Dusa Pattern

I got a request for a crochet pattern for my amigurumi plushie Dusa, so here it is! She is actually pretty straightforward when it comes to the crochet bits, and the hard parts are embroidering the face and shaping the hair! As always, if you use this pattern, please link back to my page, and tag me here on tumblr or @erin.gurumi on instagram! I love to see what people make!

Technical stuff: 

I used a 3mm hook and these yarns:

^ Head

As I mentioned, the crochet part is pretty straight forward. The head is just one big sphere, but the part I find the most challenging is doing the embroidery

^ After you are nearly done with the sphere (for me, I like to start when I am at the 30 or 24 stitch row), I used some yarn to embroider her eye liner (it ended up looking a bit too thick, but I was really struggling with making it look even.. I even ended up cheating a bit and using some marker… which I bet would have turned out nicer had I just used that!). Then I also added her nose and mouth - I didn’t have black embroidery thread, so I used yarn and a bit of unraveled yarn… This is probably not recommended, so if you have a better strategy please go for it!! I think this turned out a bit more skeletal than snakelike, but I did my best!

^ Hair Snakes

Making the actual tubes was very straightforward, it was the attaching them to the head which took some thinking! For simplicity’s sake, I made four tubes, one slightly thicker than the other, and all the same length. But, I imagine it’s really easy to make them a bit longer, or maybe add one more to fill in the back of the head!

Make one of:

Make three of :

^ Ok, for the first two hair pieces, I used the empty (no metal) 5sc tube and the stuffed 6sc tube. I bent the 5sc tube into a sort of omega shape, looping around the crown of the head, touching points at the forehead, and coming down to make the bangs. The 6sc tube went behind the 5sc loop, coming down towards the cheeks and then curling back to make the front of her cute little bob! Use tons of pins and then sew in place, either with the tail of the yarn or a separate length of thread/yarn!

^ For the second two hair pieces, I used the two 5sc tubes with the metal armature in them. for the back, I sewed it behind the 6sc tube and bent the two ends to look like the snake head and tail that come from behind her head. For the second tube, I bent it into her cute snake on the top, with the bottom curled tightly to fit into the space left by the bangs-tube, and sewed it on there. I used some fabric paint to make little dots for the snake eyes!

^ Medallion, Wraps and Duster

Super simple, these were just chains that I made until they were the right length to wrap - you can mostly improvise… I think I could have made the head wraps longer, you can see they are kinda faked in the back! (Also, I experimented with a slightly larger medallion size, but ended up preferring the smaller one.)

2 small Side Wraps:

2 long Forehead Wraps:

Medallion:

I used a candle to VERY CAREFULLY burn the fuzz off the medallion, so it would be a bit shinier. If you want to do this, please be cautious, mindful of the type of fiber your yarn is made of, and if you are little, have an adult help!

Hot glue the crisscrossed wraps and medallion together, tie all the wraps in their various places, then pull the ends inside a tube or head!

Duster: cut purple yarn into small strands, tie them tightly at one end, then hot glue the duster head to a toothpick… I’m sure there are nicer ways to make one of these, but I liked the look of the yarn!

^ The last thing I did was add her fangs and pink cheeks using a bit of felt and glue - I did this last because I figured the more I handled her with all the sewing, the more they might get messed up.

Here you can see from the back a bit better… I definitely think it could be improved by making the wraps longer and adding an extra hair tube, but overall I am happy with how she turned out!

And that is it!! She is all ready to keep Hades clean and beautiful! If you have questions please feel free to ask me! Again, if you make her, tag me here or instagram @erin.gurumi - Good luck and happy crocheting! ^_^

Guidelines below

Day 1: Love | Valentine’s Day | “May I?”

Day 2: Camellias | Floral Troubles | “You want to kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid.”

Day 3: Cake | Secret Relationship | “Really? That one?”

Day 4: Unrequited | Almost Too Late | “Your beauty never ever scared me.”

Day 5: Soulmates | Alternate Universe | “Are we fighting or flirting?”

Day 6: Cuddling | Memories | “In my defence, I was left unsupervised.”

Day 7: Free Day — Go wild with your own prompts!

Guidelines:

If you have any questions, our ask box is open. We can’t wait to see what comes of these prompts!

Wishing everyone an early happy Valentine's and have fun creating! ❤️

I hate and despise this on a visceral level

I hate that I comprehend everything they're referencing. Lo, what vile crime did I commit to endure this level of torture?

welcome, tumblr, to the gold-moon vamp au!

