Hey guys!
I'm still here and I check this site very frequently, but my motivation to do any new SSMU dolls is still not back yet, so I'm still on an indefinite hiatus until further notice. TBH, for the past several months, my emotional well-being has declining to the point I've noticed it starting to impact my mental health... -- the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the worsening political tensions, both domestic (especially after the U.S. Capitol Riots last year) and international (my heart hurts for the people of Ukraine), have aggravated my lifelong anxiety disorder, and likely caused depression on top of a broken social life. It's gotten to the point I can't even enjoy doing the creative work that had helped me manage my anxiety and stress prior to the pandemic. I had to switch my longtime medications under the advisement of my longtime psychiatrist, and while it has helped somewhat, the transition has been rough and I'm still not in a good place right now. I've sought out a psychiatrist/counselor to hopefully find out what's going on and what I can do to get myself back on track so I can manage my anxiety and negative feelings better. It's still very early, so I'll have to wait and see how it goes.
I'm also still trying to get into the workforce, which is slow-going since there were virtually no job offers or training available during the peak of the pandemic and the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants, which were also aggravators to my anxiety and depression. I had to go to an adult learning program that specializes in graduates who have learning differences (I have ADD and minor PDD, but I do need to be re-evaluated since previous test results were inconsistent) so I could relearn how to have a social life and learn more about independent living skills and basic career building.
To add a bit of positive news, if it helps at all, my birthday is coming up and my two kitties Picard and Janeway will turn 2 years old before St. Patrick's Day. Those two...boy, what characters! They keep me entertained and have provided comfort and solace on bad days. I'm also hooked on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which I've been playing since November. I'm doing an overhaul of my island, so there's not too much to share yet.
But...yeah, that's what's going on. I can't say when I will be motivated to do SSMU or any kind of creative work again, but I will let you guys know when I do. Keep well and stay safe, everyone.
Sirena-Voyager's SSMU 5th Anniversary
Hi everyone! 
This year marks my 5th anniversary of my involvement with #SSMU as an active doller. I can't believe all that time has passed by so quickly, and I have to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has followed me and supported my works all this time. And to any new followers and #SSMU fans, welcome aboard! I hope to have Serena Starshine make a comeback soon, so keep a lookout for her.
This year, I've decided to revise most of my Sailor Moon SSMU dolls, from minor edits to complete redos, and try to recreate as many canon material as possible. I've been neglecting my Sailor Moon SSMU projects for ages, and I'm kicking myself quite a bit... 
I'm currently working on Usagi/Sailor Moon's dolls with almost every variation from the manga, original anime, and Sailor Moon Crystal. I plan to also do some for PGSM and Sera Myu also, but the latter may be an extra challenge, as well as my custom designs, in-canon cosplay (ex. Usagi as an Amazoness Quartet member), and crossover recreations (ex. Princess Serenity in Princess Peach's dress). In time, I'll do the other Sailor Guardians and several other characters as well. SO MUCH TO DOOOOO!!! I may decide to post my works on Tumblr and Pinterest at some point (I'm also considering making a Twitter profile specifically for my art), and perhaps Instagram if I can remember to import them into my phone, to expand #SSMU at least a little bit onto other platforms because I know a lot of you (myself included) aren't happy with DeviantArt Eclipse and/or are more active elsewhere, so I want to be there for you guys.
Having been a longtime #SSMU admirer, I didn't get the ambition to do my own dolls until many years later. When I did get into it, it was originally a simple creative outlet to relieve stress and keep my recurring anxiety disorder under control. Going into this in 2016, I was a 23-year-old student at a community college trying to figure out what I wanted to do in my life. Fast-forward to this year, I'll be 28 in less than two months, I'm a University of North Texas in Dallas graduate with a bachelor's degree in applied arts & sciences...and I still don't quite know what to do with my life! I recently joined an organization that specializes in providing life skills and career building advice for young adults with learning differences (I have minor cases of PDD and ADD, and a math disability), so I'm gradually finding my way.
Again, thank you to everyone who's supported me all this time, to @SharmClucas for creating #SSMU, @Verdy-K for making the front base I always use, and each and every one of you whose bases and references made my work possible. I hope to make 2021 a productive year not just in my life, but in my #SSMU work!
Hello 2021!!!
Happy New Year!!! I'm so sorry for my sluggish activity this past year. The entire year had really dampened my creative motivation, and the forced switch to Eclipse certainly didn't help. I have made a lot more dolls, but I never got around to putting them up on DeviantArt. I will soon be pinning most of my SSMU dolls to Pinterest (I've seen many pins from others, but I decided to be the original source there) and may start to upload them onto Tumblr as well. Like I mentioned in my last post, my Favorites folder is nearing 100,000 Favorites (growing gradually over the last decade) and I cannot sort them the way I used to anymore. I'm now doing a complete overhaul of it by picking and choosing what I want to keep and what I want to let go of, moving a lot of what I Favourite on this site to my Pinterest account, where it's MUCH EASIER to sort them by type, franchise, theme, etc. than it ever was on DeviantArt before Eclipse. Of course, I am including the original link back to the work in the pin because I am a bit OCD on making sure I know where it came from.
