I will now also be mirroring my art uploads over on Tumblr \o/

http://wyladraws.tumblr.com

♥

Whew, it's been a while.

I haven't been posting much art but can assure you I've been working hard! My plans from a few months ago kinda got thrown off by this new project but it's definitely worth it. Those of you who frequent my streams know that the deal is. n_~ Long story short: I will have four (maybe more) dakimakura cover designs available soon! The characters will be:
Serin (completed)
Brandy (completed)
Aurah (completed)
Ember (in progress)

They will be printed on a fine peach skin material and measure approximately 50cm x 150cm. Shipping available worldwide. They will be sold on a well-established trusted site which I will link here once they're ready in their webstore! It should only be a few more weeks before everything goes live, bossman got the first run of Serin covers in and they apparently look great. :D


Outside of that I have a delightfully smutty comic featuring Aurah currently in the planning stages which I hope to bring to life once these daki designs are completed. ♥ Commission openings will resume after.

A couple of people have asked so I figured a journal would be handy. At the moment my commission queue is clear apart from a kinda silly one for Ceb. I'm taking the downtime opportunity to give my Second Life mod kit line a complete overhaul, something which has needed doing for well over a year haha.

As it stands currently I have 24 total fur colours; 3 specific to the Velix avatar, 9 specific to the KZK wolf & husky, and 12 specific to the Raawr Kitty. I'm expanding the range so that all colours will be available for all avatars that I currently mod for. Want tabby Velix? Calico wolves? Timber kitties? You got it. The kits themselves are getting re-structured a little too in that the main body skin will now be sold separately and you can just pick up a pack for each avatar to match. This saves people spending more $ on two full packs; it's cheaper now just to buy a base skin and a couple of specific avatar kits to match. :)

My Marketplace store and inworld store at Chimera are being updated as I go; anything with that pretty turquoise background is new and done. :) It is slow though! Velix's are all done, currently working on the Raawr Kitties, then I'll do the KZK wolf and husky. Once they're finally done then I will be releasing some new colours @__@; So far I've been working on this for three days haha. I'm estimating another four days or so to finish the remaining work. This shit is tedious.


SO. Once I'm done tinkering with Second Life stuff I'll be opening up some more commissions, either a small Iron Artist batch or a couple of YCHs for valentines day. It's my birthday in February so I don't really want to swamp myself with work for it. :P March also has me out of town for one week with work stuff so I'll probably be keeping a light load for that month too.


tl;dr - hold onto your butts, commissions should be open in 2 - 3 weeks?
edit: i lied lol sorry this month has been crazy, GIMME A WHILE
♥

Don't, thanks. :)

When I design a generic character such as Niobe I tend to add specific, non-generic markings to make them somewhat unique without being too flowery. This makes it real obvious to me when someone, say, uses my art of her as the reference they're handing artists when they buy commissions and claims it as their own character. Even more so when I find their F-list profile and sure enough my pictures are on there too. And their FA has all my Niobe images favourited. I know I can never stop everyone using my art on websites like f-list rp profiles but to have someone actually commission art of one of my designs and claim her as their own is really weird. :v

Don't do that. It's not only incredibly rude but also puts those artists in a really awkward position that is entirely not their fault. (I've found three pieces of her already but please understand that I don't blame you, artists!♥) If you want a generic character then make your own or just tell the artist to wing it, it's really not that hard.

Time to see who else I have free art from, I guess..???

Another one of those journals SORRY.


What kind of things would you like to see me draw more of? More ladies? Guys? Straight sex, girl on girl, werewolves, gore, ferals, YCH's, sketch commissions..?? Anything goes. Let me know! :D

What can I improve on? Is there something about my anatomy that bugs you? In my shading? Backgrounds? Tell me! I always accept critique. :)


Also because I don't say it enough: thank you all for supporting me in what I do, people. ♥ I really do mean that. You let me do what I love and that means more to me than I can express in words. ;__;


♥

Colorado was very pretty, it's definitely somewhere I'd like to visit again! ♥ Probably just with Ceb though... my mother in law is lovely but a week in such close quarters as an RV with anyone can start to get to you. :P


