Let the record show I royally screwed the pooch. That said, oi. I think (I hope - correct me if I've missed someone) that I've caught up with promises.

*clears throat* So, what happened? Almost two years back, I got the funny notion that I was gonna be super craft-productive and crank out piles of fursuit bits, art, and other various things. Why? Because everyone and their mother was becoming a "Fur Studio" and I had just become unemployed. In my mind non-employment meant tons of free time for crafting. Yay! Only problem (or at least, perceived problem) was that I was lacking in a portfolio. To remedy this, I calculated the very minimum cost of materials and offered to build cheap, cheap things for people until I had some fur-cred. (EG, this stroke: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3855542/)

I'm totally capable of building pretty-ish, sturdy stuff. This is a fact. I'm also totally capable of insane mood swings and cloistering the hell up when things go wrong.

And oh boy, things went south fast. I had two takers on the fursuit heads, and a few more for tails, ears, etc. All of the commissioners were amazing and paid up-front, and promptly. Sketches were passed back and forth, concepts, ideas, construction notes, things you would expect for this type of work. I was so hyped, things were awesome. All but $50 of the commissions ended up going to Fabric.com for fur, and the other 50 got dumped into some extra resin supplies.

Anyone who's messed around with resin can probably see exactly where this is going. I'm not fantastic at plastic, and was being ambitious - that pretty much ended up biting me in the ass. I underestimated how much of everything I needed - molds were made improperly and fell apart (one even bonded to the sculpy. Ha. Funny only in hindsight.) I wasn't going for anything super elaborate, just some spikes for one of the tails and some teeth for masks. Long story short, resin was a no-no. I poured that first fifty dollars down the drain, and tried to fix it with another hundred from my own pocket. I was able to finish the spiked tail, but that ended up being several months late.

About this time, we moved. Arthur was having a hard time paying the rent and supporting my unworking self. Got a much cheaper place and ended up in the deepest, saddest depression spike I've ever experienced. That's about the time I turned myself off, and actually did nothing related to the remaining commissions. I wanted to apologize for the delay, but was tired of mentioning delays. Was a bit afraid that people would be asking for their money back (all told, something like $275 in remaining commissions. Three projects.)

That would have been a good way to resolve the issue, but I'd already spent that money on fur. We didn't have anything in the bank, and Art was stressed out enough without this additional problem. It just pretty much sucked - probably most for the commissioners with nothing but some digital sketches of their commission.

And that's pretty much what happened. I fell into that funk for 6 damn months. Like, stay in the house, bundled under a blanket, not having the energy to move, funk. Thinking about it just made it worse until... well, until I hit another mood swing, picked myself up by the ass and got a job. A small part-time job, but it at least lowered Art's stress level considerably. I quietly contacted the commissioners one at a time, when I had enough money in the bank to issue a refund if it was desired. One took the refund - the other two have been patient as HELL.

So here we are. I've put the finishing touches on the last commission, a sergal head. It's chilling on my computer desk right now. This sexy mo-fo is going in a box, due straight for Auburn as soon as... I get some pictures. Because honestly, he looks sharp, and I really regret not getting pictures of the panther before I sent her commission off. But dammit, he's being sent off.

I know better now, and this has got to be the single most frustrating, saddening, life-impacting lesson that I've learned to date: Henrie, don't bite off more than you can chew. Seriously.

Now, as far as I know, I've resolved each of my boastful claims. But I'm going by my Paypal transaction history. If I have missed anyone, PLEASE let me know. I'm in a good place right now, and I just want to have this 100% resolved and done with. I'm now going to write something more uplifting and cover this journal up. Because yay. I'm done.

Seriously, thanks guys. Each of ya'll that threw money at my stupidity. I am very sorry that I dipped on you, and I hope that the extra time and love I put into your commissions made the wait mildly tolerable.