Yeah, it's a double post, but it's a different subject.
So, two years ago, I had a plan for a specific set of tools and materials I wanted to get for projects for that year. I had busted my fool ass making enough stock to cover all of the above with sales at a show, the overstock of which was to be bought wholesale by the person I'd sold stuff to a number of times before, so I could do it. It's something I'd wanted to do for a decade then.
But then her bookkeeper fucked things up. She didn't enter the stuff as wholesale, but as consignment. That meant I didn't make $XXXX, I lost about $500, because they discounted things well over 50% and then sent me half, and we'd already spent $XXXX in expectation of getting the cash we always reliably got over the course of a 2+ year business relationship. Uhm, ouch. (There was more or less nothing that could be done. We looked into all the things. We just had to eat it. That's how 2015 became 'the year I came within $200 of going bankrupt' and damn it was a scramble to make up that gap.)
Finally -- finally, after two years of scrambling and playing catchup -- yesterday, we were able to place the order for the first (and much, much bigger chunk) of supply, the material part.
Tools get ordered today.
If anyone's rooting for me to die in a tragic crafting accident, this is probably the highest risk, so y'all should be celebrating this one, too: yay, I finally am ordering the anodizing setup.
We ordered something like 5+lbs of titanium and niobium in rings and wire yesterday. We will simply not discuss the price tag on that, OK?
This is one of those long term dream goals, no matter how weird and relatively small compared to something like getting a first house or even getting a new car, but it means I can get going on some planned product work that I've wanted to be able to do for over a decade, and that is pretty fucking awesome.
It'll be ages before any of it actually shows up, and some part of me is probably not going to believe this has actually finally happened until the boxes start landing on the doorstep. But... OMG!!!!!!