revisiting old things...

I know I promised photos of my seed grab from last week, but I haven't actually had a chance to do that.  I've spent a little time working in the new planned flower bed and most of the rest has been spent either resting (my body is being VERY demanding lately) or painting my bedroom.  I'm thisclose to being halfway done with the bedroom painting and canNOT WAIT to start putting things back in and arranging it.

Today I spent time painting the bedroom and then did something I have not done in I don't know how many years.  Probably not since I left the little cottage with the blue door, so...11 years!?!  Wow.

My mum had given me a bunch of old fake flowers that had belonged to my Grandmother years ago and then asked me to make her a wreath with them.  It is something I used to do for my Grandmother.  I took it up actually to make Spiritual Wreaths.  If you've been with me for a long time, you may have seen some here before. (You can see a picture of a few in this post about halfway down.)

Anyhoo, mum's been mentioning for a while now that she'd really like to have it. So today I pulled out my supplies, the old flowers, some ribbon and the only large wreath I had left and sat at the old card table to see what I could do.  The movements came back pretty quickly, and it wasn't quite as hard as I imagined it would be. So, I put a wreath together for her using old plastic fake flowers that her mother used to keep in arrangements in vases or other strange containers.  

I like how it turned out and how it took less time than the Tar Heels took to beat Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament today. ;-)

Wreath in Progress...

I've already given it to her and hung it on her door to see if I needed to make any adjustments and how she liked it.  She says she loves it, but I don't know if she's just blowing smoke.  She took it down, as she is still using her UNC Snow Man wreath since the Heels are still playing.  I expect this new one will go up as soon as the Heels season is done.

I'll try to get a pic of it hanging on her door at some point and show how it looks.

I had enough of the flowers left that I'm probably going to make a small one for me.  I'm such a softie when it comes to sentimental stuff from family. Plus, it will be pretty for spring.

Tonight, depending on your location, is the Full Blood Worm Moon and Lunar eclipse.  I talked about this on Messages from the Ancestors today, if you'd like to take a look at that post.

I think that's all for today.  I'm pretty wiped out.  It is amazing how tired I am all the time, even if I get a lot of sleep.

How are things where you are?  How are you handling the global situations?

stay strong, 

blessed be, 

love & kisses & magical wishes, 

always & forever

~*~

went absolutely cuckoo...

About that cheesecake...

I believe I mentioned before that my sis-in-law and I are on a cheesecake making binge.  Our first was many, many years ago; back when I was still in the little cottage with the blue door. It was a Caramel Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake and was perfection! 

With that under our belts we went for the chocolate for our second attempt.  Mmmmm.... (click the link for a reminder of what that looked like and the description/link to recipe)

February was my sil's pick and she chose Key Lime Pie Cheesecake, pictured above. The recipe wasn't hard, (we haven't tried a water-bath bake yet) and it looked and sounded great in the recipe. The flavors were great as we went along but I couldn't help thinking something just wasn't right.  It turned out beautiful, zesting by sil, lime twist by me, and when we cut into it, well... it just didn't have the consistency of a cheesecake.

It tasted good, but something was just off about it.  I don't think either of us was happy about it. I'm going to try it again this summer, I don't like to let recipes defeat me.  I THINK I know what went wrong and if I'm right it was something left out of the recipe, but...

Well, 2 out of 3 aren't bad, right?  I get to choose our cheesecake for May and have already picked one that I think will be great.  If it turns out I'll share a link to the recipe for it.  And when I remake the Key Lime, if it turns out good, I'll share and link to it with my adjustments.

Anyhoo...

I'm in the middle of painting my bedroom and making it my own.  I've been really inspired by Kate from littlebohocottage on the utoobs. I love her style and am trying to find my own now.  After almost 8 years, it's time to stop letting this place feel like a rental.  Even if I found my dream home tomorrow, I would not regret making this place more me.  I promise pictures when I can.  

And speaking of promises...I'm still trying to figure out how to get that flip through video to fit on here.  I may just have to put it on my own utoobs and link it here.  We'll see.

I'm off...I have appointments all but one day this week, the weather is going from winter to summer then back to spring, so the garden is calling.  My poor garden was completely neglected last year.  Those blackberry runners are everywhere and I've a LOT of digging of roots to do to try to get them all out. 

I did get these in some pots this past Tuesday and did a little bit of clean up.  Yesterday I spent an hour outside cleaning up an area I had started several years ago so I could have more flowers.  Of course, it's become overtaken a bit by forsythia but I'm working on digging it out and getting it ready.  I was at the garden store for potting soil the other day and went absolutely cuckoo for cocoa puffs at the seed selection. Oh man.  I'll get a picture of them for next time, promise.

