“ Stop being a perfectionist.”

My Twitter friend, @bigdaddyvinz, has laid down some really useful wisdom this month. Here’s what his eye-opening thread says:

Stop being a perfectionist.

The root of procrastination for most people ain't laziness, it's anxiety.

I know your anxiety will tell you the worst case scenario. It’s a damn liar.

If you're a procrastinator, you will find every excuse not to do what u need to do. But here's an advice: DO IT FIRST, I call it reverse procrastination.

Fill your heart & mind with positive things.

Music helps alot. stand up, put on your favorite songs and watch how you get the job done fast.

Challenge yourself.

Reward yourself after a job well done.

The best way to get something done is to begin.

Don't let procrastination take over your life. Be brave and take risks, your life is happening now.

It might feel like fun but trust me procrastination is the enemy of success.

Give yourself pep talks and encouraging words like:

- I can do this 

- I'm not going to procrastinate today 

- I am capable 

- I am strong enough 

- I am brave 

- I refuse to let negative thoughts control Me

I hope this thread made sense to every procrastinator out there,I hope this thread helps and motivate you stop ❤️

How to Use Your Meditation Stone

It’s really pretty easy! 

Use as a touchstone. You can use it as a grounding focus point when you’re worried or stressed. Touching it, playing with the stone, even memorizing the small pieces can be reassuring when you touch it later. The stone is permanent; its stability helps.

Use to focus your intentions. Each day, begin your morning by touching the stone and setting your intentions for the day. You can also use it regularly for long-term goal setting.

Use for gratitude. At the end of the day, program the stone with love and gratitude for who and what shares your life with you.

Use for comfort and prayer. If you pray, use it to text God. If you don’t, just use it as a touchstone when you need to calm down and self-soothe.

Toughies hold a long time, but if they break... you can restring the beads, make a whole new item, OR give the beads away to make their energies more powerful! Acrylic and wood tend to degrade over time, but some of my seed beads are as old as 200 years & I also work with pieces from ancient times. Your meditation stone has existed for thousands of years — and it should keep for life!

Crystal Skull & Sky Howlite Necklace

As most of you know, I adore working with gemstones! Earlier this week, I made a piece that I’m especially proud of, and was excited to put it into my Etsy shop... until my intuition said this was meant to be a gift! Even so, I put a lot of love and good energy into this piece.

I started with one of those velvety howlite crystal points that I’ve discussed on other occasions. These poor sweet things came to me damaged, the hardware just hanging off, and with some heavy discoloration from some label stickers! I polished some of them up (only a few because these pieces take time), did the best I could with the sticker damage, and redid the color so that it went from turquoise to a lovely pale sky blue.

The heavenly blue of the howlite went so well with my sky blue cats eye bicones that it seemed like a no-brainer!

Howlite is a great crystal to use because it’s a good substitute for turquoise in terms of aesthetics. But it’s got powers all its own, too! It helps to calm anxiety and heal sadness, but it also amps up your psychic ability and helps you think more clearly.

To this, I added one of my new fav beads - a jadelike crystal skull with that great titanium AB shimmer. This piece has also been spiritually charged to give confidence and resilience to the one who wears it.

I finished the piece off with stainless hardware and a traditional bolshoi malenki pattern which makes this piece of Baltic folk art one of my favorite ever!

Rose Quartz: Benefits of Wearing, Meanings and Uses

Rose quartz can help to attract love.  Pink quartz is the perfect gemstone for nurturing love and compassion.

  Necklaces, rings, bracelets, and earrings with rose quartz crystals can be worn to express love, giving and gratitude.

Rose quartz can help to enhance communication.

Small slivers of quartz are available as good luck charms and are often found in Oriental, Native American and some other mystic jewelry collections.

Rose quartz enhances the energy of sexual beings, inspiring intimacy.  Rose quartz enhances creativity.

Like rose quartz, cherry quartz is also helpful for attracting love. But it’s even better to enhance sexuality and creativity. If you’re looking for a very simple crystal, this is also a great choice.

Tricolor Cannabis-Themed Beaded Necklace with Gems

Frannie from SpiritClique recently completed her latest art project. We love this fun beaded necklace — just in time for spring! Check out more of SpiritClique’s spiritual lapidary art at the SpiritClique Etsy shop.

My first step was to create the color palette.  I went with a standard tricolor here because I wanted something bold and festive, that would show the gleam of the stainless steel off to its best advantage!

The color yellow has a deeply spiritual vibration that is interpreted in similar ways throughout human culture. As the color we most associate with the sun, yellow symbolizes life, renewal, and community. People with a yellow aura tend to be friendly, strong, and (despite the western’s association between yellow and cowardice) bravery.

Red is often associated with the planet Mars, plus all the strength and creativity that comes with it. In China, red is strongly associated with good fortune. In the western world, we associate it with physical strength, passion, and power. It’s no wonder that people with a red aura have a strong and vibrant life force!

Many cultures attribute qualities like healing, fertility, and relaxation with green. It has been proven that the color green can help people center their thoughts and get to a more logical place mentally. It’s also associated with the earth, plant life, and the heart chakra. Green aura bearers are naturally loving, brought to earth as healers and helpers. Green is a lucky color, combining the energy of yellow and the tranquility of blue. And of course, it’s the color of American money and cannabis — making it a great choice for this project.

These three colors together can symbolize many things. Lots of cultures use this color combination of red, yellow, and green: Pan-African culture, Rastafarian spirituality, Malaysian traditions, as well as the flag of the Lithuanian people. 

