3/26/2010

The Power of Air

I'm back at my mom's until tomorrow and like most typical west Texas days, the wind is blowing like crazy. Some people underestimate the power of air. A lot of people take breathing and light breezes for granted because you get so used to having normal breezes and breathing is an involuntary action, but try walking outside on a day when the wind is blowing so hard that every exposed area of skin is sandblasted and tender to the touch after five minutes of standing outside and you quickly learn a new respect for air.

When I was 19 living on the ranch with Grandma and Granddad we had a tornado pass through the area. Thankfully the damage was minimal in town, and it didn't even come close enough to the house to be a threat, but it did pass close enough that Granddad and I stood out on the front porch and watched it twist and twirl. That was, hands down, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We'd heard on the news that the tornado was headed our way. Gram and I said in tense anticipation for the moment when Granddad would tell us to run for the hole, everything outside seemed to be holding it's breath with us, and even the earth seemed to be waiting.

It was almost like in the movies when everything goes still and the world waits in tense anticipation. Eventually we heard it coming up the highway which seemed so weird to me because the highway is about three to five miles away from the house. It was the strangest sound ever. One of those sounds you will never forget and you will definitely never associate it with anything else but a tornado. It roared and sucked it's way along the highway and Gram got even more tense.

After a while Gram and I realized that we didn't know where Granddad was. Terror was evident in Gram's eyes. I made her stay at the kitchen table because it would've been easier for me to get to her there if I had to drag her to the hole, and I went in search of Granddad. I found him on the other side of the house standing in his long rain slicker, old beat up cowboy hat staying solidly in place despite the wind that shoved me around, and a mesmerized look on his face.

"What are you doing Granddad?"

"Watchin' that tornado. Where's your Grandma?"

"Sittin' at the table scared that you're dead."

"Well run, go tell her that I'm fine and get her to come watch this with us."

"Yes sir."

And off I go to tell Gram that her soulmate is standing on the front porch watching the tornado and wants to share the experience with us. Now you need to remember that Gram married Granddad when she was 16 and Granddad has done his best to protect her from scary stuff, so it was only natural when she walked up to Granddad and said:

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Don't worry honey, it's far enough away it's not gonna affect us. Just stand here and watch this with me."

So I need to tell you guys that I am one fearless chick (but only when Granddad says it's safe) so I step out on the porch with Granddad. Gram stayed behind the screen door and some how she positioned herself so she could grab both of us by the back of our slickers. Granddad and I stand in silent awe for about two minutes. I can feel Gram's hand shaking through my slicker which meant if I could tell she was shaking Granddad had known for quite a while that Gram was scared. Granddad took a step back, enough that he could hold Gram's hand without yanking her arm out of socket. We stood together as a family and watched the tornado spin, then suck back up into the clouds, then drop back to the ground and spin again.

Personally that was an amazing experience. I was so amazed by it all. To be honest I got a rush from being so close to something that can cause so much damage. Getting to watch it with my grandparents, the two people who mean the most to me in the world was a blessing in itself. Even now I can be sitting in my truck while the wind is blowing and feel it lift the tail end of my truck up and I remember that time. It's strange how wind has it's own ways of making people take notice of it.

3/23/2010

I Miss My Horse

I made the chicken masks last night. I didn't get to hide in Mr. Sci-fi's closet and scare Mr. Cup because Mr. Cup went hunting with a friend of ours, we'll call him Mr. Whatever, instead of going dancing with me. I'm a little upset with Mr. Cup but Mr. Sci-fi tells me I'm just kind of over doing being upset because the hunting thing was a last minute deal and Mr. Cup had been sick so Mr. Sci-fi thought being outside in fresh air, instead of in the smoke filled air of the bar, would do him good. It's quite possible that I'm just making it more than what it is because I started my birth control yesterday, and I started that time of the month last Saturday. So that's just an attack of the hormones if you ask me lol.

Me and the girls, Ma'am Sam, the other Amber, and Ma'am Sam's roommate Miss Wolfie went to the cowboy bar by ourselves. The mood I was in then was not conducive to having a fun girl's night out. I tried to smile and enjoy myself but I was so upset with Mr. Cup because I didn't have anyone to dance with other than Ma'am Sam and although I love Ma'am Sam, it's kind of weird dancing with another girl. We stayed at the bar for a little while then Ma'am Sam and I went to a guy friend's room, I guess we'll call him Mr. Giant, and watched the third Ice Age.

What I really want to know is this, why is it that every guy I meet, minus Mr. Cup, wants nothing to do with me, or wants to mess around with me while they keep other girls on the string? What the heck is wrong with me? I ask people that all the time and no one ever has an answer other than, "Well I like you," but they don't want to be with me. But that's not the point of this post, sorry for getting off track.

My horse Penny, is seven hours away from me. You guys saw the picture of her. It's a nice warm day with a wonderful breeze, and I really wish I could go out riding. I miss Penny so much. I just can't afford to keep her all the way down here, and my trailer needs a new floor, which I will be replacing this summer if I have any say in it. I really miss being able to walk out the door, saddle up, and ride across the ranch whenever I want to. I really want to go home, not to my mom's house but home home. Maybe I'll get to soon.

3/22/2010

Urban Rodeo

I have to share this thing from YouTube with everyone. These are actually some of my friends. Obviously they don't mind having their names on the internet and they don't care if I share them on my blog so check out their silly thing they do called Urban Rodeo.

The Chicken Mask

Well, I said I would do it, and it is my project for today. I am finally making the infamous chicken mask and hiding in Mr. Sci-fi's closet to scare the crap out of Mr. Cup! I spent the weekend at my mom's house so I didn't get to post anything all weekend but I came up with the idea of making three chicken masks, one for me, one for Mr. Sci-fi, and one for Mr. Cup. This is going to be so much fun! I cannot wait to scare Mr. Cup, I just hope he doesn't punch me straight in my chicken nose. I'll share pictures of the masks later and I'll share the story of everything but I just had to tell you that I will be in the process of making my chicken masks today, I couldn't keep it to myself! Also, there's still time for you guys to enter the fiftieth post giveaway.

