I Found Something

Let me tell you about it. (This blog contains affiliate links.)

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I'm taking down all of my collections and their display.

I used Sookwang double sided tape to adhere the Shopkins to the risers I'd built (and just destroyed to fit into the trash 😔) and while the tape did yellow over time, it didn't negatively affect the Shopkins or their plastic containers at all.

Unpainted Shopkin, painted Shopkin, and transparent with glitter containers all had 0 negative effects from prolonged contact with the tape and it peeled of completely clean leaving no sticky residue.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

It's been a while since I've done a review on the blog.

I'm extremely busy right now with life things, and those life things include a need to do a heavy declutter/purge.

I am still in Vine and pulling in lots and lots of random stuff, though, and one thing that came in yesterday was this:

Amazon.com : 4Pcs Adhd Cleaning Planner Schedule and Checklist Organizer, Daily Weekly Monthly Yearly DIY Home Household-Cleaning Plan Book

Not an affiliate link because I'm no longer an affiliate.

Anyway, my immediate reaction was EXTREME OVERWHELM and disappointment with the quality. I mean, they're fine for a notebook that WILL be consumed, really, but the pages are difficult to turn and that annoys me, personally.

Why are there four?

I don't know.

Every page is completely packed and it's overwhelming. There are SO MANY TASKS on the daily task list.... Who has time for that????

I had to set it down.

After a bit I came back to it and it's obviously designed for stay-at-homes and not for people that work outside of the home or even who work from home. This is for someone who's job it is to keep the house clean.

Sat it down again, came back again, and noticed some things.

So it's basically a breakdown of tasks by day, week, month, year, etc. and you're supposed to write in the book both to check off tasks and add your own. There are layout sheets in the back of the book where you can fill in all of the tasks yourself instead of trying to follow the suggestions in the book, too. The daily checklist, of which there is one, would be fully consumed the very first day. What?

Still terribly overwhelming, and I noticed it's not been proofread very well.

This is a monthly decluttering list. You're expected to do this once a month.

Something that bothers me is things like "Tupperware without lids" and "Scratched pots & pans" being in the same list as "Unusued Appliances" where all the words are capitalized. That's not important but it's something that makes me notice a difference and get annoyed.

I guess we're doing "Scratched pots & pans" and "Unused Appliances" twice every month. But why are we doing that EVERY month and not once or twice a year?

Or like here:

The repeats..... They annoy me..... My brain wouldn't see those as days off, either, it would just run in circles annoyed about it being a repeat day.

But then!

FLYLADY?!?!?!?!?

So this person went and took some Flylady resources, probably from the old-old version of her website, and had them self-published via Amazon or didn't realize Flylady is an established brand because the seller is NOT Flylady. If I click on their store link, it's all phone cases.

Now I understand why it's so damn overwhelming. I tried out Flylady years and years ago (it's very different, now) and hated it. It was very demanding, very, very specific to a point that it was causing me more stress than providing benefit (GO CLEAN THIS ROOM but I don't HAVE THAT ROOM, clean ONE bathroom but I have FOUR BATHROOMS, for example), and extremely overwhelming. Not only because of the program itself, but because by joining the program (which was free), you joined the newsletter mailing list whether you wanted to or not and that woman would email you CONSTANTLY throughout the day. I mean CONSTANTLY. 10+ emails DAILY.

She'd insist that every day you shower in the morning and take a bath in the evening. The bath was your treat for a day of non-stop cleaning. You weren't supposed to stop cleaning all day until bath time unless you were eating.

Flylady seems to have changed since then. Or maybe it hasn't and just looks different. There's an app, now, and a shop where she sells cleaning tools. I'm not tempted to try the program again, no.

In the end these books are just a huge checklist in pastel rainbow colors, times four for some reason, and checklists have never worked for me at home.

It worked ok at the gas station I was working at until recently, but that checklist was also much, much smaller.

I've tried many, many programs similar to this over the decades and literally none of them worked for me. The closest to working was UFYH and even there, the only part that did work for me were the weekend challenges where Rachel would post a task you were supposed to go do RIGHT NOW, then another in about a half-hour or so. For some reason that works for me. I tried her guided cleaning journal and that was not it for me at all. I think I ended up tossing it since I'd already written in it and it wasn't like I could donate it at that point.

It's not a bad guided journal at all, it just wasn't for me.

