Not much to say except I sang this song literally all month:

CW: variety of food, mainly very sweet things and raw meat

I got a new phone! Not the largest upgrade in the world, but I was eligible for one so... here we are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I've had a Pixel 2 for the past couple years, snagged it shortly after it came out, and am now the owner of a Pixel 4a. Super happy with the upgrade so far. I didn't realize how much screen space the 2 didn't use compared to the 4a, and also didn't realize how sluggish my phone had gotten haha.

My one big gripe with the upgrade is that I wasn't able to carry over my game progress for a mobile gacha game I play called Dragalia Lost. I had been playing the game essentially since it launched and I guess I signed up with an alternate email that I didn't keep a record of or something, because it said it was connected to a Nintendo Account, but not one I had access to... lots of unhelpful back and forth later with their customer support and eventually I just gave up. I'm sad to see all the progress go and haven't really played on my new phone. I'm still torn between just not playing the game again or just starting from scratch. I wouldn't call myself a hardcore player and it's not like there's anything exclusive locked to my old phone, but I had a lot of progress and numerous items I had stockpiled for god knows how long, and it sucks to have technically lost it all. Oh well... we'll see how I can go before I get the itch to download it again.

Back to our classic Donut Showcase! This month I tried the Strawberry Dream Donut as well as the Sea Salt Caramel Dream Donut. While the strawberry one seems much more presentable, it was adequate in flavor. I'm not normally a strawberry person, but it was yummy! The Sea Salt one though? It's really not much to look at but damn is it good. Like... I've-gotten-it-on-multiple-occasions kind of good. Here's hoping what they come out with for the holidays will be delicious too.

Since my partner decided they were going to take bleaching their hair into their own hands (they had it previously done by a professional, but now... covid), I decided I would too. I've bleached my hair blond a few times in the past and loved it, and figured.... hey, why not? Overall I'm super happy with the results, and still occasionally catch myself in the mirror and wonder "who the hell is that???". I plan on bleaching it again soon, a few weeks after my initial bleach, to try and get it less coppery than it currently is. Not that I dislike how it looks now, I'd just prefer a less red-tinted look.

I took a small trip to visit my family (safely) to celebrate my uncle's upcoming birthday a little early. It was a really pleasant trip and so nice to hang out with my mom, uncle and aunt. I didn't realize how much I needed it until after I had left. My mom picked up some specialty cupcakes from a place close to their house, and when I went with her to pick them up, I saw they had a really strange yet awesome variety of lemonades and milkshakes. Intrigued enough, I decided to grab the "Shark Bite" which was a blue raspberry lemonade. I did not realize how doctored up and fancy it was going to be but look at it!! How cute is that??? The icing like waves with the shark gummy, the red sweetener to squeeze into your drink like a shark attack?? Also it was so delicious, I was legitimately surprised. I was expecting something over-sweetened and a poor excuse for lemonade but it was super tart and refreshing. Solid A+ for visual presentation and taste profile for sure.

Made another small trip during the middle of the month to have dinner with my parents and my dad barbecued steaks my mom had bought. It was a going away dinner unfortunately as my dad was heading back home for a construction job. Fortunately since travel restrictions have been slowly opening up as companies are being more careful, he was able to take the opportunity since the money is really good and he was having a hard time finding work here due to covid. As much as I didn't want him travelling at this time, he needed to get paid somehow and according to my mom the construction jobs he's going back to help with will make sure they're set for a while. To make sure the projects get completed properly and to not risk extra exposure, he's not going to be coming back to Canada until after Christmas which really sucks... But it is what it is.

I forgot in prior month(s) to show off the new washi tape I bought! The first two specialty washi tapes I have ever purchased, based on the games Transistor and Okami!! I'm so in love with both of them. The Transistor tape (top left) is a continuous rotating pattern of the two designs shown, while the Okami tape is in a stamp style allowing you to cut the tape into pictured increments that look like little stamps! I made the decision to put them on my laptop since I just loved the look of them so much... and also because they would come off super easily if I wanted to change it later since, well, it's washi tape!! Also a little sneak peak hello from my Zenyatta sticker in the bottom left corner lol. You should definitely check out the artist I purchased them, her art is amazing! Her name is Stephanie Kao and here's her Twitter and her Online Store.

Near the end of the month I was having a minor depressive episode and couldn't really focus on doing the things I enjoyed like playing games or cross stitching. I feel like I'm slowly working my way out of that funk but one thing that was a nice treat was a small indulgent trip to Michaels (the craft store) for some pretty skeins of thread. I wanted to get some reds for a current project (talked about below) and just decided to grab some extra colours because... why not? I didn't really have a rhyme or reason for any of the choices except for the fact that I just liked the way they looked. Also picked up some 'multi-color' thread which I'm really excited to experiment with!

I did up a super basic Heart Health Bar design in Aseprite (been toying with a couple programs to see what I like best when making my own cross stitch / pixel designs). Once I had stitched it onto the canvas though I realized that it was a bit too small to include the pin backing so during the Michaels trip, I grabbed some split & jump rings and turned it into a keychain! I'm honestly so surprised with how awesome it worked out and I can't wait to try out other designs too. The only downside with keychains like this vs. a pin is that I want the keychain to be double sided which means double the stitching lol.

It would be really cool to sell some things like this, pins and keychains alike. Would probably need to get a set of core designs ready first... and also figuring out shipping costs and procedures and such. I don't think I'd want to turn it into a main form of income, but I still like the concept of maybe having my own little shop one day.

As per the trend that has seem to unfold over the past couple months, have some complimentary photos of my baby boys.

Oh ya, one last thing. On the 30th, I came out to my car to head to work in the morning and there was snow that hadn't melted and I was thoroughly unimpressed.

That's it for this month! If you want to time travel a bit, why not check out last month's post for September, or the Photo Journal Tag!