Dip Queens Nail Dips With Dip Queens Waterslides - Dipqueens.net

Discover perfection at Dip Queens! Explore 400+ unique nail dip powders, enchanting waterslide decals, dip liquids, and nail accessories. Unleash your creativity today!

will never shut up abt how hard dmmd official art goes btw. we miss you honyarara

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

oh so dan and phil dont want to help us get phan to top ship? they don’t care about their children? they don’t even care about their gaming channel’s half birthday? do they not want us to feel whimsy and joy

Was inspired to draw kisses and of course they’re royal au flavored

Find the royal au masterpost here 💕

Nick put on "Dancing Queen" for them.

a little update on what i've been doing in the sims lately! don't mind the huge walls of text for once i'm saying things in the post instead of the tags lmao

matthias's scars are very slowly coming along! i really love his left leg scar but can't really show all of it because i'd have to get him naked for that and it also wraps around his leg. um, but it starts at the side of his hip and carves down at an angle before abruptly following a steep line to the back of his calf. it looks gnarly which is exactly what i'm trying to achieve with matthias's scars! i'm also pretty pleased with the scars on his wrists and side, but the scar he has on the back of his right leg is... a little too crunchy? i don't know, it just looks weird. it's kind of hard to get the scars i'm making to look good on matthias's body. especially scars that're smaller or delicate... like the instant loss of quality makes me want to chew on exposed wires. but that's where i've left off on them! his arms and back are where he has the most damage but my god... it's SO difficult trying to get scars to look nice over his biceps and back muscles. also the hair ties i made for him look nice on his wrist <3

theo's apartment is also finally in the works. i've got the base layout finished and a general idea of what all the rooms are for. building and decorating isn't actually that daunting to me, surprisingly—instead, what's actually causing me a lot of grief is the realization that this is too big for theo to really be comfortable in. so, i was thinking, okay, that's fine, just get rid of three of the rooms and scale down the living area. only to pause and take into account the fact that theo's parents pay for this. they're controlling and also very big on appearance so i'm not sure they'd be fine with their son living in a shoebox—i mean, what would people say if word got to them that he doesn't even have a walk-in closet? like... that's the kind of people they are. but i wanted theo to feel comfortable in his apartment so now i'm feeling conflicted on how i want it to look. i'm definitely going to scale down the bedrooms and the living area... but it'll still feel too big to theo. there are just too many corners for him to ever fully let his guard down... which, hm... well, maybe that fits the story more anyway.

this is his general aesthetic for the interior btw... i want it to be brown, cream, and green all throughout the apartment with splashes of orange (this mix between his old dorm and his childhood home but with something new blending it together). i really wanted him to have stained glass windows in his kitchen and bathroom but couldn't find any </3 so sadly that's not happening. and i need to find a nice curio cabinet for his collection of bells... along with bells too lmao. but that's where i'm at so far! i'm seriously going to just sit here in build mode for hours just... trying to figure out how to make this place more comfortable for theo. like it's supposed to be where he feels safe but it's just too much rn.

*sets a plate with an extra large fairy cake topped with a singular shiny, golden candle in front of Nosy's nest*

Happy Mine Day.

You absolute menace.

Happy Mine Day 💚🧁

Nosy was busy adoring his treasures when a shiny golden light suddenly caught his attention. His sparkly eyes widened, fixating on the gleaming beacon of brilliance. Abandoning his current conquest, a particularly captivating silver badge, Nosy scurried towards the source of the golden glow.

There it was - a sight that made his heart skip a beat! A plate adorned with an extra-large cake! Nosy blinked, his small heart fluttering with excitement. A cake for Nosy? A whole cake? For this humble Niffler? The very thought seemed too good to be true. Well deserved, of course, but still so unexpected.

Nosy's gaze darted back and forth between the sugary, creamy delight and Sebastian. With each passing second, the Niffler's excitement grew, and he couldn't contain himself any longer.

His tail began to wag furiously, and with a bound, he leaped towards his beloved wizard. His tiny claws finding purchase as he scrambled up to Sebastian's face to shower him with affectionate pecks and kisses, his happy honking sounds filling the air.

A few moments after his wet display of affection, Nosy gracefully descended from the Niffler Papa, and with a decisive huff, the little master of flames extinguished the golden candle. Time to dig in!

Diving snout-first into the cake, Nosy savoured the sweet taste of victory with each delectable bite. It was so delicious! And yet, amidst his indulgence, a fleeting thought crossed his mind. Pausing for just a moment, the little Niffler pondered before reaching a conclusion.

With a determined glint in his eyes, Nosy carefully selected a sizable portion of the cake, cradling it in his little paws. With purposeful steps, he waddled over to Sebastian once again, offering him the (in Sebastian's hands rather small) morsel with a honk of generosity while still wagging his tail incessantly.

Nosy would always share everything with Sebastian. That's how it always has been, and that's how it always will be.

With a gentle nuzzle of his head against Sebastian's hand, Nosy looked up at him with eyes that sparkled with gratitude and devotion. The two of them had been together for so long now, a constant companion through thick and thin, partners in crime, friends, and family rolled into one.

Every day with Sebastian was an adventure, filled with laughter, mischief, and love. And as he settled against Sebastian's side, Nosy knew that no matter what the future held, he and Sebastian would face it together, forever bound by their unbreakable bond.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦•···················•✦•

Art by the amazing @lil-grem-draws The very first Nosy fan art, and I love it so so much! Thank you once again, Lily!! 💚🌸🥹

Looking back on the books I read this year, and was reminded of just how much Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief- absolutely frustrated and disappointed me. Spoilers ahead.

