Best wishes to you for a very happy, healthy and prosperous "Year of the Horse" that starts today. We are offering a Daily Special on each site, greatly reduced for you today. The first three jade bangle Daily Specials on YYJ sold out within a couple of hours of being uploaded, and we want to make sure all our blog readers get a chance at a special deal today. We know our customers are located all over the globe, so want to give everyone a chance to get a good bargain today. Thanks for being a customer! January 31

Asian people love to give and receive jade as gifts during the Lunar New Year season, and I have been working furiously to get orders shipped as soon as possible after they are placed. We usually get your order shipped within one business day, but if there are orders in the morning when we log on, we have been trying to get them packed and out with our mail pickup before our carrier comes. Gifts have included some of our best jade bangles bracelets, as well as useful jade health instruments, and jade rollers were very popular this year. Asian people appreciate the qi energy of jade for health, happiness, healing and want only genuine and natural jade. And many "western" customers love the energy of the jade. Another popular item this year has been the hollow carved jade "spice bottles", a feng shui and health gift. Since the Chinese New Year is so close to Valentine's day, these kinds of gift also make loving Valentine's gift for someone special, or for yourself. When I was listing the "spice bottles", I kept three that were very unique for myself, and put some dried herbs from my herb garden in two of them, and lavender essential oil in the third, to keep my office feng shui balanced between energetical and peaceful. The business has been very busy since October, and I am looking forward to taking a week off in early February for a fun and relaxing vacation. While I'm deciding what to take to wear, I'm also deciding what jade to take. I want a Year of the Horse pendant, a black jade bangle for my "other" wrist for protection. And for all the absolutely gorgeous jade bangles I have, I just can't take off my every-day bangle, as I am so attached to the energy. It's not the most beautiful of all of them, but the energy in it is so strong from wearing it all the time. When I am well, healthy, it glows so nicely. Yes, jade is so very special! January 28

Customer have been asking if we are going to have Chinese New Year specials. January 31 beings "Year of the Green Wood Horse". Since I am working toward "retiring" this business, I didn't order the quantity and variety that I have in the past. But we did get two styles of new Horse jadeite pendants. I received them in October. However, when I get a shipment from China, friends and neighbors eagerly come to visit to "preview" the goodies. And they loved the horse pendants, which meant most of them got sold on the spot, and only a few for the web site. The next Daily Special will be for the "green" jade horse pendant, and then depending on quantity remaining of the white 3D horse, will offer them the next day. I live in a gated community, and anyone who lives in a community like this knows there are no secrets! If someone sees a girlfriend wearing an awesome jade, they head to my house to get something awesome, too. A guest of a resident once asked if there was "Chinatown" nearby, because she never saw so many people wearing jade, especially jade bangle bracelets. We will all be auspiciously blessed with our jade for Year of the Horse! Another favorite for the lunar new year are the fu lu shou three-color jade bangle bracelets. There are a few high end ones on the YYJ web site, most are very favorably priced on the JadeBangleBracelets web site, and have been featuring them as Daily Specials the past week. So get your luck going for the Year of Horse with some awesome jade! January 22

One of my "regular" customers ordered a jadeite bangle bracelet that was different in coloring than what she usually wears. She was explaining about wearing with her classic green Chinese jade bangle bracelet and the new one perked her spirits and made a bad day for her get better. She also wrote that she usually wears her white jade this time of year to help with lung meridian, breathing problems, but she was drawn to the green Chinese jade for overall health. People who are sensitive to their bodies and energies seem to do a very good job of choosing the kind of jade that works best for them, and people who wear "jade as medicine" often have a variety of jade bangles to wear as their energies change. And many tell me they have one bangle they wear all the time, then add another to it when they need the energy. I was getting better from the cold I got in the restaurant a couple of weeks ago, then we had a very cold snap in the weather here and I've felt awful the last couple of days. Today when I was looking for a Chinese "river jade" for a customer, a wide cuff style with some yang green veins and white "clouds" popped into my hand, and it felt so good that I put it on my wrist. I took it off to put a "spacer" between my regular bangle and the river jade one, so I could wear them together, but the river jade felt so good that I took my regular one off, and am wearing the "cuff" of river jade. And my head is clearing up. Jade never ceases to amaze me with its healing power. If you are really attracted to one, it's got something that your body needs. January 16

