Letters from the Garden — After the Rain

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚. Letter from Me

Growing up is realizing that not every month has to be productive. Sometimes, growth happens quietly, beneath the surface. Looking back, June felt like the rain before a new season. There were plenty of changes behind the scenes, and while not everything is finished, ready or not, I have to start planting ‘new seeds’.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.  Garden Updates

When I changed my username to [Alienatedfl0wer] last year, I wasn’t expecting much. It used to be just a play of words. Sometimes I even feel slightly awkward because the name ‘alienated flower’ sounds long. Even so, the name always felt right, so I stayed with it.

Over the past few months, Alienatedfl0wer has slowly begun to take shape. Rather than simply sharing finished artwork, I wanted this place to become a home for everything that grows around it. 

This month’s changes:

1. Introduced Letters from the Garden as an official monthly newsletter.
2. Added Field Log, an in-universe journal documenting the development of Alienated W0rld.
3. Reorganized the blog archive to make future posts easier to navigate.
4. Began shaping a clearer direction for AlienatedFl0wer as both an art blog and creative journal.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.  Studio Notes

Last June I was mostly working to get back to drawing, and only drawing comfort characters. Following the release of my Pony Base, I created 2 adoptable pony batches: Sweet Celebration and Garden of Pride. These were so fun and I’m so happy with how they come out! The Pride batch is only available for a short 48 hours, I love them so much that if not claimed I already have a place for them in my own lore 💗

I also finished a couple of commissions from Vgen:

Itty Bitty Chibi for Funrin

Beach Days YCH for ManaVT.
Base is by the ever so talented PumpkinCatCarnival.

Itty Bitty Chibi for XAndromeda

Custom Mascot Design for MomoVT

I cannot thank my clients enough because working on these comms really kept me sane throughout June!

For July, I will mostly focus on reorganizing my bases, my assets and drawing more for Alienatedw0rld. I did have myself assigned in team Tragedy by random for artfight but like last year, I don’t think I’ll actively participate. (BUT I don’t know though if I suddenly want to invest 2 hours of my days on attacking for 25 days idk)

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.  Garden Wanderings

I thought moving into my own room will make me feel more relaxed and prompted me to create more, instead, life really has been challenging me and trying their very best to keep me off of my iPad. 

My room-cat Ruri got sick, likely infected from her siblings when she’s roaming the house. My campbell hammy, Bourbon also has a soft lump on HIS chest, below his chin. So I took both of them to the vet and I have been giving them both antibiotics daily until the meds run out. [Edit: I just realized Bourbon is a male.. the betrayal but Bourbon is still Bourbon so yeah..]

Thankfully Bourbon is very cooperative and it was easy to get him to drink his antibiotic but when it comes to my cat, Luli, it was a bit of a struggle. At the time of writing though, me and my sister have becoming more accustomed and I could not be more proud of myself for finally able to give meds to my own cat. 

The house renovation is still on going, though it’s scheduled to end in July. It was messy and tiring but thanks to it, we found yet another sewing machine so now, my house has 3 known working sewing machine, all with slightly different features. So we are turning the barely used guest bedroom into me and my sister’s shared workspace to house the sewing machines and our art and craft supplies. 

There was a little bit of a drama surrounding the matter but in the end, we are getting our shared workshop and we cannot wait to create more as we plan on also setting up a small sticker printing corner too. 

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.  Looking Ahead

1. First Field Log entry, scheduled to be released mid-July.
2. Update on the mascot and semi-chibi dolly base.
3. New services on Vgen.
4. New more affordable services via Artistree.
5. Quietly working on Alienated W0rld in the background

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.  In Closing

Playing	Sudoku
Listening	Honey Almond by TIMELESZ
Current Flower	Camelia
Current Focus	Decorating my room
Current Mood	Tired

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Human Messenger

 Hello.

I hope this post find you well. Two weeks ago, I thought moving in to my renovated room will give me more time to relax and focus more on my art and the little world I’m building but.. turns out I was mistaken. 

I’m so happy to be moving into a ‘new’ room that is closer to my dream room by design BUT I completely overlook: moving back my stuff, buying/ revamping old furnitures.. not to mention the workers unknowingly spilled some water from the Serap Air (water absorber/ dehumidifier) that I was using and it ruined my books.. some of them were my beloved the clique series and some translated fantasy books that is no longer being sold. The texts were okay but the pages?? Forever damaged.. it’s been 10+ days too and the pages hasnt dried out.

And that was not all. So I do live in the family house and navigating between generations is not easy. Most of the elderly here are avoidant but love to complain and lash out not to mention at least 2 of them has narcissistic tendencies. Despite my room being ‘done’ I was kinda being the human messenger between these people and the contractor for a little while before I eventually got sick and tired of it and just recently I began asserting my own boundaries and stop relaying messages. 

The contractor being soooo stubborn with his aesthetic also add to the stress. At the end of the day it was not him who live in the house so I wish he would listen more to what the house residents are saying because these past months it’s been multiple cases of ‘wrong tiles, incomplete progress but already moving on to other room AND back, wrong concept, plants were wrongly removed’ all because he does NOT listen. (Me and my sister already know that he loves to tweak things to his own taste or liking even though technically he does get the job done, but our mother wants things to be done ASAP and so the whole renovation happened)

On top of all of this, one of the house cat, Not Rena passed away because she inhaled some cement dust particles and she was vulnerable as she just recovered from a cancer removal surgery. Plus 2 other cats got sick, Joni got a fever and is already recovered, and Juna got bronchitis due to cement dust (currently being monitored for recovery). Juna has to recover and thank goodness we caught it on time :(

Anyways life has been so mentally stressful its like running a marathon but mental. 

