I'M ALIVE I PROMISE OMG (Updates yeehaw)

Hello besties, I kinda took July off inadvertently. I'll do my best to explain, but I do want to thank you all for being so patient with me ;; It genuinely means a lot to me! Skip to middle of post if you just want pin updates!

WHERE I'VE BEEN!

I know I've been saying Life is Happening™ all year (which it sure has been), but that's more or less what happened. One plan fell through & then it just took forever to pick myself back up properly. I think it was just mental stuff & burnout. Not fully sure, but it was completely unexpected & I feel so bad that it went down the way it did.

I was supposed to go back to my home city of Tampa for Metrocon, but for a couple of reasons, ended up cancelling kinda last minute. Still not sure if that was a smart move on my part, my BF says I was probably due for a break of sorts cause I've been on the move sine March. 

This is the most I've travelled & vended at cons ever, so I guess I'm a lot more disorganized than I thought. My method of madness IS working I think? But only to a certain extent lol. I'm proud of me for doing so much this year! But I also have to remember I'm human & I don't have the energy (mentally & physically) at 29 than I did at 23-24. I have more cons this year but I couldn't help but catch myself looking forward more to my local con this month than I was for Metrocon (with travel & hotel expenses in mind). I'm still learning my limits with things, I guess it's just taking longer to find my groove.

I still feel bad that I didn't go though. I've been the breadwinner essentially since my BF got sick & only just kinda got back on his feet & feels well enough to look for jobs again. It's taking its toll on me cause I'm a lot more tired & low energy than I want to be but I'm doing my best!

Health:

I got sick like 3 times in July :' ) The first time I was bumming off a cold my BF caught from AnimeNext that was delayed, but still got me lol. The last 2 times, my stomach was not a fan of things I consumed & it completely rocked me harder than I felt in a very long time. One of the instances had me in pain for about 3-4 days. Fun times ~(>_<。)＼

I'm much better now! Hoping I don't go through it again though 😅

Other IRL stuff:

Found out my dad has glaucoma a couple of weeks ago, amongst other health issues that come with age. Both of my parents are older cause they had me in their early 40s, so I always knew in the back of my head that I'm going to see them go through things at a slightly younger age than most of my mutuals. But to see it actually kinda happen in real time distressed me hard for a couple of days.

Glaucoma isn't a death sentence obviously, it could be a lot worse with other conditions, but just knowing that it's just a matter of time before he's probably incapable of helping himself saddens me dearly. 

I made a post about it here months ago! But, for those that don't know, my bf was diagnosed with Diabetes in late April. I was in the midst of attending a con when he was in such a bad state of Diabetic Shock that it would've lead to a deadly stroke. I'm just glad that life kinda intervened & I was able to get him the help he needed.

He's doing much better now though! He's still here, he's back to his old self, & just going day to day. He recently told me he wasn't feeling 100% until just recently in late June/Early July, so I've been doing my best to financially & emotionally support him the best I can. So I've been focusing on keeping him company cause I'm 110% sure he has PTSD from his medical episode, but who could blame him? It wasn't fun for either of us :' )

TL;DR if you don't wanna read a wall of text: Loved ones have health issues, I was burnt out & kinda took an impromptu hiatus but hi I exist!

PIN & PACKAGE UPDATES!

There was a massive delay on my part but packages for pins have (finally) been sent out! I've contacted those for the first 2 pins & just bundled them into the same package! I really want to apologize on the massive delay; low energy stuff kicked my butt & I was disorganized but I promise to do much better in the future!

Pinkie Pie & Vaporeon Pins:

Since June & July were such a mess for me for numerous reasons, I haven't fully started production for either of these pins yet but absolutely will later this month! With that we should get them ideally sometime in September! Factors for the delays include:

• Shipments overseas were delayed due to strikes. (Should be ok now I think?)
• I had to redo Pinkie's pin 3-4 times to fix her face & reduce costs (it was going to be very expensive lol)
• Had a con in June & then July threw me a curveball™ but I'm getting back on my feet.
• I have a local con later this month that I'm slightly prepping for.

But the good news is, I ordered the stickers ahead of time! I made the silly mistake of forgetting to order the Pink Panda stickers when the pins were in production (I have them now lol) so I figured doing it ahead of time was for the better. Normally I'd wait until the pins were maybe a day away from being delivered to order stickers, that way I could grade & package the pins accordingly.

They came out cute I think! I also have a price quote for the Pinkie pin that works within my budget without taking much - if at all - from the design!

Hoping to have a design poll out by this weekend for August! I doodled some pin ideas on paper the other day, but idk if they're too detailed since I have a nasty habit of making things complicated lol.

That's all for now! This was a long af post & I apologize for that! I just had a lot to say I think :' ) Thank you so much for taking the time to read! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me here or on Twitter!