The jade three-legged money toads are very traditional to give and receive around the holidays, especially Chinese New Year. They are feng shui for luck and prosperity in your office and home. You place them so they face into your office or home, never facing a door or window, so the luck stays in and doesn't go out. I listed the final few I have remaining. I fell in love the "big boys" in the collection and hauled them all over China on a buying trip. Then when I needed more, I found out I couldn't get them again because they use so much jade that the carvers didn't want to make them. That's when I got smaller ones. These jade toads are genuine and natural Chinese jade, the kind of jade people in China have been using for centuries for their jade carvings. The big ones include a jade coin in the mouth that is removable. The smaller ones have jade coins while they last, and then only metal coins will be available. I shipped one of the big ones this weekend, and they ship to USA addresses only because of the weight and concern about them getting damaged in international shipping. It packed well in a priority mail box with room around it for lots of padding to keep it safe. These are very traditional, the "real thing", and when they are gone, that's the end of them. January 12

I went out to dinner with a group of friends last Friday. We went to a "real Florida" style restaurant on a lake. We usually eat in the screened porch area but it was very cold and windy so we decided to have dinner inside. That's when we discovered the restaurant doesn't have any heat! Even the wait staff was bundled up in winter jackets. We ate fast, but when I got home I noticed my jade bangle didn't look very good. The green veins didn't stand out and the color was dull. That was a reflection of things to come, and I am still in the midst of a terrific head cold. I've been doing gua sha on my neck and shoulders and haven't had to take cold medicine and feel like I am getting better faster than I usually do. Sometimes a customer orders a jade bangle that looks absolutely gorgeous when I pack it to ship, but the customer is not happy with how it looks when she gets it. I suggest she wear it overnight, wear it for a day. That usually makes a big difference. The jade needs refreshing when you get it, from the travel, sometimes the weather is bad as it travels. But sometimes wearing it doesn't make a difference and sometimes a customer will tell me the jade looks worse as she wears it. So of course I accept the return. And most of the time when I get it, I really do notice how it doesn't look like it did when I mailed it. But after a couple of days of letting set in my office, the "jade room", it gets it glow and beauty back. I make a note of the customer, because I wonder about their energy. Do they have a health problem, or mental or spiritual problems that causes their qi to mix with the jade qi so the appearance changes? I notice this phenomena sometimes when people come to my home to look at jade. Jade is one of the only gems I know that has such a connection to body qi. Fascinating! January 7

I got some new jade bangle bracelets listed, today. You can always see what's new on the front page of the automated shopping cart pages, click here. Most of the jadeite bangles I have like the ones listed were purchased in the years 2001-2007 and before the Lantos Law embargo. They are the very good quality, fine grained and high "chime" old mine "lao pit" bangles. I have been hoarding them for years because I like them so much and it has been difficult to list them because I enjoy handling them! When they strike each other as I work them, the "chime" is awesome. Jadeite like this is quite expensive now. I still sell them below retail what they would sell in stores in mainland China and Hong Kong. Some of my long time customers reminisce about when I first started selling them in 2001 , they could be sold for around $200 because they didn't cost as much as they did around 2005. And that's when the B and C grade color treated became more popular because of the price, so they could sell them for less. Blog readers know that I am working my way out of this jade business, so that's why the prices are actually lower than they "should be", although they may seem high, but really they are below retail. I get the comment from experience jade bangle customers that YYJ must be not so good because the price is so low. There are still a few priced under $500, but the bangles at those prices are the end of the low priced ones, and the rest are the "goodies" I've been hoarding. If you see something you like, on a sale, or Daily Special, get it because when these are gone, that will be the end of them. And yes, I still hoard some I just can't part with! If you have ever had one very special jade bangle bracelet, you know exactly what I mean! January 3

Happy New Year! I wish you all a very happy, healthy and lucky new year 2014. January also starts the Chinese New Year on January 31, the year of the Horse. Here is some information about Horse, click to read.

The Calm Spirit / Ying Yu Jade complete January newsletter is available online now, click here. This month features Chinese medicine wellness information for January regarding balance of body, mind and spirit. There is information about what kind of jade to wear this month if you wear jade for your health, and more. January 1.

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