journal journeys...

hi lovelies,

how are you all doing out there in bloglandia?  things are good here, swirling quickly as i knew it would.

today i thought i'd share about where i am in my journey with journaling.

last year, i shared some images from my journal. this is the post with the best examples from last year's journal.

so here is how my 2025 bome ended:

the front cover

yes...that is all of 2025 journal, some art, calendar/planner, etc.

i really loved the size of the journal (5x8 sort of?) but...trying to keep it all together just didn't work.

this year, i went with a larger journal - the moleskine xxl cahier ruled notebook

and i'm not trying to keep the year all together, obviously.  i'm currently on the 5th journal

january through end of march...

april's journal cover

may & june...

july...

and...

i plan to go through at least september with this one, maybe let october be on its own and then have november and december finish up.  but...i'll see how it goes.

how i've been using the journal, though that seems to be changing each month too. (blurred for privacy - not to make you dizzy) 😀

well...just a little peek in my journal tonight.  i'm off to take care of a few things. believe it or not it has taken two days for me to complete this post.  

y'all have a wonderful weekend and i'll be back soon.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

a card for the collective...

greetings & salutations again, my friends.

yesterday morning, before i pulled my own cards of the day, i pulled a card for the collective.

those of you who've been with me for a while know that i pull a tarot or oracle card everyday (sometimes both).  i've been feeling that need to pull one to share here on the blog, so yesterday i focused on what we needed to know for the month of august.

 deck: the Rider-Waite tarot

card drawn: 8 of wands

meaning: swiftness, things moving quickly

my intuitive insights:  if you felt that july moved by quickly, better buckle up, buttercup.  august will move at warp speed.  if there are projects or plans that you are working on this month, stay focused.  at first, it will seem like you have plenty of time to complete your tasks.  do not procrastinate.  try to stay ahead of deadlines or you may find that you fall short of your goal or miss completing things altogether.  and remember to leave room for rest.  if you aren't rested and healthy, your work will suffer and even if completed on time, it won't be your best.

when i first pulled this card and received the message, i thought - yep, i hear you, i'm trying.  then i realized it wasn't a message just for me.  so here it is.  i'd love to know if this resonates with you or if something different is your interpretation.

i'm going to try to do these collective pulls every month, and maybe more often as the cards call to me.  

do you use tarot and or oracle cards?  what is your favorite deck?

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

light of lugh...

 

Wishing you a beautiful and blessed Lughnasadh.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

yes and no and not quite...

greetings and salutations lovelies...

yep, i'm still here.  honestly, time just keeps vanishing!  

by the time i get to the computer each day or whatever day i can get to the computer, i fall asleep before i can get to the blog.

anyhoo...

how are you out there in bloglandia?  i haven't been around to visit and i feel bad about that.  i do want to get around and catch up with everyone.  i'll keep working on finding my full-bodied yeses and taking the nos or not quites out and hopefully that will give me opportunities to get online more often.

i've spent the last almost month (month? geez!) working in the garden, continuing what seems like the never-ending process of cleaning, clearing and organizing everything i own, making new friends and starting a new project in the neighborhood.  i'll tell you about that last thing another time.

a little peek at the first real garden harvest of the season.  lots of herbs - chives, marjoram, wedgewood thyme and english thyme, oregano and tulsi, a couple of tiny red and green peppers that were ready to pick, the first two cayenne peppers of the season and buried underneath, the first tomato and a few jalapenos.  the jalapenos are stunning to me, as they are from the pot of pepper plants i kept alive in the dining room over the winter.  the plants are doing so well!  

one thing is that i've been getting out in the garden super early due to the photo above.  that heat is insane.  the sun touches my skin and i swear it feels like it catches fire.  if i remember correctly, on this particular day, i'd had to spend the morning in the next town for my monthly infusion...

yes, this is me that morning having my infusion.  it wasn't too bad at 7am when i left to go to the hospital.  the meds always drain me of every bit of energy and i have to drive myself home (about 30minute drive), so it is kind of rough.  once i arrive home i'm done in and pretty much just sleep or vegetate with a book or show or my art journal.  anything i don't have to exert energy or brain power for.

that particular day, i was able to stay in the cool a/c of my little home. yay.

anyhoo.  y'all...i have so much i want to share.  i really need to figure out how to get here more.  how to get posts typed up and ready to go and get photos taken and edited and such without it taking 3 or 4 hours at a time.  

how do y'all work that out?  do you have a system?  a schedule?  because of never knowing where my pain level and energy level is going to be at any given moment, schedules don't work so well for me. at least they haven't in the past.  maybe i should revisit it, from a different viewpoint.

hmmm.

alright.  i'm outta here.

i hope you are all doing the best you can out there.  i know the world is crazy, but we have to keep our hope that we can create the world we want where we treat all people equally, and all the other things that need to change.

i'll be back, soon's i can.

