Welcome to BBHQ, home of Basil & The B Team! Dive into our epically epic cat blog covering feline enrichment, adventure stories, book reviews, blog hops, cat hacks, crafting & colouring fun. From stylish cat fashion to brain training, we celebrate all things cat! Join us most days for updates on feline lifestyle & fun. Purrs from your furbulous hosts, Wing Commander Basil & The B Team! 🐾🐾
Here's hoping mew had an epic weekend, and if mew missed yesterday's epic stone circle selfie, click here and purrhaps do the puzzle too.
We're continuing our crystal journey today, and this week,
How Can I use Crystals on a Daily Basis?
What a pawesome question. There are many ways mew can use crystals in your daily life; if they're the smaller tumble stones, mew can carry those with mew in a pocket, or the P.A. likes to use a small purse so they don't get lost. And by keeping them with mew, it's nice to touch/hold them whenever the need arises. A bit like worry stones, in fact, mew can buy specially carved crystals called thumb stones which are purrfect for this as they are usually very uniform in shape, either round or oval and have a slight depression carved that fits your thumb, according to the P.A. these are very nice to have.
Mew can also buy most types of crystals in some form of jewellery; bracelets, rings, earrings, pendants or brooches/pins. Wearing crystals is a great way to benefit from them, especially if the crystals are in direct contact with the skin.
Please Note: certain crystals should never come into contact with the skin, so purrlease do your research thoroughly.
The P.A. buys crystal beads and makes her own bracelets, so whichever stones she feels she would benefit from, she can just pick some from her homemade collection, and she wears them like this; see picture below.
Another way to use crystals is to have them placed around your home, but if mew have children or pets, purrlease make sure they are well out of reach as little hands and paws can find them quite tempting.
Mew can also place them in your garden or balcony, near plants or in plant pots; a little trick the P.A. uses is to put several small amethyst tumble stones in the bottom of a water spray bottle, then fill with water and use to spray/mist her indoor plants with, they seem to like it as some of her house plants are 15+ years old.
Additionally, mew can use them for chakra healing, which involves placing certain crystals on key points of the body to help bring balance and harmony. Or mew could create a crystal circle to sit or lie in.
Crystal of The Week
Rhodochrosite is a gorgeous pink stone. It comes in all shades of pinks through to orange in some specimens and is recognisable because it has ameowzing bands on the stones, which create the most breathtaking patterns. They truly are a work of art.
At BBHQ, we have a few smaller tumblestones, such as the one in the top right picture, and one larger piece, which Melvyn is examining below.
This crystal was a lovely addition to the collection, and we think it arrived in 2019, if memory serves correctly. The P.A. said she bought this purrticular stone because it reminded her of a beautiful pink cloud. It is stunning in real life.
So let's tell mew a bit about the gem lore surrounding these pink stones. As with rose quartz, most pink crystals are used for love, self-love, compassion and harmony. Rhodochrosite appurrently helps with creating a pawsitive mindset and to help face the truth in difficult situations.
In chakra healing, it is purrported to help clear the solar plexus and root chakras, assisting with the release of repressed or painful feelings and allowing them to freely dissipate after being recognised/acknowledged.
Rhodochrosite is also said to be mentally stimulating and aids with self-worth. It appurrently can also be good for inspiring creativity, all in all, it's a very pawsitive stone and is a lovely addition to any collection.
To check out last week's Crystal of the Week, click the link:Apophyllite.
(Disclaimer: We are not health or medical practitioners, all crystal info is purely for entertainment purposes only.)
We hope mew've all had a totally epic weekend, and that mew're ready for the week ahead, so let's jump right in and start as always with our little breathing exercise, which we're sure mew all have down paw by now... but if mew've forgotten, stop what mew're doing for a moment and take deep fulfilling breaths; counting to five on the inhale and five on the exhale:
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Smooch is here again to offur mew assistance in getting your OM's on and Zen Harmonies happening, so just press play, close your eyes and follow his instructions.
Don't mew feel better already? I know we do!
All the mandalas featured are created & designed by us, The B Team.
Here's this week's mandala.
Right-click the image to save and/or print the mandala.
And here's our finished version... we went for a completely different colour palette this week and think the final result has a bit of a medieval vibe to it, like something mew'd see in a church. What do mew think?
Coloured on the iPad and then transformed in the IOS App ~ Prisma, this time we chose the effect - Surf.