Jaw surgery stuff
So far so good. I have my next appointment on August 3rd and we're going to discuss implants to replace the two teeth which were taken with my mandible. I only have four teeth on the lower left side and none of those are towards the back... so not being able to chew on that side is getting a little old. :v Healing is going as well as it should; there's only a small area of numbness and movement-impaired area left on my lip which I can deal with, all things considered. The scar is visible but is my 'badge of honour' hahaha. http://i.imgur.com/XfzwgQw.jpg
edit August 10th: new x-ray here! http://www.blastomablog.tumblr.com

Swelling is pretty much gone but the titanium bar itself causes some asymmetry which is quite noticeable when you look at me head on, at least in my eyes. It's much better than it could have been but... it's still pretty hard to come to terms with, I will admit. Some days are easier than others. When I Skype with my parents they'll give me words of encouragement with "the swelling is almost gone!" which is well-meant but I haven't the heart to remind them that nope... that's not swelling, that's just how it's going to be from now on. I have about 20 lbs that I want to lose so maybe that will make things look a little better? Currently I'm the heaviest I've ever been at 148 lbs which isn't too bad but I really want to get down to 120 - 130. (Having a massive tumour means your body is expending a lot of energy trying to fight it, so your metabolism slows and you gain weight once it's removed. ~*The More You Know!*~ )

After eight years of back and forth I've finally come to a decision regarding a few things to help boost my self-confidence, so that's something I will be saving funds towards. Everyone deserves to be happy with what they see in the mirror and after so many blows with this surgery... if I can 'fix' something then why the hell not, y'know? It'll be many months and a lot of $ away but I'm determined to get there. I'm not sure if it's something I'll be posting about here in detail but we'll see, haha.


Commissions
Once I've finished that YCH comic on my side account for the winner then I am planning to open some actual commissions. Woo! My plan is to do several thigh-up theme batches. The first batch will be ocean/water themed like my most recent upload :D After that maybe the four seasons? I'd be happy to hear your suggestions!

A big thank you to everyone who bid on my stuff in the Texas Furry Fiesta art show! I have no idea how much anything sold for (???) but everything went except the crystal dobie which is great! :D I'm definitely okay with bringing that home with me haha; that piece has the most chance of selling at a coffee shop or something. (If I decide to part with it at all... kinda tempted to hold on to it!)

Friday really didn't go to plan at all as Ceb was called up by work so he was chained to his work phone and laptop all day. I am not a social butterfly by myself haha ;-; Saturday we had other arrangements so weren't at the con and today has been hellish weather-wise. We decided to head out earlier than planned to get home before the roads got much worse. x_x Everyone we spoke to at the con was absolutely lovely though and it was nice to see a few familiar faces! Swag wise I bought a couple of sketches; one from Niis (who is an absolute sweetie ;u; ) and one from Gideon (always a pleasure!), a beautiful print from Vantid and some soap from Contact Caffiene which smells SO GOOD oh my word.

A few of you asked about prints so that's something I'll be looking into. Any future cons will involve either a dealer's table for me or knowing a group of people who are attending, I think. This year could end up being a busy one for us with some personal projects so conventions would have to involve either being financially viable or making sure it's a good vacation with buddies. We shall see!

HELLO. Thank you for reading Actual Wyla Update™ journal I hope you are happy with your purchase.


PERSONAL STUFF
I finally had another x-ray today. See that nice curved line about an inch above the titanium chain? That's the top outline of the new bone which has grown in so far. :) It looks like the new bone is filling the whole area which is fantastic news; I was so worried about the graft not taking. This is my collection of x-rays so far for those curious; it's amazing how the stem cells turn the BMP (bone morphogenetic protein) compound from a pile of mush into a perfectly shaped bone.

My doc is a little concerned that there may be no bone growth right up near the 'hinge', though. At the top end of the titanium chain you can see that it's attached to a bit of bone; that's my original hinge. They left about an inch there to have something to anchor the plate on to while still leaving enough margin around the tumor they removed. Below that hinge though it does look fairly dark. Doc says that either the bone growing in there is too thin at the moment to see on x-ray, or there might not be any there. (It's not unusual for some of the bmp compound to be lost/'melt away' during the healing process.) They've scheduled me in for a CAT scan on February 3rd to check.

