Happy spooky season! 🎃✨ I hope you have been well since the last update. As you can tell from the title, Moocha Latte his finally on his way to me! I'm estimated to receive him at the end of this month/begin November as he's currently still undergoing CE safety testing at the moment.
The final plushie left will be Sailor Moo. My plan still is to get all plushies in-house before 2026 ends and I'll work hard to make this happen. Once I have more information to share about Sailor Moo, I'll let you know.
I've also been lagging a bit behind on fulfilling shipments due to primarily health reasons but I'll be going back into it this month! I'm also expecting to work another job some time in November so I'll be racing to get as many out as possible. Thank you so much for your patience once again.
🇪🇺 EU shipping check-in:
For more detailed information on what's going on, you can check out this update, as this is a follow-up to that!
The European Commission will be officially addressing this on October 19th and have already previously acknowledged the people's pleas for micro/small businesses. I've been testing the waters in sending out very few EU shipments regardless, but so far it's been going fine *knocks on wood*. I'll try and keep shipping out small doses of packages but please keep in mind that these will be done very sparingly since everything is still very unclear.
Lastly, since I'll be posting this in every update from now on as a kind reminder in case this is something you'd be interested in so your pledge can be on its way a lot faster ☺️:
🇺🇸 USA tariffs and getting your rewards earlier
"How can I get my rewards earlier? Can I opt to pay for the tariffs so I can receive my rewards sooner?" Absolutely! Since tariff costs have increased since July 24th, it's been a massive dent in my fulfillment plans since I'll be paying for these costs out of pocket on top of also compensating for the upgraded shipping costs that is mandatory in order to be able to ship out the pledges.
This means that shipping will take much longer than anticipated for USA backers, so unless you're fine with covering these extra expenses so you can get your rewards sooner, unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you to wait a bit longer since I cannot guarantee when I'll be able to ship them out. 🥲
If you don't mind covering the tariff costs, send me an email to [email protected] and I'll send a screenshot with the exact amount that needs to be paid. We can discuss it further from there.
If you sent me an email but I haven't responded, please feel free to send a follow-up because I've noticed that some emails ended up in my spam folder for some reason. I'll be keeping a close eye on that from now on so I don't miss any further emails!
I wish everyone a lovely rest of the week for now! I'll be posting another update as soon as I can. 💚
This is a mini update regarding EU shipments, so let's dive right into it:
🇪🇺 Notice regarding EU shipments:
As someone of you may already have heard, there's a lot of information (and panic) being shared online regarding a law that comes into effect starting August 12th (PPWR and EPR). To keep it very short: it affects shipments within the EU that requires business (including micro/small businesses) to - as far as we know - pay an fee for every individual EU country we want to ship to. What this means is that it is possible to get faced with a hefty fine if we don't register within these countries which can range from €100 - 400 per country plus some countries requiring a legal representative which is an additional cost on top of that.
As you can imagine, this sounds ridiculous and not sustainable long-term since this basically goes against the free trade market that we're used to. In other words, shipping to the USA would now be a lot easier for me than to ship within my own continent, union, even my own country.
It seems like the past two years are full of laws and decisions that actively seem to want to bring down the micro- and small businesses and it's frankly exhausting to keep up with everything. The USA recently opened up for me, only to get hit around a month-ish later being unable to ship within the EU... when does it end, I wonder. 😵💫
And lastly, since I'll be posting this in every update from now on as a kind reminder in case this is something you'd be interested in so your pledge can be on its way a lot faster ☺️:
🇺🇸 USA Reminder: "How can I get my rewards earlier? Can I opt to pay for the tariffs so I can receive my rewards sooner?"
Absolutely! Since tariff costs have increased since July 24th, it's been a massive dent in my fulfillment plans since I'll be paying for these costs out of pocket on top of also compensating for the upgraded shipping costs that is mandatory in order to be able to ship out the pledges.
This means that shipping will take much longer than anticipated for USA backers, so unless you're fine with covering these extra expenses so you can get your rewards sooner, unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you to wait a bit longer since I cannot guarantee when I'll be able to ship them out. 🥲
If you don't mind covering the tariff costs, send me an email and I'll send a screenshot with the exact amount that needs to be paid. We can discuss it further from there.
If you sent me an email but I haven't responded, please feel free to send a follow-up because I've noticed that some emails ended up in my spam folder for some reason. I'll be keeping a close eye on that from now on so I don't miss any further emails!
It's been a lot of ups and downs this year but at least I'm happy to be making progress even if it's slower than I initially anticipated or would have liked. 😅 Thank you again for your understanding and support, I really appreciate it during these trying times. 💚
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their sweet messages since the last update- a lot of you were super understanding of the tariff situation and sympathized a lot, I almost started crying with how kind everyone has been, haha!
I want to start off this update with (another) thank you because despite all the challenges with this project, you all have been so nice. It truly has been tough for me not just on a small business level due to all these new changes, but also on a more personal level the past year and a half or so.
I want to share that even recently it has been really tough on me because my dog, Milo, has recently passed away due to a cancer that spread to his liver/spleen at 10.5 years old. His health declined really rapidly in the span of a month and he passed away in his sleep in my room last week He was really struggling with rapid muscle weakness and incontinence, and it's hard for me to even type this out because I really, really miss him.
Here's a cute photo of him. We always had to gently wipe away the lil crusties covering his nostrils due to his condition, we were actually in the middle of it when we took this photo of him. He was a grumpy grandpa and for some reason always had beef with my dad's shoes/feet, but he absolutely loved cuddles and kisses. He'd take that over treats any day. Rest in peace and cuddles, my sweet lil' pupper. ❤️
Onto other business!
