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...

~*~

a little bit of where i've been...

hi my lovelies, 

yes, it is me.  i am alive and well and finally making my way back to blogland.

  

i really did mean what i said at the beginning of this year, about how i wanted to be here often and share what was happening.  

and that want never left, but i found myself dreading to open the laptop and connect to the internet.  

instead, i found myself drawn to the art table, to the kitchen where i worked on developing my baking and cooking from scratch skills.  i was drawn to the windows to watch the amazing amount of snow that we had this past winter, or even out into the snow to take walks or photos.

i was drawn to turning my bedroom, the cove as i call it, into a sanctuary that i love to spend time in, awake or asleep.  so much so, it has inspired me to do the same to the rest of the house.

i was drawn to a beginner's sewing class in the lovely mountain town of Asheville where i met wonderfully fantastic women, learned how to use a sewing machine, figure out how to measure myself for a pattern and how to create a pattern.  it was fabulous!!  it even snowed while i was there and i was able to take a walk in the snow in downtown Asheville.  

i was drawn to a local to home stitching group where i have met some lovely women and am expanding my abilities and my social skills.  

i even fully embraced my latest birthday!  when i ordered my cake the sweet lady asked who it was for and i said it was for me.  she looked at me and started grinning.  i told her the older i get the more i'm regressing to childhood wants and wishes.  she loved my cake so much she said she would order one for her birthday this year.  (i actually added the sprinkles myself.  it was quite plain on top, which was fine, but when i was looking at it i remembered i had purchased a packet of unicorn sprinkles in the same colors the cake was decorated in several months ago.)

and the other thing i've been, well - not so much drawn to, but have been helping with - my new nephew.

look at that face.  isn't that the sweetest face?  he's had a hard time learning when and where potty time is, so i go down about midday during the week and let him and his older brother out to have what i call puppers potty patrol.  

he's learning and doing much better now.  and i hope my patrol will come to an end in the next couple of weeks.  he's much larger now than that picture shows.  

while his older brother is calm and quiet, this one is a wild man and is quite the talker.  if it wasn't for all the barking, i'd have brought him home with me from the first.  then i think about all the fur, and the poop walks, etc.  nope.  i'll just get my pet fix from visits with the nephews. :-)

well, that is just a little bit of where i've been and why i haven't been here.  i know i said it before, but i really am coming back on the regular now.  i do have so much to share.  

alrighty.  it's late, and i need to get to bed.

see you soon!

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

 

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...

~*~