@starplatinumgold and I have been working on this little au for months, so there is a lot of stuff already worked out for it!

this is a fugio au (yes, bear with me) that features best parents ever, jonaeriwagon.  

its a vampire au

features the bucci gang

and best underrated canon ship [REDACTED]

what else could you want? (text from images below the cut)

Keep reading

My daughter is four. She came home from school and told me she was playing a game called “Princess Gets Rescued From a Tower”. The kid of two feminists, living in a liberal city in a blue state, at the age of four, has internalized the idea that princesses need rescuing. 

I did four years of residency in ObGyn and three years of residency in Psychiatry. I am an MD and a practicing psychiatrist. I don’t have the bandwidth to look at the numbers right now, but I will tell you from personal experience with hundreds and hundreds of patients that women are the strong ones. Most of the babies of teen girls I delivered had no support apart from their own mothers. I wrote “father of baby not involved” in the chart more times than I can count. Most of the pregnancy terminations I performed were for girls and women on their own. Nothing made me feel like I’d made more of a difference than providing a desired termination for a teenager and placing her IUD. Now that girl gets to continue her education, develop her frontal lobe, and decide who she wants to be and what she wants to do. She doesn’t have to be a baby trying to raise a baby. She doesn’t have to be another cog in a system that perpetuates the cycle of poverty in order to keep women and people of color from working towards equality, equity, fairness and real change. 

Make no mistake. The overturning of Roe vs. Wade today is not about saving the lives of the unborn. It is about control of women’s bodies and agency, particularly poor women without the resources to travel out of state for a pregnancy termination. Women are meant to be property. Don’t believe me? How many letters have I received addressed to “Mrs. Husband’s First Name – Husband’s Last Name” instead of “Dr. My First Name – My Last Name”? How many people think my kids have their dad’s last name, because he’s the man and when you get married you’re supposed to give up your identity? Yes, it’s only a name. Yes, it’s tradition. But try speaking up against it— even that one, small thing— and see how much resistance you run into. 

Now women want more than our own names. We want to be paid the same as our male colleagues. We want our voices to be heard in legislation and government. We’d even like to be the president someday. At bare minimum, we’d like to decide the timing and circumstances of when we become parents, because women still carry the majority of responsibility for raising children today, with rare exceptions. We are on a tightrope with no safety net, because there’s so little in the way of institutional support for people who end up with a baby to support and no way to put food on the table. 

People who are thinking about how to get from one day to the next aren’t in the streets protesting. People who are terrified that they’ll be beaten or raped by their partner aren’t rallying for change. People who are trying to raise a child on a minimum wage salary with no parental leave benefits, without any sort of support, aren’t getting an education. People who are working two jobs to keep a roof over their heads aren’t voting. 

And that’s the goal. 

The princess in the tower may need a rescue now, but ask yourself who put her there. Ask yourself who robbed her of the tools to escape, because she’s strong and capable. If you’re a woman, stay safe. If you’re a woman of privilege, help your sisters. If you’re a man, speak up for us. And if there’s any part of you who feels that this is a move that will help any human beings at all, including the unborn children who are the proposed beneficiaries, I cheerfully invite you to get fucked. Nobody wins when women are forced to have kids they can’t or don’t want to support. Not them, not the kids… and not you. 

every time i listen to “you’re a mean one mr. grinch” i can’t help but sit there and think “what did the grinch do to hurt you?” because dude just stands there for 2 minutes and 58 seconds and drags the grinch into the dirt

he stole christmas, kayla! stop with your #notallgrinches propaganda!

you know what if someone told me i was a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce i’d probably be bitter enough to steal christmas too 

Interestingly, though The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is narrated by Boris Karloff, the big musical number is sung by the late Thurl Ravenscroft - an American voice actor better known as the voice of Tony the Tiger.

My headcanon is that the Grinch and Tony the Tiger had a bad breakup, and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” is the resulting breakup song.

Did this really HAVE to be the first thing I see when I opened up Tumblr?

Yes.

oh god theres art

@altadude you know what must be done.

ive been avoiding reblogging this honestly but just. What the fuck. What the fuck tumblr

i fucking love this website

Well okay.

@yihagathe 

BEHOLD

I literally saw the first sentence and went “no no no no no no no no oh my god it’s this post no no no I have to read it though oh my god”

I hate that I laughed at this

“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” and another one appears. And dodges the downward sweep of claws, darting to the side, bouncing off the pentagram’s barriers, and tripping over the demon’s tail. “In the Vatican!” she cries out as she moves, using the State Farm Agent summoning charm to modify the situation as she was taught, and mentally thanking her trainer for expecting her to be fast enough to do it on the first incantation.

