Jewelry Sale!

From time to time, I put up a few pieces of my gemstone jewelry on Facebook--mostly just to show off what I've been working on, but also so my fans and friends can have a chance to buy a piece now and then. But I realized I haven't been sharing them here, so to make up for that, not only am I going to do a post with some of my jewelry in it, I'm going to put them on a special sale, available only here! (They're all currently at The Artisans' Guild at their full price, but if you happen to live local to me, let me know.)

Here are a few necklaces that I thought my peeps would like. The first person to claim a necklace in the comments gets it. We'll then arrange payment through Paypal (or a check, if necessary, although I will cash the check before I send the jewelry). Or I could do it through my mostly-defunct shop on Etsy, but then I'd have to add a couple of dollars to cover their fees. Shipping will be $6 in the US, and more elsewhere.

#1 Amber & Jet w/ Pewter Goddess 22" long, $85 on sale for $72

#2 Amber & Jet with Double Sterling Pentacle 22" long, $89, on sale for $72
 

#3 Double Strand w/ aventurine, amethyst, moonstone with crescent moon, 17" and 20", $69, sale $59
 

#4 Aventurine & glass crescent moon, 19 1/2 inches, $69, sale $59
 

#5 Book cat pendant w/ black onyx, riverstone, tiger's eye, 20", $69, on sale for $59
 

close up of the kitty!

 #6 Black cat pendant with amber & jet, 18", $79 on sale for $69
 

I only do these kinds of sales a couple of times a year, if that, so if you've been longing for a Deborah Blake original, speak now or, well, wait until the next time! If you do want one, be sure to comment here first to hold the necklace for you, and then contact me either via Facebook or email (magicmysticminerva at yahoo) to deal with the details.

Either way, feel free to say how pretty they are.

Rust, Rats, and a Reminder

I'm probably the only person in the country who seriously DOESN'T want a new car. I don't like switching cars and tend to drive mine until they're on the verge of death. My last car was 2 years old when I bought it, and 18 when I sold it (poor Merrie Grace couldn't manage the hills around here any more, but I sold her to people who lived in a flatter part of the state and just needed a second car for the wife). The car I have now, a Mazda Protege that I love, was 2 when I got it and is 12 now. And the car stills runs great, so I'd hoped to keep it for another couple of years. But then there is this:

 Rust--the scourge of New York State. It is caused by the salt they put on the roads to deal with the ice during the winter, and it eats away at cars like nothing else. Bah. There's quite a nice breeze through the bottom of that door, and the other side doesn't look much better.

My plan had been to replace the car before winter, but I've run into a snag: there are very few decent used cars available (due to the crappy economy and living in a small area with limited options to begin with and a bunch of people who can't afford to replace their cars until they're in the same state mine is in) and the few that are out there that are on my "list" [Mazda 3, Honda Civic or Fit, Nissan Versa...but only some years, Ford Focus, ditto, and the Hyundai Elantra] are priced almost as high as the new cars.

So I broke down yesterday and actually test drove a new Honda Fit. It was quite nice, actually, but I can't deal with the thought of paying full price for a new car (nor, honestly, can I afford to). At the moment, it looks like I'm going to try and get through another winter with my trusty rusty Mazda and hope for better results in the spring. But it is kind of discouraging.

As is the fact that I heard a noise in the walls a couple of weeks ago, so I put the rat traps out in the basement again. I checked them every day for a week, and nothing, so I figured it was a mouse. Went down last night to pick them up, and out of the four I put out, one had a dead mouse (sorry buddy), one was empty, and one had a rat in it. DAMMIT. So now I'm back to putting down traps and checking them daily, and hoping that lone rat was somehow one that just wandered in by mistake, no relation to the outbreak I had earlier in the year. (On the bright side, I haven't heard any more noises.]

What's that? Oh, you caught that, did you. Yes, I put down four traps and only told you about three. Why? Because the fourth one DISAPPEARED. Yes, you heard me. It's just GONE. VANISHED. I checked the entire basement, and I can't find it. So now I have visions of some rat with a trap on its tail, dragging the thing back off into the walls. Seriously, no clue. And it is freaking me out a little.