If there is indeed no bone there then they'll do another surgery to insert some bone/more bmp which will hopefully bridge the gap. Thankfully that would be a FAR less invasive surgery than the original op though and I might not even need to be wired shut again after it so... we'll see. v0v My fingers are crossed that the CAT scan will actually show bone growth!


Knowing that the graft is taking is a huge weight off my mind. I will admit that the idea of having to go through all of this again was really stressing me out. The whole ordeal has already been, uh, hard to deal with haha. Getting used to the 'new normal' of having to watch how I eat and sleep, how I walk and work out, dealing with the nerve pain, not being able to ride. It's bothering me a lot. BUT there's no going back and things should still get slowly better so eh. These past few months I let myself slip into a "why bother planning or starting anything new if plans are likely to get ripped out from under you again" slump. Today's news was good though and should help me get out of my rut.



ART STUFF
I'm still pretty much taking a break from commission work. My recent pieces have all been personal and kind of experimental which I've been really enjoying. It's nice to be able to branch out a little and I'd love to start bringing in a little more income through non-furry work. As always you can follow my ~non-furry alias~ at Tumblr and my merch is available through Society 6. (free shipping today!)

I may post a couple of YCH's or adoptions to scrape a bit of cash together. Ceb and I have also been contemplating attending Texas Furry Fiesta next month as it starts on my birthday and is within driving distance so we wouldn't need to pay for the hotel. It'd give me a place to perhaps sell some of these recent paintings in the art show and get out of my recent hermit state. ;)

After having the wires cut on my jaw last week things have been... slow. Gratifying, don't get me wrong! But slow indeed. I can now open my mouth about 1cm; just about big enough to fit the tip of my little finger in. This does strain the jaw joint on the surgery side quite a lot though. Eating involves soft foods as I'm not allowed to chew, but I am managing things like pasta and minuscule 'ready to swallow' pieces of soft chicken. A bowl of pasta will take me about an hour to finish and after that my jaw is just aching too much to continue, and I notice that my mouth doesn't open as far after too much work. Eating is much easier when I wake up compared to later in the day which is a real challenge. I'm managing to keep weight on a little better than when I was on the liquid diet though. Before all of this mess I was 136lb including muscle from weight-lifting with a trainer at the gym. Now - four weeks after surgery - I'm 124lb. Going to be keeping track of that to make sure it doesn't dip much further... man, I miss the gym!

My appointment on November 4th will involve the removal of the metal brackets which are still on in my gums so that will be a relief. Hopefully by then I can open my mouth a little further as it is required for the sedation due to safety reasons. Slowly does it... Pain isn't too bad at the moment. I'm managing to sleep without painkillers and sleep aids now which is nice. The nerve graft means I still get the occasional stabbing 'burning skin' sensations on my chin and cheek and jolts through my gum throughout the day but that's to be expected heh. Getting back into art gradually is providing a distraction from those though.

As far as  brighttail's fund-raiser page, we've decided to switch it to IndieGoGo. GoFundMe are holding the funds in CAD instead of USD like he requested and it's throwing a spanner in the works. IndieGoGo seems a better route and also accepts Paypal, which GoFundMe lacks. You guys have raised over $500 so far which is just amazing... words can't express my gratitude. ;_;

Thank you so, so much for all of your continued support guys. It means the world to me and I am making it my goal to pay it forward. Keep smiling. ♥

First off a huge, huge thank you to  brighttail for setting up a donation page to help me out with these medical bills. I honestly can't say enough how much it warms my heart to be receiving support like this, even if it did take him a while to coax me into letting him help me haha. ;__; From the bottom of my heart to everyone who is supporting me through this: thank you. ♥


My neck stitches came out at this appointment as expected. What I DIDN'T expect was my doctor telling me he was ready to cut the wires. Talk about elated! :) The brackets are still on (removing them requires sedation so I'll be going in on November 4th for that) and I can't really open my mouth at all due to the muscle atrophy of being wired, but this is a huge milestone for me. My homework is to practice slowly working my jaw muscles so hopefully within a couple of weeks I'll be able to use a spoon instead of my syringe. Woot! I've had a bowl of spaghettios sat in front of me for half an hour and... well. It's difficult, that's for sure. *laughs* Using the syringe is normality for me now but being able to move my tongue around near my teeth and move the jaw even so slightly is bizarre. It's like I've forgotten how to eat and I must look like such a fool at the moment trying to down these things LOL.


