Practical Magic In Your Life

Welcome all partiers! I'm sorry this post is a little late. I've been working on my house again! So because I've had my mind on other things completely, I had to pull this post out of thin air! There's a part in the movie when Sally tells Officer Hallet that his star is just a symbol, it can't stop criminals in their tracks, and it only has power because he believes it does. That's how magic works, she told him. And that is very true. So many people come into the craft thinking it's going to be like Hollywood magic that they saw on The Craft or some such show. Many are highly disappointed when they find out that magic is actually very subtle. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it can make a very big bang, but most of the time it is very subtle, like the changing of the seasons. From Summer we don't just go from one day temperatures being over 100 then having snow laying on the ground just because we went from July 31st to August 1st. It is very gradual and slow, and happens in its own time. Currently in Amarillo, days are peaking at 95 degrees and nights are peaking at about 68 degrees. The days are slowly getting cooler and you can smell and feel fall on the way, but it didn't just show up out of the blue with a big bang saying "Hey didn't you know?! It's time for fall so too dang bad!" That's also how magic works.

Spell work isn't just lighting a candle and chanting specific words in the exact right way and then in the next 2 minutes your lights start flickering, or like in the movie flower petals float across the country. No, generally you work your spell by preparing whatever steps you feel are necessary, then you say the words you prepared (even if they aren't perfect, so long as it doesn't break your concentration), then you release the energy when you've felt it's built up enough. After that, the changes that you wanted to make may come very gradually, and you may not even notice them until you wake up one day and go "Oh my gods! It actually worked, and I didn't even realize it." But the most important ingredient in spell work is belief. You have to believe it will actually work. Have faith, know that what you are doing is powerful and will bring about changes. 

If you sit down with a spell that you found thinking, "I'm gonna try this magic stuff and see if it actually works," nine times out of ten it won't work ... Why? Because deep down those that go about it that way don't believe it will actually work. They think it's just a bunch of mumbo jumbo and they want to prove themselves right. It's just like if you believe you can actually do something, or not, either way you are right. Magic works because we strongly believe it will. It can be fickle and it doesn't have to prove itself to anyone. If you light a candle thinking I don't believe this will actually work, but I'm going to try it, most of the time it won't work because again, magic doesn't have to prove itself to anyone. However, there are those that sit down with a candle and have enough imagination to see something actually happening and even if they aren't sure it will work, they hope it will ... that hope is what will bring about the changes you asked for in that spell. So, that is what I leave you with this fine semi-autumn night. Magic works because you believe it does. And love truly does exist! Be sure to click here to check out the other awesome blogs participating in this party!

Salon Website

I've made some changes to the website, based on everyone's suggestions. Keep the suggestions coming and I'll keep making it better! I currently do not have a permanent, brick and mortar salon because I have not finished school just yet. I should be finished in October. I just want to get things rolling and doing things like building the website keeps me focused. Your suggestions help me perfect everything before the salon is ever open and I greatly appreciate it. Click here to see the changes made based on your suggestions! I've added an FAQ section to help explain what gel nails and silk wraps are, a party section, and combined the cancellation and sanitation policies into one section to keep the pages section uncluttered. Also, what did you think of the booking software? Was it easy to use or confusing? Currently I am using a free online booking software, but I may change it when I open the salon depending on how good this one is and whether I like it or not and whether you guys like it or not. There are no pictures of the salon up at the moment, again because there is no physical salon lol, but as soon as I find a physical salon after I finish school, I will be adding pictures of the salon and so on. I also need help with creating a logo. Do any of my creative friends have any suggestions based on the name of the salon, what the salon stands for, the fact that the salon is eco-friendly? I really appreciate everyone brainstorming with me and helping me with all of this.

I Need Some Feedback

Hey guys... remember when I said I was thinking about opening an eco-friendly natural nail salon when I finish school? Well I created a website for my nail salon, just to practice and test things out. You'll notice on the site that there is no phone number or address yet but other than that everything is the way I want it... I think. I'll probably be changing the picture that is up there when I create a logo for the salon, but for now what's up works. What I would like for you guys to do is click here, check out the site, and tell me what you think. Do I need to add more info on certain things? Do I need to clarify certain things? Give me your honest, candid feedback so I can make the site perfect for when I do open the nail salon. Thanks in advance guys!

Break Ups are So Hard To Handle

I'm up late tonight... can't sleep. All of you should know by now that I recently went through a break up where everything seemed to be going fine in the relationship until he came home and said he didn't love me. This has been eating at me forever. It bothers me because I kept asking him what went wrong, why he didn't love me anymore, and he kept saying nothing that the relationship was perfect, I was wonderful (easy to get along with, fun to be around, beautiful, sexy, etc.) but he just didn't love me. I'd noticed right before he broke up with me he kept getting texts from someone I could have sworn was called Lisa. His phone would go off and I would get a glimpse of a name then he would pull his phone as close to his chest as he could get it even though normally he never hid his phone from me. Then today on Facebook it showed that he became friends with a girl named Lisa. I'm probably just being the paranoid ex and getting jealous over stupid crap, but the girl looks like me, except her hair is shorter which is weird because he swore he doesn't like short hair, he wanted mine longer and mine goes to a little past my shoulders. Her's was up by her ears.

