Grimoire's Sneak Peek

March was a month full of celebrations. Not only did we welcome Spring (finally!) but we also had two special birthdays. One of our little models turned a year older and so did my co-worker, Lady Fray.

Moving on to this month- Our April Stone of the Month has been selected. We will be spotlighting the cheerfully yellow stone, citrine.

Citrine is known as a stone of light, sun, and life. It is also believed to have a detoxifying effect on the body. Madame Z will have more to say about this amazing stone in her post later this month. Every item featuring this wonderful stone is now on sale at ravenheartdesigns.etsy.com and ravensmysticmoon.etsy.com.

Madame Z's Corner- Lilac Stone/Lepidolite

Madame Z provides monthly posts featuring a different healing stone each month. She gathers her info from many different sources including the books: The Pocket Book of Stones; The Way of the Green Witch; Healing Crystals and Gemstones; The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals, and Stones; and Grimoire for a Green Witch; the websites: That Crystal Site; Wings of Spirit; and Healing Crystals for You; as well as relying on personal experience. Healing stones are not a substitute for medical treatment. Anyone with serious medical or emotional issues should consult with a health care professional. When purchasing a healing stone, it is best to buy the stone you are drawn to. Healing stones should be cleansed and charged periodically. We cleanse our personal stones at least once a month, and sometimes more often if we feel they need it. Cleansing can be accomplished by holding the stone in a stream of water. A natural stream is best, but since most of us do not have access to one, filtered water is a good substitute. Some stones should not be placed in water. These stones can be placed in dirt or smudged with white sage. To recharge the stones, place in a sunny window or in moonlight for a few hours.

Our March spotlight stone is the lovely Lilac Stone, also known as Lepidolite or Lilac Lepidolite. Lepidolite is considered a stone of spiritual love, helping one to activate a connection to the higher self. It is also believed to aid one in the ability to gather information from other realms of existence. This beautiful stone is thought to balance the emotions, leading to inner peace. It is also thought to reduce anxiety and stress, helping to bring about feelings of love and serenity. Lilac stone is considered helpful for anyone going through a difficult period, or for those who are grieving or suffering from depression. It is even believed to be beneficial for those recovering from post-traumatic stress.

Physically, Lilac Lepidolite is believed to aid in the relief of leg cramps and muscle aches.

Magickally, it is considered a stone of manifestation. It is also thought to aid one in shamanic journeying. 

Lilac Lepidolite is associated with all chakras, especially the heart and crown.

Lilac stone should be cleansed by smudging with white sage (passing through the smoke after the white sage has been lit). It should not contact water, as water can cause the stone to break down. To charge, we place ours in moonlight. Lilac Lepidolite can also be charged by placing among some amethyst or quartz.

Our personal experience with this stone: 
The human staff member feels it to be a somewhat gentle stone; but also experiences it as an invigorating stone, not very relaxing. The chakra she finds most effected is the third eye. The human is extremely sensitive to energies so others might experience this stone differently- more in line with it's traditional description of a calming stone. 
Everyone is different and you should always trust your own experiences when using healing stones. Do not think a stone has to have the effect on you that a book or a website says it should, or that there is something wrong with you if it does not. The first rule to remember when choosing a stone is to pick the one you are drawn to. 

Grimoire's Sneak Peek

 In honor of the coming of spring later this month, and the fact that spring makes us think of lilacs, we have chosen Lilac Stone to be our March spotlight stone. Every item in both shops featuring this lovely stone are 10% off through the end of the month.

Lilac Stone is considered a stone of spiritual love. It is thought to lead to inner peace, and to reduce stress and anxiety. To learn more about this beautiful stone check out Madame Z's post later this month.

Madame Z's Corner - Rose Quartz

Madame Z provides monthly posts featuring a different healing stone each month. She gathers her info from many different sources including the books: The Pocket Book of Stones; The Way of the Green Witch; Healing Crystals and Gemstones; The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals, and Stones; and Grimoire for a Green Witch; the websites: That Crystal Site; Wings of Spirit; and Healing Crystals for You; as well as relying on personal experience. Healing stones are not a substitute for medical treatment. Anyone with serious medical or emotional issues should consult with a health care professional. When purchasing a healing stone, it is best to buy the stone you are drawn to. Healing stones should be cleansed and charged periodically. We cleanse our personal stones at least once a month, and sometimes more often if we feel they need it. Cleansing can be accomplished by holding the stone in a stream of water. A natural stream is best, but since most of us do not have access to one, filtered water is a good substitute. Some stones should not be placed in water. These stones can be placed in dirt or smudged with white sage. To recharge the stones, place in a sunny window or in moonlight for a few hours.

Our February spotlight stone is the beautiful love stone, Rose Quartz. Legend has it, Eros brought rose quartz to Earth hoping to arouse love among the people. 

Rose quartz is believed to help one attract romance, love, and even their soul mate. Considered a beneficial stone for grief, it is thought to bring a feeling of comfort and unconditional love towards yourself and others. Rose Quartz is believed to bring compassionate feelings, to heal the heart of negative emotions, to re-awaken trust, and to cleanse the aura. A protective stone, it is also thought to help one release stress, dissolve anger, and to calm fear. Rose Quartz is even believed to boost self-esteem and to transform negative energy to positive.

