Happy New Year everyone!
What a year 2020 has been. Not much happened, but everything happened. Doesn't make much sense but doesn't it feel that way? Everything we knew and looked forward to was cancelled, and life got a lot tougher than it already was. The only positive thing to come out of the year for me was the newest member of my family, Merlin, our 2nd Borzoi, who was born in May.
Prior to this mess, selling toys wasn't the only thing I enjoyed doing for work. I share a videography and wedding video business with my boyfriend, and well... as you can imagine everything we had planned either got cancelled or delayed, and we only officially set the business up at the end of 2019. Short and not sweet at all. I had also started selling at Toy Fairs towards the end of 2019, which were so much fun! I love being able to meet you all in person, and I was hoping to sell at UK PonyCon last year. But then the toy fairs were cancelled, PonyCon was cancelled, and there was nothing to look forward to. So I moved my sales online and became a vendor for PonyCon's online events and beyond, and honestly, it has really kept me going. It has helped to keep me occupied, sane, and bills have been paid that otherwise would have been a problem due to our business's lack of work. So I kept the shop going all year round, I had no idea an online shop could be so fun and exciting.
Next year will be better for us all. There is a bright light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. We just all need to keep safe, keep others safe, and we'll be out of this soon! 21 has always been a lucky number for me, so I have a lot of hope for this year.
Now we're in lockdown number 3, and where I live is in Tier 4. Not the best start to the year, but we're working on it! We'll be heading to the post office as normal, both myself and another member of the household sell online as our sole form of income right now, so it's vital that we continue to get your items out to you as soon as possible.
There will be delays, which we've experienced for months, and I expect there is a bit of a backlog what with the Christmas rush. But parcels will always be tracked, so you can keep an eye on your items until the moment they reach your door!
Here's something important to keep in mind now; the UK is now officially out of the EU and sadly that comes with some absolutely wonderful (note the sarcasm) changes to posting parcels outside of the UK. Now we have to add customs forms to parcels, which means potential customs fees. I'm not 100% certain on everything just yet, but I know for sure that it's an unwelcome change. But we keep on!
2021 will be a good year for us, and we'll adjust to the changes ahead of us. Things might not be the same for a while, but with a bit of hard work we can get to a point where we can all be safe and return to the things we love.
I really hope I get to see you in person sometime this year, whether that be at Toy Fairs, UK PonyCon, or any form of toy meet/sale when they eventually start up again. I'm naturally an serious introvert who loves being at home, but I have really missed being in these environments with you all.
Keep your head up, we're nearly there!
I hope you have a wonderful start to 2021, it's going to be a good year.
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