It's too early to tell if the graft is taking yet but my surgeon is optimistic. I should have an x-ray in one month, then another in three months to really check up on it. We haven't yet received the hospital bill and I'm dreading it. To get the brackets removed it's another $1200 bill and Ceb's job contract runs out on November 15th unless they decide to extend it again. Fingers crossed. For now though we're focusing on the good. Today is a good day.

♥

Errrrgh, slowly getting better. Taking each day as it comes. So far the main hurdle has been making myself eat and drink enough but after a fainting spell yesterday (I think I damn near gave my husband a fatal heart attack) I've been much better about forcing that nutrition down. Man I miss real food. I am eating through a 60ml syringe inserted through the hole where my two newly-missing teeth are. Being wired shut sucks. Ceb has been the best care taker I could ever ask for though.

The first milestone will either be the swelling starting to go down or the tape coming off my stitches and finally being allowed to wash my hair. After that it'll be waiting for the wires to come off. After that it'll just be baby steps towards normality in 6-9 months once the bone graft has settled in.

For those of you curious here is my post-op x-ray. For something to show what the swelling is like... well. Just in time for Halloween, right?

Nap time again now. Much love <3



e: watered down mashed potato mixed in with brown gravy is the best ohhh my gosh

I didn't expect to ever post about a hugely invasive surgery and title it 'good news' but there you go. This morning I had the final consult with my dentist/surgeon and received the first bit of good news since stepping into that building last month. Hooray!

We made a decision a couple of weeks ago to go with the BMP (bone morphogenetic protein) method of reconstruction. Basically stem cells from my hip, this special protein, and ground cadaver bone. You can find a good concise interview explaining the full process here. Previously my surgeon had told me that his standard procedure for this was a two-part surgery; first to remove the mandible and install the titanium plate, then going back in 2-3 months later to perform the reconstruction with the BMP. However, he's confident that he can do it all in one for me. Many surgeons using BMP are doing it in one surgery now and to have him tell me that I won't need to go back to square one on the recovery front is fantastic news!

Doing the surgery all in one procedure also means that the recovery time will be shorter. It's still far longer than the fibula or hip graft methods as BMP results in a lot more swelling, but it should only be 6-8 months in total. ("Only.") The hospital stay should also be shorter than I was expecting. When using the fibula you generally have to stay in for 1-2 weeks to ensure that you catch on to the physical therapy needed for the leg. My surgeon thinks I should only have to spend 1-3 days in. Woot! This is a huge relief simply because hospital stays in the USA are not cheap; we're looking at $500-$1000 per day and that price is after insurance has covered 80%. Ouch!

The downside of using BMP is that my jaw will be wired for longer... doc estimates 3-4 weeks. After that I should stick to a soft diet for around 6 months. I completely admit that I love food and an active lifestyle so this is going to be an utterly miserable time, but ah well. I'll also probably be losing three teeth instead of the initial expected two but we can look at dental implants further down the road if need be.

Surgery will be on September 29th. I've been logging this all in a tumblr 'diary' of sorts which you guys can find here. After surgery I'll be sure to keep it updated. As for the present... eh. I'm still terrified of permanent facial disfigurement from the surgeries but that's a "wait and see" kind of deal... it can't be predicted who it happens to. Doc thinks he should be able to dig the nerve out of the affected jaw and save it with a nerve graft so I may eventually regain feeling in the lip on that side after surgery. That would be amazing. Am I still kind of really down? Of course. Daily twinges and aches in my jaw since the biopsy remind me that the next 6-8 months are going to suck. This news, though, is helping me to keep my chin up.