Physically, Rose Quartz is considered effective against radiation- placing it next to a computer is believed to prevent headaches and eye strain. It is also thought to improve sleep quality when placed next to the bed. Fittingly for a love stone, it is believed to increase sexuality and fertility. This beautiful stone is considered helpful in stimulating circulation, and in relieving the pain of shingles and fibromyalgia, too.

Magickally, rose quartz is associated with peace, love, and comfort.

Rose Quartz is a heart chakra stone, believed to help one connect their earth bound existence with their higher, spiritual self. Quartz stones in general, including rose, are thought to amplify and store energy.

Our personal experience with rose quartz energy is of a calming and loving stone. We also experience a feeling of being grounded when in contact with this stone.

Rose Quartz should be cleansed with warm water and charged by moonlight. All quartz will fade over time if exposed to sunlight.
Fading is believed to cause a stone's power to decrease. The energy of rose quartz is thought to be so powerful that it can be felt just by placing in a room.

Fray's Focus- Our Remodel Project

Greetings all! Welcome to the premiere of Fray's Focus. My hope is to make this a regular feature on the blog, with each post being unique and informative. This first post, providing a behind the scenes look at the transformation that has been taking place since I arrived a couple months ago, will be a little different than those in the future.

I have had a great time getting acquainted with my fellow staff members: Grimoire, Jezebel, The Human, and of course, getting to know my cousin, Madame Z, better. They made me feel welcome from the first day here and have been very supportive as I adjusted to my new life.

This past month, our work rooms have been getting a makeover. The old carpet that was here when the Humans' bought the place- and that I understand they hated - has been removed and different flooring has been installed. The new flooring looks like hardwood but is actually vinyl. Clean-up is much easier and it looks wonderful. Because it is vinyl we do not have to worry about getting it wet, which is a big plus since we never know what sort of creative projects might come our way.

To prepare for the remodel project, cabinets to store a few items had to be put together. Grimoire and Madame Z took on that task along with the human known as Hubby.

Then, we had to move everything from one room to the other and start ripping up the old carpet. Jezebel oversaw this portion of the project while the Humans' contributed the physical labor.

The human known as Hubby had a buddy who came over the next day to help him finish installing the new floor.

Grimmie, who is always up for hanging around with the guys whenever they are here, ended up covered in sawdust.

Madame Z lent a paw to removing the carpet from the steps. This flooring cannot be installed on them. They will be getting a temporary coat of paint until a different friend of the human known as Hubby has time to finish them.

We all really love the new floor!

We were able to pick up some wild paint for the steps from a local hardware store. We liked it so much we decided to paint the trim, too.

Our pattern and reference books now have a home close to the scale and mailing materials........

and our arts/crafts supplies are all now stored in clear containers. 

It will be so much easier now to find the needed materials to  complete projects.

Finally, we managed to do all this while still keeping the beloved garden look.

We even added this guy to our collection of quirky items that make us smile!

.

While re-decorating has been fun, we're all itching to get back to work creating new things for the ETSY shops'.

And where was I while all the construction was going on?

 In my office writing this post. After all, somebody around this place had to keep the shops' going!

Until next time, Lady Fray

Grimoire's Sneak Peek

Our work room renovation is nearing completion! We all know we will love the new look and can't wait to get back to work creating new products. Lady Fray will tell you all about it in her premiere post.

Madame Z has picked the February Stone of the Month. Like last year, she again decided to spotlight a 'love stone', this time it is Rose Quartz. Legend has it Eros brought rose quartz to Earth hoping to arouse love and desire among the people. This heart chakra stone is truly awesome and you can learn all about it from her next post.

Message from the CEO

Welcome to 2015! Thank you to all who purchased from us in 2014! Because of you we were once again able to donate 10% of our earnings to 2 central Michigan homeless shelters; City Rescue Mission in Saginaw, and Good Samaritan in Bay City.

This past year we welcomed a new employee, Lady Fray. She will be making her debut on this blog later this month. We are currently in the middle of remodeling our work rooms and at the moment are not creating new items. The hope is to be back to work by the beginning of February. Lady Fray will tell everyone all about it in her premiere post.

Due to our increased inventory of Christmas and Yule ornaments in the ravenheartdesigns.etsy.com shop, the fourth quarter proved to be very busy. In addition, our ravensmysticmoon.etsy.com shop was given an exciting opportunity to bring some additional exposure to their products. We are all excited to be involved with Sacred Beginnings and will post more about that at a later date.

Looking ahead to the coming year, our plan is to continue to increase the holiday items listed at Raven Heart Designs, adding embroidered ornaments/decorations into the mix. We also plan to continue to add other embroidered items such as bibs and towels.

Over at Raven's Mystic Moon, our main goal is to continue to provide meditation/prayer beads and healing stone earrings. It took a little while, but the 3-in-1 earring sets we introduced several months ago are almost sold out and in need of an inventory replenishment. Our stock of meditation/prayer beads is also down and in need of an increase. We would like to add a few more embroidered items to that shop in the near future, too. Adding some embroidered items with inspirational quotes is an idea we have kicked around for awhile and feel now might be the right time.

Our long range plans still involve a shop on Zibbet.com and possibly some other sites, and we would love to participate in craft shows. The timeline for those projects will depend on how long it takes to replenish our inventories and any unexpected opportunities that may come along.

Best wishes to all in the coming year!
Jezebel