Dragon Horse

The 'Free Table' was a hoot

2012-03-04T19:31:00.001-08:00

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our fourth annual Free Table day. We squirrel things away all year. Anything that isn't quite perfect, products we are discontinuing, or samples, demo discs etc. as well as everything left on the sale table and some special surprises, go on a large table and it's free. You don't have to buy anything, which is something we get asked all day long. It is just free. It is more fun for us than I can even say. Thank you.

We do give advance notice of Free Table day and time through the newsletter. So sign up if you haven't already.

Cash register meltdown...didn't see that coming

2012-02-25T21:47:00.005-08:00

Having my morning coffee and a call comes from the store. It was Noel telling me that the cash register was dead, but just to be really annoying, beeping steadily. What fun. I just happened to have another at home for taking to shows. Thank goodness. Our CR people were closed. We had to frantically reprogram the taxes (yes it's been that long since we used it), put sticky notes on the keys so that all of us would know what the keys are, and then put sequencing sticky notes all over the front. It got done. I must say it's a noisy bugger. So if you're in the store and hear a god awful racket...yup it's the cash register.
My darling sister Jess came in to help us move some furniture around. It ended up being a bit busier than I thought it would be, so we were in everyone's way. Sorry about that. It does look a lot better though. We all have Karen to thank for that. It was her idea!!
Every year we have an amazing day. We call it 'free table' day.

What it is:
It's a table.
There's stuff on it.
The stuff is free.

We love free table day. It is more fun for us than you can imagine. My favorite line is "what does it mean, free?" People often just look incredulous, or confused. Then they get it. It's really free, and people just light up. We make their day...which in turn makes ours. Thank you darling customers.

Cheryl Dawn energy worker and shaman

2012-02-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Our first morning in Hawaii, we went up to the KTA. The KTA would be like Thrifty Foods in Sidney. We go up the hill, we pick up a few groceries and go to the bank. Who should walk up to us. Cheryl Dawn. She is a brilliant energy worker and shaman from Sidney BC. In our links on the website, you will find her. Check out her website for information on her wonderful classes. Noel and I (Erin) have taken Reiki, Crystal Healing and reiki drumming. Noel became a Reiki Master thanks to Cheryl.
Cheryl Dawn and I had a chat on the phone a few days before that as she guided me through my dear cat Izzy's transition that day. I did not know it was Izzy's last day, but Cheryl gave me some advice that made it a special day for both of us. Without her, it would have been just another day with my kitty. But...it wasn't.

Francene Hart in Keauhou Hawaii

2012-02-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

I am always on the lookout for new things for the store. Today Allan and I went to a small market that is held every Wednesday at the Outrigger Keauhou Hotel right near where we stay. I saw someone was selling the Sacred Geometry Oracle Decks that we carry in the store. I stopped and said hi. The woman at the booth was Francene Hart, the creator of the beautiful decks. She has lived here for ten years. I didn't know she has a greeting card line!!

The sale continues

2012-01-18T21:14:00.000-08:00

I am still finding new things to add to the sale table. It's win / win. You get a great item for half price...we get to use the funds to bring in new lines and products to keep the store fresh! I have spent many an evening on the world wide web looking for fun and wonderful new things for the store. You are in for a treat.

We had to say goodbye to the Christmas window

2012-01-09T01:28:00.000-08:00

Sadly we have had to say goodbye to the Christmas window far to soon. This window is a delight and the community truly appreciates it. The upside is that it's always nice to move forward into the new year. Everyone is saying that they have a good feeling about this coming year. I've not heard this in the nine years the store has been open. People seem excited about it. It is the Year of the Dragon AND the end of the Mayan calendar, so I guess it should feel like something!
We have been putting new things on the sale tables everyday, so check in and see what's new.

The HUGE sale is on.

2011-12-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

We are having the biggest sale ever. Of course all the Christmas stuff is half price. In addition there of hundreds of other great things on half price. The whole front of the store is packed. Today I spent all day going through the crystal and stone cases and have moved thousands of dollars in stones and crystals into a sale area and they are half price. All hearts, spheres and wands are half price. Enjoy.

All is calm, all is bright...

2011-12-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to you all.

Photo's of Christmas decorating...the magic behind the scene!

2011-11-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

The finished Christmas window!!

