A little late to post this 😅 I wanted to do the classic con meme hehe. I’ll be at Babyfur Con this weekend. I’m very excited. It’s been almost six years since I’ve fully done a furry convention.

Some cool notes:

🐾 I’m running TWO panels this year. Friday at 9am is Tiny Tots Yoga. This will be a toddler level yoga class so don’t expect it to be quite as peaceful as your standard class. Then Satuday 7-8:30pm is friendship bracelets! Stop by at anytime to learn how to weave a classic friendship bracelet.

🐾 If you have a sketchbook and a few minutes I will draw in it for you! I’d love if you can doodle something in my book in exchange :3 Artistic talent not required.

🐾 I should have lots of goodies to hand out!! Bringing old merch, three secret merit badge buttons, and I’ll have stuff for friendship bracelets on me.

🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

Classic convention meme uwu

Where are you coming from?
Boston, Massachusetts

What day are you getting there?
Thursday evening. Really crossing my paws I can make opening ceremonies!

What days are you going to be at the con?
Thurs-Sunday

Who will you be rooming with?
Riley

Who will you be hanging out with?
Gaaah everyone I hope!! There are so many people I cannot wait to see for the first time in a very long time. I am especially excited for all the people I’ve never met them before irl like Riley, Jaq, Zoey, Reva ect ect 🥺

What suit(s) will you be bringing?
At the moment none 😔 Prioritizing cute clothes over my Kitty suit.

What do you look like?
5’6” long brown hair with pink glasses. Probably wearing some sort of bow. I also will have Pawl my polar bear plushie and my super cool rainbow sunshine backpack.

Do you do free art?
If you bring me a sketchbook and I have a few minutes absolutely. Extra bonus points if you’re willing to draw in *my* sketchbook!

Do you do trades?
See above. I would loooove to do sketchbook swaps. I also just do trades in general. I’ll have some old goodies on me like stickers, pins, and lanyards.

Do you do commissions?
Not at this con. I do not have the CA sale license. I am not vending.

Do you do badges?
I didn’t have time this summer… whoops

Can I take photos with you/your suit in spaces that allow it?
Yes! I love photos :D

Do you drink or smoke?
I’d love to sit at the bar and catch-up. I’m looking forward to some of the fun drinks. But I don’t smoke or do any drugs.

Can we hang out?
PLEASE! I don’t know the west coast crowd very well so I’m super nervous 🥹

What panels will you be attending?
The tea party 🥺 I think there’s also a girl meet-up and the plushie show and tell. So many fun panels!!

What is your gender/pronouns?
Female, she/her!

Taken?
Yup, married & monogamous. My husband/caretaker Dan will sadly be missing out on this con.

Can I talk to you?
I love chatting!!!! Talk to me about table top games, art, Neopets, or Chinese web novels.
If I don’t immediately recognize you can you do me a favor and let me know where we may have met? I have a pretty good memory for furries but I know it’s been a long time.

Can I touch you?
I am *very* physically affectionate. I love to hug and hold paws and cuddle if you’ll let me haha.

How can I find you?
I have TWO panels! Tiny tots yoga Friday @ 9am and Friendship bracelets Saturday @ 7pm. Friendship bracelets is drop-in drop-out so it would be a good chance to pin me down if you want to say hi or chat for a bit.

Best way to contact you during the con?
Telegram princessblankit or message me on bluesky blankitart

It’s been made clear to me that Fur Affinity is no longer a safe place for me. My gallery is in compliance with new rules, but the last month I’ve been afraid to touch the site for fear that I would get nailed for the few regression pictures I’ve uploaded. I have watched friends get their long standing accounts suspended without warning. That’s really scary.

I’m less upset to the change for messy and wet art. However the rules for regression are very vague and broad for me to feel like they were written in good faith. More importantly how this has all unfolded has left me feeling very unwelcome on a site I have called home for ten years :( Particularly upset since I’ve spent years championing it to other artists as a still valid art site.

Where else can I find you?

I am working on a big website revamp to turn it more into a blog. I will post an update here when it is done!

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/blankitart.bsky.social

Mastodon/Cub Hub: https://cubhub.social/@blankit

I am still uploading to Twitter but after recently joining Blue Sky (and how horrid the site is getting to use) I will be priviting the account and sunsetting uploads soon.

