Wishcasting: What do you wish for 2010?

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Today my sister Jamie is asking at Wishcasting: What do you wish for 2010?

I can honestly say, a new healthy life for me and my husband's life together. That our health issues are addressed, we both feel amazing and begin a new life filled with vitality together, hopefully some place where we will both be happy and healthy.

I love new beginnings. I want a fresh start. I want us both to be strong and healthy for a new phase in our life together.

Blessed be.

Merry Yule

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I am not a huge one for Christmas but want to wish everyone a beautiful day tomorrow filled with the joy of the season, no matter how you celebrate it.

For me it will be with good food and hopefully time finally spent with my husband. We have been so busy since he got home but mostly it is good stuff like Christmas get togethers and time with people we care about. Tomorrow when he comes home from being away I just want to curl up with him on the couch, watch silly Christmas stuff on TV and just be grateful for having him in my life.

Merry Yule to all! I hope that yours is filled with joy.

Our Winter Solstice

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The night before our Yule was definitely cool. See, I am a poet! We got the tail end of that giant snowstorm that hit the U.S. really badly. To my friends who were hit, I hope you are now dug out of that crazy snow!

We normally have our Yule tree up way before now but life has been insane but we did manage to get it up right before the solstice. Every year I get sad that we do not have a star that lights up, I mean ours is pretty but it just is not the same. My husband loves these giant outdoor LED lights for the tree which is covered in so many treasures and gifts from our families.

I marveled at the pretty little snowflake lights my husband had put up around the window of my crafts room as I watch the snow fall, fall, fall. Sometimes it just seemed to be filled with suspended white flakes, they were everywhere.

My husband came up with the genius idea of putting out little LED candle lights inside our star! As a result he is the one now responsible for turning these lights off every night but it makes me so happy to see lights on top of our tree.

On the solstice we had to stay home and wait for the guy to come fix our fireplace. I made this appointment almost two months ago! And the day that he came and returned the light to us was the solstice, how appropriate.

Believe it or not it is currently above 0C here and the snow is probably going to melt by Christmas but on the solstice there was still some snow and our hearth fires were burning bright in front of the Yule tree. I spent the day baking treats and cooking a roast and drinking Elderflower Presse. My husband and I can not do Christmas/Yule presents for each other this year but when your house is warm from a pretty fire and the oven baking goodies, well, it is hard not to feel rich.

Blessed Winter Solstice Everyone!

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Congratulations Sara @Soulspackle! You won my cauldron necklace!

Beverley, Sulwyn and Heidi won my little vervain and mandrake root spell bottles!

Please email me your mailing info at sueridler at gmail dot com and I will mail these treats to you in the mail in the new year.

I hope everyone is having a blessed Yule today! We finally got our tree up last night, I will write about it tomorrow. Just in time for Yule during a blizzard.

Stay warm everyone and thank you all so much for participating! Almost 40 people entered, truly a fantastic turnout, I appreciate it so much.

Our surreal two year... anniversary?

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We have hit the two year mark of living in Nova Scotia. It shocks me that we have been here longer than I was on the island now! It is hard to consider celebrating this time period but we made plans with the friends who moved here at the same time we did to go out and at least acknowledge that we have survived living here for two years.

I begrudgingly went out to the post office and grocery store yesterday because I needed stamps and food. I walked by the formerly beautiful Christmas tree lot and see a guy putting a Yule tree through a wood chipper! OMG, it isn't even the solstice yet and they are already killing trees around here. Yup, this is Treevenge country.

I come home in my big parka and thermal pants and feel like Jabba the Hut walking through the deep freeze. Damn, it's cold here! Three winters in a row now, gotta plan our escape and soon. How much more cold can I take?

We went to Canadian Tire yesterday to pick up Christmas lights only to find out that the power was out. We travelled all the way to the next burb and sat through crazy traffic with psycho drivers only to buy what we call, demon lights. Yup, these LED lights that slowly change from red to green actually give this weird red demon light effect where you see double and a scary red glow. I got so freaked out I had to quickly leave the room, they were that upsetting and I told my husband those demon lights were going back!