On a more positive note, my last (sniffle) online class, the "Crystals & Gemstones" workshop that runs Monday 23-25 is filling up fast, which makes me happy. I just finished writing it up, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun. I've got mixed feelings about giving up the classes, but I just don't have time for them now that the writing career is taking off. Don't forget to sign up soon if you wanted to take the class. Class registration
You can also still sign up for the ongoing Sabbats class if you missed it. We only have the last three Sabbats of the year to go, but all the info for the first 5 is still available, including rituals, recipes and more.

So, you have any interesting "R" words going on in your life this week?

Gemstone Class, A Big Surprise,and Samhain Pics

As many of you know, I will be teaching my last online class at my Witchcraft and Writing Workshop Loop this month. (Other than the last couple of installments of the ongoing year-long Sabbats class.) Everyone seems to be pretty excited about the upcoming Crystals & Gemstone Magick workshop, and the class is filling up fast! I have decided on a few of the gemstones I will be discussing already: crystal quartz, amethyst, carnelian, tiger's eye, and lapis. But I am taking requests for another couple of stones that people would really like to learn more about. So--if you're planning to take the class (and if you are, I'd register HERE soon), which other stones and crystals do you want to learn about? Now's your chance to tell me!

And speaking of gemstone magick, you're not going to BELIEVE what I stumbled across the other day.

These are all necklaces from my "Spirit and Potential" line of jewelry, that I made for a while to sell in a friend's shop and when I went to Pagan events. They are necklaces (and the occasional bracelet) all designed to work for a specific task: prosperity, healing, protection, peace, or love, and they're made using the stones that are best suited for that task. I was cleaning out the upstairs room [to make a place to put the lizard] and stumbled across a display box full of these necklaces that I had somehow forgotten about. See--cleaning IS good :-)

I'll talk more about these later if anyone is interested.

And because it is Friday, here is Samhain, demonstrating what happens when you try to take a close-up picture of a cat with a camera that has a dangling handle thong.

 I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend. Now, tell me which stones you want added to the class...what about black onyx? Or maybe red jasper? Or turquoise....

Registration Open for Crystals & Gemstones Class

This is it, folks...the last class on my witchcraft and writing loop. Sniffle. I may do one somewhere down the line, but for now, I'm giving them up to concentrate on my writing career.

So many of you requested the Crystals & Gemstones Magick class, I decided to go ahead and give that anyway. It will be next month, September 23rd-26th at the Workshop Blog -- the class is posted daily to an online Yahoo loop, and I pop in and out to answer questions and respond to comments. It isn't time zone sensitive, so you can take it no matter where you live. Go here to register Workshop Registration Page and you will be sent an invitation to the loop right before the class starts.

While you're registering for the crystals class (towards the bottom of the page), you might want to also register for Heather Long's final class, "Pre-Writing," which is a fabulous tool for authors. That class runs at the end of this month, from the 26th-30th. Heather helped me start and run the online loop (which would never have happened otherwise, since I am simply not that tech savvy), so I'd love to send her out with a big thank you from everyone who has taken classes there.

If you missed it, you can still take the ongoing year-long Sabbats class. All of the information from the Sabbats already posted is still available, and we will be adding new info for Mabon, Samhain, and Yule.

I hope to see you at my last class, but either way, stay tuned for bigger and better things here!

Crystals & Gemstone Magick Class

Back a ways, before Stuff Changed, I had plans to give a number of online witchcraft and writing classes, just as Heather and I did the last couple of years. The one that most people seemed the most excited about was the new, "Crystals & Gemstone Magick" class. As many of you know, after signing the book contract with Berkley earlier this year, I had to make the tough decision to give up the classes after this year--at least until I could figure out exactly how much time and energy was going to have to be devoted to my new obligations.

The only class still on the schedule for this year is that Crystals & Gemstone Magick workshop, which in theory will run for three days in September, the 23-25th. (And cost $15, like most of the others.)

What I need to know from y'all is if people are still interested in taking it. If enough folks are, I will happily give the class, but I don't want to take the time to write up an entirely new workshop if no one really cares.

SO....there is a simple "yes" or "no, thanks" poll posted at the top of the blog, which will be open for the next few days. Please let me know (and you can also comment if you have something to day) if you want to take this class. My last. (Sniffle.)

Thanks