Panettoni of my heart

So, that moment of the year has finally come, I'm sorry.

If you don't like this kind of post, I don't blame you, just skip and wait for the next one.

But if you have a marshmallow for a heart, like me, these would be the most honeyed lines that you would probably read today.

So, let's start with the "things I'm thankful about&things that I promise to do better" list: above all, I'm quite happy about this "blog experiment". When I started, I thought you would hate me, because of my macaroni-English, and you would be annoyed or just bored to read my topics.

Despite I'm still not satisfied with the quality of the contents I'm able to share with you (sorry, I would like to make more tutorials, but I'm such a slow painter!), the fact that my blog posts are not totally ignored and many of you take some time to read and comment them, fills me with pure joy: thank you, my dear readers!

I promise to be more consistent during the next year, so hold on and keep reading and commenting on this weird blog!

As I told you many times before, it was only thanks to the online community that I've been able to cultivate this fantastic hobby, when I was a kid lost in the most forgotten place of Italy. At that time, I had almost no friends to share this hobby with, but thanks to the Forum Gw Tilea (the legacy of the official Games Workshop forum -yes, 15 years ago GW had official forums!-) I was able to learn how to paint, meet guys and gals (well, guys principally. Ok, only guys, luckily times have changed, nowadays!) that shared the same passion for miniatures and I started to plant those seeds that brought me to transform that passion in a proper career.

So, every time I share with you one of my weird blog posts, and I see that many of you interact with me, I feel great!

During the next year, I will try to involve you more behind the scenes of my job: I manage almost everything by myself, so having a kind of community to share my daily work with, it makes me feel less "alone"!

Said so, let's talk about miniatures: this year I've been able to fund my second range, and despite I think that I could have been a better designer, concerning this range ( I will talk about my "M.A.S.K. regret" later), I'm very proud of what we achieved and thankful to all the people involved in this project, starting from my amazing friends Valerio and Davide, that gave birth to the best sculpts I could wish for, and including obviously all those that actively supported us during the Kickstarter campaign, the Pledge Manager and the daily website orders: there are many and many amazing products, out there, designed by the finest artists of the market. the fact that you chose us, makes me really happy and motivates me to do my best every day: so thank you, my indispensable patrons!

Last, but not least, a huge, strangling hug to all those that follow our projects and updates, giving us their feedback and spending some time with me to talk about them. You can't imagine how a short message or just a brief comment could change the mood of my day!

It's crucial for any activity to find new customers every day, but when you have not just customer, but also "nakama" that share your journey beyond the mere "I've bought your product", it is a kind of Nirvana.

For this reason, I'm so happy whenever you send me some pics of your painted DPF miniatures, our gallery is growing nicely!

So, if you managed to read all my wall of text, I've saved a little surprise to reward you.

I've deeply thought about the special Christmas gift I would like to share with you. If it depends on me, I would send a special gift to each of you, but unfortunately this year the budget is a bit short, and above all the stock of products is even smaller (because you bought a lot of Dwarves, during the last months, thank you!!), so I imagined this deal:

If you placed (or will place) an order on our store between December 1st and January 8th (traditionally here in Italy, the last day of Christmas holidays), you might be chosen for the first, annual, "Durgin Paint Forge Mighty Gift Box"!

What does this box contain?

Obviously, as Christmas tradition demands, I won't say you the content of the Mighty Gift Box: the lucky boy (or girl) among you that will be elected, will discover it only once the fancy box will arrive at your door!

Moreover, I will personally choose a member of our community that I think really supported us in a unique way, this year, and I will reward him (or her) with a special Mighty Gift Box.

I know that you would have preferred a gift for each of you, but don't worry: as soon as I'll receive the new stocks of products, I promise to make a big event with special sales for everyone (the Orange Friday that this year I wasn't able to do!).

'Till that moment, please settle for my deepest thanks and gratitude: if I've been able to spend another year of my life carrying on my life-goals, it is only thanks to you!