Self Empowering Mondays: Do Something About It!

Okay, so far in the Self Empowering Mondays, I've talked about positive affirmations, and shared one of my personal meditations with you, so now I want to talk about regular things you can do as well. As I mentioned last week, if you have deeper issues that need to be handled with a professional please seek professional help. We'll discuss ways of handling the darker side later.

As for now, if you're down in a slump it's always good to get out and do something. Are you married with an infant, or a toddler, and have fallen into a romantic slump? Hire a babysitter, put on some makeup, and go out dancing, to dinner, or to a movie, whatever brings the spark back. Are you in school like me, and have fallen into a slump where you roll out of bed ten minutes before class and it takes you five minutes to walk there? Try taking one night where you can go out with friends, put on something drop dead gorgeous, and dance to your hearts content. Or try taking a weekend off where you do absolutely nothing, catch up on sleep, read a book that is unrelated to school work, watch tv until your brain turns to mush, just don't do anything that has to do with school for that weekend (except Sunday if you have homework due on Monday).

Just like when you're doing Spring Cleaning, it's always good to do Spring Cleaning on yourself. So you've been sitting around inside waiting for the warm weather to come back and now things are stuffy and you feel a little down. Take time to clean your house and work on getting the energy back to where it needs to be. Go out for walks and take in the beauty of nature reawakening around you. Maybe consider finding a yoga class to join. I always feel great after a wonderful night of dancing at the cowboy bar with Mr. Cup, Mr. Sci-fi, and whoever else will dance with me. Or try something Miss K does a lot, go out in your vehicle, turn on some of your favorite music and just jam out. Go wild and crazy, it doesn't matter what people are thinking about you, just jump up and down in the seat, scream the words at the top of your lungs, and enjoy it.

You can also set aside time to go outside and meditate. Do you have a favorite place that is comfortable and peaceful to you? Go to it once a day or a few times a week, and breathe in the atmosphere around you. Meditate for a while using one of your favorite meditations, and feel the balancing effect nature has on you. If you are lucky enough to be able to start a garden, work in your garden. There's nothing more fulfilling, calming, and balancing than working with the earth.

You can do spells, positive affirmations, and meditations until you turn blue but nothing is going to change in your life until you decide you want to do something about it. So this week, go out and do something about it. Try some of the things I've mentioned here or find things that make you happy. Until you start to learn that people do love you and that you are a wonderful part of this world, you'll always be down. Remember, many people may expect you do be many things, but I want you to be empowered!

3/18/2010

Why Do People Get Drunk And Fight?

Well, I survived the night at the bar. I cross my heart and promise that I only had one beer which was bought for me by a guy that goes to school here with us from Louisiana, we'll call him Mr. Cajun. Mr. Cajun is 24 years old, about 3 inches shorter than me and tiny, when he gets drunk he apparently thinks he's Casanova, and a billy bad ass all together. You can say ass on a pg-13 blog right?

Anyway, Mr. Cajun and Mr. Cup almost got into a fight over me and it's not what you think. I had asked Mr. Cup to dance because he is my only dance partner, I don't ask anyone else to dance. Mr. Cup may dance with a couple other girls, but I only dance with him. Last night I danced with one other guy twice that was very drunk and kept telling me he lives on a ranch and only comes to the bar once per month over and over. He even forgot my name as soon as I told him it. Anyway, back to the fight. Mr. Cup told me he didn't want to dance just yet because he was tired. I didn't blame him, we both had been dancing a lot. He'd had eight dances, four of which were mine.

So I tell Mr. Cup that it was okay, we'd just find another song later, no big deal. Mr. Cajun jumps up and grabs my hand, so I thought he was trying to get me to dance with him. Instead he pulls me off the bench I'm sitting on next to Mr. Cup and grabs Mr. Cup and tells him he needs to go dance with me. Both Mr. Cup and I tell him it's no big deal, we've already handled it, and we'll dance a little later. Well, even though we both told him it was fine, Mr. Cajun took it upon himself to tell Mr. Cup that he was being rude to me and that he was disrespecting me by not dancing with me the minute I asked.

Well, the next thing I know, Mr. Cajun is in Mr. Cup's face, yelling at him about not dancing with me. I have one hand on Mr. Cup's arm saying, "It's okay sweetheart, don't worry about it, it's not worth it," and another hand on Mr. Cajun's chest saying, "You need to calm down. We've already discussed it, it's no big deal, he's just tired." I'm shoving Mr. Cajun back, Mr. Cup is looking up at me with those eyes that tell me he's about to get up and go off. Then tiny Mr. Cajun decided to shove against my hand to try to get closer to Mr. Cup.

Mr. Cup did not like that at all and got up, despite me telling him I'm okay and it's nothing to get upset about. So now I'm standing between both of them, my hand still on Mr. Cup's arm, the other hand still on Mr. Cajun's chest. Now there are no more words, just those looks that people get in their eyes when their either going to kick someone's ass or have their ass handed to them. I start speaking low soothing words to Mr. Cup, handling him like I would a spooked horse, my hand stroking his cheek, his arm, all the time talking, talking, "It's okay sweetheart, calm down, it's not worth it, just let it go," low and calm. As I'm talking and working my hands, I slowly start moving Mr. Cup backwards away from Mr. Cajun. I'd almost succeeded then Mr. Cajun said and did something really stupid.

I had been completely focused on Mr. Cup because to be completely honest if anyone was going to lose it was going to be Mr. Cajun and I wanted to dissuade Mr. Cup from basically beating up a midget. I shouldn't have done that, I should have at least kept some of my attention on Mr. Cajun and not had my back to him but I always thought he was the kind of guy that wouldn't charge at someone with their back turned. Anyway, Mr. Cup is starting to calm down, he's still angry but that look is now almost completely gone, then right as I'm watching, the look slams right back into place, that's the only way I can explain it, just like BAM! Ass kickin' eyes. I turn to see what he's so angry about and Mr. Cajun is right behind me and about to hit Mr. Cup over my head screaming, "Bring it on mother effer," insert the correct bad word there, I'm pretty sure that one's unacceptable for a PG-13 blog.

