Not super happy w this but baby Phoenix <3

[ID: Rachel Summers is in the center of the drawing in a red body suit and with her haircut short. She is holding the phoenix’s head in her left hand and her body is turned from the viewer but she looks straight towards the viewer. Her eyes glow a telepathic magenta. The Phoenix has wrapped itself around her in an embrace on a space like background]

Finished a new Custom Care Bear today, one I’ve been meaning to make for a while:  A Galaxy Far Far Away’s most adorable Grand Admiral!

Meet Grand Admiral Thrawn, hailing from the mysterious Care Ascendency, bringing love and kindness to the Empire, whether they want it or not :P  

He was originally a 1980s Kenner Grumpy Bear, chosen because he’s blue, and the only Care Bear who doesn’t smile.  Using my Care Bear Wear raincoat as a basis, I hand-made his jacket out of white cotton cloth and yellow felt epaulettes, and embroidered the little rank plate.  (Shown here with two of Thrawn’s favourite ships – the TIE Defender and Imperial Star Destroyer)

I painted his eyes with red acrylic paint, then put on a second coat of red glitter paint to give that distinctive Chiss look.  I gave him a new, custom hair curl, cut from a halloween wig.  

Just because this Care Bear wears clothes doesn’t mean I neglected his tummy symbol.  Instead of the “standard” Imperial insignia, I made one for Thrawn’s own “shadow empire” in Star Wars Legends, the Empire of the Hand.  It didn’t have an official insignia, so my husband designed one.  Using the Imperial insignia for a basis, it features a blue, Chiss hand reaching out towards the stars.  The Empire of the Hand is a mix of the discipline and order of the Empire, without the damaging Tarkin doctrine or anti-alien biases.  In other words, a more fair and caring Empire.  I thought that would suit Thrawn’s Care Bear persona perfectly.  

The tummy symbol is completely hand-embroidered, on a special, sparkly white felt base.  Took me hours to do!  

I really love how he turned out!  

I am super against light pollution, and have been for decades

but I am also super annoyed by the way it's framed as "without light pollution you can see how beautiful the night sky is" way more prominently than it's framed as "hey, did you ever stop to think of how much energy/resources/money are literally wasted by having so much light shine up into the sky?"

so people get the idea that light pollution can only be remedied by eliminating all night-time light, which would make being outside at night very inconvenient, instead of by making night-time light shine only on the ground where, y'know, the people who need it are