To some degree, this was going to happen; the whole series has been heavily hyped up to me, it's hard for any book to live up to such lavish yet vague praise. But, you know, I actually got through most of the book without being distracted by my own expectations. It was tense, and spare- it felt like every word mattered and hinted at an underlying truth. I love when books withhold from the reader, and nudge at you to consider what might be left unsaid. And I was so, so satisfied when my predictions paid off (totally called Gen palming the stone rather than losing it).

The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, I enjoyed that the author wasn't committed to a super specific and our-world-accurate timeframe for technology, and I found the characters compelling and variable. I always enjoy travel stories, nevermind stories about thieves.

Which is exactly why I was so annoyed by the ending.

Again: I love twists. I love being able to predict them, and I love being surprised. I did not feel like any of the twists in The Thief were unearned; it's a well-composed book, with plenty of foreshadowing.

However, one of the twists, despite being foreshadowed, absolutely blindsided me- because I would not have considered it as a possibility, due to undermining exactly what had me so excited to read The Thief in the first place. Fantasy literature sometimes shies away from politics, into pure escapism and fluff. Even some of my favorite fantasy books are pretty hollow when it comes to their fundamental beliefs, and shy away from challenging the status quo- unless it's to restore old glory (cough The Old Kingdom series).

But I can almost always count on stories about rogues, and thieves, and con artists, to at least bring up the issue of class. These characters so often come from disenfranchised backgrounds, from the poor and displaced. They're street rats and gutter scum, who have clawed their way up from the bottom, and never forget where they came from- can never forget, from the way others treat them. Theft is subversive; there's a reason we won't let go of Robin Hood, but even more self-motivated thieves often have something to say about the unfairness of wealth distribution. Stories about thieves almost always have something to say about the relationship between the wealthy and the poor.

So, yeah, I was really fucking annoyed at the reveal that Eugenides was actually the Queen's cousin. That pretending to be from a lower class background was so insufferable to him; that of course he's only so educated and knowledgeable because he's a noblemen, that it was so hard for him to pretend to be stupid and crass like a peasant. That the reason he was so pissed about being disrespected by his captors wasn't because they beat him and imprisoned him and insulted him constantly, that they treated him as less than human because he was poor and a criminal, a tool for their own use and disposal- but because he was one of them, and it injured his pride- his noble pride, not his human pride- to be treated like that. Like he wasn't one of them, and deserving of their respect.

Fuck, I hate it so much. It immediately took away my favorite parts of the book- the tension between Gen and the magus's companions, the weight of the magus having been a commoner once, the way Gen constantly stuck by himself and refused to just accept his shitty treatment- the way every monarch treated him as a means to an end. I thought there would be more tension in Gen having conflicted feelings of resentment and camraderie with the magus- I thought it would pay off with either some of them acting in his interest for once, and/or some of them rejecting their freindship and leaning back into that class difference between them.

I'm not opposed to Gen having been working for the mountain kingdom the whole time! But there are so many other ways to do that- I was suspecting that someone was holding his family hostage in some way. It's easy to imagine a story where Gen is a lower-class thief, who was also being used by his own country's royalty.

But, making Eugenides a nobleman is a subversion of the classic trope- which means it's clever and interesting. Uugh. It just exhausted me, and- disappointed me. I loved so much of this book, and it had been a while since I'd read a good low-fantasy story about thieves. It was suspenseful, with rich descriptions, and interesting character dynamics. I thought I was getting something like Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge, or The Goblin Wood by Hillary Bell- not necessarily stories about thieves, but stories about the underestimated and undervalued, peasant con artists and hedgewitches. But with more of the tension and bite of your average dnd rogue getting up to stupid shit (my go-to class since I was a kid).

I totally understand why people love this book. There is a lot I really admire within it. But man, I don't think I can get over how much that final twist- not just rejected my original interpretation of the story. That's fine, plenty of good science fiction or horror does that. But that it specifically rejects the character and story type of the lower class thief. The very name of the series, The Queen's Thief, had me expecting a story about that seeming contradiction; about the power imbalance, and a constant game of cunning, of maintaining autonomy despite being bound to a royal power. And I expect there will be some of that, in the later books; it just loses a lot of its appeal, when it turns out Gen himself is a nobleman, who was doing a favor for his cousin, the queen.

I liked that the book ended with more insight into the mountainous kingdom, and Gen's feeling of belonging and pride to a cultural group everyone else had been deriding- but that didn't have to be accomplished by him being related to the nobility of that country. None of this had to be accomplished through Gen being a nobleman; it just felt like a 'gotcha' subversion, taking away, rather than adding more.

Gina Minichino, Crunched Cone, 2023 

Oil on panel, 12 x 16 in

Dip Queens Glow in the Dark Nail Dips with Dip Queens Waterslides - Dipqueens.net Discover perfection at Dip Queens! Explore 400+ unique nail dip powders, enchanting waterslide decals, dip liquids, and nail accessories. Unleash your creativity today!

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

So I uh made a thing...

Princess Anne’s letter of thanks to Robin Barratt, editor of The POET magazine, for sending her a copy of ‘Poetry Celebrating the Life of Queen Elizabeth II’.

Source: The POET Magazine

Grancelor thoughts...

I don't care what the game says. I'm going to make it canon that he redeems her without the romance and dips into witch with her as his patron. 😏

I was planning on using the Call of the Wild mod to get the witch class and even though this isn't a choice of archetype (it's even a 3rd party one), this is what I'm shooting for story-wise:

A quick sketch of the magnificent Queen. I felt like Cyber city being a beach city didn't get used as much as it should have.

Jaenara Velaryon + Dorea Waters

Tag list: @arrthurpendragon @eddysocs @stanshollaand @bravelittleflower @richitozier @hiddenqveendom @foxesandmagic @waterloou