The New Normal? As close as we can get for now.

I was working with the factory almost daily, searching for solutions to a trade war neither of us support, but we are forced to live with or at least deal with.  AliExpress was the secondary bad guy in this little drama, their massive overcharging of fees, with no indication of what would happen to the excess funds collected, you know there will be no refunds to the person that paid them.  The primary bad guy and the Chinese worked out a deal to get rid of the punitve added fees and go back to just tariffs, 30% on Chinese goods, 10% on US goods, how those are collected, paid to the respective customs offices and allowed entry appear to vary wildly, who is pulling back, who is most impacted, who is merely inconvenienced --all to be determined as of this early date.

Fast forward and I'm bringing as many loose ends together as I can, the June Pride 2025 event is starting and as a sponsor, it is important for that message to get out there, trade war or not.  The fill in of products listed at the Emporium was back of the line, has now moved back up and even though all the breakthrough discoveries made while importing products in the sense --a listing file from one store, imported into the other store to have an identical listing in both locations--I have to finally listen to myself and realize a duplicated listing of products is not necessarily the primary goal here.  So these are my thought processes, how I deal with changes and silliness, the end result is what we have and where we're going,

I can't tell you how humbled I have been while y'all were stepping up and buying the in-stock kits and putty and cover-minders--I was nearly in tears several tmes, you have no idea how important each one of those orders was/is after all of that mess.  If you're ready and want to make this your new home shop, everyone is eligible for a new customer discount of 15% on your first purchase -- even if you've bought a hundred things from the Etsy shop-- just enter NEW15 at checkout.  In time, as everything here is bustling and lots going on, Etsy will become more stale and less relevant, things are always changing and that is the best direction for continued positive changes.

The first Specia Orders was placed with the factory on 6/1 and are being done weekly, the next will be 6/15 -- every Sunday.  Shipping appears to be similar, no boats and no slowdowns,  12-15 business days.

Things are about as full as they are going to be for now with a staff of me.  I am continually adding listings, looking at new art and artists, working on new projects and looking for an assistant and a time to sleep.  The Pride season is in full swing and I will be participating as a Vendor at the Binghamton NY Pride Palooza in Otsiningo Park on Saturday, June 14 from whenever it starts until 6pm.  A community diamond painting project will be available for people to add their section to the pieces, should be interesting, and there will be refrigerator magnet kits, new keychain kits some sample kits from the shop and hopefully, a good time will be had by all.