Will you stop uploading to FA?
I honestly don’t know. The site has been dying a slow death so I’m not sure it’s worth it at this point. I feel icky uploading new art. Maybe one day I won’t?

Are you deleting your account?
No!! There are too many comments and memories I want to save. It will still be here as long as the site allows.

I’m okay-ish. Honestly with everything going on self-doubt is starting to creep in. Maybe I am a bad person for enjoying sippy cups and acting like a toddler? I’m very glad I have the support of my husband and friends.

I wish I was not so weird. I wish I didn’t feel like I was constantly putting on an act when interacting with most adults. I wish I had normal adult interests like regular TV shows or video games instead of being excited that Barney got a remake. But that’s just who I am…





(Is the Barney remake any good? The YouTube shorts are kind of meh and we don’t have max right now to stream full episodes haha)

In June 2014 I created this furry account and started exploring the Babyfur and furry community. I was immediately welcomed and got to draw for so many critters 💕 I can’t believe it’s been ten years!

Creating this account has lead to so many amazing opportunities for me. From tabling at conventions to traveling to meet friends. I’m always in awe of the incredible diversity of people I get to talk with through this community.

In other big news I maaaybe had another baby. So it turns out being pregnant just really messes with my ability to do, well, anything n_n;; I had my second son April 1st. :D I’m finally starting to recover and have the capacity to come back online. I’m hoping the semi-forced break will help furry feel fresh as a hobby~ I’m looking forward to wrapping up some loose ends and maybe taking new art trades soon!

I really hope I’m here in another ten years. Thank you to everyone who’s supported me over the years 🐾

Edit: I forgot to mention that I *am* on the revived Babyfur.Me. The original was a hot mess but I have fond memories of it as the place I found a lot of my early friends.

https://babyfur.me/profile/Blankit

Hi all - I’m working on getting better scans of all my traditional work. I have been drawing but almost all of it is traditional work that hasn’t been digitized yet. I’ll hopefully be uploading more soon as well as updating older pieces.

Non-art Updates
Mostly just been enjoying summer. We took a quick trip to Sesame Park which was awesome and a trip up to the White Mountains. Other than that there’s been a lot of swimming.

My husband and I started up Baldur’s Gate III recently and have been enjoying it quite a bit. I really love the Divinity Original Sins games so I’m excited to have another game in that style. I also know how to play 5e D&D so that helps too haha. It’s very cool seeing how Larian blends the D&D rules with their game engine. I can’t say I’m super blown away though, since BG3 is very similar to the Divinity games. But I’m happy to have more content 🥰

Where can I find you?
While we continue to live in uncertain times in terms of furry online hangouts I wanted to once again state where you can find me.

🐾 I am still posting artwork on FA, it may just lag behind other sites. Truthfully my heart isn’t in it to keep this site as up to date as I once did. For that I am sorry. But I am still here!!
🐾 “https://cubhub.social/@blankit”, Mastodon/CubHub is my most used site at the moment. If you want to follow my quips and pet pics in addition to art I suggest you go here.
🐾 “ https://twitter.com/blankitart” is largely just getting art updates at this time. Again if you mostly just want to see my art this is a great option. However, I may lock my account down again.
🐾 Telegram, princessblankit - I’m not great at answering Messages on any platform but if you would like to chat with me this is the best place. (I do read/respond to FA notes too - it just takes a bit sometimes 😅) I also pop around a few groups.

Just so tired of trying to find a way to connect with artist. I just feel a kind of void in my life where social interactions used to be. It’s getting harder and harder to find a place to share art.

Last year I tried to double down on FA. I even bought premium. But clearly this site is dying.

Beyond the rule updates there just isn’t as much activity. A lot of sad journals recently echoing this feeling. I want the site to work so bad but it’s had so many flubs recently.

The funny thing is outside of missing furry communities I’m doing very well! I started a new sketch book in March and it’s already 2/3 full of little pantings, ink work, and studies.

My son is starting to talk and we get to go on so many adventures together. I love him so much.

I started playing Honkai Star Rail and I really like it. I loved Genshin Impact but just never had the time to keep up. Star Rail is much more manageable. March 7th is my favorite!

But I don’t know where to post my art. :( It’s totally random. Some of it isn’t fully finished. FA has been my main gallery site for almost 10 years. I can host it on my own but that has its own challenges.

