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*MY WEEK WAS VERY UNEVENTFUL. THIS IS ALL I GOT*

At the beginning of May, I found a video on my TikTok for you page that I thought was very cute. Somebody had a small business where they had a monthly postcard for $7 a month. Each month, you’d get sent a postcard + some additional goodies (stickers, a keychain, handmade jewelry, etc). I wanted to sign up really badly. Who wouldn’t want something fun delivered in the mail every month?

After waiting a few days, the postcard subscription was still on my mind, so I decided to sign up for it. Unfortunately, when I signed up, I was going to me moving apartments in the next few weeks, so I knew I had to update my address for the subscription. I sent out an email with my new address and waited patiently for my mail. Once June hit, I was starting to worry (each monthly postcard gets delivered around the end of each month). After a few weeks I assumed it got sent to the wrong address, so I started to get excited for the June postcard instead.

After some time, my June postcard never appeared in my P.O. box. I started to wonder if my address never got changed. I sent out another email, and a response quickly followed. A replacement for May and June would be sent as soon as possible to the right address.

Today was the day my May postcard came in the mail! In addition to the postcard, I got a sticker, a dragonfly keychain, and a little bag of wildflower seeds. Im still thinking of where I want to plant my seeds, but I’m super excited! Hopefully my June postcard arrives within the next few days!

Aside from designing a few bumper stickers here and there, Diamond Nails is my second project (my Animal Crossing guide being my first). I finished my price sheet and I made a loyalty card. The loyalty card is most likely finished, too, but I still want to give it another look and do some final touches with it.

I was going to have the large diamond graphic in the pricing guide, but it looked funny wherever I put it, so I decided to have it on the card instead! This was kind of a last minute flash project, so there’s still a few finishing touches I could add to it if I really wanted to.

My pricing sheet is 99.9% done in my eyes. Theres a little bit of awkward space where there isn’t any text, but adding something there wouldn’t add anything useful to the overall design. I could maybe center align the logo and text at the bottom if I wanted to, and I could capitalize the body text. Other than that, I really like how it looks! If I want to continue the imaginary nail salon content, I could even design an entire website or a fake instagram page!

After being sick for most of the week, I finally had enough energy this weekend to start working on a project I thought of. I wanted to create an imaginary nail salon and design a price menu and punch card. My fake salon was called “Diamond Nails”. I haven’t made a lot of design projects this summer, but I’m trying not to be too hard on myself over it. I don’t have as much free time to design anything, and I don’t always feel like making anything with the time I have. I think of a lot of ideas for projects, but most of my ideas don’t reach my software.

My roommate and I also made insence holders out of clay! I made mine with Pumpkin’s paw print stamped on it. It took a few tries to get the perfect paw print, though. We also had to trim her claws which was a struggle.

My Animal Crossing town has also made a lot of progress! The police station was built, one of the stores on main street expanded, and a new hair salon opened! I also did a tiny bit of landscaping and planted different flowers around each villager’s house.

I had a pretty fun and productive week, and I hope I can do the same next week!

All of my previous orders shipped by USPS have arrived on time, so when my package was marked as delivered but nowhere to be found, it was obviously a little bit concerning. My package was delivered, but where was it?

I checked my PO box and the area around it, but it wasn’t there. My roommate and I checked all possible entrances, and still nothing. We even checked the other side of the apartments at their P.O. boxes, and STILL nothing. We even looked at the security footage. Nobody was at the apartment at the time when my package was supposedly delivered (which was 12:47 PM). Later that day, I decided to go on an adventure to the USPS distribution center.

At the center, my package was nowhere to be found, but I received a friendly suggestion to go to the post office downtown where they sent the package to. All of the packages from the 57107 get sent from the distribution center to downtown, so my package could possibly there. I took another 15 minute drive across town and reached my destination.

Once I made it to the post office, they were about to close, so there wasn’t anything they could to to help. All I could to was wait until the next morning and come back and pay for parking for a second time.

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I got ready and went back to the post office, and I was told my package was delivered to the wrong spot. The most I could do was wait until a different driver could go and retrieve my package. On my way home I was left a voicemail from the post office saying that the driver on route today would retrieve my missing package and deliver it to the right location.

Later that day, my package was delivered! Going on a wild goose chase was worth it! I wouldn’t normally complain about bad luck two times in a row on my blog posts, but this was the most interesting thing that happened to me all week. Hopefully next week goes a little smoother.

Since I moved apartments last month, I wanted to decorate my new space. I wanted to cover one of my walls with posters, but I didn’t want to spent $5-10+ per poster. I went on the FedEx website because you can order prints for less than a dollar each. I went on Pinterest and found what I wanted to have printed out, and made sure the resolution was high enough for print. To make saving all of my images easier, I made a new photoshop sequence so I could save my posters faster. Once my images were CMYK and 300ppi, I uploaded my images. I ordered 13 small posters for $13!

A few days ago, I got a call from an unknown number. Before I called back, I searched the number. It was the FedEx office where I was supposed to pick up my print order. Weird, right? I called back and apparently, they didn’t receive my order as soon as I placed it. They got my order a couple days late, and none of the files showed up on my order! I could either refund my order, or go to the office and give them my files.

I didn’t have work yesterday, so I stopped by the office with my files on an SD card. I was originally supposed to pick up my order that day, but due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to change my plans. I thought they’d print my files right away, but I had to wait until this morning to pick them up.

