Blog

We are re-opening soon!

Tue, 9 Jun 2020 19:38:00 +0200

Its been a while since I last posted, in fact I've just realised its a whole 12 months! but, as lockdown is being eased gradually I thought it was time to let you know that I am busy making post lockdown plans.

The website will shortly be opening for business and orders will be able to be placed for Royal Mail delivery. Orders placed for collection from the shop will only be available once we re-open.

I am planning to re-open the shop on the 1st of July

At the moment I am working hard at the shop to make it covid secure for us and our customers. This is likely to mean restrictions on the number of people allowed in the shop at one time due to the physical size of the premises as well as changes to our opening hours and other measures which I shall announce in the coming weeks.

It has been a busy time at London Fossils and Crystals, thank you all, for understanding the unusual number of days closed over the past few months. But the days are getting longer, it may have been somewhat windy! and wet lately, but the Sun has smiled on us all through this winter.

My parent house has now been cleared and is currently on the market. Their Wedding Anniversary would have been April 16th, so with we are planning to send them onto their next journey together on their special day.

Kevin is due to has an operation during April, along with planned buying trips, Easter holidays, and training/discovery days away for Kevin, April is looking as another busy month.

Anyway, currently I am re-stocking the Tumbled Stones on line and in the shop, which is my favourite job! it takes me weeks and weeks, but I am getting there. I also need to make up more bead bracelet and restock the UK section of Crystal. Richie and I are also trying to get more on line for you to see.

When Richie is not photographing Fossils and Crystals and adding them to the website, he is wrapping and tying Crystals, they are very beautiful. There is a selection on line and even more available at the shop, but sorry we do not wrap or tie to order. Have a look london-fossils-crystals.co.uk/hand-tied-crystal-pendants

Take care,
Sheila

Your support during sad times

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 16:13:00 +0200

Recently my Mum, Eileen, became very ill, which meant we had to suddenly closed the shop to be with her.

Mum past away very quickly, this has been very hard for us, but your support and good wishes have been amazing.

Mum is with Dad now, so they are both happily reunited.

Sheila

May 2018 update

Fri, 11 May 2018 20:28:00 +0200

On the 25th May 2018, the regulations for the protection of your data change, London Fossils and Crystals have updated our terms and conditions to include full details of your data rights, if you would like to read these click here. You will also see a Cookie notification on the front page, just click on it and you can move on from the legal bit we have to do and enjoy browsing the website.

Running this forever growing little business and online site we have never got around to sending out our planned ‘newsletters’. So I have decided to remove the option of opting in for a newsletter as I honestly don’t think we will ever have the time to send one! Also my website provider has joined up to another company to send newsletters through, which means your information being passed on, and I personally choose not to do this even though many many sites use this way of sending out newsletters. So many apologies if you have been waiting for your first and our first newsletter.

There is something about the month of October.

This time last year my Heart decided to develop a problem which I and my family now have to live with forever, ah well, 'Que sera sera' as the song goes.

If you have ever visited you will know that London Fossils & Crystals is a small shop with two rooms, anyway, one year exactly to my heart starting to have a problem, I came into work to find water pouring through the ceiling of the back room which is part of our retail space, treatment and office area. The water is coming from a leaking pipe in one of the flats above the shop. Today,the 26th October 2017 is day 6 of our problem, and despite all of Kevins best efforts, countless phone calls and emails we are still waiting for our landlords, Southwark Council to do something. Yes, the water is still flowing!!!!

All week we have been moving stock out of the backroom into the front room of the shop, tired is an understatement to describe how we feel.

So, if you come into the shop and we are not as bright and bubbly as we normally are thats why!

Sheila.

Beltane......or the May Day bank holiday

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:26:00 +0200

Beltane, May 1st 2017.

