Good evening, bird gang! Just checking in.

I hope your pre-thanksgiving Monday was as chill as it can be - it's the busy start to a busy time of year, and we are feeling it over here in the hospitality industry the most. It's so fucked up, and the days blend together so bad, I forgot I had today off and was dressed and ready to go to my shift.

I wasn't about to waste a work day's worth of energy, so I made the best of it. I went on a few long walks with the dog in the unseasonably warm weather, reorganized the pins and stickers in the office, and cleaned the deer blood and esophagus out of my car that the dog left last night. Tasty!

Very happy to announce, I am also no longer sleeping on my apartment carpet with the dog. Baby steps, gang. Baby steps.

Male living space made possible by viewers like you. Thank you.

We are on the last day for COOP CO-OP, a chicken-themed enamel set by a few good friends - I just threw some cocks in there, last minute, but you can back and get them if you like 'em. 

Want to grab some yard birds for Easter fulfillment? Check these chooks out!

Anyways, back to the project stuff - 61% of you have finished your survey. Neat!

I'd like that number to be a little higher, so we can get manufacturing counts. Are you in that other 39%? You may well be - a few backers reached out to me and said they didn't get theirs thru email. If you backed GOLDEN AGE PARROTS, and haven't gotten your survey yet, please check your BackerKit account and manually look for it.

You can check this in BackerKit's profile, then "Pledges and Surveys."

If you are one of the backers wanting a blue quaker parrot pin or sticker...

...please pick another option for your desired item, and email me to let me know which pin/sticker to replace.

Some of you let me know the blue quakers have been missing, and this was an oversight on my part. I've been going back and forth with BackerKit about this issue, and, ultimately, adding another option to surveys after people completed theirs means they'd have to redo them. For a single design, at this point, I don't want to inconvenience the majority of backers.

This is a consequence of me rushing on surveys, and it's entirely down to me.

My inbox is open at [email protected], just let me know who we're replacing! Thanks for tolerating the workaround - it won't happen again.

Finally, a part of the update I really don't want to have to write: if you are a UK backer, and were able to back and receive a survey up to this point, you need to reach out to me ASAP.

Gonna try and be as patient and nice about this one as possible. I have been clear with all backers, since the start of GOLDEN AGE PARROTS, that we were not offering UK shipping or fulfillment for physical tiers.

UK does not allow me to send any of my products unless I have a VAT license, which they will not give me because they hate money.

Generally I would circumvent this with custom Etsy orders, since Etsy does have VAT and you can pull some strings that way. But, honestly, this time I did not care enough.

There were a lot of issues ("were" isn't the right term - we are still dealing with customs complications from delayed fulfillment and stock problems due to defective pins, so most have not gone out yet.) with the UK backers on BIRD CRIMES. Most of you guys were lovely, but your government has a stick up its ass and so did a few backers.

This was bad enough that I made the choice not to offer UK options this time. This is likely to continue going forward.

The fact UK shipping was excluded has been all over GAP. You guys are lumped in with Israel and Russia as banned locations in both the shipping section, my project FAQ, and in several social media posts.

I am troubleshooting why you were allowed to back in the first place, but, I am not offering anything to United Kingdom backers at this time - except refunds.

Email me at [email protected] to discuss getting a refund or other possible options for large (10+ pin or $100+ USD) orders. I'm sorry for the trouble, but, in the future, please read my FAQs and shipping terms.

I will not be refunding UK backers who back next project.

Sorry to end that on a sour note, but, I hope to have some more stuff done for you guys this week. I haven't had time to sit down and do much vector-wise with the move, and prep for the holidays. I'd like to get some good sales for the HUSTLE during the gifting season...

I'll be announcing a 20% Black Friday sale, as well as some old stock returning, tomorrow night. Keep an eye out, and thanks for sticking with it.

They won't be home for Christmas, but, if you have a bird lover in your life, maybe preorder some GOLDEN AGE PARROTS for them, too?