Note to self: next time I plan on taking pictures at the pub I should do so BEFORE I consume alcohol. I am not a drinker but did indulge a little with our group of friends last night (new and old) and just had to take a picture of this beer wreath. Yup, life here is very surreal. Thanks for the rye and ginger Kelly! A little taste of home here on the east coast, what a treat!

On the way home my responsible gingerale-drinking husband drove through the rich downtown Halifax core to look at lights. I was shaking and scared I was going to break my teeth from them chattering against one another but our car quickly warmed up so I could enjoy the drive without going into seizures. There were not a lot of homes truly "decked" out but this one was gorgeous! Worth searching for.

Two years have gone by and we have survived life on the east coast so far (knock on wood and all that jazz). If I have learned one thing from our move is you have to make your life here. You have to work really, really hard at it but with good friends, fantastic food and a house that feels like home you can get through the endless winter and have something worth celebrating.

Winter bad luck finds me again

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What is it with me and my husband going grocery shopping and bad weather? I mean I know it is Nova Scotia and the weather is almost always a nightmare but truly, the universe just loves to hit us with an unforecasted storm every time we go get food.

We did our huge holiday shop and I pushed our budget right to the edge and came outside into the freezing dark cold for an unexpected storm which started as soon as we left the store. We drove home at two miles an hour for my brittle nerves and got home OK but I had enough and called and ordered a pizza. Feels so silly and self-indulgent to do that when you have a kitchen now bursting with food.

My favourite pizza guy came with our pizza and said, "This weather is crazy! It wasn't supposed to snow tonight!" I told him, "It is always the worst weather when we do a big grocery shop." And it is true. It is one of the reasons I avoid it like the plague. My husband always wonders why until we walk to the car with our cart. It never fails.

File photo taken in the fall when I could survive in just polar fleece

The other day we came home with our Yule decorations and I go to put my key in the front door and go inside. I could not get the door open. Our arms were full of stuff, our boots covered in snow. My husband, thinking that I was "doing it wrong" told me he was going to open the door and then the same exact thing happened to him. The door would not open!

Thankfully we have a backdoor up the snowy and icy steps which was quite a trek with all our packages but we made it inside. My husband had to replace the door handles, the mechanism inside had snapped and broken from the cold. Replacing it cost a small unexpected and painful fortune!

Coming home from groceries last night we heard a strange noise coming from the car and now we have to take it to the shop. Fingers crossed that it ends up being not a huge expense but my hopes for that are not super high.

I think this year me and my husband are probably going to have a very lean Christmas. We have had no time to buy anything for each other and now we seem to be going through another cycle of crappy winter luck: attacked by nature, the safety of our car compromised in the winter scaring the hell out of me and rejected by our own house. I am very grateful for the plethora of food because pretty soon, I am just never going to want to leave this house again. Why bother?

Breathing still waters

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Waters are running deep around here. Whether it is rain or snow, it still end up filling up the riverbed which is climbing up higher and higher these days. I love that you can see the apples on the trees still, like giant suspended holly berries in December.

It is interesting that after I wrote that post about nightmares and dreams yesterday for Wishcasting that on the night of the new moon I dreamed about my maternal grandmother. I did not see her but someone told me she had never died, that she was alive. I freaked out in the dream! What did that mean? Did my mom know? Did she keep that from us? Where is Grandma then? My head was so full of questions and adrenaline I woke myself up before dawn, yet again.

Of course as soon as I woke up and thought a little more clearly I realized that this is a very common message from the Other Side. People there do not like to say that they have died, that they are more alive on the Other Side than we are and they find the term "dead" offensive, LOL. This is according to the psychic Sylvia Browne who is sharing her 2010 predictions on her site right now.

I think this is the closest my dream could come to telling me that she is OK. I know that if I had dreamed of her I would have woken up immediately, just because I would be so excited to see her and then the dream would be over. I am just so grateful to have gotten any message at all at this time of year.

I have been thinking of her so much right now. I call on her when I use the Sacred Rose Tarot deck which I used recently for a reading. I have also been trying to come up with some time so I could make some Latvian treats for the holidays and now I just have to. Food really connects me to family and this time of year being away from my loved ones is just so hard. I know we are forever together in spirit but it is always a challenge for me to be so far away at Yule.

