trying for cheer

Have felt vaguely 'down' and "black-doggish" the past couple days.

(Winston Churchill, famously, referred to bleak moods, or what may have been depressive episodes, as his "black dog." I like that image - for one thing, it does slightly externalize it. And I am something like fifth cousin to him, so...)

Anyway, trying to cheer myself up this evening, looking again at this month's Doki Doki box. This one had more "useful" type stuff - the theme was "cute and clean kitchen" so there were a couple of reusable cleaning cloths (Hello Kitty) and a drying-towel (My Melody):



There are also two plastic My Melody bowls, but I think I am going to use them as pin dishes in my sewing room instead of anywhere in the kitchen. (I have bad luck with plastic kitchenware; I tend to forget a burner is on and set it on the burner).

And my favorite thing:



A big apron. I use aprons a lot - both when I cook, but also sometimes when I eat (if it's something greasy, or tomatoey, or runny, where I might get food on my clothes. They described this one as "Mac and Cheese color" which I admit I like better than plain "orange" (though the mac and cheese I make is decidedly NOT that color)

(Also, if anyone reads Japanese and can tell me the translation of the symbols along the top....Doki Doki tends not to provide translations)

There was also a tiny blindbag figure (but no plushie this time, and I hope there is one next month):

This is Calimero, who is apparently a character from a "vintage" anime (an Italian/Japanese joint effort):



Supposedly he will hang on the edge of a glass but I guess mine is defective because he wouldn't hang off the edge of anything I tried him on.

Not shown are the inevitable Hoppe Chan figure, and also an onigiri (rice ball) mold that makes panda shaped rice balls (and comes with a stamper so you can cut the panda face shapes out of seaweed. I am not sure I would ever use that and admit I might be able to be talked out if it if there's someone who actually MAKES onigiri. (I could use it myself and just not do the seaweed thing, I suppose. But don't you need sticky rice for it to work?)

And then this is the just-barest-beginning of the moss stitch scarf. (The yarn is not "Big," it is "Big Wool." I don't remember when I bought it - I THINK it was an Elann purchase (Hm, wonder if they're still around, haven't bought from them in ages....yes, they do, but apparently they only sell their own yarns, no closeouts, any more. Too bad - I remember when I used to stalk them to try to get fancy yarns on the cheap. I guess that's the new thing, lots of places have gone from carrying "closeout" yarn to "their own house brand." I guess Webs still does a lot of closeouts though....)



I might work on this more tonight.