Neko

[1] I am so delighted joining cliques under Aquarel.nu by Aelyn and Cerine. I've always admired their designs and writing. They were also amongst the reasons why I've gone back to blogging and faced the challenge of coding once more. Their wonderful web designs reminded me so much of the good old early 2000's div styling.

Believe it or not, I used to do artworks via Adobe Photoshop. Tiny remnants of them survived in my earlier posts in this blog (which I was so pleasantly surprised to find out about!). Seeing them still makes my heart ache of nostalgia and fondness. Graphics designing used to be a big hobby and was (and still is!) a big source of my motivation generally speaking; getting through my studies back in high school and uni years just so I can start designing and use the computer for my leisure. 

Having to learn and design digital pieces back then was incredibly fulfilling! Now that I think about it, losing all my resources such as the textures, brushes, fonts, tutorials etc., including Photoshop CS3, the program I used, has been a big regret of mine. I moved out of PH to find better working opportunities and with it came a (lot of) cost, amongst them were my hobbies. I was only able to bring with me a small notebook laptop and it could not contain everything I held dear for graphics designing. In fact, the icons and mood themes I'm using today are a small part of the collection.  

Getting back into designing now that things have settled down did cross my mind though, a lot of things have changed. It's a pain getting Photoshop; resources that used to be readily available are no longer accessible; although I do agree that artists/ webmasters responsible for making them should get something (particularly in monetary form) in return apart from credit and fame. I'm also very sad about the state of celetial-star.net & aethereality.net. Those 2 websites used to be a huge source of inspiration. < Oops, I'm getting distracted > Anyway, I'm well aware that these are only my excuses. That if I want to get back into it badly enough, there are ways.

[3] This week we've been enjoying "OPM 2025–2026 Late Night Playlist Mix"

[4] Contemplating whether to avail of a digital artbook by Natalia Zaitseva. She is an illustrator and a mum. Been enjoying her artworks and/ or comics, also her being a mum around my age resonates with me as I have a few friends who are also fellow toddler moms. Being in that stage of motherhood is both a joy and a struggle which is why I'm thinking of buying the artbook (to be at least of tiny help) plus I do genuinely enjoy her works! Please consider checking her out too!