When the storm's coming for you.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

That was just before 4 PM today. That's what it looks like when the storm's coming for you.

I swear to god, that's how I feel on every front anymore. This year has been a nightmare, multiple nightmares, actually, and no matter how hard I work, I can't get ahead of any of it. It doesn't help that I've had the equivalent, maybe, of one actual night's sleep over the last week combined. Nor does it help that my illness seems to be progressing across the board again. I don't know whether we need to raise my chemo dose, or if this is just the best I can expect, and it's only going to get to get worse from here. Whatever it is, I'm not remotely functional, and none of that matters to the outside world, and the stresses are not going to let up.

And having the Internet crash for a smooth hour when we pay far more than most urban areas for their most powerful service, which should guarantee virtually 100% up-time but does not because they have such overloaded shit infrastructure? Yeah, that has not improved my mood in the slightest. Bad enough babying my laptop along every minute while it's dying; it blew another port last week, and that's not fixable. But for what we pay them, and they can't even handle a few raindrops [because it's not the rain, it's that they have no redundancy and everyone crammed onto the same backbone]? No, I'm not happy right now.

And still no sales. None last week; none so far this week.

Around 5:30 this morning [because no sleep, again], I got his new naja pendant up, here, and his new cuff, here [which is also featured in today's post on the site]. The former features both an interior pendant and amber cabs at the ends; the latter is extraordinary, two strands of Deco butterflies set with something that's not a stone, but is phenomenal all the same. Tomorrow [Wednesday] should be the new necklace, which is also amazing, shades of purple and red and black together. And he has new earrings in the works, four pairs of sterling silver tab earrings with amazing stampwork, and eventually, the Picasso jaspers again. If I could sell them all, I'd feel a lot more confident about the next several weeks.

The rest of the month [hell, the rest of the year] is going to be geared around making sales, because I don't have a choice about that. I'm so tired after all the nonsense of this year to date, but I can't let up, because so far, we're not even breaking even on the year, and I will have to worry about next year's tax bill soon enough. Also, all indications are for extreme weather this winter [and potentially this afternoon, too], and our generator needs a solar panel set-up; it's now at the top of the wishlist, because at ~$500, there's no way we can afford it. But there's tons of new work on the site, in addition to all that's coming up shortly, so go look:

• Completed just last weekend, two absolutely phenomenal new cuffs, here and here;
• Completed the previous weekend, an all-new wristband, here;
• One extraordinary new belt buckle set with an incredible Skystone, here;
• Another new vintage-style cuff with a mysterious Skystone, here;
• Three new pairs of earrings in his gemstone-bead series, here, here, and here;
• Three new cuffs from last week, two set with incredible turquoise focals, one solid silver; go here, here, and here.
• Six pairs of new concha floral earrings in the Earrings Gallery here [larger are garnet, golden rutilated quartz, and malachite; smaller are amber, carnelian, and iolite];
• Art Deco Labradorite cuff here;  
• Triangle wire youth bangle here; 
• Art Nouveau vine pattern-wire youth bangle here; 
• Small Art Nouveau pattern-wire bangle pair here; 
• Malachite butterfly/leaf-wing earrings here; 
• A big solid silver classic cuff here; 
• Ten new pairs of the gemstone-bead earrings are also up in the Earrings Gallery;
• And another new cuff is also here. 

There's more on the way very soon. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make multiple sales daily for us to catch up on the year [and that's just breaking even] and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [roof, more medical, etc.]. So: GO BUY! PLEASE! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is that solar panel set for the generator at the top of the list; part of prepping for a hard winter. Next to that, Amazon cards are probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 2024 onto a better footing, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.