At Dragon Horse we like to do an old fashioned Christmas window. Remember back when store windows were not filled with product. They were simply designed to delight children and the child within us. Eaton's always had great windows! We add to the Winter Scene window each year. The gold 'lit up' deer move and really sparkle. This is our gift to our customers and the town.

Thank you to Jess, Sandra, Pat and Allan for all your hard work on the window.

And the winner is...

2011-11-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

The winner of the draw for the $100.00 gift certificate is:
Wendy Randall.

Congratulations Wendy, and we know you will find something wonderful to treat yourself to!!

Tonight is the first Sidney Christmas Open House.

2011-11-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight over thirty stores in Sidney are staying open until 8:00 pm. It is going to be fun and we're really looking forward to it. While you are in the store, fill out an entry for the $1500.00 draw. Merchants have donated gift certificates totaling $1500.00 which will be drawn in December. In addition, at Dragon Horse we will be doing a draw of our own to celebrate the open house. Enter between 5:30 and 8:00 pm for a chance to win a $100.00 gift certificate!!

Teaser alert

2011-11-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

In the spring, there are going to be some major changes at Dragon Horse. It will be given a facelift. The contents of the store will remain unchanged, but the face of the store will be changing. The store has remained largely unchanged since it was simply the Feng Shui store, so it is time. It is a LOT of fun planning this, and we think you will be really happy with it!!

Snowbabies have arrived

2011-11-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

We've received many of the Snowbabies that are coming in for Christmas. Now I know that it seems too early for Christmas, but while Snowbabies seem to be 'just a Christmas thing' to a lot of people, to collectors they are a year round passion. Our collectors have been patiently waiting for a very long time, so we have actually put them out. The rest of the Christmas items will be coming out on November 1st.

11:11 and 11/11/11 and New Age thought

2011-11-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

Today is the day to set your intentions into the universe and believe. See clearly what you want for your life. 11 is the number of manifestation. I chose 11:11 this morning to set my intentions. 11:11 tonight will work just as well!!! It becomes 11/11/11 and 11:11. Wow. I will say that my intentions involve a tractor (yes I've really become an obsessed gardener) and a farm. Enjoy today and may all your intentions come true!!!

We are hoarding Christmas stuff, like squirrels with nuts

2011-10-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

We've had Christmas stuff pouring in for a couple of weeks. We have a tiny stock room (we call it 'the warehouse') and it is full of boxes. We all have our fingers crossed that we don't have to get in there for anything in the next week or so.
We have about half of the Snowbabies that we are getting. I love Snowbabies, and if you go to the website, Snowbaby page, you can have a look at some of my older pieces. I've been collecting for a while.
We've received a shipment of Kitras Art Glass, so there are lots to choose from. We've got the large Buddha Board's back in stock. It has never happened before, but the Buddha Board company ran out of them completely. We've had two shipments of crystals and stones arrive, and we couldn't squeeze another stone in if we tried.
I've been re-working the website a bit. I really enjoy website building so it's been fun. If anyone has any thoughts about the website I'd love to hear it.

Make your own all natural anti-bacterial spray...smells clean, is safe and affordable

2011-10-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

At Dragon Horse we bottle and sell essential oils. It's the only way to ensure quality while keeping the prices low. We want to encourage people to make their own home and body care products and use essential oils to bring fragrance to your home without using chemicals. I make my own cleaners and anti-bacterial spray. I cringe every time I see the commercial showing a chemical anti-bacterial spray in a can being sprayed all over the house and on children's toys. To make a safe, easy, effective and cheap spray take a bottle that will hold two to three cups of water. Add fifteen drops each, essential oils of Tea Tree, Oil of Oregano and Eucalyptus. Do not add the Eucalyptus Oil if you have cats. A vet told me that Eucalyptus is toxic to cats. Shake up the bottle each time you use it and use freely knowing that it is safe!

