10nineteen

こんばんは！Hello! How was your Monday?

Today for me was pretty good. I am so busy at work, but I did get a lot accomplished today and I am feeling good about the rest of the week. Yes, it’s still early on I know!

Anyways, today is National Cat Day in Japan and I’ve been seeing a lot of cat photos in my Instagram feed. This is the first time in 19 years that we haven’t had a cat in the family… I miss Miki a bunch. When I typed my nightly blog posts, she would usually keep me company. But I know she was loved and felt loved so I am happy to have had shared the time with her.

Today’s photo is of our little Hinamatsuri display that is in our house. Mariko put it on display last week and we’ll keep it on the table until after Hinamatsuri is over. I think this display is pretty cute. It’s a compact version of the more elaborate displays that many Japanese families have but I like it a lot.

Well, I just had a big yawn so that means I should get ready for bed. I want to sketch a little bit tonight too… I have my sketchpad and pencil in my bag and I want to start up again with the art! It gets me thinking about if I can do photography and freehand art at the same time. You know, splitting the creativity… will I run out of the creative spirit? I guess there’s only one way to find out! Onward and upward!

おやすみなさい！

-バロン 

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today we bought something pretty cool – a Wacom Intuos Art tablet. Bay has been wanting to use a good tablet stylus to do art on the computer and our current tablets don’t have the hardware necessary to use the good styli. So instead of investing in an iPad Pro or Surface Pro, we got the Wacom. I used to have a massive 12×12″ ArtZ II Wacom tablet a long time ago and enjoyed using it with Painter 5, but I sold that tablet when we moved in 2000. Although I liked it, that size just took up too much deskspace. The new Intuos we got is the small version, and it’s a nice size for drawing, and the price was good as well: $99. I figured we shouldn’t spend a lot for a tablet that may or may not get much use.

Besides Bay, I have wanted to try a tablet out with Lightroom, and Mariko said she’d also like to create some art with a tablet. So, I gave it a go for a few minutes in Lightroom tonight and it was a nice experience! Especially with using the Adjustment Brush. The pressure sensitivity is really precise and it is easy to add subtle effects. I think I am going to enjoy using it!

Today’s photo is of the Baby’s Breath flowers that I used to make the Valentines bouquet last week. I think they look pretty cool in close-up.

It’s getting late, so I will say goodnight! おやすみなさい！

-バロン 

こんばんは！How are you doing?

Can you believe that the week is already over? Although today seemed to drag on a bit long (Friday’s often do that, don’t they?) the week overall went by quickly. I guess since I was so busy! But yes, the weekend is here!

We don’t have too much planned for these couple days except for a baseball practice for Koa, so I might do a little bit of yard-work in preparation for Spring. But there’s a good chance I will be lazy and blow it off. I mean, that sometimes happens!

Today’s photo is of another Pinky:st character that I purchased at the same time as the Reina figurine. This one is named Maki, and she came with two outfits in the package. This one is the one I like better since it is more casual and I think the boots are pretty cool.

I really like these little figurines, and I can see how one could get into collecting these, especially if they are characters from an anime that you are attached too. But I don’t watch much anime so have any attachment so these Pinky:st figures are perfect for me. They aren’t associated with any other kind of story or manga… in fact this line of characters is probably around 10 years old and discontinued. There are still plenty of them on Ebay, however, and the price is very reasonable now! If I remember correctly, when I bought Suu years ago, she cost about $14, but now the regular characters go for about $6 with free shipping. So, why not get a few?

I remember one minimalist saying was something like you should only keep things if they are either useful or beautiful. These figurines certainly aren’t useful, but I think they are cool to look at!

I hope you have a good night’s rest, and have a good Saturday!

おやすみなさい！

-B