It seems that all of our waters are running deep these days and swiftly. Too fast. I hope that some time soon I get to stay at home, bake and breathe a little. I hope you do too.

Wishcasting: What do you wish to give?

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Jamie is always inspiring us to ask questions and share each other's wishes at Wishcasting. My wish this week is to give you peace of mind.

Yes, this photo of a scarecrow in my neighbourhood is probably more appropriate for Halloween than Yule but today is the New Moon during the darkest time of the year so maybe, if you are like me, you have been plagued with nightmares lately. If so, I want to put your mind at ease a little.

Years ago I found out about anxiety dreams. Dreams where someone you love dies, the person you care for leaves you, you lose your job, you get attacked... they are horrific, unnerving and I am sick of them. Especially the recurring ones! I'm done with them!

We have these dreams to remind us to be grateful of what we have. They are not premonitions, they are just our deepest fears coming to the surface. What we fight against thinking and feeling. So during dark times they rise into our dreams and scare the hell out of us for fun. Nice eh?

But knowing that they are just about anxiety and are not real and are not going to happen can be very liberating. That little dream gremlin loses his power once we see him behind the black curtain and say, I know what you are up to buddy. Even if we continue to have these dreams, at least on waking now we will know that there is no truth behind them. They are a dark and scary illusion.

This is also a good time to receive messages from the other side, they will be from loved ones that have passed on and not scary, just deeply moving. I hope this helps and now I am logging off and trying to catch up with the million things I need to get done before Yule! Wishing you peace of mind and happy dreams.

The madness of winter

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We are getting not-so-sub-zero temperatures right now and I am very grateful. I know it will not last, colder temperatures are on their way here but for now I am not encased in ice. We have so much to do with Yule on its way, so close and we still do not even have our tree up.

The fun part of winter is whizzing by and I feel like I am missing it and soon will become a frozen statue waiting for spring to free me.

So much to do, I am so stressed! I wish I had more time to bake and cook and heck, even clean but with my husband home and months of errands that should have been done but never got done because he was away, well, that is what must take precedence in our lives.

At least our snowflake lights are up and I managed to find time to bake the best apple pie ever!

Am I the only one who feels completely behind the eight ball these days?

Getting ready for Yule

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Now that my husband is home and on holidays we have had time to go out and buy some decorations for our house. Last year we learned the hard way that outdoors lights are just too much of a pain:

Uh, no thanks, not doing that again! And having to go outside to turn on and off the lights? Let's just say we really were not in the spirit of celebrating the return of the light and that our porch was dark most of the holidays last year.

My dad decorated the same way when I was a kid. Instead of pulling a Chevy Chase and getting out the ladder he would put lights in the window in front of our gauzy curtains. I loved it because then you can really enjoy your own lights because you can see them in your own house.

These giant snowflakes really represent the winter solstice to me and are not very Christmasy which I really like. It feels more like I am honouring my true beliefs at this time of year instead of pretending to be something I am not.

Thankfully the next couple of days will be a bit warmer but then we will be getting cold again. I will take the above-zero temperatures where I can get them. I truly do not need snow and cold to know that Yule is coming and celebrate it. Soon the days will slowly get longer and our approach to warmer weather will begin.

Damn, it's cold!

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So little sunlight to keep us going and it has been getting very, very cold here. Yesterday it was -18C with the windchill, that is 0F. And we had to go outside! Oh how I would have preferred to stay in a bake something but no, we had to go into town.

My husband asked me if I had dropped my gloves on the way in from the Christmas party the other night. I look down to the ground and see my gloves frozen to the pavement. With a little elbow grease we managed to pull one of them off the ground.

My husband tried to use an ice scraper to pry the other one off the ground to no avail. We may have to consider getting a crowbar or leaving it there until spring.

Here is the one we pried off the ground, completely frozen solid. Stiff as a board. Despite how cold I was out there as we fought against the elements to save what I call my Cookie Monster gloves, I could not stop laughing. Lately, everything seems absurd to me.

Mammoth heating bills are coming so we turn on our little Noma Heaters. We have the thermostats set to room temperature and the house still does not feel warm. Instead of making the whole house flare alive with heat from the expensive oil heating system we have no choice but to use in Nova Scotia, we sit close to our electric heaters like mini fireplaces. These heaters kept me sane last year and I am already snuggling up to them for dear life.

