Surprise Boxed Book and Villainy

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The letterzine

Yesterday I received a box in the post, with a bright green question mark outlined in purple, on the outside. Naturally, I recognised this as the symbol of The Riddler in the Batman/DC universe, as he's one of my favourite characters. However, as I don't live in Gotham, I had to assume that it wasn't in fact a parcel from Edward Nigma/Nygma. What do you mean he's just a fictional character? I should probably be thankful about that, haha. (There were also little purple umbrellas outlined in green on another part of the box, but I forgot to photograph those. Of course, it wasn't from The Penguin either though, just in case you were wondering :P). It made me smile!

Anyway, since a friend of mine, Kei (she blogs at Unfortunately Oh! & Doing a Thing. You should take a look!) recently got into the TV show 'Gotham' - I definitely didn't have anything to do with that - and has a tendency to make things look pretty, I was fairly certain it was from her. When I opened the box, I was greeted by a letterzine. featuring an apple with eyes, a Monty Python-style hand, a lovely statue, and some beautiful scenery on the cover.

Inside, every page was filled with interesting facts, pictures, stories, riddles, song lyrics, recommendations, quotations, and little notes from my friend, too!

You can see some sample pages near this text.

This is the second letterzine that   Kei has sent me; the first one was just as wonderful! However, she added an apple to the second one, so I have to like this one a little more. ;D

Both letterzines

Underneath the letter, there was a little trove of yet more wrapped-up treasures donning neon green question marks!

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There was an array of varied lovely things contained inside. Plus, each little parcel wasn't sealed with tape or anything like that, so I didn't have to rip the paper, which made me happy! (I have a strange dislike of ripping the paper open on presents if I can avoid it). 

Presents!

I named the two monster puppets in the bottom left Oswald & Edward, because one is red with a purplish tinge and the other is a sort of green colour. And because they're villains. :P

One of the presents was giant pencil made from the twig of a tree, but it isn't in the picture above. Do you know why? This is why:

I told you, they're V I L L A I N S.

My friend sent me villains in a box. Thanks, friend!

Perhaps I shall have to reciprocate the favour and send some little villains back to her sometime soon!

Birthday Babble

Vegan birthday cake

It was my birthday on September 29th and, although I didn't do anything out of the ordinary for it, I still had a fun day!

The picture above is of a my birthday cake, which was of the dark chocolate variety. I'm not usually a fan of cake, but my mother made that one for me and it was both vegan and had a third of the sugar of usual cake recipes, so this one was nice! (Of course, my housemate and my mother also enjoyed eating it too, haha). 

As well as the delicious cake, my mother also gave me these fantastic presents:

"Fangs" the bat and some make-up

Very pleased to have them! ♥

As I mentioned in this post, my housemate already gave me one of my presents early, but on my birthday he also surprised me with Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection too!

This collection includes:
Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Plus:
Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel
Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel

I didn't have this collection before, only the original games, so this was a great gift! :D

Also, lots of other lovely people took the time to wish me happy birthday and a friend from Germany even sang 'Happy Birthday' in a video to me, which made me smile! I also received other creative presents this year as well! 

'Floating Under a Full Moon' by Kei

Firstly, Kei drew me a picture of two of my favourite characters: Clear (Dramatical Murder) and Tretij Rebenok (MGS V: The Phantom Pain. AKA Psycho Mantis, from MGS/MGS4, when he was a kid). What can I say? My tastes in VN/games are somewhat varied, but in the end, I guess I just like characters in gas masks or something. Haha. Anyway, I am really grateful for this present, as it must have taken a lot of time and effort. Especially considering that she doesn't even play the MGS series at all and didn't really know what Tretij Rebenok looked like before attempting this. I think it came out wonderfully! :D

The next creative present that was given to me was from my friend Joseph, who made an animated video for the intro of a song called 'Innocence and the Angel'. The song is by a music project that another friend and I used to do (we're taking a break from it at the moment), so it had more of a personal meaning.  

Innocence & the Angel - opening from Joseph L. on Vimeo. Again, the amount of time and effort that went into this present astounds me and I'm really thankful that he took the time to make it for me. I love it! ♥

I spent the rest of my birthday with my lovely housemate watching cheesy horror/sci-fi films, laughing at silly things, and playing MGSV:TPP. Honestly, it was a wonderful day/night!

An Unexpectedly Noizy Present

Noiz is distressed...maybe

This morning, my best friend/housemate put a box wrapped in dinosaur-themed paper next to me and motioned for me to open it. As it's my birthday quite soon I wondered if he'd simply gotten the dates mixed up. He told me that since he'd had his present early, that he wanted me to have mine early too and so, naturally, opening commenced! Haha. Inside the box I found...

365 Days of Art: Presents

242. Presents.

Today's 365 Days of Art piece is under the theme of Presents. From such a distance, don't the stars resemble shreds of glimmering wrapping paper, in which the Universe can hide its secrets?

Next up on my 356 Days of Art list:

The Post of Christmas

Lego Pierrot & Vanilla & Macadamia Nut Lip Butter

I'm not religious, and so today was the day of gift exchanging. Honestly though, I exchanged presents with people yesterday. The large majority of my family lives hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from me, so I spent yesterday with a my mother and a friend of mine (and my five cats :D). I cooked a vegan Christmas dinner for the three of us, and it was a pleasant time!

The presents I received were:

• Lego Pierrot (I collect Pierrot-related items)
• DMMd manga vol. 1&2
• DMMd Yonkoma Anthology
• Vanilla & Macadamia Nut Lip Butter
• Merry Moos Selection Box
• Hallowen Coins
• Booja Booja Truffle Selection No. 2
• Neon yellow ankle socks

Merry Moos, Hallowen Coins, Booja Booja Truffle Selection No. 2

DMMd Manga Vol. 1 & 2

Neon Yellow Ankle Socks & the DMMd Yonkoma Anthology

Ah, I am a very lucky person! (Also, just in case you were wondering, the yellow socks were a joke present from my friend, relating to one of the characters from DMMd, haha). I also spent today with said friend, and a lovely time was had. Hurrah~!

Hopefully all of you had a fun holiday time as well! :)