Sweetest Day 2013 couples sketches

So, yesterday was not only my birthday, but it was also Sweetest Day! My birthday has never fallen on Sweetest Day before, so this was a bit of a big deal for me. I doodled up these sketches last night to celebrate, but didn't get around to posting them because I wound up preoccupied because it was my birthday and I wanted to watch Hocus Pocus, so we did.

Now I've come to realize a lot of people have NO idea what Sweetest Day is. I looked up information last night to explain it to *Lycan-Fang and *ChaseYoungIsMine and incidentally, I discovered WHY most people have no idea what it is. Because it's a holiday mostly celebrated on the east coast, largely and in part due to it having originated in Cleveland, Ohio. That's right, OHIO BABY!! OHIOAN STATE PRIDE!! >[
So what is Sweetest Day, does it have anything to do with sweets, and why is it celebrated?
Prepare for the wall o' text!!
Sweetest Day began in 1921 because a gentleman from Cleveland, Ohio who happened to own a large candy company at the time, realized there were a lot of people less fortunate than him who were vastly underappreciated. Widows, handicapped war veterans, orphans, people in less-than-pleasant jobs who were never shown any real kindness or appreciation for what they did, etc. So he decided to so something about that, and in October that year, he had his company order an abundance of supplies so they would mass-produce way more sweets than they could sell. Once they did, he had the company distribute all these extra sweets freely throughout the community in the larger Cleveland area, with messages telling all the less-fortunate that they were loved and appreciated and that their kindness and good spirit had touched someone's heart.
Since then, Sweetest Day has become a bit of a big deal along the east coast states, primarily those more toward the north. It's a holiday that most companies use as an excuse to mass-produce and really go crazy with the market for sweets, but for the people, it's meant to be a holiday where you show the people you love the most in your life that you remember them, that you care for and appreciate them, and that them being in your life has had a very important and special impact on you. A lot of people criticize Sweetest Day as being a "Hallmark holiday ripping off Valentine's Day in October" (though incidentally, Hallmark actually had nothing to do with the creation of the holiday and didn't really do much for it until YEARS later,) but despite all the romantic things that people will do on Sweetest Day, the core part of why you celebrate the holiday is different from that of Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day has always had more of a...romantic connotation. People just started also using it to show non-romantic love after a while as well. Sweetest Day is kind of the opposite. It's meant to show the love and care and affection for those important to you in a way that makes them remember they mean a lot to you; a romantic connotation into the holiday didn't come until later.

But you guys ought to know me by now. I'm a huge romantic (even if I won't always admit to it,) and I've got a shipping addiction. So of course I drew couples. (I'm working on writing a little Sweetest Day drabble thing however, and that WON'T be romantic in nature.)
Up there in the top left corner, we have BlueFyre. Because I've not drawn them forever and they're still my babies. Jaime of course, is getting into the spirit of things and giving Bones a gift, and she's just all over this. Pffftt. I'm pretty sure these two turned out the absolute cutest. Incidentally, if you've not heard their shipping theme song before or don't know what it is yet, you can click here for it.
Top right corner is of course NuriSpot. I couldn't resist drawing those cuties; they seem to be pretty well-loved by a lot of my friends and watchers now. My guess is Hot Spot probably wants to take Nuriyah on a date but wants it to be a surprise, so he's not told her where they're going, and understandably, she's a little puzzled. While I haven't fully picked out a shipping theme song for these two yet, I did listen to this song while drawing these babies. Probably because it's one of their songs on their currently sparse, small shipping playlist.
Bottom left corner, the one and only probably the greatest of my OCxOC pairings Lance Pendragon and Jeanette Harker, formally known by the shipping name of LanEtte!! It's been a while since I've drawn them together (and I should probably draw them together more often. I have a tendency to whine to Lycan and Nicole about how it breaks my heart that nobody reads Cry Wolf or ever remembers that LanEtte is a ship, but ignoring the fact they're an OCxOC pairing [those never get quite as much attention as OCxcanon] a good chunk of the problem lies in the fact that I've just not drawn them in forever. So I decided to fix that.) Now as it so happens, Jeanette has gotten Lance to agree to a date for Sweetest Day, but rather than doing something romantic, she wants to spend time with Lance just doing something they both enjoy. In this case, I actually see the two as heading to a book signing by an author they both like, though Lance seems a little nervous having to step down to just semi-formal clothing for the occasion. Jeanette's taking pity on him though, and trying to offer him a little comfort. As it so happens, LanEtte doesn't even really have ANY shipping songs! D: I don't think they even have ONE!! So I had to pick one for them for this occasion, and I finally picked out this amazing song, as it's one of the very few that I think fits them as a couple.
And, well, last but certainly not least...we get to the bottom right corner.
This page WAS turning out to be nothing but super-cute diabeetus. And then I started sketching CopperSmith. I'm sorry, but I just lost it when I started drawing Copperhead's expression. I couldn't stop giggling at that sultry "Hello, senorita, come dance with me" look. Luiz you sexy Spanish devil you! D: Stahp. I think we can all tell what's on YOUR mind for the holiday. On a small side note, I think that's probably the best rose I've ever drawn in my life. When it comes to music...Luiz and Leslie actually have quite the awesome shipping playlist. ._. But having to pick just one (and an ironic choice it is, considering the song is in GERMAN and not Spanish,) I listened to Tanz Mit Mir by Faun, mostly because of the translation of the lyrics, which tells a story about a sailor trying to woo a lovely young woman into his bed, and she's constantly outsmarting him at every turn, essentially telling him he's getting nothing from her unless he agrees to be faithful to her and marry him. Which, of course, I cannot help but see Leslie and Luiz in. It's a pretty solid way of summing up at least a third of their relationship. Endless thanks by the way to Lycan, for showing me that song.

TL;DR - SWEETEST DAY HAPPENED SO I DREW CUTE S*** AND LEFT YOU MUSIC LINKS FOR IT. :[ LOVE ON MY PAIRINGS NOW.

Batman, "Young Justice," "Teen Titans," "Justice League" and all related elements and titles are © to DC Comics and Warner Bros.

Lance Pendragon, Jeanette Harker, Catriona "Bonefyre" Macallister, Blue Lantern Nuriyah, and Leslie Smith are all © to me

IF YOU STEAL MY ART, YOU CAN CONSIDER YOURSELF HUNTED DOWN AND REPORTED.