Magical Musings

This weekend it was 100 degrees and we went out during the hottest hours of the day to a festival  called the World Beat. We would have gone earlier but my husband had to work (drives a truck and they have to get the liquor all delivered and unloaded by 4th of July :) We were really hot but it was still ok and we tried to keep cool. There was a hose there that was on and that saved us along with ice cream and shade. Melody got to dance with some Native Americans at the very end too when they invited people to do a circle dance. One dance was based from a legend about a woman from the tribe rolling tobacco, one for every day of the year. I should look and see if I can find it, but her dress had all these jingling rolls/cones on them which I thought was cool. We also liked the Zimbabwe group and Melody like the Hawaiian dancers because they changed outfits several times. She also said she wanted to dance to the flamenco with me and we got in front of the stage and she said, "no up there" pointing to the women on the stage. So we didn't dance afterall since we couldn't get up on the stage. That was fine with me.

Yesterday I went with some witch friends to an herbary and got bit 14 times by misquitos even with the natural bug spray the owner provided us to use. I guess they think the natural kind isn't as bad or something but I didn't want to use the other Deet kind being pregnant I wasn't sure. So I grabbed my six herbs, took no photos and then we headed out pretty quick. I will do an herb post this week about the ones I got and then what I am going to do with all my lavender I keep cutting from our garden.

 I did two journal pages this weekend (well Friday and Monday really) kind of quick but I was so tired for the majority of the weekend I didn't get too much accomplished around the house or creatively either.  

 

Tea Party

  We haven't participated in a blog party in a long time. I saw the invite to the fabulous tea party going on at Vanessa's and thought we would join in!

Help yourself to a very magical sprinkle cookie and a cup of tea! You might not want to drink the potion I don't know what's in it. It showed up on the tea table rather unexpectedly.

Cheers to you and have a magical weekend!

 

  

 

Rings n things

My art journal is getting bigger so I upgraded to the bigger rings that I had. The cover is still the cardboard with paint on it for now. I then used the smaller rings to make an art book for Melody. I end up with huge stacks of paintings and drawings so I figured this would be a nice way to keep them organized. I thought I would share the idea though I am sure many other people do this too. And speaking of Melody's artwork I scanned a couple of her recent "works" yesterday and thought I would share them with you too!

 

Colors

Typepad is still really slow and frustrating so I haven’t been posting much text because of it.

I am feeling fine and don’t have the back problems or depression issues I was having before. I got back on my anti depressant on the lowest dose and then after baby settled into a better spot I haven’t needed to go back for any more physical therapy either. The baby is coming out Sept. 3 assuming she waits till then. It’s a week before my due date so hopefully that will happen. We have a name but I figure I will keep it a surprise till she’s born. It seems like it’s easier to keep the gender a secret from my husband as well. Although he’s said he thinks it is a girl but he would be surprised if it’s a boy. Melody has decided she would like it to be a “girl just like her” but tends to call the baby “he” every now and then.

Anyways now that it’s summer here we have been outside most of the time. Melody waters the plants and we pick peas and strawberries in the afternoons. We played with sidewalk chalk yesterday and then she also announced that she wanted to “go inside to do collage.” She uses half a bottle of Elmer’s and insists that’s how she needs to do it so usually I just let her and then I try to spread the glue around a little bit. She sticks on precut shapes that I have punched for her or magazine clips or even yarn sometimes.

Above is a page from my art journal in some better colors. I am trying to get one done a day and then in between I stick things on the other background pages I painted. Nicer weather means I can take more photos including flowers and then alter them too!

 

Visual things

I used a newer background for this art journal page. I still need to adjust the colors I use because they aren't really bright enough and I figure they should make me happy right?

I also did some more altering of photos. I could spend tons of time if I had it doing these. There's so many ways to play around with them.

   

 

 

Summer part 2

We celebrated Midsummer this weekend and Melody got in her pool a bit. The purple cake turned out ... well purple and I sprinkled lavender on top too. Melody got a little mixed up on which utensil to use for the cake! We had veggie stir fry, egg foo young pie, green salad, strawberry shortcake, peach pie, purple cake and ice cream to eat after the ritual.

 

Flowers

The full moon altar turned out pretty and we did a flower fairy meditation outside while inhaling the scent of rose, lavender and snapdragons. I have so much lavender to still cut and try to dry and more on the way. I want to make herbal wreaths for gifts for extended family this year because I usually do something homemade. Then I forget to think in advance and in the Winter don't have herbs to use and twist onto wreaths.

Happy Summer! Today is the Summer Solstice finally and it's in the low 80s here. It's supposed to cool off to 70 for the next week I think but a few days of 80s and 70s are fine with me. We have been picking strawberries and peas in the afternoons and I have my first batch of strawberry jam almost finished from our own berries.

I saw this idea on Crafty Crow and thought it was a cool idea for a game

to make for kids. I have the same square punch already so I will have to try it out! We had been playing Candyland everyday but I finally got bored with it and put it away for awhile. Melody kind of cheats anyways. :)

Summer

"Then followed that beautiful season... Summer.... 
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood."

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~~

 

Hand

I finished this weird painting this morning. I cut off the edge of part of it when I scanned it. I drew a whole bunch of odd things last week on watercolor paper and have 3 more to color still.The pinkish one is the original that's altered in Photoshop.

Sacred Suzie is doing her monthly dreamboard round-up on her blog today. I used my house of goals I did in my journal the other day for this. The idea is as the moon is waxing you start to get your goals or intentions for the coming month in order and then make a collage or board of sorts so it's ready on the full moon to come true! I said that I wanted to make some more "art" and sell it as part of my goal and it already came true. I sold a collage and then some jewelry as well this week! Of course the collage was to Suzie but I am still counting it! I hope everyone's wishes comes true in this next moon cycle.

Tonight's Goddess we are celebrating is Aine, the fairy Queen. We are also going to do a flower fairy meditation too. I will try to remember to take a photo of the altar to share tomorrow.

Going

Going along with the phase of the moon as it's almost full I have been trying to focus on what I want to have manifest. I wrote down things in my written journal and then also wrote on a small piece of paper and made it into another house for an art journal page.Sort of a dream house that encases your wishes if you will!

I was able to make a small batch of soap and shared the process on my other blog. It is still hard to figure out topics sometimes and where they should go. Soap is a craft but yet it is also useful to have for the home so I put it there for now.

The full moon on Wednesday is our fairy moon and then Friday night for the solstice I plan to light a small fire outside and then use the ashes in the garden to speed things along in there. It's even good luck to bring the ashes indoors for good luck too so I will have to find a muslin baggie for that. I always save the ashes from the Yule log to use when relighting it the following year so this seems to make sense. Sunday will be our circle ritual and feast. Melody just realized that you can have a party without it being someone's birthday. I told her we would have a Happy Summer party and sing and do some drumming and then eat and she requested a purple cake too. I think I can do a recreation of Auntie Katie's purple frosting she made and then add some of my lavender on top too!