The embryonic form of this seminar came about from one of our customers who has turned into a good friend (the BEST kind of customer!). While perusing the site, she came across the listing of classes in our ever-evolving repertoire. She contacted us as she was planning a trip to the States and daydreamed about how lovely it would be if we hosted these classes while she was in the country. She’d definitely add a leg to her journey for that!

While Jenn and I haven’t taught formally organized and marketed workshops in several years, when students find us and ask for the classes, we always say yes. Some derivation of “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” usually floats through my head. While I do enjoy sharing the knowledge we’ve accumulated over 10 years of working with stones, these experiences always teach me something new, whether it’s a new insight into human nature and healing, or a new way to work with the stones.

So we told her we’d love to customize a seminar around her schedule. And it turned out to be amazing.

We had a 4-day long intensive extravaganza into working with the stones. We developed intuitive skills, learned about the stones’ formations and energies and how to best use them in healing and everyday uses. Our class size was small, and that’s the way I like it. We had moments of laughter and wonder and intimate healing, which Jenn and I were blessed to share. We immersed ourselves in the complexities of the mineral world and revelled as the seeds of new ideas were sown.

But the best part of the entire experience is that we made some new cherished heart friends.

Announcing our Summer Sale!

All orders will receive 10% off through June 30th!  Additionally, orders over $100 will receive free shipping up to $20 including our international customers!*

*Legal mumbo jumbo alert: 10% applies to all orders placed between June 12th through June 30th, cannot be combined with any other offer. Classes and Lay-a-way orders are not eligible for discounts. Shipping discount will be applied during order confirmation and your invoice will be adjusted accordingly.

From our latest newsletter….

We have some exciting news for you in this newsletter! First we’re pleased to offer our newsletter subscribers a sneak of the goodies we picked up in Costa Mesa, California.  If you’ve been perusing the blog you’ll already know that we found an abundance of new goodies including mouth watering tourmalines, outstanding tanzanite crystals, gorgeous natural and polished fluorite formations, black shiva lingams, purple topaz on quartz and that’s just the beginning. There are four packed pages of gorgeous new crystals and minerals available before they reach the main site! Not on our mailing list? Sign up here then email us for the link!

Better yet, these amazing new offerings are included in our Summer Sale! All orders will receive 10% off through June 30th!  Additionally, orders over $100 will receive free shipping up to $20 including our international customers!*

Our most affordable sections, Dragon Fire and Fairy Kisses have also been updated. We’ve added a beautiful array of freeforms including Kambaba Jasper, selenite, and hematite. By happenstance we’ve posted a gorgeous array of massage wands in Indian minerals, including garnet and ruby!  Check out our latest updates for the comprehensive list.

Don’t forget, next week we will be hosting our first Crystal Workshop. We will explore many ways of working with crystals including the ancient art of Laying-on-of Stones and crystalline grids that incorporate the seed of life. Click here for more information. There is still time to sign up, class size is limited and we have only 2 openings left!

Until next time,

Jennifer

*Legal mumbo jumbo alert: 10% applies to all orders placed between June 12th through June 30th. Classes and Lay-a-way orders are not eligible for discounts. Shipping discount will be applied during order confirmation and your invoice will be adjusted accordingly.

We’re a bit slow on finishing this update, but with lots of luck it will be done before we finish tonight. So for the members who will see the preview, we wanted to post a bit of background info on the 2012 citrine.

While we were in Costa Mesa, we met the dealer who claims to be the sole source for 2012 Quartz and who I presume holds the trademark on it. Trying not to hold metaphysical marketing techniques against the stones, we are always interested in experiencing new stones before we offer them to our customers. The dealer shared with us what he had learned about 2012 crystals, and that new varieties are emerging, citrine being one of them. From what we gather, the crystals are from somewhere in Brazil but more specific details weren’t coming.

We haven’t had an opportunity to fully read the 2012 citrine crystals, but our first impression was a very bright bubbly energy. There is a special energy to them in addition to them being quintessentially citrine. Our dealer said their energy is similar to the clear 2012 crystals, but imbued with the Golden Ray.

For the official reading on 2012 quartz:
Click Here

I thought I’d share some images from the group I’m photograping…Enjoy!

We’re back from our shopping trip out to California. Our shipments have all arrived safe and sound with no casualties, only a few little babies. We spent the Memorial Day weekend relaxing after our 6,000 mile journey. Our behinds turned into boxes after the plane trips, so the R&R was perfectly timed! Let me also say that Costa Mesa was quite a bit closer to Los Angeles than I was expecting. So close it could be considered a suburb. I got to experience my first moderate earthquake when that 4.7 rumbled L.A. Not only was my hair standing on end, but I think I felt a few new gray ones sprout when the ceiling stopped trying to meet the floor. Jenn and our dinner buddy didn’t feel a thing! Oy! Of course the rumbly tumbly was the talk of the hotel the next morning. I am o-so glad to be back home in my steaming forest.

The show was a good one, and we brought home lots of new beauties. I found an absolute smorgasbord of tourmaline crystals, and I’m excited to present multi-color crystals from at least three locales in Brazil, as well as indigo blue and pink with aqua tourmalines from Afghanistan. We found a small assortment of jaw-droppingly gorgeous blue and lavender tanzanite crystals and red-violet record keeper ruby crystals from India. I picked up white petalite, amblygonite, orange kyanite and terminated phenacite crystals! Also from India, we have rainbow moonstone spheres and wands along with black amethyst balls and star garnet balls and wands. Jenn was excited to find green fluorite from Rogerly, England and divine amethyst crystals from Kenya. We also have a small group of 2012 citrine crystals that I am looking forward to communicating with….my curiosity has been piqued by all the chatter about them.