It’s beyond furry in someways... The internet as I know it is breaking. Everything feels like an ad. I find it harder and harder to find content and websites I like.

It’s tough because I have very few friends with the same hobbies as me IRL. I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get to make it to another convention. I’m just not in the right stage of life for it.

Hey so in like 2018 I have a talk on how to make merchandise at ANE. I think it went over well, people clapped a lot. I meant to post the slides when I got home and uhhhhhh, that never happened. 😅

I was thinking again this evening about my personal website and how I’d really, really like to re-focus it on providing resources and free to use art . That’s been a dream of mine for a long time but I’ve never quite gotten around to it. I’d love to do a series on how to make X because I spent months learning how to do crazy things like silk screen in my apartment. The act of creating a product, especially by hand, is so special to me. I wish people talked about it more in the fandom.

Anyways that project is a long way off but for now here’s the dang slides! If you have any questions please comment or contact me anywhere. I LOVE talking about this stuff.

link to Google slides

I’ve been really down the last month. I know a lot of babyfurs have run into issues with FA recently. I private’d my Twitter a few months ago because I stopped feeling safe there and wanted to take a break. I’m still on Twitter but it feels quieter and empty. There really doesn’t seem to be a good “home” for us right now. 😞 I’m confident the dust will settle eventually but for now I just feel lost.

I’d been resistant to Mastodon for a long time. It’s confusing. I don’t like that federations can block each other. I didn’t like that I had to pick a federation. But I also really, really miss sites like Babyfur.Me and Fluffy Waddles. I thought maybe Mastodon could be similar…

So I picked the federation I remembered people mentioning a while back and made an account.

https://cubhub.social/@blankit

^ That’s me!!

And heck, I really like it??? 😖 Traffic is still small but this instance feels really cozy. Kepler, the owner, seems very active and committed to building this instance up. It’s old enough that I missed the “new site” wave of activity. Hopefully the users there will be active for a while. For the first time in a very long time I feel safe to be 100% myself. I haven’t had that in a long time 🥺 It may die off at some point but I’m enjoying it for now.

If you’re interested in joining there are two major babyfur instances: cubhub.social and babyfurs.social. You can follow people in other instances so it doesn’t make a huge difference which one you join.

https://Cubhub.social seems to be more art and status updates.
https://Babyfurs.social seems to be more IRL pics.

That’s just my impression 😅

As a side note, I know many people are migrating to Cohost. I honestly don’t love it but I’m at least following people on the site. Feel free to follow me there if you want. I’m not post much at the moment though.

https://cohost.org/Blankit

Last time we left off I was leaving for Thanksgiving, posting a decent amount, and running a small raffle.

First, raffle update. I did do sketches on the road for bazilpup & Sp4c3Ch1nch1ll4 picking via random generator. However I really wanted to color them! I just loaded them on to my computer this evening, they should be out soon <3 I'll also be using that journal for random art prompts for a while.

❄️❄️❄️

I have a nice little backlog of art now that I'm working through. I need to update my profile page but here's what I'm working on in no particular order:

- Secret project #1, which is a single panting
- Raffle mentioned above
- Drawing for Bwuu & me
- Drawing for Beaky
- Valentines day panting
- Secret project #2, which is personal and won't be anything for a very long time n_n;
- A very delayed Christmas card haha

❄️❄️❄️

What happened you may ask, that made me disappear so suddenly? Two things:

- I got sick again.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

I really feel very whinny mentioning being sick again. This time I had bad stomach flu, immediately caught a cold, lost my voice for a week, and then caught the same stomach bug back again. Wow! Then kiddo and husband got sick directly after Christmas. We got to celebrate Christmas with my family, as no one was sick directly surrounding the holiday, so I'm counting my blessings.

- I fell really hard into Visual Novels. The lack of energy from sickness/holiday shenanigans meant I was playing games more then I usually do.

I mentioned Slow Damage back in November. I had been waiting patiently for this game for years. I honestly can't decide how I felt about it. Parts were absolutely amazing - the main character is a painter and color was used beautifully as a plot device and mechanic, the music was jazzy, and the main character was my favorite MC for a visual novel so far. However, the plot and writing was a little dull compared to the studio's previous work and the route I was most looking forward to was 100% lost in translation from Japanese to English.

