This month I'm using my blog quite differently from usual. Since most of March
was taken up by my trip to Japan (and a single day in Korea), instead of a
roundup post, I'm going to make several smaller vacation recap posts 😄 Think of
it like a digital photo album, with lots of images and short notes that allow
you to experience my journey, or even imagine your own future visit to Japan!
First, a little background information. My husband, Sean, and I were
originally planning to attend the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I had started saving up
ever since the Rio Olympics closing ceremonies, where Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe emerged from a green pipe dressed as Mario ❤️ But, of course, those plans
were destroyed (with some false hope in between) by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even the replacement trip we decided on, a cruise around Japan in 2022, was
cancelled for the same reason. But happily, the replacement for our
replacement wasn't cancelled, and we got to have the most awesome adventure of
our lives so far~!
Now begins a multi-post account of my three weeks in Japan! Please enjoy!
13-14 March 2023 - Traveling from Boise to Osaka
We didn't realize it would be like this, so it was an exhausting surprise to
find our total awake time (not including naps on flights) ended up being over
24 hours, starting from waking up in the early morning on the 13th at home in
Boise, and ending when we finally got to enter our hotel room in Osaka in the
evening on the 14th 😅 The travel itself was great, we flew Delta One across
the Pacific, which was sooo nice, especially since my last trip to Japan was
via the cheapest seats, so I already had the least comfortable experience in
memory as comparison. But I didn't expect to be so tired on my first day in
Japan!
Me and Sean on the plane from Boise to Seattle.
My Delta One seat on the flight from Seattle to Tokyo.
I've never flown so fancy before~ The seat lays down into a bed!
As soon as you're seated, the first drinks service begins! We chose
orange juice 🍊
All strapped in and ready for takeoff!
Included with this seat was a care packet containing an eye mask, ear
plugs, hand cream, lip balm, toothbrush and paste, and an eco-conscious
pen.
It also came with slippers, headphones (for use with the built-in media
system), and a bottle of water 😊 All needs accounted for!
The media system was so cool! Not only could you watch movies, listen to
music, or the like, you could see all kinds of data and visualizations
of the flight itself and its progress 🤩
The first movie I decided to watch was Spaceballs, a childhood
favorite! I'd actually been wanting to rewatch it for a while and I was
pleased to find it just as laugh-out-loud funny as ever 😂
My vegan breakfast at the end of the flight was delicious!
I didn't have enough time to watch the whole thing, but the second movie
I chose was The Last Samurai, another long-time favorite. Again,
I was pleased to find it just as good as I remembered 🥹
We safely landed at Tokyo International Airport, and when I was allowed
to turn off airplane mode on my phone, it officially became Tuesday
afternoon for me! We skipped a bunch of time when we crossed the
International Date Line; it was only just after midnight back at
home.
The sunset was beautiful on the plane ride to Osaka~
Gorgeous twilight aerial view of Osaka 🌇
We stayed the first night at the Hyatt Regency Osaka, a very nice
hotel!
The best everyday part of Japan is the toilets 🤩🚽✨ Almost all
have a "washlet" with various features such as a bidet, privacy sounds
(so you can poop with other people nearby and not feel self-conscious! I
loved it!!!), heated seat, etc. I want one at home...
Was so nice to go to sleep in a comfy bed after over 24 hours of travel.
I had zero jet lag because I managed to stay up until a normal bed time
😌💤
That's it for the first day of our journey! Next time I will cover our morning
exploring around the hotel in Osaka
and boarding our cruise ship, the Silver Muse. Please look forward to it!
I'm sitting in my garden floor studio, dressed for my lunchtime workout, with
the space heater going because I finally got cold. It's surprisingly bright
outside, so I have my curtains closed, even though I'd like to look out and
see if it starts to snow. Last night's weather forecast predicted snow by this
evening ☃️ I hope that prediction comes true!
February went really well for Studio Mikarts. Progress in all areas, no major
hiccups, just smooth sailing~ I have lots of cool updates to share and news
about upcoming plans, so let's begin!
