Three to five days out of every week.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

No more than two hours' sleep, none of it consecutive. I was awake by four; finally gave up a little before six and just got up. It was worth it then, because this was the sky in the moments before dawn. 

Not so worth it now, when no amount of caffeine is helping. But then again, this kind of insomnia is three to five days out of every week for me, so . . . . Yet another destructive side effect of advancing multiple autoimmune disease.

None of it's helped by the constant stress. The truck died again yesterday — as nearly as we can tell, it's the laternator this time, and we had to pay for a tow to the shop. Depending on how long it takes the part to come in, and how booked the mechanic is [he's always booked, overbooked, every moment of every day], we may not have transportation through next week. for the moment, we're stuck here, which is not so bad for four days, but at that point, it starts to become a problem. It also set us back a cool $220 + for the tow, and now I have no idea what parts and labor will set us back, but it's looking like we could be close to another grand by the time we're done for all of it combined.

We made a sale Wednesday, and now? Still no breathing room. And October's going to be expensive anyway. The last truck repair and everything else really screwed us for everything else; there won't be any roof replacement, because there's no money for it. I also need to find a way to get that solar panel system for our generator that's on the wishlist, but I can't even think about that before everything else is handled. But every winter, we have days of lost power, and we need to be ahead of it this time. But right now, I need to worry about how we get to the post office and the grocery store and the pharmacy, and how much it's going to cost us to be able to do that.

I have got to bring in sales. NOW. Our traffic is down to almost nothing, and I can't conjure the money everyone's demanding from us out of thin air.

 

Late the other night, I posted the four new pairs of sterling silver tab earrings, all with Deco-infused stampwork and at a lower price point than most of his earrings: here, here, here, and here. That new necklace I've been talking about [it's phenomenal] became Wednesday's feature, and its gallery entry is here. In addition, his new naja pendant is up, here, and his new cuff, here. 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. In the photo are the four pairs of sterling silver tab earrings with amazing stampwork that I promised, and eventually, the Picasso jasper earrings will be done, as well as other styles. He also has a miniature collector's bowl in the works [less miniature than his past works in this style]. 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.