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This is such a beautiful house, even down to its front steps <3

Penny for the Guy?

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Ran out of steam so this doll is done for now.

She’s a Disney Fairies Fawn head on a curvy MTM.

Made her skirt using @dollsahoy ‘s pencil skirt pattern. Thank you!

Her hair is poly, I think? It’s very fine and frizzes easily. I attempted my first hair cut and it’s uh, not good. But honestly, I’ve seen dolls fresh out of the box with similarly bad cuts so it’s fine.

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Want to come to Vincent and Reeve’s Halloween party?  They’ve got cookies, candy, and potions for us to enjoy!   If Vincent has enough to drink, Chaos might make an appearance, too! 

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There's something funny about this mansion...

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Day 1 - Lost

Little Sephiroth was distracted and suddenly realized he was lost in a city full of strangers! Just when things looked dire, Aerith and Tifa found him again! Who knows? Maybe even Cloud felt a hint of pity in his heart. 🤭

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I keep looking out for Joes I could conceivably piece together into at least one custom Sephiroth (based on my personal preferences as an idiot AU generator,) and what I tend to find is loads of ideas that would work while probably being funny only to me.

Take Ripper, here. I now need his pelvis, to make a Sephiroth in Daisy Duke jean shorts. Shipwreck would have the same color, I think, but those are Navy uniform pants. Not the same. This is just what I'd need. Of course, I'll also have to find who has at least knee-high boots but skin-tight pants that I can paint into bare thighs. All for no particular reason, than to amuse myself. And brother, will it ever.

Ripper - G.I. Joe (Hasbro)

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G1 My Little Pony Yum Yum as a doll is in progress! She’s got a body that matches her head, and I washed the gel out of Zip’s hair to see if this rooting pattern would work with the approximate hairstyle I had in mind. The outfit is just the one Shadow High Natasha came with, with a pink scrunchie from Target added on the bottom. Her head is a g5 Style of the Day MLP! These have a much improved head and body sculpt from the first run of g5s.

I want to give her Yum Yum’s classic bubblegum pink hair I think, and I have plans to make her a different outfit. I think Yum Yum loves anything with a Peter Pan collar and 1950’s/vaguely Sweet Lolita influences, with a touch of lovecore, since fashion inspired by children’s Valentine’s Day decorations matches her color scheme so well. Besides the poofy sleeved dresses with circle skirts, someday I visualize her in a pair of maroon corduroy overalls or an oversized heart sweater. As a stand in for cutie marks, I’m considering drawing elaborate, stylized back tattoos. G1 Mimic and Munchy are on my list for similar treatment at some point.

Since my ghost mug, Mr. Spookington, steals any photo he’s in, you should know you can get your own from @skeletaldropkick .

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Roscoe has learned a new trick!

(patreon)

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One is from 1979 and the other is 1981

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Taco Bell Creamy Jalapeno/Quesadilla Sauce Copycat [Edible]

I don't have any photos to go along with this post, but the topic came up among some ShiftyThrifting discussion, and perhaps it's time that I share my 15-20 years of field study with the world. I don't have any family anecdotes filler, either, but I will include some notes after the recipe, directly related to its production. Please read the whole post before beginning.

This recipe makes A LOT of sauce at once. Like, you know a large pickle jar on the middle shelves, before you get to the giant sizes at the bottom? That big of a jar full (28-32 ounces?) It is 8x the ingredients called for in the foundation recipe, because frankly, I've learned the hard way that I will use it all. Halve or quarter these amounts, if you don't want to commit to that much sauce on your first endeavor.

Ingredients: 1 c mayonnaise* 1 c sour cream* 5 T pickled jalapenos, diced or sliced** 5 T brine from pickled jalapenos** 3 t sugar*** 4 t paprika (mild, for accuracy) 4 t cumin 1 t cayenne 1 t garlic powder 1/4 t salt***

*keep cold until ready to add **16 teaspoons, by recipe; 5 T is the same amount, with less scooping ***have more available, for personal preference

Special Equipment: blender, stand or immersion whisk

Procedure: 1. Into blender jar or container compatible with your immersion blender, place jalapenos and brine. Blend until as smooth as you can get it, more or less a puree. Transfer into a large mixing bowl, preferably with a pour spout, for later ease.

2. To jalapeno puree, add all dry ingredients and whisk together.

3. Add but DO NOT MIX YET cold mayonnaise and sour cream.

4. SLOWLY and steadily, whisk thick ingredients into puree, scraping sides as needed. Do not over-mix. As soon as there's a consistent light orange color, it's good to stop.

5. Pour into large, clean jar with lid, and seal. Must be refrigerated, and should keep for about two weeks. Shake well before each use. Ready to eat at completion, although the flavor is best if left to sit and chill for at least 12 hours; 24 is better.