Patreon Rewards
February was the first time I've printed Patreon rewards in-house. I used the
same type of paper that I already use for full-size prints, Red River Paper's
Aurora Art Natural, and the same archival printer, my Epson
Expression Photo. The reward pictured here is my Winter Gryphon illustration. As you can see,
printing went well, so I'll continue printing all rewards in-house for the
foreseeable future. Sign up to get monthly Patreon rewards from Studio Mikarts
here! You
can choose from a single postcard, a pack of three postcards, a full-size
print, or a print and three postcards 😄
I have some exciting news to share about deviantART! After nearly 20 years
using the site, I finally made something that earned a Daily Deviation!
🎊😄🎉✨ For anyone who doesn't know what a Daily Deviation (DD for short) is,
it's the prominent featuring of a user's submission by a deviantART official.
I've always wanted to be chosen, but I never caught anyone's eye until now. Is
it a coincidence that the selected piece was made during my first year after
graduating from art school? Maybe, maybe not!
Gryphia Progress
I've continued working through my previous notes to prepare for planning
chapter eight and beyond. It's taking a surprising amount of time; I have a
lot of notes! But I think it's time well-spent, since I've rediscovered old
ideas that fit wonderfully, and remembered previous elements that I don't want
to forget to address before the story ends. Progress slowed as the month wore
on, because I began using my writing time to prepare for my trip to Japan (in
less than a week!) but small steps still move one forward, so that's all that
matters 😊
Art Livestreaming
I had an excellent month of livestreaming, as usual! I've continued my January
schedule, with Inktober52 on Monday, Wednesday Lucky Dips, and Chibi Fridays.
I created so much work on stream in February it was hard to decide which piece
to feature here, so I just chose the final piece I made. It's a sparrow +
shiba inu gryphon, in response to the Inktober52 prompt: pup 🐶
Click here
to check out my livestreaming schedule and, while you're there, don't forget
follow me to get notifications whenever I go live!
Charity Fundraising
My featured charity in February was
The Rat Retreat,
an Idaho-based organization that provides good homes to rats and educates the
public about these sweet, intelligent, misunderstood beings. My monthly
donation is always decided by the number of unique viewers on Twitch; I donate
$0.10 USD per viewer, with a minimum of $10 and a max of $100. Nine viewers in
February equals a $10 donation!
Since I'll be on vacation (sailing around Japan!) for four weeks starting
mid-March, my next featured charity shall use both March and April's streaming
stats. Since March is Women's History Month in my country, I chose
RedRover as my next
featured charity, because one of the things they do is help people who are
escaping abusive homes bring their pets with them. Women are
disproportionately victims of domestic abuse
and too few shelters accept pets,
who are often victims themselves, so I hope my donation at the end of April will help both women and their
beloved pets!
Mika's Monthly...
Here are my recommendations in a variety of categories for things that made my
February healthy, fun, and awesome! As always, I am not being compensated in
any way, I just legitimately love these things and hope you'll give them a
try, too 😄
...Workout 💃 After recovering from a triceps injury I sustained at
the beginning of the year (like, literally on January 1st 😅) in February I was
finally able to resume playing
Zumba: Burn it Up!
on my Nintendo Switch! This game is super fun, I love the music selection, and
there's not a huge emphasis on getting the dance moves exactly right. The game
part just seems to care whether you're moving to the beat, so it's really easy
to get into the game even if you have no dance experience! I decided to add
dancing to my workout routine after watching a documentary that suggested
exercise that also engages your brain in learning is overall more effective. Whether that's true or not, dancing is fun, so Zumba is
remaining a staple in my routine!
— Studio Mikarts - Denise みか Hutchins (@StudioMikarts)
February 28, 2023
...Vegan Victuals 💝 For Valentine's Day, my husband got me a box of
No Whey! Truffles
😍 This brand is awesome because not only are their chocolates absolutely
scrumptious, they're vegan! I am happy any time there's an excuse to eat their
tasty treats!
...Book 📕 The one book I finished in February was Andy Serkis'
audiobook reading of
The Fellowship of the Ring,
but even if I had finished some of the other books I'm currently reading, this
still would have been my top recommendation for the month. As I state in
my StoryGraph review, Andy Serkis doesn't just read the book, he gives a performance!
