Hey there everyone,

I'll be posting a similar update across multiple campaigns, so my apologies if it pops up in your email more than once 🙏🏼 I'll be keeping this update backer-only since it contains some private/sensitive information about the recent delays in the final production phase. ‼️ EDIT: I changed the privacy settings of this update to public for the time being, some of my Pre-order Backers who pledged after the campaign can't view this update unless I make it public (Trigger warning: Mental Health)

First of all, I want to sincerely apologize for my absence and the delays in posting an update. I know you've all been waiting patiently to see the progress/pics, and I want to explain what's been happening during this latest delay posting an update.

There's no easy way for me to put this, but my family and I have been experiencing a major crisis involving an immediate family member who has been going through a severe mental health episode. This began shortly after my last update, and the situation has continued ever since then. Every day has been unpredictable, and I've spent countless days/nights traveling out of town to help my family handle each new crisis. We have limited mental health resources in our small-town area, so we've had to manage these episodes pretty much on our own. Thankfully, we've finally been able to find professional help for my family this past week, and we're able to take a breath for the first time in a long time.

It's been emotionally and physically exhausting, and my attention has been pulled away from my work for much longer than I expected. From the bottom of my heart, I'm so incredibly sorry for these delays. I know that from the outside it may have seemed like I had gone quiet for no apparent reason, but I honestly struggled with everything that we were going through on top of how I was even going to explain such a complicated and personal situation in a public forum here. But I felt it was important to be honest with you all about what's been happening behind the scenes, and I hope you all can understand.

Please know that I haven't forgotten about any of you or the bag production 🥺🙏🏼 This has been one of the hardest times in my personal life, and I hope you all know that these delays are absolutely not a reflection of how much I value each and every one of you for supporting my small business. 

✅ Bag production has been happening *close* to my original timeline (I was really hoping for October arrival, we will be just 1 month off schedule). There was a slight delay with production at the very end of last month, but that's only because I ordered an extra batch of plus-sized straps and different colored inserts so everything could be shipped together all at once.

➡️ Recap pic of the extra insert colors~

✅ In the middle of this month, my manufacturer gave me the great news that they shipped everything out and it should be here hopefully by the middle of next month (everything is being shipped by boat, so it takes a little over a month to arrive to me). This means I should get everything out *before* the holidays :)

Final pic before being shipped out~

✅ Here's some other pics my manu sent me at the end of last month saying everything is wrapped up and ready for shipment! 

✅ New feature in this series:
Metal feet were installed on the bottoms of this new batch of bags, you can see it on the tops of these 3 pics~ This will prevent the bags from getting dirty when placed down, I hope you all will love this new feature 💖 

➡️ If you are a backer of my previous pin campaigns, I'm shipping out pin orders as quickly as I can 💪🏼💌 As soon as the bags arrive to me, I'll be working hard to ship all bags out ASAP 🙏🏼 My convention schedule is clear until the end of the year, so I'm working hard to get everything back on track. Getting all the orders shipped out is my #1 priority now that I'm able to focus on work again. Thank you all so much for bearing with me through these delays 🥺🙏🏼

Because this update involves my family member's private health/personal circumstances, I'm sharing it only with my campaign backers. I kindly ask that you please keep this information within our BackerKit community and please not share it anywhere else 🥺 I've intentionally left out a lot of details to protect my family's privacy and I won't be posting about this situation on social media. I just don't want to expose my family to any extra stress or unwanted attention, so I really do appreciate your understanding and discretion keeping this information private here. 🙏🏼

I really cannot thank you all enough for your patience, understanding, kind words, and continued support during this time. I truly am sorry it's taken me this long to explain what's been happening. Now that my family is finally getting some help and I'm able to return to work, I'm fully focused on getting the bags out to you all as quickly as I can. I'm so incredibly grateful to each and every one of you for being here and supporting my art. It means the world to me, and I can't wait for you all to receive your bags and enjoy them in person! 💖

Much love,

Jess

Great news!! The smoke tests were sent out over the weekend, and everything is looking great with no errors reported! 🥰🙏🏼 Since I haven't seen any issues pop up, I'm officially releasing all surveys tonight! 🎉

🎮 Keep an eye on your email!! Your BackerKit survey should be arriving there shortly! 💌 ➡️ If you can't find your survey, you can recover it here~ https://gaming-ita-bag.backerkit.com/

Please fill it out as soon as you can so I can finalize quantities and keep production moving forward on schedule ^_^ If you notice any issues filling out your survey, please leave a comment on this update and I'll get it fixed as soon as possible! 💖

Thank you all again for your patience and support. I can't wait to get these bags into your hands very soon! 😻👜✨

💟Jess~!

Hey everyone!

First I just want to send a huge *THANK YOU* to each and every one of you for making this ita bag campaign such an amazing success during Bag Bazaar! 💖💖💖 I know this update is a little bit overdue, but I want to be transparent and let everyone know what's been happening behind the scenes 🤗 Nothing bad, I've just been incredibly busy on the road~

So immediately after Bag Bazaar ended, I had to go straight to vend at a convention for the weekend. Then I traveled to vend at two separate week-long flea market/outdoor events that were held on isolated campgrounds in the middle of the woods. Even though I brought my computer with me to finish the surveys in my tent when the event closed each night, I was stuck with basically zero cell phone service. So that means I couldn't connect my computer to my mobile hotspot to work on anything 😩 

Any time I did manage to connect my computer to my mobile hotspot, I'd run into these weird error pages that I couldn't fix/lookup how to fix because of the internet connection that was worse than 90's dial-up internet lol 🙃🙃🙃

Getting so fed up by life and technology at this point lol 

Now that I'm finally back home (and not living in a tent lol), I've gone into overdrive getting the surveys finished! ✅ The BackerKit team has been working with me since I got back to make sure there's no errors in the surveys, so I'm hoping to get the final survey approval by tomorrow and release the Smoke Tests!!
(I'll send a new update when that happens~)

The great news is that while I was traveling between shows, I was still able to contact my ita bag manufacturer on my phone to start the production process! That means that everything is on track with the original timeline which I'm super happy about! 🥰🙏🏼 I'm hoping to have the ita bags in hand around the middle/end of September~

‼️ To keep production on track, Surveys will be open for 2 weeks until the end of July!‼️ This is so I can update the final quantity if anyone wants to add an extra bag or anything else from the Survey Add-on shop ^_^

If you've backed any of my previous campaigns, I'll be posting photos + updates on those platforms soon that I missed posting because of the whole no service fiasco. Here's a sneak peak of the finished insect pins and some of the other pins in production🪲🖤

📣 I'm excited to announce a new addition to these Aztec skeleton pins: they will also be glow in the dark!! 🖤💚

Thank you again everyone for your amazing support, patience, and encouraging words throughout this entire campaign!! 🥰🙏🏼💖  I'll share a new update ASAP when the surveys are finally approved and sent out!!

💟Jess~ ^_^