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Progress report

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I uploaded some more progress photos of Edge's (Final Fantasy IV) armor. Here&Here


This past weekend I was able to everything painted. It killed my back to be hunched over for so long, but I'm really happy with the results. I was able to get the color and textures that I wanted for the finished product. A few of the pieces lost their shape when I tooled them but now that they are painted they have more flexibility to get them back into the shape.

This week my goal is to get all those part put together and get Edge's wig done and my Zidane wig started.

Joel finished cutting out Edea's back fan pieces even though it almost killed him and he's back to working on his shurikens.

I also took Zero to puppy daycare for an evaluation and to see if that's where he'll be staying when we head to Boston in April. Luckily he passed the test. We left him there for an hour on Saturday and when we picked him back up he was sleeping for the rest of the day...which made it a lot easier to get work done XD

This weekend Joel and I head back to Brooklyn to finish up some sewing projects and get our boots done...and hopefully start working on the skit?

21 Days!

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Less than month left until Anime Boston...so there will only be a few more updates before we jam-pack the cars and head to Boston.

This past weekend hubby and I put together his bracers, body armor, my belts, and leather vest. It all took a lot longer than we had anticipated, so we didn't get to Edge's boots until this past Monday. There's still more work to be done on those but that's been put off until this weekend.

I am extremely proud of all the leather work. It took a lot of time and effort to get it all done but I think the outcome (for first time leather work) is better than I had hoped for.

My daggers are all done except for the beads that hang off the pommel. The airbrush gods smiled on me this year. I didn't have a single issue with the airbrush! Let's just hope the luck continues with the Gunblade and Edea's head piece.

Last night I primed the Gunblade. We bought some chrome spray paint and a textured black paint for the handle. I hope to get all the painting done next week.

My wig is coming along slowly and the pieces for my gun holster have been cut out of leather and I'm starting to mold those. That is really the last major project I need to complete for my costume.

Joel is still working on his shurikens. He needed to order more Wonderflex, but last night he cut out all the foam and hopefully all the carving can be done this weekend..

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In other news our basement is getting ripped up Monday morning. After all that water seeped in during the last storm and we were up in the middle of the night pumping water out we decided it was time to fix the problem. So we are getting a new basement floor put in along with a sump pump. We had to dip into our vacation fund to help pay for...but at least we still have enough money to pay for AB this year! Ah, the wonders of homeowner-ship and debt!

more crazy weather

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A little while ago a thunder storm passed through and than it started to hail!

Looking around the neighborhood you might think a tornado came through. The are some pretty big trees that have fallen over and a lot of people that are in worse shape than we are. We can deal with the water in the basement with pumps but what do you do when a tree falls on your porch or your car..

recovering after the storm

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Got up waaaaay too early to turn the pumps on in the basement while Joel took Zero to doggy daycare.

The guys who were supposed to install the sump pump came by but there wasn't anything they could do because the water pressure down in the basement was just too much. If they broke into the concrete there was a good chance we would have a much bigger issue. Now we'll have to wait until the tides go down and the water dried up...in theory that should be towards the end of the week.

Our new storm door was also going to be installed today. The door came but it wasn't the right size...AGAIN! This is the second time Home Depot ordered a storm door for our house and it's the second time that it is the wrong size! The guy that picked up the door from the installation company wasn't too happy about it either. He isn't responsible for ordering the door just installing them and he was very specific about what size door we need. Luckily we already had the new front door installed, so I'm not as annoyed as I would have been...

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Maybe about a week ago Isabelle went to the vet in hope of finally figuring out if there is anything wrong with her. The vet gave her some amoxicillin mixed with an anti-depressant that I would have to give her 2 times day. The meds would work to clear up any infection she might have. Isabelle really wasn't happy about taking the meds. I had to wrap her up in a towel every time and she would spit up a lot of it and get pink medicine goo all over herself. Most likely she'll have to go back to the vet so he can see if the meds did anything. Even throughout all this torture Isabelle hasn't peed anywhere she shouldn't.

Hubby and I have talked about removing the carpeting in the master bedroom and replacing it with wood flooring. I think it would be a nice change and we won't have to keep a baby gate in front of the door anymore or worry about cat accidents on the carpet.

Anime Boston 2010

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Zombies Ate My Waffles! survived another year at AB. Unfortunately our Final Fantasy costumes were unable to bring us home with a win at the masquerade this year, but you can view our skit here at our Facebook fan page.

I've started to edit and upload some of our photos to my DA gallery...HERE But, there are plenty more photos to come. I think Joel and I took about 350 photos just of our own group's cosplay.

