#lapisllong

[lapisllong]

Sisters, so very cute, right?

The front one is sweet, timid, and wanty, requiring soft love at all times; she has maybe one brain cell but I suspect that she's actually orange cat noir and shares with the local pool of orange cats. She does not care for wrestling and cries when the other two cats try to play rough. Tongue so weirdly smooth.

The back one is a chaos demon in cat form with violently militant opinions on her OWN bodily autonomy and zero regard for YOURS. She will take her love on her terms, via tooth & claw, and you will still want to cuddle her for the thunder rumble of purrs. She will take on animals 3 or more times her size to play rough and make THEM tap out. Tongue could strip the paint off a car.

But there is something else you NEED to understand about our silvery gray Pandora and stabby tabby Echo...

same mom, same litter; giant baby, tiny monster, 30" donut shaped cat bed

And we love them so very much

@phedre13 appreciation post for your girls

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

This is Jiji (~4yo) who is full of love, just discovered The Crinkle Ball this morning, and is now exhausted from hunting it up and down the hallway for two hours while high on the 'nip.

Oh the humbling joy of watching a shelter adoptee acclimate into their forever home! He is already everything to me <3

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awww lil old man

[jenroses]

A thread you contributed to flowed across my dash on heavy handed censorship of fiction for kids and teens which interested me and kept me nodding in agreement. In it there are several mentions about Heinlein being a misogynist. I'd never gotten that feeling from his writing and I'm interested in your thoughts on this as you indicated it had a deep impact on you. I'm by no means perfect and sometimes miss or discount things in a story while chasing the adventure but I have read him extensively.

I would have to go back through and reread to give specific examples, but the last time I did, I was struck hard by how he had this one view of womanhood, and how limited and objectifying it was. I think I read like 15 of his books in a row, and the patterns pop out that way.  https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/books/review/heinleins-female-troubles.html is a fair analysis. 

[lapisllong]

Everybody needs to see him face!

He's been a sleepy boy

[lapisllong]

You act?! That's so cool! What have you acted in? Do you have a favorite monologue?!

I'm proud to have been Marion the Librarian, a candy cane (Nutcracker), an extra (so many plays), and the court jester (Once Upon A Mattress). I'm fuzzy on the others because HS was not my best time; I was too wasted to know what day it was most of the time but it strangely allowed me to memorize and regurgitate whole scripts with an ease I can no longer attain. It was really weird.

I did not continue acting after HS as my life took a sudden hard turn into domesticity just when i was beginning to get my shit together.

My favorite monolog was actually a tie between The Last Rung On the Ladder that my BFF prepped for UIL, and the monolog at the end of Izzy, Willy Nilly that I prepped for UIL. Both are raw and steeped in complex emotions. I adore the overplayed House of Blue Leaves but... after you've seen 5457 terrible to okay renditions, and you are inured to the 3-4 good to incredible ones.

Monologs are nifty, but everybody's just been chasing the perfection of Hamlet's soliloquy for a few hundred years with varying success. My jam is watching the interplay between people and the wickedly clever ways snappy dialog can be played. Think Mel Brooks.

[lapisllong]

I'm curious, what was the first fandom you recall participating in, if any? What, in your opinion, was the best?

I joined Tumblr to escape FB, IG, & Twitter, and because I was about to move across the country, and a person I knew from HS was my first friend here and introduced me to a couple of other people they knew on here. Also, I was watching Supernatural (unironically but not rabidly), and there was a huge community here, so my choice seemed like a great fit.

I took one look at the SPN Fandom and decided I was happy to just watch from three houses down with some binoculars. Their fans are a bit... intense.

It wasn't until year two of Dracula Daily that I really got into a Fandom, but I'm not great at contributing. I have written, edited, agonized over the just right way to say what I'm thinking, and then just deleted more posts than I've actually posted.

I also have a translation issue when it comes to visual art: I can see in my mind exactly what I want to show/convey, but I can't translate it via my hands. I spent a decade in art classes, working on techniques and practicing before I admitted my limitations and turned to acting.

In fandom spaces, I'm a cheering section, mostly!

[lapisllong]

I just need everyone to see how adorable Jiji is today

[lapisllong]

I DID A THING AND I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT I'M GOING TO TELL AND SHOW YOU!

Context: So, I had a challenge. I have always had a "useful" headboard. I've had several waterbeds, a massive four piece lighted late 70s style storage headboard, and for years, a twin mattress standing on its side. The mattress option was nice as a back rest, wall protector, and resting place for the various accouterment I wanted at hand. Sadly, I did not realize that what worked in Texas would be a disaster in the PNW, and the mattress had trapped moisture against the wall and was mildewing, which I'm very allergic to. This was removed & remediated immediately upon discovery.

So I drafted a replacement made of wood that allowed airflow, hid the cords while keeping them off the floor, and still had an upper shelf wide enough to set books and a tablet on. I made a cardboard mockup with measurements, bought materials, and helped project manage the construction (read: fed the boyfriend, offered some confirmations, and mostly stayed out of the way).

He turned out exactly what I wanted, but it was the depth of winter, so we couldn't finish it. We installed it with a sheet over it, and I started dreaming up what it should look like. I'm fanciful and my colors are black & blue, and I wanted to extend the space theme started by the beautiful twinkling night sky canopy we installed over the bed:

My research pared my best chances of achieving my desired aesthetic down to using a wood stain topped by glitter and varnish. I got a black stain, a crystal clear varnish, blue & purple mica powders, some holographic paint glitter, and holographic paint stars.

I went two rounds with the stain, the first layer of varnish was a popsicle stick scoop of each mica and a Tbsp of glitter, the second layer was one scoop of purple with two Tbsp of stars, and the last layer was two Tbsp of blue mica. The result:

It is so hard to capture in image or even video how beautiful it turned out. There is depth, glittery shine, and a sense of motion to it that fills me with joy. I have a galaxy on my headboard!!!

Could someone have done this better than me? Probably. It has visible brush strokes and I don't want to try to polish it due to the glitter, but I kinda like the way they work with the woodgrain and increase that sense of motion so I will take it with glee. So if you want to make your world more beautiful, whimsical or just more YOU, give it a whirl.