As a proponent of medical cannabis and a person of Lithuanian ancestry, this color combo has a special place in my heart! I chose to use lemon-yellow micro beads for this project because I had a lot of leftovers from my ongoing khokhloma project — but also, I wanted the piece to be warm and summery. Plus, making yellow the dominant color in my palette removes any assumption that this is a Christmas necklace. Not that the weed focal isn’t also a huge tip-off. :)

Beads. I chose sunny yellow Czech micro beads (11/0) for this project. And may I say, the 11/0 size is starting to become a fav to work with. :) Green crystal bicones and shimmery metallic Czech glass beads add more body and diversity to the piece. 

Metals. My chosen focal is a cannabis silhouette glyph made of brushed stainless steel. I love using steel in my pieces because it’s tough as hell, easy to care for, and fun to work with. Mars is the planetary correspondence of iron, and it’s also my main ruling planet. Iron is also the metal correspondence of Aries, which is my zodiac sign. And of course, as a daughter of miners, steel makers, and iron workers... it’s a perfect medium for me!

Gemstones. Because I’m working around a cannabis theme, I decided to choose two types of gemstones to represent the two basic weed types: soothing indica and invigorating sativa.

Flanking the cannabis focal are three beads made of natural shell dyed in red, yellow, and green — these are my soothing indica stones. Mother of Pearl is a fantastic choice for organic jewelry. Associated with the moon, throat chakra and solar plexus chakra (especially in yellow and green!), these ethereal shells are also linked with the psychic realm. It’s a wonderfully healing gem for people with anxiety or those who need healing in negativity-filled situations.

My sativa choice just had to be the lively, energy infusing emerald! I added about a carat of emerald beads to the center of this piece, keeping it close to the heart chakra to add all that fab green energy. Emerald is one of my favorite gemstones to use for its fun loving and exciting vibe. It’s the birthstone of May as well as a gemstone of Taurus. It is one of the world’s most precious gemstones (along with diamond, ruby, and sapphire). Many old-world religions strongly associated emeralds with love, more so than virtually any other jewel. And it’s no wonder — the emerald reflects the green power of the heart chakra. Emeralds can help us rediscover passions for people and things that seem a little boring; it helps to heal depression, raise self-esteem, and invigorate the soul.

I also have this piece in a white/blue combination with howlite! But that’s a story for another time.

What Are the Birthstones for Each Month?

Did you know that there is more than one birthstone for each month? Traditional stones were established for centuries. But when retailers got involved to try to increase sales, they invented modern “equivalents” that are based on nothing except what extras they had in stock and wanted to unload.

Tiffany & Co printed a now-famous pamphlet of birthstone poems, which were totally inaccurate, in order to sell more gems. It was full of poems detailing the birthstones and their powers, credited to an “unknown author,” ostensibly someone in the marketing department to cash in on these traditions.

January’s birthstone is garnet.

February’s birthstones are amethyst, pearl, and zircon.

March’s birthstones are aquamarine, bloodstone, and jasper.

April’s birthstones are diamond, sapphire, and mystic topaz.

May’s birthstones are agate, emerald, and chrysoprase.

June’s birthstones are agate, alexandrite, cat’s eye, moonstone, pearl, and turquoise.

July’s birthstones are carnelian, onyx, ruby, and turquoise.

August’s birthstones are carnelian, moonstone, peridot, sardonyx, spinel, and moonstone.

September’s birthstones are chrysolite, lapis, and sapphire.

October’s birthstones are aquamarine, opal, and tourmaline.

November’s birthstones are citrine, pearl, and topaz.

December’s birthstones are bloodstone, lapis, ruby, turquoise, and zircon.

Although most birthstones were pretty well-established by the 1400s, modern jewelers have altered the traditions by inventing new birthstones for the months. There aren’t any real reasons for this spiritually speaking — it was just a marketing ploy to sell more of certain gems. Therefore, don’t worry too much about it. The powers are inside of you, and you’ll intuitively know which crystal should be yours!

Green Aventurine Properties: Crystal Magick

There’s a reason that this cool, green stone in the quartz  family is so popular with beginners. It’s a powerful crystal, but so easy to work with!

Aventurine is a great all-purpose crystal! It works wonders for attracting wealth, healing, & confidence. It also turns negative energy into positive!

The History of Amber: Its Meanings, Legends, and Science

Did you know that amber can be used for healing your soul and body? It’s true. Even cooler: it’s been scientifically proven to heal.

Wise women in villages along the ancient Baltic coastline  would recommend wearing a piece of amber jewelry against your skin near an aching part for relief. We can attribute the peace and comfort of amber to, perhaps, its cosmic mysteries. But there is also a science-based explanation for amber’s medicinal properties.

 As the resin makes contact with your skin, a chemical reaction occurs and released small amounts of succinic acid into the skin, which helps inflammation and pain. Even teething rings were — and are — made out of amber to soothe babies’ aching gums.

Spirit of amber is hailed as a miracle potion by gemstone shaman, enthusiast, and scientist alike. Studies have indicated that amber does, indeed, contain healthful elements — and best of all, these can be extracted for even more benefits to humankind.

Baltic amber is specifically used to create a potion called “spirit of amber,” used by the local Vedma of the Baltic region, as well as people all over the world! Ancient Baltic people prepared this distillation of succinic acid, found only in their version of this gem, as a pain reliever. Today, spirit of amber is also considered one of the most important biomass platform chemicals. Amber is considered an organic source for some of our most important medicine, tools, and even our food. Its derivatives serve as an ingredient in plastics, solvents, and antibiotics as well.