Our car is living on borrowed time. We just had to have the battery replaced today, and the mechanic says the radiator's totally shot too. It's probably only a matter of months before it ends up back in the shop for more repairs. He says it'll set us back SEVERAL hundred dollars.

The car has a LOT of problems, and neither Jim nor I are eager to invest more money in a car that's falling apart faster than it can be fixed. It's an uphill battle, not worth it. SO we've decided to start looking for a new [used] car.

Buying from a dealership seems like such a daunting task.. We don't know the first thing about it. Seriously. We're afraid of getting screwed over because we have no idea what we're doing. Also money. We don't have any, so..

Craigslist is our other option, but it's where we bought the car we have now and we got royally scammed. The kid told us the car was in perfect condition. The transmission died less than 24 hours later, and that was just the beginning.

ENOUGH RAMBLING though. Here are my questions!:

1) How can I know if a car I'm buying from someone on Craigslist isn't a total piece of shit before we seal the deal? What questions should I ask the seller? What are some 'red flags'? Specific things I should inspect the car for?

2) How old is 'too old' for a car? I see a lot of cars from 2006/2007.. Should I stay away from a car that old, or are they worth looking into?

3) Are there better alternatives to Craigslist when one is looking for a used car? I googled, but I'm not sure which places are reputable!

Thanks if you read all that! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I'm afraid I'm going to need to issue refunds. Without going too much into detail, I'm just not able to focus on art due to health problems, both mental and physical. I thought perhaps opening commissions would help motivate me to get back into the swing of drawing, but I'm simply in too much pain. Pain causes depression and anxiety, making it nearly impossible to push myself to draw. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience. I hate to disappoint folks, but I don't want to leave you all hanging any longer.

I will be contacting customers individually via E-mail as well to let them know in case they miss this journal. Again, I'm very sorry. Expect refunds to be issued over the next 48 hours.

Hello! I'm currently open for all types of commissions. Please fill out the form below if you're interested in one. Thank you!

https://goo.gl/forms/fQLoIGGNPqNnpGLt1

I have a few characters for sale here if anyone is interested: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20700011/

If you're not, but still want to help, sharing those designs with someone you think may be interested would mean a lot!

I'm also willing to just sell the lineart for $5 as a base for those of you who want to colour it yourselves! Get in touch with me if you're interested! Thank you in advance.

and what are you doing!

 rileyy's guinea pig Thumper has been struggling with some scary medical issues recently, which has meant frequent vet visits and now round-the-clock care. as you can imagine, that's not cheap, so she's created a gofundme for those interested in helping out financially!

i know many of us have been in similar situations with our own beloved pets, so if you can spare the money, please consider donating!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND DONATE

a year ago today, i married my best friend and the love of my life,  justjim, though in reality we've been together in one way or another for over 8 years! time flies!

i don't know what i'd do without him <3 how he manages to put up with me day after day is beyond me, but i'm thankful he somehow does. i hope we get to spend many, many more years together.

we didn't really get to celebrate, unfortunately, because he's worked all day every day this week and even has to work tomorrow... but it doesn't matter. every day i wake up next to him is a reason to celebrate <3

there aren't words to describe how horrible i feel right now :( since i'm dying in bed, i wanna hear stories. ALL OF THEM. tell me your weird, creepy, paranormal, funny, random, WHATEVER stories, furaffinity. true or otherwise!

y'know, i retired one of my most personal characters a week or two ago (jeanie), and while it was a very difficult decision to make, i felt it's something that needed to be done. now i'm thinking maybe it's time to do away with some other characters. i initially intended to feature maggie in a short story or a comic my husband was going to help me illustrate. i lumped her in with jo because, well, there was nobody else in jo's universe at the time besides clem, and it felt very empty. i don't identify with maggie much, if at all, and pretty much never draw her, hahah.

