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Just a girl, trying to tame the Muse |
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A place to write ... anything... any time... For the month of October I will be joining the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I'd love some opinions on a quick email I'm writing for a reiki session subscription - I'm going to announce the deal tomorrow on my social media pages - I'm restructuring some of my group sessions, I will also be creating a monthy subscription service for Full/New moon group reiki as well as creating a weekly session that will be a monthly subscription. I've just started a course about starting membership/subscription services and it has the suggestion to start straight away, even if you don't have everything organised, creating a "Founding Members" or "Early Bird" option so you can start receiving feedback from your members. It also means you will have people before your official launch to give reviews and such. What do you think of the following? It is the email sent with the sign up invoice (the link will be sent to anybody who asks to join). It is a little rough, but I think it also adds to it. And while not necessary, if you know someone who may be interested feel free to let them know about this deal - I don't have a big following so word of mouth is going to be the only way this will reach people. ____________________________________________ 🎊 Congratulations! 🎊 You are officially a Level One Founding Member of this group reiki service. You have locked in the annual membership price to $56. When publicly released, this service will cost between $160-$200 a year. There will be two price increases before this: $80 until June 21 (level 2), and $120 until October 31 (level 3). You will only ever pay $56 each year. Yay! Important: you will have to keep THIS invoice/subscription active. If you cancel your subscription you will lose this offer! Should you decide to rejoin us at a later date, you will have to pay a higher subscription rate and you lose any bonus/benefits from this membership. You will receive eight (8) 30 minute group reiki sessions over the next 12 months - themed for each of the Sabats (Equinoxes & Solstices). These dates are around the same time each year, there can be a day or two difference (you will receive the new dates each year). Times and dates below are for the Southern Hemisphere (Australia). 2021-2022 Dates (all at 8:30pmAEST) Samhain April 30 Yule June 21 Imbolc August 1 Ostara September 23 Beltane October 31 Litha December 22 Lammas February 1 Mabon March 21 From the Northern Hemisphere? Please contact me to be placed in this group. For example: the April 30 session is for Beltane and will be performed at 9pmAEST. 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 FOUNDING MEMBER Level One BENEFITS ❤ You will receive early access and pricing (like this) to upcoming subscriptions, services and even some product lines! ❤ 25% off all full priced reiki sessions ❤ Exclusive discounts at my online store. If your country is not listed, please contact me for a quote. Remember that postal services have been experiencing delays around the world due to Covid restrictions. ❤ Bonus entries to exclusive Founding Member competitions and raffles - these will be open to all membership levels; Level One members (like you) will receive at least 1-2 extra entries. ❤ AND MORE!! 🤫 I don't have everything organised yet - that's why you are receiving this awesome deal and bonuses. I hope to turn the Founding Members group into a little community. Possibly a Facebook forum (if I can set one up, I don't know much about Facebook) or perhaps on another platform. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this or the group in general please contact me. If you know someone who would like to join, please let them know about this offer. All they need to do is contact me and ask 🙂 Via https://CrystalTreeHealing.square.site or https://instagram.com/CrystalTreeHealing Level One sign up will end soon. This offer will never be repeated! Those who sign up after April 30 will have their first session June 21 (Yule). I'm not sure when Level One sign up will close exactly - May 9 marks two weeks since I launched this offer, though I may extend the offer to May 16. I look forward to our first session April 30 (Samhain). Thank you so much for joining me and supporting my business. I hope you enjoy your reiki sessions and bonuses. Blessings CJ Ruddell |
