Hello everyone! A quick mini update regarding the Funfetti pins because I completely forgot to mention it in the last update, so here it is.
It was brought to my attention that I haven't mentioned anything yet regarding it in the past few updates, which is totally on me, and I'm very sorry for that! It completely slipped my mind since I - for some reason - thought I had mentioned it at least once.
What's the status?
As you know, it's been quite a long while since I first pointed out the misprint. I first want to let everyone know that it is still being remade, but due to several factors it got immensely delayed (longer than I would've liked and anticipated for that matter, please see the reasons below!)
My manufacturer assured me that the pins will be done by the end of this month (so in a coupe of days) and they'll be shipped out ASAP.
Around January spanning all the way to around late February, we got hit with a massive, back-to-back storm in Portugal that led to catastrophic damage all across the country (unstable electricity, massive town floodings, and more). This caused a lot of damage and issues to buildings, roads, and houses which made access to a lot of areas extremely hard while also having to make sure that we sustained no damage to our home (which was susceptible to floodings).
The factory my manufacturer works with has been very inconsistent with updates which caused me to chase for answers multiple times. For me this was unheard of since I've always had a very reliable and smooth experience with them ever since I started my business, so this led to a lot of frustration and more time loss on my end.
There are a number of Chinese holidays near the start of the year where a lot of factories close, sometimes for a whole week or longer. This inevitably caused more delays, some of them unforeseen to me.
My sincerest apologies it's been taking so long, genuinely. A lot of my focus was on the USA shipment since I've been fixating on that for a long time ever since it's sudden shutdown in August 2025 since the bulk of the pledges are headed towards them which has been a major source of anxiety. Regardless, it's absolutely no excuse that I failed to communicate the status of the Funfetti sheep pins and I cannot express enough apologies for that, so I hope this provided a bit more insight as to why it's been taking a lot longer than initially expected.
A lot of things are happening in the world that's been an absolute nightmare for small businesses in the past year since the costs (and potentially more paperwork in July all of a sudden) have also been increasing due to all the new rules and laws that are being thrown left and right regarding international shipments.
As one person running the whole thing and trying to keep up with all the logistics and such, it's been a lot of things to keep track of and put into motion which caused me to not properly communicate the Funfetti sheep when I thought I did. 😵💫 Again, I'm so sorry for this. I fully understand any frustrations or concerns surrounding the Funfetti pins.
I'll be posting another update once the pins are on the way and when I expect to get them. In the meantime, I'll be proceeding with some test orders as mentioned in the previous update due to the new USA customs regulations.
That's all for now, thank you so much for your time.
I have some good things to share! Shipping towards the US has finally resumed, meaning that I can work on getting to know the procedures to getting all eligible pledges out to the USA.
However, I can only ship them with tracked shipping with pre-paid duties and import fees that are a lot higher than I (and others) had been anticipating, meaning it'll cost me a lot more out of pocket than I thought which will lead to fulfillment taking longer than I had hoped for. 😭
Not only that, but right as shipments have finally been reopened, I've gotten a notice that there'll be possibly additional paperwork needed if a package is headed towards the USA starting July 8th. It's not wholly clear to me what this exactly is and if this even applies to me, but right now I'm waiting to see what is going to happen. I already contacted my postal carrier about this for more information, so hopefully I'll have proper answers for this soon.
This is incredibly frustrating especially since I've been waiting anxiously to ship to the US again, only to get hit with this. 🫠 I'm so sorry about this, it's outside of my control but I'm keeping a close eye on everything to the best of my abilities.
What's the plan now?
I will try and ship everything out as soon as I can, but like I said, please note that it might take longer than expected due to the pre-paid duties and import fees.
I'll try some test shipments first to try and understand how the system works and to keep an eye out on whether everything goes smoothly, then I'll slowly start building up the volume of shipments over time, so please keep an eye out for your inbox if your pledge got shipped out!
Is there a way for me to get my order sooner?
If you want your order to get shipped out sooner, the only way possible at this moment is that you email me to [email protected] with your backer or pledge number and I'll let you know the extra import fees shown to me so it can be sent over via, for example, PayPal.
Thank you so much again for your patience, I'm excited to finally get these lil sheep on the way! Please stay cool during these hotter months and don't forget to hydrate as much as possible.
I just wanted to post a small, quick update regarding the current situation regarding shipments towards the USA, and I have some good news to share (finally)!