By the end of today the temperature will rise above 0C again, probably triggering another migraine in my head. I have been having them every other day lately from the yo-yo barometric pressure. Why must I feel everything?

Our propane fireplace pilot light went out during one of the major storms and we have been waiting for someone to come fix it. The appointment, funny enough, is set for the winter solstice. In more ways than one we will be celebrating the return of the light.

The winter has just begun and I am trying not to think of the many, many cold months ahead. It is time for watching movies, playing on the Wii and drinking hot chocolate. Pretty soon you are going to have to use a crowbar to get me out of this house and away from my electric heaters.

Christmas party, snowflakes & a sprinkle of good luck!

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Last night my dashing husband and I went to his work's Christmas party. I have noticed lately that I can not get near a Yule tree without being mesmerized. I suppose it is time to put up the tree! My husband is whole-heartedly against real tree "slaughter" and will not be budged on this issue no matter the argument for it. After seeing Treevenge twice last year, I no longer argue the point.

I do not know if I am getting old or boring but the music did not make me want to get up on the dance floor for most of the night. The fact that people were line dancing to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll was just downright wrong to us! Thankfully they played Spirit of the West's Home for a Rest. This song is impossible not to dance to and gets more and more intense and desperate for the guys to "get home" that it was quite fitting this is the song my husband and I danced to that evening.

The weather was quite clear all the way home but of course as soon as we got close to where we live we were attacked by a snowstorm. I was already very sore from the long sit at the dinner table so as we drove down toward our home along the street we had our accident, my husband slowed right down to a crawl so I could breathe and not be blue from personal suffocation by the time we got home. Which we did just fine and I could be happy again.

All evening the party had a draw for fantastic prizes. Our ticket ended with "2" and they must have called out every other number that ended in 2 but ours. At the end of the evening they announced they were giving away the big prizes now. My husband and I looked at each other. Hmmm.... what are the odds we win something now?

Sure enough, we did! We won an iTouch iPod!!!! Me being a little bit of a luddite had no idea how big this prize was but my husband did. Came back to the table with his mouth gaping. I am so happy for him.

I must thank you all! You are helping our luck change, all of you who did wishcasting for us when I said I wanted to become a winner.

I hope that the happy holiday festive spirit is coming to you as well, not to mention winter solstice good luck. Yes, life continues to be challenging for us here but as I said before, there seems to be a deep and significant shift happening. I truly did not think it would happen while we were in Nova Scotia but hey, all I care about is that life is getting better.

Winter Wonderland Homecoming

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My husband came home yesterday! Home from the Caribbean and brought me all sorts of island necklaces to play with, a little summer pirate outfit (so cute and mean looking, perfect for me) and some Blue Curacao for me to play with in the kitchen. I bet it would make great blue icing for cupcakes!

He came home to snow and mourned the +30C temperature he had left behind and it only got worse because we got hit with a giant snowstorm last night. Only to get warm and melt overnight. Of course the temperatures are going to drop again on the weekend because you know, this is Nova Scotia. Do not get used to the weather, it has to change on a dime!

For me, the holidays have now officially started with his return. He is my own personal sunshine. We are going out to the work Christmas party tonight so I am thankful for the temporary warm weather. It is hard to get me outside in the winter wearing a snowsuit! A little black dress? Forget about it!

It will be nice to get a break from being the one making dinner and dessert although I still have an apple pie to bake celebrating his homecoming.

I am so happy that so many people are entering my Yule Gift Giveaway Contest! It is so nice to celebrate this time of year and share the joy. Heck, it is just so nice to feel the joy! Good luck to everyone.

Suzie's Yule Gift Giveaway!!

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Hey, this post also works for Wishcasting!

My spirit wishes to share my gifts with you

Yup, that's right! This necklace which was on Etsy is now going to be my Yule gift giveaway! Just leave a comment here on this post to enter. I will keep comments open until this Monday December 14th. Come back on the winter solstice Monday December 21st to see who wins this cauldron necklace with rosehip and quartz beads. So many of my blogging friends are creative, spiritual artist types which is why I decided to give this one away, I know someone is going to be very happy with this necklace. But that is not all!