As for now I just need to fight off this cold I've picked up before the big day. Having my body already compromised when going into surgery is something I'd like to avoid ;__;

I also want to say thank you for all the support you folks are showing. It really does warm my heart and I appreciate it so much. ♥ ;u;

Well to start off the good news is that my wisdom tooth removal went well and is mostly healed. :) I don't have a great range of motion back in my jaw yet but ah well.

The bad news is that the biopsy I mentioned in my last journal had the results come back today. It's an ameloblastoma; a tumor but a benign one thankfully. The surgery for this will be to cut away that portion of my jaw - most of the left half - and replace it with a metal plate and bone graft. The bone will either come from part of my hip, or they'll remove an entire fibula from one leg and use part of that. Each method has its own pros and cons so we haven't yet decided which route to take. A hip graft would be generally less invasive but spread out over two surgeries with a three month gap in the middle, and the staying power of the graft in the jaw isn't as good. (Doc says about 70% of the grafted bone would stay, opposed to 95% if we used the fibula.) We touched on a new method of protein/stem cell compounds called BMP but he seemed to favor the fibula or hip methods.

A surgery date hasn't been scheduled yet but we're expecting it to be in about a month or so. Recovery should take a couple of months and will involve jaw healing and some physical therapy on my leg to get back into walking if we go with the fibula. At best I'll just have a few new scars to add to Wyla (I should just make her a damn cyborg at this point...), at worst I suppose maybe losing feeling and motion in my lower lip and having a weak leg. Losing two of my back teeth on that side is a given but won't be noticeable to anyone and won't really affect eating. Jawline chin-to-ear scar is a given, as well as wherever they harvest the bone from, but eh. On the grand scheme of things I don't give a shit about scars. (Remind me of this with a slap when I inevitably whine about cosmetic scarring further down the line, good grief.)

To take my mind away from the fears of surgery I'm mostly focusing on being mad and/or bummed that this is going to put a halt to a lot of my plans. (Nothing like some First World Problems to make you feel better, right?) I'll likely be in recovery over my first wedding anniversary and Ceb's birthday which blows. I won't be able to ride my motorcycle for months; face swelling will last far past the other recovery and that means no helmet, and I'm not dumb enough to ride without it. Gym won't be possible for a while and I'm gonna lose a lot of my progress. My green card is about to come through but it's kind of soured by all of this and the fact that travel home will probably be postponed too. An amazing job lead with police dog training will be put on the backburner.

I realise that this is just temporary and eventually I can get back to all of these things but it's a big blow. Trying just to be in a "this will be a period of x months which will suck but after that everything will be normal" mindset but I will admit that possible long-term effects are a worry.


"I don't give a shit I'm here about commissions"
That's the spirit. ¦3 Basically I'm in no frame of mind to really, er, consider commissions at the moment and likely won't be until this is over. If I've told you at some point that I'll let you know about future openings then sorry; no can do any more. I'm completely clearing my plate of any obligations. There are no commissions outstanding which have been paid for so hopefully you guys on the mental waiting list of mine won't be too mad.

I may occasionally post a YCH or something..? Having a pose already down with inspiration raring to go is a great help and might be a good way for me to unwind pre (or post) surgery whilst helping to rebuild the inevitable cavern this is going to put in our savings.

♥

I'm kind of unexpectedly getting my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow so will likely be out of worthwhile action for a couple of days. I had a dental appointment this morning to check out a small swelling on my lower jaw where I had no wisdom tooth and the x-ray showed that I apparently have a giant fucking hole in my jaw which is "either a tumor or cyst" soooo they want to biopsy that tomorrow. On the plus side: being knocked out for that means I get to sneak my wisdom teeth at the same time under sedation. Woo..!

Dentist has also advised me against eating hard foods in case it causes a jaw fracture where the bone is weak. This minor swelling on the gum has been there for almost two years but my last dentist said it was probably just irritation from the wisdom tooth above it growing in, and to ignore it or get the wisdom tooth out if it got any worse. That's what I was expecting. The thought that all along it's been a growing cyst or tumor and he either missed it or didn't think to examine properly makes me unspeakably angry, so there's that.