| Happy Friday WdC peeps! Day 4/30 So today's blog prompt is a tricky one, Write about a lesson you’ve learned the hard way. As someone who grew up with no rules, apart from "Common Sense" rules I don't think I've every learned any lessons "the hard way"... but upon reading the prompt the title "Lessons Learned" popped into my head straight away. This is also happens to be the title of a short feature I was honoured to be apart of making, by supporting its Kickstarter campaign  It was one of the campaigns I blindly joined. Why? Simple, the person behind it is Toby Froud. Better known as the baby, Toby, in the Jim Henson movie "Labyrinth".Which got me thinking about this scene from Labyrinth (please watch before reading on, spoilers) [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] One of the things I could never understand was that Sarah answered the riddle correctly and got caught in a trap. It wasn't until I was older that I realised it was to show that sometimes you can do everything right and things still don't work out right/correctly. Things don't always go as planned, no matter how well you execute the plan. I think that is an important lesson to learn in life, that people should be taught early on. This is my all time favourite movie. I could go on further with it, but I won't. I've been planning to write an in depth review, so don't want to bore you all with it now  On the subject of Kickstarter, there is one thing I learnt through them. Another campaign I've supported there was Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother Doll campaign. It was there that I learnt not to stress about lack of progress in my online/market stall. Jill's campaign, through various setbacks and delays, showed me that delays and setbacks happen. You just continue pushing forward until you reach your goal. It was a five year delay in delivering her reward (collector doll) to backers  I received mine earlier this year  I've been working on my goal, in various forms for just as long... I think I'm doing well, considering I didn't have a clear vision on the goal until recently (1-2 years).I really hope to get things off the ground this year, however if I don't manage to reach this goal I know I can keep pushing forward and reach it eventually  Delays can come in many forms, these delays can be blessings in disguise... improving the direction of your project/goal. Not every delay and setback is a negative thing.I don't think I've learnt this particular lesson the "hard way", but seeing it happen to someone else made me look at my own setbacks and delays in a new, more positive light. I'm happier for it too   CJ |
| Happy Thursday WdC peeps! Day 3/30 I don't speak a second language, I'd like to though. I was quite good at French in school but it was one of those subjects that came so easily to me I dropped it as soon as I could. I've forgotten a lot of it, do remember some phrases and words - not enough to say I speak it  I have been planning to learn Gaelic. I've even purchased a course through Udemy to learn it, haven't had the time yet to start  I do hope to start soon... I have a couple of weeks off from the day job coming up, perhaps I can add it to my to-do list... I may learn a couple of phrases before my birthday - that could be cool  Why Gaelic? It's something that just calls to me. I wanted to learn something different, it does fit the bill  I've always wanted to visit Ireland. Their myths/legends/old history has always fascinated me, learning how to pronounce their names correctly would be cool.Learning Elvish would be awesome, though I believe it's only taught at Oxford.  not 100% on that, I do know only a small group of people speak it. A book series I love by Katherine Kerr uses some Elvish names and words for her "Elves", in fact she has been taken to court by some scholar/Elvish speaker because she removed all the accents/squiggly lines on the lettering to make it easier for non-Elvish speakers to read  No, seriously. Katherine does mention it in a couple of her books in the 'Note from the Author'. I agree with her about that person being extremely petty about it.Ancient Egypt is another place I'm fascinated with, I love all their histories too. I've recently been looking into Sumerian history too, it's dated as the first coming together for us humans as a society. Many of our practices today are based on their traditions and society. Even mundane things like divorce and receipts have been found in the ancient Sumerian sites. Learning how to read their clay tablets would be very, very cool. Sumerian texts also mention things from the Bible long before the Bible was even thought of It is extremely interesting, I just finished watching a lecture about some of these topics, highly recommend looking into it. The lecture mentioned a book by Zecharia Sitchin called "The Twelfth Planet", going to add it to my to-get book list. At the top of said list, as the whole topic is fascinating... at least for me CJ |
