More Shubberies...Wait that's not right anywho...

Here's a new woodburned project I did earlier this week. Its for sale on etsy, and if it goes well I will be making more singles and special sets.

Go check it out, like my store w/e:P will have more to post after september and also some oil recipes coming soon to post:P

Brightest Blessings

Spiritrunner

Goddesses from far off lands

Okay so maybe not that far off but in another country and still a bit aways away but this is on our way to our house for my little witch who is already ecstatic about it. Go check out Nydia's fb page and order something:P They are awesome!!  https://www.facebook.com/CariocaWitch

Crystal mushroom forest

found this on another blog and im soooo doing this next month. We;ve been seeing fairy rings around again and Miss Tasked if we could get mushrooms for them to play in our yard becuase she always see them on mushrooms. so yeah so doing this one:P

http://homesteadsurvival.blogspot.com/2012/07/crystal-mushrooms-made-from-cheap.html

Spirit Board

I love these but i will never ever never ever never ever call them ouiji boards. I had one made for me many years ago out of the hard canvas stuff but in one of my moves across country it dissapeared, i can only hope it made it into the hands of someone who needed it. I got bored Friday and made another one, This one will probably be for sale however till i make the one that calls to me like no other. If it's not screaming my name for me to use it i wont or i wont buy items either. I really feel that the tool in question has to be for you...and when i think for some reason i conjure the image of harry potter year one in my head where the wand is picking him and he goes through all the different one...:P im such a nerd:P anyway here it is:...

I really love the idea of multi purpose boards, here u can use the spirit part with the letters and number, ive also placed on it a pentacle where this whole board can be set upright at the back of an alter, the triquetra cuz damn it i felt like it and the pendulum yes and no cross for scrying simple questions. anyway will be up on etsy in a few i think or maybe not might keep it for myself.

Will also take custom orders on wood work for just about anything from name plaques to more spirit boards and hopefully can do some neato boxes, i love the spoons i did on wednesday and have had alot of great feedback on them.

I got my wood burner today!!

and here's what i did

this one is hard to see but will have a matching spoon fork thingy, lol

i made this for my mom who is sick she got celluitis (skin infection) after hitting her shin on a futon 

this is for my grandmother house, her fav flower is a carnation

and this was for my husband, he loves wolves, i actually went and filled it in and it looks better.

Pomander Recovery spell and charm

Pomander recovery charm 

When someone we know gets sick, often our first thought is to get them a gift, but giving gifts to people who cannot fully appreciate them when they are sick can be unhelpful too. It may make them feel guilty by reminding them of the things they should be doing and perhaps even make them feel that we are irritated by thier illness.

Taking the time to care:

A better present to give is a fragrant, magical recovery charm. It relaxes and soothes, not only easing thier return to heal with a heady scent, but also letting them know that you are thinking of them in thier sickness not just wishing it was over. A recovery charm shows you genuinely care

How your recovery chamr works:

The time and energy you spend making a recovery charm infuses it  with your good wishes and intent for thier recovery. Thay way you pass your own strength into the charm.

Frankincense: protecton

Orange: the wamr color of the orange represents harmony.

Gold Ribbon: The sparklying gold ribbon you use to bind the your healing spell surrounds the entire charm with a wonderful glowing golden confidence.

Cloves: Cloves have potent powers of reconciliation. They help patients to accept thier illness, conserve thier energy and focus on recovery. 

Making your recovery charm:

You will need:

A normal sized orange

A handful of whole cloves

1 1/2 Yards of gold ribbon

Frankincense oil

1. Wind the ribbon around the orange like you would a present. Leave a lop at the top so you can hang it up.

2. Rub the frankincense into the orange between the strands of ribbon.

3. Push the cloves into the orange at random intervals. Each time you push a clove in say:This is for health, this is for love, this is for joy..." make each ending a good happy statement.

4. When the cloves are all in you've litterally studed the orange with warmth and happy wishes for your friends wlel being. It's now ready to give.

5. Hang the charm above your friends bed to fill the room with healing energy ti help with recovery.

You can use different oils for different situations.

Lemon: protection of enemies

Myrrh: Surounds with love, protecting them from lonilness and depression.

Rose: Encourages high spirits and thoughts of lasting friendship.

Basil: Protection against negative thoughts, particularly for someone who is feeling down after a setback or relaspe.

Sandlewood: Will purify the air in the sickroom and keep it freash. The oil's woody fragrance helps remimnd us of the world beyond the window.

Sage: Clears the atmosphere of negativity and rises spirits. Use this oil durrin depression or times of confusion

Ugh holidays, throw some magick in there and relax:)

Thanksgiving isnt here even and the kids are buggin me to decorate for yule already. Miss T keeps asking if it's thanksgiving yet and it's not because she cares for turkey or wants a big feast, she knows Yule comes after it:P. So anyway I used to be one of those wierdos (no offense to anyone) that freaked out at holidays were people would be coming to my house. Truth be told I still kinda freak, for some reason im always afraid my house smells odd. I know I have huge issues. I'm constantly spraying air freshener, or having oil burners going.

anyway to relieve stress, grab some incense snag an oil burner, light some candles and just let it go. The holidays are spose to be cheerful and relaxing and beautiful.

