Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Terrifying Space Monkeys got Me!

HONESTLY!... Well...no.

Where the hell have *I* been?!?!?!? Nearly a whole month without posting! Where does that get fun? I'll tell you what's *not* fun- fiscal year end! I've been counting stock and printing reports and balancing books and crossing Is and dotting Ts.. no.. .wait.... But I've been buried in the prep work the accountant needs for weeks now it seems. Being a (mostly) one woman operation does get a little tricky sometimes.

Oh, but dear fellow Browncoats, I have not abandoned you ("No one's gettin' left!") I have been working behind the cortex to bring you lots of new shinys for 2009. Oh, such fun! In production now are two different 3" round embroidered patches. One is an image reminiscent of the Serenity logo (without the English word Serenity in it) and the other says "Big Damn Heroes Aim to Misbehave." I hope to have them in my hands before the year is out (2008 that is, not 2009!!!) I will post them here once I have them and they will immediately go into the Firefly Cargo Bay web site products page.

Speaking of the Products page, I have not yet heard back from my site designer. That page is getting way too full and takes *forever* to load (I know, and I feel your pain about it... and I'm on high speed!). I really wanted it streamlined with drop down menus and product categories. I'll keep you posted on what he says. Until then, please bare with me on it.

Some products will be leaving the secret compartments. They just aren't doing as well as they need to be to hold on to their place. Fear not, though, as I will drop nothing until after the holidays. I would like to mention that the Browncoat playing cards are currently in their second run of production, so I don't have any of those on hand at the moment. Two or so more weeks on those and they should be back in stock.

Other new products are in the works as well- new lanyards and coaster for Browncoats are just two of the shinys in the works. I am also expanding my filk related products lines as well. I'm heading to at least two filk cons this year, so that only makes sense. Those crazy wonderful filkers are just pulling me in!

And that brings up conventions! I'm eagerly looking forward to Conflikt in Seattle in January, as well as FKO in Toronto in April. I've also gotten confirmation of TWO table spots in Pittsburgh's Confluence Dealer Room. The other two shows, Dragon*Con and Polaris, have not yet opened their 09 Dealer applications, so I'm not official there yet. but I will be!! :)

I'm looking at other shows as well, but I have to remember that I have a family, too, so, you know... can't go every weekend. *frowny* Oh, yeah, and there's that money thing that all these hotels and airlines want whenever I do a show. *sigh* I hate that! BUT, on the bright side, I'm never ever going to make any more huge shipping errors like I did with D*C this year! So, hey, I learned something.

Well, now, does this catch us up to date? Please know that I haven't left you floating out in the black. I am working on new and fun things for your squee approval. Just keep flyin with me and we'll make 2009 very gorram shiny indeed!

Until next time:
"Well... Here I am."

Saturday, November 1, 2008

We're in!

It's official- the first convention that Firefly Cargo Bay will be attending is Conflikt in Seattle January 30- February 1, 2009. This is a filk con and I'm excited because both the filk and Browncoat communities are very large and active in the NW area. I haven't been to a con on the west coast since 2006 and the con-that-never-was, Flanvestion II (hello all Browncoat Backup Bash attendees!) I'm so psyched to go, I wish it was January already. My mother always says, "Don't wish your life away" but it's hard not to! I wanna go!

Apparently, they're psyched about me going, too. I received this in an email from the con comm: "Just peeked at your web pages, and I'm _really_ excited you want to come out to the west coast. " I like being different! :) I will have many new and exciting products at my first show of 09 as well as a lot of the shinys that I've hauled all over the place in 08. Both filk and Browncoat items will be offered.

So, if you're out in the north west part of the American 'verse, plan to come hear some awesome sci fi themed folk music and hang out with really really cool people, and pop into the dealers' room and say hi!

Until next time:
"Ladies and menfolk, we have ourselves a job."