I made quite a few protection amulet and spell bottles while the moon was waning but in Leo. They are inspired by the show Vampire Diaries! I was so shocked they included some real magick on the show by mentioning vervain which is sacred to witches and is not only protective but some think there is a connection between vervain and a long life. I also included some mandrake root which is powerful love magick. Good for people who are attracting the wrong kinds of guys! There will be three names drawn for three spell bottles.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you. If I can not figure out who you are or how to reach you I will draw another name.

Because of lineups like this at the post office, which I stood in this morning for a long, long time, I will not be mailing anything out until the New Year. No thanks!

I am just so happy any minute my husband could walk through that door and come home that I wanted to share the joy with my fabulous blogging friends! Blessings to all this holiday season and good luck to everyone.

I'm solar powered?

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Finally, a sunny day

You would think I would have realized how sensitive I am to the sun when I moved to BC. To live six months in darkness would be depressing, right? Well it never bothered me. What most people do not know is that for the other half of the year, it is sunny there. In the summer you can go months and months without rain. There is a balance between light and dark. Here, it is almost always dark. How can a place be so white and so dark? I don't get it.

Yesterday was an exception. Even though it was totally cold and freezing the sun was out trying to make up for the cruelty of winter. But I think my UV sensor is covered with snow, like out little lantern here. I can see it but I can not feel it.

I have seriously been considering investing in one of those Light Therapy Lamps. Perhaps I have seasonal affective disorder from living in darkness for almost two years? The idea that an artificial light can make me feel better seems ridiculous to me but I know some people swear by them. It is a lot of money and I am very skeptical so please, if you have used one and it has helped or not helped, please leave a comment or vote in my poll on the right. I could really use your feedback.

I never made it outside to shovel my driveway. You can read about it here. I am in survival mode. I am so grateful my husband comes home tomorrow. He is the true sunshine in my life. And I am going to try and forgive his tanned face for going to the tropics without me.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

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My sister Jamie is celebrating her birthday today! I hope you visit her birthday blog post and say happy birthday. Things have been kind of challenging for Jamie lately and I know it would mean the world to her if you said happy birthday.

I love this pic of Jamie down at The Beaches surrounded by her favourite rocks and trees. We always have such a lovely time walking down there when I visit and she loves to go there on special days like today. I hope she can do that this year.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Snow, spell bottles and a mug of decaf tea

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At four in the morning I heard that sound. Like glue against the window. I know that sound. I heard it for days and days during the great ice storm of 1998. All day Saturday I waited for the bad weather and it did not come. My furnace started going at dawn (I turn it way down so it does not wake me) and there was the wet sticky sound for a while. Then it changed. There it goes, from freezing rain to snow. Sure enough, there it was this morning.

I had forgotten to get the shovel from the shed so I put on a million layers and went out in my snowboots and carefully down the back steps to be hit in the head sideways by both wind and snow. For those with an idealized idea of what winter is like here, no gentle falling slowflakes for Nova Scotia. Icy spikes in my ears and eyes while walking down to the shed. I was scared the lock was going to freeze so I had to get the shovel out now. We have a giant scoop that is supposed to be easy to use but I could not even lift it! So I took out the little shovel instead and made it back inside without falling and breaking something and now it sits on my kitchen floor. No point attempting to shovel (what a joke, I have no strength and am sure to hurt myself) while the snow is still falling. I will wait and hope that this is all that is going to fall, yeah right!

I went in my crafts room to light a candle and just take a second to breathe. It was nice to have my dreamboard on my altar and my new little spell bottles I made yesterday sitting there looking all magickal. I plugged in the kettle, put on my hut booties and am now going to rest. I hardly slept last night from all the noise, my muscles are tight and hurting from being out in the cold and all I want to do is watch movies on TV.

Only a few more days alone. I can do this. I can make it.

Bracing for the storm with beads and apples

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Bad weather is coming this weekend. First a regular storm followed by snow tomorrow. I can barely remember the sunshine from November.

I have apple cider warming up in the crockpot. I am going to try making a stuffed apple for the first time. Probably make more amulets and jewellery and catch up on a lot of Food Network on PVR.