| Happy TueSaturday WdC peeps! Today's entry is day 1 of 30 entries for the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" ... I'm hoping it will get me back into blogging (and being more active here at WdC ). I guess we shall see how I go *fingers crossed*!!It's going to be a busy month for me, lots to catch up with and lots do! One of my biggest goals this month is to get myself organised to run a market stall at the Calliope Markets (28/10); I want to make a few more pieces and work on a better layout for the stall itself. If you haven't been following my Newsfeed here; I make gemtrees and crystal art that I infuse with healing reiki energy. Crystals have their own healing energy, I find adding reiki energy helps amplify the energy of the crystals. I've been working on opening a stall/store for quite some time... has taken me way too long to get organised, but I'm finally moving forwards with it I did a market stall August 31, however did not sell too much (only a couple small things - a tumbled gemstone, some keyrings and incense packs). The lack of sales was not because of lack of interest, it had a very, very small turn out - basically only the families of the children of school hosting it. Being a farming area and in the middle of a drought, not much money about. I enjoyed doing it because it allowed me to get a feel for running a stall, start small and work your way up it takes the pressure off a bit.I hope to make a few sales of my art pieces at the Calliope Market. I'm still waiting for confirmation that I can hold a stall there, if for some reason I'm unable to there is another market on that day, so I can try there as well I am hoping to hear from the Calliope people this week... I'll keep you all posted The projects I hope to make this month are some Tree of Life hangers, some new gemtrees on gemstone slices (also called charging plates). And the biggest undertaking? I'm making some pendants, from scratch! I've got a couple of gemstone cabochons and I'm going to wire-wrap them... If I'm lucky I'll get them done before the Calliope Markets.I also hope to get my online stall open and running. I thought I did have it launched, but had technical issues I didn't realise until a friend enquired when I was launching It's actually on my to-do list today/tomorrow to get that sorted out. October is also my birthday month I'm working on a couple little surprises here at WdC to celebrate! I was busy during the WdC birthday celebrations, so I've decided to do something special on my birthday for the site. I'm still not 100% on what I will do ... a couple contests for sure, just need to brainstorm some ideas for them I am open to suggestions! I hope to release the contests/activities October 14-15 and close October 20 (my b'day).In other excitement, I'm taking a few weeks off the day job to help keep me focused on achieving my goals as well as to give me a break from it before the Christmas insanity (I work at a department store). Time off starts October 15 (yep, right on time to get things going for my birthday surprises here ) I had planned the time off before deciding on the birthday thing, just lines up nicely  I need to get moving, it's getting close to midnight at WdC - it's actually October 2 here right now  just after 1pm ... kind of cheating with the "daily" entries, I know. I did look for day 1 prompt yesterday, but wasn't posted  and I went to be early with a headache. Slept in (thanks headache) and have spent the morning doing chores, getting the boring mundane stuff done early so I can spend my 'weekend' working on my projects.Hope you all have a fantastic day CJ |
| Happy Friday WdC peeps!! And it is actually Friday for me  Have the weekend off to go to the Rockhampton Gem Expo Going on Sunday, and having an extra "work" day on Saturday for my stall at the Luna Markets... it's a good thing we organised the Gem Expo for Sunday, at the beginning of the month it said August 18&19... now it says Aug 19/20 Super psyched about going, have $350 to spend... have to get lunch and petrol out of it too. Remember "Note: Happy WedneSunday WdC peeps! Did not get an ea..."? My goal for this weekend was to save $320... it was not looking good but I got some extra cash from the day job, toil for the local public hol (show day)!! Not sure if that is considered cheating on the budget... is it? Perhaps Elle - on hiatus  can give a ruling When writing the budget I forgot about my layby payments for my stall shelter and table Oops! But it has all worked out, so no harm Still have $50 on the layby, hope to get it out on Wednesday. I will need to work on my stall layout soon...Hope to get some 'base' pieces for more projects, perhaps a couple other things... and get ideas for the Gem Expo @ Bundy in November, I'll have more money for it (if the budget goes to plan 🤞). Want to have a look at the expensive gems too, not to buy just look I'm thinking if saving goes well I might treat myself to something nice, a belated b'day gift perhaps? Not sure, it's in the we'll see how things go column Hope to get a bit of work done on Saturday, will have the morning free of others - so no distractions ... that is if I get up early Still have some work to do for my stall, I am a little behind but I'm off the day job end of next week to help get myself organised... I'm confident it will all work out  Sorry for the radio silence of late. Been busy trying to keep up with things, the days just don't seem long enough I'm hoping I will have some more time after the Luna Markets... have a few writing projects I want to start. Am also leaning towards doing another market stall in October (see if I can improve on some things for it/get ready to do it on a more regular basis in 2019).I also took