Thankfully, some other guy came up and grabbed Mr. Cajun because I still had Mr. Cup and that stopped the fight altogether. However, I almost hit Mr. Cajun myself. Mr. Cajun should not have tried to hit Mr. Cup with me standing between them. In my eyes, that's disrespectful and cause for me to get into the fight too, instead of trying to stop it. Thankfully the guy that helped came in at just the right time and no one got hit.

A little while after the fight Mr. Cup apologized to me for it. I wasn't even mad at Mr. Cup. I also told him I almost hit Mr. Cajun myself, but then again, Mr. Cup knows I always have his back in any kind of fight. I told Mr. Cup if anyone needed to apologize to me it was Mr. Cajun. After that we were sitting on the bench, me between his legs, with my head on his knee, and I looked at him and told him that I really do love him and that I really am going to marry him one of these days. He said, "Yeah, one of these days," and I told him I was just trying to let him get his wildness out and he agreed there too. I just hope that he knows I was serious. But that was the craziness of my St. Patrick's Day.

3/17/2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2010

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day so far. Today for me has been pretty good. All of my friends are dressed in green and we'll be going out to the local cowboy bar tonight for some dancing, pool, music, and fun. Silly Miss K is running around in a green Bud Light Lime tank top and green Mardi Gras beads lol. I was wearing a lime green shirt but I didn't like it so I found a green t-shirt that has the name of my school on it and am wearing it now. You all should be proud of me ... I actually fixed my hair today instead of just throwing it in a ponytail.

There's a guy here at school, we'll call him Mr. Cup, that spent all of my Spring Break at my parents' house with me. He's wearing a red western shirt with a little green ribbon tied on his arm. I'm not sure who dressed him because he's color blind but he looked like a cowboy advertisement for The Perfect Western Christmas lol. He's been threatening to hide in my closet with nothing but a chicken mask on and jump out and get me. Well, today he hid in the bushes and pretended to get people who weren't wearing green. It was absolutely hilarious. When he got in the bushes he took a flying leap and landed on them on his back and the bush kind of just sucked him into it. Miss K asked him to do it again but he said it hurt too much because the bush apparently stabbed him in the chest for jumping on it lol.

I wish I could talk to you guys about mine and Mr. Cup's relationship because I would love to get your advice on the weird situation but there's so much to it that it's complicated to explain. So I guess I'll just tell you guys that I never thought I would like him as more than a friend but then Spring Break happened and I got to see the true him and I really liked what I saw. My mom and dad really love him, he spent both weekends of Spring Break at my house, and my little brother has bonded with him big time. I've dated guys seriously in the past, I've been engaged 3 times, and little bro didn't get attached to any of them the way he has to Mr. Cup.

Mr. Cup is really bad about saying one day that he considers me to be his big sister (because I'm 2 years older than him), and then the next day doing things like grabbing my butt then kissing me on the cheek and telling me he loves me. He's taken to calling me sweetheart and telling me to have sweet dreams every night. He thanked me for introducing him to my parents, and he'll be going with me to my grandparents' house for the Fourth of July for the local rodeo we have. And when he's at my parents' house he never wants to leave. I know all of that sounds like nothing once it's written down but there is much more that I just don't have room to write.

During the weekdays of Spring Break he stayed with his parents and he called me one night and couldn't talk for very long because he'd been out til five that morning and needed sleep. I asked him why in the world he would be out that late and he had had a final fling with his first love. I wasn't jealous of that because believe me, I completely understand. If I had a chance for a final fling with my first love I would definitely take it so there was no jealousy there. Then we got back to school and he started talking to this girl, we'll call her Miss Fox (some people seem to think she looks like Megan Fox and she doesn't look like her at all).

Miss Fox is really mean to him. The other night he watched a movie with her and she took his cell phone away from him and made him sleep on the couch. He is a very sweet and respectful guy, wonderful manners, so I don't really understand why she thinks she can treat him like that. I get really jealous when I think about him spending time with her. I don't even know why I'm getting jealous. I mean I'm 22 years old, not entirely prone to flights of fancy, we're not together right now, so what reason do I have to be jealous? I don't understand where this emotion is coming from. Even Miss K doesn't really understand, Mr. Cup's roommate doesn't even understand it (meaning the entire situation, not the jealousy part), because Mr. Cup has different ways of going about getting a girl, and he's not using any of those tactics with me but Mr. Cup's roommate, we'll call him Mr. Sci-Fi, can see that there's something there. I wish I could figure it out. I really wish I could read minds lol. But I guess I'm going to end this now. I hope everyone has a wonderful St. Patty's Day, and I'll see you call later!

3/16/2010

And Another Award LOL

I'm sort of excited about getting two awards in that many days! This is the Sunshine award.  Sarita over at A College Girl's Days gave it to me! Now I'm even more proud of my little blog here!


Here are the rules:

1) Place the award on your blog or within your post.
2) Pass the award on to twelve Sunny Bloggers -- those whose positivity and creativity inspire others!
3) Link to the nominees in your post.
4) Tell the nominees they've received the award by commenting on their blogs.
5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

So the 12 people I want to pass the award on to are:

1. Amber over at Airing My Dirty Laundry One Sock At a Time.
2. Boo over at Peek-A-Boo.
3. Dessa over at Heartsease Hollow.
4. The lady over at The Vintage Sage.
5. D. Suplicki over at The Whimsical Cottage.
6. Mariko over at The Hedge Witch's Garden.
7. Domestic Witch.
8. Mrs. B over at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom.
9. Tiffany over at Diary of a Natural Witch.
10. Mama Feoneafey's KitchenWitchen World.
11. Luna Petunia at Spelled With a W.
12. Silvermoone over at The Goddess Within.

Photo Game

I got tagged by Sarita over at A College Girl's Days.

