January Miniatures Club

     I know I have been somewhat MIA when it comes to posting. I think the last post was from February 5th or 6th. Sorry about that. Some of it is I didn't have a lot of doll anything to talk about. Some of it is I was extra busy. This week the motor in our furnace stopped working and Ethan stayed home from work for a few days (one was already his day off, but still) to get that all taken care of. I already liked that we have had unseasonably warm weather, because I do not like being cold, but I was very grateful for it when we had no heat for 3 days. We have space heaters, but we don't leave them on overnight. So by morning it got pretty chilly in here. I'd get up and turn on the heaters and get ready for work. This morning I woke up in a nice warm house. It feels very luxurious to not shiver while getting dressed. And for anyone concerned, it was nowhere near dangerously cold in here. Just not anywhere near warm, lol.

     Anyway, time to talk about the miniatures club. Since I sent out the packages weeks ago, I figure it is safe. I almost missed my deadline to ship by the end of January because of the usual unforeseen circumstances. This time around I think it was chasing payment information all over the place and trying to figure things out. I have been keeping a running list (after the last time I ended up shipping things to two people who were no longer in the club and hadn't been for months) of who is paid and so on. But I have one person whose payments come in... and then they disappear. Something about e-checks. So it was very confusing to figure out. And yeah, I don't have time to find their email, if I have their email, to ask them to check on it. So every month I get an e-check, which apparently bounces at least once, before it goes through. At least, I think they are going through. Honestly, I was hoping this club would be a fun thing, not just extra work for me. And mostly it is a fun thing. Let's talk about the fun stuff. 

     January's level one miniatures are a set of actual tiny crayons. They are not dollhouse scale, could maybe be 1:9 scale if you consider them to be big chunky crayons, but are likely best for 1:6 scale. But they are actual tiny crayons and I get a big kick out of that!

     The level 2 miniature is this tin of cookies. Now I bet some people are wondering about the level 2 miniatures a bit. The club levels are pretty simple, level one is one miniature and level 2 is two miniatures OR an extra cool OR handmade miniature. I have no time for handmade miniatures so that hasn't happened at all (other than the ones I bought from Legacy). The October level 2 miniature was a box of Ritz crackers (I think that was October). So why is level 2 not getting 2 miniatures most of the time? What does extra cool even mean???

     Well in this case, extra cool means more expensive. I have spent a lot of time searching for excellent deals on miniatures for the club. Sometimes I can find some pretty cool things for fairly small money. And sometimes I think the things are so cool that I spend more than I probably should on them because I want people to have them. The cookies in the tin are one of those more costly items. And shipping... well, we won't talk about shipping much because it's not fun at all. I do have to mention though that if USPS raises their rates much more I will either need to raise the cost of the levels a bit or end the club. Because, as I have said, this was a fun way to get a bit of income for doing the blog (which I was so much better about keeping up with it when I started the club) and I liked the idea of a monthly subscription club. But if I am spending every penny on miniatures and shipping, then all the time it takes to do the things, I can't sustain that. I already don't have enough time for my life. 

     But this is not a whining blog (I know, I could have fooled you all!) just some facts. The sad fact is, the cost of everything has gone up exponentially. It has been an incredibly warm winter in Massachusetts and our gas bill has nearly doubled. Makes no sense. 

     So for anyone new, anyone that has forgotten, or anyone that likes to see the same information repeated over and over, the miniatures club is done through ko-fi. Which is an interesting service where you can "buy coffee" for people to help support their work. Ko-fi has different tiers, the first one on my page being $3, which buys me a coffee (the theory being a coffee is around $3) and that comes with a wholehearted thank you for helping to support my blog. The second tier is level one of the miniatures club, is $6 a month, and gets you a miniature shipped to you every 3 months; January, April, July, and October. Tier 3 is level 2 of the miniatures club (confused yet? Sorry about that) gets you two miniatures, OR an extra cool (more expensive) miniature, OR a handmade miniature. Tier 4 is level 3 of the miniatures club and is basically the FOMO (fear of missing out) level of the club which gets you all of the miniatures from the first two levels. And all of the levels come with my wholehearted appreciation. 

     So that's about it for the updates on the January miniatures club items. I hope that everyone in the club is still enjoying it. I hope that everyone who is a regular, or just occasional reader of my blog is enjoying it. Even though I post on average only once a week these days. I can't even imagine trying to post daily with how everything is going! I do have some dolls to write about coming up, and some changes in the studio in general. I am still planning on having a live sale at the end of March, some dolls, maybe miniature things (big maybe on those) and some items from my personal collection. I also may just start posting different things for sale (from my personal collection) and do a first come, first served thing. But I want to have at least some things for the live sale. Because maybe someone wants some of the really awesome things I am letting go of, but really loves the idea of combined shipping. I know I am a big fan of combined shipping. Anyway, more info on all the things I am vaguely talking about will be coming soon.