The weekends are the longest and hardest while my husband is away, which, is a lot lately. This will be my first snowstorm alone. I may have to even find the shovel and hope that I do not rip my muscles apart making a path out of my house. Now, there is always a chance it is not as bad as they say it is going to be but I have people here tend to be unrealistically optimistic when it comes to the weather.

It used to be that my life was outside, connecting with Nature around me. Then I would go inside and have a more ordinary life. Now I am learning how to have a deeply active inner life and focus more on creating than reflecting. Perhaps that is not such a bad thing. Of course I still hope that one day life will take me back home to the west coast but for now, bracing for more bad weather, I will fill up the weekend with apples, beads, crystals and herbs.

DIY Entertainment Club: I'm there newest member!

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My sisters Jamie and Shannon do this thing they call the Do It Yourself Entertainment Club. I would watch and see the goodies they would get in the mail and so wish I could participate! Well this month I just had to. I know, Christmas/Yule is coming up and I really should not be spending money on myself but the library has this new policy where you are only allowed exercise DVDs for one week at a time. This pressured me into not wanting to use them. I would get them and then freak out that I would have to return them soon and what if it snows and I can not get there before the due date... yada yada yada...

The even cooler thing is they sent me the wrong DVD. I wanted level one of the Pilates Fitness Circle workout (it's on the bottom) but I could not find it on their site so I ordered Fitness Circle Challenge Level 2. I called up amazon and told them my situation. They confirmed that they sent the wrong DVD and would be sending me level 2 for free! How cool is that?!

With all of the amulet-making I have been doing I really wanted to find a book that covered magickal properties of everything, right by my side. Mrs. B had reviewed The Encyclopedia of Magickal Ingredients on her blog in the summer of 2008 and it had been niggling at me ever since! That is a long, long time for something to call your name. It was on sale and I wanted those exercise DVDs to help build some strength in this sensitive body of mine and so I tacked it on!

What really won me over was that it not only covered the magickal qualities of trees and stones, it also covers food magick:

Brussel Sprouts

Ruler: Moon

Type: Vegetable

Magickal Form: Steamed

On a full moon, steam and eat brussel sprouts to make your money last longer. Eat them salted for protection and peace between family members.

Who knew?!

My one complaint is that I thought the book would be bigger and the print is quite large but every time I come up with a new ingredient I want to look up, it is there! So I guess there really is nothing to complain about, especially when it is such a good price.

I am seriously considering using this book not only when making amulets but bringing an element of kitchen witchery to my foodie blog. Bring in some additional magick to my life sounds pretty darn cool to me.

My DIY Entertainment Club is a little different than my sisters'. Lately I can find no music that I like, novels bore me and there are few movies I want to watch over and over. I think I invested wisely in my health and my magickal interests and am going to have some entertainment with my new purchases.

If you could join the DIY Entertainment Club, what would you put on that wishlist?

Keep moving Suzie

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Today I am feeling a bit surreal. Looking at this tire in the ditch near my house makes me feel that way. It is exactly in the same place where we had our car accident. I looked around, did not see any broken glass. Perhaps someone just dumped it in ditch here were we live like so many people do around here. It took me back though to a place I have been trying to forget.

There have been days I walk by the crash site and have my mind on other things and go by it without being taken back to that horrible day. I must in some ways be healing. But then I see this tire and I am thrusted back.

When I saw a counsellor about some of the things I have been dealing with she told me I had post-traumatic stress. I sat there amazed! How is that possible? I did not go through a war zone? I was not attacked? I did not get it.

She told me that because so many painful things dominoed on top of each other for months and months when we first got here (many I have kept to myself) that I fell into a cycle of trauma. Every moment I tried to pull myself out another hit to the face and knocked me off my feet.

Now, I am doing better. I sense a lighter energy in our lives. Like we paid some kind of due. That perhaps it is safe to say, maybe things will get better, without getting knocked on the chin just for saying so.

I will walk by that wheel and let it have its own story. Let it sit there and wallow alone. I can not do it anymore. Yes, it has all been horrific and horrible in the past but I am going to keep walking and thinking of all the cool stuff I want to explore in my own little life at home. Bring home fabulous food to create a foodie masterpiece. Carry library books home filled with fascinating ideas. Stop by the dollar store for crafting supplies.