Overall I think we had a good time. My only regret was that we didn't get nearly enough Con-time on Saturday. It took a lot longer than we thought to get ready for judging in the morning. We weren't able to stop for any photos beforehand. After being judged we took some time to go out in the beautiful weather and take our own photos. That didn't leave us with much time except to eat and get to the Masq lineup. We might have had more time to wander around if we weren't stuck in the South Tower with the slowest elevators in the universe...I'm also pretty annoyed about that!

not much to say

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I forgot to renew my premium account, so now all my userpics are gone :( Oh well...

Hubby started his new job today and I have no clue when he'll be home. I always hated eating dinner late and it looks like I am going to hate it even more. Of course I would be happy to eat dinner at 4pm!

It's been a while since I last updated, but that's only because nothing interesting has been going on. Last week hubby and I took a trip down to VA to visit my father. His townhouse is on a lake and it was so quiet and peaceful there. Most of the other people who own there only visit on the weekends or during the summer. There wasn't much to do except sit on the deck and enjoy the sun.

Now that I'm back home I am suffering from terrible allergies and all I want to do is sleep! I'm not a big fan of taking meds everyday, but there doesn't seem to be any other choice. I forgot how bad my allergies could be since moving out of Brooklyn.

cosplay update - ConnectiCon

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ConnectiCon isn't too far away, so I've been trying to convince the hubby that he should rebuild the shuriken for his Edge cosplay. This time around he can make them completely out of foam and Wonderflex because he only needs to have them for craftsmanship judging and there is less worry of them breaking. He'll have his kunai to walk around with the rest of the time and those can take a beating...I've got a few things to work on to fix up my Zidane cosplay as well, so once June rolls around I'll start working on that stuff. I'm really excited about wearing this costume again!

Lenore

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I'm happy to announce the arrival of the newest member of my fuzzy little family! Hubby and I adopted a cute little (3 month old) dilute calico kitten from the Little Shelter in Huntington yesterday. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Lenore because she is constantly on the move and won't sit still long enough for me to get any decent pics of her. I took about 20 last night and 10 this morning, all of which are blurry, so I gave up! I did upload a few videos to YouTube though.

Last weekend we went over to the shelter to have a look at the kittens. As soon as we walked into the cattery Joel saw Lenore (shelter name : Ariel) and instantly fell in love with her. She was one of 3 dilute calico kittens there but the only fluffy one. As we were getting read to go in (had to put on gowns and booties like we were heading off to surgery) we were told by a volunteer that 2 of the kittens were already on hold, a light-gray kitten and Ariel. Disappointed that the cat we had our heart set on was already on hold we sat and played with the others to see if anyone else would stand out. Instead we were thinking we would take one of the other calico kitties, but we wanted to walk around a bit and think about it. As we were getting ready to leave and remove our surgical gear the volunteer came back to tell us the family who had put Ariel on hold had just called and decided to pass on her. Since we had completely ignored her the whole time we got dressed again and went back in to see her. It didn't take long for us to make the decision to take her home. So, we immediately put her on hold.

It wasn't until yesterday that we got to go pick her up after filling out forms and having our references checked. I turned the spare bedroom into the kitten's room, so she would have a quiet place to stay until she got used to the other pets

Lenore has already been introduced to Isabelle and Zero. Isabelle doesn't seem to mind the kitten so much but she has hissed a bit when Lenore has gotten to close to her tail. Zero, on the other had had not had the best start. After the initial meeting Lenore has done nothing but hiss at Zero and she even swatted at his head one. I'm trying to keep them at a distance for now. They can see each other and smell each other but no direct contact until Lenore is more relaxed. Although, I'm not too concerned and I'm sure they will all get along eventually.

I am a little worried about the bunnies. When Isabelle came home she was more scared of the rabbits than they were of her. She kept out of their way...but I don't know if the kitten will see it the same way. The bunnies will charge if they feel threatened and that might just be enough to set Lenore straight with them. Cloud plowed into Zero when he got to close to Winter once. I won't be trying to introduce the kitten to the rabbits until she is allowed downstairs and gets a little more comfortable in her new surroundings. As long as she doesn't try jumping in their cage I think everything will be OK, haha

Hopefully I'll have some photos soon!

a little bit of landscaping

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My dad drove up to visit last week for Father's Day and to help me with some landscaping. I certainly didn't think the yard work was going to be as grueling as it was!

