Blessed Yule...

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind, so much to do and get complete with.  So today, Yule, I decided to just have a day with the family and our new home.  The day started out foggy and gloomy like it's been the past weeks.  We did our traditional Yule celebrations with exchanging gifts and just enjoyed family time together.

I made a yummy fig and walnut spread

with lavender and thyme...it was wonderful.  I also made some tasty appetizers.  Then I went for a walk around our property. With the cold freeze and gloomy days not to mention all the cleaning and unpacking I haven't had a chance to explore.  So when the sun came out mid-day I was called to take a walk along the property lines.

What I found around us was magickal...

beautiful fields with wonderful Cedar and Pine trees, as well as beautiful Madrones.  The climate here in Oregon is very different, just a week ago we were in the mist of freezing rain and ice and snow every where now it's beautiful.  There's still greenery around despite the the leaves have fallen.  I think the moss on the trees makes everything look greener too.

The Creek is starting to fill...

with water already, so it's slowly running. I can only imagine how wonderful it will all look in the Spring when everything starts to bloom and blossom again.

We ended the night...

with a wonderful Yule feast and our traditional releasing ceremony.  

And a warm cup of homemade Wassail....

couldn't have asked for a better day.  Hope you all had a Blessed Yule too or Beltane those of you in the Southern Hemi!

Blessed Beltane and Day 1 of 29 Faces!

Vinca Minor from my back yard

Blessed Beltane!  One of my favorite Sabbats not only cos' we celebrate the greening of Mother Earth, but it's my sweet little boy's birthday too!  Our day started kind of iffy with lots of overcast and high winds, but the sun eventually came out and it's been gorgeous ever since.

I've been really enjoying all the Spring blossoms we've been having this year compared to last...look at these beautiful apple blossoms!






Okay...so you all heard I joined May's 29 Faces Challenge with Ayala Art...well today was Day 1.  I plan on doing sketches in one of my XL Mixed Media journals, then I can have them to scan and use again in various sizes in other art projects, Effy gave me this idea and I love it.

So, here's the face I drew today...

I had a few technique issues when I tried to paste her on to my BOD...I'm still learning how to integrate faces on to the page.  I ended up getting some matte medium, on her face, which I used to stick her on, ...so it gave me what I call cold spots...like in ceramics where the paint won't take.  But practice makes perfect, so this will be good practice for me.  Here's the finished spread in my book...

You know I love shimmer and glimmer...but photos never do it justice...her wings shimmer in champagne and have blue glitter throughout, so do her eyelids.  I love it!  Day 1 complete ♥

Magickal Monday Adornments~Labradorite

Labradorite is from the Feldspar family, known to crystallize in the form of masses, grains and tubular crystals, it is also known as a Spectrolite. It's color ranges from a blueish gray to a smokey black with an incredible iridescence due to the plate-like formation in shades of blues, copper, yellows and reds.  

Though it was first discovered in 1770, on the Canadian peninsula of Labrador. There is a wonderful Eskimo legend, that tells of the Northern Lights once being imprisoned in the rocks along the Labrador coast.  It is said that a wondering Eskimo warrior came upon them and was drawn to the stunning display of colors that he chose to free them from the stone with mighty blow from his spear. Not all the lights could be freed from the stone however, and thus today we have the beautiful and magickal stone known as labradorite.
  

Known to represent the "Temple of stars" it's considered a sister stone to the stunning Moonstone.  It helps us connect to the "darker" Crone aspects of the Goddess, giving us knowledge of Mystery.  Which is perfect for this time of year, as we go within and face not only our inner darkness but the dark nights coming with the season. 

It is associated with the 2nd Chakra ~ Sacral, 5th Chakra ~Throat, 6th Chakra ~ Third Eye & 7th Chakra ~ Crown.  It's most commonly known energies are the ability to repel negativity by relieving fears and insecurities, it stimulate imagination, strengthen ones will, as well as, it's ability to calm, focus, transformation, enhance intuition, boosts self-esteem, and distill patience and creativity.  Pretty cool stone huh?

Do to it's ability to help one reflect and facilitate transformation just wearing it in jewelry form, can produce some intense experiences, as it stimulates imagination and enhances intuition allowing us to  open the subconscious mind and receive.

Halloween Mummies and Bats!

I have try to create fun and different crafts around the Sabbats and around the seasons for my kids.  It's a tradition I've created with them since my daughter was born 22 years ago.  This year K and I decided to make two different Halloween crafts.  We went out to the garden earlier this week and picked some or the mini decorative pumpkins.

After cleaning them up we, painted them black!  By the way a few months ago I came across this craft mat by Ranger, which I absolutely love for my own art work, cos' I can use it as my paint pallet as well!  Anyway, it is wonderful for when we do art cos' it's an easy clean. 

We than added some googly eyes, and I cut out some foam wings and ears for the little guys.  K likes my glue dots and they did the trick on the wings.  He loved his so much, he proceeded to help it fly through out the house, before it found it's resting place on our family alter.

Then we were off to make the mummies!  These were much easier and fun to make...we took some cheese cloth and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped.

  We used large googly eyes and some of my cocoa ink to make them dirty...fun, fun, fun. 

We had a blast together and we were actually able to complete them before he lost interest, LOL.  Here's our creations!  Aren't they cute!!!

