It's Here!

Remember when I asked if you guys were ready for a book review? Well, I've just received the book in the mail! Super exciting! It's got such a pretty cover, and I've scanned the contents section, and it looks like it covers some awesome stuff! Stay tuned my friends, as soon as I'm finished reading the book, I'll be posting my review!

Ready For a Book Review?

I'll be reviewing a new book here pretty soon. I emailed Llewellyn about The Good Energy Book, and they have graciously agreed to allow me to review it. I just sent them my mailing address today, so it'll be a little while before the review is out, but I just wanted y'all to know that there's more coming!

On another note, I really want to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone from Facebook, and here on the blog, that wished me happy birthday, and all of you who have offered comforting words over the loss of my beloved baby Lily Munster. I don't know if you guys realize just how much I truly appreciate y'all. You guys unflaggingly listen to me whine and ramble, and you always have wonderful advice. Thank you so much for sticking by me through everything that's happened in the 3 years that I've been in the blogging community. You guys are some of the best friends I've ever found; I just wish y'all were local, so we could sit together and have tea on a regular basis.

Lily Munster's Video

This is the video I tried to embed in the other post. After I deleted my old facebook profile it messed up the video. Thank the gods for smart phones. I uploaded her video to youtube so I can always have it. Sadly this video is the only "fives" I'll ever get from her anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/v/Ze64ZruLZlc

I Miss My Puppy

Lily Munster passed away tonight. She got out of the yard, and got on the highway and got hit. It crushed her head, and Mom keeps assuring me that she died instantly. However, that doesn't make me feel any better. Today is my birthday ... wanna guess what the worst birthday present ever is? Your puppy in a box, buried in your front yard. I'm also about to delete my personal profile on Facebook because well, it's my birthday, and none of my so called "friends" on that profile, people I've met in real life, have said a thing about my birthday, nor have any of the cared to show up, nor have any of them mentioned anything about me losing Lily. I'll be creating a new profile, and if my friends on there actually want to continue being my friends and speaking with me, they can find me there. My Willow profile will stay the same though, so no worries there. Sadly I've gotten more birthday wishes, and apologies from my blogging friends that I've never met in real life, than I have from the people I've known in real life and that call me their friend. Anyway, in memory of Lily, and to keep her video from being deleted, I'm embedding the only video I have of her... her giving me five.

http://www.facebook.com/v/2844136347012

Another Book of Shadows Page

I thought I'd share another BOS page I just created with you guys. This is a free one for y'all to keep as yours if you like it. I just threw it together so you may not like it at all, but here it is for your enjoyment or non-enjoyment lol.



 

Click on the pic and make it it's biggest, then right click it and save it to your computer. If you guys like it, let me know, and I'll try to make more like it.

Do You Wanna Party?!

Ok guys, I've moved into my new bloggy home, and have settled in nicely, now it's time ... Time for a party! I was working on my BOS pages, and I got to thinking. In the past when I was creating a new BOS I had all kinds of things to fill my pages with. I sat down and started trying to write SOMETHING on the first page of my BOS, and nothing came to mind! I realized I've been out of things so much, I don't even remember some of my favorite spells that I used to be able to remember at the drop of a hat! I used to write spells in my sleep, and I couldn't even bring myself to write a simple spell! So the party is born.

<a href="http://motherearthsarms.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/do-you-wanna-party/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58/amberh2008_photos/blogpartybutton.jpg" border="10" /></a><br />

This blog party will be called Back to Basics, and you guessed it! We'll be going back to square one basics and building up to advanced things. I don't mean that we're going to start our seeker studies all over again, but I do plan to do a brush up thing of all basics. Now, this is what I would like from you guys ... I would love to have guest posts talking about a number of things. If you're interested in doing a guest post please click the CONTACT ME image in the sidebar and send me an email telling me you're interested, and I'll send you guys an outline of the party so you can tell me what you might be interested in writing about.

To give me time to get things together and organized, I will be starting the party on February 23. Everyone who would like to participate should be signed up with me by no later than February 20. I won't be doing daily giveaways, however at the end of the blog party I will hold a drawing of 3 names. The first winner will get to collab with me on creating their own personal BOS pages, the other 2 winners will receive their choice of any of my BOS pages available at Pagan Fancies for free! I'm creating new BOS pages everyday, and am currently trying to create a full 10 pages for one design to be offered as a full BOS!

So does this sound interesting to you guys? If so, please sign up with the inlinkz Linky below. Everyone participating, whether you're only displaying the button and reading along, or you're a guest poster, will get a link displayed under the Party Participants page! I look forward to partying with you guys!

