milkypink [dot] net

I’ll make a post about the phone itself later, but right now it’s deco time! :D

Nothing was stuck to the phone itself, and instead I used a pink hard cover bought from eBay. If I had used a black or clear cover the difference between the phone and the cover would be less noticeable, but for my purpose I think the pink worked out fine. Just keep that in mind when you’re deco’ing!

I used epoxy glue this time, a kind called Z-Poxy. This stuff smells poisonous (x_x) Well, at least the hardener really did. My #1 recommendation for epoxy gluing is MAKE SURE YOU CAN OPEN WINDOWS (or provide another form of sufficient ventilation). I’m serious, not only will it smell awful, but I’m pretty sure the fumes are not all that great for you to be inhaling. I had to take breaks and completed this deco over the course of a couple days, rather than 6-7 hours straight like my previous phone, where I used the glue provided by Strapya.

My epoxy glue was 30-minute set, so I would mix a small amount of the liquids, cover a small patch of the phone and decorate it. If there was too much glue and it set before I had a chance to stick anything to it, I just put more glue over it and continued. I didn’t find any problems with this process, although I did tend to use a fairly thin layer of glue when applying. Before the glue sets, you can slide things around a little to position them perfectly. I did find that even after the glue set, it was still possible for pieces to be bumped or misaligned, so please be careful in holding your deco surface after applying parts!

My materials were a plastic nut canister top, which I used as a glue mixing surface, some toothpicks for actually mixing the glue and applying to the cover, and some tweezers for moving the deco parts.

After all portions of the cover had been completed and the glue completely set (I waited an hour or two from the final portion, I think) I coated the entire thing with clear nail polish to secure the hold. Even though epoxy glue has a very strong hold, if a tiny piece is subject to external pressure it might fall off – adding a clearcoat bonds it to the surrounding parts, greatly decreasing the chance that anything will be accidentally lost. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT NAIL POLISH IS MUCH LESS VISCOUS THAN EPOXY GLUE! This means that if you’re gluing directly to an electronic’s surface, you need to be really careful about small holes and gaps in the casing as the polish will just drip in and might damage the internal elements. I felt safe doing this with my casing because it was NOT attached to the phone while I was decorating it.

If you have any further questions about this project, feel free to leave me a comment!

And here’s the final result:

I tend to like a very cluttered random deco style XD

I cover not only the back, but also all sides.

This is a bit of fail on my part – I thought I had more tinytiny pieces than just the clear/silver bits (u_u;)

Okay, I think that’s just about every possible angle XDD

Most, if not all parts (minus the tiny silver ones and the stars) were bought from Mimi Lo Lo on Etsy ♥! She has a great selection and ships pretty fast :D

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random previews DVD that came with one of the Utena box sets. No idea who that girl is XDD

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Friendly’s PB Fudge “lava cake” dessert – it’s not actually a lava cake because the cake itself is cooked all the way through, it just has a spot at the top where the hot fudge/peanutbutter sauce fills in and spills out when you cut into it XD

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Love this stuff, so useful <3

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Front cover (undecorated) of my phone~

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The second volume of KiC that I’m still making mnemosyne flashcards from. Only 20 lessons left XDD

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Cookies&cream type easter candy~

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random HK tag from a purse

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Love Disney Sea <333 (want to go back for 10yr anniversary XDD)

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Lots of tiny plastic bags. I save the ones I get from Fusion Beads and other deco item orders to store tiny things in later. /packrat

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Ai’s screen, open txt file with ID snippit. (YES, ROWAN, I AM LOOKING AT YOU.)

Okay all caught up :D

Another 365photo update!

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I don’t think of myself as particularly liking cranberries yet it’s one of the few fruit juices I’ll drink and I eat dried ones more than raisins…. XD

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while cleaning in my room I found this metal basket I have for putting papers/misc stuff in and decided to make it a bit prettier. the fabric I lined it with also means that I can put small things in it and they won’t fall through :D

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This is Nendoroid Yui XD I can’t tell you how excited I was that she came with TWO v-sign hands XDDD

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bought a short (~6″?) artist model for (portable) drawing purposes but it’s definitely cheap, one of the arms snapped off already and I had to fix it (-_-; ) my figmas are a better reference…

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if you follow my twitter, you probably can guess what this is a macro of… (^ ~) I’m still not done but hopefully later tonight or tomorrow the whole thing will be completed.

A very belated review of the Mio and Yui Nendoroids.

First, Mio.

She arrived at the beginning of February.

Naturally, she’s wearing the 桜高 winter uniform.