K is totally ready for Halloween we hung the leaves we made two years ago up on the window and he lined up the candle jars we made last year on the windowsill and can't wait to lite their candles.  Of course he's picked out his costume...Bumble Bee from the Transformers :)

Divination and the Pendulum

There are many forms of divination where we can access our sixth sense, from tarot to Iching to runes throwing, to name a few.  One of my favorite divination tools is the pendulum.  This is the description I provide in my shop for my Pendulums...

One of the oldest known types of divination, the pendulum consists of a weight at the end of a flexible cord, chain, etc. When held at one end, the weight will move in a variety of patterns in response to questions from the user. The ancient Romans were renowned for pendulum scrying and their methods were detailed in the writings of Roman historians. Since then the pendulum has become an effective dowsing tool, they have been used to find things like water, gold, oil - treasures and to tap into ones intuition and obtain answers to important questions. 

It's amazing how ancient this practice is, yet still practiced today.  Years ago when I had to have a well drilled on my property, the company that was most highly recommended was a company that still used dowsing to select the spot upon where to drill...pretty amazing huh?
 

The first pendulum I owned was one I had made for myself.  I made this years ago when my mentor was teaching me how to bezel stones.   We went to the Denver Stone show and I found a beautiful moonstone with a face carved on it.  I also found a gorgeous piece of Blue Lace Agate in teardrop shape.

As well some amazing Bali silver bezel and chain.

The Moonstone's energies are balancing and introspective, it's a stone of feeling and understanding through our intuition and emotional thought vs intellectual reasoning.

   

The Blue Lace Agate's energies are best used to activate the throat, heart, third-eye and crown chakras, activating these chakras helps one to enter into a high-frequency state of awareness.  So, I thought those two were the perfect combination.

As some of you know, I absolutely LOVE stones and their magickal properties, so I select my jewelry pieces to bring those particular properties/energies into my life. In my shop I enjoy working with stones and creating unique and one of a kind pieces.  From earrings to barefoot sandals and everything in between.

With Samhain on the way, which is a wonderful time for divination by the way, I wanted to share some of pendulums I have in my shop, including one of my most sought after pieces of art, (which is right up there with my Goddess pendants and my barefoot sandals)... my bracelet pendulums.  That's right, pendulums you can wear.  They say the more you carry you pendulum on you the more it becomes infused with you own personal energies...what a wonderful way to infuse your pendulum with your own energy, then to wear it!

This is my latest listing, adding to my bracelet collection

I also take custom orders, and will do my best to accommodate specific colors or stones.




Of course I have also made traditional pendulums such as these

Happy divination!

Summer Solstice Challenge ~ My Creative Process

By now, you all read my earlier post about our current Metaphysical Team challenge. There I shared with you Krystal's Magickal cabinet and the inspiration for my art piece.  Well, today you get to step into my world and follow me along as I create my art.

Recently, we moved to a new home and my studio is now a small corner of our family room, but my studio all the same.  There you will find a desk I use as my workbench and all of my supplies tucked away in drawers.  Here's a photo of my wonderful little alter that sits on a raised shelf on my workbench.

Here, I have little treasures inviting my Guides, Angels and of course my muse to join me daily as I create.  Usually, I burn some incense, Sandalwood mostly, but last year a found a wonderful Tibetan shop downtown, that carried Song of India, India Temple incense and has since become my favorite.  But, way in the background there you will see my Jasmine plant, which I've had for 8 years now, and during that time has only bloomed 3 times.  This past January it decided it would bless my home with daily blooms...yes, daily.  My family room is graced by it's exotic, alluring and sensual scent, it's just heavenly.  You can see a close up of this beautiful 8-10 petal beauty in my 365 Project collection.

So, as with all my jewelry projects I start out with prepping my wires, I use 3 sizes, small, medium and long.  Each serves it's purpose as does the different gauges I use.  I ball one end of the wire so the beads stay secure on my pieces.  As they are balled they are dropped into a pickle bath, rinsed, dried and ready to go.

 See the difference? See how shinny they become once pickled, no more fire scale on them.

Then it's creation time, I love to listen to my collection of Goddessie music, featuring my favorite Laura Powers, as well as others, like Libana, Kellianne, Pia, Celtic Women and other wonderful artists.  I move along setting out the beads in the combination that speaks to me, now that's not to say that during the beading process I don't change things around but it does give me a starting point.  During this time, sometimes new beads join in that hadn't occurred to me to use, it's all good cos' it helps the piece become richer and juicier.

So...what will I create?  How about a Forest Faerie circlet to honor the upcoming Magickal Midsummer night!


During the process I model it often, making sure the chain sits right and it's the feel I want. You'd be surprise how much math and measurements are used in creating my art...I was.

Yep, I'm happy with it, it's perfect, now on to the beading.  Each bead gets a little loop on it and twisted usually 3 times on the the various chains I use, and the ends are then tucked in tight.

This is one of the little dangles that will hang from another bead and wire loop.



Okay, almost there... I can see it coming together!

Here is it, my Forest Faerie Circlet!

I'll finish taking my shop photos, branding them with my faerie dust, then it's off to give the piece a sonic bath, to remove any residual oils and then I'll post it in my Etsy and Artfire shop.  You can also check out the Treasury I created around my Summer Solstice piece "Midsummer's Dream"




During my creative process, each piece is touched by all the elements during it's creation.  Both beads and metal coming from our beautiful Mother Earth, kissed by fire, blessed by the aromatic air from my Jasmine plant and bathed in water at the end to bring out their shine and beauty.

So, there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, for it was definitely an adventure for me; as I have never broken down the process of my creations before!

Creative Blessings!