[Where I've been]

So, a few of you may have noticed that I haven't been around lately. I completely missed my re-opening date, and there was a distinct lack of updates for a while. ^.^ Those who check in on my journal every so often know why, but I'll fill in all the other details here.
Lets start all the way back in mid August, near the time when I was supposed to reopen. The whole idea of my closing was to give my website a complete makeover, open my online store, get the CRL up to date, get into art school and finally get some time to do my own outfits. However...none of that happened at all. ^^;; Even though I was closed, I was still working on customer outfits until the week before Kumoricon. As a result, I didn't even get to touch any of my own outfits until two days before I flew out to Oregon, and sadly, I only got one outfit done of the planned four. My boyfriend didn't get to cosplay as Auron, which I was really bummed about. I managed to throw together a Spike outfit for my other friend, and while I didn't get to do the jacket, he still made an amazingly convincing spike! I'll attempt and get some pics up on the site, but not too many were taken.

As if you couldn't guess by what I just said, I also spent a weekend out of state attending Kumoricon in Portland. It was an interesting experience to say the least, and not bad for a first con. Though I must admit now, I'm quite eager to attend larger ones with more things to do. ^.^ At any rate, I spent the first few days of September there.

In addition to my busy schedule throughout the entirety of August, there was also a family emergency that occurred. This is sort of a long standing thing, and I'm not exactly sure what's going to result from it. Some things may change, or they may not. Even now, I have no clue what's going to happen from day to day. I'll update this situation as it's needed.

To make matters even worse, my computer decided that it was time for a good old fashioned meltdown, which it did quite extravagantly. I was a bit of an idiot and thought that since Norton was acting weird, I should uninstall it and reinstall it. For anyone who is considering this, don't do it! Just like the last time I was stupid enough to try, it crashed my computer and made it so I couldn't load Windows. I ended up reinstalling, which sort of worked, except that Windows then decided that I had no files or programs, even though they were sitting right there on my C drive. Whenever I dived into a folder and hit an .exe, Windows would proclaim that said program was corrupt. -_- Horrible. Not to mention that I would have a random memory dump for NO reason. So, after a long night of backing up my files elsewhere on the network, and a friend spending the next day attempting to fix my computer, the hard drive was reformatted. This worked out surprisingly well, considering how much could have gone wrong (like say, my website randomly being eaten or something). There was however, one rather important casualty, namely, my AOL filing cabinet, where all of my past customer information was stored. ;_; So, for my repeat customers, please put in requests through my form like you did the first time. I no longer have your sizes, fabric allergies and preferences. AOL is EVIL. (For those of you with AOL, do yourself a favor and save your e-mails both on your computer and on AOL. While my saved files were killed, the ones that I accidentally put in the 'saved on aol' folder actually made it through. -_-)
For the most part, this problem has been solved. I've reinstalled most of the programs I had lost, and so far, I haven't noticed anything else that might have disappeared into the great beyond.

Needless to say, all of this resulted in a very tired out elf, both mentally and physically. There were a few times when it got so bad I was ready to throw everything down and quit entirely. At one point, I even went so far as starting the designs for my 'goodbye' layout. But, as you can see, I've decided against that. Thanks to the fates letting everything work out, and a few encouraging words from past and current customers, I've decided to remain in the costume making business.

[Where I'm going]

However, with that said, I've decided to remain on break for a while longer. As I didn't get anything done during the time that I was closed, I need more time to make up for it. I know this may be a disappointment for a few people, and I'm sorry, but I have to do it. I've been working really hard, and I have to do something before I wear out completely. I'm not exactly sure when I'll be ready to come back to costumes, but when I am I'll be sure to announce it. Unless something really drastic happens, it will definitely be before the end of this year.

While I will be on break, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop making outfits and accessories. Aside from my own personal stuff, I'm going to be returning to ebay with various items that I've had planned for a while. This is an attempt to rebuild my bank accounts. My goal is to have all of my accounts at the minimum amounts again, so the bank stops taking my money! O_o Its so aggravating. Anyway, I'll post when I'm putting stuff on ebay so everyone can check it out. ^^ I'm also going to put up that accessory request form, since I really would like to do more accessories, and they're less stressful than full outfits.

I'll also be adding a new feature to my site fairly soon, which will be called 'This week at LilElfDesigns". In this section I'll be posting pictures of what I had been working on in the last week (could ya guess? ^^;;). This is for those who have items or costumes commissioned from me, and want to see how its all going. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to send e-mails to everyone individually with pictures of what I've done, and it seems like more and more people are expecting this sort of thing. So, I will maintain the page as best as I can, but if I end up getting too busy, it wont be maintained as often. ^^;; While I don't have any commissions, I'll be showing off my own personal projects. ^^

For now, that's about all I have to say. If there's more, I'll update more. ^^