Random Thoughts Day

Hi and Merry Meet,
Today my cousin came over to help me prime the hallways for my international visitor coming in 21 days! Four hours later, we had two hallways primed! We did kind of run out of paint....we used every drop to finish, but I think I need to redo the final part that we ended at. It didn't come out so good at the end! That's ok. I do need to figure out how to get all the paint off my hands for tomorrow's interview. I hope to get them actually painted later this week. My cousin promised that she would help me. Husband has banned me from painting when he helps me. I am a walking tornado when there is paint out. Just have an open paint can in the house and I can get paint on me without ever setting foot near it. It is an amazing feat! Husband can't understand how paint is so attracted to me. Lucky me!

I ordered new witchy books last night! I love half.com! I made a wish list about a week ago and I picked out a few that I could get cheap. I finished reading To Stir today, but I haven't finished working though all the working minutes in it. I do like her ideas on meditations. I find meditations to be so fun and relaxing! I love how they make me feel and how loved I feel when Ive finished one.

Hope you are having a great Monday! :)
Blessed be,
Autumn

New Toy!

Hi and Merry Meet,

After shattering a candle holder earlier today I realized that for some work I might want to look into getting a cauldron or other true fire proof pot. Husband and I had a bunch of things to do today and we did make a stop at one of the witchy stores in town. It was his first time to go there with me. I was really excited to have him go and support me. He found this cute little cauldron for me:

I love it and now I don't worry about exploding glass everywhere! :)

Blessed be,

Autumn

Meditations + Rabbits

Hi and Merry Meet,

I got up nice and early today to go for a run only to find it is raining out. Perfect weather to sit on my front patio and sand my altar legs! My hands are really sore, but the effort is so worth it. I am really pleased with the progress I've made on that project!

Anyway, today's topic is meditations and my rabbits. I've noticed a trend that two of my rabbits have been showing up in my meditations. In my sacred space meditation my rex rabbit Chanel showed up when she was sick. She isn't in them anymore and is now healthy and happy. I was surprised by this as she hadn't been there before. I was happy to have her there with me even if she was eating all my plants in my meditations.... Here is Chanel:

Then, last night I tried some new work with the Gates of Light. After I went though the Gate of Healing, my English Spot Nesquick was there. I wasn't surprised to see him there. We have a very special bond. Nes came to us from a shelter. He had been returned to the shelter four times. The last time he was there the man who had him was abusing him. He was baiting his dogs with him to teach the dogs to be more aggressive. Nes is terrified of everything (really, can you blame him?) and it took a lot of work to gain his trust. He has a very gentle soul and I just love him to bits! We got him two days before my birthday four years ago. I was so happy to have him with me and it really comforted me to have him there. I don't know if this is normal (pets showing up in meditations). It was my first time with this meditation and I hope that he is there next time I do it. This is my opera loving rabbit Nesquick:

I hope you have a great Saturday!

Blessed be,

Autumn

Altar Transformation

Hi and Merry Meet,

Today Husband cleaned out the garage... he didn't relax today like I thought he would. Since he was working hard, I made the decision that I would sand my altar down and make it my own! Why didn't anyone tell me I was spelling altar wrong!? I am dyslexic so if spell check can't find mistakes, then I assume they are alright.

Anyway, I broke out the sander to sand down the table I have been using as my altar. Here it is before I started sanding:

You can see where there was a top on it at one point where Husband's grandmother had her TV. That upper part broke off years ago. So, he was using it for an old TV the way it was. The TV that he had on it went out last year to the curb. The left behind table was slated to go to Good Will. After my dedication ceremony I was using a piece of scarp wood for my altar. I wanted to find something better. After a short hunt in the basement, I rescued the former TV table. It's not the prettiest thing, but I love it!! There is something about real wood.

After sanding the hard wood floors last week I asked my husband if I could use the sander on my altar. "Why not?" was his answer. Well, since he was working on cleaning the garage, I hauled my altar outside to start sanding.

I got the top sanded down quickly and it looks so nice! The miss colored parts where the top shelf had been is slightly visible, but after putty and stain should take care of that. I flipped it over and took off the legs and the sides. Here it is in disassemble mode:

I wasn't able to finish sanding the whole thing today. I have three legs left to sand and then I can think about the color I want to stain it. I am thinking that I still want to try to use that wood burning kit on it, but I need to practice before I try it on my altar after all my hard work to make it look nice.

Tomorrow, maybe we'll relax! :)

Blessed be,

Autumn

Thoughts Of The Day

Hi and Merry Meet,
Today was another great day of house work done! My husband and I worked on a project that has been put on hold for the past few years (yes, years... 5 to be exact!). We put shoe molding in our dinning room to hide the ends of the hard wood floors. It makes the floor look so much better!! I have to paint tomorrow the the shoe molding since I had to fill in all the nail holes with wood filler.

