February felt like a much less sluggish month, probably because I had way less allergy problems. Though, I don’t think I was any more productive because I spent hours and hours watching the Olympics. In the past, I didn’t pay much attention to them, but this year, I decided to give it a try and… I got addicted to following along!
As for Valentine’s Day, my husband and I like to treat it as a day where we cook something we haven’t done in a while and/or we splurge on nicer ingredients. For example, we’ve made steaks before and will look for nicer, aged steaks. One year, we made homemade okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake), which we had never done before. This year, we decided on Japanese curry! Though we’ve done it many times before, we haven’t made it at home recently, and we also bought some highly marbled short rib for it. I didn’t take a good photo of it, but here’s a phone photo:
I also like to make a treat for my coworkers. I know a lot of people view Valentine’s Day negatively, but why do that when you can spread some love to others instead? This year, I made turtle cookies! And by that, I don’t mean cookies that look like turtles, but rather, cookies that resemble turtles chocolate. They’re chocolate cookies with pecans, caramel, and sea salt on top.
Chinese New Year was a couple days after, and every year, I spend it at my parents’ place and have a traditional Chinese dinner. One of my close friends happened to be in town, so she came with me too! She’s also Chinese and was excited to have a way to actually celebrate. (No food photos, sorry!)
When it comes to my hobbies, I was actually fairly productive. In my last recap, I posted about how I got a photoshoot done for one of my cosplays that didn’t have one yet. There were a couple more that I wanted to do, but I didn’t book a photographer for them. I just took the photos myself!
The first is Phi in her Zero Escape version. Even though I made the cosplay in 2015, I still didn’t have a full body shot of it. I used my mini photo studio at home to take some new photos:
The second is Yuri from Yuri on Ice. I already have photos of this cosplay, but I realized I never took photos with a new accessory I got for it: Makkachin!
I also took part in Fill-a-Page February, which is to fill a sketchbook page every day in February. I found this to be a lot less stressful than Inktober, since I could do quick sketches for days where I had less time. It actually made me realize that I can’t really use lack of time as an excuse to not draw. I mean, a page of 10 pose sketches takes me less than 8 minutes when I do 45-seconds per pose, and it’s even shorter once I got used to doing 30-seconds per pose. (Exercise is at Posemaniacs.)
Though there was some stress of doing a daily challenge (and I even missed a few days), it was pretty relaxing overall. Here’s some of my favorites, and my Tumblr tag is the easiest way to view them all!
Anyway, I took an unintentional break from the blogging community and am behind on reading blogs. Now that I’m no longer rushing to get a daily sketch done and don’t have super cool skating, skiing, and snowboarding tricks to watch on TV, I’m going to do some catch up 😉
I LOVE the new Makkachin plushie! <3 <3 <3 SO ADORABLE. Oh, man, like you, the Olympics took over my life (primarily figure skating), so now I have this need to re-watch Yuri on Ice. My Blu-ray of the series came, so I must hunker down and watch it.
The Japanese curry and the sweet treats all look so good! I love that curry — so tasty and filling. The turtle cookies look so divine. Wish I could taste one!
Good on you for doing the sketchbook challenge! You have some neat sketches there! And like you, I need to catch up on blogging! Who'd have thought the Olympics would take over our lives!
I am glad to hear that you have had fewer problems with your allergies. The must be a significant relief! It’s great that you got hooked on the Olympics. 😀 I haven’t watched it in a long time, but there have been times in the past where I have been obsessed.
Yum! The turtle cookies look delicious! 😀
Your sketches look fantastic. It’s incredible to see how much you have grown and refined your skills. 😀 I am looking forward to seeing many more!
Your Japanese curry looks delicious! Oooh you guys treated yourself to some high-quality rib! I don’t know why people have to be a bit salty about Valentine’s Day… I was gonna say, where is your Chinese New Year dog drawing?? But then saw it in your art gallery. Oh my goodness, your sketches are ON POINT!!! You’re really good at doing quick sketches! Even though you missed a few days, you rocked the challenge.
Have a great month, Cat :)!
Oohh!!! Those turtle cookies looks so yummy!!! XD
And I like your Yuri cosplay! The first thing I noticed from this post is your Makkachin!! xD
Soo cool you got so much done last month with your hobbies. Your food looks sooo good… and you’d definitely be an office fave with those cookies!!! 😀 Your Yuri shot is awesome (I think I saw it when you uploaded it onto Twitter). Ice skating seemed to have been awesome this year for the Olympics. I only had some nibble here and there, but I’m generally a Gymnastics and Ice Skating fan…
omg I LOVE your drawings so much!!
I also love that you made cookies for your co-workers. Absolutely nothing wrong with spreading love and positive vibes!
Your Valentine’s Day tradition is actually quite nice! I should do that with my boyfriend sometime when we’re both confident about our cooking skills XD Or maybe we could use it as an opportunity to learn cooking together! You just gave me a great idea right there 😉
Your cosplay looks fantastic! <3
I love your valentines day tradition. I think it’s super sweet and definitely is something I would be looking forward to every year xD Your Japanese curry looks SO GOOD – actually looks like it’s straight from a restaurant haha. This is a great idea though, something I might try with Matt! 😀
How did you take the photos by yourself? Was it a tripod set up with a timer? I always find it so difficult taking photos of myself haha!!
That’d be cool if you tried it with Matt! What better way to celebrate than with food 😉
I have a set-up where my camera is on a tripod, and I trigger it using a wireless remote shutter or an iPad (my DSLR has wireless capability). It’s a lot easier than dealing with a timer!
After finishing the Zero Escape series, I know who Phi is…and wow, that series is crazy, though I enjoyed, not more than Danganronpa, of course.
You look so awesome and you are such a sweetheart to make treats for your coworkers! ^^ I always love your kind and wonderful nature.
😆 you said you were behind on my Japan posts but I was behind on writing them!!
I think the Olympics and sport aren’t usually my thing, but I found that if you put the television in front of me I might find myself interested, or even hooked. 😂 In our apartment we don’t have free-to-air television set up so I only saw some of the Olympics on YouTube highlights, and I saw some skiing at the in-laws’. 😜
That curry LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THE CURRY EMOJI, I swear!!! 🍛 And it looks just like they do in Japan. Amazing job 👏😱
The cookies look really nice! I don’t know why but I like the look of “detailed” toppings on cookies/biscuits. It just makes them look intricate, and more flavourful.
I really like the new year sketch! It’s cute. ☺️ I also feel stress with doing a daily challenge sometimes. The more I think about it, the more I think a daily challenge is designed to make us feel stressed so it better helps us keep on the ball. Still not my favourite kind of challenge 😂 Haha.