a friends advice and have held off on posting pics for the market stall, will be posting some pics soon though... and also held off on the online store relaunch. Glad I did because I haven't had time to focus on it with everything else I've been doing. I'd love to do the relaunch on the 22nd but more likely will be the 26th - with daily additions to the store leading up to the Luna Markets on the 31st... Really need to catch up with my email, currently on my phone so it's going to wait a bit longer so if you are waiting on an email, hopefully over the next couple of days I will be able to catch up. Didn't think to bring my tablet/laptop with me this morning as I'm actually going home tonight instead of staying in town... a novel experience, so didn't think it necessary to load up a ton of gear for the couple of hours I need to kill before the day job shift starts.Hope you all have a shiny and productive day. I'm undecided whether I'll have an early or late night... or even what I'll work on... I guess I shall have to ponder the options while greeting customers (I'm the door greeter today, my easy "cheat" day job shift of the week) CJ |
| It's 11 weeks until my birthday, and I want to focus on my health - be the best me I can be type thing. My health generally takes a back-seat so I'm giving myself a personal challenge this year. Starting today I will be completing a daily ddp yoga workout - think I might make it a 100 day challenge but first things first First things first - August is takeaway free month, I will only allow myself sushi if absolutely desperate but as it is also a goal to save money I'm going to try for zero take-out. While purchasing some new hair serum (can't live without the stuff) I thought why not extend my health idea and get my hair straightened professionally for my birthday, I haven't bothered in the past as I've been told it only lasts a month or two before needing to be redone (plus a friend got it done once and it just turned her hair puffy it was awful!). After a little research for a new hairdresser in Brisbane (my fav isn't there any more & I refuse to have it done in my home town as they all suck); I found one that offers a treatment that lasts up to nine months It's $512, but they offer a nice payment plan... All I have to do is cover the $100 deposit plus travel and accommodation for a night (or two) - they require a strand test 24hrs before the treatment. Which is fair enough, the treatment take 2-3hrs and it is expensive, I'd like to know it will take before putting in the time and effort. It got me thinking about alternatives, should I not have the money for travel/accommodation and I came across a couple of products that I'd heard about previously but never got around to looking at. The first a mask treatment for your hair - friend of a friend raves about it. Admittedly, her hair looks great so I think it is worth a try (and it's only $39 so nothing to lose there) from PumpHaircare.com. I'm also going to try supplements, in the past I'd tried the Hair/Skin/Nails one from the grocery store to no success. I've heard about hair only supplements but not seen any. I found two different brands I've decided to go with the one that is better recommended. Who knows, perhaps my hair will become fabulous and not require the expensive straightening treatment. I finally got some more Rejuvinit Nails, so I'm going to re-try them. Last time I just started to see improvement before I got sick, stopped and never got back to. The bottle I had expired and it's taken awhile to get more I don't start it until Wednesday - I'm using Herome nail hardener 2 week treatment - you can't use both together, discovered that the hard way. So I may even have some nice, healthy nails by my birthday too.I'm also going to try a new face mask - made from Australian "pink clay". I told a friend of my birthday plans and she said I should try it, then went online and purchased a tub for me  She says my skin is fantastic so what I'm doing can't be to bad but I did make the mistake of saying I didn't use a mask, I just cleanse daily and moisturise. I'll let you all know how it works.Do have some other plans but they will have to wait, just looked at the clock and seriously need to start getting ready for the day job. Hope you all have a super shiny day CJ |
| The past week or so has been particularly horrid. The past few weeks I've been pretty much broke, March is a busy bill month - all the big bills that are only once a year or quarter. Plus I had to pay off my tablet I had on layby - I'm lucky I stretched the budget that week otherwise I'd never have been able to get it off On top of all that, the bro I stay with over the weekend was away (working up north) so I not only had his house to run off my leftover pay, I also had to put in at home too. I forgot I also have a large bill to pay this week, the one I was unable to pay due to last week's disaster (see "Note: So it's raining... has been for a couple weeks..."). So another super short week $50 to live off after bills. Luckily the bro is back this week, so