But here's the link if you want to try it:

Unfuck Your Habitat

You're better than your mess.

UFYH has the right attitude for me, too. Less demanding, more encouraging, and with a sense of "This does suck, you're right, but it needs done so let's get it done. We can do it."

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

Alright I'm out of Amazon Associates again. This time because I chose to leave, again.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I do a lot of different fiber arts and recently decided it was Time to get a matching set of nicer crochet hooks.

The Boye aluminum hooks are fine and affordable, but not the most comfortable to use as I'm getting older. I do prefer the tapered head hooks versus inline (I do NOT like the Bates hook I tried).

I tried a couple different things and ended up sending them back, then ordered the Knit Picks Dots set that I've heard about here and there.

They cost a little less on Amazon than on Knit Picks website, so that's where I ordered them, and overall they're inexpensive for a 9 count set.

I did read reviews and watch videos about them, and most people said the same things: The handles are great, and the hooks are not.

Since they're unpainted aluminum hooks, that's fixable, so I decided to risk it.

These aren't as sharply tapered as Bates hooks but are the same style of head, which is what I prefer. The hook extends past the shaft making it a little easier for me to catch the yarn and work more quickly. I find with an inline hook I miss or split the yarn a lot and have to redo more stitches, slowing me down in a way that's frustrating instead of meditative.

Auto-color-correct got a little silly there.

Everyone was right, the hooks are ROUGH. The feel horrible to work with, other than the smaller ones that are smoother. They're gross. Yucky. But the handles are PERFECT for my hands.

So I fixed them.

Now, you can use a buffer head on a Dremel if you have one but I don't and that can be expensive to get so I use a 4-sided nail buffing block like this:

These are inexpensive and easy to find. I need to get a bulk pack, though, because I use these for a lot of small, non-fingernail-related smoothing tasks around the house.

Anyway, you start at 1 and rub until it doesn't feel rough anymore then switch to 2, etc. I go the long way up and down the hook since that's the way the yarn moves but you can try tiny circles if you want. Tiny circles do give a better surface.

You can SEE how rough they are.... This was AFTER buffing.

Some of the reviews said that the larger hooks were roughest and that's pretty accurate for my set except my 3.0 had a teeny tiny burr that was ripping at the yarn and I had a hell of a time finding it to smooth it out. It was way up in the hook, and I had to get in there and burnish it smooth with the back side of an X-Acto blade to get rid of it.

These hooks take some work to be excellent but I do feel like the way the handles suit my hands made it worth that effort. The handles are long and I don't feel like I have to choke the hook to have a comfortable, stable grip on them. I do use a knife grip. Violence.

Obviously I haven't MADE anything with them, yet, just made some chains with scrap yarn to get a feel for them, but I am pleased so far now that I've smoothed the hooks considerably. It did take a lot of sanding. I'd like them to be even smoother but don't have the patience nor the means to achieve that.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

Ok, so this might seem like a kind of random thing for me to review, but I've been really pleased with these extension cords with timers, and they're handy so might be of interest.

These are "Extension Cord with Timer - x2, (Only auto-Off, Not self-Startup), 6 Options Timer Outlets for Electric Wax Warmer, Christmas Lights, Floor Lamps, Reading Lamp, Phone Chargers"

First off, I didn't know this kind of thing existed. I knew about timers you can plug into your outlet and then plug something into them, but I didn't know about extension cords with timers. Honestly, wall timers probably would have been sufficient for my needs, but I got these, and I like them.

They do say they're only for low-load things like charging phones and LED lamps and things, so keep that in mind.

I use one in the bedroom to charge my phone without worrying about the battery getting puffy, and the other to heat my bakhoor on a candle warmer so I don't have to have an open flame or risk forgetting to turn off the candle warmer which itself does not have a timer.

I thrifted the warmer and it works, so no reason to replace it with a newer one that has an on-board timer.

The only drawbacks are well.... That's not pretty.

I mean, I could put in some effort to make that look nicer though getting to the timer could become difficult since it's partway along the cable.

and

The timer segment has bright lights on it which is annoying while charging my phone at night. Since there's a risk of overheating and fire, it's not like I can cover the control with anything heavy enough to truly black out the lights. I loosely toss a paper towel over it to hide it somewhat and it's ok. I guess.

Either way, I set it to 3 hours for my phone and it has consistently cut the power to the phone when the timer is done so far.

