Design Change

Hi everyone!

I know it's been quiet with no updates for February, but rest assured we've been busy despite the silence here. As most of you know we just moved last week, so we've been super busy with packing since around the 7th, the move all day last Tuesday, the 15th, and then just spending this last week getting settled into our new place. As I mentioned before, it's a bit of a downgrade since the house is a bit older and honestly has a strange set up (and small bathroom and kitchen). So we've been doing a lot of DIY to make the space more livable since we plan to be living and working out of this place for at least 2 years while we continue towards our goal of actually buying a house one day when the market bubble finally chills out a bit.

All that aside, we meant to alert you to some minor changes we made to Esmeraude's design. I think most of you will be happy with the changes, but if for some reason the changes make you no longer want the design, please do not hesitate to let us know and we can refund you or if you're in the single pin tier and would like to switch to Chibiusa, we can do that too.

I've put the two versions side-by-side so you can compare them. I wasn't quite happy with Esmeraude's face in the original, mainly because I felt her mouth looked more confused than like she was laughing wickedly after saying some likely some off-handed comment to Sapphir. We also added a few more eyelashes on the top and bottom lash line because the Dark Moon Kingdom babes are always vain beauties. And finally I ever so slightly changed the narrowness of her eye and arch of her brow. I do hope you're all okay with these changes. I meant to alert  you all to this before our move, but time got the best of us. Again, please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have an issue with this change.

FUTURE EVENTS
On another note, as we are looking forward to doing more in-person events, we are planning to focus on events only local in Washington and possibly Oregon. While we did get accepted to Anime Ink (and it would be a great opportunity for Taka to grow his name) they want us to pay (a lot) for two booths before the end of the month and right now that's just not really feasible when added with the costs of travel and accommodation as well as risk if we don't reach our goals there, right after we just dropped a lot of cash on the move. We also were able to roll over our table for Comicpalooza in Houston, which we were supposed to table at in 2020, but we are not likely going to be moving forward with that event at this time, again for the same reason of focusing on local events and saving more money on lower-risk investments of events.

That said, we did do a single day Lunar Night Market in Seattle on the 12th and it went really well all things considered. We were one of the only vendors selling pins, or even Asian-themed things for that matter which was surprising considering the event was based on LUNAR NEW YEAR! haha While we don't know if we did well because the event was catering towards Asian culture and we were basically the only ones with an Asian cultured booth, we are going to try to do another of these events that this company puts on. This company puts on all the Seattle Farmers Markets, a monthly night market, etc. Since we don't want customers who attend these often to get bored of seeing our products, we will likely only do these events only every other month or quarterly since we should have new products to showcase each time. Honestly, one of the nicest parts about this event was meeting other local vendors from all types of arts and crafts, and meeting locals in Seattle who were actually really playful and fun to chat with which helped the day pass along at a good pace.

We definitely do want to keep expanding our reach and attend events outside of the northwest in the future, but we have to always weigh pros and cons, and when it comes down to it, if we can spend expenses on production of new products over costs of travel/hotels/food, we'll always choose a new selection of goods to share with you all!

Anyways, that's about it for now. If you all saw my most recent post from TikTok or IG, it was a fun timelapse of me setting up the pinventory. I now have a whole large finished basement area for pins, and hopefully more apparel, maybe bags and plushies in the coming future. AND I also have a separate office space. Though it's still in boxes except for my desk, computer and label printer since I'm prioritizing those so I can pack up any outstanding orders from y'all placed last week during our small flash sale!

Regarding manufacturing updates, I haven't gotten any new photos or updates since December's pins went into production. While production has started for all pins from December, January and February, I imagine the factories are all pretty bogged down with catching up on designs they were in the middle of before their annual holiday, and all the new designs that people have submitted since they got back about a week and a half ago. So as always, thank you for your patience with us, and inevitably, everyone's manufacturers!

Will have another update with next month's designs soon! :)

- Mandy + Taka