A Brief Conversation with Halloween 2010

So, I had a conversation with Halloween 2010, trying to figure out what he had against me. I mean, I worked my REAR off trying to make sure all of the ladies of his night could dress in the most high quality seductress costumes available, and STILL he tries to murder me in cold blood. I have been SOOO tired and stressed out for about two months that I think I'm just a pale shadow of my normal vibrant self. It may have something to do with the diet of cookie dough and pre-Halloween candy that I shove in my face as I sit rigidly at my sewing machine, pressing through the pieces of fabric and hoping that my tears won't stain the corsets and that my angry profanity-filled outbursts won't be embedded into the fibers. I might be a little worn because I've been waking up at 4:30 every morning and VERY LITERALLY working until 10 each night.

Now, I'm not complaining about the number of orders. That was pretty dang awesome. I think what has ended up killing me is that we get sooooooo many emails. And, bless your hearts, some of you might have been slightly more understanding about the weight that I'm under. Well, me AND my Midwest Branch. We're small companies, plain and simple. We stay this way because I honestly like feeling a personal connection with the customers and I LOVE being the one who sews all of their custom orders, and I'm really genuinely excited for most of you to get your corsets and put them together into fantastic costumes. It's also nice to work with people who appreciate good craftsmanship and understand what work is put into my pieces. However, when you multiply the normal number of pleasant customers by 20, then things start getting out of control. Your emails start sounding angry in my head when I read them. Here's an example.

Customer: Hey! I was just wanting to check up on my package and see when it would arrive!

How I read this same email- HEY @$^%*$!!! WHERE THE H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICK IS MY $%^&*&** CORSET? WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? I'M YOUR ONLY IMPORTANT CUSTOMER AND I DON'T GIVE A DANG ABOUT HOW TIRED YOU ARE OR ABOUT HOW YOU ALREADY GOT THE CORSET DONE AND SENT IT OUT YESTERDAY, 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE EXPECTED TIME! I WANTED IT A WEEK AGO! YOU SUCK, YOUR PRODUCTS SUCK AND YOU CAN BURN IN H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICK!

I'm not even joking here. When I'm this overwhelmed with orders and I've been working this hard, I get really irritable and emotional, completely taking everything said the worst possible way and feeling judged, inadequate, stupid, imperfect, and idiotic.

Now, in my defense, I DID hire extra help. I don't actually answer the emails (that's my brother..he dictates, I answer, he types.) and I was FINALLY humble and beaten down sufficiently so that I could ask for help from some of our neighbors. They have literally saved our life, making my sewing shop so it doesn't look like a bomb hit and organizing, grommeting, and helping with shipping. All the same, I just take everything sooo personally with this company. It's an extension of who I am and what I stand for, so if anyone is ever upset or disappointed with me or my products, it just grates on my nerves. I sit there and sew and stew and am nearly driven out of my mind. It's worse when I get emails where the people REALLY DID want to guilt-trip me and put me down. Those ones play as a constant track in my head, over and over. I can promise you, I never forget them.

Basically, I just want Halloween to be over so I can stop feeling guilty for not being perfect. How could I try SOO hard and still fall short of the mark? Poopy.

On a MUCH LIGHTER note, I have a REALLY great promotion coming up in the 2 weeks. We're trying to clear out fabrics to make room for more!!! We'll be headed to the LA fabric district and we're planning on buying massive amount of fabric so you guys can have new selections, colors, and patterns! But, that means we have to make room, and we have such profusions of little pieces of fabric that just need cut up and used into corsets. The reason most of these are still kicking around is because they're sort of...ugly. So, I'll be having an "UGLY FABRIC CORSET SALE!" YAY!!!! (funny thing is-I LOVE most of these fabrics.) We're making some hilariously ironic and swell steampunk corsets out of the ugly fabrics. You guys will love them!