Updates (and where to get them)
Hooboy. Know what is, like, Super Duper Helpful™? If I actually PUBLISH a post after I make it. So this has now become an edit of a post I started - I kid you not - in February.
oops
The beginning of February, even. Not the end that’s closer to now. Which, I mean, that's cool, it's only the end of April.
I started it on Groundhog’s Day and came back to it after Earth Day! Good grief.
Hopefully you all have already noticed that you get more updates on other Pixie Elegance social media pages rather than on the blog, but whether you noticed or not, now you know! Keep reading for more valuable tidbits . . . or, like, at least info on what’s been happening.
Alright, so right now I mostly want to update you all on my health, some of which updates you may have seen mentioned elsewhere if you follow my other media. And if you haven't, the original version of this post (which I’ll put down below) is all about where else to find Pixie Elegance on the internet, so feel free to scroll down for it if you just want to know that. For the rest of you, forge ahead, me loyal pixies!
[Me? Me pixies? Arrrrr! The captain o’ the Heart o’ Pixie be damandin’ yer loyalty! Or . . . something like that . . . .]
So, I’ve mentioned some health issues a few different times here and elsewhere on the internet (click here to see my YouTube video that I had to edit to 2/3rds its original length just to remove all the hacking and coughing!) but I haven’t gone into a lot of explanation because, frankly, I just don’t want to sound like I’m whining at you all or trying to make excuses. However, things have been moving much slower than I’d previously indicated was the plan, and I want to give you all an explanation of why, and some resultant potential shifting of plans as we move forward.
So here’s a quick run-down of the sundry health issues of this past year:
January/February - whole family had Covid; I got it the worst and was out of work for 5 weeksMarch - I had a tonsillectomy, which everyone warned me would be absolutely horrible as an adult, but while it was far from fun, both Covid and the tonsil pain with which I had lived for years were worse.
June - older son broke his finger, younger son split his gums open, neighbor boy brought us a baby bird to rescue (not a thing we do, so we had to find someone who did!) and neighbor’s dog attacked older son. Of all of those, the last was the worst, but thankfully not nearly as bad as it could have been.
July - due to my asthma and having had Covid earlier in the year my doctor recommended I get a pneumonia booster, and wouldn’t you know it? The injection site got infected.
August - significant sinus infection that had me out of work for two weeks.
September/October - concussion, mere weeks after returning from the sinus infection, caused by what seemed like a fairly innocuous bump against a metal rack on a machine at work . . . until I started showing signs of being concussed. This also took far longer to heal than expected and kept me out of work for another four weeks.
January - almost to the day, one year after our previous bout, whole family got Covid again.
This time, having had it before and having had my shots since, it didn’t affect me nearly as bad and I was only out of work for the (at the time) new recommendation of 5 days out and 5 days back with a mask on. So great! . . . until a couple weeks later when I developed another sinus infection, most likely from returning to work sooner than my body was ready (I felt fine! It needs to tell me if it’s not ready!) and from there on out it’s been far more time out of work than in. Turns out, even though the first few weeks were fine, I’m now dealiing with Long Covid, which involved months of horrible coughing that has only recently subsided, and now is mostly involving vertigo and tinnitus, plus some shakiness.
Vertigo. Tinnitus. Shakiness. Know what’s not a good thing to have when you’re working with solder, lye, or even hot candle wax?
Dizziness.
Or severely ringing ears that occasionally increase to a nearly incapacitating level that feels like it’s boring through my eardrum.
Or shaky hands.
So yeah, I’ve been working on other things, mostly stuff I can do on the computer and, you know, not working with dangerous chemicals or flame. I have a couple appointments coming up with specialists that I’m cautiously hopeful will provide me with some sort of solution, but in the meantime I’m revamping what I’m going to list super soon (because I’m tired of not having listed stuff yet like I keep saying I will so I’ve got people holding me accountable to it) some mini soaps that are already ready, and some jewelry that I can work on without solder, saws, or tin snips—all things I probably shouldn’t use right now. They’re not the higher-end stuff I wanted to also have available, but they’re fun things and I look forward to being able to (finally!) bring some products to you.
