2022: The year that said NO (Patreon)

Hello everyone. I meant to post this yesterday but there was too much to do so I am posting it today. This is my recap of 2022. Sorry for the length, but there is a lot to cover.

At first I was going to sugar coat this, but then I felt I needed to vent, and you needed to know why things have been so wonky with me this year, and especially lately. This picture of a very tired and exasperated Ben Affleck has been me all this damned year. His expression just sums it all up completely.

The main crux of this year's pains has been deadlines, shitty product after shitty product, surprise expenses, and emergency after emergency. There has been very little time off, or time to catch up, or time to even do artwork. This year just said NO to anything other than the pressing tasks that needed doing, which came one after the other.

I personally did three funding campaigns this year: the one for the illustrated hardcover of Heat, the one for Volume 5 of my sketchbooks, and one for the Wuffies Pins (which was a joint campaign with Sandra). Funding campaigns are always time and energy consuming, and doing three in a year was a bit much, but they needed to be done. 

Not only that, but I was integral with helping Sandra with her Norse Wolf Ravens pins from her campaign last year (2021). Those pins -finally- came in in June, and that turned into a huge mess. I spent part of June and all of July dropping everything and sorting through pins, over 3,000 of them, many of them bad. This from a well known and well reviewed company in China that took -ten months- to get us these pins (an inexcusable amount of time, even during a pandemic), only to deliver a nearly 50% rate of unacceptable pins. And that wasn't even all the pins. They finally delivered the rest of the order in September, which had to be sorted through as well, and we were finally able to get a final count and put in our claim with them in October.

A lot of my time this year was spent in back-and-forth with this company, and having to work with new companies to replace the defective pins so Sandra could finish fulfilling her orders from the campaign, only to have the new companies screw up, too, and having to deal with that. 

It’s been super fun you guys. 

When it looked like things -might- calm down in September and I started to get caught up on my backlogged Patreon (bless you all for your patience!) we had two weekends of a local art show, our first since 2020, and there went the rest of that month. Getting back in that saddle after so long, and having to make basically most of our product from scratch for it, was a huge feat. But despite the rain and a slightly leaky tent, it was a great show, if utterly exhausting.

Then, during the second weekend of that show, the Great Spider Debacle happened.

For those that don't know, Sandra does Emotional Support Critters. Stuffed animals that she enhances and equips with emotional support harnesses, with a custom badge and accessories. They're very cute, and very popular! Well some asshat in Canada ordered both of the tarantulas she carries. Once they had them, they made a TikTok video of them that went viral, showing off all their features, and claiming they were weighted (they're not). This would have been a wonderful plug, except they were promoting a scam website that claimed to be selling these, even going so far as stealing the reviews for these off of Sandra’s Etsy page. Sandra did all she could to get the video and the website removed, but the authorities ignored it. 

However, this situation had an interesting side effect that people started finding the tarantulas on her Etsy page anyway, and the orders exploded. On one end it was fantastic for the business, but on the other end that put us into holiday order overdrive in the middle of October. And it didn't let up, and only got worse. 

I help Sandra with these plushies, making the badges, helping with the packaging and shipping, and any other tasks that I can do. People were wanting these for Halloween, and then for Christmas orders. This on top of the holiday orders we were already getting. It turned into an emergency situation and we both had to drop everything else (again) and deal with the plushie orders.

We were working all the way up until Christmas Eve, and still had a huge pile of orders that needed to go out after the holiday. We did not get to enjoy our holidays very much at all, we just died on the couch for a couple of days and went back to work.

That is how we finished out our year. And not that it's been a -bad- year per ce... It's not been all bees and fire... it's been more like mud and fog: exhausting, disorienting, and frustrating as hell. Despite all that, there were still some bright spots.

I published my second romance novel "Heat" this year, which was seven years in the making. I love writing more than anything, and writing a full-length novel is a feat, so finishing this was a huge joy for me and a great accomplishment!

We planted a container garden out back that was our saving grace this year. When things became too much we would sit out back on our lanai (porch) with our dogs and revel in the beauty of flowers, herbs, vegetables, bees, butterflies, and humming birds. 

Our pets always comforted us and made us laugh as well. 

And the sheer beauty of where we live with its breathtaking vistas and sunsets was a balm to the soul. The monsoons were a godsend after the horrible fires of spring that ravished this state; the largest fire in New Mexico history was just to the east of us this spring. Rain in the desert is always a blessing, and this summer was abundant with it, cooling and healing the land.

Now that the holidays are over with, we are playing catch up to everything else that had to be put on hold because of it all. I have all of your rewards to get caught up on, as well as Council sketchbook drawings, getting out orders from the campaign for the illustrated hardcover of my book, doing snarly sketches in those hardcovers for those that ordered them, a few two-word sketch stragglers from my Sketchbook Volume 5 campaign, some (way overdue) commission work, and designing some new products for my store. Plus a myriad of other miscellaneous stragglers of things that still need doing.

As you can tell there are still mountains of work to be done, but I take it one bite at a time. I take care of my health as best I can, and am sure to stay hydrated, eat healthy (ish), and get plenty of sleep at night (my RLS not withstanding). I do yoga several times a week, and walk the dogs almost every day. I work on keeping my mental health together by remaining calm and centered as best I can, and counting my blessings every single day. Being able to laugh with Sandra and keeping our sense of humor through it all is so important and a great joy. We could not do this without the other, and I am so thankful for my business partner and friend <3

I have plans for this year, with a focus on getting back to doing more art (because I need it), and am looking at ways to improve my art, my business, and my Patreon. You all mean so much to me and I cannot thank you enough for sticking with me when things get behind, and life gets weird. Your support truly does mean the world to me. 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year! I hope that the Year of the Rabbit will be a bit gentler for everyone, and that good things will come. Even if they don't, remember to laugh, and have gratitude for every good thing. There is always some good to be had in life.

I look forward to 2023. I hope you do too.

~ Christy/Goldie