...Show 📺 I started rewatching one of my favorite anime of all time
last month:
Natsume Yuujinchou. It's generally a monster-of-the-week style show featuring a boy in high
school who can see youkai (a kind of Japanese spirits/monsters). His ability
causes him all kinds of trouble, worst of all social isolation and difficulty
finding a place to safely be, both socially and physically. It's usually a
bittersweet show (almost every episode makes me cry, no matter how many times
I watch it!) but it also has some very dark and creepy moments, plus a healthy
dose of cuteness and humor. Although the show doesn't directly address these
topics, it nevertheless makes me think deeply about relationships, mental
health, and how difficult it is for everyone to navigate the world, whatever
their circumstances.
...Game 🎮
A Little to the Left
is a game I instantly wanted ever since I saw it in a Nintendo Direct last
year. Happily, one of my friends gave me a Nintendo gift card for Christmas,
so of course I bought this gem immediately! It's a super chill and cozy puzzle
and organization game. Many puzzles have multiple correct solutions and
there's a Daily Tidy challenge, so even though the main game (which has a
surprisingly touching ending!) doesn't take long to get through, the replay
value is still rather high 😊 I've been playing every day to unlock all the
Daily Tidy badges!
— Studio Mikarts - Denise みか Hutchins (@StudioMikarts)
December 30, 2022
...Music 🎧 I discovered something amazing in February: several of my
favorite video games have soundtracks and other albums available on Spotify!
This inspired me to create a new playlist called
Mika's Instrumental Game Favorites 🎻
and I've been listening to it virtually every day since. It's got a lot of
calm, peaceful tracks from Okami and Ace Attorney but also some more peppy,
rocking tracks from Sonic Adventure. Either way it makes for nice background
music for all kinds of activities throughout the day (I've been listening
especially at shower time!).
So that's it for February's roundup! In the week since I started writing, it's
snowed multiple times and it looks like it's trying to come down again as I
type 😄🌨️ There are only a few days left before I depart for Japan 🎌 Half of
March will be taken up by this adventure, and I intend to make lots of plein
air drawings and paintings while I'm there! I think that will make next
month's roundup quite different and interesting. Please look forward to it!
Until then, may you be safe, happy, and well ❤️
I can't believe January passed so quickly! And we're already entering the
second week of February! It even seems like spring is stepping in early. It's
getting much warmer during the day, lots of (dratted) sunshine between rainy
spells (all of which seem to happen when I'm not available to enjoy them!),
and no fresh snow for weeks. I'm not sure I'm ready for winter to be over. I
would have liked more snow! But next month I'll be at sea for a couple weeks,
cruising around Japan, so warmer weather would be welcome then 😊
This will be my second month composing a roundup post using my new guidelines
(one image and paragraph per section, condensing my recommendations into a
short bullet list, etc.). I received positive feedback on
last month's entry, so I hope you will enjoy this one, too!
Patreon Rewards
Chibi Tanuki rewards were mailed in January! These were the final rewards to
be printed by a third-party print shop. The costs were spiraling out of
control, so I decided to start printing in-house! I have recently settled on
and ordered the paper, Red River Paper's
Aurora Art Natural 300, which is the thicker version of the paper I already use for my giclée print
reproductions. I'll also be using the same archival inks, as well, which means
both my postcard and print rewards will be museum-quality reproductions!
Please
sign up here to become a patron
and support my work 🥰
deviantART: Spring Gryphon
I'm still playing catch-up with
deviantART, so I've uploaded several older pieces recently, all from 2022. It's
exciting because this is the closest to caught-up I've been since I resumed
posting there! The image I'd like to feature this time is my Spring Gryphon,
which was completed last summer (I tried for spring but took too long 😅) as a
seasonal greeting card. It's the first of four images I'm making that
represent the seasons with a plant and a naturalistically appropriate gryphon.
For spring I chose sakura, and the gryphon is a combination of a mejiro bird
and momonga flying squirrel 🌸 You can purchase print-on-demand products
featuring this Spring Gryphon on
my Fine Art America shop.
Gryphia Progress
Progress on my first draft continues at an even keel. I finished up chapter
seven and started brainstorming for chapter eight (and beyond) in January.