I really do need to go; it is late here, and the DST switch really throws me off balance.  I've still quite a few things to do before I can toss myself in bed.

What are you up to this week? Is it garden time in your neck of the interwebs?

thanks for being here...

love & kisses & magical wishes...

always & forever...

~*~ 

night walking and blogging failures...

I finally made it here today, yay!  I've been very busy painting my bedroom and a ton of other things.  I almost missed my walking today.  I've taken it back up as I really missed those walks. We had such high winds today I had to wait until after dark to get my walk in, but I did it.

At least I had this beautiful sky to walk under.  

The only downside was that despite eating dinner AND desert, my blood sugar started dropping on my last lap.  Ugh. Straight to the juice box for me. 

So, I gave it a try made a video of flip through of most of my February paintings.  It is weird and my voice is blech.  But I haven't figured how to upload it as the file is larger than blogger likes.  I'll try to figure out a way to share it.  

I was going to share about the cheesecake we made last weekend, but I can't get the photos from my phone to my laptop yet. Maybe this wasn't the best time to post! hahaha

Oh well, I'm off to bed, I think. I'm really tired and I have a letter to write to my young cousin to see if she wants to penpal with me since I never get to see her. So that, then bed.  Shopping with my neighbor tomorrow and that is always a challenge. We're going to some stores that are closing soon and a few other places. Ugh...

well, sorry for the boring post. :-)

thanks for stopping by, 

love & kisses & magical wishes

~*~

new things and returning to old ways...

good morning out there in bloglandia,

i meant to be here yesterday, but the day ran away from me and by the time i'd sat to write it was so late and i was sooo tired, i just went to bed.

i think i mentioned in my last post that i had started something new and wanted to share here. 

Several months ago, after i emerged from zombie world, i began to light my ancestor altar every day.  i was worried they'd be pissed as i'd neglected them (and other altars) for many months.  but they were not mad. they were actually happy to see me back and doing the things i needed to do.

i also returned to my regular morning ritual of journaling and pulling a tarot/oracle card every day.  as i was swapping out decks* to start a new week i had the thought that the ancestors needed a deck.  i flipped through my cubie of decks and found one i thought would be perfect for the altar. it is the Moon Witch Oracle by Cosmic Valeria. i acquired it on a trip out west either in Colorado or New Mexico.  so, i set it on the altar and went on with my day.  the next morning after my daily journaling and card pull, i was drawn to the ancestor altar to pull a card.  the message i received was amazingly accurate to what was happening in my life at the time and was just the advice i'd needed.

of course, after that, i had to pull a card from the deck every day.  i called it messages from the ancestors and would record each days message in my bom (book of me - collective just wasn't working for me - my planner/journal/calendar/everything book).  early in february i started feeling a push from the ancestors that i needed to share these messages out in the world. i pondered and argued, yes...i argued with the ancestors that i was not the person to do this (imposter syndrome, anyone?). but they gave me what for back and kept sending stronger and stronger messages. 

so.  i've created a substack "Messages from the Ancestors" where i post the days message/card pull and will sometimes add my thoughts on the cards and any additional words the ancestors want out there.  it is brand new as i started it the 1st of this month.  i'm still getting acquainted with substack, so it is a little tricksy right now. i'm doing my best to post in the am (US Eastern time) and if i can figure out how to do it from my app it won't be too hard. anyhoo...if you are on substack and would like a daily little gift from the ancestors, head over here.

As these are gifts from the ancestors, my substack will always be free. no subscription fees will be required to read it.  there are a few other things the ancestors have been pushing me to do, but i'm not there yet. if and when i am, i'll share with you here and maybe, depending, over on my substack.

well, that seems like a lot for today.  i need to sign off as i've bedroom walls to paint, bills to pay and laundry to sort. :-)

i'm working on the flip video of my feb art challenge and hope to post it next and as for cheesecake.  let's just say, that will get its own post soon, too.

how are things in your neck of the woods?  have you stepped outside your comfort zone lately?

thanks for sticking around.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

always & forever...

~*~

*as for "swapping out decks", i have collected so many oracle and tarot decks over the years that it feels weird to only use one or two, so i've taken to working with a different deck every week but now i'm sticking to one a month.  i've found some wonderful decks that i've had for 30+ years.  more about all that in another post. :-) xoxo 

hello there march...

goodbye February, you lovely thing you...

and hello March.

spring is springing here, at least a little bit. I saw a photo this morning that I'd taken last March 1st and the difference in the growth of the early spring blooms (daffies) was shocking.  they are barely out of the ground here and not ready quite yet to bloom.