i made neverwell in late 2014 when i started having health problems and adopted him as my fursona for a few months, but he never stuck. i still have horrible health problems and deal with pain every day, but i've stopped being quite as open about them as i once was. neverwell feels like a dirty secret. i didn't mean to lump him in with jo and maggie, but it felt silly for him to exist on his own. i wanted to develop him - i wanted him to interact with other characters, but man, i barely think about my own characters anymore and i draw 'em even less.

jo, saria, harass, and midge are the only characters i really care much for at all anymore. i have ideas for them, but i almost never feel good enough to draw. and to be honest... even though i like these characters, i'm still kind of embarrassed of them. i'd rather draw dark, depression vent-type stuff, but whenever i sit down to draw, gross cute things happen. i don't identify with these cute things at all. sometimes i get all motivated and i'm like "i'm gonna sit down and practise drawing until my art style reflects how i feel inside!" but never follow through, pff. i'm pretty sure i'd lose most of my followers if i did that anyway! still, my art makes me feel all kinds of icky, and lately, when the desire to draw hits, i talk myself out of bothering because i don't wanna deal with those feelings.

i guess i don't know where i'm going with this journal! i have no plans to leave this account and i'm not going to stop drawing entirely or anything silly like that. just rambling about how i feel. ew. maybe i'm having a bit of an identity crisis hahaha. i dunno, i just think it's time for a change. time to retire characters like neverwell, maggie, and em. i'm keeping jo and saria mostly for sentimental reasons. i want new characters i connect with and can identify with, but i know you can't force these things, so....!

in other news, it's been much more peaceful here with my sisters out of the house. i've been reading a lot more lately and watching some movies i didn't get a chance to see before. 'sbeen nice! besides my crappy health, things aren't bad.

my husband broke his perfect attendance streak at work today because the anti-theft feature in his car decided to kick on and force him to wait 10 minutes before he could drive. goodbye $40 attendance bonus!

i got a call later from my sister saying my mom had been in an accident. apparently she was taking a friend out to lunch and, while parking, her foot slipped off the brake and onto the accelerator, causing her to plow right through the front of the restaurant. thankfully, they were the only ones there so nobody was hurt, but getting a phone call saying your mom has been in a car accident is never fun!

jim and i are in the process of cleaning up my sister's filthy room. she moved out over the weekend and left all her filth behind. we're taking like an inch of two of dust and grime on every surface. it's gonna take a loooong time and a looot of work, but we hope to turn it into a kitchen-type space.

what's happenin' with you fur affinity how are you guys

physically and emotionally. s'really nothing new, but seems like life just keeps getting worse and worse for me these days!

i've been in a tremendous amount of pain the past couple of weeks, but i've just totally given up on doctors. maybe one day i'll find one who can tell me what the heck is wrong with me, but for now, it's just something i have to live with. i want to draw, but i feel wiped out all the time. sore and achy and just unwell in general. doing some YCH's sounds fun, though. i hope in the next few weeks i can pull myself together enough to make some!

there's been a lot of drama at my house lately. i pretty much never shut up about it on twitter (sorry guys!!), but haven't revealed much about the situation here. long story short, my 30-year-old bipolar sister has been making life hell for everyone. has been for a while, but it's gotten a lot worse recently. tonight she vandalised me and my husband's car to "get back" at me for an argument i wasn't even involved in. thanks to her tantrum we gotta get the driver's side mirror fixed :D and the power steering reservoir, but my sister isn't to blame for that pff. it's guzzling power steering fluid faster than my husband can put it in now. the car is almost always making horrible whining/whirring sounds haha. man, i hate this car. can't wait to get something better one day!

SO yeah. i've been feeling very blah and... icky lately. but i'm not dead. yet. i feel bad i've barely even checked this site! just been so caught up in junk going on at home. you know how it is.

hope you're all doing lovely :D tell me about your spring! how is it going so far!

Let your friends know I've got some characters for sale! It'd mean a lot to me!

Why am I selling all these characters?

