It's time!

Jul. 3rd, 2018 06:44 pm
tsubasahome: (Default)
Hey!

I listed our first eight polish colors on Etsy!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueMeconopsisShop

We're planning on adding four more colors once our shipment of bottles arrives!

Hey kids!

Jun. 27th, 2018 05:13 pm
tsubasahome: (Default)
I took some pictures of the first set of nail polish colors Lauren and I are planning to list on Etsy soon! A few new colors will be added soon!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/38265138@N04/albums/72157696777053941

We have three of each bottle and we will restock if it sells out until the end of the summer. We are considering taking custom requests for 15 ml bottles if there is interest.
tsubasahome: (Default)
Lauren and I are busily bottling mini bottles of nail polish to start our own polish line to sell on Etsy. We named our line Libra&Gemini, and I wonder if anybody will guess why, LOL! There are still few more colors we'd like to add to our starting lineup but our label maker ran out of tape. ^^;;;; So far, we have:

Galaxy Pearl: medium plum with a gold shift
Wakaba: spring green with green/gold flakes
Sky World: Sky blue jelly polish with a mix of blue, white and rainbow matte and holographic glitter and a gold shift
Ajisai: light purple with a multichrome aqua shift
Botan: coral pink with purple sparks
Benibara: rose red jelly polish with a mix of red, purple and pink crystal and holographic glitter and purple sparks
St. Elles: pale purple jelly polish with purple and sky blue metallic and matte glitter and aqua sparks with a green shift

From the polishes I've made, I'm hoping to add Luna(mint green with a pink shift) and possibly Sugilite(red-violet jelly polish with purple, pink and white glitter and a blue shift) but we will see.

One more.

May. 10th, 2018 05:23 pm
tsubasahome: (Default)
galaxy pearl

Here's the polish I most recently trialed. Not a great picture, but I'm very happy with the polish. It's red-violet with a gold shift(really strong gold shift). This is two coats. Next time I might do three but two is actually pretty opaque.


Mystery Prunus.

This strange flowering tree popped up in my backyard this year. I think it is some kind of Prunus...or something.
tsubasahome: (Default)
Silver nail polish with small glitter

Here's a nail polish I made that I trialed a few weeks ago. I'm actually pretty happy with it. It's more chip resistant than the other glitter polishes I've made(save a red-violet one that I haven't photographed)and since the glitter is on the small side, it's not so ridiculously textured. I still put two coats of top coat on it(one Essie Gel-Setter and one Essie Speed-setter) to smooth it out and enhance its beauty. ^^

Here is a secret--even though it is a silver(actually pearly gray) polish I did not use gray, black, or white pigment powder to make it. I did put a drop of white liquid pigment to lighten the color, but still... I wonder if anybody can guess how I made it silver. ^^;;;

Lauren and I are watching Space Runaway Ideon. Again. Honestly the series is really slow and Be Invoked is much better than the bulk of it but there are a few things that the TV series handled better than the movies.

Awesome!!!

Nov. 29th, 2014 01:59 pm
tsubasahome: (Default)
I totally sliced my left thumb open on a can of anchovies last night!!!!

Guess I won't be catching up on work anytime soon...
tsubasahome: (Default)
Thanksgiving came and went with very little fanfare. I guess I shouldn't be saying that, considering all the cooking I did, ha ha! We didn't have any guests this year, which suited me just fine because I always get really stressed when there's a lot of commotion in the kitchen when I'm trying to cook.
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
Well, I'm paying for this LJ, so I might as well use it.

In the middle of a vast sea of commissions, I decided to try using the locked-loop method with nylon hair and so far so good, but it's taking forever! It still beats having to glue all those plugs. At least I don't have to worry about not being able to get the head back on the body. I'm rerooting a Roller Maze Lagoona with coral QT nylon from My Little customs. I'm a bit peeved because I had a particular hair style in mind for her and realized that she's got a defect in the vinyl on her forehead, so she will have to have bangs...not my ideal look for Lagoona but maybe it will surprise me in the end.

In less than 20 minutes we will have some divine Cook's Country tomato macaroni and cheese. Lauren and I made it...it didn't make itself. We try not to make it too much because of cheesebomb but it's so easy(well, compared to the other dishes we make, LOL!) that it seemed like a good time to have it again. I have 14 doll heads still in the process of rerooting, so it's hard time find time to make really time-consuming dishes. Actually, 12 of the 14 are done, one is almost done, and I'm waiting for hair on the last one. They're all hanging off the shelves in the guest room, looking stupid.