that will help a little - due to Cyclone Debbie he got stuck up north and the extra money he earned went straight onto his hotel/living bill so the trip actually cost him money On top of that, the day job pulled some very low blows, well mostly one manager, the rest were good and work mates sided with me on all the issues - long story short, work cost me a lot of money last week (that I couldn't afford) and a lot of pain. My neck and shoulder, which was feeling quite good for a change, is still in a bit of pain. Enough of this negativity! [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Had hoped to spend yesterday writing/typing up notes and such but we got the niece on Sunday through to this morning. It's been ages since I last seen/spent time with her. Normally I'm in town working when she comes to visit on weekends (and even those visits are few and far between). So most my writing time was interrupted or just abandoned as the niece takes priority, it's the one family 'distraction' from writing that I enjoy and will never mind I went over some of the stuff I typed up over her visit... let's just say we definitely need to do some edits/rewrites  No idea what happened but there is a lot of gibberish and things out of place  Not sure how much I'll get done today, considering how much editing I now have also want to try and get some of my workshop fixed up. There is rubbish that got drenched with all that rain and I really need to get the place sorted so I can use/access it. I think the best thing to do is to get a proper stock-take of what I have available to create with. If I want to open in May/June, I need to get creating! I'm sure I have some more wire, I couldn't find it all at Christmas, it has to be somewhere. If I can't find it, I'll just have to wait until next week to buy some more, and wait until the following week or two for postage Naturally, nowhere in town has it. There is one craft shop that stock some of the wire I use but it's only the smallest size and not suitable for what I want to create. I will do some of the smaller projects on my to-do list in the meantime with what I find.I've actually been contemplating setting up a  GoFundMe page to try and raise funds for set-sup and supplies. Crystals and gemstones are expensive! I'd rather do something with Pozible.com.au (it's the Australian Kickstarter) with rewards and such for donating. Though I must say kind of scary; would anyone give me money so I can create some artwork to sell? How would I feel if I raised a big fat zero?? A couple of my favourite campaigns : Amanda Palmer's "Theatre is Evil" - Amanda is Neil Gaiman's wife, I saw it on his twitter-feed and just donated without even looking at the video. Wanted to be totally surprised by the music, no spoilers. Totally loved it I'd had some kind of tune in my head for months leading up to receiving my rewards... It filled that musical spot in my head perfectly - amazing! The song "Smile" got me through a pretty bad time, as all good song do. It is actually one of my favourite albums as writing background. I also received an awesome artwork book and the cd was in a hard cover book that has the lyrics in - very awesome rewards. Happy that I was apart of it. Was one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns at the time, raised over $1 million Toby Froud's "Lesson's Learned" - The Froud family worked with the Jim Henson on Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. Toby actually played the baby 'Toby' in Labyrinth. I could only afford one of the lower dvd rewards at the time - got some awesome postcards too. Was another that I just donated straight to without looking into much. I know the type work that goes into "muppet" performances/shows and the Henson name was attached to it as well. You know your are getting quality Very awesome show, if you can find yourself a copy I highly recommend it.Hope you all have a fabulous day! I think I might do the workshop clean up first... who knows, I may find some wire and supplies and be compelled to create instead of write Either way, an update will be on the cards tonight!  CJ |
Wow. I'm honoured, this long neglected little blog is featured in "Invalid Item" I'm a little intimidated too - now people are watching (possibly) *no pressure  * I need to get some entries posted… and I haven't finished writing them yet been sick (again) so no progress has been made.Spent most of yesterday sleeping, seems to have done the trick, feel more alive today. Not going to push myself, which leaves writing as the go-to task of the day Need to do the initial work offline - sorting through notes, finishing outlines and drafts… Plus there is the main writing project - need to post some start stats to it, it needs to have a start point and if I don't make it now then it kind of misses the point Was supposed to make the posts a few weeks ago but totally forgot - so starting the project/s from scratch. Also need to get to work setting up the new main computer - started organising the media files on the drive the was saved last week, but didn't get very far, at least it doesn't look like it I've decided to use the new computer set up as an "excuse" to organise my files/stuff properly instead of the usual just dump everything anywhere method. Once I have it set up I can use the framework to organise my laptop and external drives If I'm going to post anything tonight, I best be moving on - especially since I actually want to post stuff this time  CJ |