I, uh, am a little shaken up (ANY dentistry work makes me nervous but big surgery ahahaha fuck) so was considering wiping my commission slate clean of any unpaid work so that it's not hovering over my head... but haven't decided 100% on that. Will see once I get the results back. Apologies in advance if that's what I decide to do but I hope you guys can understand. ♥

It is good to be sitting down. ¦3 *kicks her feet up*

Anthrocon
Phew, what a weekend! I think my paws are damn near worn through from all that walking. *_* First things first; I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who bid on my pieces in the art auction. With it being my first Anthrocon I was a little apprehensive at there being so much amazing work in the art show haha, the thought of coming home with no sales was a little disheartening. All four pin-ups sold though which really warmed my heart! ;u; The two werewolf portraits came back home with me which I'm absolutely okay with (I kinda like them, shh!) so they'll probably be up for bids here on FA in a day or two.

A huge part of cons for me is meeting so many lovely people and AC was no exception. anpumes and faebastet (I have GOT to draw you guys something, your characters are both awesome), zenfur, beowulf (thank you so much for the Asta sketch aaa ;u; ), caranthirlinwelin, azurtrix, fluff-kevlar, tailsrulz, Holly and everyone else I'm missing oh my gosh it was a busy weekend you all rock. ♥ ♥ ♥ I bought a cuter than cute barfing opossum patch from mangoislandcreations and way too many prints.

With that said I can definitely see what people mean now when they say that this is a con for selling, not socialising. The fact that the hotels are separate from the convention itself is new to me, and the dealers area is just so huge! We decided that if we head back next year then I'll definitely get a table in the dealers den and sell my own merch, as well as some for the comic. :)


Immigration
The US immigration service finally set a date for my final interview WOOT. Roll on August. That's the last step for me getting my permanent residency status so I'm really excited for it.


Rehab
Not like that. After several classes and small tests I received my approval last week and am now a legal wildlife rehabilitation sub-permittee within the state of Texas! :D For the first year I'll be starting off small with opossums (rabbits and squirrels are available too, but I chose the opossums to be my focus species), then next year I can move up to raccoons or bobcats. My eventual aim is to get the federal permit for raptors but that is a long, long journey. :) This is a really fantastic opportunity and I'm thrilled for the chance.

My Grandfather passed away rather unexpectedly this morning and it's hit me a little hard so I'm taking a couple of days off commission work. I hope you guys understand. You've all been so patient with me and I can't thank you enough. ♥

I can't travel back to the UK for the funeral due to my US immigration process still being in the works (we're awaiting the scheduling of our final interview; if I leave at the moment I'm 99% certain to be denied re-entry, at which point I'd miss the interview and our case would be auto-marked as abandoned) so... yeah. It kinda blows.

Going for the first time ever. \o/ I'll be staying at the Omni William Penn hotel with Cebelius. ♥

Art wise I'll have three traditional-media pieces in the general auction, all tasteful pinups. When they're all finished I'll be sure to post a picture up here so that you guys can see what's what. I won't be dealing at a table but I'll probably keep a pencil on me to do on the spot sketches. :)

I've never been to AC before so I'm not really sure what to expect. (Well... apart from Big. With a capital 'B.') Dances and pool parties are something I look forward to at cons - ESG really spoiled me on that front - but with so many hotels being used I don't know if any events like that get planned... we'll see I guess?

Shout if you're going!

Yes that's a broad area but I'm not going to pinpoint my exact location for obvious reasons. :D

Long story short I'm trying to meet more local people since moving. Outside of Ceb and a handful of his friends, the two people I'm interacting with most at the moment are my personal trainer at the gym and my immigration lawyer. That ain't good, guys. Work is the most likely place to meet new faces but I can't get a job until my work permit comes through which won't be for another three months or so. I've applied to various volunteer places but so far every one has rejected me because I don't have a social security number yet and therefore they can't run background checks on me. That's understandable but is also somewhat disheartening to say the least.

