On hold…

This week is… oh… that’s all I can say. 😂

You know, I am a creative person. And the one thing I just HATE to do is paperwork. Filling in all these forms, dealing with terms I have absolutely no idea about, and constantly wondering: Did I do it right? And if I filled it in wrong, what kind of consequences could it bring?

Etsy at some point looks like the easiest way to start selling my patterns, but then suddenly you find yourself dealing with all kinds of legal stuff. And you are on hold while they verify everything. You need to confirm all kinds of information, but legal information around the world varies. And sometimes the forms you are given simply… do not work.

For example, my home address does not have a street.

Because I live in the middle of not here. 😂

In fact, there isn't even a sign with the name of the village, because my house and three other houses — mostly ruins at this point and spread about a kilometre apart — apparently share the name of this “village”.

So, as you can imagine, there is no street between us. There are just fields of crops. Every time I have to fill out some official form, I have to figure out how on earth I am supposed to explain where I live.

Actually, I avoid ordering things from abroad for exactly the same reason. Usually, shops have some kind of form to fill in, and I never know what I am supposed to put in those boxes. And then, while waiting for the package, I always have this little doubt: Will it actually find me?

And NOW, to make life even more fun, there is a new thing called PPWR.

Remember my idea from my previous post about the crochet pattern book? Well… that idea is currently on hold too.

Because apparently, if I sell my little book to someone in Germany and send it myself, I also need to think about packaging regulations. Which basically means that my innocent little crochet pattern book has suddenly acquired a whole bureaucratic side quest.

Apparently I may need to:

1. Register with the German LUCID packaging register — even if I only sell a small number of books.

2. Join a German packaging recycling system and pay for the packaging I send there.

3. Keep track of how much cardboard, paper, plastic tape, etc. I use.

4. Report those packaging quantities.

5. Because I’m not based in Germany, there is also a new requirement to deal with a German authorised representative for certain packaging obligations.

So basically:

I wanted to sell one crochet pattern book.

Germany said: “Wonderful. What about your cardboard?” 😂

And I need to repeat this process in all EU countries where I send my book. There are 27 countries in EU in total...

Apparently before I can get to the fun part — making the blanket, writing the pattern, making the book pretty, printing it and sending it to someone who wants to crochet it — I first need to become a part-time expert in international paperwork, packaging law and recycling regulations.

So for now…

BOOK PROJECT: ON HOLD.

So I am in ON HOLD mode