time in the day...

hi lovelies, how are you?

i'm doing really well.  very tired, as per usual, but mentally feeling great.

i thought i'd share today a little about what my days are like and how i start the day.

i usually wake up pretty early, 5:30am, but i let myself sleep as late as i need unless i have an appointment to get to. i'd say 9 out of 10 days i'm up at 5:30.  i like to stick to that so that i'm used to it when summer comes and i need to get into the garden before the heat kicks up.

i do the usual thing like toothbrushing, greeting myself, a few deep breaths and dressing and making the bed.  then it is meds, glass of water and off to the art desk for the morning ritual.

above is this year's book of everything me (boem), my new 2026/2027 pocket calendar for appointments (i've practically destroyed the 2025/2026, it's so worn out i needed a new one), my favorite pen (Waterman ball point), and a little book i'm making (i'll explain that one in an upcoming post).

just above the books you can see the 3 decks i'm pulling from this month, the Kitchen Witch Oracle (LOVE IT!!!), the Dark Goddesses Oracle (gorgeous!!), and Eretheral Tarot (amazingly beautiful and so very accurate!) and also the 3 books i read each morning.  they are all page a day books and very interesting.  i've had the 365 Goddess book for many years, the A Year and A Day of Everyday Witchcraft for a couple of years and the Trust Life book is new to me as of a few months ago.

yep, i use all of that every morning.  i do a morning meditation, set a daily intention, pull my tarot and oracle cards, journal, read my three daily pages, and review my calendar to see what my day looks like and what i need to get done.  then i go into my Chani app for my astrology information for the day and do the daily Chani meditation. depending on if i have to go out or not, i'll light the altars around the house before sitting at the table, if i'm in for the day.  if not, once i return for the day and am in, then i light all the altars.

what happens the rest of the day depends on what the quests of the day are.  some days there are many and some days there are just a few but i make my way through them.  lately there have been a lot of attending live events on Insight Timer.  

in the evening, before i head to bed to read or doodle to settle down for sleep, i'll sit at the art table and review my quests/schedule for the next day.  this year i'm setting up a page the night before that contains how my mood is, how much energy i have, how i slept, etc.  i'll show you one another time as i don't have any photos right now.  i affix it to the papers i'll tack into the journal the next morning after filling it out.

then it's off to bed.

sometimes i get to bed early, 9:30 or 10.  the past couple of weeks it's been more like 1 or 2 am.  and a couple of times it hasn't happened at all.  those days have been quite hard to get through.  but...

i'll meditate several times off and on.  i read, paint, draw, work on my "clean/clear/organize" project i started in october of 2024.  yes, i have that much stuff but i'm getting there.  

i'm also keeping an eye on my blood sugars and doing whatever is necessary to keep my sugarbetes even.  and i also have to keep track of my pain level when it comes to my headaches/migraines.  i use the Migraine Buddy app to keep track of anything with pain higher than a 7 at my neurologist's request.  that takes a lot of effort.  but i do it and it seems to help at the appointments. 

after writing all this out, it doesn't seem like all that much.  but either i'm slowing down tremendously or time just warps while i'm awake.  there is never enough time in the day to get done everything i want to get done.  does that happen to you?

alright, i think that gives you a good look at my day.  

i have a lot of ideas of things for sharing here, including book reviews, deck reviews, an explanation about that little book i mentioned in the first picture and many other things.  i hope you'll stick with me for it.  and if you have anything you want to ask me, go for it.  maybe i'll answer.  😉

thanks for sticking with me this long.  here is a picture of my first finished painting of 2026.  

effy wild has restarted her journal52 series and i've decided to follow along and paint each week.  i've another painting in progress that i need to finish from full moon and now i need to get to week 2's painting from journal52. 

again, thanks for being here, it means a lot.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

2025 was...

a really good year, in my little universe.  here are a few snippets from the goodness of last year...

lots of lovely treats from the garden...

beautiful vistas with magical friends and permanent souvenirs...

a lot of baking and cooking...

and soooo much more...

like auntie camp (a week taking care of my nephews and niece)

a lot of doodlings and arting...

and truly, that's just a small part of what made 2025 so great for me.  i'm hoping to be around here a lot this year and will be sharing art, cooking, baking, some witchy stuff and something near and dear to my heart that i think might be interesting to you.  

i'm not making any promises for when or how often i'll be here.  i just know i want to be here and so it shall be.

i hope you all had a wonderful 2025 (or as best as it could be given the epic shitstorm the world is at this time) and that 2026 is the best year you have yet.

love & kisses & magickal wishes...

~*~

L

wishing you...

a safe and healthy, happy, prosperous and free new year.

see you soon...

love & kisses & magickal wishes...