So... anyone in the area? I'm not sure if there are furmeets or similar, but then again they're also not really my thing. Furry just so happens to be a hobby of mine but it doesn't define ~who I am~, you know? Motorcycles. Wildlife. Drawing. These are my hobbies. Furry just happens to fall into the latter two and I love it. :) What I'm trying to say is that casual furmeets are great, just like-minded people grabbing coffee or some such, but I'd rather keep my tails and collars and suits to cons personally. They're all cute as hell at cons but make me kinda anxious to be around "in public."

Have motorcycle, will travel. Even when it's fukkin' cold as balls like it was today. ;__;

Midwest Furfest was a blast. Ceb and I arrived early on Friday; we had a 6am flight and hadn't slept previously so were both a little out of it, but sleeping in on Saturday morning soon fixed that. As someone who has never been to a US con before and is only used to little old Confuzzled in the UK... good god the dealer's den/artist alley. So. Much. STUFF. I was tempted to come home with a suitcase of loot but managed to slip away with just a print and a few sketches instead. ;) Those Squishable werewolf cushions were damn tempting though.

Saturday was the main day for me. Meeting up with  lozbunneh and  danza was fantastic as I haven't seen either of them since before I left the UK. Muchos love, it was like a little slice of home. ♥ Well... old home? Ex-home? Otherhome? Homeland. Idek.  faint and  kincademk (who are both super cool dudes; you're awesome) were kind enough to let us invade their room that night for a mini art jam along with  ksharra (who was quite possibly the sweetest person at the con, don't let her tell you otherwise!) and our good cold friends Añejo and Jägermeister. How is it that sketching seems easier when you're tipsy? Either way it was a riot. I'll post the art soon enough!

I missed meeting up with a lot of people as for once I wasn't on a nocturnal kick for the weekend (NEXT TIME <3) but everyone I did meet was super nice and welcoming. It's always great to put faces to names.

Here in chilly Texas though it's time to get back to work. :) Happy Thanksgiving and all that jazz for tomorrow! As a Brit this is one of the American holidays I can actually enjoy without feeling like that black sheep trying to hide their face in the corner of the room. :v (See: July 4th. Am I celebrating? Why I'm glad you asked, kind cashier lady. Nod 'n smile, Wyla. Nod 'n smile.)

No really.

http://neilblr.com/post/58757345346

You can set it to track a specific program - or several - and it'll keep a timer running, pausing it (and turning a fetching shade of shame-on-you red) when ever you click outside of that program. It lets you keep track of exactly how much time you're spending on a piece without including any breaks or net-surfing adventures you may go on. IT'S REALLY USEFUL. :D Honestly one of the best motivators I've had for a long while.

Ceb and I are all registered up for Midwest FurFest woooo. Give me a shout if you're going! I'm not prepared at all... :V

Apart from that, I arrived in Texas safe and sound last week. It is hot. Texas in Summer time is hot. Who'da thought? ;) The house Ceb has here is freakin' great and I adore it, plus I get to decorate which I LOVE. :D My dog is absolutely loving the huge yard here but - like me - still needs to get used to the heat haha. Trying to keep him busy and entertained while it's too hot to be walked during the day is proving interesting. All of this is a huge change for me and, admittedly, a slightly daunting one, but I'm all for jumping in to new experiences and grabbing the chance. :)

Commissions will be prepose/ych/presketched style for a little while. Doing them that way allows me to still take on work while doing house stuff and settling in without it being too much on my plate. Much love as always to you guys for your support. Being able to do something I love is so, so rewarding and I couldn't do it without you lot.

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately; sorry about that guys! Here's the basic run-down of what's going on.

Elliott's Spring Gathering and Confuzzled were both a lot of fun. Those of you who I hung out with or chatted to at both; thanks for making things awesome. CFz is an absolute blast of a con and the room parties there this year were absolutely freakin' hilarious. Much love to you guys!


Travel
On July 27th I fly out to Texas for a long stay. Three + months. I'm flying my dog with me and honestly that is what's stressing me out the most about the whole thing. We're flying with United who operate a 'Pet Safe' program; basically all animals are kept in air conditioned vans until being put in the cargo hold just before take off. This is fantastic but... well. We're flying at the hottest time of the year. Naturally I am terrified of something going wrong. Overheating, stress, accident; I realise I'm probably worrying for nothing but I really hope my dog makes it there in one piece without too much stress from the whole ordeal. He's been my one rock throughout a lot of tough times over the past few years and despite being an ass at times, I love him to pieces. There's no use me getting worked up even more though so I'll simply have to wait it out and see.