The difference in skirt colors for the school uniform across dolls and figures amuses me a little. The Nendoroid skirts are clearly light blue (although this photo makes them look slightly grey). The Azone fabric skirts are without a doubt completely grey. I’m partial to the plaid skirt used in the original manga/4coma, anyway XD

Mio’s hair actually has highlights/halo effect painted on it, which almost gives the effect of the paint having faded rather than the shiny anime-style XD;

Nendoroids have three head parts: bangs, face/neck and hair. This is Mio without her bangs.

Mio’s bangs and hair pieces

All of the body parts that came with Mio

Some of the hands can be removed from the arms, like this.

Mio’s bass & amp

Mio playing bass

Mio’s o(；△；)/ face

Next up is Yui!

Some box shots:

the insert packaging

Yui’s stand

(kind of looks like mouse ears… XD)

The stand back has a joint so you can tilt up or down as necessary

(if you’re wondering about all the smiley faces you see on joints, the company that’s involved with the nendoroids is called Good Smile…. XD)

And here we have Yui herself, sporting the double v-pose v(^ ^)v

The three faces of (Nendoroid) Yui

All the body parts that came with Yui

Yui’s serious face XD

ギー太! (Giita~!)

Yui’s crying face

close-up of the neck joint

and finally, some pair shots of Yui & Mio together!

Something I noticed when posing them together… the stands are different!

Mio’s has a much higher back:

than Yui’s:

(together, for comparison:)

Strangely enough, Yui’s stand suits Mio better because her stand interfered with her long hair. But overall Mio’s stand is more stable and I like it better. It seems like every Nendoroid I’ve bought has a different style stand… Konata’s is similar to Miku!Kagami, but they have some noticeable differences. I applaud GS for trying to constantly improve their stands, and think they’ve nearly reached a perfect setup. I look forward to seeing how they evolve in the future. (With my first Nendoroid, Kona, I didn’t think much about the stands because her long hair helped her balance enough that she didn’t need one XD;)

backlog time again~

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tinytiny ribbon bits for deco

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sweettarts valentine candies. 1000000x better than the chalky ones XP

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lazily deco’d weekly pill case for vitamins

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tiny yocrunch! I like it not so much for small calorie amt, but because, well, it’s tiny! XDD (I’m on tinyfood kick recently – baby goldfishies ftw <3)

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my てくてくエンジェル, a hybrid pedometer/tamagotchi-type item XD

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the back of Maskerade, which I finished reading and then immediately started…

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Dreaming Pachinko, which I finished in one day XD ahh, what a nostalgic process.

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Azone Mio arrived. Yui was pleased <3

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back of the “how to care for” book that came with Azone Mio XD

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the promotional “winter figma set” that came with my Mikuru order from hlj. some mittens and a scarf XD sadly they’re purple… not my favorite XD;

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despite requiring three (!!) different forms of ID to get this piece of paper, it is not valid for identification. (although not everyone cares, however.)

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I wish I’d gotten this in silver as well… bought at Pink Latte in Harajuku, but they were everywhere for a while. wonder if they’re still popular…

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taken with my Tilt2, not bad for low indoor lighting.

or, Why I (Probably) Won’t Ever Buy an iPhone

• 1. Storage space. If, indeed, the iPhone is to be my ultimate all-in-one device, it needs to match up with my mp3 player storage expectations, which currently reside at 64GBs. “That’s unreasonable!” you say. But wait, there’s more!
• 2. Battery life. While I’m out, I listen to music nearly constantly, with the exceptions of plane takeoff/landing and some other small periods of time. On top of that, add cell phone data usage, possible calls (although not many, as I hate using phones for voice), and app/game usage and the battery really needs to last quite a long time. It’s not likely to. This is one of the biggest problems with all-in-one devices, in my opinion.
• 3. Multitasking. The iPhone (and indeed, the iPod Touch and iPad) cannot multitask. That is, it can’t run multiple apps at once. Yes, you can be on the phone and use an app, but you can’t run things in the background. I believe the argument against this was it would zap battery life (see above) but in the end, isn’t that the user’s choice? Except, with Apple, users don’t know best.
• 4. Ability to tweak. Apple enjoys being the ultra dictator of its mobile tech – they tell you what you can and cannot install and if you do anything to subvert this you are breaking the law, according to Apple, anyway. Certainly you put your device at risk if you choose to deviate from recommended settings and software, but this is your prerogative as a user. I certainly have no desire to brick my phone, but I’d like the option to install any program that catches my attention, not just ones sanctioned by Apple.
• 5. Physical keyboard. Admittedly this condition might go away if I got more used to on-screen keyboards, but right now I can’t imagine not having one in a pinch. Not to mention, using my phone of choice, I’m able to actually tilt the screen to view while still having access to a keyboard on a flat surface. It’s like a very tiny computer! (Well technically, that’s exactly what it is.)