As soon as I got up this morning, I went to pick up my order. Once I picked it up I immediately got to putting them up on my wall. I already have some posters on my wall, but they don’t cover the entire space. I trimmed the posters up and now almost my whole wall is covered! It took a while to rearrange my wall, but I really like how it looks!

I’ve also started designing a few bumper stickers. I know it would be better if I made projects that were a little more practical, but I’m just glad I’m not in a creative block anymore. I’m slowly thinking of more and more ideas!

Since I’ve been working more this summer, I haven’t had as much time to mess around in my software. When I went home last week, I started making a poster, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t have a plan sketched out at all, and a lot of my time in the software was spent finding the right placements for everything.

I wanted to keep all the information I needed on one page, but there was still a few things I had to leave out to save space. For the Special Flowers section, I wanted to add photos, but there wouldn’t be a way to add them without having my text fit on the page.

My biggest issue was figuring out what I wanted my margins to be. I had them at half an inch, but changed them to a quarter inch. Both bothered me because I felt like something was missing from the design. I added the boarder for decorative reasons, but I feel like it gives the design a good box to fit into. It doesn’t look like it’s floating in empty space anymore.

Hopefully I stick to making a project every week or two so I don’t lose any of my software skills. I already have an idea on what I wanna make next!

I had a hair appointment scheduled for this Friday, so I decided to take a few days off work to spend time with my parents. The hair salon I go to is back at home, so I have to drive an hour and a half to get there. Driving for a total of three hours just for a hair appointment seems wasteful, so I got the most of my visit by spending a few days down in Iowa. It’s also Tulip Festival weekend, so carnival rides, food stands, and craft vendors were all outside. My best friend and I were going to together but she had a last minute problem come up, so I enjoyed everything by myself.

My mom and I went down to Omaha on Thursday because she took the day off work, so we went on a shopping trip. I definitely didn’t need to spend the money because I went shopping the week before, but it doesn’t matter because I’ll make it back eventually. My hair appointment the next day was a little over $100, so I made a significant dent in my bank account in 2 days.

My Animal Crossing town progression has slowed down. My hours basically doubled this summer, so I haven’t had as much time to play. I also recently moved apartments, so all of my days off last week were spent packing my things and moving them a few hundred feet across the hallway (I’m living on campus for the summer, and I moved a few doors down).

While my town was left unattended, my flower garden became overgrown and a shoe store opened up. Once I started playing again, I discovered that I had one million bells (Animal Crossing currency) saved in my bank account. To get my town up and running again, I’ve started to do some landscaping and start fundraising for a police station. I don’t know what the police station will add to my town, but it’ll make my approval score higher.

I’ve also started to design my own flower guide for the game. It’s still a work in progress, but once it’s done it’ll definitely be posted!

Two years ago, I was hopelessly scrambling around Target to find my mom a gift. I found a ceramic garden gnome and a little set of paints together in a kit. I was able to paint my own gnome! I decided then and there that I was going to paint my mom a gnome…which I did the year after, too. I wanted to make it a little tradition that I would give my mom a gnome every year for Mother’s Day.

Last week, I made the trip to Target hoping to find what I was looking for, but I was left with nothing. This year, I decided to buy a canvas and use my oil pastels to draw her a gnome. I would write a heartfelt note on the back of the canvas, and it would be the perfect Mother’s Day gift!

It’s not the most glamorous handmade gift, but the thought behind it is cute! She’ll still like it because her own kid made it.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released in the summer of 2013, when I was 8 years old. I don’t remember when I got the game, but I’ve been playing it for a long time. When I was 10 years old, I wanted an iPod instead. My mom said she would get me one for my birthday if I got rid of my 3DS. She said I didn’t need that many electronics. I was heartbroken at the time, but I eventually forgot about it, until 4 years later.

During that time, I had a part-time job at a grocery store, giving me some disposable income. Using my own money, I made a purchase on eBay—a limited edition 3DS XL bundled with Animal Crossing pre-installed. The game card slot was broken, so I bought an identical console with a working game slot. Long story short, I somehow messed with the software and permanently deleted Animal Crossing from it, so I had to buy the game card. Since then, I’ve been through multiple towns and tons of different villagers. I would go through phases of playing for hours each day, and then forgetting about the game for months.

I found out how to hack my 3DS around 2 or three years ago. With a hacked console, you can download whatever themes you want for the home menu, and get any game you want for free. Hacking your console is surprisingly easy. All I had to do was put my console’s SD card into my computer, download a ton of files, and put them on the SD card. With a hacked 3DS, you can also use cheats in your Animal Crossing town. I found out how to do this recently, but all you do is search “ACNL Save Editor”, click the top search result, and drag a file from your SD card. After doing that, you have free reign of your town.

I recently started playing again because I was able to modify my town to my liking. I hacked my town and gave myself only cat villagers and moved their houses. You can do anything you want, but I’m keeping the cheating to a minimum because I still want to reach the big game milestones on my own.

I don’t know why I suddenly wanted to start playing again, but I’m determined to unlock all the stores, grow every rare flower, and have a perfect town. I never made it that far in the game when I was little, so doing it now feels like a major accomplishment for me now, and me 10 years ago. I’ll continue making both of us happy by playing one of my favorite games in the world!