Category: Personal

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My 2025 Challenge: The No-Buy Year

I don’t think it’s too soon to make New Year’s Resolutions. To that end, I have decided that my 2025 challenge is: The No-Buy Year.

What’s the No-Buy Challenge?

It actually depends on who you talk to. When I told my younger sibling I wanted to do a No-Buy Year, they said, “Wait, aren’t the no-buy challenges where you buy absolutely nothing? I know people have done it for a week or a month. But a YEAR?”

That’s not actually the variation of this challenge I’m doing.

How I see it, there are two types of no-buy challenges: the first is where you buy nothing. Not even food. People prepare for this challenge by buying in bulk beforehand. These types of challenges are for short-term windows, usually a week or a month.

I’m actually doing a different variant, one I found out about through The Financial Diet. In this variation of the No-Buy challenge, you don’t buy anything UNLESS you run out of it. So things like shampoo, soap, food, and toilet paper are exempt.

Why Do a No-Buy Challenge?

Whether you do the short-term or the long-term variation, there are a lot of reasons to do this challenge. Here are my own reasons for doing it.

1 – Fuck the Billionaires, That’s Why.

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk can go fuck themselves. I’m not giving them my money if I can avoid it. Even the billionaire who ran Patagonia is not exempt – he just forfeited ownership of the company because he didn’t want to pay taxes. Adam Conover has a whole video breaking this down.

I am aware that billionaires own a lot of companies and have their fingers in a lot of places. I am aware that Jeff Bezos owns Whole Foods, for example. Even grocery stores have been shown to price gouge the consumer so that they can then pocket the difference and enrich their corporate owners. 

Personally, I’m done with that shit. So I’m not spending my money at places the billionaires own as much as I can avoid them.

When it comes to groceries, I have a game plan in mind. I am lucky enough to live in a place where there are plentiful farmers markets and local grocers still serving their neighborhoods. Places like Walt Churchill’s (which is employee-owned) and Kazmaiers are within reach, and they work with local farmers and suppliers as much as possible. I want to support those businesses, not Kroger, a place talking about doing “dynamic pricing” to further price-gouge customers, just specific times of the day.

Why enrich the billionaires when I can shop local instead? That’s one reason. The others?

2 – I’m a broke as fuck self-employed person, and people depend on me.

I have been a full-time self-employed person since July of 2023. There was a very brief window where I worked at a dollar store for a month. But then the register nearly caught on fire and poor management made me leave within 4 weeks of working there. Aside from that, I have been fully self-employed, working out of my studio. 

There will be months where I will have big windfalls. Those months, I have to squirrel away as much money as I can, because there are other months that are very lean. 

So part of this no-buy challenge is simple: I barely have any fun spending money even on a good month. Maybe once every four months I have a day to splurge $40 at Goodwill and that’s it, for the most part. But even after those splurges, there is that sense of guilt in me. Because I know that I could tuck that money away for a rainy day, for myself or for someone else.

(I am also aware that I have a lot of things sitting in my closet, waiting to be used, worn, crafted with, or read. But that is for a later bullet point.)

I have also, unfortunately, become something of a safety net for some of the people around me, especially friends and family members. I need to make sure that I have funds set aside for them, because they are not in a place where they can easily save money. 

Also, I have three cats dependent on me for care. And one of them is very elderly. I need to make sure that I have the funds set aside for any veterinary bills that pop up.

an elderly gray cat sleeps peacefully in the photographer's lap.

There have been times this year where funds were very tight, because something frivolous came up and sucked away the funding I could have used for something else. I want to get better about managing my resources so that I can take care of myself and the people and pets who rely on me.

3 – I have a lot of stuff in my apartment that needs to be used. 

As I am writing this, I have so much yarn. I also have a lot, A LOT, of scrap fabric begging to be used for quilting projects. And a lot of paint, and clay, and paper, and…

Let’s just say I should not be buying any new toys because I have plenty to work with here at home. 

I also have a lot of thread, and the know-how to mend things that tear. So I don’t need to buy new clothes, because I know how to repair the clothes I currently have. I also have the means to make new clothes if I wanted.

There are also a lot of books in my personal collection that need to be read that I have not gotten to yet. This is actually a good segue to…

4 – I have community resources, such as public libraries, at my disposal.

Don’t tell anyone, but I have library cards with two separate library systems. 

This actually works to my benefit, because if one library does not have a particular resource I’m looking for, the other one does. For example, I know one library system has small business resources, job fairs, and a truly massive DVD collection. The other library has tools available for rent, such as wifi routers, tents, hammers, and even some power tools.