I know, I know, I'm being a weird ex. I just can't bring myself to delete his profile and I torture myself every other day by looking to see if he's updated his status or anything. I miss him so much and it kills me that things didn't work. I want to know why things went wrong instead of just "I don't love you." I miss him and I hate him at the same time... when does it stop? When does it go away? When does it get better? I hate this and the gypsy in me wants to move away from him so bad! I, of course, have to finish school then I'm thinking about moving back to Clarendon and opening a nail salon there. I just want it to get better. I miss home a lot. I miss being able to go outside my front door and see extremely familiar things and drive less than 2 miles to be out of the city limits and enjoy the night sky. I miss being able to drive out to the lake just because I want to, even if there's very little gas in the truck, and I really miss being able to drive out to the ranch and visit Granddad. I'm only an hour away from him right now, but because I'm always trying to keep gas in the truck so I can drive completely across town to school, I never get a chance to go see him. And most of all, I miss the fact that even if I'm hurting, like I was after Gram died, Clarendon has it's silent way of healing me and making everything better. I know almost everyone there, I never struggle to make friends there because I know my friends, and I miss that.

I moved to Amarillo, not just to help my friend with her fake anxiety attacks, but to also meet new people, and maybe meet a man to date, but it seems like I'm living in a city full of strangers. No one wants to meet new people, they would rather just go about their day, then hide in their homes; either that or they want to go out to the bar and pick up one night stands. It's rather frustrating. And it doesn't help that I'm super shy anyway and it's hard for me to open up to new people. Don't get me wrong, I'm nowhere near as shy as I used to be, but it's still really hard for me to walk up to a complete stranger and talk to them. Anyway, I just wanted to rant and rave a little bit. Thanks for listening to me lol.

New Parties!

Okay, so I'm way too busy to try to start another blog party for a while, but there are awesome parties going on all over the blog-o-sphere. One that I participated in last year is back already! I'm excited to take part in it. I probably won't be able to contribute every day, but I can at least contribute once a week. Click below to learn more about it!

Where Have The Days Gone?

Holy Mother Earth, where in the heck have the days gone?! I just logged on today, after receiving my new computer (bought off Ebay), and realized I haven't written anything since Beltane!!! And here it is coming closer to Samhain! Let me catch you up on some of the things that have happened in my life since Beltane.

#1: I moved from Lubbock to Amarillo to be with a friend of mine that I used to consider my sister because she was a single mom having "anxiety attacks". Now, I know you're wondering, "Willow, why do you say you don't consider her a sister anymore?" Well first off, from the moment I moved in with her, she quit her job and decided that as long as I was there I would pay all the bills by myself. Her "anxiety attacks" were just ploys for attention, and then when I wouldn't do everything her way and let her leech off me she bad mouthed me to the rest of my friends. So no, she is no longer my friend.

#2: I started nail tech school and am almost finished with it. I will hopefully be graduating in Mid-October, and plan on opening my own eco-friendly, green salon. I haven't decided where I want to open it yet, but those things will come with time.

#3: I started dating an amazing man and we had the perfect relationship. We didn't fight, the sex was amazing, and we had a wonderful open communication. However, he came home from work one day and told me he didn't love me and didn't want to string me along so we are no longer together. I still miss him every day and wish things were different.

#4: I bought my own house! It's kind of like a trailer house because I have to hire a house moving service any time I need it moved, but it's set up like an RV. It is 400 sq. ft. with living room, full kitchen, full bathroom, bedroom with a queen size bed in it, and a loft. It looks like a log cabin! I'm so proud of it. I am currently renting the land it is sitting on, and will probably be moving it again after I graduate from school because I've had some major disagreements with the manager here. I've found people standing in my driveway staring at my house, which is creepy by itself, but most especially because I am a single woman living alone with just a cat and a dog. When I mentioned something about it to the manager here at the park, he said, "Well what do you want me to do about it? It's a cute house, people want to look at it." Okay, I'm fine with people looking at my house because it is adorable, but don't be standing in my damn driveway!

So that's the major things... that doesn't include the small stuff like the fact that I caught my hand on fire last Saturday and now have second degree burns on 2 of my fingers, and a first degree burn on my index finger. But I know that I've missed my Pagany people so much! There's been so much drama going on that I just haven't had the time for anything. I missed a lot of school and almost got dropped from the program because of all the insanity going on. Now things have settled down much more and I know for sure that I want to finish my nail tech program. Its hard to stay in the habit of going to school everyday when you've missed as much as I did. I now make daily goals for myself. Today my goal was to stay until 5:00. At my school, we have to be there Tuesday through Saturday. Some girls stay from 8:30 to 3:00, some go from 8:30 until 12:30 and the ultimate full timers stay from 8:30 to 5:00. If you stay til 5:00 you get finished faster. My long term goal is to be done by mid-October, short term goal is to get 40 hours a week, and daily goal is to stay until 5:00 everyday.

I've yet to meet up with any Pagany people here in town, although I did email a woman who is setting up a city-wide Samhain festival. I need to carve out some time to call her. I haven't gone to the local Unitarian Universalist church because in all honesty, I have no freaking clue where it is lol. Their website gives an address, but I've yet to find the road they are on so I haven't attended a meeting yet lol. Some day I will find it. So, what all have I missed in your lives?