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Happy Holidays! 

I hope you are staying safe and warm! 

Some quick prefaces, if you haven't already, please participate in the end of the year survey! It'd be a huge help and will help optimizing my workflow for the upcoming year. Link HERE

I will be going through each the reply over the Christmas break, if you've left an email I may be getting to you then! Thank you!

Hoshiikins will be going on a Christmas break from the 21st to the 2nd! The website will be closed down for major renovations and a complete revamp (which is one of the reasons I've been more quiet lately, working very hard on it!). There will be no BYO release this month, the Husky BYO will be moved to January. If you have an open order with me, I will still be active behind the scenes if you need to contact me, the break applies more to the 'front-end' of things. Email and Etsy contact will be delayed due to the holidays.

Tying the two together, please let me know if you'd like to see anything in particular added to the website via the survey- whether it be entire sections or a particular accessory you've been looking for. 2018 has definitely been a year of learning and growing both business-wise and also personally, I'm very excited to apply all I've learned into 2019!

I will create a full write up of updates, changes and 2019 goals (I already have a lot!) upon the website relaunch to keep you in the loop! 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you SO much for this year of growth! 

Let's make 2019 the year of prosperity! 

Happy Halloween! 

I've decided to make this newsletter a monthly wrap-up of sorts, so now these will go out at the end of each month!

What's new?

Auctions! With a few hiccups and some trial and error, we finally have launched a streamline Auction page, located next to the Gallery tab. 

We decided to do this 'silent auction' style as it's more relaxed for everyone, maintains privacy to those who desire it, and has so far curbed a lot of abuse that had been occurring on our traditional auction attempts. If you have any feedback regarding how we can further improve on these auctions, please feel free to click on the 'feedback' link at the bottom bar of the site! 

For now, things like specialty Toebeans, extra BYO Slots, perhaps future surprise custom slots will be housed there, I still plan to use eBay for specialty ears and sets, unless I get a lot of requests to do those silent auction style as well! 

As always, I am extremely grateful for all your support and for all the requests for the Auction section! Hopefully this will help out those who don't like time-based releases, the funds made from these auctions will be going directly to supplies, travel funds to be able to go to conventions further out and a little studio fund! 

Looking forward, November will be prep for the Christmas season! Time sure does fly..! 

I will be launching the bigger bow size sometime in the middle of the month, again, a big thank you to those who voted in the Instagram poll for that. 

I also hope to have some sort of giftwrap option on several items, I am always open to suggestions for that and for Christmas-y ears, Toebeans, etc! 

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, I do hope to make room for a few custom slots for Christmas delivery which will most likely be placed in the silent auction page. 

Lastly, I do want to make note that I may be moving in the next couple months and that's why I will be cautious and taking things a bit slower than last season as I may temporarily lose access to some or all of my equipment.

I know it's a bit early to say, but I am extremely excited for 2019 for Hoshiikins as I feel like I'll finally be able to fully spread my wings then! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

Stay safe and take care!

I'll also be allowing order cancellations within one hour- meaning your email must be timestamped as such for it to work. I understand that purchases can be made in the heat of the moment, and I'd rather it go back up instead of being used as trade bait or immediately resold. 

Happy Autumn! 

I hope things are starting to cool down and relax for you! 

Some things to look forward to this month-

Autumn and Halloween themed items! I hope to create a nice variety of creepy cute to gore-y ears, and everything in between. I am always open to your suggestions! 

I also hope to continue increasing the amount of Premium Build-Your-Own listings beginning this month and onward. September's pattern is Chipmunk/Skunk, but I may see about adding another option in there as well. 

I am also looking into ways of diversifying releases to hopefully allow those who haven't had a chance to snag a pair of ears an easier go at it. I completely understand the frustrated messages I have received and I do hear you! 

This brings me to my next point- I hope to diminish part of this problem by further cracking down on ToS violations, starting to include those who have shown a constant pattern of receiving an item then trading or reselling it. 

I completely understand that sometimes an item does not work out, but repeatedly doing so with almost every item you receive is not fair to others. 

Lastly, I will be setting up a no-reply feedback email or Google Docu very soon for a more streamline way of submitting ear suggestions, general improvements, constructive criticism and etc!

EDIT: Link HERE

EDIT 2: I would like to note that I apologize for any delays in emailing or general messaging. My sister (formerly in charge of that) is busy with uni, so it's just me for now! If I don't reply to your message within a week, please resend it and I will get it!

As always, a big thank you for taking the time to read this! 

Hi everyone!

I've decided I will be posting a monthly written update here to keep you in the loop with things going on behind the scenes and just general things to come!

Firstly- an update to Surprise Releases! I have gotten quite a few messages regarding lots of people still unable to snag something from the weekly releases. 

To try and solve this, there will be one ear (or ear + tail set) snag limit per month per person, account and household. Please note, this means you may only help yourself or a friend, not both, as I am trying to prevent 'gate-keeping' and scalping for 'tips' as well. This will start September onwards! Reminder that Surprise Releases are every Thursday (unless stated otherwise), items are posted completely  randomly throughout the day within Pacific Standard Time.

Secondly, I am extremely happy and thankful to see the positive feedback from the recent Goddess Luna Fae auction, and I definitely have plans to make more special pieces available in that way! 

Thirdly, on a more personal note, 2018 has definitely been the most difficult for me in my shop journey. From the customs and refurbish fiasco(s), to the record number of scalpers hosting auctions to make a quick buck off my hard work, including a handful of once very loyal and longterm friends stooping to that same level, to most recently learning that many of the items from the pop-up shop were exploited. It's just been one thing after the other. 

I've definitely learned a lot and will be taking that into the end of this year then into the next, as I have no plans of stopping anytime soon. This is mostly an explanation on why I haven't been as active on social media and haven't been producing as many releases this year, my artistic vision and mental health are closely intertwined, so without one there isn't the other. I just want to continue making the best items to my ability for you all at the end of the day!

I am very hopeful for the future, and want to again thank those who have supported me, whether since the beginning or just last week!

Lastly, I am in the works of a late August or early September release which I will announce the date of soon. A Halloween themed release will follow that, which I am very excited for! 

Thank you! _(┐「ε:)_❤