The rules are:

1) Open your first photo file

2) Scroll to the 10th photo

3) Post the photo and tell the story behind it

4) Tag five more people

 This picture was taken over Thanksgiving break. I wanted a couple pictures of my horse and I went out to take the pictures of Penny and her friend June Bug, and Penny got curious about the camera. She got right next to it and I quickly snapped this picture. Sadly this is the best picture from that day.

Anyway, this is my Penny Lynn. She's 9 years old, registered in the APHA as paint breeding stock because all the way down her dam's line is paint, and all down her sire's side it quarter horse.

Now, the five people I tag are:

1. Nydia over at Bringing Up Salamanders
2. Amber over at Airing My Dirty Laundry One Sock at a Time
3. Boo over at Peek-A-Boo
4. Magaly over at Pagan Culture
5. And Dirgesinger over at Shadowed Paths

My 50th Post!

In honor of my 50th post I'm offering 6 of my personal books about Wicca. They survived the house fire last October so some of them have a faint smoky smell but they are all in great condition. They were not damaged other than the smell of smoke.


The first book is:
Living Wicca: A Further Guide For The Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham

This book has a faint smell of smoke but the smell should dissipate with use. I haven't opened this book since the fire other than to clean it and check it's pages. The pages are in wonderful condition. There are no marks, dog ears, or loose/missing pages.

The next book is:
Green Magic: The Sacred Connection To Nature by Ann Moura

This book is also in perfect shape; however, it also has a faint smoke smell. There are no marks, no dog ears, and no loose/missing pages in this one either.

Third is:
Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore, & Herb Craft by Ann Moura

 This one is also in good condition the smoky smell is extremely faint on this one. Actually with all of them Miss K had to literally stick her nose inside the book to get a whiff of smoke. This book has some underlining in it but it is all in pencil and can easily be erased. As with the others there are no dog ears or loose/missing pages.

The pencil markings you see here are the heaviest in the book. The markings are only in the first chapter and most are only one or two lines long although there are one or two pages like this where a few things have been underlined.

The Fourth is:
The Craft: A Witch's Book of Shadows by Dorothy Morrison

This one again has the smoky smell however as I've stated none of them are bad. You cannot smell it while just casually reading. You can only smell it if you literally stick your nose in it. There are no marks, no dog ears, and no loose/missing pages.

Fifth is:
To Stir a Magick Cauldron: A Witch's Guide to Casting and Conjuring by Silver Ravenwolf

This book has a little bit of cover damage but not from the fire. The damage is from being read all the time lol. My mom was really bad about bending the front cover around behind the back of the book to hold it one handed and read it. It has no underlining but there is a weird smudge on the very first page of the book that has been there since I bought it off Amazon.com, and the binding at the top needs to be taped or something to that extent.

This is the weird smudge I was telling you about on the very first page. It doesn't affect readability or anything like that.

This is the binding that I was telling you about. Other than these blemishes I've shown you there are no others, no marks, no dog ears, and no loose/missing pages.


And the last but certainly not least is:
Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland

This one actually has the faintest smoke smell. Miss K didn't smell anything in this one. There is no underlining, no dog ears, no loose/missing pages. However, this is the first edition printed in 1986, not the updated one currently available at Barnes & Noble and Hastings.

So those are the books. And I'll pick one winner and they get to pick which books they want, then if there are any left over, I will pick a runner up to choose out of the rest. Hopefully there won't be any left over after that but if so I will draw one more name and let them choose as well. You have until April 10th at Midnight to enter.

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To enter:
Leave a comment here for two (2) entries.
Blog about it then come back here comment and leave the link for another entry.
Display my Self Empowering Mondays button, leave a comment with a link for another entry.
Display the button for this giveaway, leave a comment with a link, for another entry.

That gives you a total of five entries if you do all of the above. On April 10th I will write down all the people who entered and put all the names in a hat and have Miss K draw a winner. After that I will contact the winner either by their blog or email and you then have three days to contact me and pick your books. If I have not heard from you within three days a new winner will be drawn.

I've never done a giveaway before so this is sort of a test. Once Ahna gets better, there will be a giveaway once a month from here on out and hopefully I will have things smoothed out by then. Thank you to all my wonderful readers and brightest blessings!

Happy Tuesday!

Well, today here in Texas it is a little cold but you can taste Spring in the air. To be 100% honest I woke up in a bit of a bad mood but things seem to be getting better now lol. I've gone through the books that I want to use in my 50th post giveaway and hopefully you guys will be interested in them. And I've figured out how it's going to work out as well, I think ... I don't have much time to write about them at the moment because Miss K and I are about to go do some laundry at the laundromat but after I get back, I'll write the amazing 50th post! Okay, so it may not be that amazing but the fact that my little blog has hit 50 posts and 24 readers is a big accomplishment to me lol. I'm glad everyday when I pull up my blog and see all my readers and everything. It makes me so proud lol. Thank you to everyone who reads and contributes here, you guys make life fun!

So, I now need to think about what I want to write about in my 50th post. Shall we talk about St. Patrick's Day which is tomorrow? Shall we talk a little bit about tarot? Green witchcraft? Aphrodite? I'm not quite sure but I will figure out something to talk about. I wish I made stuff like Ahna and Jenny and Luna Petunia over at Spelled With a W, then I could do something like the first 6 people to comment on the 50th post would get something special, but alas I am not a crafty person (only crafty like a fox my friends lol). Oh well, must not fret over things like that. However, I am open to your opinions on the giveaway. I still haven't heard from Ahna, the last time I talked to her was about 3 days ago and she was saying she felt like she had the flu. So I hope you guys are cool with me doing a book giveaway instead. Leave your comments and let me know what you think!

Airing My Dirty Laundry, One Sock At A Time

I just found a really great blog that I wanted to share with everyone. I've only read three posts on the first page of the blog but I am already IN LOVE lol. The writer's name is Amber (like me lol) and she is absolutely hilarious. If you guys want to check her blog out head on over there and see what she's saying.