NOTES:

Over-mixing will lead to a thinner final sauce, greatly reducing the creaminess. Taco Bell is probably using some stabilizers like xanthum gum to keep the sauce held together from factory to shipping to prep. Patience and care in mixing, as well as adding the creams cold and last, are the most important lessons I've learned, over the years.

If you'd prefer or it's what you have, you can split the sour cream to 50/50 with plain Greek yogurt. It alters the taste very slightly, but still remains very close to original. All Greek yogurt may alter it more, but I haven't tried that as yet.

As someone with soy sensitivity, I have tried soy-free mayonnaise before, but it is noticeably different in the final flavor. I do not recommend.

I have tried making a batch with all sour cream once, very early on, and it just did not taste right. You need the mayonnaise, for authenticity. If you're okay with the result being a bit off in order to go mayo-free or soy-free, go for it, it just won't be as close of a duplicate.

I reduce sugar and salt amounts for personal preference and family needs, and I have done so here. I... forget what the original amounts for them were, at this point. If you need more salt or sugar, please add it! TB is no doubt adding more than I do here, but do bear in mind that the jalapenos & brine will have a good deal of salt already.

Testing the spiced puree for salt & sugar levels isn't going to be helpful. It's much more potent before the creams are added, and it is best to combine everything before tasting for salt and sugar levels.

The spiced puree, without creams, would probably make a good overnight marinade and grilling sauce, but I haven't tried that yet.

A food processor is not going to get the jalapenos pieces as fine as they need to be for a TB-comparable result. If you're fine with it being a little less smooth, however, you may certainly try one, if you don't have a blender.

If you do not cook often, be aware that there are mild and hot paprikas, and TB is using the mild.

I do not recall the blog where I found the foundation recipe. I only remember that the lady who posted it had two sons who were nuts about the real sauce, so she came up with a home version that they liked. I, a lifelong huge pain in the ass for accuracy, tried that recipe and while it was good, my own mania for perfect quesadilla sauce at home knew there had to be ways to make it greater. I still do not consider my recipe today to be a perfect match, but I do feel it's close enough that if TB were to discontinue the sauce tomorrow, I'd be pissed but I'd survive, giving them the finger every time I satisfied a craving for a quesadilla at home.

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Absolutely wonderful <3 If you're still prototyping: if you can get one side of the roof to hinge open and snap shut, it can be storage for all the 2nd floor pieces without simply piling them onto the 1st floor.

started trying to make a little toy house

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The pub/annotated

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If I were stupidly rich, something I'd love to do is find antique stalls with big collections like this, and find a collector who wants it, but money is what's stopping them. Take the pieces you don't have, take it all, but happy birthday to you whenever that is, because it's on me.

Then poof--I am gone. Well, after buying all three staplers for myself.

Streetsboro Flea Market

A disturbingly large number of Raggedy Anns and Andys (Under the Goldfish Booth)

Old office gear (Dave’s furniture booth)

August 17th is the Chesterland Historical Society’s flea market. Cindy will be there!

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Vintage Japanese dog diorama PNGs. 

(1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.)

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Hua Cheng: This shrine needs a painting of the crown prince. Xie Lian: It has one! Look! Hua Cheng: What... is that? Xie Lian: I painted it myself! Hua Cheng: You did? Xie Lian: Yes! What do you think? Hua Cheng: It's the most beautiful painting I've ever seen!

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*early 80s, somewhere in Hong Kong*

"We need more character names for our Robot Raiders line. Check the international newspaper." "Hm, this 'Mondale' name comes up a lot."

Eladnom - Robot Raiders (Processed Plastic)

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Competed at last, volume one of @i-mushi's thrilling and intriguing FF7 fic, Green Dreams. One copy for me, one for the author! 💖

In college, I had this fic printed and stapled together to read in the bath. When I started learning how to bind books, I vowed to bind it properly. But it had to wait until I was skilled enough to make exactly the book I wanted. That is to say, I wanted the books to look like they'd been soaked in mako. I think it was a success.

The cover is green. The endbands are green. The text is green. I used an entire color ink cartridge just printing the text.

Onto the technical stuff!

The covers are stock photos I edited and had printed onto medium gloss cardstock. Gloss is a pain to photograph, but it's a little sturdier than scrapbook paper alone. The spines are faux leather.

The foil details are hand-traced with a hot quill. I fucked up and put the fusion sword on the silver copy, so now all the silver volumes will just have to have the fusion on it. At least the gold volumes will have my original plan - a different weapon for each in vaguely chronological order to their appearance in the compilation.

The same foil sword graphic is on the inside endpapers - lines at the front, negatives at the back.

The title/chapter fonts are Cloud (heh) and the body text is Phlat Grotesque. It took me almost an hour to settle on the latter, but I think it was the right call for readability over coolness points.

The books clock in at around 260 pages each, with three more volumes to go. It's going to take a while - from the ink alone, these are very expensive to make. But I'm thrilled with the results, so it's worth every penny!