This coming weekend is the May Day bank holiday in the UK and we are going off on one of our camping trips, to a new place we’ve never been that only caters for "off grid” campers. No generators, no electrical hook-ups and no fancy shower blocks, just composting toilets. Sheila and I like places like this where we can enjoy a weekend without modern distractions and where we can spend the evenings sitting around a campfire…..maybe for warmth but certainly for atmosphere.

This got me thinking as this weekend marks the ancient festival of Beltane, a festival which is especially marked by the lighting of a fire.

We have had some lovely weather lately in Central London, actually all over the UK, so Kevin and I are preparing for our first camping trip of the year this forthcoming Easter holiday weekend (so its bound to rain or blow a gale!) As well as looking after all of our visitors to the shop, we have started a partial re-fit of our display. This will enable us to display all of the lovely new items we have to offer and be sure that the shelves will stand up to all the weight of Fossils, Rocks and Minerals we have on show. Please enjoy our precious world and the Seasons where ever you are, and should you find yourself in London we all look forward to seeing you in our magical little shop.

Sheila

Oh no!

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 14:16:00 +0200

Apologies, I have been unwell which has been somewhat a shock to us all. I have changed the hours the shop is open and sometimes the delivery of web orders may take one or two days longer.

Kevin and Richie are looking after the shop and our other son Daniel is helping with buying trips, so stock at the shop is being kept to it's usually full selection. Please check the opening hours on the front page before making a special trip.

Thank you for your understanding, Sheila.

Married 35 Years

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 12:35:00 +0200

Kevin and I are celebrating our 35th Wedding Anniversary this weekend, so our bags are packed one again for a long weekend in our very much loved camping trailer. We love being out and about in the countryside seeing the beauty of nature in our trailer, which we brought as a special treat to celebrate our 35 years married.

We are looking forward to next years and future years of adventures, Life can be very hard but it is special and should be enjoyed and appreciated.
'One Life Live it', thank you to everyone with their support in the past, present and the future with my little shop, London Fossils and Crystals.
Sheila.

Never enough time !

Tue, 6 Sep 2016 12:07:00 +0200

I seem to be running short of time, Done even more buying of stock, beautiful rough Rose Quartz, tiny tiny tiny Diamonds and Herkimers restocked. New Tranquillityite and Ancestralite a Stromatolite, to name just a few. Yesterday I brought some Amber necklaces and bracelets, drilled Quartz points and Black Tourmaline beads to make some bracelets.

The shop has been busy, so with time spent chatting with our lovely customers and pricing stock up, especially the tumbled stones take a long time to sort out, Facebook and the website entries have been slow, many thanks to Richie who works hard on adding items to the website and Facebook.

We have had some time off during August, Richie is in Scotland at the moment and we are looking forward to time off during September. - 16th to 19th September we will be seeing lots of friends and 23rd to 27th September Kevin and I will have been married for 35 years, plus they are doing 'car free day' on that Saturday in the street where we live, which is a back street in Waterloo, so we have to move our cars from Friday midnight to Saturday midnight, lovely! Anyway I decided that as I do not want to listen to people making noise outside our bedroom window through the night while they set up, we will go away for the weekend and our Anniversary.

Thank you for your support and understanding,

Sheila. xx

Windy Yorkshire

Tue, 9 Aug 2016 11:51:00 +0200

Lovely holiday in a very very windy Yorkshire, watching wood pigeons, Buzzards, Owls, Chickens! with two days of buying stock, over 5 hours just sorting out tumbled stone which are beautiful.

Holiday with a little stock buying!

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 13:26:00 +0200

Closed Monday 1st August to Monday 8th August.

Apologies to everyone who has been checking the dates on the website for all the late changes, but Kevin and I decided to have some time to ourselves, meeting up with good friends for the weekend and we have had a slight misunderstanding of the dates, so yet another change so we will now be re-opening on Tuesday 9th August.

Plaining to do a little tumbled stone buying while we are away, which will probably end up with other crystals as well!

Sheila

Buying trip

Tue, 14 Jun 2016 13:22:00 +0200

We will be closed from Saturday 18th June to Tuesday 28th June, as we are off to Frances for Europe's largest mineral show.