BUT my hamster, Miranda taught me that life goes on (just her dgaf and kept running on her wheel) so I try to NOT have all of this affect me much and my craft. I did ask for a hiatus from mod work though but I resume commission work because it helps take my mind off of my personal life.

That’s it.. on a positive note.. I got a new hammy, a campbell panda (molted), because I moved Miranda to a larger cage, 100x50x50 Bucatstate and my 150L container cage is empty PLUS I have always wanted a campbell panda. The little hammy arrived on June 6, and we kept calling it Borneo but when we checked it’s a she we were shocked, she didnt have a name for 24 hours.. we ended up calling her Bora Borneo, or Bourbon for short and she’s suchh an adorable curious hammy with an attitude.

Bourbon, annoyed that I moved her from her temp. cage

Today I tried to get shit done because I want my ‘personal project’ to no longer be personal and they are not gonna work on their own. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you on next post!! 

Xoxo

Jasmine

Paypal, Ponies and Fresh Starts

HI JUNE!

Finally I bring in some good news and update for everyone.. Following from previous post, my room IS finally DONE! All there’s left to do is just clean ups, more polishing and for me to fill out the now empty room with mix of old and new furnitures <3

Now that aside, I have been working on the side on commissions, and trying to make Paypal work again. If you have been around since last year, actually I had a problem with withdrawal and was unable to use the money that I have accumulated for months in my Paypal —previously I only used Paypal invoice as means to my commissions and adoptables. I still remember clearly that last year I was so desperate in making Paypal work again because 99% of the spaces I’m in use it as main payment channel. The whole process took me a month and me making a brand new bank account + me getting scammed and lost all of my savings. And despite all that, I still couldn’t withdraw my money so I gave up and lost a good chunk of clients and opportunities. 

For a whole year I make do with stripe payment via Vgen and it was always triggering + annoying when I clearly stated ‘No Paypal’ and yet people still ‘push’. — yes I think it’s common knowledge that majority of the people in adoptable communities RARELY read. TLDR, I gave up trying until a short while ago, I received some money for staff work.. to my Paypal. And for some reason, I do want this money to be able to go to my bank account. So I created.. another account. TBH it did stress me out, having some $ in my Paypal account. Because it kept reminding me of how I couldn’t withdraw them + the 1 month back and forth between Paypal Customer Service to Bank teller to Paypal CS and back again. It also made me think, it didn’t hinder people from commissioning East Asian artist who doesn’t use Paypal at all. So by that logic, if people want my art enough, it should NOT be a problem. And it wasn’t a problem. But I am also aware if I use Paypal it will open more opportunities esp. considering how Patreon and Ko-fi both use Paypal (my country is not yet eligible for a Stripe account. When I mentioned Stripe here, it’s actually Stripe Express. So 3rd party like Vgen, Artistree and BMAC are the one opening those account) and while there’s Buy-Me-A-Coffee, it’s unfortunately not widely known and people I’ve met so far aren’t open to alternatives like Payoneer or Paysend, despite them providing better conversion rate and cheaper fee compared to Paypal.

but after 1 whole year.. Finally I can withdraw my money from Paypal. So that means, Paypal payment IS working again. So yippee! IDK if it’ll change anything in terms of traffic and sales BUT from my POV, it took a HUGE load off of my mental strain. I plan on making my own game and ARPG  which, will not be launched until next year and payment processor IS a huge worry because I do want to sell physical merch and offer supporter tier for the game. 

Now on to the next thing, following home reno (my room is done but we are doing the whole house-ish) I can barely keep up with species work so I decided to resign my position as Permanent Artist in Vampichi. I still love the species and cannot wait for more lore drops and development of the cute anthro vamps but I think I’m better suited as a regular community member. It was a fun ride and I’m thankful for the opportunity! (If you enjoy anthro species I recommend checking them out, they are discord based but you can check their traits and world on Toyhouse ^^)

Aside from that, and throughout all the stress, I have been finding comfort in my childhood fave: ponies.. so I decided to make my own Pony Base, now available on my Vgen for $5 (Personal Use) and I think I’ll casually make silly little pony batches from time to time. 

That’s it from me! This month, is nothing but recurring theme of ‘Making Space’ for me, be it letting go of certain things to make room for new ones, or setting aside some time to try again and make Paypal work again. 

PS: IK Miranda (my hammy) current enclosure seemed to be already ‘big enough’ — it’s a custom 150L container bin, but I still want to be upgrading her cage so I just bought a 100x50x50 Bucatstate 3.0. The bin actually match nicely with my room so I may use it if I decided to adopt a 2nd hammy.. they’re just the cutest most annoying creature ever! 

Miranda, my Syrian hammy.. I can’t believe it’s almost a month now since I adopted her ☺️☺️ she’s getting rounder and rounder each day! 

Luli my baby and my loft <3 it’s still barren as I just moved in 4 days ago but I’m happy with it and cannot wait to decorate and fill it with my favorite things <3<3

That’s it from me.. thank u for reading <3 

Xoxo,

Jasmine