Most State Farm agents, when they run into trouble, have to get the customer to do the jingle a second time. That guy with the buffalo was lucky.

The magic takes hold, and she materializes in the aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica, still holding the demon by the tail, in the middle of Sunday morning Mass. The music clatters unprofessionally to a halt as laypeople, deacons, priests, monks, nuns, and the Pope all turn their attention to the surprised demon whose fifth course of dinner has turned, unaccountably, into a visit to one of his least favorite places on Earth.

There is chanting in Latin, and vaguely cross-shaped gestures, and clouds of incense, and the demon vanishes in a puff of smoke, whether from the efforts of the clergy or of his own volition no one can say. The Agent doesn’t wait, fleeing towards the doors and escaping in the confusion.

She gains the exit and walks, purposefully, toward Rome proper; there, she ducks into the nearest alley. A burner cell phone comes out of one of the less-used pockets of her purse, and she dials a number from memory.

“Allstate,” says a smooth masculine voice after three rings.

“State Farm,” she answers. “I’m calling in a favor.”

“Yeah?” Interest. “What sort?”

As she talks she’s pulling out her smartphone, keying an app that was activated by the summoning, and pulling up the policyholder data that enabled the incantation to work.

“Insurance fraud,” she said, and can almost hear teeth sharpening on the other end of the line. She gives him the name, the address, the policy number. “Someone needs some mayhem.”

“That’s my name,” the man says.

She smiles. “Someone needs all the mayhem.”

He chuckles. Slow. Evil. Even with the echoes of demonic laughter ringing in her ears, she’s impressed. “Don’t worry,” he says, almost purring.

“You’re in good hands.”

OH MY FUCKING GOD I just read insurance commercial fan fiction and it was so good, bless you, I’m going to remember this day forever.

IT COMES BACK TO ME! *preens*

Part 2:

It’s not too long later—State Farm will occasionally loan out their teleportation trick, though Heaven help anyone who tries to use it to compete with them—and the man they call Mayhem is squatting next to a demonic circle with tacky half-dried blood under the leather soles of his shoes. Whoever dispelled the circle didn’t do a good job of it; the ring is still faintly smoldering and Mayhem has already singed his fingers on the air above it. He’s in the basement of a house with a State Farm homeowner’s policy, waiting for his partner in, erm, crime, to show up.

“Oh, good heavens.” He smiles at the sound of someone hopping delicately back, then carefully tiptoeing through the mess. Demons are messy eaters, and Flo’s wearing all white.

She steps gingerly over what might be most of a femur, looks from circle to Mayhem to—is that half a skull on the floor? “Freaky. Whaddaya need?”

“Tech,” he says. “State Farm knows the homeowner summoned them, but the Agent reported at least five people present. Maybe six. She isn’t sure, what with being busy evading a demon inside a very small space with zappy walls.”

Flo’s already got a—where does she get those from anyway? a cardboard box in her hands. Mayhem watches as she unfolds it, refolds it, and ends up with something significantly bigger, shaped like a satellite dish. He tries to watch how she does it; they may be working together, but they’re still rivals and his own higher-ups will be very interested in the latest whatever-it-does that Progressive has come up with.

A blue glow lights up the concave side. Mayhem is pretty sure cardboard doesn’t work that way. Flo makes a pleased sound, and starts rattling off names, addresses, policy numbers.

Impressed, Mayhem asks, “How the fuck?” If Progressive is developing some sort of superspy technology, well, that’s kind of ominous.

Flo grins and looks embarrassed. “I, ah, have occasional dealings with a couple guys from That Other Insurance Company. One of them knows someone who knows someone who works in quality control for the Infernal Realms, and it turns out Hell monitors all their summoned manifestations for safety purposes. His contact got me the list of who was there.”

Mayhem nods. He’s had occasional encounters That Other Insurance Company himself. Bland, grey-suited, timid men who are even worse spies than they are insurance agents. “Wait, Hell has a quality control department?”

“And all other forms of administration,” Flo says. “I understand it’s to generate maximum paperwork. It is a place of punishment, after all.”

Mayhem actually winces. “That’s definitely hellish. All right. The Agent who called me in is flying back from Italy and should meet us in a few hours. Should give us plenty of time to plan an attack. Are they all State Farm customers?”

“Just the one,” Flo replies, folding her toy up, and Mayhem watches with vague envy as it becomes a giant sword. “One Allstate, one Progressive, one Geico, two Farmers. We gonna invite anyone else to the party?” She hopes so. Mayhem’s precision strikes on any sort of insurance fraud perpetrators are the stuff of legend, and the Farmers guys would bring in enough absurdity to make it a work of art.

