Status Reports & Other Ramblings

Smol Panther: "HUMAN. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Me: "Working."

Smol Panther: "I SAID NO WORKING UNTIL THE ANTIBIOTICS KICKED IN AND YOU STOP BEING TOO DIZZY TO GET OUT OF BED. DO I HAVE TO SIT ON YOU AGAIN, LIKE YESTERDAY?"

Me: "No rest for the wicked or the self-employed."

Smol Panther: "TAKE A SICK DAY OR I WILL BITE YOU."

Me: "I don't get sick days. Working from bed is as close as it gets."

Smol Panther: "FINE. BUT I WILL SUPERVISE. AND IF YOU GET OUT OF BED I WILL BITE YOUR TOES."

(So I probably don't have consumption even if I do look like it in that photo from yesterday, but my lungs have been colonized by aliens and anything that involves being upright is... not really happening right now. Which means orders from the sale are going out SUPER slowly, and we won't be doing an Instant Gratification session because, well, first I have to make up all of these open edition earrings and that's gonna take a while at the rate I'm moving. Instead I'm going to extend the sale through the weekend and shove some more stuff into clearance every so often, and if I'm working on a custom piece for you I'm really sorry but it's going to be a few days before I can go back to the workbench without risking losing a toe or three to Smol Panther.)

As you may have guessed from the radio silence the past few days, it turned out to be Definitely Sick. Thank you, airplane full of coughing people! Lung Crud was NOT the sort of souvenir I wanted to bring home from Wisconsin.

BUT! I have propped myself up with pillows and tea long enough to put a whole bunch of shinies on sale. Some for a mere $13, even, and that's before the 31% discount you get with coupon code WS13.

Thirteen years, y'all. That's a whole lot of shinies.

I am still slightly jetlagged and possibly a bit sick (the jury is still out on whether the scratchy throat is just the consequences of singing too much or the inevitable result of being on an airplane full of audibly contagious people for several hours) but thanks to the miracles of caffeine, sudafed, tea, and peanut butter cookies I am now caught up on shipping, just in time for me to run a sale. 

(Reminder: I don't do Black Friday sales, so this is an excellent chance to grab cheap shinies for all your holiday gift-giving purposes!)

Now through November 13th, coupon code WS13 takes 31% off almost everything on the website. (Subscriptions, custom pieces, and $13 mystery items are the exceptions.) I'll be adding some other deals over the next few days, like $13 clearance items, and at some point (maybe Friday or Saturday?) there will be a $13 Instant Gratification session because why not?

...oh yes, and there are $13 opal pendants, which is one heck of a deal: 

[insert smushy love note here] 

No, but seriously: thank you. I couldn't have done this without you. Y'all are the best customers/fans/friends a person could have, and I am so very grateful to still be doing this 13 years after I jumped off that cliff.

THREE MORE SLEEPS UNTIL I GO ON VACATION WOO

(okay maybe four or five sleeps because let's be real, naps are a thing I do)

Aaaaaaaaanyway. I'm going to Wisconsin on Thursday for a music retreat, which is something I kind of desperately need right now because the world is awful and being a single parent is exhausting and winter is rapidly approaching and I'm tired, y'all.

I'll be spending the next couple of days wrapping up custom labradorite orders (if you called dibs on a piece of labradorite and haven't told me what you want it to be yet, speak now or hold your peace for a week) and getting shinies out the door. I've got a few new things going up on the website later today, including some really pretty carved peach and silver moonstone leaves and a couple of black opals) and maybe some more opal earrings, we'll see.

Also! Today is a momentous day! Three years ago on this very day, Smol Panther arrived on our doorstep, attitude and all: 

"NO MORE CATS" I said sternly, as I let the child put out a bowl of kibble for the skinny creature who was twining around our ankles and mewing pathetically when we got home from school.

"NO MORE CATS" I said as my roommate and I conferred about what to do with a declawed black cat who showed up on our doorstep two days before Halloween.

"NO MORE CATS" I said as we scooped up her up and brought her inside and quarantined her in my office for the weekend to keep her safe. 

"NO MORE CATS" I said the following Monday as we bundled a bitey ball of black fur into a carrier and took her to the SPCA to have her scanned for the microchip that she didn't have. 

"NO MORE CATS" I said a week later as I took her to the vet for a checkup and shots so I could bring her out of quarantine in my office. 

...yeah, I lost that battle. 

When I get home from Wisconsin next week, the anniversary shenanigans will commence! WS is turning 13 this year, and... I have not figured out what I'm doing yet, as is the custom apparently. But there will be a sale, and some livestreaming, and it'll be fun, because it always is. 

Okay. Back to the workbench!