IT'S DECEMBER.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Another baby. We have baby robins, baby jays, baby flickers, baby sparrows, baby siskins, even baby goldfinches.

IT'S DECEMBER.

It's supposed to be 20 for the high with a foot of snow on the ground, and several more storms in the forecast, not 60 and with new fragile bird babies among us. 

It's been a terrible day otherwise, one that got pissed away in a waiting room to no avail, with circumstances that made clear to me that had we stayed, the result would have been a confrontation. And where our health is concerned, I don't give an inch, so it would've been bad, and I would've kept going up the food chain as far as I needed to go.

Instead, we left. But I'm now doing all my work tonight, and there will be things I needed to do today that I won't get to. I'm also in agonizing pain after sitting in those damn chairs for hours, and angry that we had to put ourselves at risk because no one will wear a fucking mask. 

And again, it's December, and I'm at the point of needing to average one sale a day to break even, and I have no idea how we do that; we are so far behind on sales this year that 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? I'm losing my damn mind.

I don't know what to do. I'm doing everything I can, as fast as I can, and here we are, new week, new month, and it's never enough. I need help, but there isn't any. What I really need is to bring in sales, but 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, but they've given out so much stuff this week that they now have new priorities: hand warmers, snacks, tarps, duct tape, two-person tents [only $22 each! and they've given out all the existing tents already], the safety stuff like flashlights and pepper spray; they also need large-size men's stuff, socks, and large- and extra-large-size dog stuff, like collars and harnesses and dog coats, further down on the list. Also? On our way into town today, we met a young man, living out of an abandoned van, who needed a sleeping bag, and we didn't have one. The outreach program is giving them 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'm putting 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.

And then there's my own actual work. WE NEED SALES. As always at this time of year, I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week, because the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making those sales, of course. But beyond that? I also am finding myself unexpectedly under the gun on another front; besides needing to bring in enough in seasonal sales to prepay a big chunk on our '24 taxes, the election has made the need to replace my laptop NOW absolutely mandatory, before the end of the year, because the price, already hellish for the one I need, will skyrocket at the first of the year. So if you're contemplating buying? Now would be a really, really good time. Our laptop is our whole work, everything, and it fails me on the daily now.

Today's feature [yeah, I know, it's night now, but whatever] is a cuff in the colors of its name, a personal favorite that really needs to find its home, here. So tonight, here, it's a couple of other cuffs that feature slim heavy-gauge bands and stones that channel the light [albeit one stone per cuff, in this instance]. Also, if I can get to the two new cuffs yet tonight [unlikely], one of them would fit this description, too, a vintage-style slender band set with a lightly polished rainbow moonstone with lots of blue internal flash:

• "The Geometry of Light," sterling silver and an incredible giant teardrop of banded Labradorite that mostly refracts in brilliant gold shades, with fabulously deep, even freehand cutwork in a Deco patter on the band, here; and
• "A Lunar Geometry," sterling silver and a gemmy domed oval of OLD moonstone [not rainbow; the real stuff], with more freehand Art Deco cutwork all along the band, 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, AGAIN, I hope to get posted yet tonight, for two of them], a couple of pendants [one set with incredible genuine spectrolite], 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.