I wish I had some more yarn. I have a rather impressive stash of lace-weight yarn but it's so noisy here that I practically need to be sitting on the moon in order to knit an entire item and not screw it up. Sigh...
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
I guess it was the phone line the tree trimmers knocked down. They did a really crappy job of putting it back up.
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
I vowed to not buy any more roses for 2014, but I wound up ordering a band of early Austin rose Cymbeline from Rogue Valley Roses...I guess I will see if they give it to me!

The roses are all starting to bloom and several bloomed for the first time this year. Allegra, sadly enough, only decided to give us 2 flowers in its second year that have not yet opened. Both Rook and Umbra bloomed for the first time. Rook is a very, very nice rose and the flowers are a little larger than I thought they'd be. Umbra looks like a very tall version of Belle de Crecy with prettier flowers and the bugs don't seem to like it as much. We also got a real Aptos, as opposed to the Aptos seedling Northland Rosarium gave us by mistake a few years ago. The real Aptos has similar leaves but the habit is different, it hardly has any thorns, the flowers are prettier than the seedling's but the fragrance isn't as good. It also does not seem to be as good a grower. I hope it thrives...it was so pretty before sawflies molested all the leaves! The Aptos seedling is now HUGE and has horrible thorns but it's still a charming plant...in its own way.

I find myself surprisingly happy with Winchester Cathedral. I know it's not one of the more sought-after Austin roses, but it's been relatively disease-free and hardy, and those pristine white flowers are very charming! And didn't somebody say Claire Austin was a weak, sickly rose? Ours just decided to ring in the new year by shooting out a 5+foot tall cane over the course of two weeks! It's covered with flower buds and weathered our horrible winter that cut Jude the Obscure and Evelyn in half with almost no dieback.

Speaking of weak and sickly...Reine Victoria. I hope it will improve. We were sent it by mistake instead of Reine des Violettes and when we got our replacement rose, Reine Victoria was twice the size, but since then Reine des Violettes has outpaced it in every way.
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
I have been on the phone with these bastards for five hours and nobody will help me.

I signed up for one of their plans on December 23rd of last year. Naturally, because of their backlog they didn't send me any correspondence about paying my first premium until the middle of January, even though they promised me retroactive coverage until Jan. 1. I paid my first premium via their one-time payment form that they created specifically for new applicants on January 17th, right when I got it in the mail. Unfortunately, with this form, there is no way to edit your payment information once you submit it. I realized that once I submitted my payment information that I might have made a typo in my bank account number. I decided to wait a bit and if the payment hadn't posted in 10 days to call their helpline and get it straightened out. The due date was January 31st.

I called their customer service line on January 28th and told the lady on the other end that I may have made an error in my bank account information. I said that I knew they were backlogged but I wanted to make sure that my payment wasn't being held up because of my error. The lady seemed a bit annoyed and assured me that my payment had been processed just fine, and to not worry about it not posting right away because they were backlogged. I took her words as a reason to stop worrying and my insurance card arrived in the mail the next day.

A few weeks later, I got a rather hefty bill in the mail for February to March. They put me on a bimonthly plan without my knowledge...! But no matter, I sat down and tried to sign up on their website to pay it last night. I couldn't sign up. They said I wasn't in their database. I started to panic, knowing my payment was due in a week, and tried to pay over the phone. It was then that I found out that my insurance had been cancelled.

I called their help line this morning and found out that my coverage was terminated due to non-payment of my January premium. They said there was an error in my bank account information and the payment was returned as "not found". The person I talked to seemed sympathetic when I told her that I had contacted Anthem a month ago and asked them to fix my bank account information only to be told that there was no error, that everything was fine and my payment had been processed. She said she would forward me to a health plan adviser and they would see if they could reinstate my plan, as it wasn't like I had been delinquent on purpose. She also said there was a note on my file proving that I had in fact called them a month ago to fix the error.

I was put on hold for 2 hours and then disconnected.

