literally on the library hold shelf

Aaah a library list. Yes I still frequent the library.  Sometimes I leave with so much stuff that I don't remember requesting it!  I've been getting a lot of movies lately.  Especially of the Alfred Hitchcock variety.  Rear Window remains my favorite.  Also... did you ever see the movie Mr. Brooks?  Oh my.  Good flick.  Here's what I'm waiting for currently.

music

I feel I've always had a love of music of all kinds.  I love everything from bluegrass, soul, gospel, 90's rap, hippie, folk, country, Sinatra ( who IS in a class by himself), Christmas music (which I have been listening to since June) and much more.  I pulled up folk on Pandora this week.  I found a new crush of genre.  My new favorite song, among others, is this.

I just want it to be a summer day.   Hot... barely swinging in my hammock in the Oasis listening to this.


I also found 98.5 FM on my radio.  A listener supported radio so no commercials.  LOVE that.  I hear anything from folk to bluegrass to The Band.  It eases my soul in traffic and sitting still.  I wrote this this week...

  I want to be comfortable in my own shell
  I want to be the skirted, long-haired gardener
  Comfortable, make my brew and drink it
  Live it always, give in to who I am - not go along
  Do what I want, breathe deeply
  Take it all in - my surroundings, my creations, may garden, my world
  Accept the calm and welcome it - settle down
  and be content, breathe the air
  Learn to listen to the wind, speak my language
  taste my sin, listen to the birds
  Allow for time to sit down
  let the stillness calm me
  to enjoy laid back music w/ no angst

It's a journal entry of mine.  It's not finished.  I will continue to add to it as I feel it.  It is written in pencil.  I love a good pencil entry in my journal.  It feels different somehow.  It's permanent, yet not.

5 etsy finds

I find myself very lucky to already own two pieces of Bell Trading Company's copper jewelry.  Mine came from my beautiful Aunt Ann who most likely bought it straight from the business in New Mexico in the seventies.  Not that these are terribly valuable or extremely hard to find.  I typed in THIS search on Etsy today and found quite a lot.  I am sure Ebay has a lot as well.  HERE is a brief history of the Bell Trading Company.  Their pieces are fantastic and well made.  The two pieces that I have from my Aunt are below.  I always get compliments when I wear them.  Which is often.

a black friday walk in the woods

Yesterday, Kate and I decided to go for a walk.  How can you ever feel lonely in nature?  As soon as I topped butterfly hill looking down at the creek I noticed all of the activity going on.  Little wrens and winter birds fluttering everywhere.

I am not a fan of winter.  I have to approach it very carefully because I let it get the best of me sometimes.  I have to pick out the things that I like about it.  I like finding nests in trees and shrubs where winged families were raised over the summer.  I like wearing a coat at the beginning of our walk and halfway through removing it because I am burning up from trekking up and down hills.  I like taking a seat on the ground or a tree stump and just listening and looking at what's going on right outside my door.  I like being able to spot deer through the trees running from my presence in their world.

I also like to string white Christmas lights throughout my home for illumination because it gets dark so early.  I do leave them up past the holidays.  But what really gets me through the winter is knowing spring is right behind it.  And soon I will be mushroom hunting and spotting new blooms with every step of my world here.  It is a wonderful place.

Oh how the swimming hole changed from the last hurricane rain.  Maybe it will hold more water next summer!

The red bud pods look like fringe on this one.  How pretty!!

I was truly only gone about an hour and when I got back... Kitty had paid her rent.

a peek inside my spell book

A peek inside my spell book.  Not so much spells... those are generally uttered silently and concocted when alone.  No evidence of them on paper.  These are more of natural recipes that I use or have used since I got my little book HERE.  I love her new one with the skull on it.  I figure it will take me years to fill this one up.  I created a new "Winter Tea Bath" this morning.  Since the heat in the house has been turn on my skin feels like  it went from a summer time plump grape to a shriveling raisin... itching all the way!  Even though I use very good lotion with argon oil and all the good stuff... it still isn't enough.  "Eat more fish" I am hearing in the back of my mind right now.  Hmmm that is a thought.

