October

CREATOR

11 days ago

Project Update: Big Brew Bash Update

Hello everyone! Long time no see. I'm here to give a full rundown on what's up and where we're going from here!

Fulfillment is on the horizon. We're currently being held back by 2 things:

Time - all my labor keeps getting siphoned in to preparing for the conventions that are keeping a roof over my head. This wouldn't have been an issue if I'd received the full amount since I had money to float us through a break in cons to focus on fulfillment in that budget. I'm doing the best I can with the slashed budget, I've had to pull some miracle work just to get us this far and I do need to keep on the slow and steady to avoid disaster.
Materials - Specifically, stuffing. I may have mentioned this before, but polyester fiberfill is a petroleum project. This means both the price and availability are affected by whatever is going on with oil. Those 2 sentences are secretly a short horror story for anyone stuck in the US right now. I would've started fulfillment earlier this month when I was due for another stuffing order, but I was only sent 150lbs last time. I typically order around 1200lbs at a time. You can see how this'd be a pipe to the knees when every jumbo takes 3 to 5 lbs a piece. I've been having to use what I can get on, again, con prep.

I am going to be vending at Furry Weekend Atlanta, which was a pleasant surprise to get in to, and we did better at the last convention than expected. So I am taking all of May after FWA and all of June off from cons. My wife and I have that pencilled in as Work On Big Brew Bash time. I will start sharing fulfillment updates as soon as we begin, so expect to see more frequent communication around May 18th (giving us some grace time to travel home and decompress.) The end of the wait is on the horizon! I believe we'll be squeaking in at around 1 year from project start to project end.

If we run out of stuffing, I have money set aside and will be in the area of my source in early July. I'll be going with a truck and trailer to get some full compressed palettes of the specific kind I use. I'm usually limited to uncompressed boxed fiber since full bales are a local pickup only item, and making the 2 day drive JUST for stuffing hasn't been worth it (especially with gas prices, since we'll have a 16ft trailer loaded down- we get like 10mpg when hauling it is BRUTAL,) but we'll be within a 4hr detour I'm happy to take advantage of. So we might be delayed by material availability temporarily, but I have as good a plan as it gets for that too.

I apologize. This has turned out to be a mess in a number of really scary ways. Both financially and labor-wise it has turned in to far more of a hungry beast than expected, demanding a lot more of me than hoped. I've been working extremely hard to keep things going and make sure we cross that finish line no matter what, and I've had to be careful to keep my head above water in the meantime. Being careful means more time passing, but we're finally almost there. It will feel good to finally have those werewolves and gnolls arriving at their final destinations and getting hugged by their new person for the first time. They are coming, you will get your plush, I'm doing the best I can as quickly as I can, and I promise they will be worth the wait! Thank you deeply for your patience so far. I'll see you soon in May!

TL;DR: Fulfillment starts around May 18th and goes through June. Stuffing supply problems may stretch it in to August.

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