State of the Neko address: week 80, part 2

song+ Easy Breezy- Hikaru Utada- Exodus
book+ the manual that came with my tarot deck
quest+ finishing my tarot arcana designs
upper+ inspiration is plentiful
downer+ the dog's behavior is increasingly bizarre
attire+ khaki pants and a green tee
drink+ milk, my fondest love..

i've been hard at work on my Arcana themed outfit project since my Wednesday post. i re-did Moon and am now satisfied, so i've moved on and i now have 13 of 30 designs completed, and i'm likely to continue designing all weekend at the shop and at home. to the best of my recollection my completed themes now are: Fool, Empress, Lover, Strength, Devil, Tower, Stars, Moon, Sun, Judgement, World, Queen of Chalices, and Queen of Swords. there's still quite a few to go, but the ideas are plentiful and i'm feeling motivated. i've given each of the suits an elemental correspondence picked as carefully as possible after carefully considering meaning and equivalents in a modern deck of cards (which many people don't realize evolved from tarot after removing the major arcana except for the Fool; which became the joker, as chalices/cups became hearts, pentacles/coins became diamonds, wands/staves became clubs, and swords became spades). this elemental arrangement feels the most right to me. for the purposes of this project Chalices are water, Pentacles are air, Wands are earth, and Swords are fire. i'm gonna finish the Queens next and then move on to the Knights before hitting the rest of the major arcana. i'm hoping that inspiration continues to flow freely.

it helps that i FINALLY have working headphones again. mine died about two months ago, and my really good pair of metallic hot pink & white Skullcandy DJ headphones were eaten by Harley more than a year ago, so i'd been making due with cheap ear bud sets since then. upon (finally) realizing that 20 bucks every few months is in no way cheaper than spending 40 bucks for a good replacement set, we waited for Kyu to have a good week at the shop and bought me another set of Skullcandy DJs Saturday afternoon. this pair isn't the same color scheme as the last set, they're a muted navy & black, but they sound just as fantastic and it's wonderful to be able to take my music with me again. it makes it WAY easier to ignore the garbage perpetually on the TV in the shop and play things that keep me in the mindset i need for whichever theme i'm attempting to capture. it certainly helps that they're not ear buds, so they do a pretty awesome job blocking out other noises. even at low volumes there's very little competing with the sound of my music, so it's more comfortable in fit and noise level.

i've discovered in the last year that being entirely unable to afford fun side projects is actually pretty good for me. it's made me make lists and do comparison shopping for the best possible deals on everything so i can price things out. i save my findings in word documents then look them over after a few months, and for most of them, i've realized it's not something i really care about after all. xD it's bound to save me money when i actually have it again, since the habit's one i can see myself maintaining. i do have something like 8 dolls on that list, but only 6 count i think. 2 are re-shells (Rosalie and FaithAnn want the updated joints), and thus their original versions will be sold off after replacement and they won't increase my doll count. 2 complete that mini-family (with Kyu and Umi represented since i still love her- even in absentia), and i eventually wanna get a JID to be Roro, but the right facial sculpt hasn't been released yet. 2 will be character dolls from comics i like (as Xavin technically is), they'll be Stephanie Brown's Batgirl, and Cassandra Cain's BlackBat versions of their characters. the last 2 will be my Amphitrite-and-Son modding projects. this kinda seems like a lot of (eventual) incoming dolls, but there were three or four other concepts that were stricken from the list after careful consideration and loss of interest. not having space to display things didn't curb my impulse-spending, but a lack of funds is working wonders. xD it's also encouraging me to work with the things i already have, so i'm clearing out some of my cache of random stuff.

even with all that on my list of awesome stuff i can't afford (yet) it's at the bottom of the list. i did the responsible thing and prioritized by how much the stuff on the list will actually improve the quality of life for me and Kyu. at the top are things related to our living situation (car, better living situation), followed by wardrobe choices we'd like to eventually work toward and awesome shoes, then at the bottom something like 5 grand (rounded up, but including shipping costs) in dolls i eventually want. xD when i'm finally bringing money into the house, it'll pay off the bits i owe people, then be saved pretty much exclusively to make a down payment on a car. there's no point hurry on this, since neither of us drives, but the thought of having a decent cache saved up for a down payment makes trying to learn seem more important. as things stand now other things keep getting in the way of driving lessons, but if we're actively saving for a car maybe it'll seem more urgent to learn and things will finally come together for us in that regard. there's no point in thinking too hard about that though since i'm not yet bringing any money in. xD hopefully i'll be changing that soon.