culture references and translation quips, he made the translation really dry... A lot of the funny references were changed. Like "Been there, done that" simply became "She tried." So much less funny. Although, with The Wallflower, the art itself is so funny you can forget a translator's fails... Bless you, Hayakawa-sama, for making me laugh at the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and...

OK!! Moving on to the latest art. You get to see a few sketches before I've even posted them on deviantART! Lucky you.

#1
An on-location sketch I did in the canyon one day when it was really cool, cloudy and windy. There was  a single dead tree surrounded by blossoms and greenery. I loved it. So I call it Dead Among the Living.

#2
I was hoping I could get this painted well enough to use as my deviantID and possibly as my banner here, but it's not going very well... I might go ahead and just overlay paint it. Or if it continues badly, I'll either start from scratch (it didn't take too long) or attempt photomanipulation. Anyway, it's a pic of me with Soren and Rollin. They're never far away when creativity is involved...

#3 & 4
Exclusive photo-comparison life drawings!

Well, now I'm exhausted. This was a pretty long post compared to the ones I've been doing lately haha. So yes! Enjoy that and my new signature pic!