2023 Advent Box ...#3

 

Eeeek!  According to my 'friendly' countdown timer, which is becoming less and less friendly by the day, there's just over 7 weeks to go to complete my Advent Boxes.

Progress update you say?  

Wellllll.... so far I've completed 7 kits, and am well underway with another 3.   I'm also currently working on the designs of a further 5 kits and waiting for supplies for several more, so I think I'm more or less on schedule.

However, a problem has arisen which might put the kibosh on the whole enterprise.  Not to give anything away, but I had planned to include a 'structure' in this year's Advent Box, and spent ages over the summer sourcing exactly the right thing and placing an order.  Unfortunately it was out of stock, but I was assured that it would be available by the end of September.  Fast forward to now, and on Friday I requested an update on a potential delivery date to discover that it had been pushed back by well over a month, which would take me into November.  And even then the delivery couldn't be guaranteed before Christmas. 

Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Should I press on with my current plan or completely reconsider that element?  It's really integral to the theme of the entire thing though, and I've already put together several elements of the kit to accompany it.

Could I design something similar and produce it myself?  Possibly... although I'm already going to be pushed for time and having to design and produce the structural element is a whole different proposition.  

However, I've spent the weekend trying to think of ways to achieve something similar, without having to spend a fortune on materials and I think I might have found a way to do it.  I'm going to have to massively simplify the construction but I think it just might work. 

Nothing is ever straightforward and I may have gone a step too far, but by the end of this week, I'm tentatively hopeful that I may have a working prototype.  

So, watch this space.....  😉