I'm also excited to share that production for Moocha Latte is currently in the works. It will start this week and estimated to be done in late August to early September, of which afterwards it'll also undergo the CE safety testing which will take an additional few days. Once all this is done, it'll be shipped out by boat which takes roughly close to another month due to shipping fees having increased an enormous amount in the last year, so the expectation is that I'll get Moocha around September.
It feels good to finally have this going on with Sailor Moo being the last to get produced. My aim is to have all plushies with me before the end of 2026 and hope that there won't be any more surprises along the way when it comes to shipping, haha. 🤞
I will continue to ship out as many packages as I can since I had to take a little break due to my dog's sudden passing, I'm slowly forcing myself to keep going and working on things. If I haven't responded to your email yet, please expect a response soon, my apologies!
🇺🇸 How can I get my rewards earlier? Can I opt to pay for the tariffs so I can receive my rewards sooner?
Absolutely! Since tariff costs have increased since July 24th, it's been a massive dent in my fulfillment plans since I'll be paying for these costs out of pocket on top of also compensating for the upgraded shipping costs that is mandatory in order to be able to ship out the pledges (for more information, please see this update).
This means that shipping will take much longer than anticipated for USA backers, so unless you're fine with covering these extra expenses so you can get your rewards sooner, unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you to wait a bit longer since I cannot guarantee when I'll be able to ship them out. 🥲
If you don't mind covering the tariff costs, send me an email to [email protected] and I'll send a screenshot with the exact amount that needs to be paid. We can discuss it further from there.
That's all for now, and thank you so much again everyone for the support and patience. 💚 I'll see you all in the next update.
As I've been working to ship out as many plushies, etc. as possible over the month, everyone in Portugal (and likely the rest of the world) recently got notified of the new, updated tariffs that are going into effect on July 24th. This came as wholly unexpected, especially so shortly after we finally became able to ship to the USA again.
The new tariff rules coming into effect will have increased costs. What would usually cost me around €3-4 for pre-paid duties will now cost me around €6-8 (around $7-9 USD) to send only one enamel pin, for example. One plushie now costs me around €7-8 minimum in tariff costs whereas before it was around €6.
Considering that some pledges were initially paid for with just standard shipping and that the USA now requires not only pre-paid duties but also for it to be sent with tracked shipping, this is a lot of extra expenses on my end considering the bulk of the pledges are going to the USA.
What does this mean?
This put a massive dent in my fulfillment plans since I mentioned in previous updates that I'll be paying for the tariffs out of pocket on top of also compensating for the upgraded shipping costs that is mandatory in order to be able to ship out the pledges.
This means that shipping will take much longer than anticipated for USA backers, so unless you're fine with covering these extra expenses so you can get your rewards sooner, unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you to wait a bit longer since I cannot guarantee when I'll be able to ship them out. 🥲
If you don't mind covering the tariff costs, send me an email to [email protected] and I'll send a screenshot with the exact amount that needs to be paid. We can discuss it further from there.
I'm really bummed about this and I'm frankly so done with the ridiculous laws and rules that keep being added. All I want is to get everyone their plushies, pins and everything else as soon as possible but it's one obstacle after the other... 🫠
Thank you again for your patience, and I'll see you all in the next update. 💚
Here with another mini update! As mentioned in the previous update, I proceeded with charging the shipping costs for the eligible, non-USApledges who haven't been charged yet.
If you need to change your address, please let me know within the next 2 business days. On Wednesday (July 15th) I'll start locking the addresses of the above-mentioned pledges so I can proceed to the fulfillment of these same ones. ☺️
Are you moving in the near future? Please don't worry – I absolutely don't mind holding onto your pledge until you're settled in your new place. Just send me a email to [email protected] so we can discuss this further!
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❌ Declined/Errored Payments
Some pledges are ready to get shipped out, but due to declined/errored payments I'm unable to send them out. Please take a look at this ASAP so I can get your goodies on the way!
Feel free to email me for further assistance if needed.
📝 Reminder to fill in the surveys!
There are still a few backers who haven't filled in their surveys yet. Please make sure to do this ASAP so you can get your rewards too if you pledged for plushies and the ones you want are Cotton and/or Cherry.
If this isn't filled in a timely manner, please keep in mind that I cannot hold onto the products forever. Chances are high that I'll be forced to cancel your pledge and the surplus will eventually get sold in my online shop.
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🇺🇸 USA Pledges – When will I receive my rewards?
As mentioned in the previous update, I'll be shipping out USA pledges at a slower pace and in smaller batches. Tariffs/customs and import fees are being paid out of pocket because covering these costs feels like the right thing to do after this project has been dragging on for so long, and I certainly don't expect the people who supported me and this project to pay more than what was expected of them.
If your pledge contains the Cotton and/or Cherry plushie and you haven't been charged yet for the shipping, please expect to get charged in the next one or two weeks. I'll be shipping out in small batches as mentioned above and will post another mini update when I've done so. ☺️
If you're unable to pay the shipping charges in the upcoming weeks, please send me an email as to when it is possible for you.
For full transparency, I cannot give a guaranteed estimate as to when I'll ship out your pledge since the tariffs/fees all piled together can be very costly (especially for plushies) so I'm trying my best to get things shipped out ASAP since this is an unexpected added expense on my end. Thank you so much for your understanding with this. 🙏
🇺🇸 Can I opt to pay for the tariffs so I can receive my rewards sooner?
Absolutely! Please email me if you don't mind paying these costs (which, depending on the volume and contents on your pledge, should be within a range of around €2 minimum to €10+) so you can get your pledge shipped out sooner. I'll provide a screenshot of the actual calculated costs and we can arrange the payment afterwards.
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That's all for now, thank you so much again for your patience! I wish you a very happy Sunday.
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