oracle cards...

I have new goodies to play with!! UPS just delivered Colette Baron-Reid's new The Enchanted Map Oracle Cards and the deck is gorgeous - I can't wait to try these cards!

Colette's Wisdom of the Hidden Realms deck is my go-to oracle deck, the one I use most often. That deck spoke to me and resonated with me right from the start, and has been an incredible deck to work with. It's the deck I use for the one-card email readings and the three-card email readings I offer in the Etsy shop. And it's the deck I usually begin with when I do intuitive readings by phone.

The 30-Minute Intuitive Reading by Phone is something new I'm offering.

I recently took an amazing series of classes from M. Flora Peterson (also known as CharmingPixieFlora) at The Yay Factor and became a certified intuitive reader through her Intuition Mentoring Program. I can't say enough wonderful things about Flora - she's amazing! Her classes gave me tools and techniques that have now become a daily part of my life. Like...

Meditating more often.

Drinking more water.

Regularly calling my own energy back to me and getting rid of energy that isn't mine.

And so much more. Going through Flora's intuition mentoring program helped me gain clarity about my own work... which led to the decision to offer intuitive readings over the phone. I love the phone readings because there's so much energy as we talk together, and the call has such a fluid and evolving flow to it.

It has been exciting to discover this new love - because I had been totally shying away from offering services over the phone. The idea brought out the social anxiety I sometimes struggle with, along with that whole thing about not liking how my voice sounds.

But you know what? Doing a reading for someone else isn't about me. Worrying about my anxiety, worrying about what someone might think of my voice - those are ego things, and my ego has no place in a reading. That's another thing Flora's classes helped me with.

Okay, I couldn't resist any longer - I just did a first draw from the new oracle deck. My card is Ride the Wave... and that's a spot-on-target message for me right now. I think I'm going to enjoy this deck. ♥

been a long, long time...

I had good intentions at the beginning of this year to blog here regularly. But did that happen?? Obviously not. I want to start blogging regularly, but I'm having some trouble making decisions about exactly how I want to do it and how to go forward.

First of all... Since the beginning of summer, I haven't done very many new things with Subtle Harmony. (Except a new banner and matching business cards!) I added only a few new items. I took a step back, a break from the shops as I thought about some long-term goals. In early August I deactivated the few items in the Zibbet shop, and I put the Etsy and ArtFire shops into vacation mode. Etsy came out of vacation mode and is currently open - but a percentage of my usual items remain deactivated. The ArtFire shop, for the time being, is still in vacation mode. I have so many things going on right now that I thought it would be best to focus only on one shop at the moment.

I've been busy studying and learning the past months... learning things that will, I hope, give me new knowledge and ideas for Subtle Harmony products and services. One thing I've done is that I've enrolled in Hibiscus Moon's Crystal Healer Certification Program and I've been taking some absolutely fabulous and wonderful classes on crystals and crystal healing! I still have some classes left to take before completing the program, but each class has been simply incredible and I'm looking forward to the others.

That's just one thing going on... I plan to talk more about other happenings in future posts.

Something I've realized in the past weeks is that I want to get back to my original goal for Subtle Harmony - which includes a website where I can offer more services. (Right now SubtleHarmony.com simply redirects to the Etsy shop.) So another question I've been pondering is: Do I keep this blog separate from that future website, or incorporate them together? Should I change to a different blogging platform? What to do? I don't really know enough right now to make a decision. A change to the blog, if it comes at all, probably won't happen until at least a couple of months down the road.

Other changes...  I've started art journaling. I'm spending more time outside barefooted, getting more grounded, more centered, and closer to nature. And my hair is now 6 or 7 inches shorter than it was a couple of months ago.

I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for visiting.  ♥

Thursday's thought...

"As soon as you

trust

yourself,

you will know

how

to

 live."

- Goethe

a little something about snowflake obsidian...

Lately I've been writing down information about various stones and crystals. Some of this has been for the printouts we send with the crystal therapy kits we sell in the shops, some of it is for a possible future project, and some of it is simply for my own personal use so that I'll have the information that interests me most about a stone right there in a convenient place. I'm going to be blogging about various stones now and then, and today snowflake obsidian gets the spotlight.