I put more stuff up on etsy today and I made a huge discovery on half. com! I had no idea I could make a list of all the books I want and save it on there! Much to my husband's dismay I now have a huge list of books that I want to get and read. Most all of them are pagan in nature. I want to read/do/learn and practice so that I find what fits me best. I am really interested in herbs, but I have no idea what to do with them. I want to know more about Celtic myths. I want to learn different ways to do things and then change them to fit me. Learning new things is exciting to me. I'm a nerd like that. :)

Tomorrow, more house projects and then Friday we can relax a bit as Husband's vacation comes to an end.
Blessed be,
Autumn

Working Day

Hi and Merry Meet,
My husband and I are finally able to do some of the things around the house that we have been putting off! He started vacation on Friday and this week off is about house projects and other things that have been put on the back burner.

One thing that we did already was to sand and re-poly our hallway hardwood floors. I have done the other rooms in our house so it was time to do this one. I did all the sanding, and husband polyed it for me. Trying to avoid that hallway was a bit of a chore, but we did it. The hard work was worth it. All that sanding gave me a great idea.

The table that I am using for my alter is an old TV stand. Why couldn't I sand it down, re-stain it, and make it look really nice? My grandfather use to do stuff with a wood burning tool to inscribe things like picture frames and tables. When he passed away the wood burning kit was given to me. I have never used it, but I'm crafty enough. I thought it would be cool to sand down that table, re-stain it and inscribe it with things that mean something to me. It would be much more personal that just an old TV stand. The TV stand was his grandmother's and I asked him how he felt about me using it as an alter. He was cool with it. Then I asked him about my wood scribing idea. He was also cool with that, however, he reminded me that I would have to sand it by myself. No big deal, I did all the floors in the house myself! Then he pointed out that the floors are flat, the table has spindle legs. Ooh, I love a good challenge! I really want to make my alter special. All that elbow grease will make it infused with love, sweat and hopefully no tears!

That's the project that I'd love to do this week, but while I have my husband to myself, we are doing projects that we both have put off!
Blessed be,
Autumn

In The Broom Closet

Hi and Merry Meet,
I am so excited because I found out yesterday that my school manager from Japan is coming to visit me next month! I am so excited to see her. The school I worked at was so small (only 3 teachers), and so we didn't have a principal, we had a manager! Last time I saw her was last year when my husband and I went back to the town I lived in to attend my student's wedding.

She is a wonderful person and I am so happy to welcome her to my home! However, I am struggling with do I put away all my witchy things while she is here, or do I just leave them out and let her make of it what she will.

I am in the broom closet to my family still and we are going to my hometown to see them when she is here. I don't know if she would say anything to them about it. Also, the room that she will be staying in is where my alter is set up. I'm temped to move it to another room for her stay but, I think I will take apart my alter while she is here. She will only be with me for five days.

She knows that I read tarot cards, but I'm not sure I'm ready for others to know yet. I am getting bolder about a few things, but I'm definitely not out of the broom closet. It is something that I'm struggling with. I want to tell my family, however, they are not the most open and accepting of different. My brother and my dad haven't spoken in over a year as they can not see eye to eye on his upcoming marriage (I'm excited about that wedding as I'll be gaining a wonderful sister!). My mom might be more understanding, but I don't know if she could accept it. She might try to send me to the church ladies for a good talking to...I'm not really up for that! My cousin who lives in town here also might be not be as accepting. However, if I am going to open up to family, I think I would start with my cousin here as she is the most tolerant of other's ideas and beliefs.

So far, only my husband and two close friends know. They have all been very supportive and it makes me feel great that they love me and care about me. I would love to be more open about my spiritual life however I'm worried that misunderstanding and stereotypes would overshadow what I'm really about to my family and others.

I am so happy that I'm on this path, even if my family doesn't know, I have lots more to learn and I will only grow. Maybe someday I can tell them and they will support me in ways that makes them comfortable.
Blessed be,
Autumn

Garden Meditations

Hi and Merry Meet,

Today was a perfect day to be outside! Not too hot, not raining, or anything that could keep me from being out there! :)

I love being in my garden. It is a happy place for me. How could I not love it when I am surrounded by things like this:

The top two are my Black Eyed Susan's and the bottom one is one of my roses. I sat out and had some afternoon meditation time. It was so peaceful. Today's meditation was again in my sacred space. I'm spending a lot of time on this since it seems to relax me and make me feel a lot calmer. I need some calm right now in this crazy time of year!

What do you do to relax?

Blessed be,

Autumn

Sacred Space Meditations

Hi and Merry Meet,
For the past two weeks I have been working on a sacred space meditation. I have been working on creating the perfect place in the astral plane.

