Hey, everyone! I'm still here, I promise. I wanted to talk to you about what's been going on these past few months and stuff, because I think you deserve an explanation. The whole thing is under the cut but if you don’t have time to read the whole thing, here’s a summary:
tl;dr- I was gone cause of major depression, but I'm gonna do my best to come back despite worries and fears and guilt. So heads up and thank you, all you lovely beautiful people.
Keep on shining!
♥ Courtney
I made this project to help people with their depression, mental issues, loneliness, etc. because I know what it's like to deal with these things. I suffer from depression and anxiety- I take an anti-depression med and just started on an anxiety med. I go to therapy once a week. and I know what it's like to feel all alone in dealing with everything, and I want people to know that they're *not* alone.
Despite all of these things, the last few months have been really hard and I've been in a deep depression - some days all I did was sleep and eat some food. Some days I just didn't want to feel anymore and wanted to get away from everything.
I'll be honest - part of why I've struggled with posting again these past months is because I'm afraid. I'm afraid of everyone's' reactions to me being gone so long (again and with no notice). I'm afraid of all of the "you're back!" and "welcome back"s because that means acknowledging that I did stop posting in the first place. I'm afraid that I won't be able to make this project all that it can be, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to manage everything and the project will just fade into nothingness.
I'm hoping to get in a better place soon so that I can give true, meaningful responses and posts instead of generic, empty words. To get there I'm going to start posting stars again and answering asks, slowly.
I have an immense amount of guilt about all the asks that have been sitting in my inbox for months and months and months, but the best thing that can be done is to take a little bit at a time and answer them one by one, because they may still be able to be of some help. Deleting them all and starting over would be, to me, like betraying the promise I've given to you all. It will take a long time, but my volunteers and I will do our best to answer what we can, when we can.
Thank you for reading, and I hope everyone is doing okay <3
After a bunch of tests and scans, my Dr has determined that there's nothing wrong with my insides. I still have fatigue and swelling/pain in my feet, but at least it's not anything bad XP
I apologize for the past few days everyone, I haven’t been feeling well at all (I couldn’t even finish my dinner last night because of my migraine TT^TT).
Hopefully I can post things tomorrow, fingers crossed!
Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, I had to take Athena to the animal hospital for her post-infection checkup (she had a UTI a few months ago and with kidney-disease kitties that can go bad fast), and it took all day >.<
But good news, she’s doing great! So that’s good XP
I am looking for people who would be willing to help me answer asks for Stariplier Project - there are more asks in my inbox than I can answer alone in a timely fashion and more come in every day. Basically, I need help XD
It a 100% volunteer, unpaid position and you don’t have to know how to make stars (but it’s a plus). I will train you on how I answer asks and everything, but you must be okay with working with a team of people and having your answers edited or changed if need be. I am looking for 2-3 people right now to train, but eventually would like to have around 10 (maybe more, maybe less depending on incoming ask flow).
I have a form you can fill out below if you’re interested:
https://goo.gl/forms/FSgCdmwPwKGnjKZq2
(Please only fill this out if you are serious about wanting to help.)
Also, keep in mind that there are triggering topics all over my inbox (and in the form) so if you are easily triggered, maybe find another way of helping out.
Please share this as much as possible so that the Stariplier Project can continue to grow and help people (in a timely fashion)! Thank you everyone, and have a good day!
Keep on shining!
♥ Courtney
(Feel free to request a star here! Anon is on as well <3)
Hey, everyone! I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on what’s been going on lately - don’t worry, everything’s fine, just a general update ^o^
(note: lots of text under the cut)
Keep on shining!
♥ Courtney
First of all, thank you so much for your continued patience. I know that many people are losing faith that their asks will be answered, and I am immensely sorry that you have to question that at all. Though I can’t guarantee the time frame right now, I can guarantee that they will be answered. I’ll explain what the hold-up is in a bit, but I just wanted to thank everyone.
Here’s the hold-up: I recently purchased a web domain for Stariplier (stariplierproject.com), and have been working on a project within that to help my volunteers and I answer asks as easily and quickly as possible. I have been using this as an opportunity to learn coding as well, and since I’m the only one working on said project it’s taking a while to complete. However, I am doing my best to get it completed as soon as possible. Once this is done and ask answers are flowing again, I’ll start work on making the website itself presentable.
I have also been thinking, seriously thinking, about where I want this project to go. Long story short, the non-profit route is not an option right now due to various reasons, and I’m still coming to terms with this project being a for-profit business. At it’s heart, I want the focus of this project to be to spread kindness, encouragement, and support - however, to get to that point finances (unfortunately) have to be considered.
That being said, even if Stariplier becomes a for-profit business, I still want the focus to be on the above things I pointed out. I might make just the Etsy store the business part and have this part, the community part, on it’s own.
If anyone has any ideas on this or useful reference material or links they want to share, feel free to message me directly here or email me at [email protected]. I appreciate any and all input!
I have also been balancing my gargantuan art-block, therapy, and working on logo designs for clients (I know that seems to be in conflict with the art-block, but if it’s for other people it’s fine), so I’m sorry that things have been progressing so slowly.
Anyway, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me or reply to this - I’ll do my best to answer and read everything.
Thank you all for your continued support, it truly means a lot <333
