I couldn't feel less Christmassy if I tried.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

It's a terrible shot, but it's an accurate one. When it's this kind of deep, bitter cold [dow to 16 right now, wit a wind chill of 12; actual temp tonight will be 4, which means wind chills well below zero], these monsters are WILD, and always, always in motion.

If only I had that kind of energy.

I screwed up yesterday, so busy and going at such a clip even here at home that I forgot to eat [or, more accurately, I kept thinking I'd get to it as soon as I finished "this one last thing," which of course I never did], and wow, did I pay for it. After last night's workout [I use that term loosely, given the state of my joints and connective tissue], I suddenly felt  really, really horrible. Blood glucose?  Thirty-eight.  Yes, 38.

Hypoglycemics, which I am, like diabetics, which I am not, don't  bounce back from that just by eating something. It takes a while for our bodies to recover. And I was still feeling it all day today, but none of that matters when you have to be somewhere, and today, that was a couple of hours in an absolute fucking torture device of a chair in the dentist's office while Wings got, at long last, a temporary crown for the one that broke months ago. Plus, of course, an hour on either side of that for getting there and getting back. It's why everything is so late, and also why I still feel like I've been run over by a semi.

And I couldn't feel less Christmassy if I tried.

Everything's terrible right now. That includes our holiday business season. Our sales are next to nothing, but the bills and expenses won't wait. As it is, there will be no gifts this year, for anyone, if something doesn't break soon. I have to pay too many things right now; the whole of my Patreon is already gone on monthly bills. I don't know how we make it if people don't shift into holiday-buying gear soon. Because at this rate? We can't. Not even through the month on basic expenses, never mind the fact that I have GOT to replace my laptop before the new year when prices skyrocket thanks to that asshole's tariff announcement. We are nowhere near maintaining that kind of pace, and with the well pump and the laptop and the taxes and the medical and everything else? All it would take at this point is a feather to break everything completely.

I HAVE GOT TO MAKE SOME SALES THIS WEEK. Multiples. I don't know what to do. I'm doing everything I can, as fast as I can, at a pace of 16-hour days 7 days a week and at great expense to my body at this point, and here we are, new week, mid-December, and it's never enough. I need help, but there isn't any. I can't force people to buy. And it's looking really grim.

And yes, I know we're lucky. The housing crisis worsens daily here. On that note, also go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order. The outreach program is giving gear out as fast as they get them, and being mostly housebound now, it's hard for me to get out to pick up any before they're gone. To that end, I've put some tents and sleeping bags and other essentials on our own wishlist, with a note that they're for the outreach effort, and if folks would like to hit it up [because I cannot spend $145 on a 10-pack of sleeping bags right now because we don't have the money, but they are so very badly needed] we would be grateful.

Today's feature is, three images linked by two really apt works of wearable art, a necklace here, and a cuff here. More evergreens and ice, more. malachite, these two set wit square cabs. We have no other such squares i that stone in inventory, but we do have an oval that somehow seems particularly apt both for that post and for this place generally right now, set into a pin that really needs to find its home, because I know the person who needs this is out there; I can feel it [and think what amazing holiday gifts all three would make!]:

• "A Prayer For the Peaks, sterling silver and malachite; one of Wings's signature eagle-feather works, this time as a lapel/shawl pin, saw-cut and etched entirely freehand, hundreds of lines, with a braid-wire overlay shaft and bead-wire overlay wrap beneath an intensely green banded oval cabochon, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [a green turquoise one and a rainbow moonstone one that I FINALLY got posted the other night, for two of them], a couple of pendants [the one set with incredible genuine spectrolite is Saturday's feature], potentially several new pairs of earrings, and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof next year AND now the well pressure pump, more medical, always prepaid taxes, 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 far worse than the last, we really need to end 2024 on a better footing before 2025 and taxes take every cent, 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.