Our postal carrier, CTT, has finally been working on reopening shipments towards the USA! 🎉
However, it's still in the beginning stages and not officially open yet, but I signed up for the service and it's still a waiting game at the moment. It's yet unclear as to when it'll become active, and according to my contract manager, they're still waiting on approval from the US customs clearance offices or some other figure of authority, but I'm happy that things are finally rolling.
Why is this such a big issue? If packages get sent without duties and fees being paid prior, it's going to get sent back to the sender which was one of the major hurdles lots of European countries were facing (and, even to this day, I see packages getting returned for no good reason to France, Germany, Netherlands, etc.). This only applies to packages that aren't flat mail (which is why stickers, prints, and other flat items can be sent without issues, but not enamel pins or bulkier items). It's not even possible to send items marked as gifts, so even if a package is non-transactional (like wanting to send something to a friend in the US), it's not possible to send stuff unless you want to pay a ridiculous amount of money.
By the time I can ship to the USA, I'll likely do a few test shipments first before committing to bulk fulfillment to be on the safe side since it'll be a bit of a learning curve until I'm comfortable with how the system works so that there are no surprises on neither mine nor your end.
That's it for now!
I'll keep you all posted once this service has gone live and I'm ready to ship all the sheep to you, thank you so much for your patience so far!!
This is a small fulfillment update to let everyone know that all non-USpledges have all been fulfilled(*)! Hopefully you'll get your packages soon. 💚
(*) As a reminder from our last update, Funfetti has arrived in a slightly different color variant and it's currently in the works of getting corrected by our manufacturer. If you're fine with receiving this color variant, let us know! Otherwise we'll automatically presume you'll prefer the original which will lead to a later fulfillment.
Have any questions or want to contact us? Feel free to email us at [email protected]!
🇺🇸 USA pledges
For our backers in the USA, our country's postal system (CTT) still hasn't reopened shipment towards there since it came into effect since late August 2025. Me and many other Portuguese small businesses have been anxiously contacting them with frequency ever since it closed as to when they'll know more about when we're able to ship to the US again, but we keep getting met with general or vague answers on their end...
It is therefore still unsure when it'll reopen. We've been talking with our fellow Portuguese creators to see if there's an alternative we can consider, but it's either difficult and/or very expensive. We also heard that despite other EU countries (such as Germany) having the option to ship out to the US again, they still face challenges with returned packages every now and then. 😢
We're really sorry for the delay and we're hoping this'll get sorted out ASAP so that all of our US-based customers can receive their goodies! We'll let you know the moment we know more or when shipping via our usual method has finally reopened so that these freshly baked sheep can be on their way!
We've got exciting news to share: the pins are finally here!
There were some hiccups that made shipping take a little longer than usual, especially with the incredibly bad weather in Portugal where we got hit by multiple storms one after another.
There is one little issue we ran into and that is with Funfetti Sheep - something likely went wrong during mass production because the colors of the sprinkles aren't correct and the pink part of the ears appear screenprinted when it should've been hard enamel. It's not a huge disaster and can be seen as another color variant, but it's still not according to what we designed and agreed upon, so we're already busy with getting it fixed!
I pledged for Funfetti, what now?
If you're fine with Funfetti Sheep as it is now+ prefer/don't mind getting this over the original, please let us know! We'll proceed with shipping your pledge out ASAP and you won't have to wait for a remake. If we don't hear from you, we'll assume you want the original.
If you prefer the ORIGINALFunfetti Sheep, then please rest assured we're already talking with our manufacturer about this error and having them remade. We'll post additional updates exclusive to Funfetti Sheep in the future.
What's next for the rest of the designs?
Quality control is what we'll be focusing on right now to make sure all pins are up to standard. Fulfillment will follow soon afterwards and you can expect orders getting shipped out over the course of the month.
We expect to have to take a little longer with shipments because, as mentioned before, Portugal has been dealing with quite extreme weather this past month. It's caused incredible damages all over the country (villages being flooded, uprooted trees, damaged buildings, etc.) because of the strong winds and heavy rain, especially after Storm Kristin hit the country in late January and we're still facing two more storms in the upcoming week.
We've also been dealing with constant power outages due to this (some regions even getting communications shut down which means calling or texting someone became impossible) which is incredibly frustrating.
Please keep the above in mind if your pledge hasn't shipped out yet! We're going to try our best to get everything sent out ASAP. Thank you so much for your understanding and patience. 💚
That is all for now. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] since we usually get very late notifications for comments on Backerkit, so this is the fastest way to reach us!