 

A Book of Shadows

So here's the next thing I'm working on. I used to have like 20 books of shadows, one for everything I'm interested in, and a big master one that held everything I for sure wanted to keep a hold of. However, in the house fire (the one where Mom and Dad lost their house when I was at University and hung out with Miss K all the time), I lost all of them. If they didn't burn up, they were so ruined with soot and smoke they couldn't be read.

I've lived these past 2 years without any BOS, so last night, I decided to search on Etsy to see if I could buy some pages for digital download. I searched for hours and found a couple of pages that I thought were absolutely gorgeous, but I couldn't bring myself to pay $9 for just a couple of pages. I know, I'm a tightwad, and I'm quite sure those pages are worth it, because they are gorgeous. However, I got to thinking, "Why spend the money on someone else's work, when I know how to make pages like that too?" I have GIMP and have used it forever. It's what I used to use to create Blogger templates :D. So, I sat down last night and started working on my personal master BOS. There will be a couple others as well, like my herbal grimoire which will look different because I want it to look more natural, however for my master, it will just be an eclectic mix of pages.

I would now like to show off my pages that I've made so far. I only have 3 so far. The front page, a page to write on, and a spells separator page for Love Spells. If you guys like these, feel free to save them to your computer for personal use as well! Click on them to make them bigger then just save them to your computer and print to your heart's content. Be sure to tell your printer to do it without borders and it will fill a whole page! They look best on white cardstock, but look terrific on regular paper as well!







There is much more of these guys to come. I'll be making more writing pages with different quotes and some pictures and such on them, and I'll gladly share them here. Just please don't try to turn around and resell them as your own work! I've put a lot of time into these, and I'm gladly giving them away FOR FREE because I like to share. I'm fine with you guys sharing them all you want, just please be nice and give me the credit for creating them.

You Are a Witch, Really?

Y'all know something I've noticed here lately? I have a good friend, back in Amarillo, who is Wiccan. She's kinda lost in her studies and confused about a lot of things, so she turns to me for answers when she can. I've been trying to convince her to move down here, so that way we can study together and such, but so far my pleas haven't worked. Then today, I have been very introspective, thinking about what magick means to me and so forth. I've always loved magick, but in all honesty, I can be a little lazy when it comes to it, and a huge procrastinator.

On top of that, Mom was telling me that a client of hers came into the salon, and said that he can see auras and he was surprised to find someone who actually believed him. Mom quickly told him that my little brother can control static electricity and has figured out a way to heal with it, that her energy level is so high she can't wear watches because she burns the battery out of them (which was something the client has problems with as well), and that I could tell him stories that would make his hair stand on end. Did you notice something in that list of gifts? I wasn't listed as having a gift at all, just that I know things.

I've asked myself, since hearing that, what exactly are my gifts? I am a healer, always have been. I heal by touch, and I work wonders with massage, but even though Mom knew that, it almost seemed like it was unimportant, or that it was such a small gift that it didn't merit being told. To be fair, I questioned myself deeply and nearly renounced my gifts when my grandma died, because the day she died was the day I failed as a healer. However, the day Gram heard the word CANCER she quit. She started spreading her energy out through the family, giving it away, because she was done. The minute I felt that energy coming into me, I tried so hard to put it back in her. I couldn't stand feeling her life force just course away and into the rest of us, because that meant we weren't going to have her here on this side of the veil anymore, and I wasn't, and still am not okay with that. I wanted and still want her here.

However, Gram wouldn't have wanted me to renounce my gifts, and she definitely wouldn't want me to waste her energy that she forced me to keep. So, I've asked myself a million times, why don't you do that love spell that you wanted to do? Why don't you do a cleansing on Mom and Dad's house, because they definitely need it? I keep coming up with stupid reasons that I convince myself are legit, like "Oh, I don't have the supplies for it," or "The house is too damn big, I couldn't do a full cleansing in just one day." Yeah I know, stupid reasons, but any time a person comes up with paper thin reasons, there's always an underlying thing. In all honesty, since Gram died, I have felt like I'm not really a witch. I know the energies around me, and if I felt like it, I could reach out and tap into those energies, and use them for what I want, but mentally, because I couldn't save Gram, I keep thinking I'm a failure, I'm no good at working magick. I'll fail just like I did with Gram.

