juicy smooth brain dump

Hi ya’ll my bad for dumping like this. Lunar New Year just took me OUT like I'm sure those who celebrate get it... but for those who don't, it's basically like a Thanksgiving and New Years in one. Spent a lot of time just catching up with my family (couldn't visit but lots of calls) 

A few updates and also just some general excitement about some things!

1. Dom and I finally reorganized our happy99 office by installing proper Elfa shelves (it took 3 days)! This expands room for inventory since we’ve heard ya’ll tell us we don’t make enough of anything… We decided to invest in Elfa bc it’s modular and we were able to customize and maximize the use of our high ceilings! The only other option was custom built wood furniture which I considered but it would require hiring someone + a lot of work + we can’t move the shelves around once they’re in. We went with Elfa bc you really only have to install the top bar and everything else just hangs from it (editable shelves!!!). Highly recommend to ANYONE with organization issues… we will own this set for the rest of our lives no matter where we live!!! It was also 30% off at the Container Store and will still be on sale for a few more days :)  HERE  (clearly not sponsored, I am just on fan behavior) 

Anyway this is my corner, I turned my desk 90 degrees to the right so that the sun isn’t behind my monitor and blinding me. I’ve had the windows closed for literally 5 months for this reason… so it’s nice that we now can even use our windows!

2. Dom’s corner!!! He’s gotten into more decorating than I have but that’s also bc he hasn’t been able to even sit in this corner since we moved in (he usually works from his laptop on the couch). This corner has literally been piles of boxes and storage for the past 5 months… so this is a HUGE upgrade!

3. This happened nearly 2 weeks ago but I made a H99 hoodie for my doll lmao I printed out the pattern from here. Pretty straight forward, these patterns print onto standard printer paper sizes, I cut them out and just followed the guide…

4. As a bonus however, I added little eyelets which I had to primitively hammer in and it took me maybe 30 minutes to shove BOTH baby blue and dark blue rope through the tiny hole…. It’s looking very close though. I’ll update end of the month when I have time to print out the fake lenticular design onto heat transfer paper and apply the patch onto the lil hoodie :)

5. I got swept away by a lil painting project for about 2 days. YES! You read that correctly. I worked on a paid painting project haha I chose to create a 3D mockup of the figure to reference while I painted…. Which required making and posing a 3D human figure…. And then draped in clothes… then lightly textured and lit and rendered! I DID record this ENTIRE 3 hour process and am in the process of editing it. I hope to have it ready for when the project drops so I don’t violate the NDA but as usual, the behind the scenes will only be available here <3

6. I’ll be producing my own samples for happy99 moving forward! This is huge but after juggling with so many options and then struggling to fit manufacturing into budgets (x dollars for samples + x dollars per unit = ???) I’ve decided we can afford better quality and ethical manufacturing if I simply produce the samples myself. This is a bold move but I think manageable. I took my sewing machine that I’ve owned for 2 years apart and did a thorough cleaning and oiled her up. For those wondering, this is a vintage Bernina 830 Record. 

A friend actually put me on 2 years ago when I was in the market for a machine. I was about to purchase the Heavy Duty Singer Sewing machine (also a great machine that many of my friends own + much more accessible) when she told me to look into this one. I ultimately chose the Bernina 830 Record bc it’s basically a legend and I am a sucker for vintage gold. It was the top selling Bernina machine from 1971-1982 and comes in a red case. Anyway, this is a metal case with all metal parts. It was literally built to last forever and from my research, many people still use theirs to this day. I didn’t know but uhhh machines need oil. 

My machine had basically given up on me a year ago and I finally got around to watching a youtube video to learn how to open it up and dude. The amount of dust in there was obscene. I gutted all the dust and oiled her up in all her pretty gear parts and now she works like brand new. For reference, I got her for $300 on ebay in early 2019!

7. Clearly I have some form of ADHD bc I am doing way too many things at once but I just want to share a little addiction I’ve developed recently for the resin kit painter Sukima Sangyo 

This guy really puts my sense of “perfection” into perspective. 🧐 I watch his videos as I’m brushing my teeth or waiting for a train but he’s one of the most detail oriented figure painters I’ve ever seen. I’m sure there’s more but I don’t have so much time that I can research and cross reference other kit painters (hello gundam/gunpla ppl) but I recommend if you’re ever trying to see something different haha this screen cap is specifically from this video.  protip: watch at 2x speed

8-9. Finally my friend came by with a late birthday gift for me yesterday… he copped something that was on my ebay watch list for TWO YEARS…

The NANA PSP game………….

My shitty japanese skills are getting me by (not really) but basically you play as a customizable character or as one of the 2 Nana’s and roll the die to move around a board game. You’re able to interact with other characters of the universe if you happen to cross them on the board (I melted when I ran into Shin). Unfortunately the game IS zoned for Japan and I’m just lucky my friend gave me this bc she didn't use it. I haven't had much time to invest into it so I'm only summarizing my game play experience of about 1 hour lmao 😅