We be looking to bring back some lovely crystal one off pieces pieces, plus we will be looking to bring back Shungite from Russia, Lapis from Afghanistan, Quartz and Black Tourmaline pendants.

May Day weekend

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 17:25:00 +0200

London Fossils & Crystals are going to have an extra long break for this Bank Holiday weekend, we will be closed Thursday 28th April to Tuesday 3rd May (inclusive), back on Wednesday 4th May 10am to 8pm. We will be checking out some green grass, water, fresh air and trees. As this is England the water will probably be stuff from the sky. Heres hoping for maybe a bit of blue sky!.

We had a brilliant weekend away camping. The birds sung every day from 4.30 am and breakfast in the sunshine is fully recommended, yes we did have a little rain and a cold wind, but the sun was out for us!

Long Day

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 10:16:00 +0200

Well, yesterday (Tuesday) was a very long day, left home at 8 am spent 4.5 hours broken down on a Motorway, got home 2.45am this (Wednesday) morning. Brought some stock back to London with the rest being delivered later this week.
Sheila

Buying Trip

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:34:00 +0200

Sorry for the short notice, but due to circumstances beyond our control we will be closed for the day on Tuesday 12th April.

I had previously arranged appointments with my fossil contacts for buying new stock, and due to Kevin being off sick I have had to close the shop for the day.
I do apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Sheila.

Easter Holidays

Mon, 7 Mar 2016 16:32:00 +0200

The Holidays come around fast!

London Fossils and Crystals are going to have a break from work with an extended Easter weekend, sorry for any inconvenience, much needed rest plus some time with the Grandchildren.

Looking forward to the summer with warmer weather and some sunshine, but until then enjoy you Easter holidays.

Happy Holidays

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 18:02:00 +0200

Merry Christmas and a fabulous 2016 to all our lovely customers, Facebook, Twitter, and Google followers from all of us at London Fossils and Crystals, including 'Cat'!

We close tonight for the holidays until Saturday January 2nd 2016.

Enjoy and take care from Sheila, Kevin & Richie.

New Moon, New Beginnings?

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 17:40:00 +0200

Some things in this universe are relatively certain, maybe even certain to the point of definite!

Every 28 days the Moon makes a new start at the beginning of its cycle and we have a "new moon". This November the new moon falls on the 11th, an emotional day for many as we remember the fallen in conflicts throughout history. But, just like some of those conflicts led to new beginnings, so does the full moon. Many who work with crystals believe that the new moon is the perfect time to cleanse and dedicate any crystals we may be using for new beginnings, new jobs, fresh starts or new relationships. I think it's great that the Universe gives us this chance every four weeks, after all who does not like the opportunity to make a fresh start?

So, you might ask, how do I do this and what do I need?
To cleanse our crystals with the full moon is very easy. First off we need to bear in mind that unlike the full moon in a couple of weeks time there is not an awful lot of moonlight to see, but it is there, even if where we live is brightly lit Mother Moon still gazes down upon us. My way of performing this cleansing is as follows, firstly have an area near a window where we can place the crystals (on the window sill is best) then lay our crystals out in this area in an arrangement that we find pleasing. Some people just pile them in a heap, some lay the crystals out in a grid form or even in a wooden dish or tray. As we lay them out, think about what we want the moonlight to do and ask it to do so........it does not matter whether we say this out loud or if we use the voice in our head, just do what you are most comfortable with.
After the crystals have been put in place, leave them there for the whole period of the new moon, quite often...

Grand Children for the weekend

Tue, 4 Aug 2015 20:41:00 +0200

After a lovely break away off roading and getting to see North Wales, which has been an ambition Kevin and myself have had for many many years. We are now looking forward to having our two lovely Grand Children for a weekend, so once again sorry we will be closed over the weekend Friday 14th to Monday 17th August. If needed please contact me at wood-sheila@hotmail.co.uk. Sheila