For 2025, I want to engage with my library resources as much as I possibly can. Not only are they free or mostly free, they are already supported by the community. Plus, the more the community uses those resources, the more funding the libraries can ask for.

Which is VERY VITAL in the age of book bans, and will be even more important for 2025, if conservatives get their way. 

Also, Toledo has fantastic metro parks, and I want to go to them more often. Toledo has been making a lot of effort to be more bike-friendly, and I want to support that.

5 – My communities have free stuff all the freaking time.

Both libraries that I am a part of host music concerts, and one of them does so throughout the year. There are also festivals, parks, and even the Toledo Art Museum is free to attend.

In short, I will not be at a loss for things to do with a no-buy year.

So What Will Make This Hard?

Ok, real talk: I love my friends. I care about them deeply. And they also love spending money. So I have to be very clear and explicit about this challenge with them. I imagine some of them will be understanding, but others may have a very hard time wrapping their head around this.

I’m not going to ask them to participate with me. A no-buy challenge is a very personal one to tackle. People do these challenges for different reasons, and I’ve already outlined the reasons I have for doing it. 

I also need to reconcile doing a no-buy challenge while also running a Ko-fi page and possibly some KickStarter campaigns in 2025. That said, part of doing a no-buy challenge is to prepare for this feasible reality: that funds raised through crowdfunding will shrink next year. I imagine I’m not the only one tightening up my wallet in 2025, so I have to be prepared as much as I can. 

What About Mutual Aid?

I’m part of a lot of artist and cartoonist servers, with dedicated channels where artists can ask for mutual aid. These are people asking for short-term funds to help them meet immediate bills, so that they don’t starve or have their electricity shut off, etc.

While thinking about this challenge, I have waffled back and forth about whether to have mutual aid be an exception, or part of the no-buy rule.

And honestly, I think it just comes down to the moment – if I have the funds to help somebody immediately, I want to do so. 

Part of the reason I want to do the no-buy challenge is to have the resources available to help not just myself, but the people around me. (See Point 2 above.)

Really, for me, the no-buy challenge comes down to engaging less with corporatization, neoliberalism, and capitalism, and more with community, whether it’s the people around me or the virtual communities I’ve joined. And part of being in a community is being able to share resources with people when they need it.

So there we go! This is longer than my usual blog posts, so thanks for hanging in there with me! Usually I just draw webcomics, like The Legend of Jamie Roberts, which you can read for free on the official site, or get remastered pages (with bonus content) when you get physical copies of the comic.

And if you want to stay in touch, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter. I’d like to check in throughout 2025 to let you know how the no-buy challenge is going.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Let’s Tour My Punk Clothes and Jewelry That I Made

Let this genderqueer punk take you on a closet journey through these clothes and jewelry I made myself. Hopefully, you find this inspiring for your DIY projects! Let me know in the comments what kind of things you’re working on – I’d love to hear about it!

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and join my email newsletter so you can keep up with new stuff.

Or you can read my genderqueer webcomic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, if you like pirates, dragons, magic, and adventure!

You can also check out my other videos here, or sign up to get behind-the-scenes sneak peeks at upcoming comics and projects by joining the Fan Clubs (either here or on Ko-Fi).

That’s all for now. Thank you for watching!

You. Are. Awesome.

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2023 – What A Year!

two cats look up sleepily at the viewer. One is a gray older cat, the other is a younger tabby kitten. The tabby is blanketed by a purple crochet blanket

What a year 2023 has been! But I’m glad it’s over.

A lot happened this year, so let’s get into what we made happen together. That’s right, your support helped make these things possible…

4 Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns!

In 2023, we raised funding for Vanita and the Demon King; The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 2; BE NOT APURRED Keychains; and Mr. Dino and Friends Keychains! We also had a Holiday Pop-Up Shop that raised $493 in support of Ohio-based indie creators.

I’m also including Ko-fi and Fan Club memberships here. While membership did shrink a bit, we still held together and made a lot of exclusive rewards.

Journey of the Mystery Won 3rd Place in the 24-Hour Comics Challenge!

This happened in January of 2023 but is still worth mentioning. The 24-Hour Comics Challenge, hosted by The Comic Book Jamboree, was INTENSE and had over 15 artists from around the world participate! And my comic, Journey of the Mystery, won 3rd place!

(By the way, you can download the coloring book version of this comic by checking it out on Ko-fi).

I Got A Short Story in an Iron Circus Comic Anthology!