Grab a seat, 'cos it's a long story. See, our car bought the farm last September. In January, after months of searching, we finally bought a used car for $2200. It seemed like the perfect little vehicle for us! Then, less than 24 hours after we bought it, the alternator died. We learned after having it towed to a mechanic that there was more wrong with the car than just the alternator. Suddenly, our $2200 car was a $3000 car. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....58/receipt.png

To say this news came as a disappointment would be a monumental understatement. We weren't expecting to have to have so much work done on the car, and we weren't prepared to pay over $700 in repairs. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us set up a payment plan with them, meaning we had to spend money we don't actually have to get our car back.

Here's our dilemma:

We owe this amount: $3,300

We have much in the bank: $100

Rent, groceries, bills, and other expenses make it very hard to hold on to money long enough to put it toward payments on the car/repairs. I know $5 here and $10 there may not seem like much, but every little bit helps! That's why I'm trying to sell these characters. It's a win-win situation - someone brings new life to an old character i can't use anymore, and we can chip away at, say, rent, bit by bit without having to touch money that's already in the bank.

SO! If you've been wondering why I'm suddenly selling old characters like it's going out of style, this might help explain why. I'm not asking for donations; you've all been far too kind to me already, and I don't deserve them! But if you'd like to spread the word about any characters that are currently up for grabs in my gallery, it'd be much appreciated <3

Thank you if you read all that! Thank you even if you didn't!

Just thought I'd post an updated journal about which characters are still up for sale :)


* Fox Adoptables - $5 each

* Sqverl - $5

* Lapin - $5


COMMENT OR SEND A NOTE TO CLAIM! THANK YOU!

just wondering who your favourites are! these are mine:

my two favourite artists on the site - my husband  justjim, and friend  bluesman! two tremendously talented people; they have some awesome original characters too!

other favourites include:  ninii,  drommat,  kikidoodle,  claire_lamouf,  leeden,  kaijuparty,  greykitty,  melissar1,  grau,  toosdee,  xylious,  spookaboo,  redvelvetbat,  goldenrod,  eligecos,  illimearu,  booboobunnygirl,  rumbrave,  heilancoo, and  flinteatswood. this isn't everyone - just a few of the amazing artists i follow who inspire me every day :)

what about you??

for those of you interested in following my personal twitter, it's https://twitter.com/iamnottokay. i've been kinda quiet about this account because it's used primarily for venting, and the things i vent about often seem silly (living with anxiety is an adventure :P).. but if you want to keep up with what's going on in my life, i tweet pretty frequently. i don't post art there, so definitely don't follow if that's what you're looking for! i don't do a whole lot of drawing these days. i'm either in too much pain or too depressed, ahaha

so anyway, yeah! that's my twitter. it's locked, but feel free to send a follow request! just a heads up, though - i'm a pretty pessimistic/negative person, so if that bothers you, please don't follow!

still looking for homes for blaze and these cute fox adopts!

FOX ADOPTS - $5 each: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18797398/

BLAZE - $30 (or best offer): http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18787345/

my husband and i need to make some money, so i'm selling some characters! please comment or send a note to claim!

EMALINE - $50: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18756958/
SPENCE - $10: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16654280/
WOOF - $10: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16663276/


spreading the word that these designs are for sale would be much appreciated :)

I'm battling a nasty cold on top of other health problems at the moment, so progress on art has been slow. I'm hoping I'll feel well enough next week to get back to work! I appreciate your patience and promise you haven't been forgotten!

from now until december 10th (or whenever all slots are filled - whichever happens to come first), i'll be doing pay what you want commissions to raise christmas money.

HOW IT WORKS:

send me $5 (minimum) to $40 (maximum - unless you're feeling extra generous!) and you'll get art from me. what you get exactly depends on the amount of money you send, though! say you send $5 - $15 - you'll get anything from a very rough scribble, to a more refined coloured sketch, to black and white inks! when you hit $20, i'll add flat colours to those inks. at $25, shading, and so on! the maximum amount will get you something like this: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18264599/

slots are limited to 10 for now, though, to ensure i'll have all of them finished by christmas!

RULES:

- no human or robots/cyborg characters, please! most other things i will attempt to draw.

