When the messengers are contented, you can look forward to a good day.

Photo copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved.

Yesterday morning. Both flickers were atop the aspens outside the kitchen window, just sitting comfortably in the falling snow, vocalizing only a cheep of companionable contentment here, a soft purring trill there. When the messengers are contented, you can look forward to a good day.

And it was, mostly. We both got a lot done, even working around the weather. Today is already much more hectic, and the storm, not yet entirely gone, is going to leave winter havoc in its wake; the predicted low (actual temp, not wind chill)) for tonight is six degrees below zero. The wind is already up and the snow isn't falling anymore, it's blowing sideways up from the ground.

I need to make a good-sized sale today. We're working on an order, but it's going to require me to go to the bead supplier (his kind of beads, not my kind) tomorrow and get several strands of specific types in order to be able to fill it. Which will be a big up-front hit, so if I could make one really good sale today, I'd feel a lot more confident about investing that kid of scratch in one big drop tomorrow.

If all goes well another fabulous new piece might drop tomorrow (or even today, but I think tomorrow's more likely), first in a collection of four works, so watch for that. In addition, there's a ton of stuff to get done this week even apart from today's ridiculous task list, so expect things to be late, early, whatever. In addition to tomorrow's big expense, I still need to recoup the $91 I had to spend Monday on replacing the propane heater for Wings's studio, which is STILL between $50 and $60 cheaper than buying it locally. If he can't keep it heated, he can't work, and that means no sales and no income, so it's an investment we had to make. It also won't be here until Thursday next Monday today now, despite having been in town since 6:35 yesterday morning, which has meant a cold week-plus in there for him to get his new works completed. It's also not here yet, even though it's near noon already. I posted five new pieces here some nights ago, plus another last night and a new major piece recently, too: three pairs of earrings and three new Warrior Woman pins, all three of the pins bearing some new imagery; and the incredible new cuff with Deco undertones and stunning cobalt focal cab, featured today. Wings also has in the works the first two in a new series of four major necklaces, all part of a theme but which will be sold individually, new earrings, and a couple of other items. Please share the links, because while, we have made a couple of sales over the last few days, which has taken the immediate strain off me a bit, there's no room for me to let up on the sales effort. Winter's already early and hard, and we've got about 7 months of it left. The rest is all cut-and-paste, but please read it anyway. It matters, because while sales are literally all that matters at the moment, what else the wind leaves behind is all the rest of the work, and ALL of the bills. But really, it's SALES.

SALES SALES SALES. That's all it's about now. A lot of y'all don't realize this, but the Pueblo closes for much of the winter, starting usually a month to six weeks after the new year. Even before Christmas, the whole month of December locks vehicles out of the village, and that reduces tourist traffic a lot. Even though we're not physically there anymore, the drop in tourism affects us, too — and the numbers are down all over town and seemingly getting worse every single year.

What folks also don't realize is that this means that holiday sales are what keep us alive, through not just the end of the year but essentially the first six months of the year to come. If we could sell the belt featured below, it would keep us going well into the new year. This is it; this is what the whole year leads up to, and even in off years, Wings would still be filling commissions beginning around the first of October. 

Pain levels are terrible this week; nearly debilitating completely. As miserable as my chronic pain is, it's nice finally to have a name to put on this thing that has caused me incessant pain literally my whole life, the thing everyone else dismissed. It happens to me virtually daily, at least in some small way (and very often in very large and debilitating ways), and at least now I have labels and language for what's happening to me and causing me so much constant pain. For those wondering about those and my other health issues, see here, although now there's a new wrinkle I'm not even going to bother to try to explain (triggered by this year's flu shot and confirmed by my doctor, and suffice to say there's no affording treatment); with regard to the work done and not done on the house, some of the details are here. Folks can help in several ways (I've added some new practical items to the wishlist, including organizers for electrical cords and replacement Thermos mugs; after . . . I don't even know how many years we've had them, the seals on our old ones have quit working), and we really need it now:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

Please share everything, because I'm suddenly back behind the eight-ball on a whole additional front, and yeah, I'm scared about covering everything and surviving, too. Thanks.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.