I got accepted in Failure to Launch, a comics anthology from Iron Circus Comix. The anthology is all about ideas of the future that never panned out. 

The short story I made is called Ninit’i, or The End, and is a story told in two lines: one line follows my class trip into Navajo Nation, the other follows the Christian extremist panic around the Harold Camping Doomsday Proclamation.

The release of the anthology did get a bit delayed but should come out in print in spring of 2024. More details are on the Iron Circus website.

I Quit My 9 to 5 Job!

(Technically it was a 7 to 3:30 job but it still sucked).

Thanks to support from readers like you, I was able to leave a toxic office job. 

It took several months to unpack a lot of the crap from there, and it made me realize that my neurodivergent, genderqueer butt is too radical for “traditional” work. Also, half of my wages were taken by the temp agency that put me there and they wouldn’t let me leave because they “had no other work openings.”

Hot tip: don’t work with a temp agency.

Excuse me, I’m still very salty about this experience. On a more positive note…

I Moved To A New Apartment, Sold My Car, and Paid Off My Debts!

I sold my car for a lot of reasons – for one, I’m fortunate enough that my roommate and I moved to a new neighborhood that’s got a LOT within comfortable walking and biking distance from our home. We also sit on a major bus route in the city of Toledo, (and the bus is amenable to bikes like mine), so I can get wherever I want to throughout the city. We also have an Amtrak and bus station that I can get to in 30 minutes by city bus, so I can connect to a LOT of major cities across the US by those means. (Like, during SPX weekend I went by train and Metro everywhere).

Also, I was REALLY FREAKING TIRED of spending money that I didn’t have to repair a hunk of metal on wheels that already lost a large chunk of its value when I drove it off the lot back in 2019. And I was tired of my money being sent off to car companies and oil companies that don’t have the people’s best interest at heart.

So I sold my car and used that money to pay off debt, including my remaining student loans and the debt I accrued on car repairs.

In the end, I traveled further AFTER selling my car. Seriously, after the car sale, I went to DC (for work) AND Florida (for visiting family. It’s fine, I can pass as a woman. No one in Florida but mom knew, wink wink).

The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Volume 2 Came to Print!

It got mentioned up top, but I’m SO happy that y’all love this genderqueer pirate adventure so hecking much. Not to get too into the numbers, but The Legend of Jamie Roberts has now raised more in crowdfunding support than Validation did. And The Legend is still ongoing!

2023 was a VERY packed year for Fantasyville Productions, yo. For 2024, I want to keep building on what’s working and keep making comics, especially The Legend of Jamie Roberts. That story has a LOT to share in 2024 and I can’t wait to get into it with you.

Also in 2024, I want to do new things, like offer free downloads for my newsletter peeps. The first downloads are available this Friday, so sign up for free to get it when it’s ready.

Keep an eye on that newsletter, too, because I’m announcing more crowdfunding campaigns for 2024 – including one coming soon for CATS: A Sketchbook!

That’s all for now. Thank you for your support! You helped make all of this happen.

You. Are. Awesome.

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I’m Coming Out (Again)

I have written blog posts before about being genderqueer – someone who does not fall into either the “woman” or “man” boxes. Someone who falls between the two.

I have also worked with a lot of transgender people and cisgender people, each with different gender expressions. Some trans folks fully embrace the binary, while others do not. Even some cisgender folks won’t fit neatly into the expectations of their gender.

For example, I know a lot of dudes, cis and trans, who bake, crochet, and raise children, and have no lack of masculinity.

I know women, cis or trans, who are furniture makers, interested in cars, run banks and businesses, and have no lack of femininity.

I’m saying this because I still enjoy being nonbinary. I love the gray area between what’s expected of certain genders and what is actually put into practice.

That said…

I have noticed that when people say “she,” “her,” or “daughter” in my direction, it feels like they’re talking about someone else. They’re not addressing me, they’re addressing a disguise.

(Honestly, with how many people are declaring war against trans people, a cisgender disguise is making more and more sense.)

At some point, however, I would LOVE to be addressed as who I actually am, not the puppet that I walk around in sometimes.

For a while, I have asked close friends and family to call me “they” or “their.” English lacks a decent third-person gender-neutral word outside of s/he that’s not a plural. And people online can get NEEDLESSLY pedantic about the use of “they” when referring to a single person.

It’s obnoxious and I hate it.

At the same time, I think back to times when I’m called “he” or “sir.” This happened a lot when I wore gender-neutral work uniforms or wore clothes that weren’t coded as feminine.

And any time I got called “he” or “sir,” I realized…that felt right.

