The Shining Stars of the Crystal Garden
Paying Homage to the Crystal Guardians
Who’s really running the show at The Crystal Garden? It’s the amazing team work of the Crystal Guardians that make it all happen. I call the staff of The Crystal Garden, Crystal Guardians, as their job is much more than just an employee of a metaphysical retail store and center.
I am grateful for the longevity, loyalty and dedication of my staff. Yes, I am very possessive of them in a healthy, honoring way. I am so blessed that I can go on my excellent adventures to teach and share at other retail stores around the country, take vacations, run my family businesses and never have to think about if everything is alright at The Crystal Garden. I know that the Crystal Guardians have it under control. Although I do all the buying, create and update the website, answer all the emails and pay the bills, all of the rest is handled by the staff. Some of you know the staff well and, hopefully, this article will help you to know them better. I pay homage to them and thank them for running the show daily.
A unique quality of the Crystal Guardians is that all of them have been either my friend or a customer before working here. Fellow store owners in the area and nationwide, whom I am friendly with, find this highly unusual yet it really works for me. It’s my nature to want to feel like we are a family and the depth of loyalty and love among us is priceless. Let me tell you about them.
Margaret Ann Lembo
Creatress of The Crystal Garden, Owner, and Store Manager
Established August 1988
Margaret Ann Lembo is the author of Chakra Awakening; The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals and Stones; The Essential Guide to Aromatherapy and Vibrational Healing; Angels & Gemstone Guardians Cards; Archangels & Gemstone Guardians Cards; and the Masters, Mystic, Saints and Gemstone Guardians Cards, Color Your Life with Crystals; Color Your Life with Good Thoughts – a coloring book . . . and Chakra Balancing Crystal Alignment CD; Cord Cutting CD and 7 more spoken audio CDs
She is published by both Llewellyn Worldwide and Findhorn Press. She is the creator of a line of award winning Aroma-Energetic Sprays including Smudge in Spray and the seven Chakra Sprays. Margaret Ann is a spiritual entrepreneur, practitioner, aromatherapist, and the owner of The Crystal Garden — a book store, gift store, and spiritual center in southeast Florida.
Caitlin TenEyck
Assistant Manager and personal assistant to author Margaret Ann Lembo
Caitlin is the Assistant Manager. She started at The Crystal Garden part-time in January 2011 after attending a crystal singing bowl meditation. I knew she was destined to be part of the team of angels that run the shop! Before this, she worked at Starbucks for 6.5 years, which trained her in excellent customer service and multi-tasking. I am so grateful that she started full-time in February of 2012. She grew up on a sailboat in St. Croix, USVI, an only child to two adoring parents. She was raised reading the Course in Miracles daily and was always taught to have an open mind to metaphysics and spirituality. She incorporates those early teachings in her daily life. Caitlin has been a vegetarian her whole life. She has a passion for photography. Some of the photos you’ve seen of the shop and our merchandise were captured by Caitlin.
Caitlin is interested in all religions and philosophies but feels especially drawn to The Law of Attraction, Course in Miracles, and Science of Mind.
Caitlin manages Margaret Ann Lembo’s online webinars for participants and coordinates our nationwide advertising, our websites, and all things techy. She takes very good care of Margaret Ann and her projects! She coordinates all schedules and many aspects of both the Wholesale and Retail Divisions of The Crystal Garden.
Angelina Kessler
Angelina has many responsibilities, which she takes on with joy. She is primarily responsible for working with our Facebook Live customers and shipping orders for both our Retail and Wholesale Divisions. Angelina is fantastic at merchandising. She is extremely organized and loves to make the store look pretty. She also helps Margaret Ann receive merchandise into our point of sale system and gets much of it onto our website.
Tatiana Lopez
Tatiana is excellent at customer care. She is our premier greeter and is so good at explaining our purse-free policy, helping customers with a tour of the store when they come in. After all, there are a lot of rooms and so many crystals and bracelets and more. Tatiana is responsible for picking and shipping orders that come in through our website for both the Wholesale and Retail Divisions. Tatiana is responsible for creating The Crystal Garden Brand herbs packets in our Incense Room. She loves to fill The Crystal Garden Brand Aromatherapy Sprays (along with Ana Ortiz when she isn’t here) and makes the store smell fabulous! Tatiana is bi-lingual. She speaks Spanish fluently.
Sandra Lopez
Sandra works part-time on Wednesdays and also whenever we need her to fill in for vacations or special occasions. She is responsible for taking down our Tuesday Facebook Live Table so Margaret Ann can get the table ready for next week’s show. She loves to interact with customers and help them as they browse the store. She calls it “people-ing” and is a vivacious addition to our staff. Sandra is bi-lingual and speaks Spanish fluently. By the way, she is Tatiana’s Mom!
Katherine Simmons
Katherine, aka Kat, aka Kathy, works part-time on Saturdays. She is fabulous at customer care. She loves to help customers in our various showrooms. She is always happy and complimentary to our customers. Katherine is bi-lingual and speaks Spanish fluently. By the way, she is Tatiana’s Aunt!
Ana Ortiz
Ana works once or twice a week. She is responsible for hand-filling and labeling The Crystal Garden Brand Sprays and Essential Oils sold in the Retail and Wholesale Division. Some days, you can find her in the back of our building or in the Angel Room, hand-filling hundreds of bottles. Ana is bi-lingual and speaks Spanish.
Vincent Velardez
Vincent is Margaret Ann’s husband. We call Mr. Lights and Leaks, the maintenance supervisor for this building. You can often find him in our Angel Room, and he sometimes entertains customers in conversations – especially our male customers. He is a joker and makes us all laugh. He loves to tell jokes even if they aren’t that funny. Vincent has another moniker, MR. Saint Francis of Assisi because he is an animal lover and cares for the cats in the community. Vincent is bi-lingual and speaks Spanish.
Many more wonderful people have worked toward making The Crystal Garden what it is today. I am grateful for all of them.
As you can see, I am so blessed to have such an amazing staff as the owner and founder of The Crystal Garden. They are on the very top of my gratitude prayer list. I am blessed and fortunate I am to have this staff of shining stars.
Blessings and Love,
Margaret Ann Lembo