Stress relief incense/oil blend

 Equal parts of:

Lavender, orange blossoms or rind and thyme.

Healing herbal incense mix

This is straight from my personal BOS. My daughter and I used this is a small Ritual in our front yard (of course accompanied but some interesting looks by my neighbor, who is cool as hell, and usually doesn't question anything:P) Because everyone has been so damn sick here the last few weeks and since winter is now upon us, weather or not the trees are showing it...grumble grumble.. I felt the need to share this.

Note: NOT for consumption. there's nothing in here that could hurt you this is all from my culinary/magickal cabinet, im very much a kitchen witch but this was made for burning in a fire place or fire proof bowl etc..

Equal parts of:
Corriander
Marjoram
Mullein
Thyme
Allspice
Cinnamon
Eucalyptus
Flaxseed
Mint
Sage
Rosemary
Spearmint
Saffron

Mix together, grind to powder if you feel the need and burn anywhere sick people have been, especially the bedroom. We started ours in the yard and carried the smoke everywhere around the outside and in. I'm working on as stick form but both will be for sale on my shop soon. but this is here in case you need to make your own:)

Winter projects

SO I'm thinking my next projects are going to be scarves with protection runes stitched in for Miss T and hubby asked me to make Bubba a blanket so I think i'm gonna put a pentacle in it with protection and calming runes in it. What do ya\ll thing. Or even possibly personal sigils. We did these as described here in Domesticwitch post.http://domesticwitch.blogspot.com/2011/06/prosperity-workshop.html. I love her blog. She was my inspiration to blog in the first place. sorry pic looks blurry but still readable imo

Hats and Little Fae!

 So I finished Miss T's hat and she was soooo excited when I gave to her after she came home from school. It's not just cold enough to wear it yet but very soon. And also her Fae Queen costume. Still working on lil man's who is either gonna be frog prince or a dragon. The gathering we are going to is themed "Once upon a time.." so I think dragon might go better but frog is easier:P

                                                        

Random Blarghs

It's been a very Blargh weeks, or Blegh or Blah or however you wanna describe it. Other than managing to get food on the table every night (just no energy) I feel the only thing ive accomplished was getting Miss T to school everyday and getting a pair of earrings made. My grandmother gave me the rattles, said they were about 20 years old and said do something with them. So do I did!

First Seasonal craft

I've never really crocheted before. Ive done maybe 2 scarfs my entire life but for some reason I got a wild hair and decided I wanted to make a hat for my son.
Pardon the peanut butter face...

It fits right on his forehead but he has issues with hats so he kept trying to pull it off but come winter too bad lil man you're wearing it!

Now Miss T decided she has to have one, was gonna make her one anyway but yeah she got all upset because she thought she wasn't going to get one.

Next on my list is another hat maybe some scarfs and still trying to figure out wth to do with these snake skins I have from a few months ago. If you've been reading you remember that one:P

What's been going on here lately..

Well besides being sick, nothing. We have a vicious little circle of sick that we just keep passing back and forth to each other. Oh the joys of public school systems, which is were it started we're assuming. Anyway on my peak hours of feeling half ass decent i've managed to get a bit of things done.

So here we have the cinnamon broom I absolutely couldn't pass up, now my whole house smells like cinnamon and autumn:)

The kids went nuts decorating the porch for Samhain. I think if they had it their way every month would be October.

Jar-O-Lantern

Okay so I got one of my issues of my many magazine subscriptions today and it had all the fall stuff in it.

One of the first pages was this craft for Jar-O-Lanterns.

These have Tea light candles instead of LED lights
and cute bows made out of w/e that is they use

So here goes:

Several Mason jars different sizes
Paint, one or two coats will do and if the paint is too thick it will impede the light
Black marker
Battery powered LED lights

These were on the Martha Stewart website

Paint the jars with desired color of acrylic paint.
Add ghoulish features with black marker or black paint.
Spray with a clear spray paint and let dry.
Pop in the battery LED light TADA!

Okay i'll stop I promise...maybe

Okay last pair for the day...
maybe...:P

Frog Jewelry

So I got bored and had a creative bug up my butt and made these this morning:

Ive just posted them up on etsy too

Anyway yeah i'm a frog person in case you can't tell:P

Brightest Blessings
     Spiritrunner

Snake totem

Okay my post today has a bit of relevance because i'm working on a nifty project that involves snakes. I acquired a set of almost identical snake rattles. And before you trip out on me, the meat  was not let to waste. The coyotes and foxes loved it. My grandmother lives in a bit of a secluded area and always lets mother nature to it's own accord except when one of goddesses creatures, especially one of the more dangerous varieties, end up on her front porch right at the door. Apparently it's the week of the snake because this is the third one we've had to eliminate this week. There's also kids here to so another reason that they had to be dealt with. Anyway i'm thinking they will be made into earings since they are almost a matching pair. BTW there was at one point a rumor that used to run rampant around these part about there being a deadly powder in snake rattles. It's completely untrue. Snake rattles are just modified rattles that gain in numbers from shedding. I'm either going to use these in more serious rights, or I might even post them up on etsy. Not sure at this point:P

So I dedicate this post to my project and The snake.