In the end, maybe, somewhere, sometime, I may end up owning an iPhone. But it likely won’t happen in the next couple years.

Tags: apple, digi.tech, iphone

 

I stumbled upon CBT’s Closet’s etsy page a long time ago, back when they were taking custom word necklace orders. I filed the link away for later use.

When I came back to it, custom orders had closed down!
But a whole bunch of new creative designs had surfaced.

Well, it’s only sensible to check out the true colors of the acrylic before spending more on a custom design, isn’t it?

And so I ordered two necklaces – the “kawaii bow” in bubblegum pink and the crown in mirror pink.

I ordered on February 20th, it shipped on the 24th and arrived March 3rd.

かわいいbow:

(even the holes for hanging the chain are hearts! how cute! ♥)

crown:

I don’t like mirror pink as much as I thought I would – it has too much blue in it, although it’s very shiny. The crown design and the necklace itself are very nice, however. Incredibly shiny.

and! In my package, I found one more item!

a pixel heart ring!
I don’t know what size the ring is, although I’d guess 7/8 based on the fact it fits on my right ring finger pretty perfectly. It’s pretty adorable ♥
I was really surprised! I know smaller crafting stores often throw in free items for larger orders, but a ring for purchasing two necklaces seems like a better ratio than most give. (If it’s to encourage people to order more, then it’s working! I want a pixel heart in a pink shade ♥)

CBT’s Closet has a great selection of designs and colors to choose from, I highly recommend them!

I’m the kind of person who likes their bread always toasted, and my hot dogs basically black.

Essentially, the crispier the better.

I’m also the kind of person who prefers edge brownies to middle brownies – the mushy crumbly center pieces get left in the container for as long as I can stand it. As M said, if there’s a brownie craving, then I’ll give, but if I can avoid it (i.e. push them off onto someone who will appreciate them) then I will.

Enter the All Edges Brownie Pan by Baker’s Edge

Shaped in a unique way that reminds me of a maze, the pan ensures that every brownie will have at least one edge, if not two or three! Ideally this sounds great! No wasted – or at least required to be passed off to other people – brownies.
However it’s not uncommon for innovative-seeming items to fail in the execution – great idea, not so great product. Would this one match expectations?

After reading the instructions (wash before use with hot soapy water, towel dry), I set about making my first batch of edge-full brownies.

First off, I should mention that the pan is much heavier than I thought it would be. Picking up the box, when I received it, I thought to myself “cast iron?!”
but in reality it’s not quite that heavy.
I suppose the increase in weight is at least partially due to it containing at least 40% more metal than typical baking pans, but I think the overall material is different, and not as lightweight as I’m used to. Hopefully this means higher levels of durability.

Pouring my box mix in (I’m lazy, forgive me!), I found it relatively easy to navigate the winding path without spilling batter all over the place.

When I did get bits on the middle/sides, I simply pushed it down with my spatula. The coating seemed very slick and the batter did not stick much.
I did have to take some time to even out the distribution, since I figured it wouldn’t settle naturally in the oven. (I do this also with regular brownie pans – I had a disaster one time where half came out burnt, the other uncooked (-_-; ))

The instructions warned me that the pan might cook brownies faster than normal pans, so I set my timer for 22 minutes (the box said 24-26).

22 minutes later, my center brownies were still not cooked.
4 more minutes after that, not quite perfect.
An unspecified amount of time sitting in the no longer actively heating oven, and I determined them cooked.

What I most had to get used to with this pan was not knowing how to cut the brownies. I’m used to doing two longway cuts and three perpendicular cuts to that, but the center metal makes this more difficult. I cut each section individually, to varying degrees of success. I think further practice will result in more equally sized brownies. (I ended up with some very small and some very large ones.)

Fresh after cooling, the first piece I took was the three-edged brownie from the top left corner.
Three edges! Impossible in normal pans <3
It was quite nice~

Sadly brownies are not quite as good a couple days later, even if reheated. Not bad, mind you, just not the special crispy goodness that my first piece was. I wish there was a better way to preserve it.

For $30, it’s a bit steep for a brownie pan, but if you love edges it might be worth it. (I bought mine with the geek points I’d saved up, so for me it feels like it was “free”, and therefore seems more than worth the price XD)

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Pink USB drive, pre-deco

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pink “netbook accessory set” – tiny mouse!

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an interesting disclaimer on a jacket I bought (it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!)

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pink USB drive, post-deco. not the best deco job, but I just wanted it to stop being that weird pink color.

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pink rose hair clip.