AND

They're not grounded. These won't work with any sort of 3-prong device. It probably doesn't need to be grounded but I'd rather the male end was at least.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

Even though I know better, if I can get a crochet kit on the cheap, I will take it.

I'm not a great crocheter but I am experienced and can trouble shoot patterns and things and I think that puts me in a good position to review kits labelled as being for beginners.

This one is "Caydo Crochet Kit for Beginners with Step-by-Step Video Tutorials, Crochet Starter Kits for Adults, Potted Hanging Plants Craft Kit with Yarn Sets for Home/Car Decoration, Gift for All Ages" and it's crap.

The supplied tools are ok but not great, the yarn is VERY nice but inconsistent, like the white yarn is smaller than the other colors but is meant to be used interchangably. There is very little of some colors and lots of others, and a tiny little bag of stuffing. I understuffed my project and used most of the stuffing on just one.

Bonus that the white yarn comes in ITTY BITTY SKEINS which is cute.

The kit itself is pretty standard low quality for a cheap beginner's crochet/amigurumi kit and that's fine other than there being no backs for the eyes. It's the patterns that are the problem.

Now, I expect they think you're going to whip out your phone and bring up the video tutorial because who uses written patterns these days?

I do. I don't do video patterns, they are too difficult to track. If you need to go back to a certain spot it's a pain to try to scrub the video back or forth to exactly where you need to be.

That's why I won't bother with a kit that doesn't include a written pattern at all.

This kit DOES have written patterns, but...

It's bad. A lot is missing. That stitch count error shows up in every pattern.

The "how to" guide at the beginning is also bad.

"How to yarn over" looks like it's actually how to start and close a magic ring, and the how to magic ring tutorial is missing steps in the text.

This is not beginner friendly at all.

The end results are cute if you know what you're doing, though. I did yarn under instead of yarn over, even though the how-to says to yo and since there are no backs for the eyes, I didn't use them.

I added a butt.

A while back I got this kit:

This one is "DetFinns Crochet Kit for Beginners, Crochet Starter Kits with Step-by-Step Video Tutorials, DIY Craft Kits Amigurumi Knitting Supplies, Cute Hippo (40%+ Yarn)" which also has video tutorials, stitch tutorials, and written patterns, but this one is good.

It has TONS of yarn, more than you need. Each character's yarn is in it's own bag so you don't have to guess. The tools are, again, cheap but acceptable, and you get lots of stuffing.

The photo stitch tutorials are clear and, more importantly, CORRECT.

The only thing I would suggest changing is to yarn under instead of yarn over because yarn over does leave gaps between the stitches. I can see that the example images, they used yu.

Since the kit says to yo that's what I did, and you can see the gaps.

That's Hippo Dad with all of his leftover yarn, which is quite a lot!

I haven't finished the rest of the characters in the kit because, honestly, they're kind of boring and I only got this kit to see how beginner friendly it was.

There was ONE problem in that the provided safety eyes were too small to stay in place with yo stitches. They probably would stay fine if I had yu. They kept sinking into his head.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

It’s very effective!

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I've seen a push for Arabic beauty and home products, lately, and picked up this bakhoor set.

I'd never used bakhoor before and don't really care for incense in general, but it kept coming up so I decided to try it.

This type of incense you don't directly burn, and I'm pretty sure it's the actual burning of it that I don't like, both in scent and in comfort. Burning cones or sticks makes the air kind of hurt and the scent acrid and sharp.

This set comes with a little warmer made of metal with a wooden base to protect your surfaces from heat, and a small tea light.

It also came with 3 boxes of 9 pucks each of three scents. What I didn't realize when I was choosing it was that each box also has a single sample of another scent, AND the warmer comes with two more samples.

I have 8 scents all together when I was expecting three!

It works in that you light the candle then put it into the holder, put the metal lid on, and put a scent puck into the lid.

It's VERY STRONG. I have a moderately sized house and it was absolutely full of this scent (the Oud Raghbah sample) and I have to say.

It's very pleasant.

There is, of course, that "incense" smell because the pucks are made with oud, but lacking the acrid burning smoke part. Even though I was sitting right next to it, completely surrounded by the strong scent, it didn't hurt at all. I was perfectly fine sitting there next to the source of the smell.

It's really nice to find a scent for my home that doesn't feel like bad air or give me a headache.

What you can't see is that if I were to light this at night, it would project a tree onto the wall.