I tried calling the first number and there was a new person on the line who seemed to not even understand what I was talking about. She kept thinking I was from Mexico even though I told her I was from CT, and I have an Irish name and don't have the faintest trace of an accent so why the hell did she think I was from Mexico? She put me on hold for a half hour and I hung up on her because I couldn't even communicate my personal information to her without her messing it up, let alone get help. I tried the health plan adviser line again and prepared myself for a long wait. I was put on hold for 90 minutes. When I finally got through, the person on the other end said she would see if I could just pay my January premium over the phone to get my plan reinstated. She put me on hold, but when she came back she had forgotten what state I was from or even what I was calling for. She said she was sending me back to their CT hotline. And back I go to the first call center!

I got a man on the line this time...who informed me that the lady who just forwarded me to him was, in fact, the only person who could help me and she had passed the buck to him because she didn't want to do the work. He said that she WAS the CT number, and his call center was not in CT! He said he would reconnect me to her and I told him I had been on the phone for five hours. The signal started to break up and I knew I would just be put on hold for another 2 hours, so I hung up and had a good cry.

What the hell is the matter with these people?!
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
Nothing like shoveling 8 inches of powdery snow, calling it a day, and going outside the next day to see that your sidewalk got plowed in AGAIN and you have to shovel 3 feet of ice boulders.

Now that I think about it, it was this time last year that we got something ridiculous like 40 inches of snow. All of our cars disappeared in six foot snow drifts. We couldn't even find the sidewalk. It was so bad that the town gave us an entire week to shovel our sidewalks(normally we get fined if they're not clear in 24 hours). Good thing we bought that snow rake...otherwise we'd have to worry about our garage roof collapsing in additional to shoveling tons of snow.

I'm trying to reroot an Apple White doll and I can barely move my fingers. Time for some heavily caffeinated tea!

I've been...ha ha ha...reading a novel based on the Ikki route of the otome game Amnesia. Damn, I had a hard time getting that book. Amazon.co.jp kept selling out of it. Lauren says she wouldn't touch the Shin and Touma books with a ten-foot pole, as she hates both characters and at least one of them belongs in jail. I actually never played the game, LOL. I'll take her word for it! I actually bought the book for her, but started reading it myself. ^^;;;; I heard the anime was really awful.
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
Animal Crossing is like a disease, I tell you.

Here's my merry band of villagers: )
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
When's the last time I typed in LJ? When's the last time I even checked my friends list?

Still working on a lot of commissions. I can't complain...I need the money, LOL! Plus I get to try out dolls/hairstyles I never got around to doing myself. I'm still waffling over whether or not I ever want to get my own Ever After High doll. On one hand, I think the heads are too round and the lack of forehead makes a lot of hairstyles look less than flattering...on the other hand, I like the range of "normal" skin colors compared to Monster High, and the body sculpt is a little better. Hmmm...maybe one or two, in the future...

Lauren and I tried making homemade Japanese curry a few weeks ago, sans roux block, from this recipe:

http://www.japanesefoodreport.com/2011/03/japanese-beef-curry-from-scrat.html

It actually turned out really well. Good thing I have made roux before, otherwise I would have been terrified, LOL! We used pork shoulder instead of beef, though...it was on sale and I think beef chuck/short ribs/other kind of fatty beef can be kind of gross, honestly. I also mixed my own curry powder because there's something about premixed curry powder that bugs me, in more ways than one. That's a heck of a lot of garam masala(makes a heck of a lot of curry, though)!
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
I had heard she wouldn't sell it, ever, because it's a Club Tortimer exclusive item, but I decided to give it a try. I'm putting it in my cityscape room!

I seem to be somewhat blessed with villagers and I can't see myself letting anybody go. Is that weird? I might consider losing Shari...I'm not 100% in love with Rori but I might get a worse jock if I send him away. Yesterday was Fang's birthday and I was somewhat traumatized when after the party was over, Rori said Fang was thinking of moving, because Fang refused to leave his house so I could tell him to stay! Maybe the villagers hole up inside their houses for the rest of the day after their birthday party? He did tell me this morning and I told him hell no I am not letting you leave. It's stressful to have to keep an eye on all your villagers to make sure nobody is hiding anything! Cheri is an annoying peppy villager but she is still cute so I don't want to let her go. Aurora, like all "normal" villagers, is kind of dull but she's a cute innocuous penguin and her eyes go all scary and red when she's surprised, so I want her to stay. Also, she might be replaced by some hideous freak. I know that Marcel is no prize but I have a soft spot for the lazy villagers and he's just a green dog, he's got some weird stuff in his house and I know there is no way I'll get Punchy, since he's Lauren's villager and I've been to her town many times. No way I'll let Broffina leave, I think she's hilarious. And Marshal...if he manages to give me the slip I will throw my 3DS through the window. He's so freaking cute, I can only tolerate smug villager antics from him! I just have to make sure I don't accidentally clock him over the head with anything and make him sad because he's very hard to see sometimes!
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
But I'm paying for this account, so I better start, LOL!