Sometimes I feel like a fake. I feel like I don't deserve to do magick, and that's why it doesn't get done. I question myself, and my power. Sometimes I feel like I'm not powerful enough to even effectually bless the house, which is something I used to do without even thinking about it. However, it is a new year! I refuse to give into to these problems. I refuse to self-sabotage! So, today I'm going to start with something I haven't done since back when I lived in Clarendon, where Gram is buried. I'm going to cleanse and bless this house. After that, despite the fact that I don't have the herbs that I want to work a love spell, I'm going to work a spell on myself, to rid myself of these self-sabotaging thoughts, because they are a road block to the things I want. I'm breaking free my friends! Then, when I get some money together, I'm ordering some herbs to stock my magickal herb shelf (not a cabinet, because I don't have an herb cabinet, and it wouldn't fit in my tiny cabin anyway lol). I refuse to be one of those people that has the knowledge and won't use it. So yes, I'm a witch, REALLY!

Tell Me Your Opinions

Hello my darlings! As you guys know, I run a shop called Pagan Fancies on Etsy. I'd like to get the word out a little more about my shop, so I've been considering doing a giveaway. How would you guys feel about something like that? Would y'all be interested in a little giveaway for a necklace or maybe a keychain? Let me know your opinions, so that way I can get it all planned out!

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged in this new game by Rachel over at What a Witch Has to Say. Click here to find out what all's going on! Here's the rules to this game:

Rules: 
1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them that you have tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about ‘you are tagged if you are reading this.’ blah blah blah, you legitimately have to tag 11 people!

So here we go!

My 11 random things about me:

1. I have a passion for pit bulls, and am a pit advocate.

2. I am enchanted with the idea of a vegetarian lifestyle, but love the taste of beef so much I don't think I cold change.

3. I am an active Johnny Depp fan, and try to find older movies of his that I haven't seen before.

4. I am learning to love sewing! I've always loved the idea of sewing, just have always been terrified of sewing machines until I found my miniature sewing machine.

5. I have a huge passion for super fast cars, like drag racing and such; despite the fact that they are not good for our planet.

6. I have a major black thumb, and I constantly fight against that, and am always trying to grow herbs and other plants.

7. When I graduated high school, Mom asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and I promptly told her I was going to be a beach bum living on the beach in Hawaii.

8. I have not had a romantic relationship last longer than 4 months.

9. I am currently in the process of doing dreadlocks in my hair.

10. I hate cleaning, and I usually only cook for other people. If I need to eat, popping something in the microwave works just fine.

11. I have recently learned that I love to make jewelry!

The 11 questions I need to answer:

1. What is your favorite family activity? I love when we have family game night, playing dominoes or cards. It seems to make us all feel very connected.

2. What is your least favorite holiday? Yule, and I don't really know why ... there's just something about the holiday that makes me cranky.

3. Where was your favorite family vacation that everyone enjoyed? I've not been on very many family vacations with my mom, little brother, and dad, but of the two that I remember, the one that everyone actually enjoyed was our trip to Ruidoso, NM. We stopped through Roswell which was really cool, and I loved all the small shops and such in Ruidoso. The other one we went to Colorado, which was absolutely beautiful, but it was marred by the fact that Dad kept getting lost and screaming at everyone to shut the eff up.

4. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Um ... I'm not sure on this one ... Maybe Australia?

5. If you were able to do one extreme thing what would it be? I started to learn to surf in Hawaii when I was 9, and now that I'm older, that would be one thing I would love to do, just once.

6. If you won the lottery and had multi-millions, would you continue to work? Yep, but only because I get bored when I have nothing to do, and because I love my job as a nail technician/manicurist.

7. If money were no object, where would you take your significant other? Well, I don't have a significant other, but like all females I have planned out my honeymoon, and I can't decide if I would like to go to Jamaica, Australia, or Paris.

8. If you could go back and re-do one action in your life, would you? Nope. There was a time when I thought I had a few things I would change, but as I've aged, I've realized that every action, every situation I found myself in, made me who I am today, and I wouldn't change anything.

9. What ancient, man-made structure would you like to visit? Um ... Stonehenge. I can't remember if it is man-made or not, but that's what I want to see!

10. Who is your favorite author? There's this awesome blogger called Willow Silverhorse (oh wait that's me!) lol JK! In all honesty, I don't have a favorite author. There are too many good ones to choose just one!

11. Which do you prefer, werewolves or vampires (not a Jacob vs. Edward question)? I like both werewolves and vampires, but I think my favorite would be vampires.

Okay, there's my answers :D

Now here's the questions for my tagged friends: 

1. What is one hairstyle you've always wanted to try but have stopped yourself for one reason or another, be it a different hair color, extensions, whatever?