Me? I am too busy to hang out with a stupid wheel frozen in a ditch. I have things to do!

Wishcasting: What is your winter wish?

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Putting my creative winter energy on Etsy

The naughty rebellious inner little girl in me wishes winter would just GO AWAY! But I will try and be more mature and adult-like and say, my winter wish is to be spiritual, crafty with jewelry and inspired in the kitchen.

I keep reading how winter is supposed to be a time of contemplation but you know what? The more I sit and think the more my body hardens into place and hurts! For me, the only way to survive winter is to avoid hibernation (although I will be inside for months and months) and keep busy and keep moving. Thanks to the Wii I know I will keep my blood pumping and maybe even keep warm which is so inspiring. If that is possible then I hope to continue making jewelry, amulets, food, art and whatever the heck I feel like.

I have learned that I am just like my Mom. I am OK as long as there is something for me to photograph. I need subjects. So, I will make them. What makes me different from my Mom is that I must write about them too.

My winter wish is to be actively writing, creating, moving and making magick.

Blessed be!

December Dreamboard

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I was drawn to a photograph of a giant tree in a meadow, it was in full bloom with white flowers. I wondered why on earth I was drawn to this image while I am in winter? Am I out of balance with Nature?

Then I realized I could gesso over the tree, as if it were snow. Is that not what winter is? We are still alive and vital even if we are under the cold blanket made of snowflakes stitched together with icy thread.

I loved the little piece of artwork I added, it reminds me of the Green Man which worked for me for this wild oak full moon.

I added the quote, "Decide now: is your life going to be poetry or prose?" because it confounded me. Haunted me. I have no idea, is my life going to be poetry or prose? In some ways my life is like a dream, short little moments of inspiration like poetry. Then there is the long story I carry with me. I am still undecided, will have to continue thinking about this one.

My dream this month is to feel alive while getting through winter. Tap into thriving energy inside and carry the hope of spring in my heart even when the snow beats against my soul.

Maybe, just maybe, I will finally figure out who I am as a writer during this long and white winter.

Getting ready for winter... it's time

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We had it so easy in November. Yes, one crazy snowstorm to wake up to but we actually had more sunlight in November than any other month since I moved here! As a result my mood started to lift and feel better. My mother-in-law told me it was going to be 11C here today so I was shocked when I went outside and the wind and snow hit me square in the face.

Home from stopping by my spirituality store as well as picking up some basic groceries, I worked out on the Wii to bring my body temperature kind of back to normal. I took out my crockpot, brewed up my cranberry apple cider, had a hot shower and put on my leg warmers and my MEC hut booties. Yes, winter is here. I took out the advent calender I got for my husband and almost looked forward to opening up the first little window. I got it for him but he left it with me before he left on yet another trip so I could use it to count the days until he comes home. Then he will take over eating the chocolates!

Now that I have a way to keep active and warm in the house with my Wii and I have crafting material to make magickal items as well as food to keep this kitchen witch inspired, I think I will be OK. Somehow I will make it through the winter. I hate how it hurts me, makes everything so much harder and more painful, but at least for time since I got here I think I can manage.

Mini Money Magick Witch Spell Bottle

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When I realized that we were so close to the full moon and that the moon was in Taurus yesterday and stable all day, I knew it was time for some money magick! When the moon is waxing, the energy brewing is all about manifestation.With this economy, people need as much help in this area of their lives as they can get. So I got to work!

I got some mini spell bottles and took out some of the ingredients for money magick: flax seeds, aventurine and wild sunflower seeds. I asked for the universe to flow its power of manifestation into each bottle with each item of abundance I put in there.

I purified the bottles with protection incense.

I blessed them over white candlelight.

I added two hematite beads and one big chunky quartz bead to help magnify the magick and draw the prosperity to the person who wears this piece. I did not seal the jar, I figured the person who buys it may want to change it up a bit but you could always add some melted candlewax to the top to seal it or I could do that.

There will be three available and only $10 each on Etsy starting this Wednesday on the full moon because times are hard, I am really making these to help people out during the tough times so I am keeping the price low.

What magick have you been up to lately?