Photobucket

This is not a feature blog thing like Mrs. B does, I just ran across it and thought it was so fun that I had to share it. Also, I now have about 2 more posts to do until my 50th post and as promised there will be a giveaway in honor of my 50th post; however, Ahna is feeling a little under the weather, and I haven't been introduced to Jenny yet to discuss working up a giveaway with her so this is what I thought about doing, let me know what you think: I have a few books here at the dorm that I don't use anymore, they're just sitting around on the bookshelf. What better way to honor them than to give them away to people who will love them as much as I do? I need to go through them and write down some things I want to keep but after I do that, when I start the giveaway, I'll post titles and all that. I'll either do it as a bulk giveaway or have a grand prize winner that gets 2 or three books and maybe one or two runners up that get one book per person. Haven't worked that part out yet lol. Anyway, just let me know what you think :D

The Blog's First Award!

Julie over at The Domestic Witch bestowed the Beautiful Blogger award to me and I am so honored to receive this! As you've noticed, there are no other awards just yet and I am so so proud of this first award! Thank you so much Julie! You are the best!


Here are the rules of the award:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.


Seven Things About Myself:

1. I love thunder and lightning.
2. I listen to all kinds of music but absolutely love country, most especially Texas country.
3. I used to play clarinet and trumpet.
4. I love going to rodeos.
5. I like to run barrels (barrel racing in the rodeo if you guys didn't know what that was).
6. I literally have to have someone to take care of.
7. I love going out riding my horse on the ranch with my granddad.

The Fifteen Bloggers I Pass This Award On To:

1. A College Girl's Days
2. AusGaia - Blog Of An Australian Pagan
3. Pagan Culture
4. Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom (I'm not sure if Mrs. B even does awards but I still want to give it to her.
5. Domesticated Gypsy
6. Heartsease Hollow
7. Spelled With a W
8. Domestic Witch
9. Mama Feoneafey's KitchenWitchen World
10. Bringing Up Salamanders
11. Shadowed Paths
12. Peek-A-Boo (Formerly known as Doug & Boo Plus Two)
13. Path of an Ewok
14. Frog on the Pumpkin
15. A Nostalgic Halloween

I will be contacting everyone I just named off as soon as I get done posting this but it may take a little bit, so please give me time lol. Again I am so proud of this award and am so glad to be able to share it with all the people I just named off!

3/15/2010

Self Empowering Mondays: Happy Thoughts Meditation

This is a meditation I wrote myself. Feel free to make changes to it to fit the way you meditate.

This meditation is not meant to focus on the deeper issues of your negative thoughts, because there are always deeper issues, you don't just come into this world thinking people were out to get you, etc. This meditation kind of plays off last week's post and focuses only on self destructive/negative thoughts. Later I will have a meditation and a couple exercises to work on deeper issues but please remember I am not a psychiatrist/psychologist, and I am definitely not trained to work with you like a counselor. I will gladly listen to you if you need someone to talk to but if you have deeper issues that need to be discussed with a trained professional PLEASE SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.

Now, on to the meditation:
Take five to ten deep breaths and relax your entire body. Do not focus on clearing your mind yet, just breathe and try to clear out the sounds from the atmosphere around you.

Now imagine you are in the middle of a forest. The leaves from the trees filter the sunlight which casts a green glow on everything. You are seated on a fallen tree that is overgrown with soft moss. You are safe and comfortable. The outside world is far away. You are free from judgment and ridicule.

Once you have the forest firmly in mind, allow your mind to wander a little bit. Bring back to mind every negative thought you've had about yourself in the past couple of days. For each negative thought, balance it out with a positive one. For example, if you called yourself ugly, think of one part of your body that you like, such as "I have pretty eyes." If you called yourself stupid, think of one thing you know you're good at, such as, "I am a good cook, mother, writer, etc." As you balance these negative thoughts out with positive thoughts imagine that with each positive thought a flower springs up around you.

After examining each negative thought, and replacing it with a positive one, and I do mean every single one from the past couple of days, even if you have to use one of the same positive thoughts more than once, sit in the forest a little while longer, taking comfort from the flowers you have planted with your positive thoughts. Now you don't want those negative thoughts to ruin your flowers like pollution does in the mundane world, so imagine that they float up into the leaves of the trees. The leaves absorb the negativity, neutralize it, and release it back to the earth's energies, ready to be used again. Feel the healing energies of the forest and repeat a positive affirmation to yourself a few times. Once you feel comfortable and you feel ready to leave, count backwards from ten and come back to yourself. For this week use this meditation every other day or every two days. After this week, use it once a week or so, or any time you feel like you are out of balance and need to get rid of negative thoughts.

I wrote this meditation myself, so feel free to rearrange it or rewrite it to suit your needs. I hope you come back next week for more fun! Remember, many people may expect you to be many things, but I want you to be empowered!

3/10/2010

Tell Your Friends!

Tell everyone about Self Empowering Mondays! Grab the button and post it on your blog!

Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!

I Touch Roses Mineral Makeup: RePost

I have a friend out in California, named Ahna, that makes handmade mineral makeup, soap, perfume, and much more. I wanted to tell you guys about her because I just got in an order from her today. I have been wearing her makeup for quite a while now, maybe a little over a year, and I absolutely love it. It covers and leaves my face looking like it's been airbrushed without hiding my freckles that I like to show off, and it feels like nothing is there. Her eye shadows last forever, you can put it on in the morning and it will still be there in the evening. Last year I was frequently going to the dentist having my front tooth replaced and I wore her makeup to the dentist's office and came out of there looking the same way I did when I left. Now I don't know how your dentist is but mine always get water on every single part of my face. Before using this makeup I came out of the dentist's office with makeup streaming down my face, now I don't have that problem.

Her perfumes smell divine. There isn't one that I don't like. The one I received today is called After Midnight. This is a scent she remade and I think everyone should have it. It has a beautiful mixture of Rose, Vanilla, Cedarwood, Amber, and something else, I can't remember what the last scent is lol. I absolutely LOVE IT! It's got a warm, inviting scent to it and everyone who has smelled it absolutely loves it.

