Hey Internetland! I wanted to take some time to cover a few basic but major things going on with me so you can all stay in the loop.
Webstore & Email
Currently my webstore is down for maintenance. I discovered that for the past few months without my knowledge, there was an error that stopped receipts for customer's orders from being sent out as well as my entire email system not functioning properly. I had only begun to realize something was wrong with my communications and orders very recently, and then I woke up the other day to a call from Paypal about several customer chargebacks at once- which have locked my account until further notice. So my hands are a bit tied right now until a lot of these incidents get sorted out. Oi it's a mess. I'm sending a bug report to my ecommerce company and trying to get things sorted out with clients in alternate methods besides email because it's entirely unreliable right now.
SO if you are waiting on a mask or a parts order from my webstore, and you have a Paypal record of the transaction, you are safe! I have received your order without issue even if you didn't get confirmation from my webstore. For some reason the public list of webstore orders also hasn't updated itself automatically since October so it's severely outdated... which is crazy odd because on my end it's current but my website doesn't appear to be loading the most recent version. That will be the first thing I tackle this week to get back on track.
But basically my whole system is falling apart.
If we've already talked within the past month about your webstore order, our arrangements are still to be honored and fulfilled as soon as possible (unless you've requested a chargeback or refund of course). Through email I had been giving ALL of my current customers monthly-ish updates about what's going on, any delays, announcements, etc. So in case you haven't gotten these emails (which I'm learning many people haven't been also)
I am very delayed in my orders right now and for three main reasons: the time of year (I can only cut masks on the porch when it's warm enough), the much-needed holiday break I took mid November-January, and the large volume of orders I got in October's mask sale from overwhelming interest. My list is pretty long, which I can't thank you all enough for your support and patience while I work through everything. If you have any questions, try and poke me on Twitter as I've easily found that to be the most reliable and quickest medium to get my attention above any other right now. I truly do not mean to be unreachable and I'm certainly not ignoring you guys! I'm incredibly sorry for the inconvenience and insecurities this issue may have caused you. As a reminder I do not use my FA/DA notes, and do not log on to my gallery sites every day nor can I possibly check everything when I do. I'm going to try to keep an eye on this journal for the next few days, but after that I have a lot of other things to focus on that are more pressing.
(Wow do I need a secretary... or five)
RMFC commissions, I haven't forgotten about you either!
Moving
Biggest bit of news I can share with you guys now is the announcement that we are moving... again. I never went into details about what happened to me last year, but the bare basics involve me breaking up with my ex boyfriend Verlis only weeks after him, Xander, Pox, and I moved in together in March. Unable to cope with the situation (to put it as lightly as absolutely possible), Verlis abandoned the property and effectively broke the lease- so we had fought hard to maintain our end of the bargain with the homeowners by agreeing to cover his share of the rent so we could continue having a roof over our heads. And trust me when I say that this was nearly impossible for us to do with the kind of income we all have and the level of high-end luxury our current place offers us... (I mean seriously, does your house have heated tile flooring in all the bathrooms and kitchen? As my parents have become fond of saying, our house is "much too good for children" XD) I never got around to doing a video house-tour, but we nicknamed this place the "Palace" for a reason.
We've been forced to live paycheck to paycheck, barely eating sometimes to pull it off, and celebrating how much of a miracle it's been to live here. I mean, what a privilege. Even though we've suffered through easily the most significant financial burden of our lives, we've just been so damn happy to be together enjoying life and each other's company over the past year. I can't even begin to tell you how close and strong our bond as friends has become from this and how we're so glad everything happened, the good and the bad. I'm proud to say that we have successfully survived to the end of our 1 year contract paying in full on time every time against all odds. Unfortunately, despite leveling out all the circumstances with them, the homeowners have come to love us as tenants for our responsibility and communication... but so much so that they just don't dare want to "risk adding an unknown element" into the arrangement and in turn reward our dedication by allowing us to obtain a fourth roommate. Period.
Without a fourth person, we cannot stay here. It was pretty much a big slap in the face after all that has happened honestly and we're left a little hurt and confused. And to top of it all off I found out about this on my birthday. So I've basically have had adult life dumped onto me all at once the moment I turned 25. It's been stressful ever sense. We are house hunting like crazy and naturally I'm in charge of all these arrangements again- calling people, arranging showings, driving all over town, glued to Zillow, all while having a full time job during the weekdays. If you've ever had to go through this then you know what it's like. Pickings are slim right now, my credit took a nosedive because of the excessive use of my card to make sure I could still feed myself, and we even considered buying a house to best afford our monthly payments on a mortgage... but with the disarray paying for the current rental house has left us, we don't have a savings anymore and certainly can't commit to a house on such short notice. So we're just looking for something to help us get back on our feet for the moment.
How does this affect you guys? Well, all commissions are forced to being back on hold (unless we have special arrangements or deadlines). I have to pack up the studio and the computer and relocate at the end of the month. Every spare ounce of freetime has literally been taken up by househunting, my job, enough sleep to function, packing, and other various life priorities... and making sure I don't go insane all the while. I've been away from FA, Facebook, Twitter, etc for long periods of time (well, long for me anyways) so I can focus on this. But as soon as we have secured a new place I'll feel much better and will update you guys what's going on with that. I'm pretty anxious to sign a lease so I can stop spending energy on that, and will cram as much work on things I owe you guys as I can before we pack up and move. Hopefully the financial burden lifted off our shoulders will really help improve our lives overall just a little bit more.
New Projects
I have lots of big plans this year. Like always. I'm super excited about them! I really can't wait to share everything with you since this major project has been planned for awhile... and I expect to be able to give you the full reveal sometime after we're settled in to a new place. It will be another creature costume project that I'll have some collaboration on to be debut at cons this summer- aiming for either Denver Comic Con or A-kon.
I am trying hard to attend AC this year as well, I just need to confirm plans with my family's vacation timeshare and I'll look into travel arrangements. Sonar is put on the backburner for completion until after I move, but I have given the head to my good friend Rukamae to sew together this past month and she's almost done. Pictures soon! I have about 10 things I want to upload to my galleries I've either forgotten about or haven't found the time to do. As far as New Years resolutions go, I really want to improve my dedication to all you Patreon supporters, update all my items in the webstore as well as come out with new stock (I didn't do anything new for CHC in 2014, just private client work that's not available for purchase by the public), and of course get caught up on my to-do list. I'm also an admin now on the Angel Dragon facebook group and working closely with everyone over the next few months completely overhauling everything, doing a bunch of exciting and useful stuff to help them out.
And now I'm exhausted. This journal took me over 3 hours to type but I really wanted to get everything out there. Important stuff.
Oh yeah, and my roommate TelltaleFirebrand is open for commissions, helping him out will help us all pay for a deposit on a new house that we so desperately need assistance with. Please feel free to take a look, although a warning that most of his gallery is adult. I can't justify opening for commissions with such a full plate myself, but I've thought about some YCH auctions or OTS (On-The-Spot) Lvestreams... only out of desperation though. Who knows, I might have to come up with ridiculous amounts of money by tomorrow to secure a house.
IF ONLY *shakes fist*
Hope everyone's having a much more relaxing evening than I am. ^^ Take care all!</u>
MythiMorph 