That is supposed to be tea BAG not back.  I do that a lot,  Write the wrong words.

Calendula tops from my garden.

Rose pedals from my rose bush.

My medicine cabinet.

I'm off to enjoy my bath!

what doin

What doin... that's the text I get when my friend Kim is wanting to drink coffee and talk on the phone.  I love it.  What have I been doin?  A little of this... a little of that....

Last Sunday I went arrowhead hunting with my friend Gilbert up by the Red River in Milldale, TN.  Didn't find any complete ones but dang it was fun.  I could walk around looking at the ground all day.  This is the only picture I took that day.  There are tons of round rocks on the hillside that have flint inside.  I was very impressed.

Here are my findings.

You know I am a big sucker for this stuff.  Quartz.  I have a lot of it that I find in our woods.  This was from Milldale and the rose was from my birthday.  The honey bear belly from the old house Shaun tore down at the street where the trailer sits now.

This is what the scenery went from and to in one week.

This morning I made Fire Cider.  A natural folk remedy for winter time junk.  Recipes found HERE and HERE  Beautiful pictures of the making of mine here....

I asked for this record for my birthday and my lovely family came through for me.  I ordered Shaun an Elvis Christmas record that should be here today.  His birthday is Wednesday.  If he sings Christmas songs... which is rare... but it's always Elvis.  Unless he does that Porky Pig version of Blue Christmas.

But Ella Fitzgerald is what I am loving on and listening to.

And Honey... I'm just waitin on you.  

And that's.... what doin.

aging a funkin

I ventured into Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and although my Witch's Kitchen is complete they had funkins on sale for 40% off.  So what did I do?  I bought me another one.  This time an orange one.  Just incase I decided to make another diorama in the future.  If not, I have a pumpkin to sit around for the season.  

When you first buy fake pumpkins I feel they look a bit too fake.  You have to put a little age on them.  It's really easy to do and all you need is a little dark brown craft paint, a paint brush and some paper towels.  You dip your brush in paint and swoop in sections because the paint dries fast.  Make sure it gets in all the cracks and before it dries wipe the sections with paper towel.  A damp paper towel is also needed.  The dry one sometimes doesn't wipe it off as good.  Waalaa!  Aged funkin!!

Much Better!!!

theme songs

I feel like this post deserves a bit of a British accent.  I am a BBC nut.  I actually look up BBC at the library and rent BBC shows.  I love them.  I think it may be a heritage thing.  Something deep within that I feel a connection with.  At the same time, I have several shows that peak my interest and tickle my heart strings at the mere sound of the show's beginning.  My most favorite, as of late, is The Great British Baking Show.  I picked up season four after work yesterday and as soon as I got home and got to work in my kitchen the show came on  and my stress of the day immediately melted away.  This isn't the first show that melts my nerves away.  I have a few and there theme songs are as follows...

The Great British Baking Show

Doc Martin

Downton Abbey

Keeping Up Appearances

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

And on the more American side...

Sex and The City

The Golden Girls

Will & Grace

The New Girl

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I have to go now.  I am cooking supper, my new Rumba "Selma" is vacuuming and I was just told that my shirt is on inside out.

What the?!?!?! I've got my British Baking Show to watch on top of all of this!!!

XOXO my lovelies

of spells and potions

with off and on rain all morning, I woke up a little hot as we slept with the windows open and fans on.  it's nice... I always like to say "you can't do this in February" or when my friend teener and I are riding around the farm "ladies in new York ain't doing this right now".  it's nice, with not so many lights on, a slight breeze tickling through the house.

I have a little bit of fun with spells from time to time.  it's just a person thing that I share with very few.  I'll whip one up at the beginning of each year that include things that I hope for in the new year, things I want to accomplish, a calm peaceful year, creativity and so forth.  I have been known to teach one to conjure a love spell or two and lately have been thinking of making one up to help keep myself youthful looking... good luck with that right!  but hey, what can it hurt?

I found the following on the internet yesterday.  and while these are fantasy kid kits I think they are brilliant and beautiful and I wish I would have thought of it years ago.  the woman is a damn genius.

her sight is called moonandmothmagic

Click HERE to be directed to the potion for the picture above.