Apparently it's normal to sit there with your head over the burner to get the smell into your hair, but knowing me I would somehow get it right into the candle so I've not tried it.

There are electric warmers available and I'm going to see about using the bakhoor chip with my candle warmer to see if I can get a less intense scent out of it before committing to buying a whole little device just for that. I need to get to Goodwill and thrift myself a cute, little dish for it.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I've been using this Hekaya Olive Oil Aleppo soap for a little while and noticed the sales listing says it's for skin AND hair so thought I'd try it on my hair.

I'm well into perimenopause (7 years into.... ugh.... full menopause already, please) and my hair started growing in a different texture (it feels dry) the past few months. My hair is the only part of my physical body that I ever did like, so it's been kind of difficult to adjust to. I don't mind the sprinkling of greys that are starting to show up, they're like natural tinsel, but the dry texture at the roots is less than pleasant.

The Aleppo soap is pretty slippery, my skin is taking to it well, and I figured that since my hair is changing anyway, there's no reason not to take more risks with it.

These soaps are also VERY. STRONGLY. SCENTED. My whole bathroom smells like this soap, now. It slams you in the face when you walk in, and even harder if I open the cabinet where I put the other 3 bars while I'm not using them.

WHAMMO. ROYAL OUD. The scent doesn't cling to ME too much, though.

It is kind of difficult to get this to lather. You have to really work it between your hands to get it to foam up even a little bit, but it's worth the time otherwise you end up with too much in one spot in your hair and have to keep getting more to get it to spread around enough. It's easy to rinse out, though.

After using this on my hair, it actually feels more like it used to before the hormonal change that makes it grow drier.

It's still drier than it used to be, but better.

Since this soap is so heavily oily I do wash with a different bar soap that's a little drying, just to get the skin oils and old flakes out, first.

This one's Grandidier Black Bean Shampoo Bar, and it lathers up really easily. It's a more intense clean, kind of drying like I said. Followed by a second wash with the Hekaya soap, my hair doesn't need conditioner.

So I get a good clean and softer hair out of it, and my scalp does seem to be content with these two, being less flaky overall.

I'm thinking of getting the 7-scent sampler pack of the Hekaya soaps because I do like to swap scents now and then but have a whole box of the royal oud scent to get through, first, and am not sure how well I would handle so many different, strongly scented soaps hanging out in my bathroom at the same time.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I must preface this review by saying I am not a yarn snob. I will use cheap acrylic for stuff. Sometimes.

But this yarn is awful and you shouldn't buy it.

The sales photos look like normal yarn, but it arrives vacuum packed, which causes the strands to be smashed and crinkled.

It's also rough and unpleasant to the touch, which is a big no for me, especially when acrylic CAN be so soft. It feels worse than current Red Heart Super Saver, which itself feels a lot nicer than it used to a decade ago or so.

I didn't encounter any knots, but did find a snapped ply which is just as bad.

Not only does it feel awful, but it splits like crazy.

Split split split almost every stitch split. I had to go back and fix so many splits as I went.

It split, it feels horrible, it's stiff.

I like the colors, which are not displaying exactly as they are IRL. They're really great colors! It's almost insulting how good the colors are, considering the overall quality.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I bought this for myself for my birthday.

Paid full price and everything.

This is my new best friend.

My job has me on my feet for up to 9 hours straight and I tend to walk about 6 miles daily. That was my 45th birthday and I'm tired.

Anyway, I'd read the reviews on it and a few people said it's much too hard of a massage.

I can see how they would say that. This thing really does give you the squeeze. As someone that went through a year of physical therapy to be able to walk and that therapy including deep tissue massage on very damaged tissue, I am aware that sometimes massage can hurt.

I'd sometimes wondered if it felt better afterward because it was helping or because the new, extra pain of the massage left the previous level more tolerable by comparison.

Either way, this thing does squeezing and rolling, and it does a decent job of it. It also does heat, but the heat is so subtle and builds so slowly that I don't really notice it until it turns off and I notice my feet are now cool.

The only downside so far is that it's noisy. It groans and creaks. The motors strain and stress. My socks make squeaky noises on the fabric cover when my feet are pushed and pulled around. Sometimes it's difficult to keep my feet in place, too.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

A little flat pack bamboo shelf thing.

I think assembling flat-packed furniture is fun. It's like doing LEGO but getting furniture out of it.