2. What is your ideal pet, whether real, or mythical?

3. What is your favorite kind of foreign food?

4. What is your favorite herb?

5. Have you ever played a musical instrument of any kind (and that includes playing jugs, spoons, chimes, etc.)?

6. Do you have a book of shadows, and if so, what is it, such as spiral bound notebook, 3-ring binder, leather bound, etc.?

7. What is your favorite spell, if any?

8. The most positive memorable moment of your life, thus far?

9. What is your favorite movie of all time?

10. Do you have a favorite Pagan/Wiccan/Witchy book? If so, what is it?

11. Do you have, or have you ever made, a witches' bottle?

And now the bloggers I have tagged:

Magaly Guerrero of Pagan Culture

Sarita Rucker of A College Girl's Days

Aurora Brierley of The Witch Inside

Dragonfly of Witchery Grove

Serenity Raven of The Domestic Pagan

Aine of The Deepest Well

Deb at Charmed I'm Sure

Domestic Witch of Domestic Witch

Ellie of The Forgotten Muse

Mrs. B of Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom

Dana Wright of On The Broomstick

Thanks in advance to everyone who plays! I'd love to see what you guys say, so if you wouldn't mind leaving me a link to your response that would be super!

Follow Me Fridays

I've entered into the Follow Me Fridays deal over at The Domestic Pagan. I should have posted last Friday, but I think I decided to join in on it last Friday and had the best intentions to do a post and well ... as the Christians say "The road to hell is paved with good intention."

The question this week is: If you could have magickal ability like any witch from a movie or tv show, who would it be, and why?

And my answer is Sally from Practical Magic, not because she cast an awesome love spell to bring that really hunky detective to her, but because she has the power to do, and be, whatever she wants! We all have that power, just not in the Hollywood sense. I would love to have it in the Hollywood sense. Being able to light a candle without a match or lighter would be lots of fun, and if she wanted to, I'm sure she could probably clean the house with her magick! Not to mention that AMAZING herb garden and sunroom! Ugh I would kill to have that lol!

If you'd like to follow the other blogs doing this blog hop, click here! That will take you to the original post for today from The Domestic Pagan, and a list of the other blogs participating in this!

Crafts As a Form of Magick

Hello my beautiful readers! I've been working on all kinds of crafts. I'm loving my jewelry making, it's so therapeutic. I come from a family where I would show everyone something expensive I wanted, and the answer was always "We can make that instead of spending that much money it on!" When I was a kid, I took that for granted. As a cocky youth, I figured it was just because we were cheap and couldn't afford it, and we couldn't be as "cool" as the people that did buy it. Now that I'm older and understand how things work, I realize that was a horrid way of looking at things. Sometime in my teens, I realized how wonderful it was to have a family that could make things, instead of just running to the store and buying them.

However, even the cocky youth attitude didn't count for Gram. She made almost anything you could think of: soap, book bags, over night bags, jeans, shirts, she helped with making cowboy boots (which my granddad hand makes in his shop at the house), all sorts of foods, and anything under the sun! The reason the cocky youth attitude didn't count towards Gram was because that was our way of bonding. When I would spend my vacations with her, we always had some sort of craft going on. Whether we were restoring something we'd found discarded, picking out "retro" western shirts I couldn't live without, painting wall paper, sewing, embroidering, soap making, or whatever, I always looked forward to when we would start doing something crafty. There's something to be said about looking at a finished product and thinking "Holy crap, I made that!!!" The pride that comes with it is almost addicting!

Today, crafts are my therapy, and my way of finding myself. Anything that you put energy into, such as the energy of gathering your supplies, cutting, sewing, mixing, pouring, whatever, adds a bit of personal magick to everything. Anything that you've put that much energy into will always hold a piece of you, and a piece of whatever intention you had when you made it. Whether you're making jewelry to sell, or a mojo bag for yourself, everything that you put intent in, can be considered magick. Consider, while you're making that necklace to sell on your Etsy store, putting the intent for it to sell quickly, or for it to bring happiness to it's new owner. These are all just little bits of magick that you can infuse into your crafts. While it's little bits of magick, it is powerful magick nonetheless.

To My Texas Readers

If you're ever anywhere near Amarillo, there's a new group forming up there called Panhandle Pagan Community Alliance. Go to http:// www.panhandlepagans.org and check out some of the activities they have available this month! Remember this is a new group, newly forming, so there should be more great things to come!

Look What I Made!

