Wednesday 31 May 2017

A potential new printer?

I've been working so hard for so long to get Tomoe River paper reliably back into my shop.  Tomorrow I'm going to see a used printer that I could purchase that might do the job.  Fingers crossed!

In other news, my cat April that has almost totally bankrupted me with her care in the last 9 months has finally had an upswing - steroids are working to keep her liver inflammation down, and now it looks like we are moving towards $220 blood work every three months instead of every two weeks.  Not only that, but the medication costs only $50 a month versus $350.  Yay!

In the meantime, my current, unreliable printer seems to be working for small batches of TR paper.  What I'd like to do is this - message me if you'd like to buy TR stationery, and I'll print up your order in advance.  If the printer works and your order is ready, you can then buy the items from my etsy shop.  That way I won't have to turn anyone down.  Sound good?

And hopefully I'll have an idea about whether or not I'll be getting this new printer by the end of the week.

Wednesday 26 April 2017

The tentative return of Tomoe River paper

Finding a printer that works with 52 gsm Tomoe River paper has been a complete nightmare.  I've bought and returned at least five printers, all of which I confirmed in advance WOULD work with TR paper.  When I got each of them home, set them up, and gave it a whirl, every one jammed.  I called tech support, who would then laugh in my face at the idea that the printer could possibly print on 52 gsm paper.  Telling them they the spec sheet, the manual, the sale reps, AND another tech support employee had all confirmed in advance that it should work did nothing to quell their laughter.

In desperation, I even tried an inkjet printer.  It does work with TR paper, but the print quality is far below a laser printer. I'll keep it for personal use, just in case, and also because I bought it at Henry's where apparently printers are final sale (UGH!), but I don't feel comfortable selling what comes out of the inkjet printer.

However, today my old printer decided to start working again.  I honestly have no idea why.  I'm going to start small - only selling a few TR sets per week to start, and making sure to give lots of down time to the printer so as not to overwork it.

I'm still working on  finding a printer that is reliable for TR paper.  I've got a few leads, but every day, another lead comes up short.  Just like it did today.  At any rate, for now, I'll just make a few sets available whenever it looks like the printer is working.  Add this listing to your cart, one for EACH SET you'd like on TR paper.  Then in the notes to seller, please let me know which sets you'd like on TR paper.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/513490062/make-mine-tomoe-river?ref=shop_home_active_1

I've also listed a few new sets that I've had designed for months.  I've been sending them out as freebies to customers, but hadn't gotten around to listing them yet.  I've got a few more designed already as well, and I'll list them this week and next.

Thanks!










Tuesday 28 March 2017

um ... hi!

So, I've been pretty out of the blog loop lately.  I guess I just haven't figured out how to make blogging a regular part of my life, but I'd like to try and do better.

Things have been really crazy since the Washington Pen Show.  The show itself was pretty awful - my poor roommate got horribly sick, and I got horribly sick a day after I got back at the end of the show.  It was the worst illness I'd had in a while, and I deeply pitied my roommate even more than I had at the time, knowing she hadn't been at home when she experienced this illness.  Yeesh.

The show itself was nice, but I hated being shackled to my table to sell stationery.  It wasn't worth it, and next year I'll go without getting a table so I can enjoy the show more.  I barely got to see the main room at all in 2016!

Shortly after I got back from the show, one of my cats fell ill.  Like, BADLY ill.  She was hospitalized in the VEC (vet emergency clinic) in Toronto for a full week.  The bill came to $7k (ouch), and when she returned home, I had to adhere to an insane regime of force feedings through a tube in her stomach at all hours of the night, meds morning and night, the works, and it lasted for months and months.  The vet was optimistic that April would eventually fully recover, so I kept doing everything they suggested and kept hoping, despite continual vet bills that came with bi-weekly check ups and months more of medication that cost $300/month (for just the meds, never-mind the blood-work and tests!).  So far the bill is up at $10k.  Of course, I didn't have that money, and KWS sales were extremely slow given that the printer no longer worked for Tomoe River paper, so I used up all my savings and took out a $5k line of credit at the bank to cover the cost.


I got comfortable, I'll admit.  I thought April was going to bounce back.  At another check up last week, bad news came back from her blood-work - her liver ALT levels ere rising, which indicates a chronic liver inflammation.  She will have to take antibiotics for the rest of her life, and there's no guarantee the antibiotics will even work to keep the infection under control.  All I can do is keep taking her back for check ups and keep hoping.


 Since August 2016, my father has been hospitalized three times, which throws everything into a spiral of chaos at our house.  Mom & I don't like dad to be alone at the hospital given his dementia, so she's there during the day and I come to help support her at night.  Whenever we bring him home, his delirium has left his cognition much further advanced, and it takes weeks to get him even somewhat back to his baseline.  Each time, his new normal is worse than the time before.

In December 2016, mom cracked under the stress and had a "threatened stroke" or TIA.  We stayed in the hospital all day, her speech slurred, her cognition slowed to almost a halt.  It took weeks for her to recover fully, but I'm just grateful there was no paralysis.

And finally, just recently, I got horrible sick with a bad cold.  After a week, I thought I was healed, but two back to back kick boxing classes proved me wrong, and I woke up the next morning bed ridden.  I ended up taking a week off work.  I just started back last week, and I can still feel the virus crouching in my throat, waiting for me to get cocky again and go back to the gym to show me just how NOT healed I am.

Suffice it to say that I'm doing my best to hold it together, but it hasn't been extremely easy lately.  Still, I'd like to try and be better about keeping this blog even slightly in the loop.

I leave you with a photo of Calli, looking as put out as I felt over the last eight months!