Been awhile, hasn't it? I think I'm back... had a couple false starts over the past few months. I've been kind of productive today - had a real late night and was woken before 7am by a neighbour mowing their yard Naturally all the 'productive' stuff has just been the boring, mundane tasks but it has freed me up for after the day job Don't have much time right now, the day job is looming  and have a few things I need to do tonight. Things have been on hold for far too long, and the backlog is looking a little scary... Think I have a plan off attack, that will get things moving over the next few days I just have to be patient and focus on doing one thing at a time we shall see how that works out... There is a writing component to tonight's activities, I'm not sure if I'll post anything for this project, yet. I think some more research and planning is required for it.See you all soon-ish! CJ |
| It's been a dream of mine, for some time, to make jewellery and gemstone art and build a business around it. Up until a couple of years ago, I thought it a pipeline dream, something that would never eventuate. Then I discovered Etsy.com and realised that the dream was more achievable then I first believed. It's taken me a couple of years, but I'm nearly ready to open my first Etsy store! I'm working on some more stock - most of what I made has been given away as presents to various friends and family over the past seven months or so (being broke sucks but handmade gifts are well received)... I needed to test durability of some glues I was using and needed some opinions from others - everyone I've gifted seems to love my work I'm not 100% sold on the title, "The Crystal Journey", it was all I could come up with. My original title 'Sra Studios' was causing me issues with a certain troll. I was bombarded with cease and desists at the end of last year because that was their title... even though I had the shop name at Etsy ready to go (and a twitter account). A simple Google search also reveals thousands of people using 'Sra Studios' for various industries. This troll wasn't interested in using the name for an Etsy store OR because they were making gemstone art and jewellery I got sick of the headache and having to deal with them - there are enough crazy people in my life that I have no choice in dealing with. So I gave in, and moved on. Only one problem... I hate titles and naming things. While I'm happy to have "The Crystal Journey" as a blog title (coming soon), I'm not sold on it as a store name. It will do for now but at some stage it will need to be changed. I want to focus on making my art and getting qualified. I've already made a start on the qualifications, I found a locally run workshop, 'Intensive Crystal Therapy', to help get me started in the right direction. Some of the course information I was already aware of, but it opened my eyes in other areas I can't wait to incorporate into what I am doing. I haven't done much this year, creating-wise. I've been sick for most of the year (flu's and such), it's hard to create when you are constantly sick. What I really need is more money to buy various supplies, I do have enough to get me started (I hope). Once my current supplies run out, that's it until I make some sales And there is another Crystal Healing course (it's accredited) I'd love to do but it costs $1500 I've been thinking of starting a Crowd Funding campaign (I'm thinking of Pozible or Go Fund Me). It's possible that people might be willing to help with a start-up of some kind or help pay for the Crystal Healing course... you never know your luck I think I'll wait until I get some more stock made so I can show off my work a little, show people what I'm doing when I ask them for money I also need to organise how I am going to run the business - supply receipts, pricing of stock, packing and posting orders, organising supplies, etc. I found a couple of ebooks that may help with this that are based on creating your business through Etsy, so I have a starting point to organise myself. I have a couple of goals I'd like to achieve in July, depending on my success I hope to launch my online store in August... Going on current delays and such, it may be pushed back but I hope to do a release of some kind in August, get the ball moving I'm even open to donating some items for Auctions/Raffles here on WdC - spread the word and all. I will keep you all posted but if you are seriously interested, drop me a line so I can send you some info when I've got things ready (or ready enough to donate something )** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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