Heyo! I know I kinda flooded my gallery with a bunch of stuff tonight that's a little out of the ordinary from what folks are used to seeing from me, lol. Sorry not sorry? For whatever reason, the miniature-building part of my creative brain has been easier to access than the drawing-stuff part of my brain over the last couple years. Sometimes when I sit down and try to draw, I just immediately get overwhelmed and frustrated and I can't do it. But it seems like I can always go fiddle with miniature stuff and make SOMETHING. For a long while I wasn't doing ANYTHING creative, and it was wearing on me. A lot. Letting myself build tiny things has been a way to help open myself back up again.

I'm working really hard to avoid the "I must monetize my hobby" temptation, so I'm very deliberately not offering mini things as commissions (not now anyway, maybe one day, but this is my happy place and I don't want it to become work). That said, because my drive is MAKE THINGS rather than collecting them, I have very little attachment to the finished product of my labors. So if other folks ARE interested, I do have a bunch of stuff listed for sale (dioramas, terrariums, and original matted art). I did a mess of research into similar things sold on Etsy and other places to get an idea of how to price this kind of work, especially at my skill level, so I'm not undervaluing myself or other creators. I would like them to leave my house, but I also know just how much work goes into making these itty bitty creations, lol. I don't mind looking at them a bit longer if they're out of folks' price range. I get that they're very much a niche thing. <3 I'm gonna keep on making stuff regardless.

That said, if anyone IS interested, the link to my store is here: https://alopex-studios.square.site

And I'm happy to answer any questions. =)

Hey all, I am still alive! It's been kind of a frantic year and I haven't had much energy for updates, but I'm still kicking. I successfully yeeted my tiddies back in August! Best surgical experience of my life, hands down. Highly recommend Dr. Alison Shore if Chicago is within travel range for anyone needing top surgery or augmentation. She's wonderful and she did fantastic work! Legit did not realize how much my chest bothered me until they were gone. Love how flat I am now!

I do have new stuff to post! ...Once I get it cleaned up and organized, lol. I realize I neglected to say anything here ahead of time, but I was at MFF in the artist marketplace again. Lovely to see the folks who stopped by my table. <3 One new thing for me this year was putting some dioramas into the art show! I'm so happy folks liked them. I adore tiny things and I've been super into them the past couple of years (the construction pics of which is largely what the folks on my Patreon have been getting, lol).

Had a good time at the con! Finished all of my at-con work before the end of Sunday, and I'm recovered and organized to roll into the take-home pieces now (barring any disasters, heh). I've been working on revamping my website a bit, too. Things are coming together bit by bit. =)

Apologies on the general lack of progress/updates here. x_x I'm not dead, just tired. Basement has flooded twice more since I last posted (and is still wet at the moment). Apparently this is our new normal, and I hate it. Guess the almost 75 yr old footing drains have finally given up. I have a great little crafting/studio space I organized for myself now... But it's in the basement, which currently looks like a swamp. My stuff is fine. Everything is either in plastic bins, up off the floor, or furnishings that can handle a little bit of wet.

And just to add to the chaos, the hot water heater died, the first replacement came with a leak in a place the plumber had never seen happen before despite being brand new, and it took a week or so to get all of that sorted out. And then my mom-in-law's old car developed an oil leak and she needed help getting places until we got her transportation situation squared away. Lately whenever I've actually HAD time to work on creative stuff I've been too worn out to do much. I keep hoping things will slow down so I can stop putting out fires and actually concentrate on MY projects. As it stands, I've got another couple days of shuffling things and drying out the basement (again). Then maaaaaybe I'll get some time to myself? I hope? x_x

Still playing catchup post MFF (scans from the con are downloaded but I haven't had time to make scaled down versions yet). Mom in law got sick, had to batten the house through a Christmas blizzard that messed up travel plans, said travel plans ate my time, and when I was finally, FINALLY getting a chance to reorganize my workspace to make it more usable for art/crafting... The basement flooded! Again! x_x

So I've spent the last few days running on very little sleep, cleaning up water, moving all the stuff, and tearing out sodden carpet and carpet padding. Landlord came over to help today, and we had eleven giant contractor bags full by the time we finished (also thank you  tree-san for coming to help move things). I am so tired. Now I have to wait for the slab to dry out before I finish sorting stuff and getting my space set up for work again. At least I'll finally HAVE a space that's dedicated to making stuff again. I've been using whatever corner of common space I could shoehorn myself into for ages, so building myself an actual studio space will be a new experience.

