At the time of writing, the fulfillment schedule has become a little more ossified for me, and will hopefully continue on that path. Foxwright Apothecary is looking like it should be done and sent out some time in March, and Pride Potions is aiming for late March/April/maaaaybe May depending on how things go. 

You have probably seen that yesterday I launched a new campaign, Decadent Orchard, for this year’s Pintopia (and is fully funded, hooray!)-- please don’t be concerned about these two outstanding projects! Foxwright Apothecary and Pride Potions have not been forgotten or swept aside, I promise fulfillment will be as swift as possible and in the campaign order. 2024 saw a lot of rapid growth for Key & Crow Studios, which I will admit is on a level that I was clearly not prepared for. However, I do know making pins and delivering a quality experience to your mailbox.

Orchard was originally slated to launch in late August or September, which obviously didn’t happen due to the assorted delays and personal life complications. I chose to hold off and push it down the line to be my Pintopia 2025 campaign (which snuck up on me since it’s happening almost two months earlier than last year’s event), and greatly scaled down scope from what I had initially intended to keep it manageable with the prior projects in mind. Taking everything into account, I’ve scheduled out expected fulfillment for Orchard for some time in the final quarter of the year. 

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Update from the “my health wants to simply dissolve” front– right after I finished out my hellish semester and right before Christmas I had a fun trip to the emergency room via ambulance as what I thought was some really mediocre chocolate sauce that came with a desert was, in fact, nutella and I have a life-threatening tree nut allergy. So that was fun (and expensive). Otherwise, the source of most of my torment is the acute fungal sinus infection that has been festering unchecked in my head for who knows how long, and why my bloodwork has shown consistently elevated WBC and neutrophils levels  to the point that myself and my healthcare team were suspicious it was lupus, or feared something worse. This has taken a tremendous toll on my quality of life and overall ability to function, all other health issues notwithstanding. Surgical intervention is the only treatment for this issue, and I am so grateful that my surgery is scheduled a week from today (Jan 31)– and good lord it cannot come fast enough. I had my last bit of pre-op bloodwork done today, and expect a fairly easy recovery. 

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I appreciate all of your continued support and patience through this rough patch!

With the last of the manufacturing error and complications worked out (details that are too small to work with, margins for colors, etc.), it’s just a matter of playing the waiting game on this end. Most things were just a matter of minor adjustment to some of the insignificantly small line work or areas of color fill that required a bit more breathing room between the lines. 

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On a personal note, the ongoing Sinus Saga™️ has finally had some light shed on the situation— as I’ve alluded in previous updates, I have been grappling with an ongoing sinus infection that never has completely gone away for 10+ months (though after some reevaluation, I think it’s actually been persisting for more than a year at this point) despite many, many visits to my PCP/urgent care. It oscillates between a level “status quo” level of something I’ve just been living with, constant mucus isolated to the right side, occasionally flaring up to be all-encompassing and prompting doctor’s visits for a round of antibiotics that bring it back down to the “normal” level.

I finally managed to get in with specialists and have imaging done, which has been very enlightening— evidently, I have a severe fungal sinus infection that has been growing unchecked in my head for over a year (which is a little horrific) and the entirety of my right side sinuses are obstructed. It certainly explains a lot.  Surgical intervention is the only treatment, which I am waiting to get the call for scheduling. 

Having now seen my imaging, coupled with what my daily life has looked like, I’m personally shifting blame for my all-encompassing and heavily debilitating malaise from my other chronic conditions to this beast that’s been growing in my head, horror protagonist style. Here’s hoping that after surgery I’ll be of a far more sound mind and body. Though an invasive kind of procedure, I’m unbothered by the prospect of sinus surgery— I had a septoplasty/ethmoidectomy/turbinate reduction in 2020 on my left side (after going my whole life to the age of 20 with one functioning nostril as a result of a severe deviated septum + bone spur) and of all the procedures I’ve gone through, sinus surgery is by far one of the easiest recoveries. 

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