Moved and photographing jewelry

I'm going to actually have to sit down and write here more often! :-)

Well we've finally moved!! It's been a very long summer of finalizing all the house details, packing boxes, living around boxes, moving boxes and then unpacking boxes. (Okay so I'm not fully unpacked yet - but it's coming along.) For the first time EVER, Wicked Stones (aka the crazy people who run the accounting/web work side of the show) FINALLY have their own office space!! Doors can be closed so that the evil cats don't show up to muck about in the paperwork. Now THAT'S a good change!!

On top of everything else, we popped into Henry's Photography Store (they just opened in Sudbury recently) and found a kit with a light tent and photo lamps. Yes, it was expensive but SHOOT! You would not believe how fast that part of the creation process is now! For years it's been a struggle to get good photographs of the jewelry on our site (http://wickedstones.com) but now? It's truly as simple as point, click, and edit the size of the photo. One day I should sit down and write a long posting about the horrors it's been trying to find the correct light bulbs and accessories for taking photographs.. arg... For anyone who is looking for the right tools to take pictures of their product, I'd seriously consider spending the extra money for a real kit from a place like this. I am kicking myself pretty hard in the rear for all the time lost over these past years. Ah well, lesson learned.

And for those of you who I've been talking to about new products on the horizon? The Rock Lab is being organized and we should have it running by mid winter! Finally! A space for all the tumblers and the new Rock Saw to live!! (Okay so we've not purchased the saw yet or the grinders, but those are on our list for things to pick up.) As it's only been a month since we've moved in, we're still moving boxes in and out of the shop outside. Sorry, no sneak previews yet on what's coming...

Well, the snow is coming down and I see myself heading out shortly to shovel our way out of the drive....

Fall Samhain Halloween specials

I welcome you to take a tour around our website: wickedstones.com as I've just posted new items for our Samhain Halloween Fall Sale.

There are going to be tons of gemstone treasures and even some beautiful sterling silver jewelry up for grabs this fall season.

You can even use a discount coupon that can be found on our website.

Enjoy!

Contest - win free jewelry at WickedStones.com

We're running the newest contest at our website and giving away a really beautiful banded Agate necklace. 

Click (link removed as the contest is over) to enter your name in the draw.Up for grabs this fall season - a fabulous Agate necklace!! This is a beautiful banded Agate with incredible colours and banding! It's got amazing patterns and rich blues, grays and earth tones. 

It has a sterling silver core in the center and comes ready to wear on a black leather necklace with a clasp. What's the catch? We'll add your name to our mailing list for the occasional newsletter filled with information, contest info, sales, coupons and more. It does not come out very often as I'm always having far too much fun making jewelry. :-)

So don't worry.. you might see a newsletter once a month or once every few months. Contest ends on December 1 and one name will be drawn at random. Good luck!

Ravens on my roof - we're moving!

This morning I woke up to the sounds of ravens tromping around on the roof over my head....

Three of them were making their presence known so that I'd go out and put some food on the deck for them. I'll be sad to lose them when we move in a few days.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that in our blog :-)

We're moving to a new home on the 14th of October! Finally!! After almost 2 years of looking we've found a place in Wanup that is going to suit all of us. I've finally gotten a room to myself to set up office. After 2 1/2 years of working out of the living room to get my paperwork done, it will be extremely nice to be able to shut the door on the filing and take time off without having it always seeming to be waiting for me to return.

Plus, Rob has his own work shop out back that we'll be able to run the rock tumblers without me going crazy with them groaning away in the living room (that was awful!). We finally will have the room to put in the rock saws that we've been aching for so that we can start making the stone Goddesses that I've been tormenting one of our special wholesale customers with - bad me!! Rob's hoping that by early next spring we'll be able to start making hand made Rune necklaces (made of stone) and pretty hand made carvings.

It's been ages since I've posted to this Blog - it's been a summer of meeting great people at the Haweater Festival we went to in early August (thanks everyone!) and a season of wonderful orders that have been sent all over the world. With the house hunting going on and endless hockey workshops with our daughter, it's amazing that I found time for anything else besides running around at a million miles an hour. But I've loved this past summer. Thanks to everyone that we've shared this passing season with. :-)

In just 8 "packing days" the moving truck will be here, so with that said? I'm off to the grocery store to pick up more boxes.

New Family Member - Miss Acorn

Gosh, I had no idea so much time had gone by since my last real posting here on our blog...

It's been an interesting life over the past months! We've adopted a new family member to our crew. A long story short, we found this little angel at a yard sale late last fall. This is a picture of our new kitten (Acorn) and our wonderful Dog Treble.

Acorn was only a few weeks old when we adopted her and much to our surprise, she became immediately attached to Treble (the dog in the photo). I was even more stunned when Treble became "mom" to our little kitten and started nursing her. It certainly was a shock to everyone in the family but after some phone calls and research, we discovered that it was perfectly natural and actually wonderful that these 2 pets connected to each other in such a beautiful way.

We've since discovered that Acorn is a Maine Coon and destined to become QUITE the cat!! I've read that they can grow up to a metre in length and weigh a LOT! At only 6 months old, she's already larger than our oldest cat. It's been a pleasure getting to know her as she's a tremendous friend to me. She plays fetch with me all afternoon while I create jewelry - which is quite handy as she's not actually in my rock bins helping me choose the right stones!!

Speaking of cats, I've just been informed that lunch needs to be served.

New Crystals from Brazil

Oh my!!

I've just added some of the most gorgeous crystal points to our website

I've found the the most amazing Soul Mate and Tantric twin crystals, abundance crystals, stunning gems with phantoms and so many more!!

The one you see here in this picture is an example of an abundance soul mate crystal point. All of these gems are natural gems that come from Brazil.

Just thought I'd pass that along..