I enjoy working with obsidian - black obsidian, snowflake obsidian, mahogany obsidian, rainbow obsidian. I find snowflake obsidian fascinating to look at, with its inclusions and patterns.

Snowflake obsidian is black obsidian with grayish-white inclusions which resemble snowflakes. Obsidian is formed when lava cools very quickly.

Snowflake Obsidian and Black Obsidian Necklace

Some metaphysical properties about snowflake obsidian...  It is considered to be a protective, centering, and grounding stone that resonates with the first chakra (the root or base chakra) and second chakra (the sacral chakra). It is said to help bring objectivity and dis-attachment. It is believed to absorb and dissolve anger, criticism, and fear - and also promote self-confidence and self-esteem.

Some say snowflake obsidian helps bring emotions to the surface and then helps release them. According to Philip Permutt in The Complete Guide to Crystal Chakra Healing, it “helps to release anger, resentment, and unhelpful behavior patterns and reduce loneliness, bringing peace of mind.” This stone also is also considered to be helpful with examining harmful thought patterns. In Love Is In The Earth, Melody calls snowflake obsidian a “stone of purity” that brings “both purity and balance to the body, mind, and spirit.”

Grounding Set - Snowflake Obsidian and Black Obsidian Bracelets

So that's a little something about snowflake obsidian - thanks for stopping by!

Thursday's thought...

"What would you
 attempt to do
 if you knew you
 could not fail?"


~ Robert Schuller

February already...

It's a new month! January brought some crazy weather, with more snow than we've seen here in many years. January was also the best month Subtle Harmony has had since we opened a few months ago - thank you, wonderful customers! ♥

My most recent goal was to have 100 listings in the Etsy shop by the end of January - and it's done! As of right now, the Etsy shop has 103 listings and the ArtFire shop has 102. Sales keep decreasing the number of listings (which is always a welcome thing to happen!) but I've been adding things regularly... and I have two new chakra bracelets to list as soon as I take pictures and get the descriptions written. I've been doing more work with ribbon, I've started to work with chain bracelets, and I've also started working with copper - so there are some new things happening in the shops.

And there's also a new shop. We opened an account on Zibbet.com a few months ago but didn't do anything with it... until now. Over the weekend, I got the storefront ready with banner, avatar, profile, policies, all that stuff. Then I started listing - although only two items so far! More will be added soon, and I hope to get the shop filled up quickly. It's quite bare at the moment but if you'd like to check out the Zibbet shop, just go to http://www.zibbet.com/SubtleHarmony.http://www.zibbet.com/SubtleHarmony

So - that's the latest news! And here's the latest new item that's been added to the shop...

A short necklace of green aventurine with a pewter knotwork Celtic Cross pendant. I have always loved Celtic knotwork, and I can't resist adding more of it to my work.

I hope your February is off to a great start! Thanks for stopping by. ♥

Thursday's thought...

"Nothing will ever be attempted

 if all possible objections

 must first be overcome."

~ Samuel Johnson

almost a new year...

Despite good intentions, I haven't kept up with blogging! I got sick a couple of days after Thanksgiving and am just now starting to feel like myself again after two rounds of antibiotics and lots of cough medicine.

When I've had the energy these past weeks, I've been crafting things and adding to the Etsy and ArtFire shops. Here are a couple of the latest items...



A yin yang keychain. The stones I used are said to have metaphysical properties that help balance yin yang energies.



Amazonite wrist mala bracelet. This has 27 main amazonite beads, 6mm round, with a 10mm round amazonite bead serving as the head bead or guru bead. The wrist mala bracelets can be worn just for the sake of being a bracelet, no other purpose involved - or they can be used as malas or prayer beads to use while saying mantras or affirmations, meditating, counting for relaxation, and so on. Traditional malas have 108 main beads, so the number of 27 main beads used for this wrist mala bracelet is significant because it's a subset of 108. I've been enjoying making wrist mala bracelets, and we have several listed in the shops now - not only this amazonite one, but also angelite, rose quartz, black onyx, black tourmaline, bloodstone, green aventurine... as well as ones that incorporate stones for the seven major chakras. And we'll be adding others in the future.

As this year comes to an end and a new year is about to begin, I'm spending time this week trying to get more organized - but it's a challenge! Being more organized, however, is going to be one of my goals for 2011.

Whatever your goals for the coming year, I hope you achieve them...