Good news everyone! 
My friend, who happens to work adjacent to a floral department, bought me three carnivorous plants. 
Not one! But three carnivorous plants. And boy are they cute. 

(Those weird white things are apple slices we put in there to attract the hoards of fruit flies in our kitchen. It isn't working.) 
We had to leave James and Nibbles in their pots, because they're going to be removed in November so they can hibernate. Grabby is a permanent resident of the terrarium, however. 
I'm sure that a pink-toed tarantula would also be permanent, too, if the one at my pet store hadn't been bought already. Foiled again! My dad was epically disappointed. I bought him a Halloween dog toy (fuzzy black and pink tarantula!) as a surrogate tarantula. He says it's his "practice tarantula". At this point I think he's serious about getting a tarantula. Time will tell. 

In other news, I painted a picture of Levi! I've been watching a lot of Tanked lately. It's basically a show about AWESOME FISH TANKS. So I had to paint a fish. And Levi is the best kind of fish. 
Unfortunately, I painted it on a crooked scrap of paper, so it's not exactly very... sharp looking. OOPS. I'm over it. 

If you know me, you know I am always looking for a new thing to take care of. Be it an animal or plant, I love to care for living and growing things. Also, eating granola and hugging trees. But that's besides the point. 
My point being... a video I saw on YouTube inspired me to keep tropical plants in my spare 10-gallon fish tank. Mostly I was interested in keeping Venus fly traps, hoping my newfound determination wouldn't result in the black, shriveled mess my old one was reduced to. Oops. 
So anyway, I did some research, and after copious amounts of Goof-Off to get rid of the duct tape residue, my tank was ready to be filled with terrarium materials. 

First, I filled the bottom with a spare bag of polished stones I had lying around. (What, doesn't everybody have bags of rocks just lying around?) 

Then my mother came in. She was pretty upset that I was using these pretty rocks. I mean visibly upset. She was right, though, since I covered it in sphagnum (spagnum? stthhhpagnum...) moss, coconut fiber, and then dirt. You couldn't see the pretty rocks at all. So we picked them out one by one and used some old aquarium gravel instead. 

So now here it is, all layered to perfection. Ready for plants! Lovely! 

Then I was off to find plants. I needed some good groundcover, like a moss. Then some creeping plants, broad-leafed ones, and maybe some sort of long-stemmed thing. As you can tell, I certainly know my plants. "Yes, you know, the green one... That one there with the leaves..."

I stopped at the first hardware store and left with a cute little moss-like plant. I have high hopes it will cover the bottom of the tank. I got three more nice looking tropical buddies at the next stop... 
But I really wanted me a Venus fly trap. It seems that it was not written in the fates, however... 
I went to two more hardware stores, three general stores, three grocery stores, a local nursery, and an "indoor garden" store. No Venus fly traps were to be found. I spent three hours looking for the little buggers. Speaking with one floral department worker, I learned that shops have to pre-order them six months in advance. Six months?! I'd have better luck ordering them off the internet! 

Not deterred by my failure, I began to explore other options. If I couldn't have a carnivorous plant, then by golly, I'd have some sort of carnivorous something in there. I stopped by the nearest pet store and browsed their reptile sections. 
I initially thought of a frog. They love tropical places and plants. None of the frogs there would suit the tank I had, though. Then I thought of anoles, those speedy green lizards that Florida is infested with. But finally, I thought on a whim, "I wonder what a tarantula would like to live in?" It turns out, tarantulas would very much like a humid, heavily-planted 10-gallon, thank you very much. 
I sent my mother and boyfriend a text: "Would you murder me if I got a tarantula?" My boyfriend, being afraid of spiders, replied, "No, but you have enough pets." (Italics = imagine him squinting angrily as he said it.)
So I went home with no carnivorous anything. I did a great deal of pouting. 

On the upside, my dad seems thrilled with the idea of a pink toed tarantula. Which is awesome. It's mostly because he thinks the very idea of a tarantula with pink toes is hilarious. When we expressed our interests to mom, she rolled her eyes and said, "Well, I guess a tarantula is next on the list, then..." As if she could not stop my insatiable desire to own more living things. I love my parents. 

Anyway, here is what the terrarium looks like now. 

Tune in next time, when I will probably have a pink toed tarantula, probably won't have a Venus fly trap (still), and continue to abuse italics with a reckless abandon. 

Or, destiny, whatever. 
Anyway, my aunt just sent me this little snippet from her local newspaper's adoption section. I'm in love. 

For those of you that don't understand my excitement... my boyfriend of one-and-a-half years's nickname is Stark. He's gone by Stark for ages and I knew him first as Stark before his real name. All his friends call him Stark. I have never called him by his real name. So basically my boyfriend's name is Stark. 
We are both in love with ferrets. (Also, my boyfriend's really pale, so "of course it's a completely white ferret." --Stark, upon seeing the snippet) 

This leads me to another interesting little factoid... 
At the ferret shelter I volunteer at, there are a good number of ferrets that have names of my friends and relatives. 
There's Marie, my mom's name, 
Pogo, the nickname my dad was given moments after birth and what all his friends call him, 
Bill, my uncle, 
Rita, my aunt, 
Jessie, my best friend, 
Crystal, another friend, 
Devon, my boyfriend's real name, and
Skittles, one of my chickens's names. 

It's like I was meant to be there or something. It's a sign. Ferrets are connected to me. I guess that means they'll always be a figure in my life. Oh well! :) 

Hey, guys, Livestreaming and I just aren't seeing eye to eye. Long story short (TLDR): I'll only be doing scheduled Livestreams for an audience of sorts if people show some interest. I just got all worked up and planned a day around a Stream that didn't work. So, for now, I'll just record videos of me drawing whenever the urge strikes. The end! 

On a happier note, here is a photo montage of random things that have happened lately: 

It's true! I'm going to be Livestreaming on my channel: http://www.livestream.com/marandart at 4pm Washington-State-Time, which I have come to understand is Pacific Time. (I dunno. I'm bad at this. Most of my followers are my friends anyway so whatever.) 


It may or may not be a vulture with a mustache. You just never know. 

I really enjoy drawing famous internet photos. This one, of course, is based on the Corgi in a Lobster Costume. 
You're welcome.