In between commissions I've been playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf in my spare time. I've been playing the game for close to a week, I think. My starter villagers were Rory, Aurora, Fang, Cheri, and Marcel, and the ones who moved in afterward were Shari, Broffina, and Marshal. I am pissed that Broffina won't give me her whirlpool bath! Marshal hasn't even unpacked yet, so I'm not sure what kind of furniture he has...Aurora's already given me pretty much everything she owns, LOL! I wonder why it is that Shari is nasty to me all the time, and even nasty to Lauren when she comes to visit my village? I hate monkeys, and if she moves I'm not shedding a tear, ha ha! Cheri mainly chases me around and asks me stupid questions, and Fang keeps asking me to come over his house. I would feel bad if I took his bed, but I'm running out of stuff to buy from his house. ^^;;;;

I also did a playthrough of the Vita version of Stein;s Gate. Somehow managed to foul up getting the Kurisu/True Ending,and now I have to play through a 30 hour visual novel all over again!
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
Anybody ever have this happen before with own root roses?

We got a bunch of David Austin roses from Chamblee's(the ones they actually remembered to send). I understand that Chamblee's often puts multiple cuttings of the same rose in one pot, but something very weird is going on here! Among others, we got Tamora, Ambridge Rose, and Heritage. The first to bloom was Tamora, then Heritage. All was well. Then Tamora bloomed again, producing a flower that looked an awful lot like Ambridge Rose! On close inspection, the middle cutting looked like the foliage was slightly larger...

Then Ambridge Rose, which I planted at the front of a border because of its size, popped its first flower and it looked just like Heritage! I was pissed! Why do we need two Heritages? Heritage is not small! One side of the rose grew strangely tall and leggy. Then it popped another flower that looked like Ambridge Rose. All was well. Then it bloomed again today on the leggy side and looked like Heritage!

Tamora has also bloomed again, producing two Tamoras and one Ambridge Rose. LOL...

I wonder what is going to happen to these roses...Chamblee's has a policy that they'll only replace roses after 30 days, which is tough if they take longer than that to bloom. I hope they don't have a fight to the death or something...

Also, I think my Griff's Red is really Don Juan, because it is now taller than I am.
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
In honor of the approaching end of summer(kind of), I'm having a one week sale on all items $40 and over in my Etsy Shop.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueMeconopsisShop

Check it out! I'm really itching to list some new rerooted dolls, but I can't even think of starting new projects until I sell most of the old ones.
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
Since Coralie's Etsy listing expired, I listed her on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330971093318?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I didn't want to have to resort to using eBay, but I've got an Etsy shop full of dolls that aren't selling, so I'm planning on putting them up on eBay one by one as their listings expire, with the exception of Phoebe, the brown-haired Frankie, since Lauren asked to keep her if she doesn't sell.

Hey kids!

Jul. 25th, 2013 05:10 pm
tsubasahome: (custom doll)
I added Lauren as a member of my Etsy shop and listed one of her rerooted My Little Ponies:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/157766457/rerooted-hasbro-my-little-pony?

She's planning on doing a Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, rerooted to look more like their cartoon versions, in the future. ^^

As for me, I'm finally rerooting my adult version of Malta from The Legend of Sirius. I'm using a Disney Princess Snow White as a base doll. The face looks pretty accurate, considering the Disney influence on Malta's design(if they made a doll of Wendy from Peter Pan it would have been even better to use her) but she's smiling and there's nothing I can really do about that, LOL! Unfortunately, I will have to get her a new body, as Snow White has painted-on panties(I guess Disney is afraid of dolly nudity) and Malta is not supposed to wear clothes, as she is a fairy. Sigh...
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