The good, the bad and the ugly

2011-09-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

Wow what a day. Lots of orders coming in. We finally got the Alice in Wonderland teapots back in. They won't be priced until late tomorrow. I cannot be in until later in the day. I have ordered some really fun polka dot teacups, mugs and plates. This week we received a huge shipment of Romero Britto stuffed dogs, cats, cushions and all kinds of animals. It isn't typical of Dragon Horse, but we have a lot of Britto fans, so here's something different for them.
Now the bad. We received seven huge boxes of books, card decks and CD's today. It seemed like an awful lot, as I thought the order should have been a lot smaller than usual, maybe two or three boxes at most. Sandra and Noel were checking and pricing. They seemed a bit perplexed by the number of books that came in, that we already had in stock. I was hearing things like "oh my gosh, now we have three...really, we already had six of this book, now we have twelve...I'm getting doubles of everything..." I came out and started looking at the sheets, pulled my book check list and saw that there was no rhyme nor reason to the order at all. I do the actual ordering myself, so it was really weird to not be able to make any sense of it. It took about an hour to figure out that I had in fact refaxed the August order, so I was receiving doubles. Duh. That particular supplier has graciously agreed to take the books back, so we need to go through the whole order picking out what we actually need. Should take all of next week. No computerized system. It took Mom and I until eight o'clock to find and pull all the books, CDs and cards.
I know this is way more that any of you really wanted to know, but I figure this is a 'behind the scenes' story that needed to be told. Are you feeling my pain?

***it turned out the duplication of the order was due to a corrupt file on my computer.

It seems to be greeting card week

2011-09-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze us that there will often be a theme to peoples purchasing. For example: we have days we call "incense day". In a normal day we may sell 2-5 packages of incense. And out of the blue, we'll have a day where we will sell 20 or more. Incense day. We are having a 'greeting card week'. Isn't that wonderful. It means that people are sending cards to each other. I love that.
About 25 years ago I lost my grandmother. aka The most beautiful human being that ever lived on this planet. Just before she passed I had gone on a cleaning/purging binge and had thrown all of my old letters and cards out. I tore my house to pieces trying to find a letter my grandmother had written to me. I couldn't. About a year later my sister Jess found a card from my grandmother to me, in her things. She gave it to me. That night I cried.
I have often thought how sad it will be when we lose each other in this technological age. Will we go into Outlook Express and print off that special email we got? It's all we'll have in a lot of cases. I think there will be a bit of a backlash to email. Heaven knows, no one loves technology more than me, and I email 99% of the time. I am, however, making a real effort to make sure that people I love get cards and notes from me. That is also why I put my whole heart and soul into choosing cards for the store.

Jonathan Beals will be back next Saturday...Soulful Sister order in!

2011-08-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

Jonathan will be back next week to do attunements. Welcome to Dragon Horse Jonathan.
Soulful Sister is back in full stock. You will notice that everyone's favorite, Bitchy Babe, is in a metal spray bottle now and the labels are new. But, it is the same wonderful product at the same price.

Jonathan Beals in the store doing treatments

2011-08-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Beals is in the store today and will be in on August 27 doing Attunement Treatments. These are by donation and we do recommend calling and booking a time.

Attunement by Jonathan Beals

Attunement is a non-touch method of releasing a radiant current of blessing through the hands
Attunement generates a deep sense of peace
When the energy of the body is cleared and balanced , we are more in tune with the truth of who we are as radiant, creative beings
Complementary to both conventional and alternative health care, Attunement can greatly assist healing and recovery
Attunement is a wonderful aid to spiritual growth and inner transformation
Attunement is appropriate for all ages and all life conditions.

Books, DVD's and CD's and a surprise

2011-08-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

We are still having our huge book sale. 300+ books on sale. We love a sale!! It makes us feel good to give you a good deal. Now...just to see if you actually read these, I am planning on setting up our super famous free table soon!!!! The table isn't free, the stuff on it is. We always have some great things on it. So, if you read this let me know. I really want to see if you're paying attention!!

Book orders and Woodstock Chimes are in

2011-08-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

Unpacked four boxes of books, CDs and DVDs in the past two days. We should be fully stocked up again within the week. We have culled out a lot of old titles that have gone out of favor and some we just have way too many copies of. Either way, you win. We have hundreds of books, CDs and DVDs on sale at 25% off.
Woodstock Chimes has some wonderful new tiny wind chimes with semiprecious stones for $12.99. They would be perfect for someone who lives close to their neighbors and doesn't want to have louder chimes. These make a lovely tinkling sound, but quietly!! They also have some new colorful crystal hangings. (I will add pictures soon) We have had Woodstock products in the store, well, pretty much since the beginning. So about eight years. I never get tired of it. The quality is superb and they are always coming up with new and wonderful things to add to their lines.

