In 2016, I began this #Kawaii365 blog, which was a huge player in my career as a (now copyrighted) cartoonist. Together, we've experienced all kinds of posts referencing "cute pop culture" and I even suggested posts called:
-Review Wednesdays -Feature Fridays -and Are They Kawaii? -as well as Retro Kawaii
I want to tell you all that it was a lot of fun, and I met some amazing people along this artistic and cultural journey. I gained confidence, learned a lot, and gained new skills. I learned what it means to truly appreciate fans...
Now, it's April 2020 and it seems I've fallen off the face of the Earth since the last post in September of last year, and I wanted to explain why, and where I've gone.
This pains me to be say... but the reason I stopped producing so many of these 'kawaii blog posts' is because they've caused me to be called a spammer, and started getting removed by facebook 😭
Yes, facebook. I don't know if someone reported me, or if it was an algorithm thing, but several months' worth of cute art and culture posts were removed, just like that. I was shocked. I was angry. I was devestated. And not only do I lament the loss of the posts themselves, but I got several accusatory messages from facebook, saying I "went against their community standards." So... cute art isn't up to their standards then.
So this made me realize, if no one can see my posts anyway, why put my heart & soul into creating them? So I stopped.
In the meantime, I have become copyrighted in the creation of the Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, a kawaii-cute bunch of 'weird friends' who live on a planet discovered by a mad scientist, who put them there to protect them. Please see the video below for more info:
Thank you to everyone who has shown support on this artistic and fun journey. You all mean a lot to me. Blessings xoxo
I am good, thank you. It's been a super-long time since I've posted here... if you're still seeking out this blog on your own time, then thank you! I really appreciate you! 😘
If you're wondering why I've stopped posting as often, well... it's mainly because several posts I've shared from this blog in the recent past (this last Spring) have been wrongfully marked as spam...
The majority of my kawaii art & culture posts that got removed, were removed via Facebook... I'm incredibly disappointed in them, if that's how they treat their users. I did file a complaint with Facebook and requested a conversation via their Help Center, but sadly they never got back. As upsetting as this treatment (and loss of several nice/sweet posts) was, I think the reason anything with "blogspot" in the URL was getting marked as spam was likely due to the crackdown on all the anti-vaxxing blogs. Unfortunately that had a ripple effect on all bloggers...
So because I could no longer share links to posts on my Facebook groups & pages, I decided not to post here as much.
However, it is now about 1/3 into September, and stores are already showcasing my second-favorite time of year (second only to Christmas)… and that's...
Halloween!!
Yes, it's super-exciting to be planning some spooky movies, cool costumes, creepy decorations, and super-sweet candy! To help you get into a creepy mood, enjoy some eerie songs from my ghostly blog.
Also, if you're brave enough, here is a comprehensive list of movies about ghosts - some of which aren't scary, and others... well, are.
If less horrific movies are more your thing for this awesome time of year, then enjoy this more innocent list of Halloween movies, which are just as good 😊
🎃🦇🧛👻🍬🎃🦇🧛👻🍬🎃🦇🧛👻🍬
Anyway, thank you for following along on this blog, even when I'm not posting as much. The true fans of Kawaii365 will remember that this blog started in the summer of 2016 (more than 3 years ago already, wow!) and that it helped "give birth" to the Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, which is where a lot of my artistic effort is going these days. If you're a fan of kawaii animals and cute cartoons, then by all means check them out!
This is me holding the copyright certificate for them :)
Wow, it's apparently been a loooong while since I've posted here v(=∩_∩=)ﾌ
The last time was around Halloween - my second-favorite season, trumped by Christmas! And speaking of Christmas, that's what I'm here to write about today - some of the amazing stocking stuffers from my awesome hubby-bubby Rob ♥‿♥
So I'll start with photos and follow with the story:
In order from top:
When I was a little girl (about grade 6), I had one of the uber-popular Tamagotchi toys. I took care of that thing like there was no tomorrow, right down to waking up late-night or early morning when the thing beeped. I snuck it to school but when a teacher took it - later giving it back with a promise from me not to bring it to school - the poor thing died. And those late 90s/early 00s models didn't have the reset capability that today's models have. I was devastated at the time, and though still intrigued with the idea of "raising" another one, I didn't bother for a long time.
Anyway, during a 2018 trip to Sunrise Records here in Bower Mall, I saw some on display and turned into a total fangirl! So Rob surprised me by putting a pink one in my stocking. I've since played with it and it died - the one above is a duplicate because I lent the original gift to a good friend, who in turn misplaced it and so I went to replace it recently at the Toys R Us in Bower (these buggers are still insanely popular and sell out quick)! Below is a video of me grieving for the original one [Rob got me for Christmas] during a family trip to Cancun:
And the following photos [above] are of some of those awesome cookies from Second Cup - a confectionary brand called A Couple of Squares - these particular sugar cookies in Christmas themes, such as a candy cane & hot chocolate, as well as a toque and mitt (so Canadian)! I adore these cookies mainly for their kawaii aesthetic and long shelf life. It's incredible that they're all hand-made!