The past few months I've been working with a team fundraising for orgs that support trans folks (and particularly LGBTQ+ youth) in states especially hard hit by anti-trans legislation. There's a really awesome dedicated crew of folks working on stuff, and I'm helping out with graphics where I can. We've raised thousands with special limited edition e-book bundles for orgs in Texas and Alabama, and our current fundraiser is for Zebra Coalition in Florida, helping fight homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth. We've got 7 days left on the the current fundraiser! If you'd like to help out by picking up an e-book bundle for yourself, the link is:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/h.....ortranskids-zc

And our social media posts about the project are here if you want to help by boosting:

https://twitter.com/HEAforTransKids/
https://www.tiktok.com/@heafortranskids
https://www.instagram.com/heafortranskids/

All funds go directly to Zebra Coalition, we never touch any of the donations. For more info on the HEA for Trans Kids team, our site is here: http://heafortranskids.com

Hey all!

Please go check out my friend

Her work is BRILLIANT and lovely, and needs more eyes on it!

Just checking in to say I'm still alive, wife and I are doing okay so far, though I'm doing battle with some very determined yellow jackets at the moment. u_u You are NOT nesting on or in MY house, fuckers.

Wife is essential personnel for her work, but mostly able to do her job remote, so she only has to go in to the lab occasionally. I'm just trying to get through each day with some semblance of my sanity intact. My state is (thankfully) staying mostly shutdown for another month, which should help slow the spread here. We're doing our best to stay home unless we absolutely have to go out.

As for my ongoing health saga, meds for the pressure in my head seem to be working, but I don't know when I'll be able to do an in person visit with either my eye doc or neurologist for another follow up to test pressure levels. I'm on the lookout for potential side effects, but just mild ones thus far. General stress and exhaustion are getting to me, though. Working on anything creative has been like pulling teeth. I have art in progress, but it's slow going.

Busywork is easier. I've been sewing masks for friends and family. If anybody (in the US, not sure I can mail them international) still needs cloth masks, I have fabric to spare. Let me know. It gives me something I know I can get done and makes me feel like I'm at least helping a little. x_x One of my friends is sick with covid19, and there's nothing I can do right now but wait and offer hope and encouragement digitally. They're tough, but they have some risk factors that make it more dangerous for them, so I worry. I've been mailing toiletries and nonperishable food to my 80+ yr old mom-in-law when she can't get them in grocery orders so she doesn't have to leave her apartment. It kills me to feel so helpless, and knowing this will happen again and again as more people get exposed. x_x

Oh, FYI, if I see racist bullshit from folks related to this? I'm straight up blocking. Ain't got time for that nonsense and I'm not interested in entertaining anyone's bad faith arguments on the subject. Period. I've already removed one person I've been following for years for "Chinese virus" comments. Knock it off with that crap.

My neurologist told me that I DON’T have a brain tumor, so yay for that! My MRIs came back clean, no tumors or growths. I had the spinal tap done this morning so they can test the fluid for other possible causes. I feel like I’ve been punched in the lower back (which I kind of was, just with a needle). My wife's doing okay after her surgery yesterday, too (minor one, home the same day), though we’re both pretty sore at the moment.

The downside is we still don’t know why the pressure in my brain case is so high it’s affecting my vision. Hopefully the tests on the fluid they took today will reveal something, or at least rule out the scarier stuff. Right this sec I’m just trying to find a way to sit or lay that makes my back hurt a little less. It wasn’t the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced, but it wasn’t much fun either.


UPDATE:

Had a nap, but wanted to update, lab results on the spinal tap came back already. No cancerous cells, no infection, one sample had some blood in it but the other didn’t, other things all within normal ranges.

So there’s a non-zero chance it IS the testosterone causing it. Not sure where we go from here. I may need to lower my dose (which is fine, I'm on it for bone health and to prevent menopause symptoms since my body doesn't make its own hormones anymore and HRT estrogen didn't work at all). I may need a medication to lower the pressure, or something like a shunt to remove excess spinal fluid. Dunno yet. I have follow up appointments with both my eye doctor and neurologist, and I'm sure we'll hammer something out.

Finally saw the neurologist this morning, and now I have appointments for THREE different MRIs and a lumbar puncture. Wheee!

She said my optic nerves didn't look too bad today, but that we definitely need to do MRIs and a spinal tap to rule out the possibility of a brain mass or an infection. So hopefully I'll know more in a couple of weeks.

So... that's gonna be fun. At least I have the MRIs all scheduled for the same day, so I'll be able to get them done in one go. Trying not to stress too much over stuff.

The older I get, the more it seems like this stupid meat suit wants to fall apart on me. x_x

Okay, so the GOOD news is that the Radial Tunnel I've struggled with most of the year is much improved. I still have to be careful, but my hand/wrist/arm aren't burning and tingling all the time.

The BAD news is that I have a problem with my eyes, and we don't know the root cause yet. Papilledema is a fancy name for swelling around the optic nerves because there's too much fluid where there shouldn't be, which is messing with my vision. As of right now, it's not severe, and we don't know yet if it's permanent, but it's progressive, which means it'll get worse unless the root cause is found and dealt with. My eye doctor has me taking a diuretic to try and lower the fluid pressure overall. Thus far my right eye's gotten a little better, but the left is still getting worse.