So having been a little bit miffed at the end I decided to fix this by.... immediately starting another visual novel? I took the plunge and finally downloaded Higurashi for something a little more plot heavy. HOLY HECK IT IS SO GOOD. The art is bad but the writing is so, so good. I was looking for a horror/suspense game but I didn't realize how much of the story is genuinely good slice of life. I grew very attached to all the characters immediately. It captures the chaos of preteen girls so, so well. They act very much like my friend group did at that age and I love it.

For those of you who are unaware the story is told through 8 games. I'm on 3... after about 30 hours of gameplay. I think I've seen people mention 140+ hour playthroughs oAo

(If you have seen or played Higurashi pls don't spoil it for me. I know the anime is older but I've managed to avoid most spoilers.)

My presence will continue to be sporadic. I really wish I had the time and energy to be more consistent but creativity is really on and off right now. Some weeks I'm just really into art and draw all the time and some weeks I sit and spend every waking moment on a game or book. I used to be able to force myself to draw more when I was paid but now I just kind of follow my passion. It's nice being able to get very into a book and not have lingering fears about owed work.

I hope 2023 treats all of you well. Despite being sick for large portions of it 2022 was wonderful for me.

Hello new friends! There have been quite a few of you who followed me last week. Welcome 🐾💕

I’m about to embark on a 4-day travel extravaganza for Thanksgiving. We’ll be visiting three states and drive 30ish hours. With a toddler! Pray for our sanity 🙏😅 I thought it would be nice if I offered some colored sketches to keep me busy as we travel.

🎨 Post a link to your reference OR you can let me know if it’s linked on your profile OR you can share a brief description of your character :3

🎨 Any prompt/theme/ideas you have.

I’ll randomly draw a few folks that post. Not sure how many I’ll be able to get to over the course of the trip 🤔 Hopefully at least a few! This is the first time I’ve offered art publicly in years. So I’m a little nervous.

It will be a very long and stressful trip but well worth it. I have not been able to travel for Thanksgiving since 2019 and very much miss my in-laws. I’ll admit I’m also excited that I was able to talk Big Ott into let me stay at the Cartoon Network hotel one of the nights?!? Exciting!

I hope all of my American friends have a wonderful holiday weekend.

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch came out last week and I am LOVING IT. I have a passion for horse games but there haven't really been any decent ones for many years. The game is kind of clunky but it has racing AND breeding AND lots of pretty scenery AND you can hug your horsey. I am not doing to well at the game so far. The races are haaard T n T

A few days ago someone made a proboard dedicated to one of my favorite novels (and current special interest) The book heavily features "older" internet culture so everyone is really leaning into the 2000's aesthetic. Several people have made amazing GIF signatures. I know old-school forums are never coming back but I do miss that slower pace of communication. I'm sure this board will fade when the novelty wears off but I'm having fun for now! It's funny though... there are many users who are too young to have ever joined a forum before! I turn 30 next month and am definitely starting to feel old in some ways. n_n; I still giggle at peek-a-boo so I don't think I'm /that/ old.

So many books I preordered (FOUR) are coming out this month too, and a visual novel I've been waiting on for a while, Slow Damage. I'm not sure how I'm going to get through it all.

I was contemplating opening up commissions to get a little extra Christmas money but A - I know this time of year is already really competitive for commissions and B - I don't think I'll have time with how much hobby stuff I have going on this month! I've been warming up to the idea of doing commissions again, but then I remember all the stress they caused. *sigh* Two years out and I still think giving up commissions was one of the better decisions I've made. I miss having the motivation to draw. It's hard to get myself to boot up the laptop especially with how tired I've been lately.

Tumblr recently revised their policies in content. My old art/little blog had a lot of content cleared off of it in the big NSFW purge. I set up a side blog for my artwork https://www.tumblr.com/babyblankit - I do not know how active it will be. I love Tumblr for fandom stuff but I was never super fond of it for art.

(Also everyone got sick again LOL. This fall has been brutal so far. Get your flu shot if you can!)

I had hoped I would have time for art and art trades but I made a slight miscalculation. n_n;; My home has turned into a petri dish. We've just been nailed with sickness after sickness. I started typing this journal up last night since we had a brief few days where everyone was okay and then I woke up this morning with a cold LOL. Really the only hard part has been being stuck in the house while being too tired to do anything.

