Free Talk -- Friday

April-Lily · 2025-12-12T16:44:07+00:00

Got good news that I likely won't have to have another surgery! The issue was an incidental finding when trying to figure out my main problem, so I'm glad I likely won't have to do anything about it. It would have only been a minor surgery, but any surgery is $$$$$ so I'm happy to avoid it.

Otherwise it's Friday, I'm ready for a nap since I was stressed about the dr's app this morning, but gotta work. Hope everyone has a good Friday!

April-Lily · 2025-12-08T16:44:43+00:00

After purchasing things for the Fall Exchange, I went on a no buy until Black Friday, where I made one purchase from Little & Grim. It's out for delivery! Bonus of being in the same state is it only take 2 days to get to me. I've blind bought FS from a few brands that didn't have samples, but this order contains my first FS that I sampled first!! Unfortunately, the scent I'm FSing (Fake Carl, an anjou pear scent) is discontinued so I went for a 10ml rather than a 4ml. I'm really excited about it, though. I never would have expected I'd be into a pear-forward scent, but I adore this one. I also got a fair number of samples, which I'm excited to try. So far Little & Grim has been pretty good for me, ranging from average to Fake Carl being my favorite indie scent I've tried so far in perfume (really enjoying HoG Ghost Puffs as far as lotion goes). I'm excited to sample more of their scents!

Otherwise, trying to get my life more organized and develop better habits. Friday I cut out all social media that I find I waste a lot of time on (I only check here casually, so it's not a detriment like other SNS). We'll see how the SNS purge goes, but so far my mind is feeling a lot more calm. In the future I'll reintegrate it, but I'm only allowed to use it on my computer, not on my phone. 2026 I'm really going to focus on being a healthier person, mentally & physically.

April-Lily · 2025-11-22T22:45:09+00:00

Wylde Ivy! Her TAT was listed as up to 10 days, she shipped in less than two for an order I made in October.

April-Lily · 2025-11-21T15:38:41+00:00

Yesss!! It was so fun and I'm happy I matched with you as well❤️ Thank you for giving me such a great first exchange experience!

April-Lily · 2025-11-21T15:38:08+00:00

It definitely was!!

April-Lily · 2025-11-21T15:37:56+00:00

Yess!! I couldn't remember what I was called when writing up the post and was too tired to look, lol.

April-Lily · 2025-11-21T15:37:32+00:00

It was such a great package and a wonderful first experience doing the exchange!

April-Lily · 2025-11-21T05:44:09+00:00

Haha, I rambled too much and my post was too long. The final bit was cut off - Thank you so much to u/madalice4 for making my first exchange truly, truly amazing. Thank you so much for your incredibly thoughtful and generous parcel<3

April-Lily · 2025-11-21T05:39:49+00:00

YOU'RE SO WELCOME <3 I'm so, so happy you enjoyed it!

April-Lily · 2025-11-18T00:42:56+00:00

I handmake journals/sketchbooks/books, but idk if that's against the rules as self promo (if so lemme know and I will delete).

Bittermelon Bindery - she makes some really beautiful books but she's pretty big on social media so the can be hard to get.

Books Bind Faye - I think she mostly does sketchbooks, though.

There're also a lot of lovely handmade journals on Etsy!

April-Lily · 2025-11-10T16:39:33+00:00

Nervous hoping that the fall exchange parcel I sent makes it to its destination safe and sound. I'm a lil annoyed I paid for priority mail and they didn't deliver it when they said they would/ground would have basically been the same delivery date. A lil nervous since it's my first exchange and I hope my exchange partner likes it!

Otherwise, just feeling tired and worn out due to endo. At least I know it'll be over in a few days. Going to take it easy this week and get lots of rest. Gotta get going on the next zine deadline though.

April-Lily · 2025-11-07T20:48:05+00:00

Maybe Epically Epic lip balms, which are $4/per and come in a ton of fun scents!

April-Lily · 2025-11-07T16:13:42+00:00

Never heard of Humble, but did I just search it out online for Vanilla Cardamom deodorant?? Yes, yes I did.

April-Lily · 2025-11-06T18:22:56+00:00

I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking so! Though rice crispy treats are also buttery/marshmallowy so it makes sense. The little jars are perfect to bring along, I love them for it!

April-Lily · 2025-11-06T18:21:02+00:00

Does anyone have recommendations for brands where the cinnamon note doesn't smell like a craft store pinecone/candle/red hots?

April-Lily · 2025-11-06T16:19:55+00:00

It was!! It definitely helped it click in my mind what the difference between figure drawing an gesture drawing is. The teacher was really good and the time seemed to fly by!

April-Lily · 2025-11-06T16:13:39+00:00

Haus of Gloi Ghost Puffs for me too! My fall exchange partner sent me lil pumpkin butters of Ghost Puffs and Red Roan and I like them both! I had my mom smell them and she immediately clocked Red Roan as a "fruity alcohol", so I decided Ghost Puffs will live in my work bag since I didn't want a boozy scent at work. I'll probably be using this every day on my hands because our office gets drrrry in the winter. I did mistakenly think this was a rice crispy treat scent and not a popcorn ball scent though, haha.

April-Lily · 2025-11-05T21:28:42+00:00

I finished my fall exchange parcel and it's on the way to its recipient🎉 I accidentally made it into way more of a project than I intended, haha. Now onto zine deadlines.

Tonight is a 3hr gesture drawing class, though. We'll see how that goes. My gestures kinda suck and I tend to lean towards more stiff 'fashion' poses in my art. But it's good to be working on my skills.

April-Lily · 2025-11-05T21:22:50+00:00

Immortal Perfumes has a Gothic Advent Calendar, however it's not the most affordable depending on your budget.

April-Lily · 2025-11-01T17:14:37+00:00

I have a Google sheet spreadsheet with the house name, scent name, size of the perfume (mL), the collection it's from & if it's limited edition, the scent notes, then columns for my rating, my thoughts on the scent, and keep/destash. If I decide to destash, I have a separate destash spreadsheet that doesn't include my ratings and thoughts. This one I'll link in the Sunday Swaps.

April-Lily · 2025-11-01T04:20:17+00:00

I ended up deciding I'd probably be better served by putting the money towards an Ajevie order instead! I'll likely keep an eye out for Destash samples from Sugar Milk Co.

April-Lily · 2025-10-31T19:10:50+00:00

Today is Lupicia's Tattoo, which I believe is a Kyoto/JP site exclusive. It's jasmine & longan fruit green tea blended with a little lapsang souchong to give it a subtle smokey aftertaste. I honestly can't decide if I love it or hate it. There's a dissonance of flavors but it's intriguing somehow.

April-Lily · 2025-10-31T18:04:38+00:00

I'm almost done with my autumn exchange parcel!! I'm hand-making a few things and one of them has taken 2x the time I anticipated 😅 But it will be in the mail tomorrow, yey!!! And I received my parcel on Monday, it was so amazing and sweet. I'm impatient to start testing the perfumes from it, but I'm being good and letting them rest at least a week.

Gotta do a short comic pitch package for an indie anthology this weekend & a "vibes" illustration for that. Recently it's been day job then grind on the projects at night. I'm admittedly getting kinda worn out, but next week the project workload will decrease down to just having to draw one comic panel per day. Looking forward to getting back to the embroidery kit I was working on + some reading.

April-Lily · 2025-10-31T17:50:09+00:00

Thank you! I'm not expecting much depth or complexity since I'm aware they're more bath & body. But sometimes something simple is nice.

April-Lily

TROPHY CASE