Aside from dog worry I just have THINGS to sort out. I'm selling off a lot of stuff which I don't need or can't bring with me, my motorcycle being one. That's kinda painful but it'd be sat dormant otherwise and I could use the cash anyway. Want a 2001 Honda CB500 in England? Hit me up. :x There are a good few other bits and pieces which I really want to shift before I leave so hopefully they get snapped up soon too. Then I need to sort out my phone, bank... I have a page long list of stuff I need to do. BASICALLY what all this means is that if I come across as short with anyone in the next month, I apologise in advance. I have a million things to do and the stress of essentially starting a new life from scratch is keeping me up at night so bear with me! :V


Londonfurs
I'm heading down for the Londonfurs Summer Weekender on July 20th. Giving the boat party a miss but will be at the main meet on Saturday with my good friends Luxy and Remus. It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun so hopefully I'll see some of you there. n_n


Commissions
I had a few notes enquiring about commissions and said that I would probably be opening this month; obviously with everything going on that isn't the case any more. My plan is to open up again once I'm settled down in Texas and have bought myself a new computer over there but I'm not sure how long either will take. I will post here and note people when I'm ready. :) In the mean time expect to see a couple of YCH things with any luck! I have a really hot five-page YCH comic with my lynx gal Stephanie in the works which will be going up for auction. Working on such a big project is exciting and I'm hoping you guys will love it. ;3

As a kind of very last minute thing I'll be there! ;>_> As will the whole Beyond the Veil team, how neat is that? We ordered some business cards but I'm not sure if they're going to arrive in time due to bank holidays here... I really hope they do. ;_;

I'm totally stoked to be going (I LOVE Vegas) and will most likely be bouncing around like the world's most excited puppy. Let me know if you're going! :D

Just like that, it’s almost 2013. The year is about to end and a new year is about to begin. I'm not usually one to post a yearly round-up but... well. 2012 has been a hell of a rollercoaster. It started out with a crash and burn upheaval of everything I'd known for the three years prior and the first two months were - admittedly - some of my lowest points in terms of trust and self-confidence. I kept that quiet from here as it really wasn't the place but a huge, huge thank you goes out to all of my friends for dragging me back up from that. You all rock.

After that? Well, things seem to have only gone upwards! Moving back to my home town of York in March was one of the best things I've done. Finances are back in order and this city really is beautiful... it's hard not to flourish here. The beginning of May saw me embark on my long awaited USA road trip to see new places, old friends (I love all of you who I spent my time with there) and most importantly fuelled the fires of my wanderlust. Travel is by far one of my favourite things! What would a wolf be without a lust to travel, hmm? ;)

At the end of May I attended my first con; Confuzzled. Any worries and nerves I had were quickly blown out of the water. THAT weekend right there was the turning point for me. Reconnecting with old friends, making solid bonds with new ones and, much to my surprise, meeting someone special. (At a convention of all places... I know, right?)

This has been a year of new experiences and travel to places I could only dream of. I've made a handful of amazing new friendships. I FINALLY got my motorcycle license and bought myself a nice bike. Art has gone from strength to strength and I've been blessed with many wonderful opportunities with it, for which I also owe a huge thanks to you guys! As for 2013? I've got a few career changes to make decisions on, my location may well change and I'm hoping to push my art to the next level.

To quote one of my favourite artists; “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” -Brad Paisley.

Why can't it be Confuzzled every weekend, whiiiine. ;~;

I had an honestly amazing time and could not have asked for a better first convention! Being able to meet so many new faces and catch up with old friends really was a blast. To all of those who I hung out with or chatted to: I love you all (long time) and you rock! Awesome people like you guys make the entire thing.

Thank you SO much to those of you who bidded on my three auction pieces; I really was so shocked and overwhelmed at how much they went for. Happy tears may possibly have happened. Possibly. ;_; ♥

I will definitely be back next year!