So, The Alchemist and destiny. It's amazing where a good book can take you - as of today, I have been Quinneying around for 10 whole years!

Thinking back to September 2008, I had been running Aberdeen Antique Centre for about 6 months by then and learnt a lot along the way. It was a unique position to be in and a steep learning curve, I learnt so much from both my dealers and my customers including how not to behave in such a small world but those are stories for another day! Anyway, it was time to start selling in my own right.

First step was to choose a business name which was a no-brainer - I took the name Quinneys Antiques along with the old Quinneys sign left over from my parents stall and registered my business with HMRC on September 1st 2008, excited and terrified in equal parts.

For the first couple of years, encouraged by my boss, I sold a wide range of antiques, jewellery and collectables, starting in a single cabinet and ending up with a whole room at the antiques centre and a triple wardobe that I wasn't sure how I was going to shift.... There were a few rules I set myself right from the very beginning. I decided from day one that every single piece I hoped to sell would have a price tag with a stock code on it. At the antique centre, it drove me nuts chasing round the dealers trying to identify who owned what and how much they wanted for it especially when I first started, I soon got them whipped into shape! I loved hunting for stock and quickly realised that I have a good eye for quality pieces. I was in a great place and loved both my jobs - you remember the bit about the whole universe conspiring to help you reach your destiny, don't be afraid to follow your dreams!

The looming due date of twins made me consider my future as manager of the centre and how I could work once they arrived. I decided to give up the day job and focus on my impending arrivals, figuring I could continue to deal via the centre and online, picking up and putting work down as and when time allowed. I gave up my booth to a new dealer and rented a cabinet, starting to focus on jewellery and moving away from backbreaking Victorian wardrobes! I quickly learnt that jewellery is complicated - it's not as simple as deciding a red stone is a ruby. Did you know synthetic rubies became commercially available in 1902? I hated not knowing for certain the identity of the stones I was selling and looked into studying gemmology with the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.

I started the Gem-A's foundation gemmology course in March 2011 and maternity leave started 2 months before my June 29th due date, early I know but twins pregnancies are different, we'll leave it at that! It was a foolish plan trying to study and have twins but it was a now or never choice, I knew it would be a long time before I'd have time and money to spare for studying again. I'll say it again, it was foolish idea trying to study and have twins especially when my girls arrived 4 weeks early. It was a torturous road, those exams are tough but it has been worth it over and over again. By 2014, I had completed the Gem-A's gemmology diploma and was awarded the Ness Trophy for best successful candidate in the Gem-A diploma exam 2014 based in Scotland by the Scottish Gemmological Association. 

More recently, I've been studying jewellery appraisal and valuation theory and watching my girls grow up. I juggle gemstones and family, sometimes quite well, sometimes not so well. The girls are in P3 now and Quinneys is growing as I have more time to spare and think.

Which takes me up to today, 10 years of Quinneys and the next price tag will have number 9435 on it so it won't be long before I've priced up 10,000 items of stock. I've been incredibly lucky to follow my hearts desire and make a career out of dealing jewellery. Becoming a fellow of the Gem-A AKA an FGA has been a source of great pride and every purchase and resulting sale reminds me what a good move it was. Every auction without fail, I find a stone which has been misidentified and I have the skills to capitalise on these errors, I have kept a stunning 5ct Australian sapphire ring to remind myself why I sat all those exams. 

Who knows what the next 10 years will bring? I'll keep buying beautiful jewels and finding them new homes where they will be loved for another lifetime. I have an exam in appraisal theory to sit and then the Gem-A diamond diploma to aim for. After that, who knows, the BSc in Gemmology and Jewellery Studies is calling me but I'm not sure the family would be happy for me to bugger off to Birmingham for a year....