Wow guys!
Isn't it hard to believe that, at least 3 of our Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, are already a year old today?
On June 19, 2017 - shortly before the end of the #Kawaii365 project, I was deciding what to draw for the day's project. I had already been thinking of some potential hybrids between various animals, and doodled these first 3 characters of the series:
Unicat seems to have stayed pretty well the same (yes, I *am already aware of UniKitty from the Lego movie, as well as the Caticorn design on drinkware - it's a free world and we're all designers with similar thoughts).
Dogosaur got a much bigger head and different face... being part Stegosaurus, he seemed like he needed red eyes.
And Rabbird might be the most significant change, as here, I had her shaped like a potato with no legs, hahaha! Not sure how I planned to get around that one!
************************************ Here is a closer-up picture of the original sketches:
Since June 19 last year, these guys have come a long way - 9 more were created, and they have their own blog, a facebook group, merchandise, a Patreon page, two coloring books, a Buzzfeed Quiz, and soon-to-be web comic!
Also, Rob & I will be voicing them later on, as we move toward possible animation. These cute/weird animals have become an integral part of daily life :)
Look at the subtle changes in each one nowadays. They've come a long way, and they're going further!
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Another interesting thing about June 19, is that it's also the birthday of one of my best and longest-running friends, Sabrina! (✿◠‿◠) (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
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To celebrate the 'birthday' of the Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, please enjoy sharing this kawaii birthday card I animated!
As you know, today is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, and that's cause for celebration! Especially if you're in a hot part of the world and enjoying a very warm June 7th.
🍫🍨🍫🍨🍫🍨🍫🍨🍫🍨🍫🍨🍫🍨🍫🍨
And if you're familiar with Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, then you might already know how excited Elefox is today, now that he can freely indulge in his favorite treat!
There are 12 characters in this series, all created from 2 different animals! For instance, one of the most popular right now is the soft, fluffy and shy Rabbird - a cross between a dove and a bunny!
Each animal hybrid [friend] has a distinct personality all their own! And every fan of this series can relate to at least one of them, if not more.
How will you know what you have in common, and with whom? Just take this Buzzfeed Quiz here to find out!
It's just 7 simple visual questions, in this order: Fave Color, Dream Career, Fave Food, Best Music, Nicest Place, Best Shape and Your Zodiac Sign.
Did you have a good NYE? What did you do? Tell us in the comments section 😎
I'd like to start with blowing your mind - if you follow this blog regularly, then you might remember this 'welcome 2017' post - it really does not feel like that long ago, right?
And now, here we are, a year later, and so many more wonderful things to share with you! In January: We went on a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Rob's family! Then when we came back, I 'went for it' with something I always wanted to do - I dyed my hair pink.
In February: I officially got glasses again - prior to this, I hadn't worn them since I was about 11 years old. Why did I stop? Because of bullies. Now I wear them with pride. And I turned 29, which commenced countdown of the last year of being in my twenties!
In March: We did the #KaraokeChallenge on this blog - did you film yourself singing? Share it with the followers here, or on our facebook group! Rob & I also celebrated our 9-year anniversary of meeting at work, by going to see the live action Beauty & The Beast! Such a fantastic movie, and the first time I've felt truly happy in a theatre! Oh and I got the honor of painting for my first time at Art Battle International 😊
In April: I don't really remember anything specifically personal about this month... however, one of our favorite stores in Bower Mall here - HMV - officially closed. It later became Sunrise Records. Thankfully they still sell kawaii collectibles :)
In May: The Red Deer Regional Hospital literally saved my life! I don't want to gross any of you out, but I take it that the majority of the readers here are girls and women, so I'll tell you - I had a very heavy menstruation, that was almost life-threatening. I got to the emergency room just in time for them to give me clotting medication and take care of me. I credit them with my still being here.
Also became friends of a sort with a super awesome girl who goes by Piper Dollface - we share an affinity for squishies, and Hello Kitty stuff, so she sent me this as a gift:
In June: Preparations for Canada's 150! Rob & I had wanted to do something nice together at Bower Ponds, but a major storm hindered that (thunder, rain, hail, cold wind, and small tornadoes forming - Alberta weather, eh?). We spent it indoors.
In July: The #Kawaii365 project came to an official end on July 10, after a year of making kawaii art. Because I felt 'empty' after such a sudden stop, the Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends were 'born' 😍 Rob & I had a table at the local Farmer's Market and sold some of my kawaii art.
A major highlight [of my life!] was getting featured in 2 local publications - Red Deer Express and RD News Now! I'm still on cloud 9 from that.