The animals have ALSO been sick. Even the 20+ year old turtle needs to see the vet for the first time ever?! I'm very grateful that we have money saved up that vet appointments aren't an issue. We've been every few weeks this summer. The vet's office very nice. They were gushing over how well behaved our rats were the last time I went.

I haven't had much free time. Mostly I've been reading. I just finished re-reading The Scum Villain's Self Saving System book 3. I've read un-official translations of the book before (It's Chinese > English) but I've been enjoying having a real copy in my hands! Definitely one of my favorite books. I really enjoyed reading Chinese fantasy and comparing with English language fantasy. It's really neat getting to see what tropes carried over between languages. Now I need to figure out what book I'm reading next.

I also have been really into puzzles recently. I'm working on a 2,000 piece space themed one now! It's really big!

Do you do anything fun when your feeling under the weather?

Hihi, you may have noticed I’ve been a little more active lately!

I updated my profile a little bit. It was pretty out of date since it reference 2020 cons and said I was 27 n_n;;

For those of you who missed the like one tweet about it, I did have a baby the end of last year. I was pretty hush, hush about even being pregnant in the first place. I think partially because I was so exhausted and depressed while pregnant… hormones are crazy man. I still plan to not really talk about kiddo since 1) I want to respect his privacy and 2) This is one of the few places I’m not “mom”.

I got a new watercolor sketchbook I really love. Pentalic Art Aqua is the brand. I’m really over joyed that I found cheaper paper I like. I’ve been trying to dabble a little in gouache but I need to invest in better paints I think. The ones I have now are kind of not great.

I’ve also started working on my visual novel backlog! And by that I mean ignoring all the games on my list and starting “Tokyo Onmyoji”. It’s pretty good though! I’ve only finished one of the routes so far. I’ve also been playing a little Planet Zoo. Gosh, it just brings out all the little feels >w< It doesn’t help that my husband/big has been super indulgent recently.

Anyways, I think that’s all that’s really going on right now. Who knows when the cadence of my life will get too hectic for posting online again. For now I’m just enjoying the chance to get some art up online.

Hi! I’ve been absolutely exhausted but I thought I’d share an update ;W; I had a few insane deadlines at work Dec-Feb but things are finally calming down again. I only had one weekend off in Feb. I’m finally starting to perk up again.

I have a bajillion half started projects and paintings from those months. A few watercolors, a gouache painting, way too many sketches and sewing projects. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the motivation to finish them off and finally share them! I’ve been really into sketching baby-babies the last few weeks, which is a problem because I don’t have any itty bitty characters to finish them with! I might try and do a YCH with a few of them but I don’t know how many people would be interested in like a 2 month old baby pose. XD If I do YCHs they will be released on FA first.

I’ve mostly been reading the last few months since that’s all I’ve had the energy for. I read my first Discwold book, Mort, and was pleasantly surprised! I always thought Discworld was a really intimidating series but Mort was short and silly and easy to read. I hope I’ll be able to pick up a few more soon.

I’ve also been playing/reading quite a few visual novels. I usually am into horror themed ones but  marinaneira got me to try a few Otome/fluffy romance ones again. Right now I’m playing Code: Realize and enjoying it quite a bit. I’m still not super far into it but the main plot line is really interesting so far.

We’re going to visit my in-laws soon. We have not seen them in over a year so I am very much looking forward to it. My husband and I were very lucky and have been able to get both doses of the COVID vaccine. Really looking forward to having a more normal spring/summer!!

I hope everyone (in the northern hemisphere haha) is having a lovely spring so far c:

I wish I was able to share photos on FA journals. All of the Christmas decorations went up last weekend and I'm delighted with how they came out. I finished up a quilt last night to use as our tree skirt. I've mostly been keeping busy working on that quilt and continuing to build out my Warhammer 40k army. I started working on a second daemon army to go with my death guard one and I'm very excited to play with them.

I always feel a little guilty when I haven't uploaded art in a while. I am working on a personal digital painting that is coming out quite nicely, but I need to get the artwork done for my holiday cards first! I started sending furry holiday cards a few years ago and it's honestly one of my favorite "furry fandom" traditions. Do you have a favorite tradition fandom or otherwise?