I’m taking a break from photographing some of the new lovelies, and trying to recall all the goodies we have to offer you. It’s boggling my mind! Gold sheen obsidian spheres, staurolite crystals from Russia, prehnite and epidote formations, Super Seven elestials, uvites and cat’s eye chrysoberyl crystals. Spessartine elestial garnets, amazing purple topaz on quartz crystals, black Shiva Lingams in all sizes, indigo and purple fluorite chunks, angelite freeforms and sliced nodules and sooooooo much more…You’ll have to stay tuned for the preview to come out!

And don’t forget! Our Crystal Working Seminar is coming up in a couple of weeks! We only have 2 places left. So if you’re interested, email us quick!

Until next time, I’ll be hiding behind my camera.
Mary

Since we are in Costa Mesa, CA I thought it would be appropriate to address some of the questions we get about traveling with stones.

What essentials do you always take?

Selenite – A small wand to clear the stones that are traveling with you.

Moonstone – A tumble stone in each suitcase or bag. Helps to decrease your chance of lost luggage too!

Tugtupite – for me it’s a must, I get motion sickness at times and it really helps!

Black tourmaline – helps to keep the nasty energy at bay.

How do you choose who goes?

Whoever yells the loudest, and is still portable – Seriously. Some of the big 20-30 pound crystals would love to travel with us, but that is just not practical. Most often they need to fit in our carry on bag. We usually don’t take any crystals over 3″ with us. Don’t forget about security, sometimes they will make you check your stone if it too big.  (They think it could be used as a weapon).

How do you protect them when travelling?

We wrap the larger crystals in soft cloths or scarves, sometimes velvet bags too. For really fragile stones we’ll then pack them in a pair of socks stuffed ina shoe. It’s about as protected as you can get in a suitcase while still being practical. Some of the small crystals will travel in my bra.

We’ve been awfully quite the past few months,  we just needed to pull back and slow our life down some.  Thanks to all who emailed expressing their concern about our wellbeing and the next update. 

To be honest the recession hit us hard early this year, and we had to let Bryan go. The decision was a heartbreaking one and the ramifications have been wide spread. Mary and I needed time to reflect on where we are and where we are going. We’ve been tackling long negletected projects, and have been spring cleaning with vigor. What started as a “simple weekend project” literally turned the house and the business upside down!  This has given us the ability to clear space in mind, body and spirit.  The messages we’ve received from the universe have been clear.  We’re not done with our stone work yet, it just needs to go in new directions.

Our animal family has been expanding in this brief respite.   All of our new critters are rescues.  We have welcomed two peafowl to our lives: an adult male India Blue peacock named Coby, and an adolescent rare white peahen named Cally.  We’ve been joined by Oberon, a sinuously sleek black cat.  And we are preparing for the arrival of CiCi, a blue-eyed Siamese. 

The Crystal Working Seminar

We’ve finalized plans to host our first  Crystal Working Seminar from June 18-21st.  It will be a fun weekend of exploring the world of crystal healing.  All classes will have manuals and crystals for you to take home. Best of all the Laying-On-Of-Stones class has a full kit of over 60 stones! 

 The cost is $600 for all classes and materials–sign up by May 1st and receive a $50 discount! 

Thursday, June 18

Orientation– An informal get-together to share experiences and get to know one another.

Friday, June 19

World of Quartz — We will dicuss the versatile properties of the diverse quartz family and several of its formations, inclusions, colors, configurations, etc.

Sensing Crystalline Energies–We will learn how to recognize the often subtle energies of the mineral kingdom. We will explore what our intuition tells us about the stones compared to commonly accepted stone properties.

Saturday, June 20

Laying-On-Of-Stones– This class will focus on how to work with the stones in various body layouts. This all day class will include lessons on the Human Energy Field, the Chakras, and using the stones’ energies to tune the chakras.  The full kit of 60 stones and manual is included and they will quickly become a staple of your stone work.

Sunday, June 21

Comprehensive Crystalline Gridding– We will learn about Sacred Geometry, and how gridding the stones can affect not only the energy of your environment, but can be used for distance healing, manifestation, protection and more. We will talk about the Seed of Life, Flower of Life, and merkabas.

Register now as class size is very limited.  Contact us for suggestions on accomodations if you’d like to travel to see us. 

Bring your intuition and your love of stones, and we’ll have a fantastic time!

Website Improvements

We have been working on one other very large project: a total site redesign. We’re not only redoing the site, but we’re adding tons of new features.

• Ordering in real time–as a crystal is purchased it will automatically be marked as sold!
• Improved search fuctionality–sort by newest, price, availability, chakra, locale, etc
• Registered user area which will include the ability to see detailed past order history, preview upcoming stock and set preferences
• Favorites list–really love a crystal? Add it to your favs to find it easily on your next visit
• Email this crystal to a friend–share that special stone with your family and friends
• View measurements in metric or US imperial

There are so many new features coming that will improve your TOSOTS experience!  We know that you’ll be just as excited about the new site as we are. We’ll have the new site up and running by the summer! In the meantime here’s a sneak peek into the new site with a couple of screen shots.

Of course we haven’t forgotten about the updates. We’ve had to postpone our planned update a little while we finish up some projects. Mary has been sourcing some new beauties, including infinite stone, sunstone, stilbite, and scolecite ovals, polished celestite, brilliant new Spirit Quartz and more!  We’re working on importing a shipment from our friends in South Africa and then we’re heading to Costa Mesa in May for the West Coast Gem & Mineral Show.

We’ll have new treasures up by the end of this month! I promise!

In love and gratitude,

Jenn & Mary