Since I'm now close to entering the final stages of the story, I decided to
reread all my notes up until now, to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything
that I wanted to include, and to create new ideas by combining my old thoughts
with what has actually been written, which is often quite different! It's an
exciting stage!
Art Livestreaming
My Twitch streams
have gone great so far this year, including the addition of a Monday stream
during which I tackle the Inktober52 weekly prompt. One of my favorite
projects in January was a chibi caricature of my pet pigeon, Sora. She's
already cute enough in real life, but I think I managed to make her even cuter
in chibi form 🥰
Click here
to check out my livestreaming schedule, sign up for go-live notifications, and
join me for a chat while I work!
Charity Fundraising
My charity for January was
Veganuary, an
organization which helps people try a compassionate, vegan lifestyle by
running a challenge every January. They send out recipes, transition tips,
data about the positive impact veganism has, and plain ol' encouragement,
every day of the challenge. It's a very fun and inspiring event!
In January, I had 13 unique viewers during my Twitch streams, which translates
into a $10 donation to Veganuary! Happily, it turned out that there was a 2x
donation match in place, so this donation was essentially doubled to $20!
Usually this is all I have to say about charity donations in a month, but
there was another exciting moment in January! The Twitch fundraising goal I
had going for
The Protego Foundation
was completely met by a single viewer, SarahQuilt (my best friend for over two
decades ❤️), so even more funds are going toward helping animals! Thank you,
Sarah~!!!
For February, I have chosen
The Rat Retreat
as my featured charity. They help find good homes for and educate the public
about these misunderstood, oft-ill-treated, but lovable beings. I have a
special place in my heart for rats; in my 20s, I cared for three sisters, whom
I adopted from my local shelter, for their entire lives. Minerva, Bathilda,
and Nymphadora~ They were so sweet and fun and smart ❤️ I'm looking forward to
making a donation that will help more rats have long, healthy, happy lives!
Mika's Monthly...
Here are my monthly recommendations! I hope you'll give some of them a try 😊
As usual, I am not being compensated for these promotions, they're all things
I legit want to share because I love them!
...Workout 🧘♀️
Yoga Master
is the fitness game I use the most. Every workday morning, I wake up and
stretch out with one of my custom programs. The nice thing about the game is
that you don't have to actually play it like a game. For me that made it
stressful, rather than relaxing, so I turned off the scoring system and began
using it more like a video yoga program, but one I can always customize to my
liking!
...Vegan Victuals 🍽️
Nuggs are one of the very
first vegan chicken nugget alternatives I ever ate. They are SO GOOD. My
favorite is the spicy version, dipped in homemade vegan ranch 🤤 OMG I am
seriously salivating now, just thinking about their crispy breading and tender
insides~ They are pictured below alongside
Wholly Veggie Mozzarella Style Sticks, which are also incredibly delicious!
...Book 📖
Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice
by Colum McCann was the first book I finished reading this year. It was my
writing-time companion for several months, and although it didn't always quite
reach me, it still said the right things so often that I'm keeping it in my
writing-time rotation (I usually warm up for writing by reading about
writing!). You can read my brief review
here.
...Show 📺 In January I rewatched all of the My Hero Academia movies. I
found the first one just as awesome as I remembered, the second one both
awesome and silly (a little overwrought, lol), but the third one struck me so
much more powerfully! I had seen it a couple times before, but until now, I
always felt it was on even footing with its siblings. This time,
World Heroes' Mission
took an indisputable first place (see what I did there? No? Bakugo quote 😉)
in my personal ranking. My experience with anime movies generally has been so
mixed; too often they just get worse the more that are made; not so with My
Hero Academia 💖 (Also, I am again obsessed with Rody Soul 😍)
...Game 🎮 I made it my goal for 2023 to spend at least one hour every
day playing
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and I don't regret it one bit! It's the type of game you can play for a
just short while, or easily sink several hours into without getting bored,
which makes it both a good workday stress-buster and weekend chillout. By
playing every day this year, I hope to enjoy all the seasonal events, collect
all the items (like art for the museum!), and finally feel like I did all the
things 😊✨ This goal is helping very much with growing my self-compassion and
stabilizing my mental health. I have historically been a perfectionist and
workaholic. Making it a goal to play video games every day challenges
my inner critic, who tries to tell me I'm just being lazy, and gives me time
to recharge properly so that I can go to work the next day feeling my best!