I'd hoped to be here yesterday to share my February challenges, but by the time I finished the last one, I could barely keep my eyes open.

There has been so much happening around here that I can barely keep up. So, my February challenges: art every day, yoga every day, and a daily meditation session.

That is 28 days of at least two things I know very little about and have not had much luck in.  Can you guess which two?  haha

Let's talk about the least successful first, shall we? Yoga. I have a very difficult time with yoga.  I don't know the poses; most times I can't get my body to move into the poses, not even close to the correct position.  And can we say ADHD?  I get so frustrated and distracted so quickly that I end up giving up.  This is not the first time I've tried to start a daily or even just couple of days a week yoga practice.  Unfortunately, I only made it four days this round.  I kept finding that by the time I thought to do it, it was 10 at night and I was exhausted.  (But...I'm trying again this month.)

Next up, daily meditation.  Remember the aforementioned ADHD? Right, meditating for me in the past has been a wash as my mind just will NOT shut up.  It didn't calm, it didn't quiet, it didn't do any of the things I thought it was supposed to do during meditation.  If you use the Chani astrology app, you'll know that each day on the page that lists the days horoscope, down at the bottom there is a short meditation to listen to.

Y'all...it has changed my life.  No joke.  I actually started listening to them around the time I came back to life last year (oct/nov). I love them. They are not so long that I fall asleep nor so short that I receive no benefit from them.  I did them every day in February just after my morning journaling.  

Then, somehow, in the middle of February I came across Insight Timer.  Y'all. Y'all!  I love it.  I have had some amazing experiences on it using the boatload of free offerings.  So now I'm up to two meditation sessions a day.  It is helping me learn to calm down when the rage monster wants to erupt. (let's not bring up the traitor on his self-appointed throne.)  I am sleeping better and find myself calmer in general which is an amazing thing for someone with severe social and general anxiety.  I'm keeping this in my toolbox for sure!

Lastly, we have the art challenge of February.  I did it.  I painted every single day.  And most day's I finished an entire painting.  They are kind of mid-sized on watercolor paper, except for the one I did on wood as a gift to my mum for Valentine's.  I'm going to try to put a little flip through video together to share all the paintings.  It may take me a little bit, but I'll share them, I promise.  I've already decided I might frame a few and hang around my house.

                    February Art Challenge: day 1 painting

Oh, and I forgot all about mentioning my no spend February.  That's right. I did not shop.  The only money that went out was if it was a medical expense or a bill. And I completed it and made it the whole month.  Yay me!

                               February Art Challenge: day 28 

I had such a good time doing my February challenges that I'm going for some for March.  I'm also keeping them a secret until it's over.  There will be a different art challenge this month but something fun and I'll share, eventually I promise.

Oops...time to make a cheesecake.  My sis-in-law just showed for our every other month cheesecake making session today.

I'll be back tomorrow to share something new.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

ps...sorry if this post is a mess, spelling off, etc. i'm too hyped about cheesecake to proofread.  :-)  i'll check it later and fix stuff. xoxo

little magics...

good evening, or whatever time of day it is when you are reading this. :-)

i'm not even sure why i pulled up my page as i can barely keep my eyes open and it is only 7:56pm right now.  but i've been feeling a little alone today so i thought i'd come on and say hi and share a little that i've been up to this month.

i gave myself a couple of challenges for this month, since it is the shortest, but i'm not going to tell you what they are until march 1 so i can see if i keep them. i've had a habit in the past of self-sabotage by talking about something and then failing in it.

i know... the suspense must be killing you, right?  bwaahahaha! :-)

well, to tide you over, here are a few pictures of some things i've done during february.

meet "Sol" 

i finished this beauty today. i love her so much, there is just something about her face that gets me. 

next we have this lovely.  she gets to me to in a different way.

this is "feel your fire"

i think she was done on the 3rd of february after watching some news about the state of things here. ugh, but i do like her very much.

and last, for today, but not least is "laura's leo moon"

my art witchery for the full moon. it felt really good since leo is my moon sign. :-)

well, there's some art for you. a few things i've been keeping myself sane with. 

what little magics are you conjuring to save your sanity in an insane world?  i'd love to know.

thanks for sticking around, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

 

 

treat yourself extra special...

since february is the shortest month of the year, i'm trying something new this year.  no shopping/spending during february.  since i couldn't buy my mum flowers this year, i made her some to keep all year round.

the background is really more red than appears in this photo.  i'll try to get a better picture after it's hung.  (and learn to TAKE better photos of my art.)

i thought i'd share this with my one reader here (hi Debra!)