Today was another crafty day. As part of my "finding me" journey, I've decided to try crafts that I've previously been scared of. Here is what I made today with a little help from my mom:



It's a pretty large reusable bag! I'm kinda proud of it although my sewing readers out there are probably laughing behind their hands at me for being so proud of making something so simple. Here's why it has taken me until I'm almost 24 to make something like this (with an abundance of sewing machines and fabric at my disposal mind you). I am friggin terrified of sewing machines! I know ... weird, but I am! I used to watch my grandma sew all the time and I always wanted to learn to sew with her. She tried so many times to help me learn, but my stitches come out looking like the path of a river because I'm always jerking my hand away, making sure I'm not gonna get it stuck in the damn sewing machine!

However, even though I am terrified of sewing machines, I'm actually pretty good at hand stitching (I even used to embroider when I was a teenager!) so I saw this idea at the store, picked out a bunch of awesome fabric (which btw I LOVE fabric, I'm just terrified of sewing machines, go figure), and started to leave the store. Then I got to thinking, shouldn't I start trying to get over that unnecessary fear of a sewing machine and start learning how to properly use one? I headed back to the sewing machine section (in our Walmart, the pickings are slim on machines), and found this awesome guy:



I thought to myself: "Hey, what a great way to get over my fear of sewing machines! A tiny, unimposing sewing machine that I can control myself!" This little guy is called a Stitch Sew Quick and is made by Singer (which you can clearly see in the picture). I remember Gram talking about how awesome Singer is so I thought hey why not?! It cost around $15 which was another plus because I really didn't want to spend what Walmart wanted for their other sewing machines which I figured would be tried once and then hidden in a closet or given to a friend or to Mom because of my fear of it!

Well, I brought it home, and I have to say the damn thing made me want a bigger machine! I miss Gram's machine where it was easier to put the little fabric foot thing down on the fabric, and I could control how the fabric was fed. With this guy, I have to lift the fabric foot by hand, while trying not to push the needle arm down, and get the fabric up under there, all without turning the damn thing on! Complicated pain in the behind. Then when I'm sewing with it, it tries to walk all over the table so I have to really focus on keeping it still, and I have to focus on feeding the fabric straight (and me and straight lines DO NOT GET ALONG!). Otherwise, it's actually a pretty nice machine. It stitches fairly slowly so I'm not terrified of the speed of it, my hand is nowhere near the needle while I'm feeding the fabric, and it's battery powered, and won't take up a whole crap ton of space in my tiny cabin.

All in all, I think it was worth my time. I'm just going to have to practice with it and get used to it. While I'm getting used to it, I'm thinking about making some more of these reusable bags (although those will probably be hand stitched) and selling them on the Etsy store if you guys would be interested in something like that. Anybody else out there terrified of sewing machines, or all in stitches when it comes to sewing at all?

Rebuilding Your Magickal Library

A while back, I was dating a certain Christian that was actually a very wonderful guy. However, he had never seen my magickal library. When I moved in with him, and subsequently my sister lost her apartment, rather than having to have "the talk" with him, I decided I had learned what I was going to from the current books in my library and would just get different books, so I gave them away. About two weeks after that, I started looking for a couple of certain books and was like, oh yeah, I gave them away. Fortunately I had given them to a friend so normally it wouldn't have been a big deal to just borrow the ones I missed from her, however, she had promptly lost them as soon as she took them home, in the way that magick books do, they had in essence hid from her.

She was baffled, freaking out! She was so upset that she had lost my books! I looked at her and told her that they were her books, and that magick books just have a tendency of hiding until you need them. She nearly burst into tears because she knew I was looking for those certain books and she couldn't find them for me. It was almost like instead of me giving them to her, she was holding them for me! She never got the idea that magick books tend to hide until needed, and now she lives in Dallas about 4 or so hours away from me, and I have no clue if she took them with her or not.

I have been slowly refilling my library, replacing the books I missed, and adding in new ones that call out to me. The one I was most excited to get back was Cottage Witchery by Ellen Dugan. That one is my absolute favorite book, not because it is technically a magick book, but because it has awesome decoration ideas. I've also replaced The Way of the Green Witch, and have a couple of others on my Amazon wishlist to remind myself to replace them too. Slowly but surely my magickal library is coming together. And wouldn't you know, when I first moved into my tiny cabin, as I started unpacking, I found a couple of books from my personal magickal library. Stubborn little guys refused to be given away! Have any of you done this? Decided to give your books away, and then have some show back up, or decide you'd made a bad decision?