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

 

these boys...

 i'm telling ya, time just vanishes for me, y'all.  it's like one day it is the first day of the month and i turn around and the month is almost over.

what the heck?!

mostly, i think it's that every time i sit down and am still for more than 5 minutes, i fall asleep. crazy, right?  every time.  unless i am seriously involved in something with movement, filing, typing, writing (and sometimes not even then), i'll just doze right off if i'm sitting still.

so, tonight's post is pretty short and sweet.  just a few photos of something i love...

my sweet nephews...

i love these boys and spending a little bit of time with them almost every day for the past couple of months has been both wonderful and horrible.

wonderful in that they are both so sweet and yet have such different personalities.  the older one here, is so calm, patient and gentle.  he's a love bug in all the best ways.

and the younger one here, he is a sweetie, but such a different personality.  he definitely thinks he's the alpha in every situation.  he's also a talker, a loud one and wants your attention all the time.  he's still just a baby though so we're hoping some of this he'll mature out of in time.

the horrible part is that it's made me want one or two of my own.  the more horrible part is that it has reignited my germ phobia. the smells are really making me nauseous each time i see them and i have to immediately wash up after petting them.  i hate that, because i love them and want to cuddle, but can't stand when they lick me. 

cmon, look that that face up there.  those eyes... sigh...

don't we all just want to lay in the sun on a nice day...

well...that's what's on my mind tonight.  my sweet boys...

my puppers duty ends next week as far as a daily check in.  i'll still see them all the time.  i'll miss it, sort of.  

see you again soon...

hope you had a lovely summer solstice...

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

in the garden today...

quote for today:  "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul..." ~Emily Dickinson

for years and years, i've wanted to have a certain kind of garden.  i've dreamed and i've wished, i've plotted and schemed.

i spent a lot of time following the gardening of the fantastic Vanessa Valencia and wishing i could have gardens like her, not to mention her magical growing skills. 

with all the changes for me over the last year or two, i found myself really wanting to dive into the garden.  last autumn i wasn't able to do much clean up before the cold arrived and i just couldn't get out there.

so as things warmed up, my desire to be in the garden grew and grew.

i finally understand what VeeVala means when she talks about wanting to run to the garden the moment she wakes to see what has grown overnight.  😁

i have cleaned, weeded, moved, swept, moved again, repotted, planted, potted, dug, mulched, over and over for the last two months.  and i'm still not finished setting it up.

on every trip to the garden center, i've searched for the flowers i love the most.  snapdragons, zinnias, hollyhocks, foxglove, larkspur, and more.  i even managed to find a poppy and get it planted.  i hope it will come back and bloom next spring.

i added salvia for the hummingbirds, and i love watching them dip down between the plant and the feeders that i have out.  they are such amazingly beautiful creatures.

 

it's really just a start, getting a few plants in place.  i know they'll grow, self-seed and spread and that makes me very happy.  i'm still having to go in and dig out blackberry vines every couple of weeks.

i planted the hollyhocks along the fence since they grow so tall.  i've planted sunflowers there as well and really hope they'll grow.  i love sunflowers, they are such happy flowers.

and over in the veg bed, i have 8 san marzano tomato plants, rows of basil seeds in (plus a couple of plants from the farmers mkt).  i planted celery again this year, green and red bell pepper plants, a couple rows of carrots and a row of onions and radishes.  

i'm putting cucumbers in a big pot this year and still need to plant my pole beans and more onions.  

tomorrow i'm hoping to head off to the farmers market, as i believe peaches are in mmmmm... and i'm seriously craving fresh peaches.  plus, i need flowers for the planters in the front of the house.

just a little peak in my garden today.  it is a tiny little space, and i still dream of one day having a huge space to grow all kinds of things.  but for now, i will make the best of what i have and love every little bit of it.

are you growing anything?  do you have a garden space?  i'd love to hear/see about it.

until next time...

take care, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

not the same...

 

so much has changed for me over the past year, it is hard to know where to start to explain.  in fact, most who know me irl say i'm not the same person they knew before.  

i know it's true.  i am definitely not the same person i was.  i'm so much happier now and the real change is that i finally like myself.  no, that's not completely accurate.  i love myself.  i can see my own value, now.  it is such a change from how i used to view myself and life in general.

i'm going to share how this happened, but not today.  that post will take some time to really think how to word it and will probably be edited several times.  😉

one thing that has changed is that i'm embracing the fun.  i mean, really, really embracing it.  i've a collection now of funny sunglasses (pink flamingos, anyone?), tiaras and crowns, and bunny ears and all kinds of things.

i spend my time doing the things that light up my heart and soul and make me smile.  things like blowing bubbles in the garden...

making little bouquets for the house from the flowers growing in my garden...

popcicles on a hot summer day...

and remember my "seasons" tree?  i've set it up for spring/summer, and hope to add a few more flowers and maybe some scrap fabric garlands over the summer.

 

actually, looking at it now, this is a bit of an older photo.  it is really loaded down since i took this one, i think.  i'll post another photo soon.

this is just a sampling of the things that are bringing me joy and how i'm finding my fun now.  i've been getting out into the world more, joining in with groups and volunteering for helping out with things in the neighborhood.  (i KNOW, who even AM I? 😁😂)

i'll be back in a few days (if not sooner) with one of the things i've been doing that has brought me a huge amount of fun and joy and satisfaction.

hope you're having a lovely weekend.

see you soon, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~