A hell of a weekend, and not in a good way.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Look at this mess. Contrails everywhere, worsening the drought. [No, I did NOT say "chemtrails," I used their actual term, and as for the drought part, it's a fact; they do, and yet no one gives a shit about the way they add to climate collapse].

We've had four fires locally in forty-eight hours, one on the mountain late Friday that's still unexplained, one elsewhere on the mountain yesterday that is explained [no, I'm not going to], and two house fires since midnight in the south end of town, neither of which is likely to be anything to do with a firebug, but rather, old houses with people unable to get to the maintenance required, because colonizers are hell-bent on forcing everyone local out now.

It's been a hell of a weekend, and not in a good way.

It's been bad on a deeply personal level, too, but yesterday's date is always bad for me. [If you don't know why, it's in yesterday's post.] Today began with me remembering all the reasons that yesterday's marker was made SO much worse at the time, culminating with my parents disowning me because I refused to tolerate the interfering bullshit from my other sister's criminal boyfriend, meddling in the investigation, lying through his teeth repeatedly, creating havoc and harm and abuse everywhere, because he was a raging narcissistic sociopath. No one, and I mean no one, will make me accept that kind of bullshit. So my parents refused to speak to me for a year or more. When shit went bad for them, though, who was it who dropped everything to help? It sure as fuck wasn't my surviving sister.

You wonder why I'm not all that sorry to be alone? Why I don't consider myself an adult 
"orphan" like so many white folks do when their parents are gone [and all my siblings, too, in my case]?  Those are only a few of the reasons why.

I hate times like this. I hate being reminded. Most of the time I can put all of it out of my mind and focus on now. It's not working this weekend.

And I need to be working. I need to be bringing in sales. I need to make up yesterday's almost $800 outlay, more than ha;f of which I had no way of anticipating, and I need to do it this weekend. I mean, it is Indigenous People's Day, both yesterday [actual] and tomorrow [official], so people should be buying from Natives now.

Because, of course, all of the pressures we're facing mostly haven't changed in any meaningful way, and a couple of extremely welcome sales that are helping us catch up still don't have us breaking even on the year yet. To that end, I've updated the list below, striking through the items no longer available, because, as always?

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.

Also, buy: I posted two new pairs of earrings the other day, one incredible chrysocolla in malachite, here [sold], and another equally fabulous Red Creek jasper, here [sold just this afternoon]. I posted four new pairs of earrings last week, here [also now sold as of today], here, here [these are also sold now], and here. Last week, 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. The first links are the four pairs of sterling silver tab earrings with amazing stampwork that I promised. 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. But there's tons of new work on the site, in addition to all that's coming up shortly [including three new pairs of Picasso jasper earrings possibly tonight, but more likely tomorrow], so go look:

• Completed just a couple of weekends ago, 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 [sold]. 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 [sold], 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 Five remaining 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 the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, 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.