— Studio Mikarts - Denise みか Hutchins (@StudioMikarts)
January 31, 2023
...Music 🎧 I've been following
Wagakki Band since
their first album in 2014, which was comprised of Vocaloid covers using a
combination of traditional Japanese instruments (wagakki) and those you'd find
in a typical rock band. It was the perfect mashup for me, since I loved that
sound ever since Naruto (and its background music) first came out 😍 They're
one of the few bands from whom I actually buy all the main albums, and I
finally opened my copy their most recent release in January, which is
excitingly their second Vocaloid cover album! It's
streaming on Spotify
so you may not have to go so far as to import the physical album to enjoy
these fresh tracks~
Other News: Focus Retreat Center Story
The news story for which I was interviewed back in October, during the
Inktober retreat in Malone, New York
has been released at last, and some of my interview made the cut! Half of my
bit is just me being cheeky, but you can also hear my excitement about how the
retreat helped me complete all 31 drawings for Inktober for the first time
ever!
Click here to listen to the story online.
It's the entire news program, so to get to the segment about the Focus Retreat
Center, skip forward to 19:29 (min:sec) or if you just want to get to my
soundbite, skip to 23:02 😎
That's all I have for you this month. 2023 has gotten off to a great start for
me, and I hope it is the same for you! Even if not, I hope the year continues
to get better and better for all of us~ I'll be back next month with
February's roundup. Until then, may you be happy, healthy, and safe ❤️
It's a fabulously cloudy morning as I begin typing this. My favorite kind of
weather (if it's not going to properly rain, snow, or storm!) ☁️ I'm listening
to the Disney Goes Classical album that Spotify recommended to me; it
starts out with the overture from Mary Poppins, so I've got goosebumps all
over, ha ha.
I'm trying something different in 2023 with these roundup posts. (Happy New
Year, by the way! 🎆) They've been taking far too long to compose, so I'm
limiting how much I write and how many photos I post for each topic. I hope
that not only will this allow me to share the same ideas in less time (time
that could be spent creating new stories in word and image!) but that you, my
readers, will enjoy the faster clip, as well. That said, let's try it out!
Patreon Rewards
I sent the rest of the six Inktober rewards in December 😄 You can
read more about it on Patreon. And if you'd like to get my illustrations in your mailbox, you can sign up
there, too! You can choose between a monthly postcard, a set of three
postcards, a print, or a print AND three postcards. Patrons don't just get
rewards, they are directly funding my storytelling work! They are truly
members of Studio Mikarts and my most precious audience 🥰
I'm only a year behind on posting to dA now! 😂 I've uploaded several pieces
from 2022 recently, but this is my proudest, my birthday gryphon illustration.
I'm still sending this one out as a birthday card to friends and family
through the first half of this year. I plan to create a new birthday card
illustration at around the same time of year as this one was done. Then my
people will all receive the new design on their special days 😊 You can buy
this as a greeting card, print, or dozens of other things on
Fine Art America. Birthday shower curtain, anyone?
Gryphia Progress
It may not seem like much, but I'm actually quite proud of the two days'
writing work I managed to squeeze in during December's holiday and birthday
madness (I have six birthdays to celebrate! 🥳). To be honest, I was really
struggling mentally with everything I had to do. So being able to sit down, two
mornings in a row, and make good progress on chapter seven was a huge win! I
don't have any major interruptions to my regular schedule until March, so I'm
looking forward to finishing up this roundup post and getting back to writing my
novel!
Art Livestreaming
This is another area where I was proud of myself for keeping up with it during
the end-of-year madness. It would have only been too easy to just give up and
take the whole month off. That is to say, it would have been easy if
livestreaming was still as disheartening as it was a few months ago. Things
had changed by the beginning of December. I have been honored for months now
by a dedicated viewer (hello, Exie~!!) who I look forward to chatting with
every stream, and I was shocked to be notified that I qualified for Twitch
Affiliate status, as well!