Mayhem’s grin is something that ought to haunt her nightmares. Instead, she finds herself matching it. “Yes,” he says. “Let’s.”

Part 3:

The sun is just a suggestion behind the horizon, but the morning traffic jam is already clogging up the freeways by the time Mayhem and Flo leave the scene of the crime. Flo is driving, weaving her motorcycle expertly through the sea of zombie commuters, and already some jackass in a twenty-year-old Honda has rolled down his window to sneer at Mayhem for riding behind a woman and in the process taken his eyes off the road long enough to rear-end a state trooper.

By the time the sun is peeking over the edge of the world, the freeway has been exchanged for fast-food restaurants and traffic lights, and Mayhem is contemplating commercials. “I’m another motorist doing something you disapprove of” is warring with “I’m a state trooper,” and Mayhem is leaning toward the latter because it might give him an excuse to put on the uniform, when Flo erupts in giggles, jerking her head subtly to the right. Mayhem finds what she’s looking at and nearly pisses himself.

A van, the type that practically screams “covert surveillance,” is parked in the entrance to a Starbucks. Two men in bland gray suits and the sort of ties that give insult to all intelligent life are sitting in the front seat, coffee cups in hand. Mayhem sees the moment they set eyes on Flo—they both jerk upwards in their seats as if jabbed with a cattle prod—and then the moment where they realize who her passenger is. The one in the driver’s seat boggles and reflexively inhales half his coffee; the passenger reaches over to slap him on the back, sees Mayhem, and spills his own beverage all over the dashboard.

When Flo passes the driveway she gives a little wave to the men, and they both dive for cover. Mayhem would be surprised at the level of ineptitude That Other Insurance Company lets their agents display, but he’s seen one of them try to hide behind a stop sign. Surprise has long since left the station, leaving amusement and a hint of second-hand embarrassment which Mayhem relishes rather than winces at.

He’s jarred from his thoughts as Flo hits the brakes, neatly avoiding the SUV that has just moved into their lane without signaling on her way to the upcoming right-turn lane. The driver diverts attention from her cell phone long enough glare at Flo and stick a manicured middle finger in their general direction, and turns to the road just in time to watch as her car veers off the shoulder and makes intimate congress with a speed limit sign. And then the flashing lights come on from somewhere behind them and Mayhem’s faith in humanity is restored.

He revises. “I’m a middle-management commuter on a cell phone.”

Flo pulls over to let the cop car pass, and Mayhem sneaks a look back at the van. God have mercy, the one in the passenger seat has binoculars.

“Shall we lose them or let them follow us?” Flo’s voice interrupts his giggle-fit.

No question. Not like they’re a threat. “Let’s keep ‘em. They’re entertaining.”

Flo merges back into traffic and signals a move to the left lane. Since the lady in the SUV is still in view, glaring up at them as the police officer steps up to her window, Mayhem is extra gratified that she waits five whole blinks before merging into the next lane. It’s doubtless for the benefit of their pursuers, who otherwise might manage to keep with them if Mayhem draws a map and passes it to them at a stoplight, but his black and petty heart rejoices anyway.

It takes them awhile to get to the suburban park where Mayhem has arranged to meet the State Farm agent who called him in. Or rather, it takes them awhile to get there without losing their inept pursuers; twice, Flo has to double back and be found again, and once the van gets stuck behind a railroad crossing and Flo and Mayhem have to stop and pick up a box of donuts in order to still be there when the train finishes blocking the road. The park is a lovely little spot complete with playground equipment and a little waterfall, as completely removed from this business with demons and human sacrifice as a person could want. There’s one car in the lot already, a rental, and a figure in red shirt and khaki skirt standing beside it.

“Is that the Agent?” Flo asks, and Mayhem nods. The woman is short, dark, curvy—very pretty—and the two guys from That Other are in serious danger of twisting their heads off their shoulders as they drive past. Whether it’s for that reason, or because there’s now three insurance companies having a little meeting in a city park like some exceedingly bad spy thriller, Mayhem isn’t sure.

Flo parks the motorcycle and goes up to introduce herself; Mayhem stays put and watches the van make an awkward U-turn in the middle of the road and come back. The State Farm agent walks up to Mayhem and offers a hand, and he is distracted from the spectacle by a warm-toned “A pleasure to meet you” and a gaze and smile as predatory as a shark’s. It’s enough to distract his attention well and properly. This is the person to whom he’s promised vengeance, and this is the face of a person who has fought and outsmarted a demon.

