I think I've e-mailed this to everyone, but in case I missed anyone, I'm also posting it to my various art sites.

Hi folks. Things have been interesting around here lately, in the Chinese curse sense. I had hoped I wouldn't have to send out a message like this, but given what's been going on in my life lately, I think you all should know about it, and how it's going to affect your projects.

The TL:DR is that absolutely everything is going to be late, and I have no way to estimate exactly how late. Somewhere between two weeks and two months is likely. No projects will be abandoned, absolutely everything will be finished eventually, but for anyone who is unhappy with these further delays, I will be quite willing to offer a full refund of whatever funds have been paid so far.

So, the details, for those who want to know why. Cause one, I got pregnant. So far that itself hasn't delayed things much, but it means that I scheduled in an entire month (March) when the baby is due with no hard project deadlines, because I figured I wouldn't get much done. This was fine, but it also set off a bit of a cascade of other events. Because baby coming meant we needed more room, we started idly looking around at larger homes. We hadn't planned on actually moving until after she arrived, but we found the perfect place last month, cheaper than we'd expected, and had to jump on it. So we have just spent the last month moving things. Between our ordinary household stuff, my work studio, and my husband's office, we have more to move than most people.

I had thought I'd be able to sort of move part time and work part time, but the moving disrupted everything so much that this entire month I've barely gotten any work at all done.

Another factor is the kickstarter I ran earlier in the year, which was hugely successful, but that success has caused some problems. I have far more kickstarter plushes to make than I'd originally planned, and haven't gotten as many done by now as I'd hoped, (the embroidery machine being a butt hasn't helped) which means that fitting these plushes into my schedule will probably put me even further behind. Also, the excess of plushes to make, coming after Bronycon, where I had to make something like 100 plushes in just two months, just has me stressed and burned out. I will be completely honest and say that right now just the thought of sewing is depressing, which only slows things further. So that is also a factor. (I'm sure pregnancy hormones are not helping there either.)

Also, because of the gap in March, where nothing is scheduled, anything that was supposed to be done early in the year (Jan-Feb) that runs a little late will end up getting pushed past that gap and run very late, so some projects may be particularly delayed. And after the baby comes I have no clue whatsoever what kind of work schedule I'll be able to keep. I know she won't suck up 100% of my time, but how much she will need is very much up in the air, this is my first kid.

So the end result is that right now I'm about a month behind because of the move. I want to really buckle down and get at least partially caught up over the next few weeks, but with the stress, depression, and burnout from how much I've been working lately, I don't know if I'll be able to. That combined with the upcoming baby means that delays may end up being months long for some projects, but I can't say for sure. I don't want to promise I'll get caught up and then break that promise. I also don't want to just say "to heck with it" and assume everything will take months and months longer either, though. I know that will make people unhappy, and making my customers happy is very important to me. I'll be trying my best to get stuff done as quickly as I can. I just don't know exactly how quickly that will be.

I know a lot of you have waited patiently for a very long time already, and won't be thrilled at the idea of waiting an unknown amount of time longer. Unfortunately the situation is what it is, and trying to meet every single deadline may only end up burning me out more and making things even worse in the long run. So this is the best compromise I can offer you:

Anybody who doesn't want to wait can get a full refund. (Probably right now. Depending on how many people want refunds, I may also have to delay those slightly because of limited funds in my account, but I have enough on hand to refund at least some people right away.) Those getting giveaway prizes... I'm very sorry, but you'll just have to wait, as there's nothing to refund you.

For those who are willing to wait longer, you have my sincere thanks. I will try to be as open and transparent as possible with you all about how things are coming, and I do not mind if you want to check in and ask for the status of your project (just not every day, please, I'll just have to repeat myself a lot if you do that.)

I will not be changing the "ETA" dates on my public project list, because I don't know what the new ETAs will be, but I do remove projects from the list as I complete them, so you can get an idea of how things are coming by taking a look at it. (List is here: http://bladespark.livejournal.com/1226131.html ) As you can see, nothing from October has been finished yet even though the month is nearly over, so yeah, right now things are behind about one month.

If you want to ask about your specific project, feel free, but be aware that right now "I don't know" is likely to be the best answer I can give you.

Thank you all for your support, I do appreciate my customers, you have been (mostly!) wonderful people and I hope that we can get everything worked out and everyone happy despite what a mess I've made of things.