Anyway, this little shelf came with everything you need to put it together EXCEPT instead of an Allen wrench it comes with a really crappy screw driver that doesn't fit the Phillips head screws and which I threw away after trying to use it on one screw. That is very atypical of me to throw away a tool, so that tells you how bad it is.

Since it's all held together with nothing more than these short, brassy screws, I wouldn't trust it to hold a lot of weight, really. I don't think I'd try to use it for books. Maybe one book.

It's very simple in construction and appearance, and it wasn't difficult to assemble once I got out a better screw driver.

And my coffee stuff looks a lot nicer, now! With this little shelf, the stuff doesn't take up as much counter space as before, but I did also remove the old coffee maker and the pod holder. I only have four [refillable] pods, now, and don't need the holder anymore.

The Chulux maker, the holder, and the stack that held the mugs, all of which came out of that space. One mug broke and I hated having the stack with one missing. I get picky about that kind of thing. Having the remaining three on the shelf is fine, though.

There are two problems with this shelf. One being that it's not stable. The way the parts go together leaves the sides a little twisted versus each other which makes it rock, so I cut a little felt pad down to be shorter and stuck it under one of the corners. I should probably move it to a back corner so I don't have to look at it, though....

The second problem isn't with the shelf itself, but with the only place I had room for it.

I have to remove the whole thing to replace the paper towels.

I'd rather have a counter-top paper towel holder but that one was already there when we moved in and I'd rather leave it than have the leftover holes in the wall. We're not looking to repaint any time soon (though we should, it was painted VERY poorly by the people that lived here before us.....20 years ago......), so filling the holes would leave ugly white spots that would annoy me.

Either way, nice little shelf.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

This many items just went into something as simple as me taking a shower:

The shower head, which I'd just installed.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/48igmgI

Which is really nice. I didn't know what to expect. Even though the water is more gentle at the same time the pressure is good and rinsing off soap was just as easy as with my old shower head. I like that I didn't have to turn up the heat on the water as much to feel warm because the area of warm water from the rain shower is so much wider than the hand-held. It warms both me and the air around me more quickly.

It's nice and the box had not only all of the tools needed but LOTS of extra washers and o-rings, and three whole spools of teflon tape.

While I was in there, I washed my hair with this shampoo bar.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4r8z0ze

It's surprisingly easy to rinse this out of my hair despite us having severely hard water. It lathers well, washes well (it's a little drying), rinses well, and doesn't have a strong or lingering scent. There's a little hint of peppermint if you put your nose really close.

I scrubbed my face with this.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/48fCc4u

I like this a lot. It also has a light, minty kind of scent that doesn't cling. The texture is kind of whipped with large grit that's still gentle. It's an effective scrub that doesn't overwork or dry out my face.

I washed my body with this soap.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4r8yj9c

This is an Aleppo soap made from olive oil, and scented with "Royal Oud" which is a nostalgic scent for me. It reminds me of my great-grandparents' house which was filled with old wood, dust, and Great-Grandpa Birchie's spitoon. I'm honestly not sure I like it and wish I'd seen the pack of 4 different scents that was available right after I'd requested this 4 pack of all the Oud, instead. Oh well.

All of this stuff is being held by this shower caddy.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/49j31G3

It isn't particularly special, but it is a lot better than the set up I had before which was a smaller caddy with a separate over-the-door hook which looked really bad. This looks nicer and still has a little hook to hold my towel on the back side.

Then, I got out of the shower and stood on my bath mat.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/48ihOja

Which has an under-pad (not pictured).

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4pe4BO6

The mat is soft and plush, and is just fine without the under-pad, but the memory foam under-pad makes it even MORE plush and more comfortable to stand on.

I put some goo on my face, since that's what you do after exfoliating.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4oMFQc2

This is thiiiiick thick and kind of slimy, but my skin likes it so I'll use it until it's all used up. I don't know yet if I would buy it again, because it's heavily perfumed and I don't really care for "feminine" scents in general, let alone stuck on my face.

After that I gave myself a little dab of this perfume.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4piSWhc

Honestly, I don't love it. It's the berry part of the scent that I don't care for, I think. It's sharp and tangy. Luckily that's the element that fades first leaving behind the lower, muskier notes which will last until morning at least without being overpowering.

After that I came downstairs and started a fresh cup of coffee in my new coffee maker with milk frother.