Don't forget mew can download** our free Colouring with Cats here:- Books One, Two, Three, and Four.
So on that note, we hope your Om's are on, your Zen Harmonies are happening, and we'll see mew on Wednesday when we'll be here sharing this week's News and Gossip, coming straight to mew live from BBHQ!
Until then Keep Calm and Colour OM! Epically chilled purrs Wing Commander Basil & The B Team
Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another mandala!
Here's hoping mew had an epic weekend, and if mew missed yesterday's epic stone circle selfie, click here and purrhaps do the puzzle too.
We're continuing our crystal journey today, and this week, we've got a lovely gemstone to share.
Crystal of The Week
&
What is Apophyllite good for?
Apophyllite is such an interesting gemstone. Not only is it visually fascinating, like an icy mountain range in miniature, and the colour range is quite amazing too. Its colours range from completely ice clear to a milky translucent white, some have peach tones, others can have green or yellow tones, so it's not a definitive one colour stone. In fact, the clear and white varieties could quite easily be mistaken for clear quartz
We have a triangular-shaped cluster as modelled by yours truly below, this photo was taken way back in 2008 when I needed a bit of extra healing as I had a bit of conjunctivitis in my left eye - now I'm not saying this cures anything but I did spend quite a few hours sleeping with my head on it.
So let's tell mew a bit about the gem lore regarding this stone; apophyllite is reputed to be an excellent stone for Reiki healing in facilitating a deeper state of chillaxation. It can purportedly also assist with calming and releasing suppressed feelings, worries, fears and anxiety.
In some books we've read it's linked to the third eye placement in chakra healing, so if mew have a small piece mew could place it in the middle of your forehead, just above your eyes for a deeper meditation purractice.
Apophyllite is also supposedly helpful as a transmitter for enhancing vibrational energies in the home or wherever mew place it. And it can also act as a gateway-connector between the conscious physical realm and the spiritual realms during deeper meditational purractices, in other wurds it's a supurr spiritual stone.
Appurrently, it's a really great grounding crystal too, so if mew feeling a little disconnected or floaty, purrhaps get a small piece to keep with mew and see how mew go.
It's thought that the green apophyllite has extra properties, and being connected to the heart chakra, can be used for energy absorption and transmission, in other wurds; supposedly, by placing a stone on the heart chakra site it would absorb universal energies which would then be transferred to the lightbody/aura facilitating deeper healing and a more energised state of being. Obviously, this reaction/state is entirely down to the individual and is in no way guaranteed, wurking with crystals is a highly purrsonal experience, and like many new age purractices may not suit a lot of people.
We've always loved crystals and have been collecting for about 3 decades and our purrsonal collection is quite vast now, and in recent years the P.A. has noticed a large growth in interest, especially when she visits Spiritual Fayres and New Age events etc... each time she goes somewhere it's busier than last time.
So anyhoo, in summary; apophyllite can supposedly help reach deeper connections in meditational purractices, help connections between the realms, calm and enhance vibrational energies, so it's a purretty nifty stone to have in your collection.
(Disclaimer: We are not health or medical practitioners; all crystal info is purely for entertainment purposes only.)
We hope mew've all had a totally epic weekend, and that mew're ready for the week ahead, so let's jump right in and start as always with our little breathing exercise, which we're sure mew all have down paw by now... but if mew've forgotten, stop what mew're doing for a moment and take deep fulfilling breaths; counting to five on the inhale and five on the exhale:
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Smooch is here again to offur mew assistance in getting your OM's on and Zen Harmonies happening, so just press play, close your eyes and follow his instructions.
Don't mew feel better already? I know we do!
All the mandalas featured are created & designed by us, aka The B Team.
Here's this week's mandala.
Right-click the image to save and/or print the mandala.
And here's our finished version... this week we used red, white and blue, and are really loving the finished wishy-washy watercolour effect.
Coloured on the iPad and then transformed in the Prisma iOS app, this time we chose the effect - Surf.
Don't furget mew can download** our free Colouring with Cats here:- Books One, Two, Three, and Four.
So on that note, we hope your Om's are on, your Zen Harmonies are happening, and we'll see mew on Wednesday when we'll be here sharing this week's News and Gossip, coming straight to mew live from BBHQ!
Until then Keep Calm and Colour OM! Epically chilled purrs Wing Commander Basil & The B Team
Don't furget to subscribe to our blog and never miss another post.