As for the future, who knows? I’m planning for any of several possibilities because even my doctor doesn’t know how to predict what I’ll likely be capable of in the future. So I’m still planning my own designs and preparing to bring those to you all, but I’m also making plans to move up the work I intend to do with other artisans, building the business from that first and then my own designs instead of the inverse that I was originally planning.
So one way or another I plan to get you, my loyal pixies, connected with other present or future pixies, whether you’re an artisan connecting with customers or artisan-loving little imps looking for an artist to feed you artisanal cravings! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the update this started out as back in February. But heads up—anything that needs amendment due to changes from then to now, I’ll put a bold April update to it in brackets after.
~*~
[THE ORIGINAL FEBRUARY UPDATE THAT NEVER GOT PUBLISHED STARTS HERE.]
Oh gosh, so much so much so much going on! Honestly, from here on out this blog probably won’t be the best place for updates, but will instead be a place for roundups of what you can find in other locations.
For now, I’m going to just point you to what those other locations are.
Yup, I’ve got the channel actually up and running! There are two regular shows happening, plus I’ll put up random other videos as I feel like it.
The first regular show is BookCraft, a combination book club and crafting circle that I’m doing in conjunction with several other crafters/artists. Those artists are:
Erika Rae Heins (who you can also find on Facebook and Instagram)
ArtBecco (who you can also find on Instagram)
Lovely Lisa Crafts (who you can also find on Facebook and TikTok)
Pixxie Products (who you can also find on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok)
They are all fabulous ladies with a variety of products and styles, so don’t forget to check out their respective shops! [April update: we have several sessions under our belts now, and the next session is, if you happen to catch this the day it’s actually posted, TONIGHT! We’re reading The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories and this week we’re discussing "The Hound,” “The Rats in the Walls,” and “The Festival.” Or as we referred to them at the end of our last session based solely on titles: Sherlock Holmes, Bruno, and Into the Woods. Come join in the discussion in the chat during our livestream! And make sure you subscribe to the channel so you get notified of new videos and livestreams, and find the other social media I’m about to tell you about so that you see my reminders of what’s to come and links to what you might have missed!]
The other YouTube series in the works is a (prerecorded) Dungeons and Dragons game that I’m DMing, with my children and two of my niblings as the players. We’re using each session to have fun as well as reinforce things they’re learning in school. This will take longer to get out, though, because (due to the nature of making sure we protect the children involved, and because, uh, kids aren’t super-known for staying on topic well or making decisions quickly) every episode is going to require a fair amount of editing. Stay tuned for that release! [April update: due to the nature of my health issues we have been unable to record more than 2 episodes, and I’m not going to start releasing any until I know we’re able to return to a regular recording schedule.]
Next, and longest-running other than the original Pixie Elegance blog (before it was all transferred to this site) is Facebook. So far I’ve mostly used it for basic updates and links to other updates, which makes it a good central hub for finding other things. But don’t put it past me to randomly share memes there too.
Twitter is one I haven’t kept up with as much, only because nobody has been engaging there. I’m still going to keep sharing links to other posts, but unless people seem interested in engaging there probably won’t be much original content there.
Instagram is a great place to catch sneak previews of products, and process pictures. Since Facebook (or rather, Meta now) owns both, I can schedule posts to both platforms at once, so if you prefer one over the other, rest assured that they will mostly have overlapping content, with possibly a few more memes or jokes made on Facebook, and a few more work-in-progress pictures on Insta.
And finally, everyone’s* favorite relative newbie to the social media landscape: TikTok! Now, I enjoy watching TikToks and I’ve made a few, but I don’t do it very often. I am going to make some mini craft tutorials [April update: a material i’ve ben waiting for before making one of those is coming today, but I might have to revamp how I was going to do it because I don’t want to use solder for the one tiny little bit I was going to do that way] but so far they’re mostly just fun or goofy videos, and there aren't a lot of them. Stay tuned, I’m working to get you more!
So that’s where everything is! Looking forward to seeing you there!
*Disclaimer: TikTok is not literally everyone’s favorite platform. I like it, even though it seems to constantly fight me on how I’m actually trying to edit videos. But you know, not for everyone, and that’s why we’re in so many different places—to give you all choices! And yes, I have a Reddit account for Pixie Elegance, but I got annoyed with Reddit pretty quickly and I’m not sure I even know the login anymore.