Now she wants me to make an appointment with a neurologist, who will likely want to do an MRI and possibly a spinal tap. There's a possibility that my HRT is the cause. That would be the "easy" answer, if only because that's a medication where my dosage can be adjusted. It could also be an infection or a brain lesion or a brain tumor, or 'idiopathic', which means "we dunno". I'm... not super pleased about any of those possibilities. My head hurts and I'm tired, and the diuretic makes my extremities go pins and needles because it sucks out all my potassium. Not really looking forward to more rounds of testing either.

In any case, just wanted to give an update that I'm not dead. Struggling with new and "fun" health issues, but still kicking.

So folks may have noticed my productivity has been shit lately. u_u My right wrist/arm have been bothering me off and on for a couple years, but it's gotten especially bad in the past few months. I finally went to see a specialist about it, and he thinks it's radial tunnel syndrome, which is similar to carpal tunnel. It's a pinched nerve higher up the arm. We're not positive if that's if because most of the symptoms fit, but it doesn't spike the pain no matter how I move or bend it. It just hurts all the time. It's hard to grip things, and most of the time it feels like I have my arm dunked in ice water or mild acid. Feels like my skin is raw or burning.

I have a custom brace for it now, and I'm scheduled for physical therapy to try and help it heal. From what he told me, this is a long term healing thing, so it's not going to get better overnight no matter what I do. It's frustrating, but there isn't a whole lot I can do aside from brace it, rest it, do therapy and hope things improve. I'm used to pushing through pain, but I also don't want to cause myself permanent damage if I can avoid it.

I'm still working on commissions and stuff from MFF, but I'm really, really slow right now. u_u

I know one of the biggest anxiety factors I've faced in wanting to sell at conventions over the years has been "will I get a spot in the artist alley?". I don't really have the sort of merch or setup that I'd need for dealer's, and I enjoy working in the alley, but I know that daily lotto is a turn off for folks who intend to spend the whole con working. What if you don't get space? What if the day's mostly over by the time you get off standby? What if you can't grab the same spot and your customers can't find you again the next day?

So I'm REALLY EXCITED that MFF is adding an Artist Marketplace this year!

Signups start Sept 1st, and it'll be run as a lottery BEFORE the con. Artists will have assigned tables paid for in advance, so you'll get the same spot guaranteed all weekend! There'll be a waiting list, too, so you're not shut out immediately if it fills up. I'm hoping this'll be a great intermediary space for folks who don't want to dive into the chaos of the dealer's room but want a little more stability than the artist alley provides.

You can find more info here!

https://www.furfest.org/artists-marketplace

Hey guys!

I have art in Werewolves Vs. Fashion and if you buy a copy you're helping support me and dozens of other artists and writers! It's pay what you want, so you can decide what you feel is fair. =)

 carissa really wanted to go, so we're going. =) I am NOT working this con, so you can't commission me, lol.

I have no plans and I don't really like big crowds (when I can't hide behind a table) but I will be there.

We are home! I don’t think  carissa will be riding in the car for awhile, given how the trip went, but we’re out of the hospital and settling back in. Just missed the snow, too. Still working on prescriptions. Insurance is being fucky about the painkillers. 9_9

 carissa is very much improved today! OT and PT both signed off. She wants one more night in the hospital just to make sure everything’s in working order, and then home tomorrow. *Final Fantasy victory music* I’m basically her home health aid for the next three months minimum, so my schedule may still be pretty nuts, but at least I won’t be driving back and forth to the city anymore.

So good news!  carissa came through her spinal surgery just fine. The docs all say it went as perfectly as they could hope for. Her pain levels are still sucky, so the ICU nurses are still working on that. She managed to get out of bed and stand up with help from the PT department, which is amazing for the day after they cut apart her spine and bolted it back together. They started her on clear liquids tonight, and hopefully tomorrow they'll move to soft foods and a regular hospital room instead of the ICU. If all goes well, I'll get to take her home this coming weekend. I'm exhausted and have spent the past 48 hours in waiting rooms and a not-so-great pull out couch bed thing in her hospital room. Home tonight for a shower and a real bed.

Hey guys, just a heads up!

My Patreon has switched to the charge-up-front model, which bills new patrons when they subscribe, and then afterward on the 1st of the following months. That being said, today's a great day to pledge if you've considered it! =3

Please be aware my Patreon does contain adult content, so only pledge if you're 18+ and okay with that!

https://www.patreon.com/zannah

Hey guys!

Just wanted to give folks a heads up. My wife  carissa is going in for major spinal surgery in a little over a week. She's expected to spend 5-7 days recovering in the hospital before they'll let me take her home, and after that most of my energy will be focused on taking care of her while she heals. So needless to say, I'm a little stressed out right now.

