foxesinlove

Ice cubes

I literally do this - I keep a box of ice cubes on my work station and occasionally pop a new one into my mouth once the last one has melted. Keeps me hydrated, focused and occupied.

Overstimulation

Sometimes you just need five minutes to sit down and calm down or you'll start destroying furniture. And you never think about how little that actually is before you start living with people who don't think that's too much to ask.

Hiccup cures

Not a conversation we literally had, but definitely a connection between a time he had hiccups and I had just happened to read about a possible cure for 48 hour hiccups. I will not tell you what it is.

Work interruptions

I can't focus as easily when someone else is home. We bought a space divider and I borrowed my boyfriend's noise-cancelling headphones to solve the problem back during the quarantine, but it turns out I also can't focus when I don't hear where he is in the apartment, and I could get startled by any moment by looking up and seeing him standing there by the side of the panel, staring at me because he wanted to bother me but doesn't want to bother me.

Naptime schedule

I can not be trusted to wake people up from naps. It feels too mean and cruel, even if I know I'll be doing them a disservice in the long run. I don't have it in me to be cruel to be kind.

Lamp solutions

Based on an actual conversation we had - we didn't end up using the headlamps, though, just climbing down from bed to get the ceiling lamp. But it was definitely an option had we found them.

Movie popcorn

We went to see the Puss in Boots - The Last Wish some time ago. Though we wanted to see it in the original english, the local movie theatre only had shows for the finnish dub (it being a kids' movie after all), but I think they did a brave job of translating it, not omitting the spanish peppered in it.

Also fun fact: the finnish language doesn't have a neutral word for "smell", only one for good smells like perfumes, flowers and the scent of good food, one for bad smells and o...

Board games

We're trying to get into playing board games right now, and I definitely lean on the sides of ones that are possible to learn as you go, and where the instructions of each card are on the card itself.

An unfathomable amount of beef jerky

Back in business! Although the box was not that comically large, I did order the store's entire stock. This should last me six months, and we saved like 50 euros in ordering them in bulk instead of getting a new bag every few days frpm the grocery store.

Lupines - a peek of what I'm working on

I took a break from posting foxes becasue my queue has run dry, and I can't juggle everything at once, but I thought I'd give you all a glimpse of what I've got going - I'm doing June for Fenris Publishing's SFW calendar! I specifically wanted June because I wanted to illustrate a landscape of the finnish midsummer night celebrations, with a lake view and a bonfire. 

 At midsummer - summer solstice - the sun barely sets at all. The tradition of burning bonfires and staying up ...

A quick break

I've bit off a bit more than I could chew recently, with too many work projects going at the same time, so we're going to take a quick week-long break from posting foxes so I can focus completely on getting the few time-sensitive ones out of the way. We'll be back next monday!

Sleep masks

It's a bit worn and ratty, but this is the mask in question. I also have two cutesy animal eye pattern ones, which are worse.

Reading the time

I actually can't read them, and I literally do this sometimes when I'm in a situation with no access to digital clocks and need a rough estimate of how much time there is left, or how much time has already passed. I have no idea why or how I didn't learn it, I learned to read on my own when I was 5. I was just suddenly 10 years old and people were shocked to discover that someone my age couldn't read a clock face yet.

A sense of perception

I have really poor sense of space when it comes to spotting whether I'm in someone's way, or guiding someone right into a pole if someone's following me. I genuinely would never have thought that pushing another person in a wheelchair is a skill that one can be good or bad at, before I was set to the task a few times in nursing school. I am terrible at wheelchair guiding.

Juice math

This is another one based on an experience we 100% had.

Work worries

Sorry for being late today! I almost forgot, being so busy with other projects I'm working on.

Return of the matching hats

This one was especially requested by my partner, who was so happy with the hats his grandma made us. I have a disproportionally small head, and his is unusually large, and as they're made with the same pattern and from the same cloth, they're identical save for the comically large size difference.

Baby pictures

My boyfriend has always hated hot weather. I couldn't fit it into the dialogue properly, but this conversation was had after about fourth or fifth baby picture of him sitting in a fridge.

Moving and staying

Another one based on an actual conversation we've had.

Shopping cart abandonment

We also had to take the time to kick/beat most of the ice and snow off of them before being able to return them. Strangely enough they were hoisted up on a snowpile, which would reasonably take more effort to do than just returning them.

The oxygen mask thing

I tear up a little bit every time I remember that they remind you to do that. That's what you do in an emergency. When it's a matter of life and death, they make sure that you know that you can't help anyone if you don't take care of yourself first. That's how dire and important it is to respect yourself, do self-care, have boundaries and first and foremost help yourself before you help anyone else.

Helping others is vital for survival, and the importance of ...

Happy new year!

Gävlebocken in Sweden did not burn this year, but last year it burnt, I swore to myself that if 2022 is better than 2016-2021, I'll burn my own one just to be safe. Last year wasn't good for a lot of people, but best we can do is work on what we can help and keep fingers crossed about the rest!

Christmas break!

Thank you all for another wonderful year! We'll be back to posting in January.

Laundry instructions

Yes, I was actually so annoyed with this conversation at the moment that before drawing the fox comic, I drew a Text Adventure Logic Puzzle about it.

The pizza curse

Magic is real, but only for things like this.

Art progress

Updates on Caesar! We're working on getting the first album under printing process next year, but I've just finished the physical pages of the second album - I will continue it as a passion project, and perhaps publish it online, if the first album doesn't gain enough traction to be financially worthwhile.

I mainly work on it as practice to get the hang of how to draw comics traditionally, and at the end of every album I'll pick the page I'm least happy with and re-draw it with whatev...

Air quality meter

My partner likes having all sorts of tech knick-knacks for no particular reason - we have an air quality meter just to see how thw air is doing, a blood pressure meter despite of neither of us needing to monitor such things regularly, and so on.

And that smug smiling little bastard on the screen puts on a gas mask when I'm cooking.

Watching the snowstorm

I love having a balcony where we can safely watch the world from a distance. Also playing soundtracks of wintery-themed post-apocalyptic videogames while we vibe.

Sunlight

My personal rule of thumb is: if it's still daylight when I leave the house, be it rain or shine, I'm bringing my sunglasses.

Gaming crimes

Actual conversation I have had with my boyfriend's little brother. I know next to nothing about these games but the sheer creativity of the ways he has figured out how to make himself a menace in them is impressive. Chaotic neutral little guy.