We started in the front yard by ripping out the orange daylilies that had over grown in the front flower bed. There wasn't enough shade in the front for the flowers to bloom, so there wasn't any reason to keep them in their. After adding a few bags of soil and some mulch we planted some pink and white impatiens. Joel and I got some random planters at HomeGoods and I also planted some more impatiens to go on the front steps.

I also decided to paint over the brick on the front steps. They were old, ugly, and damaged. The paint did a nice job of covering up the white patch work and cracks.

My aunt was nice enough to dig up some of the plants that were getting over-crowding her garden and give them to me. I put some of them on the side of the house along with pink & red gerber daisies I bought. The rest went in the back next to the garage. It was a real pain to dig out all the weeds and till up the dirt by the garage. For some reason there were bricks down in the dirt and they all had to come up before I could plant. There's now a pretty blue hydrangea bush next to the garage.

Dad and I also dug out a circle around the tree in the back yard. There we planted hosta and more impatiens.

I'm pleased that the yard is starting to look a lot more pretty than the wasteland it was when we purchased the house last year. Now, I want to start looking into grass plugs to start growing something other than weeds in the lawn.

I read that vinegar works well to kill weeds (and because it's natural and won't hurt the dog) I decided to give it a try. It did work well but now there are big, ugly, dead-grass spots around the dead weeds. It's pretty unsightly, so I don't think I'll be going any more with the vinegar.

new laptop

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Don't get me wrong...I'm happy to have a laptop that loads fast and doesn't have to be constantly plugged in because it can't keep a charge for more than 10mins, doesn't overheat or randomly blank out on the screen, but I was hoping the old laptop would have lasted a bit longer. I wasn't too enthusiastic about spending more money on another computer when Joel and I recently got a new desktop. Luckily he had a decent amount of money in his Paypal account and we were able to get a deal through Dell on an Inspiron with an upgrade to an i3. Joel was actually doing research on Dell laptops for my mom when he decided it would be a good idea to invest in a new laptop before our old one completely crapped out on us.

The new laptop is much bigger & heavier than the old one and it's a little awkward for me to use since it is bigger than my lap...

Joel is going to take the old computer and install Linux on it so, it's not a complete waste, I suppose.

Back from ConnectiCon

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I've neglected my DA account and the messages and art have been piling up...so, I'm trying to go through everything now while I think what to write about ConnectiCon.

I didn't have any real expectation for CTCon, but I pleasantly surprised with how much fun I actually had there. My only real complaint (which has nothing to do with the Con itself) is about the lack of food options in and around the Connecticut Convention Center. I've been spoiled by the mall & food court attached to the convention center at Anime Boston. Luckily there was one deli that was open past 3pm and would delivery to the hotel!

I've got to say that I would definitely enjoy going back next year...and not just because of the board game library, lol. The Saturday Final fantasy photoshoot was a lot of fun and probably the most fun I've ever had at a group shoot.

So, all-in-all CTCon went over very well and it looks like Zombies Ate My Waffles! will be heading back next year. Now, it's time to start getting ready for New York Anime Fest. The con isn't until Oct (the weekend right before my birthday) but I want to make a new cosplay for myself and Joel.

Some of my new photos are uploaded at my DA account

Zero's issues with housebreaking

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I'm extremely frustrated...Zero was doing well being housebroken. He had a schedule and I could actually leave him outside of his crate for a few hours by himself and not even worry about him going in the house. Than he goes to daycare for a few days while I'm away at a Con and now it's like he completely forgot how to be housebroken. I figured that his schedule might be a little messed up but if I'm not around he won't go to the back door and bark when he needs to go out. He'll just go on the living room floor.

It's frustrating that a few days away could ruin so many months of work. It's like I have to start back from the basics again. Maybe next time I'll find someone to come to the house and watch him...because this isn't fun. I'd gladly pay them the same amount we pay for daycare if I don't have to deal with re-training my dog every time I go away for a weekend. Right before I left for the Con Zero had just gained the privilege to sleep on the bed at night. Now he's back in the crate at night and he'll have to be there a lot during the day until he snaps back into his routine. I hope that's very soon!

I've got plans to go out on Friday and I wasn't at all worried about leaving him out in the house all day but now he has to stay in his crate while I'm gone and I have to pass on seeing "Inception" to make sure that he gets outside...not at all pleased!

visit with the in-laws

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The in-laws came by this past weekend. It was almost 11pm when I got home from fabric shopping and my haircut Friday night, so it was a mad dash Saturday morning to get everything cleaned and organized before their visit. Joel and I took his parents to Cedar Beach for the day. The weather was nice, but I didn't go into the water. It was a little too breezy for the water to be anything but freezing. Unfortunately my morning headache turned into a full blown migraine by the late afternoon. After dinner at the diner I came back home and took a nap before watching Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow...which certainly didn't help my headache. It was a terrible movie with awful lighting (you're not Sin City, sorry) and bad acting!