Along with the perfume I got a big jar of her French Clay Mask. I haven't tried it yet because I'm not too clear on the instructions and I don't want to waste a whole lot of it trying to figure it out but I will be using it as soon as Ahna gives me further directions on using it. I got a jar of eye shadow called Hazel and it is exactly the color you would expect of hazel leaning to the brown side. I also got a sample of a new shade of eye shadow called Reason which is a pink shade and is absolutely beautiful. If your interested in checking out her makeup, and believe me she has everything under the sun except for mascara, check out itouchroses.com, itouchroses.etsy.com, and artcreated.com. At Art Created she sells her makeup as well as her jewelry, her paintings, and photography.

And for the witch in all of us, check out her friend's shop, agonysdecay.etsy.com! I hadn't heard of this one until she sent me a sample of soap from this shop. The sample I got is one little green skull and it looks and smells good enough to eat. Thankfully there is a very helpful sticker right on the bag that tells you Do Not Eat! It's Soap! and there is a cute little spider hanging around the top right corner of the sticker. It is the cutest thing ever. I strolled on over to that new shop and there's some pretty neat stuff there. You'll find handmade jewelry with a gothic twist, soaps, hair accessories, gift tags, and much more.

If you decide you like Ahna's makeup, when you order, let her know Amber sent you. That's my real name, I'm not trying to hide from you guys but from certain members of my family lol. This does not apply over at Agonys Decay.

This is the skull soap from over at Agony's Decay.

And the very helpful sticker that tells you not to eat it lol. Sorry you can't see it very well, I can't seem to make my camera take better pictures.

The French Clay Mask from over at Ahna's shop I Touch Roses.

The French Clay Mask jar open so you can see the inside. It doesn't show the color very well but it's a light rosey pink.

And the eye shadow that I just got from Ahna. It is a gorgeous brownish hazel and I absolutely love it.

We're inching closer and closer to the 50th post! I hope everyone is as excited about the new giveaways as I am! Right now I think we're at post 43 but I might be off one or two.

New Books

Mom and I went on a book shopping spree the other day and I wanted to share the books we chose. This book was an awesome read! I really liked it and I truly feel like this is my personal path from the way Arin Murphy-Hiscock describes everything. It is definitely a book that I would recommend.

This one, we got just for fun, just to see what they have in it. I may share some of the stuff in it and may not, that all depends if I find anything of interest in it lol. So far it's been pretty fun to look up the spell of the day and see what they have to say.

I've always wanted to read one of these magazines put out by BBI media but I've never had a chance to hold a hard copy of one. We found this at Barnes and Noble and I had to have it. To be 100% honest with you, I didn't really like this edition, but from the looks of other issues that I've seen it looks like a magazine I would normally be interested in. This one just had some weird stuff in it lol.

I found this one over at Hastings and this one is by far my favorite magazine by BBI Media. This issue had a terrific article on Aphrodite and I instantly fell in love with this magazine. If you guys are interested in subscribing to these magazines you can do so here.

That's all we got but they've been lots of fun reading. Also, directly after this post, I will be reposting the post about Ahna's makeup and will include pictures of everything she sent me, so look for that as well.

I want to thank everyone who commented on Self Empowering Mondays. I'm so glad it went over well and I hope every one will join me next week for a fun meditation that I wrote myself!

3/08/2010

Self Empowering Modays: Debut Post

After writing my post about confidence and magick, I decided there was no way that I could include all the techniques for boosting confidence that I wanted to talk about in one post. So, at first I thought about doing a month long or week long confidence theme, and although I am still considering that, I thought Self Empowering Mondays sounded like a better idea because then I could do one technique for each week, giving everyone a chance to work with it for a week before moving on to the next one. So, I hope you guys will join me every Monday for Self Empowering Mondays and leave lots of comments!

For the debut, I want to talk about self-destructive thoughts, and give you guys a couple of positive affirmations to use this week. The first step in any journey for change is always changing the way you think, so let's start this journey by changing those negative thoughts into positive ones!

Everyone has negative/self-destructive thoughts. Even the most confident people will question themselves; however, these questions become destructive when they become facts in your own mind. Thoughts like "I am stupid," "I am ugly," "I am fat," "People hate me," "I'm unlovable," or "I'm incapable of everything," are all self-destructive thoughts. They latch on and dig in like cancer, and like cancer, they multiply and take over your entire being, until you become depressed, possibly hateful (toward yourself and/or others), and almost reclusive.

Many times in the past, I found myself saying things like, "I can't do that because someone will make fun of me because I'm ugly/stupid/fat," and it didn't matter how many people told me otherwise, they couldn't make me believe that I was not stupid or ugly or fat. I had to believe it for myself before I could believe anyone else. Eventually I grew tired of not being part of the crowd, of hiding at home when I really wanted to be having fun and meeting people like all the other people my age.

I bought millions of self-help books thinking I could find an instant cure in one of them. None of them helped, but only because I didn't want to do the work. I wanted to open one of them and instantly be changed. Once I finally realized that the answer came from inside me, I realized that I had the power to change my life. Once you realize that you are in control, and contrary to what you believed, the universe really isn't out to get you, you begin feeling a little more empowered; you're ready to start testing the waters.

As I mentioned, the first step on this journey is changing the way you think. One of the best things I've found to reprogram your thoughts is the use of positive affirmations. You're probably used to those negative affirmations such as, "I am ugly, fat, and stupid, and I have no friends," but we've got to reprogram them so that they empower you instead of beat you down. Instead of the negative affirmations, try changing them up by telling yourself, "I am beautiful, smart, and lovable. I have many friends. I am loved." Even if you don't really believe it at first, just keep telling yourself that you are beautiful, smart, and loved. This will probably be the hardest part of the journey because a mental battle will be surging, but remember, everything that is good is worth fighting for, and you my friend are worth fighting for.

This week, start out by writing your own positive affirmation and repeating it over and over in your mind while you are going to sleep. Each morning, when you wake up, tell yourself that today is going to be a good day. During the day, when those negative thoughts pop up, stop them in their tracks and replace them with a positive thought. Try this for this first week and watch as things start to change. Many people may expect you to be many things, but I want you to be empowered!