As some of you may have noticed, I am updating some of my older Sailor Moon SSMU dolls starting with Sailor Jupiter's earrings, replacing the ones made by StargazerSammie with ones I made myself...ugh it took me over an hour to finally be satisfied with the result since there weren't very many good references for earrings that small.
I hope you guys are staying healthy and safe, and let's hope this New Year will be the fresh start we all need after the year of hell 2020 has been for pretty much everyone.
After some time and deep thought, and through the encouragement of those of you who took the time to reply to my last journal, I've decided to stay with the SSMU community.
SSMU has been a prominent hobby of mine since 2016, and there's still lots to do. I'm still going to be on my hiatus since I have to get the last of my college graduation stuff out of the way and I have to rearrange my Favorites folder before Eclipse becomes permanent and makes it harder to do. Plus, I hope to get to work on my fashion sketches for canon characters (so far I have the Pretty Cure in mind). I will need to use a free-to-use base to draw over, unfortunately, since I have a hard time drawing anatomic proportions, but the rest will be by hand. 
It's moments like these that I realize how much of an impact on SSMU over the past four years, and I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me and used my templates with proper credit thus far. I really had no idea doing something as a small hobby to ease my anxiety and stress would lead to much more than I ever anticipated, and even instill a sense of responsibility to set a good example within the community. It's never easy, but it certainly helps when you guys are facing the challenges with me. I'm sorry I made you guys worry with my dilemma over whether to stay or not. I guess I wasn't too sure what to think when I was told what I was told because I haven't run into a snag like that in a long time. If we continue to work together, we'll find a way to create new stuff that we can share with each other.
And hopefully make it so nobody has to drag the retired SSMU dollers back into the circle so they can move on once and for all. 
It's for this reason I will not speak ill of them since they left the community battered from too many bad experiences, and don't need to relive those moments if they don't have to.So, shout out to amethystangel228, RedqueenAllison, YoriDoriArts, DIY-Gamer, katcombs, and JamieMoon for all the reassuring messages you sent me. You guys are awesome!
SSMU: Where Do I Go From Here?
As you can probably tell, there's a bit of a controversy going on regarding a former SSMU doller's templates being used without their permission, and they've made it clear that they don't want any template or base of theirs being used for anything. To set a good example, I have decided to revise the dolls I have done using their templates once I get the earliest opportunity to do so, replacing them with new templates made by me or other artists who make their works free for use with proper credit.
But now I've been advised from that artist and someone else that I should distance myself from the SSMU style and the SSMU community as a whole because they believe it is a toxic community that is beyond redemption with all the issues regarding ripping, stealing, and improper use without crediting within SSMU and from other artists (and apparently it's still going on). Plus, sticking with the style would just hinder my growth as an artist and I should move beyond it. To be fair, I have been planning to branch out with drawing fashion sketches on my new tablet anyway, but...
When I started making my own SSMU dolls in 2016, I was only doing them as a form of stress and anxiety management and a small creative outlet. But when I began to read comments from other SSMU dollers telling me how I've inspired them to return to doing their own dolls and even brought in newcomers, before I knew it I had become a figure representing a new era for SSMU. To be clear, I am not an admin on any of the groups, nor do I intend to be one, but apparently my presence has been a major contributor to SSMU's resurgence, and I hoped that I could set a good example by only using bases and templates that were allowed to be used with proper credit as much as possible, and making sure I ask permission from the original artist before I use a non-SSMU template of theirs (ex. the heart odangos by YoriDoriArts were used with permission from RandomYori herself). Of course, there's always someone that doesn't bother following the rules and steals from others, which would be more efficient to deal with individually if DA's admins showed better concern over such things (which I now believe they don't).
But apparently, whatever wrongdoings one or more individuals commit drags those who follow the rules into the very mess they created, so they have no choice but to suffer the same consequences that should have only been meant for the wrongdoers. Now, I'm at a crossroads...
Am I doing the right thing by continuing to do SSMU dolls within the set guidelines or am I hampering my creative abilities and overall reputation by involving myself in a community with a checkered past? ...Not so long ago, I was wondering if it would be possible to expand SSMU beyond DA once Eclipse is forced on us... But now I have to wonder...is it worth the effort to revitalize SSMU? *sighs* I don't know anymore...