In August: Rob & I celebrate our 9th anniversary of being a couple, and our 6th wedding anniversary. He spoiled me by taking me to the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in downtown, Calgary, where he booked us for a couple's massage. We then went to the zoo, where we enjoyed our first time at the penguins' enclosure.
In September: Since opening both a RedBubble shop AND a Zazzle shop earlier this year, I've enjoyed the feeling of seeing my own artwork on day-to-day items. It's a real rush of adrenaline! The feeling literally never gets old.
Mousepad from my shop on Zazzle
My Zoo'd tote bag (still so proud!)
In October: Following his 39th birthday, Rob & I celebrated our 10th Halloween by going to a haunted walkthrough house in Parkland Mall. And since recently discovering the Netflix original series, Stranger Things, I simply had to dress as Eleven. Then Rob & I co-hosted a Halloween party at our condo, as we celebrated our 3rd Halloween here already!
In November: Sears officially closed... another place we loved going to in Bower Mall here in the city. Still waiting to see what goes in there next? Though we both feel awful for all the laid off employees, it was decent to get some high-fashion items for up to 90% off. I hope every former employee found new work quickly. Rob & I kicked off the holiday season in late November by attending fabulous local events such as: Red Deer Lights the Night, the Festival of Trees (to support the hospital which saved me), and the Black Knight Inn's Christmas Wish Breakfast. In December: We celebrated a fantastic 10th Christmas together (complete with a romantic sleigh ride together at Heritage Ranch, followed by a very romantic New Year's Eve (our 10th one, too) at the Black Knight Inn together!
Hello sweet friends!
Today is Monday, December 18, and Christmas is a week away from today! We're all getting so excited here 😁
I've got 2 more gifts to wrap, some cards yet to deliver, and a gingerbread house to decorate together with Rob - but we got so much done already!! I've wrapped about 20 gifts and signed so many cards I may have lost count! Our tree is decorated and we've had so many very nice Christmas dates (it is after all, our10thChristmas that we're celebrating).
Anyhow, you may remember awhile back, I featured the 12 adorable hybrid animals from https://zoodanimalfriends.blogspot.ca/search/label/Characters A blog which was created around a series of kawaii animals I designed (and fell in love with!) after finishing the #Kawaii365 daily project.
And today, they're back to say Hello for Christmas - even if you don't decide to pledge $1 monthly at their Patreon page, they still love and appreciate when you share them!
You can also join the facebook group and join in on chats about them. Just look for Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends
I really enjoyed 'decorating' them for Christmas, too 😍
So, do you think they live up to the standards of Kawaii? Let us know why/why not, in the comments section!
🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
The above is a picture I colored in, from the very first adult coloring book I drew in Christmas of 2015. It was a lot of fun to draw, but I enjoyed coloring it in even more! Get your own copy of it at https://www.darylartdigital.etsy.com
Hi everyone, how's it going today?
For Review Wednesday, we're gonna change it up a bit! First, I'll tell you a short story. My husband Rob gave me an adorable Hello Kitty wallet for Christmas about 5 years ago now. And I used the heck out of it - the poor, sweet wallet actually broke!
So then I put it away in my archives of HK stuff, and went on a journey for a similar one. I suppose perhaps I was looking in the wrong stores? Or, wrong places? The nicest wallet I could find was a simple red leather one, and it was about $30! Yikes. My gut instinct said "don't buy it" and I listened.
Then, I went to visit Rob at one of his jobs - London Drugs photo-electronics, and there it was: my new wallet. Only, it was a mini photo album, that can hold "credit card-sized pictures". Perfect!
It was only 3.99 (much better than $30!) and it would fit perfectly in my purse, like a wallet would. So I went for it! And, to my joy - it came in pink, as well as a few other colors.
Excitedly, I transferred all my cards over to it, and a perfect fit. But something seemed sort of, plain about it. Then I realized it didn't have a kawaii character on it like the last one I had, did. And being a kidult, this wasn't cool, haha. So I did this:
After filling in with sparkly polish, I used fabric markers to outline.
Ta-da! All lined in, and other polish colors for details.
Just thought you'd like to see how well this album holds cards!
So, who or what is 'Rabbird'?
Good question! Are you following my other blog? It can be found at www.zoodanimalfriends.blogspot.com and if you really, really LOVE it, you can show some of that sweet love at our Patreon page, and get some cute coloring pages of the characters!
BTW, this wallet design was a wingless take on my character, so she is essentially a 'normal bunny'.
Hello, and welcome to another sort of unusual Review Wednesday, this one for November 8th.
As you know, in 2016 while being inspired by the #Kawaii365 project, I designed 12 'cute' astrology tee shirts, both as iron-on decals available on my Etsy shop, and as full tee shirts available from RedBubble.