Affliate Link: https://amzn.to/4o35NmD

Which has been a lot of fun. It holds a lot more water than my old Chulux coffee maker which did NOT come from this program. I've had that since 2021.

Guess What Affiliate Link Anyway: https://amzn.to/43Bs57r

The Chulux is fine, though. Still getting along well and does a decent job of making one cup of coffee at a time.

Zacme can make two or three depending on size and the milk frother is fun. Zacme is also faster to heat up, and the coffee comes out milder. I think that means it brews at a lower temp? Not sure.

It also makes sufficient foam out of even 2% milk, which means I don't need to buy half&half or whole milk separate from our usual milk.

Zacme STINKS, though. It reeks of that new plastic smell, which I think is mold release. I've washed it as well as I can wash something that can't be tossed in the sink and that helped, but there's still that smell, lingering.

I used one of my steel coffee pods, which did come from the program, to make the coffee.

Of which I have two types. Affiliate Link 1: https://amzn.to/4qZmfHf Affiliate Link Other 1: https://amzn.to/4pg45iF

I like both varieties equally.

They're easier to clean than the ones I had before which were plastic cages with metal mesh. Coffee would cling to the mesh around where it attached to the cages and I could never get it all off. These I can get completely clean. The ones on the right (Other 1) are easier to clean than the ones on the left, but the ones on the left (1) have less plastic between you and your coffee and those nifty little silicone handles so you can remove it from the pot immediately without scalding your fingers.

After that I sat down at my computer on my extremely comfortable, nice and wide, memory foam chair pad

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4r4vdCV

and put on this hand jelly stuff.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/49Gb14f

It's surprisingly watery and VERY heavily rose scented. The scent sticks around, too. It does moisturize well but I wouldn't buy it again just because it's so heavily scented.

And also put on the blueberry lip balm from this set.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4idFDvZ

All of these have a nice scent that matches their fruits other than lemon which smells like cleanser, and peach which smells more like lychee. They're thick and goopy but not sticky. They also don't last super long, but that's ok.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

So, I got booted from the affiliate program I was in because I was doing it wrong, apparently, even though I was doing it the way I had been for years before I had voluntarily left and then rejoined.

We'll try again.

... I just realized Tumblr's censor bot will probably take offense at the packaging.

I got excited to try these because they have calf measurements in the provided sizing chart.

I am not very large, in general, but I have and always have had huge legs. It may be lipoedema, which Firefox wants to autocorrect to "millipede", and it may just be that my family tends to be bottom heavy. Or both. It could be both. I mean, both are genetic.

Either way, I was excited by these and then disappointed.

They are very cute and come in lots of different style packs.

But they're poorly made and don't fit.

Multiple pairs have toes that are miss-assembled (that's two pics of the same pink sock in case a censor bot thinks the first one is something it isn't, which it likely will). I can fix that, sure, but I shouldn't have to and won't because the fit is also poor.

Look at these tight bands around where there are different colors. Look how stretched out and strained these things are, even though I bought the size that says it's for my calf measurement.

Tight bands like that are really bad for your circulation.

I only opened two pair out of the package and gave up. The rest will be donated after 6 months and I'm going to mark through the L/XL and put on there M/L because that's more how they fit.

I'm annoyed because I made the mistake of getting excited to finally find knee-high socks that would fit my big calves at an affordable price and these are very cute, but they're unusable as knee-high compression socks.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

Quick update but the wig I linked before is just right.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

Anyone that knows me knows I absolutely despise cooking.

If I am in the kitchen I am, by default, completely pissed off.

Do not approach.

Anyway, my Son and I thrifted one of the infamous Betty Crocker recipe boxes, and then I had bought a @shiftythrifting junk box that included a duplicate of one of the cards, which made my son interested in trying the recipe.

...

The picture is blurry and I'm leaving it that way.

My disdain for cooking means that I have put considerable effort into avoiding cooking, and lack experience.

I can cook ok, but am not experienced enough to have looked at this recipe and seen that it was completely unhinged.

My local store doesn't carry veal so I got some small steaks and pounded the hell out of them.

It doesn't specify what temp to use to heat the oil, so I put it on medium.

It says to cook for about 3 minutes on each side for a total of 6 minutes to brown it.

2 minutes in and it was burnt black.

It says to add water, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes....

It was already burnt before that so I simmered it until the water boiled off again, which was about 5 minutes.