- payment up front

- if you send $20 or more, i will send you a sketch for approval before inking/colouring. you may request small edits here, but i will charge for more major adjustments. after the work is finished, i will not go back and edit it further. if you send under $20, i will not send an approval sketch, nor will i make edits to the artwork!

i hope that sounds fair! my paypal is sjsnider18@hotmail.com. please send a note letting me know who you are and what you'd like!

SLOTS

1.  bluesman
2.  urbansaint
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

just wanted to post a journal explaining why my commission progress has been so slow lately:

monday night my sister's cat (now our cat) ingested something toxic (we're thinking it might have been one of my sister's prescription meds) and jim and i had to rush him to an emergency vet over an hour and a half away.

it's been a stressful week for us all, to say the least! littlemin is home and recovering now thankfully, but today is the first day i've even sat down at the computer. i'll be starting on owed art tonight and hopefully will have it finished by the end of next week. i'm so sorry for the delay!

the bill for the vet was nearly $600, which is pretty much all the money jim and i had saved up. my health insurance payment was due yesterday and jim's taxes are due october 16th, and right now we can pay neither of those things. we're down to almost $100 in the bank, and we need $900, so yeah. we're very worried about these things and scrambling around trying to make money any way possible.

jim is still open for commissions here in case anyone wants to help us out! it'd be greatly appreciated! there's more info and prices here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7078342/

- $25 a pop!
- they'll look something like this: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17579936/ (single character, inked, coloured, and shaded with splash of colour in background)
- no characters with overly complicated designs, enormous wings, or super detailed outfits please!
- will be done within three weeks (usually much sooner)
- paypal only
- comment or send a note to claim!

thank you in advance :D

- SLOTS -

1.  dramavian
2.  dramavian

just updating so folks know what's goin' on with my art! keep an eye on this journal if you're wondering about your commission or trade!

____________


ABOUT COMMISSIONS:

- standard commissions are currently closed
- grotesque commissions are still open for $5 a pop

SLOTS:

1.  hukley
____________

ABOUT TRADES:

my 3 slots for trades have been claimed. thank you so much to everyone who offered :D it was difficult to choose because you all had such awesome characters <3 i'm sure i will be opening for trades again in the future, so keep an eye out!

SLOTS:

1.  morghie - finished
2.  xylious - finished
3.  redwulf - not started yet

a year ago today, my dad passed away. you'd think after 365 days without seeing his face and hearing his voice, it would finally register in my brain that he's gone forever, but somehow it hasn't. there are many mornings i still expect to see him sitting at the kitchen table with his kindle fire and a cup of coffee. there are many times i hear a song or see a show on tv and think of him. in some ways, i think i'm struggling with his death more today than i was a year ago.

my dad may have passed away on september 4th, 2014, but as far as i'm concerned, i lost him much earlier in the year. easter day - the day we received the call that a liver had been found and he was finally going to get his transplant. i remember the last hug he ever gave me. i remember watching him tie his shoes and wishing it was a dream. we should have been celebrating, but instead we all had the same terrible feeling of dread. my stomach was in knots. it's hard to believe it's been 17 months since he was in this house, but it's even harder to believe he'll never come home again.

i'm relieved he's no longer suffering, but what hurts the most is knowing all that suffering could have been avoided in the first place. i'm angry that he died such an unnecessary death. the doctors always told him they'd never seen a liver cancer patient as healthy as my dad. he should be alive and at home today, but he's not. that haunts me, and will for a long time to come.

i didn't think i'd lose either of my parents until i was much older. if i could do things over again, i'd treat my dad with more respect, and tell him how much he meant to me.

tell your parents you love them. appreciate them. don't argue with them over stupid stuff if you can avoid it. one day they will be gone.

not a first-come-first-served type deal. feel free to link me to a ref of the character you want here and i'll reply and let you know if i'm up for it :)

these are the characters i'm most interested in getting art of (you could pick any of them!):

jolene: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....958/bigref.png
neverwell: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....3958/nvref.png
maggie: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....958/maggie.png

i'll probably pick 3 people (if that many are even interested)! :D