3/06/2010

New Ideas For Everyone's Consideration

Ok, so I just want to do a quick post because I'm in town at Burger King using the free internet so I may not be on as much as usual this week. However, I have new ideas to talk with you guys about and that means I expects lots of COMMENTS lol so that I know how you feel about these things. So I have two ideas I wanna talk to you guys about.

The first idea is this: Me, Ahna, and Ahna's friend Jenny over at Agony's Decay have been talking and guess what! We would like to do monthly giveaways here at my little blog. They will begin at my 50th post and happen every month, sometimes featuring Ahna's products, sometimes featuring Jenny's products, and if any of you guys have a shop and want to offer a giveaway email me with your idea! I would love to hear how you guys feel about this idea so leave me lots of comments.

The second idea is this: I have decided I want to do a featured thing every Monday called Self Empowering Mondays where I talk about confidence boosting techniques, finding balance and keeping yourself in balance, etc. I'll talk about positive affirmations, meditations, spells, and other things to help you feel empowered. The first post for Self Empowering Mondays will be on March 8, 2010. So let me know what you think about this too.

Well I'm going to have to leave you guys for now. Daddy's sick and I have to get him some Sprites, that's the whole reason I'm even in town lol. So I hope to see lots of comments when I get back on Monday to post the debut post of Self Empowering Mondays! And I hope everyone has a great weekend. Brightest blessings to everyone!

3/04/2010

Final Blog Update

I promise you guys I will not complain about Blogspot in this blog lol. This is the final update and I just wanted to let everyone know that I figured out how to rearrange to sidebar elements. I have to revert the widgets under "Edit HTML," then they just showed up in a list and I was able to cut and paste them in the order and on the certain sidebar that I wanted them in. Sorry for the insanity I went through lol. I promise no more freaking out over that matter. So no more construction as long as it involves sidebar issues and issues I can fix myself lol.

Spring Cleaning With The Domestic Witch

Starting March 21 you guys might like to know that Julie over at The Domestic Witch is doing a series on spring cleaning your life. She'll go over spring cleaning your home but will be focusing primarily on spring cleaning your mind, body, and soul. Stroll on over to her blog and check out her post about Spring Cleaning With The Domestic Witch.

I Touch Roses Mineral Makeup

I have a friend out in California, named Ahna, that makes handmade mineral makeup, soap, perfume, and much more. I wanted to tell you guys about her because I just got in an order from her today. I have been wearing her makeup for quite a while now, maybe a little over a year, and I absolutely love it. It covers and leaves my face looking like it's been airbrushed without hiding my freckles that I like to show off, and it feels like nothing is there. Her eye shadows last forever, you can put it on in the morning and it will still be there in the evening. Last year I was frequently going to the dentist having my front tooth replaced and I wore her makeup to the dentist's office and came out of there looking the same way I did when I left. Now I don't know how your dentist is but mine always get water on every single part of my face. Before using this makeup I came out of the dentist's office with makeup streaming down my face, now I don't have that problem.

Her perfumes smell divine. There isn't one that I don't like. The one I received today is called After Midnight. This is a scent she remade and I think everyone should have it. It has a beautiful mixture of Rose, Vanilla, Cedarwood, Amber, and something else, I can't remember what the last scent is lol. I absolutely LOVE IT! It's got a warm, inviting scent to it and everyone who has smelled it absolutely loves it.

Along with the perfume I got a big jar of her French Clay Mask. I haven't tried it yet because I'm not too clear on the instructions and I don't want to waste a whole lot of it trying to figure it out but I will be using it as soon as Ahna gives me further directions on using it. I got a jar of eye shadow called Hazel and it is exactly the color you would expect of hazel leaning to the brown side. I also got a sample of a new shade of eye shadow called Reason which is a pink shade and is absolutely beautiful. If your interested in checking out her makeup, and believe me she has everything under the sun except for mascara, check out itouchroses.com, itouchroses.etsy.com, and artcreated.com. At Art Created she sells her makeup as well as her jewelry, her paintings, and photography.

And for the witch in all of us, check out her friend's shop, agonysdecay.etsy.com! I hadn't heard of this one until she sent me a sample of soap from this shop. The sample I got is one little green skull and it looks and smells good enough to eat. Thankfully there is a very helpful sticker right on the bag that tells you Do Not Eat! It's Soap! and there is a cute little spider hanging around the top right corner of the sticker. It is the cutest thing ever. I strolled on over to that new shop and there's some pretty neat stuff there. You'll find handmade jewelry with a gothic twist, soaps, hair accessories, gift tags, and much more.

If you decide you like Ahna's makeup, when you order, let her know Amber sent you. That's my real name, I'm not trying to hide from you guys but from certain members of my family lol. This does not apply over at Agonys Decay

Still Under Construction

I thought I had learned how to fix the problems I'm having with the sidebar by moving HTML around and I was successful with the brownish template, but then I thought if I could figure it out on that one I could on this green one. Now I'm just really confused. I'll work on it more tomorrow but it may be a while before it gets done right. Also tomorrow I'll have some more posts that have nothing to do with the technical issues going on. Good night everyone and thank you all for listening to my rants.

3/03/2010

Dear Blogger

I was very pissed upset when I found out that the current problem I am having my with sidebar elements is an issue that you have apparently known about since November 2009. Obviously at one point in time you had this problem under control, but now the problem is back, and to be one hundred percent honest I am over the top upset about it. There's some anger, some disappointment, and some stress and anxiety floating around in my bag of emotions with your name on it.

So, I would like to vent to you and tell you the things I put my blog through before I found out that this is your problem, not mine. Are you ready to listen? Because I am most definitely read to go off on you vent my frustrations.

Last night I decided there was something wrong with my template which I got from btemplates.com. So I reloaded my template and had to do some extra HTML work because there are built in elements that needed tweaking. After that didn't work I thought maybe my sidebar was overloaded so I deleted everything and put it all back on. But guess what happened! When I went to rearrange everything in my sidebar so it would have some semblance of order, the same friggin problem happened! I could add new elements but they will appear at the very top and there is no way to move it.