Book orders have been done and bookkeeping almost done

2011-08-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Book orders were done on Saturday and the first order came in today. It was mostly card decks.
I spent most of today doing the monthly bookkeeping. It's time consuming but by doing it myself, I really get a feel for what is happening with the store. When I finish the bookkeeping, I do the taxes for the previous month. On Saturday I will do payroll.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

2011-08-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

Finally!!!! The hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole CDs are in stock again. A lot of people are waiting for the Facing Future CD. It's in!!

Orders have been placed and on the way

2011-07-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

The past few days I've done some ordering. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole CDs are on the way from Hawaii!! South of France all natural soap has been shipped and should be in this week. The Alice in Wonderland teapots and porcelain have just arrived. Katherine's Collection has shipped from the US and should hopefully be in this week. They have really funky fairies and whimsical 'stuff'. Our most popular incense, Dragons Blood by Zolti, is now in.

The clothing is in

2011-07-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

The Ark Imports clothing has arrived. A few items backordered, which is 'Store Speak' for they didn't have any and they are not in the order. I also forgot that I had taken the hangers home as we weren't going to carry clothes anymore, so for now the clothing is folded.

We also got in the Essential Oil Twig Diffusers. They are very cute and going quickly.

Escents, simplicity soy and dragons blood incense

2011-07-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

A few orders came in, in the past few days. We are fully stocked now on Escents natural skin care and home scents, Simplicity Soy Candles and Zolti Dragons Blood Incense. The hot weather has worked wonders for everyone's spirits and the store was bustling all day. Everyone looked so happy!!! Amazing how weather can affect us isn't it.
I am going to put a sign on the window asking if anyone has extra manure lying around that they won't use in their gardens. Yes?? I'm your girl. One of the perks of having your own store. You can put crazy things in the window that have nothing to do with the store. You don't see manure signs in store windows very often. I'm a rebel.

Tidying and adding things to the sale case

2011-06-27T01:17:00.000-07:00

I had to spend more time than usual on the store floor this past week, as Noel was sick and needed a few days off. It really gave me time to tidy and clear out some areas and products that were due to 'leave us' as they had served their time. All of the Chopstyk wall decals are in the sale case now. They really are beautiful. Dragons and Mandalas. They are on sale for less then $25.00 now.

I put my Finchley Paper Arts ipad Gelaskin on my ipad today. They really go on VERY easily and it is gorgeous. Now I can stop worrying about scratching it. We are hoping for an iPhone 3G skin soon.

New product alert. We have a wonderful line of totally natural cat toys. Yee Yee Wands. It consists of a piece of wood with a hand carved cat as a handle, natural cotton cord and carved wood toggles. It is a beautiful version of the plastic sticks with the feathers on a plastic string that cats chase. The other toy is a collection of balls, made of Salt Spring sheep wool, boiled and rolled until the ball is totally locked and will keep it's shape. The hand carved stick toy is an astonishing $19.99.

The funkiest clothing

2011-06-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I met with Theresa, one of my favorite reps. She arrived wearing the most awesome skirt. She then introduced me to a new line of very funky clothing. I wasn't going to carry clothing anymore, but I've made an exception for this! This order should arrive shortly after July 7th.

Kitras art glass

2011-06-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

We love Kitras Art Glass at Dragon Horse. Unpacking a new shipment is such fun. Like Christmas. No two pieces are ever alike. In the shipment that arrived today, about half of the Trees of Enchantment are pieces we have never had before.

Happy summer everyone!!

GelaSkins for ipad, ipad2 and iphone4

2011-06-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today I met with Lorna from Finchley Paper Arts. She is a lovely person as well as a very talented artist. She hand delivered our order of Gelaskins, cards and wrap. They are beautiful. They are easy to apply and remove. There is another picture below in a previous blog about these wonderful skins. They range from $14.99-$19.99.

I've gone a bit wild the past couple weeks ordering cards. I love them so much I can't even be reasonable.

