When Lucky 13 was born I first ordered my jelly pigments (which come in suspension base) by the 1/2 oz. Later on I graduated to 4 oz bottles. Now I go through those 4 oz bottles fast enough, sometimes in less than 2 weeks, that I've graduated once again to the next largest size....

I'm now buying jelly pigments by the pint! This is very exciting to me and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to post one of my top 5 Merry/Pippin exchanges :-D

When Lucky 13 was born a year and a half ago (wow, my baby is already 18 months!!) I honestly never dreamed it would be more than a small hobby where I'd make gifts for friends and perhaps make a sale or two. I truly never dreamed it would grow into what it is today! I won't get all mushy with you guys (again) but suffice to say I wake up every day thankful that I can do something I love and that I have so many amazing friends because of it.

However, with great growth comes great responsibility. Wait, that's not the right quote, I'm not Spiderman. Whatever! For months Lucky 13's growth was very slow but steady but in the last few months growth has jumped enormously, enough so that my usual business model just doesn't fit Lucky 13 anymore and it's time to change things up. Previously I had so few orders that I could easily mix things on demand and still get orders shipped within 2 to 3 days. I've always wanted to make sure that if there was a color and size someone wanted, they could get it. I most certainly can not do that any more, however.

Let's take Black Friday weekend for example. From Friday 11/29 through Monday 12/2 I received 88 orders totalling 461 bottles. I can't even tell you how much more that is than what I'd anticipated, it's just ridiculous! And with the Lord of the Rings releases in September I received more orders in a single day than I had previously gotten in my best month. These were huge signs that it was time to change how I was doing things.

Even before the Lord of the Rings releases I'd been wanting to switch from mixing on-demand and instead mix stock in bulk and do restocks (you know, like normal indies often do!) but I never found the time where I was both caught up on orders and I had enough free time to begin mixing in bulk. With the Christmas/Yule/winter-y holidays coming up (and my birthday!) I've decided that now is the time to switch over.

So, as much as I loathe doing this, Lucky 13 will not be accepting any orders beginning December 10th (sometime soon after midnight the morning of the 10th, PST as always) until January 5th (again, sometime soon after midnight the morning of). When I come back what's in stock on the site will be what's available and when it's gone it's gone until the next restock. I'll try to keep things stocked as well as I can but it will take some time to get into the swing of things so I hope you'll all bear with me. With this change there should be a much better turnaround time between ordering and shipment.

Additionally, I'll be phasing out shorties in order to further streamline mixing and shipment. I don't anticipate any price changes but I will give ample warning beforehand if things do change.

Because I hate posts without pictures please enjoy this gravity-defying stoat!

As always I'd love to hear your comments, questions, concerns, criticisms, whatever!