One bright spot.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; al rights reserved.

I told you we had goldfinches here now. Goldfinches. Babies. In December.

Whatever; it's one bright spot in an otherwise awful day, week, month, year. I hit that wall today; I don't have anything left. I've had a constant headache for four weeks, a product of absolutely ungodly levels of stress, most of which I can't even talk about to anyone, and my ever-increasing pain levels from the progression of my illnesses. The pain is so bad today, literally not a single part of my body that isn't in agony, and I feel so utterly hopeless about everything, that it's taking everything I have not to just sit and weep.

But the work won't wait, and neither will the bills and expenses. And if I start, I won't be able to stop, so I do what I always do and bite it back and move on to the next thing.

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 spoken for just on everything's that's coming down the pike, or already here. 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 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, a. #TBT work from eleven years ago, is a specially commissioined one, a turtle pin set with glowing, shimmery purple — charoite, classified as a rare mineral, found only, so far as is known, in one place on the planet, a massif in Siberia. So for this space, two pins, neither of animals but still representing living beings — the last two pins in current inventory form Wings's signature series of holiday evergreen trees:

• "Resin, Berry, Bough," sterling silver, amber, carnelian, and jade, all ornamental lights on a whimsical little conifer worthy of Christmastown, saw-cut freehand and with stampwork garlands and other ornaments, here; and
• "Evergreen Twilight," sterling silver, onyx, garnet, and moonstone lights, with a simialr shape and similarly freehand cutwork and stampwork ornamenting it, 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, also hopefully tonight], 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.