Hot, windy, dusty, smoky.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Shot on the fly, which is why it's crooked. But that's how fast the dust devils kick up now. What the hell — what's a little more haze, given all the smoke we've had here today.

I've barely been outside, though, as a result: three, maybe four times all day, and I'm still sneezing and coughing from all the smog. Hot, windy, dusty, smoky. What else? Oh, and the leaves are turning yellow fast now, and this is another week of markers: today, IIRC, for one; tomorrow for two others. My spirit is tired.

And I'm full, full autoimmune flare today. Mostly it's the result of pushing myself beyond my illness's limits for far too many weeks straight, and that's really ramped up over the last week or so. I made it through yesterday's chimney cleanings, and now my body has shut down. It's all pain, everywhere, all the time, and it's just refusing to cooperate on any front. Meanwhile, I've been putting it through the stress of this new protocol, meds and supplements both, and I had to add a new one into the mix today. It's no wonder my whole body's on strike.

I managed to get two big things paid last week, and we paid the third big one yesterday (over $100 more than I was expecting, thanks to rates raised drastically since last year). I think  we'll be okay though the end of the month, but with my Patreon down by a few hundred a month coupled with the platform's carelessness in switching to a new payment processor without notifying anyone (and thereby causing a lot of banks to label the whole platform as fraudulent), it seems that I can probably expect a much lower payout yet on September first. We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months.

As I've been saying, there's a lot of new work on the site: Last week, I posted Wings's six new works (2 rings; 4 pairs of earrings [one of which is sold]); all items share the same price point, $425 each. And, of course, there are the new gemstone bead trios, one completed just the other day and featured here. The other night, I got the new cuff posted here, and it's incredible; selling that alone would do a lot right now. He also has several new pairs of earrings in the design stages, probably a half-dozen or so. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and now we are quite literally at the point of not being able to make it if we can't keep pace weekly with steady sales (never mind the dental stuff; he's unilaterally decided to push that back yet again). Given the Patreon mess and my health issues, I don't have any way to solve any of that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavilable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.