Alice in wonderland

2011-06-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Our Alice in Wonderland teapot line has been the most popular new product in the store ever. It's a design I fell in love with on the internet. It took me two days to find the supplier. My perseverance was rewarded. Today I placed another order even though I was really pressed for time. I had to run out and get my darling long suffering husband some Rogers Chocolates for his birthday. He loves chocolate more than anything. His real present won't be in for a couple weeks so I thought I could soothe him with really good chocolate. I played hooky for a while and went to the Muse Winery for lunch with my friend Edie. If you have been to the website you may know that Edie and I went to Utah together last year to volunteer at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. She will be away for several weeks so it was good to get together. But yes, in between all of this fun, I actually got some work done.

Soy and beeswax

2011-06-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

I met with a new rep today. She has a wonderful line of soy and beeswax candles. There are diffusers with pure essential oils and rather than bamboo reeds they have little twigs. Really cool and there are tiny ones that will retail for less than $10.00. They have soy candles in half a coconut shell that have a little stand or can even float. I chose a group of tropical scents. I can't post pics from my ipad so I'll add pics tomorrow.

New stuff!!

2011-06-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

I met with a wonderful woman today who has designed her own line of cards, wrap, Gelaskins for ipad, iphone and laptops. She gave me a sample for my ipad. This is the artwork on my new ipad cover. I think it's gorgeous. Thank you Lorna.

I will be doing an order of her cards, wrap and Gelaskins next week.

Amy Brown Fairies

2011-06-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Spent today ordering more cards. Pierre Belvedere. They sell some of the best paper products on the planet.

We got a shipment of really awesome Amy Brown Fairies. I am really happy that they are priced from $17.99 to $29.99. They are the funkiest and yet the least expensive we've ever had. However, they are all hanging fairies so far, and I ordered 'just enough' of their little display hanger stands for the fairies we have. Then....it occurs to me that some people will probably want to buy them. Plan B. Plan B is what we will do when someone buys a stand and we still have the display fairy to...well...display. I know it seems simple enough, and I should have ordered extras, but it sure keeps me young trying to second guess myself !!!

Card day

2011-06-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

Today I spent a few hours with one of my favorite reps. I have a real love of greeting cards as most of you probably know. I really love them!!! It's like buying a little piece of art and will make someone's day. I probably put more time and thought into cards than any other product we carry. When the economy improves, it is my intention to move our cards and papers etc into a little card shop. I've had the shop name for years. I recently bought the domain name and yesterday started building the website. I like to take steps each day to create a new event in my life. I learned that years ago reading Anthony Robbins book. It changed my life. When I have a goal, I ask myself, what can I do today to make it happen. There is an energy that happens when you are working toward something. So I have begun the website.

Added blog link to website and...

2011-06-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

As planned today, I got the blog link added to the homepage of the website. I also fixed up all of the links, so you don't need to link twice to get to the information. You will now go directly to the article or item. At one point I contacted the help desk / support to see if it was possible to link to an anchor on a different page and they told me there was no way. I explained why I was building all of the new pages to Noel. He figured out a solution and I was doing 'the impossible' linking to anchors on a different page, within about two minutes. It must be those young brains at work!!

Met with a supplier for a few hours. When we were almost at the end of our meeting, I found out she was the new rep for Snowbabies. I have been trying to get them for the last two years and the old rep would never call me back. So I did the order and we will have them before fall.

Blog and the Website

2011-06-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Today, I am going to put a link on the website to this blog page. I am committed to keeping on top of this, as I said yesterday, to keep you in the loop. I want to give you more of a snapshot into the 'behind the scene' side of the store. You can witness the end result anytime you come in to the store. What you don't get to see can be really interesting and fun. An example would be, moving furniture around, not liking it and putting everything back. We have done this several times.

We are actually in the process of brainstorming a new configuration of the card racks. They are tricky to move so we are putting a LOT of planning into this move.

Welcome to the blog of Dragon Horse

2011-05-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog!! I am so happy you are here. We, the people of Dragon Horse, are anxious to share our experiences with you. We don't want this to be a blog that is simply an ad for the store. There is just too much of that going on. It gets very boring.

Today, we discussed how to make the website a better experience for you. I decided to create this blog as a step towards making real connections with our customers and readers. I also made the decision to streamline the way we provide information on the website. As it is now, you need to go to the information page and link down to the appropriate information you desire. I will break it up into separate pages so that it is a single button on the home page rather than two steps. My commitment to you is to have that done within a couple weeks. I will keep you posted.