Joel's parents left Sunday morning after breakfast. I enjoyed the visit but I am exhausted. I didn't get much sleep over the weekend because of the heat and headache. I had to fight this morning to get up relatively early...

I do have almost all the materials I need for my Vampire Princess Miyu cosplay at NYAF. I already went ahead and purchased the weekend tickets too. Hopefully this weekend I can take a trip over to Jo-Ann's to look for some basic patterns and maybe find some nice material for my "obi".

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I am enjoying the new Netflix subscription. I already watched the first 2 season on The Tudors instantly through Tivo, but now I have to wait to get the 3rd season by DVD. I watched the 1st 3 episodes yesterday, so we'll see how quickly I get the next disc. It's a shame there aren't more shows available for instant viewing. I would have liked to re-watch Rome. I can't even get season 1 of True Blood instantly! I just started to watch Spartacus with Joel yesterday as well, but I haven't really decided if I like it or not. The overly splatter-y blood is a little silly!

Inception

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I loved Inception!

There were 3 things that went through my mind while watching the movie...

1. Oh great, it's that wired looking woman from Public Enemies that I just love so much. Although she does work well as a crazy person.

2. I figured out the plot twist about 15mins into the movie

3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt had a really nice suit!

Back to the shelter

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Lenore went back to the shelter to be spayed. I can pick her up later this evening. It seems a little early, but it was now or never. The person who is responsible for making the spay/neuter appointments from the shelter called Sunday night and said "Ariel" could come in Tuesday morning, but there wasn't much room for negotiation. She would lose her spot to other cats on the waiting list and if I had to bring her to the Amityville vet it would be extra money out of my pocket because they couldn't give us another time to do the spaying. Ultimately, Joel had to stay home from work so he could drive there and drop her off at 9am and pick her up sometime before 7pm.

On the way home from the shelter (sans Lenore) we stopped at Petsmart and picked up a little pink kitty harness and leash, so we could walk Lenore outside.

my headaches still haven't gone away

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Last year when closing on the house someone from the mortgage company grossly underestimated the amount to be paid for property tax last year....let's just say the amount was off by about $5,000! Now, because someone was a complete idiot we are negative in escrow and will have to pay a whole lot more each month to the mortgage company. It boggles my mind that some "professional" made a huge mistake that is now causing a huge headache...and what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing except get the town to tell the mortgage company what our real property tax will be next year. Only thing is that the town won't know until Dec...

A similar situation has come up with the water compnay as well. For that last few months the bills have only been estimates, but now they demand more money because someone actually decided to do their job and read the meter. I wouldn't have to worry about shelling out more money now if people could just do their jobs and get actual numbers before they send out bills.

It must be hard to actually do your job properly!

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Now, on to more random and less stressful things -

I finished watching Spartacus through Netflix and my opinion definitely changed for the better about the series on or around episode 9. As a whole I thoroughly enjoyed it and I do hope there is a second season in the works. I've moved on to Weeds. Luckily their are quite a few seasons to get caught up on.

I am also caught up to season 4 of the Tudors. It wasn't until after watching the 3rd season I realized the 4th and final season isn't even out on DVD yet. I hate waiting for DVDs to come out...I've been waiting so long for season 4 of Dexter but in a few weeks I'll finally be satisfied!

This costume was supposed to be easy!

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I made a deal with my husband that if his Larva (Vampire Princess Miyu) wig doesn't arrive before NYAF/NYCC he can go as Robin (Batman). There is no Plan D at this point and although I will be extremely sad that he won't be my Larva I have simply run out of ideas. Plan A was easy enough...buy a white craft mask from Michael's and modify it with paperclay to look like Larva's mask. At this stage Joel didn't need to worry about a wig because he was only going to wear the mask. This plan failed when the only mask I could find were too small for Joel's head. I looked online for more options but I just couldn't find any website that would give me dimensions, so there was no way to truly know if anything I bought on a website would actually fit.

For Plan B I decided to make a my own mask using Rigid Wrap plaster strips directly on my husband's face. In the end this plan failed because the plaster didn't sand well and I never would have gotten the look I needed. Larva's mask doesn't really look like a real face anyway.