I will keep making and posting art as I'm able, but since things are pretty up in the air right now, I can't really do firm deadlines on things. It depends a lot on how well surgery goes and how much help Rissa needs afterwards. I'll know more after the fact. Thanks in advance for your patience, and I'll do my best to keep folks posted on how that's progressing, too.

Annual reminder that if you’d like to see my finished art a couple days early, or get access to sketches/WIPs/random doodles, you can toss a couple bucks at my Patreon! =3 I use it solely as a tip jar, and any support is appreciated!‬ I never paywall finished stuff. It all gets posted publicly for free within a couple days. Early access and sketches/WIPs/etc are my thank-you to supporters. =)

I'm also trying out offering a chance to vote on a sketch to be finished each month, so you can chip in $1 or more and give feedback on which thing I complete.

(Please be aware that some of the content I post to Patreon is NSFW and may not be appropriate for all audiences)

‪https://www.patreon.com/zannah‬

HEADS UP anybody who’s been shipping art via USPS internationally! Merchandise will no longer allowed in 1st class flat envelopes starting 1/21/18.

I presume that the news doesn't so much mean physical envelopes are being banned so much as anything that isn't documents or personal correspondence will be subject to the significantly higher 1st class international package rate. (Ouch)

Artwork is one of the things *specifically* called out as no longer sendable via 1st class flat envelope rates

http://blog.stamps.com/2017/12/26/i.....ational-flats/

https://about.usps.com/postal-bulle.....l/updt_006.htm

I'm not going to give the site responsible more publicity (Kotaku went and did that already, idiots) but there's a pirate site scraping furry Patreons to "liberate" content from them. Frankly they're a bunch of entitled assholes. My page got hit, too, but it's pretty stupid since like 98% of what's there is already public.

All that aside, I'd like to reiterate that while I do have a Patreon, I've set it up as a totally optional tip jar. If you'd like to toss me a couple bucks, thank you! If not, you still get to see everything I finish, totally for free. The only stuff I "paywall" are sketches and WIPs, behind the scenes stuff I don't feel like posting across half a dozen websites. Consider it a perk if you will, but if you don't pay it's not like you're missing anything important. You don't have to go to a pirate site to find my stuff. If you do join my Patreon, please don't use a blank account. I block those. There isn't much locked content for them to scrape, but they're annoying. If you really want to be sure, send me a message and let me know who you are so I can thank you!

https://www.patreon.com/zannah

I know there are only a handful of you on my Patreon, and you may already be aware that Patreon has some changes in the works. For those of you supporting creators, you will potentially be receiving an email from them starting tomorrow explaining changes in their fee schedule. Here's their explanation of what's going on:
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-u.....s/115005631963

It's set to go into effect Dec 18th.

I am hoping Patreon will see sense and roll this back. I am not happy with them, nor are many other content creators. Ostensibly, yes, it means I would be receiving more money, but charging YOU $1.40 so that I receive $0.95 is bogus. I'm angry, but not at you, and if you need to support fewer creators because of this change, and I happen to be one of them, I understand.

I am hesitant to go forward with re-launching my Patreon in great part because of this. I'm the business. In every other payment processing industry, it's *my* responsibility to cover the processing fees, and I am happy to do so! Those fees later come out of any taxes I owe on my art income. Patreon is, even in a small way, increasing the amount of tax I have to pay at your expense.

If you would like to tell Patreon how you feel about this change, you can submit feedback to them here:

https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Wow, that was a thing, there. =D

I'm old and sore and tired, but I had a really good weekend. Broke last year's sales totals (HOW, ZOMG WHY DO YOU PEOPLE LIKE MY ART SO MUCH?!) and will be spending the next week or two buried in homework as a result. Like holy crap, that was INSANE. Once I've had a chance to sleep and get my wind back, I'll be churning out the commissions I owe as quick as I can.

Artist Alley staff are always amazing and I feel so privileged to be part of the team. SUPER excited about what's in the works for next year, and some of the options we're planning to bring to the table for folks. I love that there's always a push to make things better, more streamlined, and overall to serve our massive artist population. The few bumps in the road that we dealt with were sorted out with a minimum fuss, and dear god I love the fact that we don't have to police outlets anymore (because there aren't any!)

Overall I had a great con, and finishing it off with tiki drinks with the AA crew was freaking amazing and I'm glad I went this year.

Thank you SO MUCH to everybody who came by my table to say hi, flip through my prints, and buy/commission stuff. Everyone was wonderful, and I can't wait to do it again next year. =3

I'll be in the artist alley all weekend, come find me!

I will be open for at-the-con commissions, and I have a ton of prints, potato sack critters, coloring books, and my 30s themed art book for sale. I have an adults-ONLY coloring book this year as well.

Come find me and say hi (and maybe buy things) =D