And they had some popularity for awhile... but 'cute' doesn't resonate with all people who would otherwise be happy to wear a zodiac sign shirt. For instance, young guys.
So in order not to discriminate against a wider audience, most recently I designed 12 more shirts, this time with typography. Though I haven't worn one of them yet (so I can't rightly review the fit or fabric), I'd like to share them with you here:
The new ones, on the right, say:
1) Aries the athletic hottie
2) Taurus the bull-sh-t detector
3) Gemini the BFF
4) Cancer the cutie
5) Leo the fabulous
6) Virgo the sexy librarian
7) Libra the social butterfly
8) Scorpio the sexpot
9) Sagittarius the free spirit
10) Capricorn the hipster hottie
11) Aquarius the cool bad@$$
12) Pisces the mermaid
The last one is because I always hated being compared to a fish. I'm a mermaid... or a dolphin... just, not a fish!
Anyhow, I can definitely review how much work went into designing them. To be honest, I assumed because they were 'wordy' without pictures, that it would be somehow easier. I was wrong. It ended up being a multi-day project, but totally worth it!
Once I got the brief descriptions of each sign's characteristics (or, comparisons) just right, then I played around with typography until I got the right design - simple, yet impactful.
Either the 'cute' or 'regular' designs are available at my RedBubble shop, link above.
😊😎😍😊😎😍😊😎😍😊😎😍😊😎😍😊😎😍😊😎😍
I'd like to apologize for the delays sometimes, in posting here. If you are a regular reader of the Kawaii365 blog, then you probably remember how active this blog was just a few months ago. When the year-long 'cute art' project ended, I began a new series of characters called Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, and they have their own blog here - http://www.zoodanimalfriends.blogspot.com - which also keeps me fairly busy.
It's not so much that the blog itself keeps me busy, but rather, special projects for the characters, Currently, because people were wanting to know where these guys 'live', I've been designing actual houses for them.
Also, my hubs & I would like to voice them soon, which is why I made some clay versions of them (and why I've been practicing my cartoon voices). We're going to need something 3D to hold during the video.
So, we'd love to thank you for showing loyal support of this art project, turned little family here 💖
Konnichiwa (hello) lovely friends 😊
It's the evening of Friday, October 20th. It's been sort of a bad day (Rob & I both had a stressful day at work, and our dresser broke while I was putting away laundry). It feels like Friday the 13th showed up a week late, lol.
Anyway, normally there was a time that each Friday, we'd enjoy meeting someone in the kawaii community, and learning more about them and what they do. That was a really big thing here when I was doing the daily Kawaii365 art project. I'd actively get in touch with Etsy shop owners, cute YouTubers, and fellow bloggers and they'd happily get featured here.
Then, on July 10 of this year, the #Kawaii365 daily art project (inspired by Noah Scalin's "Unstuck" book which I'm still doing projects in), the project came to it's completion, and it felt like a big part of my life had changed. Was missing, even.
Now, 3 months and 10 days later, I am again in the den, enjoying the seclusion and 'zen' after a day at my retail job, and then doing housework. I'm just relaxing at the laptop, as I think of all of you - the adorable and sweet readers - and reminisce over the days when this was my regular routine.
As I look around the den here, I see the newspaper clipping on the wall from when I got featured in the Red Deer Express for this project. That felt amazing. I was also blessed to have an interview with someone from RD News Now. So awesome. A favorite Hello Kitty plushie is sat to my left, and there are many more beloved 'pets' on the shelves behind me. I look to the right and see one of my favorite colored-in pictures framed on the wall. And of course, my pride & joy - the Art Diploma I earned in 2009. I look up and see a small collection of kawaii items I've collected for reviews.
Again, I'd love to thank you all for being there, for reading, enjoying and sharing this blog. You all deserve to be featured, just for being so awesome! Feel free to drop a 'Hello' in the comments 😊
In case you are wondering, yes I still do art. Last night, Rob & I went to a local pub here called Bo's, for a night of Art Battle, in which I was one of the painters - and I made this:
It looks a little sloppy because I painted the entire thing in 20 minutes' time (that's one of the rules of participating in Art Battle; it's 3x 20-minute rounds to determine the winning painter based on audience voting).
Being an artist is a fundamental part of who I am; when this daily kawaii art project ended, I felt truly lost for awhile, and then I began creating a new series of characters called Zoo'd Animal Hybrid Friends, which are 12 zany kawaii animals based on hybrids made of 2 different animals, each.
Pandaroo in a costume, feeling slightly humiliated...
And, if you love me and wish to show support of this newer endeavor, you are more than welcome to check out my Patreon page (which is like GoFundMe or Kickstarter).
And in keeping with the hints for my upcoming Halloween costume, I'd like to gently remind you guys that... Halloween is 11days away from now...