Damn, he’s glad he picked up the phone.

“Pleasure’s all mine,” is what he says, and then Flo lets out a mirthful squeak. Mayhem and the Agent both follow her gaze, just in time to see the surveillance van leave the road, bouncing over the curb and smashing into a tree.

The Agent is staring, her lips curving into an amused smirk, and Mayhem composes another commercial. “I’m stupid, and I come in pairs.”

I’m so glad this has been updated. I love this story. 

<3<3<3

Mayhem is perfect! I love him composing commercials in his head. And the Other Insurance Company was just adorable.

For the non-Americans in the audience, the other guys are the generic competition. Given visualization as described, they are from the progressive commercials, but most of our insurance ads involve the narrator telling you that you can save x amount switching (from the other guys, or the noun is left implied).

Every insurance company can save you money if you switch to them. Who are you switching from? The Other Insurance Company, naturally.

Is there a Part Four yet?  @kyraneko, do you have an ao3 or something where I can read all of this at once?

*glee*

IT’S BACK AND THERE’S MORE

Honestly, I won’t be satisfied now unless they invite the Geico gecko and he turns into a dragon.

Take 15 minutes and you can save 15 % AND MAKE IT PART OF YOUR GLORIOUS HOARD

This post gives me life. Also, moar plz, with the gecko? :D

Looking for people to play D&D with?

Hi everyone! We’re a new blog here to help DMs, GMs, players and more find people to play D&D with! We’re also looking for people to follow, so if your blog has anything to do with D&D, please like/reblog this so we can follow you! Every reblog is appreciated, as our goal is to bring more people in the community together and get some great campaigns going!

I run a D&D campaign! It's silly and more homebrew than anything else, but my siblings and I love it! I play a firbolg bard named Momo, my little brother plays a Warforged barbarian named Doc, and my little sister plays a goblin ranger named Faefaeth! Our blog for our bad fanfiction/D&D podcast shenanigans is @monsterfluffers-not-anonymous if anyone's interested! 😃

Source

Video of Tama

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

The picture in the background of the second one

Tama is boss

THE TRAINS HAVE CARTOON TAMAS ON THEM

Sad update everyone, Tama recently passed away… An estimated 3,000 people, including railway officials, attended Tama the cat’s funeral on Sunday, days after she died of heart failure aged 16. [x]

For those who haven’t read articles about it, the local shrine elevated her to a god. She’s now the Eternal Stationmaster and patron god of the station.

Beautiful.

Now I’m crying thanks

and a new cat was hired right?

yep! her name is Nitama (essentially ”second tama” or “tama II”) and she served under Tama as an apprentice before being appointed her deputy

she works very hard

Everytime this crosses my dash, I reblog. It is the law.

Law

I’m crying at 11pm over train cats

Nitama, already now a mature cat (born 2010), has a protege named Yontama (fourth Tama, b. 2016).  There is no information available for either the physical befellment or tragic self-disgrace which has removed Santama from contention.

^Nitama majestic, and below with Yontama

Yontama.

a legacy

okay but actually what happened to santama (or sun-tama-tama, which is her name because it’s a pun on santama) was that she was basically sent to train for the position in okayama and they liked her so much they refused to send her back

Every time I see this post there’s new info and it gets better

You are only allowed to scroll pass this after you pay tribute to the great Tama Station masters.

Writing Resources, I guess

So when I’m writing I sometimes need prompts or sometimes I just want to write random shit, so I will use generators. This is just a few that I use and like;

Family Tree, Relationship Generators

Cities, Towns, Kingdoms

Worlds and Solar Systems

This is just a very small portion of generators I use for Fantasy and SciFi stories. If you want or need other generators feel free to message me, I probably have several. Also let me know if you want me to make another for purely SciFi/Food/Drink/Pretty much anything. 

This was the funniest hour of my life

At the end of the panel we gave them a round of applause for being so brave in trying to write straights and cisgenders

Especially Jasika, who got very emotional about her childhood with straight parents

types of comments on this post:

-straight people saying :/ love is love :/ gay or straight why does it matter ://///

-gay people saying wait no really i’ve never written a non-lesbian pls help

-people pointing out that even straight people don’t know how to write straight people without unnecessary romance

the truly impressive part of this panel was how for an hour, a FULL hour, they talked about writing straight characters like the st8s talk about writing queer characters and they did. not. break. It was the most amazing piece of improv comedy i’ve ever seen. 

For those who wanna have a listen: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-qv3hz-364464b