This Monday is my birthday and I fully intend on celebrating all weekend. :P I'm not quite sure what we'll be doing yet. Honestly probably playing board games and ice cream cake. With lots of Christmas carols of course ;)

Happy Halloween everyone! I am running an event this weekend through the LittleFort group I run. You may see similar journals like this throughout the weekend (hopefully???) I hope everyone has some fun plans this weekend. We're going to throw goodie bags out in our yard and play spooky board games I think. I'll be doing themed sketches throughout the weekend as fun treats.

I am participating in the :userLittleFort: Halloween event. If you would like a treat show off your costume in the comments and say Trick or Treat. Information on this event can be found on this journal: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9659824/

Right now I am Closed. I hope everyone had a good halloween.
I will likely open/close throughout the weekend as people stop by.

After almost 2 months our emergency renovation is *done* 🎉 I still need to put back everything and organize a bit but the appliances went in this weekend! We have a new roof and some new walls and a new kitchen. It was an exhausting amount of work.

Truthfully, I’ve been feeling very disconnected from furry recently. I’m not sure if it’s the stress of all of the house work or my interests are changing. I mentioned to my husband I hadn’t really felt like posting to my Twitter at all. At first I thought it was a healthy break from social media, but now part of me is worried that I’m withdrawing from people and things I care about. I’m hoping that with a lot of the stress behind me I’ll start feeling like reaching out to people again.

I still have a lot of work and projects I *want* to do. Right now I’ve mostly been working on a quilt and some teddy bear clothes. I’d still love to learn how to sew proper bears at some point. I think it would be fun. I also have a Halloween game/project I want to try to pull off but we’ll see if I have time to set it up 👀 This weekend we’re going to the drive-in theater to see Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. I’m super excited for Halloween!

We are back in the hotel for a week. This time with rats AND a cat. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The drywall is back up, kitchen cabinets are in, we picked out the new counters, tree removers are coming tomorrow ect. The floors upstairs are getting replaced this week.

And most importantly insurance is paying for most of this! I am very glad we did not need to fight them to pay for what was very needed work.

I will still likely be scarce until we’re out of the hotel. We have been *very* fortunate in that nothing happened that could not be fixed. Now that the monetary side is settled I feel much better.

This weekend we went to the zoo and a Korean supermarket. I was able to get some green tea Swiss roll cake I love and a melon bread! Very exciting. The zoo was okay but no bears *sigh* It was nice to take a break.

I know many of you have already seen this. But if you have not, one of my friends Riley actually lost their house. There is a GoFundMe set-up here. If you are able to and have not done so already please send them a couple of dollars. My past few weeks have been stressful as heck and I still have a house to come back to when this is all done.

Since Sunday 8/30:
- A pipe connector cracked while we were away for the weekend. The fire department turned off the water after a concerned passerby noticed water leaking out of the front of our house. Our entryway, front bathroom, and kitchen need to be gutted.
- Our roof appears to be leaking.
- Dishwasher broke.
- Our 1960s wall oven broke, meaning we need to re-do the kitchen layout because it cannot be replaced.
- One of our trees came down on our neighbor’s garage.

I think that’s it? 🙃
I’ve mentioned this a few other places but I wanted to get this up on FA too. I am 100% okay, just stressed. My husband and I both are still working and we have a sizable emergency house fund. (Thank god) I just wanted to give folks a heads up that I will likely continue to be sparse while I work through the kitchen renovation.

We’re currently in a hotel for a week with our cat to let contractors work. It’s kind of funny seeing her in a hotel. We were able to stay at a suite style hotel close to the house and it’s made life a lot easier.

Dan said he’d take me to the nice toy store this weekend. I’m hoping we’ll be able to walk around downtown a little bit too.

It's been a really busy but good two weeks!
We got our new rats last weekend so I have been very preoccupied by their cute little faces. It's a good thing they are not in my office or I would get no work done. I don't think I realized how much I missed having rats until I got these guys again. I think they really are my favorite animal to keep. We ended up with three boys: a dad and his two sons. We kept the dad's name Glenn but the two younger boys were renamed Nurgle and Yarrick. They are still a little nervous around us but warming up. I apologize for anyone who has tried to talk to me about anything else; I've had a bit of a one track mind.

I also got out my markers to make a badge for my dear friend  MarinaNeira birthday. While I was at it I decided to take a few trades and had a really lovely time. I'd like to open up for trades again in the near future, especially badge ones!

