05/16/2025
So it's been a minute so I thought for any followers who may care, who have followed us and are aware of the struggles we've faced as a small business, I'd update where we are as people right now in our lives. K&T has been sitting on a backburner that has pretty much been switched off for quite awhile. The reason for this is multi-layered. Firstly being blindsided by The Flamingo House & it's treatment of us as a family, especially our daughter, IFYKYK. We tucked our tails and licked our wounds. To be burned so hard by people we thought were our friends and most importantly that we thought we could trust, only to have them literally 180 their treatment of our daughter who joined their household? It was a kick in the teeth that we didn't expect or deserve, especially as they knew we are survivors of abuse and live with diagnosed anxiety, depression & PTSD disorders. We gave our all to this business, but despite all efforts never reached a level of success we had hoped for in 12 years. We were on a struggle bus that just never seemed to get better. The blindside situation from members of our community, the LGBTQIA+ community, was just too much. It hurt us deeply and as such, we all lost our joy and mojo for creating & the desire and hustle to pack up and peddle our wares at events. Life hit us hard in other ways. We nearly lost both our moms. Our old van was vandalized. We were reno-victed and forced to move. In doing so, a pivot to mainstream employment was necessary to be able to afford our new rent. Our vandalized van died and we had to get a "new" to us vehicle which came with biweekly payments & higher insurance premiums. Then the mainstream employment became a temporary layoff that then became a permanent layoff literally days before Laina hit her 1 year anniversary with the company. It forced us to get creative and hustle to find her work & it has paid off as she is now working full time, with benefits. I started a path on a return to education & will begin my online schooling with Oxford College on the 26th of this month. These are all good things!! But....then today, we receive an email from a showrunner "inviting" us to be part of an event that we used to be part of, WAAAAAY back when they were first starting and we were part of for many happy & we thought mutually successful events, until such time as they decided to "grow" and we suddenly weren't "big" enough to continue to grow along with them. 😳 It's been YEARS since we've communicated in any way with these people. We unfollowed them on all platforms. Is that petty? Maybe!? 🤷 But we had gotten their "message" pretty clearly they we just weren't big enough to fit their narrative. The saddest part of this being that we doubt they even recognize nor care how they made us feel. It was just one of many "needles in the coffin" of our dream to be relevant. So no, we won't be participating. We won't be selling ourselves short and being the laughing stock of a community that never truly embraced us, not anymore. We know our talent, skill & worth. You gotta try harder than that to convince us that YOU are worthy of OUR time.