Being offered affiliate was not only a boost to my confidence--an affirmation
that I've been doing the right things in my off-beat way--but I had two folks
subscribe to my channel on my very first affiliate stream 🥰💕 I'm so glad I
stuck to it when things were looking so bleak mid-year; now I'm looking
forward to growing my channel and sharing my art with more people!
Charity Fundraising
My featured charity in December was The Protego Foundation. I had only
recently learned of their work using the power of the Harry Potter fandom to
encourage positive change for animals through veganism (from the Harry Potter
Vegan Cookbook!
which I reviewed in November) and because Harry Potter always comes to my mind during the holiday season,
it seemed like a great fit.
My fundraising challenge uses the number of unique viewers per month to
determine how much I will donate. I give $0.10 USD per viewer, with a minimum
of $10 and a max of $100. I had 15 unique viewers in December, so I made a $10
donation to The Protego Foundation!
Mika's Monthly...
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, I'm trying something new in my
presentation of these roundups. I considered cutting this section altogether,
but I like giving these recommendations, not only as a way to share what's
been going on in my life, but because I think they could inspire and enrich,
even lengthen, the creative lives of anyone who decides to try them. One's
creative life is not separate from everything else one does, after all! But I
want this blog to focus on my creative endeavors, and until now, these
recommendations were taking half the time and space--a bit too much. I hope
this new presentation will work better all around 😊
As always, I'm not in any way being compensated for these promotions, they're
just honest recommendations from me ❤️
...Workout 🏃♀️ I finished the YMCA Christmas Run again this year.
Running is such an easy sport to get into, and it's a full-body workout, so
you get a lot of bang for your buck. There's nothing so fun as running a
themed race with a few hundred (or thousand!) other people!
...Vegan Victuals 🌮 Try the "Taco Bell Cheesy Gordita Crunch" recipe
from the
Vegan Fast Food
cookbook (which I happily received for Christmas). So good my mouth is
watering just remembering these amazing tacos 🤤
Mmm...soft crunchy vegan tacos...
...Book 🐲
The Hobbit audiobook
as read by Andy Serkis. This is my favorite book of all time to start, then
adding Andy Serkis's excellent narration, let's just say I started his reading
of The Fellowship of the Ring immediately after! You can read my full
review (which is relatively short)
here on The StoryGraph.
...Show 🤶
The Santa Clauses
on Disney+ was pleasantly surprising! I grew up watching
The Santa Clause, and I still watch it every year, but I have a
well-founded distrust of sequels made decades later. This show therefore
exceeded my expectations, didn't disappoint in the least; it was hilarious,
wacky, and magical. I'll definitely be watching it again next holiday
season!
...Game 🤓 My husband had
kickstarted this game
and received it in October, but it wasn't until December that we finally
played it. Um, Actually... The Game of Nerdy Corrections is a hilarious
game that we played with my siblings during the holidays and it was
enthusiastically requested multiple times. It's a great party game--pure fun,
no stress--that I think anyone will enjoy!
...Music 🎄 It's out of season now, but all month I listened almost
exclusively to my new
Christmas favorites playlist on Spotify. It's full of the Christmas albums and soundtracks that I absolutely love. I
recommend listening straight through (not on shuffle) because one album is a
reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Other News: 2023 Goals
Finally, I'd like to share with you the goals I set for myself on January 1st
this year (using my Jibun Techo planner, which is new to and absolutely
perfect for me~) both as a topic of interest and as a form of accountability!
I will check in at the end of the year and report on how things went 😊
Career🎨 I will create 12 new, large, full-color
illustrations.
Education 💮 I will sit and pass the JLPT N2 exam.
Finances 💸 I will make, rather than buy, birthday & holiday
gifts.
Health 💤 I will go to bed on time on work nights.
Hobbies 🎮 I will play Animal Crossing every day.
Travel 🛳️ I will cruise around Japan with my husband.
Family 👩🍳 I will host seasonal family dinners.
Relationships 💌 I will send a card or letter every week.
Reading 📚 I will read & review at least 26 books.
And that's it for December's roundup! It only took me half the time it usually
does, so I'm rather looking forward to checking in again next month, and
sharing all the progress I'll be making in my creative career journey. Thank
you for reading! 🥰