;-)

and say Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.  i hope that your special someone has treated you extra kind today and that you have reciprocated.  and if you don't have that special someone, well...i hope you have treated yourself extra special today. 

thanks for sticking around...

love & kisses & magical wishes

~*~

 

a collector of collections...

good evening of day 3,781 of 2025. 

 i know...but it sure does feel like that here in the US.  during my re-organizing and deep clean of my house, i have been looking at a lot of my collections.  i was going to say i realized i was a collector...but i've always known that about myself.  i collect so much that i need a larger home. :-)

i thought i'd share a few of my collections with you.

sorry for the dusty pics, i guess i collect spider webs too. :-)

above is a mixture of treasures found in new mexico, maryland and in the woods where i walk near home. the dish is one i was gifted from Cancun.

rocks and stones from Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico. the dish is a piece of pottery by Stephen Kilborn. we stumbled across his shop on our drive from Abiquiu to Taos. i'd read about him in one of my favorite book series so of course i had to stop and see what it was like. he is a really kind man.

more gifts from nature, including a crow feather i was gifted by the Morrigan awhile back. and a strawflower included with a package from Sirena. she always adds such lovely little things to her packages.

more of my collections, this time books and knickknacks. and the cremains of my fur babies.

and last for today's collection browse...one of my bookshelves, that has since been moved and cleaned up. and yes, there are two layers in those shelves. books on books on books... :-)

i hope to be back in the next day or two with more tales from my not so wild life. 

there are a couple of projects i've going this month that i hope to share.

before i go, 2 things.

1st - in answer to Debra's comment on my last post and a bit more explanation. yes, we insulate our pipes here. unfortunately, when they built this unit 30? years ago, the insulation was placed in the wrong spot at my kitchen wall. i've looked into it and it is ridiculously expensive to have corrected. the sad part is that it took too many years of living here and having to deal with it, before i realized how much water i was wasting and losing. i've had a nice break for the last week or so, as it was warm enough i didn't have to drip and that let me work my way through 10 gallons or so. that changes tonight though as the cold returns.

2nd - for the vast majority of my life, i have kept my mouth closed about politics. it comes from being told from birth that my opinions have no meaning or merit. well, i can't keep quiet any longer. the state of the country i live in is a nightmare of epic proportions. i am disgusted by the betrayal of the democracy we've held so dear. now, i'm not saying this was a great country.  in fact, i disagree with most of our history in the country and how things were done and people were treated. hence...

yep, i took a usa garden flag my neighbor gave me and am hanging it on my front door.  it is my understanding that a flag upside down is a sign of distress. well, this country and it's future are in distress. i intend to leave this here until the evil one and his puppet are gone. (which one is which? haha) so, you may be seeing some political writing here from time to time, but i'm going to try not to turn into a rage monster about it. :-)

well...that's it for today. here's to hoping the storm on it's way doesn't leave too much ice out there and the power stays on.

thanks for sticking around...

love & kisses & magical wishes

~*~

winter mornings...

there is one thing that happens in my home every winter.  when the temps drop to freezing or below, the kitchen faucet has to drip.  yep...any and every time.  a week or so ago, it had to drip for 4 days straight.  after the first year or two, it made me wonder how much water i was wasting.

last year, i collected as much as i could and would use it to water plants, cook and clean stuff.  since i have to sleep with a cpap, i use a lot of distilled water and had collected a lot of the gallon jugs.  so, when the freezing began, i started my collection.

i use this funnel and container to collect and then pour into the gallon jugs.  so far, i've collected about 30-40 gallons total (maybe a little more).  the photo below is just part of the collection.  when i realized how much i was accumulating, i started numbering them so that i use them in the order collected.  i even went so far as to pull out my old britta pitcher and filters so i can drink it, too. it's absolutely crazy how expensive our water is and i just couldn't stand to see all this just go down the drain.  

just a little way i try to do my part for our environment...

 how i start my mornings... my journal, an oracle deck and on this particular day a lovely cup of peppermint hot chocolate (it's usually a glass of water, but it was reallyyyyyyy cold that morning).

anywho...how are you all fairing during the apocalypse?  i'm keeping my head in my heart as much as i can and doing whatever i can to keep myself from going insane.  

well, that's all for today.  i'm hoping to share some photos of my living area soon (i found a place for the tree! it's going to stay up year-round and be a seasonal tree).  i've rearranged and managed to get my art area set up more to my liking and also in a more useful manner.

thanks for sticking around...

