New Arrivals

Another week nearly over and thank goodness things have picked up a little bit sales wise, although my mood hasn't improved much. A difficult pilates class on monday trying to balance on a silly little ball and hold impossibly painful positions set my temperament to irritated. This has been compounded by potty training an extremely stubborn and wily daughter, so I've not been at my happiest yet again. Never mind I'm hoping for a break on Mothers Day.

This week I've taken delivery of some new tealight holders, an extremely pretty and shabby chic stylie lotus and a ceramic owl.

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I've also got some tumblestone crystals, all of which are connected with angelic healing: seraphinite, celestite, prehnite, iolite, tanzanite, they are larger than average and great quality. Will hopefully have time to put them on the site tomorrow.

An Off Week

What a beautiful day it's been today, in fact what a fabulous week. We actually sat out in the garden most of the day, enjoying lunch and tea al fresco, amazing for March. My lovely son got a Respect Award from school which is great, however when I asked him what it was for, he said 'Respect' in such a scornful and belligerent manner, I'm thinking of handing it back to his teacher!

Despite the gorgeous weather, I've been feeling quite cynical and pessimistic this week which is unlike me.   I'm reading a book recommended by my son's head called 'Toxic Childhood' by Sue Palmer, in fact I bought 3 of her books in an amazon bundle and it makes scary reading, if you've got kids I'd really recommend it! I think coupled with the worrying subject of my bedtime reading, the horrors unfolding in Japan, the unrest in the Middle East and the general depressing news, I've also had a slow week business wise. It's scary how sales can drop dramatically for no apparent reason, leaving me feeling that I've been switched off. Plus I've had a run of items go missing in the post, arriving damaged and a couple of people who I suspect are trying to pull a fast one, oh and 2 low dsr's on ebay for postage charges. (Those of you who are top rated sellers on ebay, will know how much that strikes fear into the heart). I have seriously considered giving it up as a bad job. But after a good night's sleep, I decided to make the majority of my ebay listings free postage to avoid low dsr's on postage charges and to stop shipping to USA. Not only have a high number of packages gone missing, Americans are by far the most demanding customers, expecting their item to arrive yesterday, and quite stroppy if things don't go to plan. I had the strangest email the other day in response to a feedback request which was quite hostile but gave me no clue as to why they were unhappy with their purchase. Another lady who had an item that hadn't arrived, said she 'would have to ban international sellers'! Doesn't the buyer have the power to choose who they shop with? I don't recall twisting your arm! My children have learned some choice swear words this week ! There's a great sense of power and freedom which comes with the ability to say no, I can choose who I trade with. Sorry to offend any Americans, but enough is enough!

Things have picked up over the weekend again, so hopefully next week will be busier, I have some new stock arriving, although after 2 years, I'm still no nearer predicting with any confidence, which items will be good sellers. Retail's a funny old business, I have to constantly alter my strategies, a bit like bringing up kids I suppose, something works for a while, then you have to do an about turn- toxic kids, toxic customers !! Hopefully I'll be back to my usual sunny self next week....

Religion: Holistic

Like everyone else,we have just received our 2011 census and I've come to a complete standstill at the question of religion. I am most definitely not any of the religions listed and yet I'm balking at ticking no religion, as neither am I an atheist, I am indeed a very spiritual person. I was just debating whether to put Humanist, when I suddenly remembered an article I read in the latest edition of Kindred Spirit. William Bloom recommends that those of us who are into 'things that are weird and wonderful, psychic and angelic, global and shamanic, healing and transformative' use the word 'Holistic' to encompass all these various spiritualities. If everyone who has these beliefs uses the same word to describe them, Bloom believes that the statistics will then show that there 'really is a dynamically new kind of spirituality in the United Kingdom', which in turn may lead to it being taken more seriously in terms of being allowed to be talked about in schools, hospitals etc.

In past censuses people have either ignored the question or put something silly such as 'Jedi', this is actually a sad waste of a very interesting source of information for future generations, as well as for the present government. My mother is heavily into family history and has copies of many censuses from days long gone, and they are fascinating slices of history, especially when you compare several of the same place: you can see how quickly families grew, how many children died, how people moved around or stayed put for years. We discovered for example that there was an old gypsy caravan in our road for many years and that a lot of the houses are older than we realized and had some interesting families living in them. So I think it is a great idea to try and be as informative and honest as possible: reading that someone in your house or street was a 'jedi' might make you laugh, but wouldn't tell you much about that person other than they were a joker (or a twit!), but to read that someone was 'Holistic' would give you much more insight into the way they lived their life.

For more information visit www.holisticmap.org