As first it was very vague and I could only see green grass around me where I was sitting. Now I have a walled garden with a gazebo. In the gazebo it is always set for tea. If I could find this place in this plane I'd never leave!! There is something about a walled garden that makes me think of the book The Secret Garden. It really is a magical place!

I find that after working with this meditation I find that I can get to this space faster and faster when I focus on it. My visualization skills are improving and I feel like I can hold them longer. I'm excited about my progress, yet, I know I have a lot more work to do.

Today was crazy hot here, so I made some spicy curry for dinner. I know this sounds crazy, but when I lived in Japan eating curry on a hot day was normal. The thought was that by heating up your insides with hot curry, when you leave the air conditioned shop, you would feel cooler because you were so hot from the curry.... at least that's what my students told me! :)
Blessed be,
Autumn

Beautiful Day!

Hi and Merry Meet,

Today was so beautiful out!!!! I had to get out even if it was crazy hot here! Our summer so far has been rainy and not as nice as I had hoped for. However, the past week has more than made up for the rainy days that we had at the start of summer!!! I love it!

I spent some time out in the garden before it got too hot to be out there. Here are my geraniums on my front porch:

After it got too hot to be out there, I spent some time inside reading, meditating, and making jewelry that is for sale on Etsy. My store is Black Rabbit Knits. I should have more up soon!

Overall, it was a very productive day.

Blessed be,

Autumn

On The Farm

Hi and Merry Meet,

Yesterday our new computer screen arrived via UPS, so my husband was able to fix it! I am now back to updating my blog! Yay!

Today, we took a trip out to a farm to get some fresh cut hay for our rabbits. Normally, we buy our hay from a farm in Virgina, but we are finding that four hungry rabbits go thought it awfully fast! So, once our computer was back on line yesterday, hubby looked on Craig's List for some farms that were closer to home that we could buy from. We found the one that we went to today and it was great! Much more cost effective!

The farmer was so cool and very nice to talk with. We like to buy Timothy hay for our bunnies. He showed us the difference between Timothy, Orchard Grass, and Clover. I know, you are thinking this is silly that he had to show us this....however, we didn't know the difference by sight before. He also had a great veggie garden that he let me take some summer squash and a zucchini. Check it out-they were so good.... Hubby fried them up with dinner:

He also showed us the cows that his son keeps and the chickens that they raise. It was really fun and I learned a lot! I was very excited when I was able to identify some of the herbs in the garden.

I loved our trip out there and we got such an education about the types of grasses that grow and about showing cows at county fairs. It was nice to get out there and see a family that truly lives off their land. I wish we could be a little bit more like that. I feel very inspired to try to grow more herbs and veggies next year in my small garden!

Blessed be,

Autumn

Computer Problems

Hi and Merry Meet,
I haven't been able to update and post my random thoughts since our computer has had a small issues with the screen. Apparently, a bug landed on it last week, and my husband was working on it. This bug was annoying him, so he went to squish it and instead, he cracked the screen...

So, here I am at the library to leave just a small update that one we get our new screen for the laptop, I'll be back with more regular updates.

Hope that all is well with you!
Blessed be,
Autumn

Happy Lammas!

Hi and Merry Meet,
Happy Lammas! The first harvest and the 1st of August! What a beautiful sunny day it is shaping up to be.

I got up really early this morning to prepare for my ritual. I wanted to write my own and make it really special. As the sun was rising, I was outside casting my circle! It was amazing to be outside and feel nature around me. I love that feeling. The gentle breeze was blowing and all was so peaceful. My plan had been to make some corn muffins for my ritual, but that plan went out the window when I found out my muffin mix was a year out of date. Oops... So, luckily, I had some fresh picked cherries that I was able to use instead, not bread, but first cherries of the season (I thought they went well with the First harvest theme).

I took some time this morning to sit in the sun and just enjoy its warmth and light. The birds were singing and the dewy grass made my feet all wet. I love having the whole backyard and neighborhood to myself in the mornings.

Last night we got a special treat, I could hear the crickets singing. When I was a kid, my grandparents had a lake house that we would visit. Every night after catching fireflies and roasting 'smores, we'd go to bed with an open window and fall asleep to the sound of singing crickets. It's the most relaxing sound in the world to me. Since, my husband and I live in a much more urban setting than that lake house, we almost never hear crickets. We hear police cars, shouting neighbors, fire trucks, ambulances, and dogs (LOTS of dogs) barking. Never crickets. Last night was the first night in 6 years of city living that I could hear them. It was so amazing and peaceful!

Most Saturday mornings I am able to enjoy that same silence as last night since most are sleeping off their Friday nights. Today was just such a morning. That was why I chose to do my Sabbat outside!! My quite mediation after my ritual ended with the next door neighbor letting out their six dogs to yip, growl and bark at everything they see. That's ok, I was able to celebrate Lammas and watch the sun rise on a beautiful day! :)

Enjoy your Lammas!!!
Blessed be,
Autumn