Thursday, March 28, 2002

Time surely does fly, doesn't it?

As many of you know, my Grandmother, Florence Verda Richie, passed away after a few years of declining health. Her passing was very much in character for her; she went when she was good and ready and not one minute before. I could not have asked for a better ending to her life, truthfully, but the consequences of death are difficult for all the survivors.

My mother is doing much of the work involved in managing her estate. Since Grandmother lived in Denver, and Mother and I live in Philadelphia, this is logistically tricky. What this means to my loyal customers is that I will be out of town in Denver in addition to the conventions listed on my events page

We attended NonCon for the first time. NonCon is a small convention held by the "non human students union" at Vassar. Assuming they have one next year we will definitely be back; it was great fun. Jane Sibley of Crystal Connection and I caught up on old times in the dealer's room, and Rosemary and India Edghill were guests of honor (and drooled nicely at all the merchandise, so I was quite pleased)

We attended DVPN's Crystal Ball, as usual, and had a lovely time. They were in a new location this year, and much more handicapped accessible. (Much easier on my knees, and much better for loading merchandise.) Patricia Telesco was the author guest of honor, and gave quite a speech! I missed a great deal of her speech (the curse of merchanting) but did manage to catch some of it. The dealers' room was packed solid with really neat stuff this year, as usual I think the merchants do more shopping than anyone!

Our next event is Jersey Devil Con, which should be quite spectacular. In their second year they have managed to attract quite the guest list, including Terry Pratchett author of the Discworld series. I know a lot of his fans will be showing up, as well as most of the folks from last year's convention. (Last year they had Filk guest Tom Smith, which is of course guaranteed to get me to go)

New Merchandise

We have loads of new merchandise this year. Allow me to mention just a few of the more notable additions to our line.

We have new necklace designs, including some very lovely multicolored designs that really show your Pride! Our new Pride necklaces are available in smaller stones (8x6 millimeter) or larger (10x8 millimeter) and in two lengths; 16 inches or 18 inches. These necklaces are also available in 14k gold.

We are doing a lot more work in Turquoise, especially Turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty Mines in Arizona. The Turquoise coming out of the Sleeping Beauty Mines is a true bright Turquoise, with no veining. An eye-popping color! My personal feeling is that it is best set in Gold. We also carry Turquoise from the Hubei Mines in China, which has a wide range of appearances, including some with dark matrix.

As always, we hope to see you at some of our events!

Kirsten