So I’m Coming Out

I’m coming out as a transgender man.

Now, I’m not going to be following all the “rules” of masculinity. I’m still going to cook and knit and have a “stereotypically feminine” side. I’m still nonbinary. Because fuck the idea that men and women have to act or behave in certain ways.

However, you might wonder, “Then why are you coming out as a man?”

Because when folks call me “he,” “sir,” or “my dude,” I feel like myself in a way that I haven’t felt in a VERY long time. If at all. It feels like when someone calls me a man, I feel SEEN. Like I don’t have to put on a cisgender disguise to fool the Straights.

So moving forward, I’m going by he/him/his as well as they/them/their.

My name is still the same: Kelci D Crawford. Historically, Kelci is a gender-neutral name. But if you nickname me Kel, that feels right, too.

I’m still the same person as before. The only things that have changed are my pronouns and the feelings I get when they’re used.

And to answer any other questions because I KNOW these will come up:

No, I’m not doing any surgeries. I HAVE been wanting to change hormones for a while, but for reasons outside of “becoming more of a man.” In my case, my hormones are not my gender. But I’m not going into my medical history with the internet unless I get terribly sick and am unable to keep up making comics, videos, etc.

No, I’m not changing my name. Good luck trying to “deadname” me, haters.

No, I’m not changing official documents unless I absolutely have to. Do you Straights have ANY idea how long it takes to get government paperwork to reflect your identity? And this is just on the LOCAL and STATE level, never mind the federal one.

Besides, with SOME politicians being allergic to trans people to the point of banning trans children, the government can think I’m a “cisgender woman” all they want. Not all laws are just or good. Like, just because some places are banning abortion does not mean all abortions have stopped. And historically, people have tried banning people of color from going to the same places as white people. But they still exist. These politicians can try to ban trans people but we will still be here, fighting for our rights.

I’m still going to fight for trans rights. I’m still going to depict trans people in my comics and games. That’s not changing.

Make of this announcement what you will. I’m not changing my mind. I’m here. I’m queer. And I’m here to make stories that matter.

Thanks for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

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What’s New for 2022?

This is Part 2 of a blog series about New Year’s Goals. Be sure to check out part 1 and its hot mess. Because that will influence this post.

So, 2021 was a crap year. Yes, stuff got done. Mostly. Sort of. But a lot of Murphy’s Law came into effect.

Looking back on that made me ponder how I would approach 2022. Would I, in fact, not have goals set at the start of the year? Would I have more structure instead of less? How would structuring the year even work?

After a lot of meditation and brainstorming, here’s what I came to…

CREATE.

It’s a simple, 6-letter word. Because 2022. 2 + 0 + 2 + 2 = 6. I’m willing to give numerology another chance because 5s in numerology (and especially Tarot) are kind of cursed. (Side note: maybe that’s why my Mocktaw in The Legend of Jamie Roberts often have 5 eyes.) 6 in numerology is better.

Also – Create. It encapsulates the feeling I want to embrace for 2022. I want to create a LOT of things.

This year, I won’t hold myself to the sorts of lists I concocted for last year. I have a rough list of what I would LOVE to get done for 2022. But I won’t say anything more. Part of me wants to see just what happens as the year goes on.

In addition, I spent the last two weeks of 2021 planning for 2022’s projects. And 3 projects already got done! So that’s nice. And unexpected. And part of the reason why I don’t want to say too much about what’s in store for 2022.

With that said, I’m going to do one new thing this year.

I’M ACTUALLY WORKING WITH A PRODUCTION CALENDAR IN MIND

This may sound weird, but in years past, I never actually made a calendar to determine when (exactly) projects would start, get done, go on KickStarter, etc. At least, not a calendar that encompassed ALL of my projects. Each project would have its own rough list. But this year I’m doing it differently.

I’d share my rough production calendar with you. But…

a) it’s kind of long. I included convention dates, commemorative months like National Novel Writing Month and MerMay, book projects, prints, secret projects, Sticker of the Month club, ongoing projects like webcomics… I threw a LOT into one place and gave it some semblance of order. But that order only makes sense to me.

b) it’s not set in stone. And I did that on purpose. If I have to move a project up or down the production calendar, I am willing to do that. (And that’s how 3 projects got done before 2022 even started.)

What else can I say? Well, be sure to stay tuned on this blog, and follow me in these ways:

Plus I have projects such as The Legend of Jamie Roberts and The Fourth Leg podcast. All of these will update more often and in different ways.

That’s all I’ve got for now. But I’m actually excited for this year.

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.