Hello all - this update will be going out to my entire audience, in an attempt to cut down on e-mail clutter for everyone. I apologize for how long it has taken for me to send this out, but that is an unfortunate side effect of what I'm about to dive into. Preemptive apology for the length as well - but I truly, TRULY would appreciate you taking the time to read it ALL to ensure you catch anything that applies to projects you have pledged to, especially outstanding ones, or to simply understand a bit more about my situation in case you would like to pledge to future projects. 

First off - ALL Pride Potion, Popsicle Panic and Pastel Witchy rewards have been mailed at this time. I will be officially closing those projects one week from today. Across all three projects there are ELEVEN backers who have either not filled out their survey, or not paid outstanding post-sunrvey shipping and add on costs. Once projects close I will NOT be moving forward with further fulfillment. As stated in the original project story sections, I simply do not have the space to indefinitely hold packages aside - but moreso now, I do not have the capacity to check these projects to see if payments have been made. Please feel free to re-read story disclaimers to refresh on my policies if necessary. 
I plan to mark fulfillment status this week to reflect this update. 

Regarding remaining projects - they are all in various stages, and I will explain those in separate project specific updates in the next few weeks (Holographic Midnight's will be below the cut as I am sending this update out through that project). A quick paragraph about The Obscure Celestial and Pride Planet Parade will be at the end of this update.

The most important bit is about my personal situation and why projects have been taking so much longer than I originally hoped/planned, and why communication has been so sparse. 

I have mentioned a couple of times about my health - in late Dec 2024, I got sick with mono...for about 6-7 weeks I didn't do much of anything aside from launch Popsicle Panic, and rest. I knew several people who got mono, including my partner (who I cared for in mid 2021 when he was sick with mono, wisdom teeth infections & antibiotic complications due to the mono) and they ultimately recovered within 8-12 weeks max. 
 Unfortunately, that has not been the case for me at all. Since that December, things with my health have been in a steady decline. My fatigue has been constant, worsening during periods of heavier stress and work (which makes sense), however workloads that were once not a huge issue for me have begun to trigger crashes. After two different people in my life expressed concern that my symptoms mirrored their own, I have begun to realize I very likely have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - an increasingly common complication of both mono and Long Covid. 

The last 6-8 months in particular have been an exceptionally steep decline. Since mid/late last year I have planned and worked on several projects (fully dropping or dropping out of some), assuming I would continue to have the energy to fulfill them effectively. That has clearly not been the case. After my car accident in January, my capacity began to decline further, to the point I am at today. I want to emphasize that at the time of launch for all projects so far this year, I had a genuine trust in myself and belief I could manage the 3, then 4 and 5 outstanding projects without issue. That reality, with my change in health status, has also changes. 

This update has been a struggle to post - but, as I took today off after a particularly exhausting convention weekend, I am forcing myself to put *something* out for everyone who has so graciously supported me over the last nearly 3 years of crowdfunding. I don't want to continue to leave you all in the dark while more time continues to pass. 

While I have a lot of open projects at the moment, and am talking about how hard fulfillment has become, you may also have noticed that I have a teaser page up for the upcoming Backerkit run Holiday Market. It may seem irresponsible to launch yet another project while already behind and overwhelmed, but to put it simply - I am in great need of the funds a project with next to zero new item requirements would provide, due to my plans to take an extended health break/leave of absence from work. 
This carries me into my plans for the future - next year, my ONLY plans for crowdfunding are a few ready to ship events (likely in April, August, and November again for the holiday market), and ONE new project (Cosmic Abyss - this one has been on my mind since nearly the beginning, so I would really love to see it come together) at most toward the end of the year. January through most of March will be spent focusing ENTIRELY on rest and recovery ONLY. This will hopefully give me a chance to better gauge where I am at with my health, so that I can pace myself with work more accurately and not end up as behind as I have been. And also see where my new baseline for working is at, so I can judge whether or not I have to consider the idea of cutting back permanently on in person events or quitting them entirely. Something I TRULY do not want to do. 

At the end of the day I adore this job, going to conventions and meeting some of you even (at least two people mentioned having backed my crowdfunding projects at RetroGameCon this weekend, which was wonderful to hear and made my weekend 💖), making new products and designing fun and exciting merchandise. I don't want to be here, considering what I can afford to still do, if anything. But it is where I am at now, and my ultimate goal is to complete all fulfillment by the end of December so I can take my extended break, have a bit of a financial safety net so my partner isn't shouldering all the burden, and if I am exceptionally lucky, maybe not *actually* have ME/CFS and recover from maybe just some severe autistic/regular burnout. Time will tell. 

Finally, info about outstanding projects - if you have read everything above this, a comment on this update would be exceptionally helpful. Purely from a moral support standpoint - making an update of this size & with such an emotional weight to it is frankly terrifying to send out into a void I may not hear a single peep back from. Even admitting that is very vulnerable for me, and I hope you all can empathize with or maybe even understand that. 

A larger and more detailed update with images of the pins will be coming through this week - but the short, important part is that I have approved all pin samples, and should have all pins within the next month or so. 
 The bags have been a slog. The short story is the final pre-production sample is going to be made in the next week, and then it should take 6-8 weeks to arrive to me after that. Fulfillment MAY leak into January, but I will be doing everything in my power to get orders containing bags out as soon as they arrive. All other orders will go out as soon as pins arrive. 
Ultimately, dealing with the continuous hiccups along the way for this project has been severely mentally and emotionally taxing. Something that at one point would not have wiped me out for days, but now does. So working through these issues - and even prepping and approving pin proofs - has taken 4 or 5 times as long as it has for pretty much all other projects. The relief I will feel once these bags are in hand is immeasurable. 

Pin proofs will be approved officially today, and production will hopefully be speedy for these as they are small, simple pins. We are a bit behind on the timeline but my hope is I can get fulfillment started by Thanksgiving and completed before the Holiday Market is over. The delay in production of these pins is directly caused by the above mentioned mental/emotional fatigue & toll, but also general overwhelm as I try to balance the needs of my business with an ever shrinking pool of energy available each day. 

These projects being unfulfilled has weighed HEAVILY on my mind every single day they continue to drag on. I promise you I have no intentions of allowing them to fall into permanent limbo. I know a lack of updates is frustrating as a backer - but, to be completely honest, I cannot keep up with monthly or even every other month updates for 3+ projects. The typing and formatting is exceptionally mentally taxing, and even that form of exertion is too much a lot of days. 
Going forward, with new projects, I hope having fewer of them overall will help with consistent updates. And possibly only sending out short updates, with less embellishment. But I tend to overexplain in order to feel my point is being made, so even attempting to write shorter updstes might end up more difficult due to needing to reread and edit them down...I hope this update will provide enough of a tide over until I can sit myself down to properly update in their respective projects; until then, I want to express yet another thank you and deep, undying gratitude for your patience and kindness as I have begun to *try* to navigate this very scary, upsetting, confusing and frustrating time in my life. I wish I could do more - in fact I would be doing more if I could. Truly. Hopefully the future will bring a better outlook on things 🙏 

I hope everything in here made sense, as I am probably working through a crash at this moment and my near constant brain fog is debilitating these days.

Read on for info on Holographic Midnight!