The hell.

Then I made the sauce as described.

Honestly, it tasted fine. A little under-seasoned but that's ok because individual eaters can add things to their liking. I used Contadina brand tomato sauce and it was both acidic and a little sweet, which paired well with the, let's say, seared meat...

I think I'd either turn the heat way down to start with or shorten the cook time to about 1 - 1.5 minutes on each side before adding water and then the simmer probably would still be maybe 8 minutes at most. Whenever the water is gone.

I don't know. I hate cooking, but I do enjoy trying new-to-me things.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

I did follow the recipe, actually.

The only things I did differently were having to substitute in a different cut of beef which changes literally nothing else about the recipe, having to guess what temp they wanted the oil heated to because the recipe doesn't say, and shortening the cooking times when I noticed it was burning black very early in the times they'd listed because I didn't need my kitchen on fire, which could have been avoided if they'd actually said what temp to set the stove to when heating the oil.

The last recipe I made from this set (Connecticut Beef Supper) had an entire teaspoon of salt. It was so salty that my whole family felt ill afterward.

Sometimes, the recipe is wrong.

That's something this set of recipe cards is notorious for.

I can cook anything well with a good recipe, but I still hate doing it regardless.

[tiffyfoundsomestuff]

This M3GAN doll was pointed out to me:

https://www.spirithalloween.com/product/poseable-m3gan-doll/282841.uts

I found lots of reviews of her by horror fans, but none by doll-people.

Since I am a doll-people, the horror fans' reviews weren't good enough.

So I ordered one. She was about $115 after shipping.

I'm still in my work clothes, bear with me. It amused me that she came in two shippers that are nearly identical other than one being small enough to fit inside the other.

Her box is very low on detail. She was held in with two zip ties which I had to cut to remove her.

There aren't a lot of good photos of the back of her box and I was curious whether her body looked like the one pictured or not. The answer is "Sort of...".

When I first got her out of the box I thought she was sculpted like a Goodreau doll in that she had her chin permanently jutting out, but her head can be posed more naturally. She does have the cheap action figure style of neck knob, though. Giant ball.

Her clothes are well made enough but don't feel very nice. The fabric is obviously plastic. It feels kind of like a cheap Halloween costume, which would make sense considering she was made explicitly for Spirit Halloween... There are some small stains on her clothes and body but considering the way she's made (cheaply), I'm not too bothered by them.

Her shoes were really difficult to remove. I recommend warming them up, first.

None of the horror fans that did reviews were willing to show her body. It's four different colors of plastic.

I have never seen M3GAN so have no idea if her body looks like that in the movie or not. I imagine it doesn't have big white areas.

Unfortunately she is very cheaply made with hollow, blown plastic parts. The joints aren't great. Even though she has double jointed knees and elbows she can only bend them to 90 degrees. Her hip joints are thin pins and there is no rotation other than her wrists and ankles.

Her legs can't be straightened out fully and the knee joints are loose. Because of that she cannot stand on her own.

There is a joint under her ribs but the rest are decorative sculpting and do not move. You can see that the gold is just paint. It's rubbing off already in one spot.

She does sit pretty nicely, at least.

The screening on her face is nice enough, but it's applied poorly. Her eyelashes are escaping.

I'd had a feeling her hair was polypropylene after watching some video reviews and seeing it get messy as soon as they looked at her and it absolutely is. I washed her hair and it was dry within minutes. It was also shedding hairs like crazy.

But! It's a wig! I think it was applied with hot glue, and I peeled it right off and threw it in the trash where it belongs.

If you need to know so you can buy her a new wig, her head is 9 1/4 inches.

This wig would probably be a good replacement, and I've bought doll wigs from them before. They're super soft and lovely.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3JF4zQk

The color isn't quite right, though.

M3GAN is roughly Super Dollfie sized or 1/3 scale but has more human proportions, and relatively enormous hands and feet.

I'm not sure how I didn't notice until just now that Giselle has high-heel feet, but you can see the difference in size. M3GAN certainly would not fit most SD sized clothing or shoes though might fit some SD13 boy sized items.

All in all I think she could have cost less but am not mad that she cost $99. For a horror fan she's probably really neat, whereas for a BJD and MJD collector she's a bit lacking BUT she doesn't cost nearly as much as a BJD or, say a Dollfie Dream, either.

She's an interesting doll.