Sometimes, you gotta listen to your friends.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Sometimes, you gotta listen to your friends. And sometimes, if you don't? They make you listen.

That up there is the CARE package one of my friends brought me today. It's amazing:  Gatorade for electrolytes, three kinds of soup, saltine crackers, two different kinds of herbal tea, chocolates, a new blanket, a scented candle, and the sweetest card [that made me cry, which is not supposed to happen, LOL]. So I. am. set. Doesn't matter how cold the rest of the week is; I'll be wrapped up in my blanket, with the candle lit, and with soup if I'm hungry or tea if I'm not, and chocolate treats, and what else could I ask for? [And thank you, P. You made my whole week. I mean month. Okay, year.]

Anyway. My spirit feels better as a result, which means my brain feels better, in spite of dealing with the meds and everything else. And maybe, just maybe, I'l even get that new pair of earrings posted tonight. Or not.

But sales [and thus income] are the one seemingly intractable problem I have not been able to solve, going about as well as everything else, which is to say, not at all. We won't even be able to afford the bloodwork we're slated to get this week if I don't manage to bring in some sales, plural, tonight and tomorrow. Our floor for sales and breaking even is making a minimum of one sale per week for the year, and we're still more than a week in the hole now. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is, and heaven knows I don't have the bandwidth for anything more. Flare, progression, whatever, it doesn't matter. I've got to do something, but damned if I know what at this point. It's grim. [Even if I'm not feeling quite so grim now.] Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priorities are the LaminaSaver, because apparently Miika's out of it again; and the rugs, to replace those destroyed 2 years ago by the leachfield collapse and ensuing septic disaster];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to begin this year on a better footing than the last two.

 

An Icy Evergreen Shadow and Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a pair of the newest works from one of Wings's signature series, The Beaded Hoop Collection, a coordinating pair of necklaces that honor forest shadows, forest moonlight, and all their wintry beauty. These are designed to manifest two co-occurring facets off the same winter phenomena here, an icy evergreen shadow and light that animates, illuminates, and embraces our world now.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. It's a new calendar year, and we very much need to make this a better than the last two have been. That begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail, and we're still two weeks behind.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

The current big-thing-in-progress.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

ISTG, I have gotten nothing done today the way I should have.  I'll be up half the night at this rate, just trying to catch up today's work.

That up there is the current big-thing-in-progress. It's a cuff, and it'll have freehand scorework, stampwork, linework, overlay, and stonework. It's also going to be priced accordingly, which is to say way out of my league, but that's true of pretty much all of it, so . . . ::shrugs::. It's going to be phenomenal, though, when he's done with it.

In the meantime, I've got to sell his current inventory, and that's going about as well as everything else, which is to say, not at all. I won't even be able to afford the bloodwork we're slated to get this week if I don't manage to bring in some sales, plural, tonight and tomorrow. Our floor for sales and breaking even is making a minimum of one sale per week for the year, and we're still more than a week in the hole now. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is, and heaven knows I don't have the bandwidth for anything more. Flare, progression, whatever, it doesn't matter. I've got to do something, but damned if I know what at this point. It's grim. Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priorities are the LaminaSaver, because apparently Miika's out of it again; and the rugs, to replace those destroyed 2 years ago by the leachfield collapse and ensuing septic disaster];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to begin this year on a better footing than the last two.

 

Red Willow Spirit: Peace and Power In the Medicine of the Snow

Photo copyright Wings, 2026; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for conditions recent and current alike, for the breathtaking beauty of winter weather and for the wooded peaks that attract it. It's two matching images, shot on film some twenty years ago, linked by one of. Wings's newer works of wearable art, all of them reminders to us to seek, and to help create, peace and power in the medicine of the snow.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. It's a new calendar year, and we very much need to make this a better than the last two have been. That begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail, and we're still two weeks behind.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.               

The latest.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Those are the latest. With luck, I might yet get them posted tonight, but Honestly? I doubt seriously that I'll be that lucky. I'm already too far behind just on today's regular work.

Spent the afternoon at the doctor's office [for both of us]. Lots of crap in the works. Labs for us both soon; regular annual ones for him, a somewhat deeper dive for me. For the moment, we're going to try to address this flare/progression/whatever by titrating up my chemo and my steroids, immunosuppressants both; the latter will be steroid bursts, just a few days of steady dosing at a time, trying to kick this back down into a lower gear. But in the meantime, I've got to get bloodwork done. Depending on what that shows, this might be enough, or it might means scans again, which . . . ugh. So complicated, and so costly, and I hate it. But we already know I have at least three tumors [which they finally just had to assume were benign because literally nobody could read the results], and it's seven years since those scans/biopsies. I also have this complication where they thought  had inflammatory breast cancer, then decided I didn't, but nothing's changed, and that's been four or five years since that imaging and the biopsies, too, so I'm way overdue. But that's for later in the year; there's no way I can afford any of that now.

I won't even be able to afford the bloodwork this week if I don't manage to bring in some sales, plural, tonight and tomorrow. Our floor for sales and breaking even is making a minimum of one sale per week for the year, and we're still more than a week in the hole now. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is, and heaven knows I don't have the bandwidth for anything more. Flare, progression, whatever, it doesn't matter. I've got to do something, but damned if I know what at this point. It's grim. Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priorities are the LaminaSaver, because apparently Miika's out of it again; and the rugs, to replace those destroyed 2 years ago by the leachfield collapse and ensuing septic disaster];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to begin this year on a better footing than the last two.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.              

Monday Photo Meditation: A Craggy Cold Sentry Still Standing Watch

Photo copyright Wings, 2026;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for one some of the deepest cold of the season, for what holds and sustains us through winter and beyond. It's an image from a winter's twilight some two decades ago, shot by Wings on film, capturing the profile of a craggy cold sentry still standing watch, in the company of the rising full moon.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. It's a new calendar year, and we very much need to make this a better year than the last two have been. That begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail, and we're still nearing two weeks behind on that score.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.        

At least today was beautiful.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Bitter cold and beautiful light. It's been that way all day today.

I love the snow [and I'm glad for the cold, even if my joints aren't so much], but the snow shoveling is another thing entirely. I have to do it in pieces, because I can't do much of anything physical for very long at all. I do have most of the deck upstairs done, but I doubt it'll get finished tomorrow, because I've got other stuff already taking up the afternoon, which means the morning will be spent trying to get everything else done as fast as possible.

I'm tired, I'm sore, I've had no real sleep two nights in a row, and I'm beat. But at least today was beautiful.

Now, if I could just bring in some sales tonight . . . . Yes, sales, plural, because we're already behind, but more than that, the nightmare that the last two years have been have left us in a bind, and we've both got medical expenses coming up this week on top of everything else. Our floor for sales and breaking even is making a minimum of one sale per week for the year, and we're still more than a week in the hole now. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is, and heaven knows I don't have the bandwidth for anything more. Flare, progression, whatever, it doesn't matter. I've got to do something, but damned if I know what at this point. It's grim. Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priorities are the LaminaSaver, because apparently Miika's out of it again; and the rugs, to replace those destroyed 2 years ago by the leachfield collapse and ensuing septic disaster];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to begin this year on a better footing than the last two.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.