~*~

november days...

 i don't have much to show for november, despite its demands and chaos.  there was a lot that happened, but not a lot of photos of such things.

lots of time spent in migrainelandia, thanks to road construction and my infusion being on the waning end.  (i get my next infusion in a few days.)

there was a big meal cooked for the not a holiday/holiday but i forgot to take any photos.

this is what i do have...

the first lemon off my tree.  yum...

chocolate pound cake...

my s-i-l and i have expanded our baking game a bit.  in october we made a pound cake recipe that her nanny (grandmother) used to make for her mums' birthday.  this month she came to me with another of her nanny's recipes wanting to try it. so, we did.  the cakes aren't quite what i'm used to as a pound cake.  i'd always associated pound cake as a loaf, not in a tube pan.  but they've turned out pretty well.

and my last photo for today, is...

this month's cheesecake: caramel apple cheesecake 

this, by far, is my favorite cheesecake of the ones we've made so far.  it has a salted caramel sauce in it and brushed on top with a delicious apple filling between the crust and cheesecake layer.  it is soooo delicious!

well, i couldn't let the month end without a quick pop in to say hello, and to see off november.  hopefully i will find my way back here more in december and also to visit everyone blogs.

hope you are all doing as best as you can during these times.

love & kisses & magickal wishes...

~*~

a time for quiet and slow...

oh october, i'm sad to see you go so quickly... i'm not ready to say goodbye just yet.

things went wonky early on and we didn't really have a chance to play and bond like october demands.

and now it is the 2nd day of november (though i SWEAR when i started working on this post it was the 1st).

and i'm ready to move into the slow, more deliberate months.  i need slow and steady for a while, i think.  maybe you do, too? a time where we focus inside, quietly and slowly, instead of rushing and doing so much 'out there'.  

well...i'll be back soon, pinkie swear.

how are you?  did you have tricks or treats for halloween?  i hope october was good to you.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

ps...i'll be around this weekend and this coming week catching up on blog reading.  xoxo 

 

Indigenous Peoples Day...

...not just today, but every day.  

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

 

 

expected, welcomed, and fascinating...

hello, my lovelies, 

i'm here with blurry eyes tonight to share a little about my trip from september.

i went back to what might possibly be my most favorite place i've ever been in the world, where a piece of my soul resides, and where i feel more at peace than anywhere else: 

yes, i made a trip back to ghost ranch, abiquiu, new mexico.  

i drove 4 days, to santa fe, stayed there for 3 then went to ghost ranch for another art retreat.  i'll share about the art in another post, this one is just about the trip.

i made my stops in smyrna, tn, van buren, ar, and amarillo, tx.  it's only a short drive from amarillo to santa fe, so day four was an easy drive.  i was on a mission to get to santa fe by a certain day as i had an appointment the following day and couldn't possibly miss it.

this is why i had to be there by a certain time...

this photo is from right after she finished, but it is healed up now and looks great.  i love it so much!  i've been wanting this tattoo since my first trip to ghost ranch in 2019.  the design is mine and the landscape inside the heart is from a photo i took on one of the earlier trips.  

if you are a tattoo person, the artist who did this one is Nikki at Rivers Collective Body Art.  best decision i made in a long time.  she was so awesome to work with and easy to talk to, everything about the experience was fabulous.  (i'm already thinking about what to get next time i'm out there. 😁)

then i had a couple of days to hang around and explore or rest (resting was a big thing) and shop, of course.  i found some fabulous places.  i went back to The Ark for some books/witchy type stuff.  then i checked out a bead store as i had forgotten to bring a lot of things for class.  Beadweaver is amazing and has more than just beads and jewelry makings.  i went a little crazy in the sticker section. haha.  as i was leaving there, i remembered a place i'd followed on instagram and it was right across the road.  it was awesome!  The Crow's Nest is fascinating.  seriously!  i found some pretty cool things in there.  plus, she has haunted dolls and they were telling me all kinds of stories!  i was also able to find several out of print books on Georgia O'Keeffe at a used bookstore not far from my hotel.

anywho, when i arrived at ghost ranch they had just finished a 3 day music festival so it was quite chaotic.  lucky for me, it settled down later that evening.  other than a couple of storms rolling through it was pretty quiet for the week, but it was monsoon season, so the rain was expected, and welcomed, and fascinating.

(the mountain that Georgia claimed - Pedernal)

(sunset after a storm)

(always looking for heart rocks)

our middle of the week outing was a trip to Taos, but i decided to stay in and go for a hike.  then i came by the above sign as i headed to a trail and decided to head to my room and do some painting instead.  i never saw the mountain lion but did see some paw prints.  and some of the staff were telling us about how they like to come up to the buildings and rub up against them at night while people are sleeping.  one night though, i did hear a pack of coyotes singing.  i thought they were right there it sounded so close.  but someone else who heard them said they were pretty far away or it would have been much louder.

(sunrise on the last day)

(part of the trail between the mesa with my room and the main buildings at ground level)

when i planned this trip it was with the understanding that it would be our last retreat out there.  i had planned to take the long way home and stop several places so i could explore a bit more of things i'd never seen and do a bit more shopping.  but as it got closer i found that i'd spent too much money and so had to just come straight home.

the day before we were to leave, i found out that there will be at least one more retreat with this group out there and the dates have already been set for 2027.  so i KNOW i'll be going again!  i've already started saving and planning my 2027 trip.  woo hoo!!!

well, it's taken a couple of hours to write this and my eyes are so exhausted. i'll be back soon to share what we were making and some of the things i brought back from my trip.  

hope you are all having a great week.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~