Moving on to Plan C. At this point I ditched the whole mask idea and decided to find a decent wig and contacts, so Joel could be Larva when he isn't wearing his mask. By now I already finished sewing his cloak and gloves. I also decided to go back the original plan of using a craft mask to make Larva's mask, but now it would be used as a prop instead of Joel's actual head gear.

We started working on the new mask last weekend, but I only just received the shipping notice on the wig today...so there's really no telling if it will actually arrive in time for me to style it. Now, that the mask has become a prop there is no way that Joel can actually wear it. I'm out of plans and extremely frustrated. So, I'll just have to wait and see but I hope that if I can't get Joel in his Larva cosplay at NYAF I can at least get him in it for another con...like, say AnimeNEXT next year.

To buy or not to buy...?

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I've been debating whether or not to order from Migidoll. I've got my eyes on a Cho head, but at the moment I don't have enough for both the head and body. Actually...I don't want the new Migi-boy body...but deciding on whether or not to splurge on the head is driving me nuts! There isn't a whole lot of info about what bodies match the new resin, but if I can't afford it now I guess I would have plenty of time to figure it out.

I had thought about selling my 2 Minifee Woosoo Vamp girls but I took them out of storage and looked them over and had a change of heart. I've already sold 4 of my dolls and I don't think I can part with anymore right now.

Man, life really is difficult sometimes! XD

Sick

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My husband got me sick! He passed his sore throat on stuffy/runny nose on to me and I am not amused. That's the worst part about living with someone...no matter how hard you try you will most likely always catch a cold if the other person has it. The only way around it would have been to move out of the house XD

I had a lot of fun at the doll meetup yesterday afternoon. Of course, I wasn't feeling sick then either! It's been over a year since I last attended and that's because cosplay took over my life. I'm hoping to start going back to the meets. It really is a nice relaxing thing to do in between the craziness of cosplay and cons. I think my husband took photos, so I'll have to check the camera later when I get some energy back.

Halloween

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This weekend is my Halloween party and also my 2 year wedding anniversary. I honestly haven't had much time to think the anniversary because planning a party takes way too much time! That's and cosplay.

Last year Joel and I spent our 1st anniversary in Maryland visiting with a Papillon breeder. This year is the party...maybe year 3 will be the year we actually go do something semi-romantic XD

Specific Carbohydrate Diet

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My poor husband has been having tummy troubles for a big part of his life. Recently a friend's mom passed along some information about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. SDC is a very strict grain, lactose, and sucrose-free diet. It's supposed to help people with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, and IBS...along with some other illnesses. My hubby got the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet, read through it and decided to give it a try. We wanted to wait until after the holidays to start because there's a lot of prep work involved. I've been pretty lazy lately about cooking, but I'll have to get over that because there are so many restrictions on this diet and that means almost everything needs to be made from scratch...

I think the hardest part for Joel is going to be the lack of sugar. He loves sweets, but the only things he'll be allowed to eat will be desserts made at home with honey & fruit instead of sugar.

I'm hoping he'll survive at least a year on this diet, but we'll see. There's a chance the diet may not work but he has to dedicate at least 3 months to it to find out.

Oh, hello LJ...long time no see

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Hmm, I've been neglecting LJ for such a long time! I've moved on to Tumblr and Twitter which I actually enjoy more. Apparently I just don't have that much to say anymore to keep up with a regular blog...and I was really never that good at expressing my thoughts in writing anyway.

Long story short - I'm making jewelry and selling at anime conventions on the east coast. I work with my BFF shiroiyukiko and my husband. Our studio is called Zombies Ate My Waffles! Things are doing well and I've even opened up my own Etsy shop.

So that's my life story right now. I'll be at Otakon, NYAF (hopefully) & AnimeUSA this year selling in the artist ally and cosplaying!

Angelic Pretty Wish List

Dreaming Macaron

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I've decided that i am going to wear this to NYAF/NYCC on Friday the 14th. I'll be in the Artist Alley ^_^

Headbows ~ Handmade
Blouse ~ Angelic Pretty
Skirt ~ AP Dreaming Macaron
Socks ~ Sock Dreams
Shoes ~ Angelic Pretty
Purse ~ Angelic Pretty
Wrist Cuffs & Bracelets ~ Handmade

Decoration Dream

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I took a couple of photos while I was trying to figure out what to wear to Ohayocon next weekend.






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Apron Skirt ~ AP Deco Dream
Blouse ~ AP
Socks ~ AP
Shoes ~ Secret Shop
Wig ~ Gothic Lolita Wigs
Hair Accessories ~ AP, Chocomint, Handmade
Jewelry ~ Handmade


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