Lastly I'd like to thank anyone who recommended Discord to me a few months ago. It has been a tremendous help to me. I have been feeling a lot less lonely the past two weeks. I've been having a wonderful time getting to know people on my own littlefur server and have also been enjoying hanging out on Marina's art server as well. I'm keeping an eye out for new ones I might enjoy as well. It's been kind of stressful running my own server, but I think it's been worth it. I missed the sense of community that I felt I had when I first joined FA and started drawing babies. I'm not leaving any of my current platforms, and telegram is still the best way to contact me one-on-one but it's been going well.

This weekend I'm hoping to get a few final art fight attacks in. The rats kind of ate up the time I would have spent drawing. I'm glad it got extended because there are still a few more people I want to draw!

The past few weeks I've been hard at work coding a new website from scratch. One of the things I *really* wanted to incorporate into the website were more community resources. Thus I put together two related projects that I'm super excited to tell you about!

Database/Directory
I have created a very basic searchable database to act as a repository for littlefur artists, shops, personal websites ect.
Click here to see the database!

Right now it only has a few entries but I'd love to include you in it. I feel like it could really server as a way to link everyone together and help us support each other. There is information about how to join the directory on the website <3

Discord Server
In addition I have put together a Discord server!
Link to the Discord server!

My hope is to create a safe space for everyone in the littlefur, babyfur, and kidfur communities. The server is 18+ and I will be checking all members before giving them full access to assure that they are associated with the community in someway. We have our first event set-up to as a littlespace scribble trade. :D I also wrote my own Discord bot for it. I'm quite pleased with how it came out.

Fur-Affinity Page
Last but not least, I set up a Fur-Affinity page for the project as well. I'm not sure if "club" style accounts have fallen out of fashion but I thought it would be nice to have a hub link on here as well.
 littlefort

I thought maybe I'd start using my FA journal as more of a journal? I always enjoy reading other peoples entries but it's been a while since I used it for more then big art updates.

I finally figured out a spot in our house to fit a rat cage and I'm beyond excited. :D It's been 4-5 years since my girlies passed away. It was always a big goal of mine to get new rats when we moved out of the apartment, but we could never figure out a good enough spot for a cage. For a while I was trying to figure out a way to get them into my office in a few years but it was a massive headache. Turns out if we re-arrange the furniture in the bedroom we can easily fit a double critter nation in now! I love all the critters I have now but I've always missed having rats in my life.

I'm sneaking away for a little beach this weekend. I figured even if we can't leave the room much it would be worth it to get a little salt air and a new batch of take out restaurants to try. X3 I had to get tested for COVID-19 this afternoon for the trip, really hoping everything works out. When we get back I'll be ordering the cage and looking into the local rodent rescue organization. I might try and do a few little commissions to raise some extra money for fancy toys. Would you prefer YCHs or sketches?

EDIT: I forgot that I wanted to give a little shout out to  AustinTheHuskyPup He wrote a really cute story with the two of us in it and you should check it out if you have a chance: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36935990/

Lately I've been thinking a lot about community and community building. Maybe because I'm so isolated with COVID? There are days I wish so desperately that I had the time/knowledge to code a website for all us to be on together. I'm contemplating trying to start some small projects like a newsletter and website directory to start. I'm tempted to pull tricks from my very early days online but I don't think those methods will work in the modern era. I'll admit I have been enjoying Fur-Affinity *much* more since the update allowed it to actually function on my phone. n_n; I grew up on forums playing art games, sharing and critiquing art, joining random RP groups if the thread sounded interesting... there really isn't a lot of space for that these days.

How do you make new friends online these days? I'm curious. When I first joined the community we found each other through fur-affinity or Babyfur.ME and exchanged skype usernames to chat. So much has changed since then it's hard to believe that was only 5 or 6 years ago! Wow! Now I feel like I casually like peoples posts on twitter and sometimes comment on them but it's hard to become closer then that. I think part of it is that Skype worked a lot better then Telegram or Discord since it was clearer when I was online and available to chat.

I know I'm not the only one who misses having more of a centralized community space. I have so many options for talking to friends I already know but making new ones has gotten much harder in the last few years. Maybe it just makes the ones I've made all the more special <3