Okay, that's fine, there must be something wrong with my template and decided on a new one. That is the one you currently see which I am not very happy with. It will stay up though until you get this problem fixed because I refuse to do all that work tweaking HTML and all that until I know everything is running right. So guess what, after doing all that work, I decided it was time to find out what you could tell me about the situation, which apparently is absolutely nothing because all your blog said, in November of '09 is that you were aware of the problem and investigating. So my question is this: Are you finished investigating and ready to actually fix the problem? Because although, yes I am a very random person, I do like having my blog organized and not looking like a baby with his hair sticking up from a cow sucking on his head. Is that clear enough for ya?

A Little Better

Well, the issue with the sidebar is still giving me fits. I've tried 3 different layouts since last night so obviously it's not my layout. This has to be a Blogger/Blogspot problem. I wonder if I sent an email or something if this would be fixed? Anyway, what does everyone think of the new layout? Do you like this one better? The one with the girl on the fence? The green one that I've been using before the problems happened? Let me know your opinions. I don't know which one I like better!

Under Construction

I apologize for all the elements missing from the sidebar. I promise they are not permanently deleted. I have a test at 11 and after that I plan on spending the rest of my time working on fixing this. I'm still having big time problems with the sidebar.

So Mad

Why can't I ever get this stupid thing right? Why is there always something wrong with this blog!? Please bear with me while I try to figure out how to fix all the problems going on. I miss my nice background but I may end up finding yet another one and it's already hard enough to find them...

3/02/2010

UGH Frustrations!

So, I've tried to add a couple new things to my sidebar and ended up deleting them because there is apparently something wrong with my layout again. I can add new stuff, but when I go to edit the layout and rearrange things on the sidebar, i.e. putting them at the bottom, middle, etc., it won't work and just stays right at the very top. So I end up deleting it because that's not where I want it. If anyone knows why this is happening or how I can fix it, I will be deeply grateful.

My Book Of Shadows

I finally decided on how I want to do my BOS, and I've decided on doing it scrapbook style. I've made three pages already and would like to share them with you.

This was the second page I did. I like it but I feel like I'm getting better as I go along.

This was the very first page I did. It's the page I made for Aphrodite. The background is vintage Valentine's day images and I put a butterfly sticker, a romance sticker, a sticker that says Amore, and four stickers that spell out love. There's also a heart sticker at the top right hand corner but it just blends in lol. I will probably end up redoing this page because Miss K was in a hurry to go do something and I didn't get to do as much with it as I wanted. Mom says we'll go to Hobby Lobby this weekend and get more stickers and paper so I can work on all this some more.

This is the last page I did. It is my book blessing page. It will go before the cover page and the page for Aphrodite. I texted this picture to Mom and she liked it a lot. I like it too. I definitely feel like I'm getting better with each page that I do lol.

Miss K has been a tremendous help with this. She offers her opinion on adding stickers, etc. Although I know in the end this is a personal book I don't mind sharing it with my friends and seeing what opinions they have. I'll ask for an opinion and if I don't agree with it I'll do something else. I'm glad I have friends that understand that instead of getting upset when I don't use all of their ideas.

My New Tarot Cards

I promised I would share my new tarot cards with you so here they are! I'm also sharing my mom's new cards with everyone because I think they are absolutely beautiful and I'm thinking about buying my own set.

This is the book that goes a long with my new deck. It actually may take some time for me to get connected with these. I thought they were beautiful when I picked up the box but some of them are kind of weird to me.

These are Mom's and they have a lovely Asian feel to them but bring fairies to mind as well. (By the way what is the difference between fairies and faeries?)

A Celtic Cross layout with Mom's cards. Sorry I couldn't get closer to them so you could see the cards in better detail. I've been using my phone to take the pictures for the blog.

The back of one of Mom's cards.

The back of one of my new cards.

Celtic Cross with my cards.

And that's all for the cards. I may be able to add more pictures of readings I do with better detail so you can see them closer. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!

3/01/2010

Response To Mama Feoneafey's Comment

After I wrote my Indigo Child post, Mama Feoneafey commented on needing to find a way to do the scrolling button exchange. I got the HTML from Domestic Witch. She actually wrote a blog in response to one of my comments asking how to do it. You can check out her post here. However, here is the code if you want to just copy and paste from this post:

<marquee scrolldelay="100" behavior="scroll" direction="up" onmouseover="if (this.stop) { this.stop() }" scrollamount="3" onmouseout="if (this.start) { this.start() }" height="200"> Enter HTML Here </a></center></marquee>

Where it says Enter HTML Here just take the HTML from the buttons you want to add to your button exchange and put them in there. Copy and paste it into a gadget in your sidebar and you're in business!

My Magickal Heritage

Hey everyone! I'm back from my moms! Did you miss me? I missed you guys. I truly wish my mom had internet service so I could blog while I was with her. This weekend was great, I got to get my air trimmed, spend time with my mom and have some conversations with her about magick, and go into the city and get some tarot cards. Mom bought her first deck and I bought my third. I also replaced my Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing Cards. I'll share photos in a moment. I also bought a bookshelf to put my magick books on and a college ruled composition notebook to use as my tarot journal.

Mom and I also discussed our heritage and I'm proud to say I am a hereditary witch but because of my great-grandmother and my grandma what was our heritage was lost. But from the conversation I had with my mom I learned we have French, Scottish, and English heritage so I've been researching a little bit. I'm drawn to Gypsy magick and Druid and Celtic magick (even though to be 100% honest I really don't know the difference between Druids and Celts). There are so many different forms of magick from the English countryside I doubt I would ever be able to narrow that down. So I'm excited to tell you guys that I am trying to discover my heritage and my mom wants to learn magick that goes with our heritage so she will be learning with me. But I have to go, there is a movie playing at the local theater that Miss K wants to go to and she will not give me a few minutes to blog about everything I want to blog about. I'll share pictures of the new tarot cards with everyone when I get back from the movie.