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

dang it's cold...

the way the light of sunset was hitting these trees when i walked outside a little bit ago was magical.  i wish the beauty came through this picture.

oh well...

i was going to post pictures from last week's snow, but when i went looking i found i hadn't taken any!  what?! i know!!  that is soooo not like me.

the artic cold is on it's way back south and while we won't get any snow we will get temperatures in the 20's during the day and teens at night for most of the week.

anyhoo... i have lots of projects i can work on inside during the cold. 

hope you have had a good week and weekend.  i've been distracted by migraine life and new doctors' visits which require traveling the roads quite a bit. :-(

well...hope you have a good week. 

thanks for stopping in for a read.

love & kisses & magical wishes

~*~

 

snow days...

 i'm so cold today.  the system that is moving across the south has made it here and it is snowing! plus the temp hasn't moved above freezing all day.

the forecasters are saying we could get between 3-5 inches of snow.  i hope so.  i love a good snowstorm.

in honor of today's cold weather i stocked up on a few things yesterday and this morning started some pinto beans in the crockpot and later in the am made the one-pot chicken, mushroom, spinach, red pepper pasta.  i'm pretty sure i've shared it here before.

last weekend i was able to acquire a beautiful old piece of furniture from a neighbor's daughter.  the neighbor passed a few weeks ago and they have been cleaning out her house.

i can't wait to get her cleaned up and put in place.  i'll have to do quite a bit of re-arranging to get it where i want it. so, yeah, i found myself another project to work on.  hee hee

anywho...well the snow is falling and i'd say we've probably received about an inch so far.  

hope you are having a good week.

love & kisses & magical wishes

~*~

the tree dilemma...

but not...

i wasn't going to put up a tree this holiday season.  since last october i've been working on a project of getting things organized and purged out a little bit.  it's super hard for me to do because everything i see is "hmmm...could i use this in my art?" or "how can i repurpose this for something else?"   hahahaha

but i've been cleaning out old (20 year) files and shredding like a fiend.  re-organizing art and crafting supplies that includes paper, fabric, beads, etc...

i wasn't going to decorate for the holidays at all, but then i decided to host the family holiday meals. the old tree is just too big to put up, so i decided to see if i could find something small to use.

2018's tree...

2024's Yule Tree...

i really love this tree. i'm thinking of using it all year and decorating it for each season/holiday.  i haven't decided yet, though.

anyhoo...guess what we had today? 

the first snow...

it was brief, and just dusted things, but...it snowed!

i guess that's all i have to share for now.  hopefully, i'll have something fun to share soon.

thanks for reading...

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

keeping up 2024...

one of the things i did, sort of, keep up with was my yearly journal/planner...  i could never figure out what to call it.  it is a journal, it is a planner (calendar pages, etc), i put art in it, it's part bullet journal too.

i started working with these a few years back, inspired by a favorite art teacher.  it starts with just a plain composition notebook and grows from there.  when i first started i would switch to a new notebook whenever the current one was full.  then in 2023, i took the covers off a second notebook and taped the books together so it is all one book per year.

as you can see in the photo below, it becomes quite large and unwieldy.

2024's planner/journal

near the end of october i started thinking about how to make this a bit smaller, not necessarily in bloom but in just general size.

so this is what i came up with for this year.

last year (on left) and this year (on right)

so far, i'm really liking the smaller size.  the new one is a Moleskine Cahiers lined journal. they only have 80 pages so i have no idea how many i'll end up needing to get through the year.  but i decided i would glue covers together and just keep building the depth.

only three days into the new year and new journal/planner and it is already blooming wonderfully.

after spending a year calling it my planner/journal, a journner, and my life; i've decided to call it my collective.  it's not a grimoire or a book of shadows, so collective sounds nice.

anyhoo...that's it for today.

though i did want to let Debra know that i agree with her comment, chocolate is definitely the way to go. :-)

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

 

guess who's back? back again...

yep...it's me...

i'm still alive and making my way back into the world of blogging and well, the world.  let's just say that 2024 was not my best look.  i was pretty agoraphobic there for a while, but i was able to get some help and am feeling much, much better.

anyhoo... here are a couple of pictures from the end of 2024 (ie: yesterday) and the first day of 2025. 

Death by Chocolate Cheesecake my sister-in-law and i made yesterday. 

Ours isn't very pretty, but it's only our second ever attempt at a cheesecake, so.  Click the link above if you want to see what it is really supposed to look like and get the recipe.

ps...it is soooooooo good!!  

 

new year's day sunset...

I laughed when i got to my blog and saw that the last post was also a sunset, but new year's eve.

that's all for now...i've really missed being here and missed reading all the blogs that i follow/followed.  i wonder who's still here in bloglandia.

happy new year to you and i hope that this year will bring peace, love and hope into our lives.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

ps...anyone else have "Houdini" in their head after reading the title of this post?  :-)