Of all the reptiles and maybe even all animals , the snake has been the subject

of great controversy and paradox. Religious sources argue over whether it is

the symbol of the higher or the lower. Sometimes seen as devii and sometimes as

healer, it is an animal that truly has earned the mythical reputation.

In the Americas, the snake served as a prominent symbol in art and lore. To

the Native Americans, the snake is a symbol of transformation and healing. Snake

ceremonies involved learning to transmute the poisons within the body after

being bitten multiple times. Survival of this would then enable the individual to

transmute all poisons-physical or otherwise. It activated the energy of kill or

cure, ultimately leading to dramatic healings.

In the Meso-American societies, the serpent or snake was depicted as

feathered and flying. It was a symbol of their greatest god and hero, Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatl's story is the myth of a dying god who would someday

return. In many ways he was the patron god of the Toltecs, and it was said that

the heavens and stars and all the motions of the universe were under his

dominion. "He was the master of the winds and of the clouds and the protecting

genius of his people."2

In creece the snake was also a symbol of alchemy and healing. The god Hermes

carried a staff upon which were entwined two snakes. This caduceus symbol

is the primary symbol of modern medicine and doctors. It is a symbol of wisdom

expressed through healing.

In India the goddess Vinaia was the mother of snakes and a symbol of water

and the underworld. Also in India there were demigods, Nagas and their beautiful

wives, Naginis, who were usually depicted as half cobra and half deity. The

god Vishnu is often depicted sleeping on the serpent of eternity called Ananta.

Shiva wears snakes for bracelets and necklaces, representing sexuality.

The serpent and snake has long been a symbol of the sexual/creative life

force within humans as is taught in Eastern traditions. The kundalini or serpent

fire lies coiled at the base of the spine. As we grow and develop, the primal energy

is released, rising up the spine. This in turn activates energy centers in the

body and the mind, opening new dimensions and levels of awareness, health,

and creativity.

In Chinese astrology one of every twelve years is named for the snake. Those

born within that year are believed to have the qualities of compassion, clairvoyance

and charm. They usually need to learn lessons associated with forgiveness,

superstitiousness and possessiveness as well. A study of Chinese astrology will

help you with this.

In Egypt the snake has also had mystical significance. The uraeus is a head

band in the shape of the snake. The head of the snake rests and sticks out at the brow area. It was believed to represent a state of inner sight and control of the universe.

It was a symbol worn by those who were initiated. Some believe it to be a

variations of the eye of Horus, while others see it as the sacred eye of Ra. It represented

a certain degree of wisdom and understanding.3

Because it sheds its skin, the snake has long been a symbol of death and

rebirth. It sheds its skin as it outgrows the old. This death and rebirth cycle is part

of what snake represents. It has ties and significance to the ancient alchemists and

their symbolic transmutation of lead into gold. This is associated with higher wisdom

that comes with the passing of time. This cycle of death and rebirth is often

symbolized by the ouroborus, the ancient image of a snake swallowing its own

tail. It is the symbol of eternity.

Before the snake begins to shed its skin, its eyes will begin to cloud over. It

gives the snake a trancelike appearance. To many mystics and shamans this indicated

the ability of the snake to move between the realms of the living and the

dead, of crossing over from life to death and then back to life again. As the skin

begins to shed, the eyes begin to clear as if they will see the world anew. For this

reason, alchemists often believed that wisdom and new knowledge would lead

to death and rebirth, enabling the individual to see the world from an entirely

new perspective.

The snake has often been depicted, along with its relatives, the serpent and

dragon, as a guardian. It is found in myth and lore guarding treasures, the springs

of life or sacred places. The snake/serpent guarded the tree on which the golden

fleece hung in the Greek tale of Jason and the argonauts.

The snake is sinuous and fast. Although many people think of them as slimy,

their skin is very dry. In fact, humans are slimier than snakes. If a human runs his

or her hand on the floor, it will pick up dirt. A snake's skin will not which is why

it is able to slide and move in the manner it does.

A snake attacks quickly. It raises itself up and strikes quick, hard, and true to

its mark. It is not unusual to find that those with this totem can respond the same

way if need be. It is best not to anger snake people. Although slow to lose their

tempers, once lost, their bite is quick, sharp, and direct. They almost always hit

their mark. They may end up swallowing you whole or just poisoning you in

some way.

Anytime a snake shows up as a totem, you can expect death and rebirth to

occur in some area of your life. This rarely reflects an actual death but rather a

transition. Look for a change in conditions and a movement to new life. examine

what is going on around you. Are you needing to make changes but aren't for

some reason? Are you trying to force change too quickly? Are you striking out at

people and shouldn't? Are you not striking and should? Remember that a snake

not only uses its venom and bite to overcome prey, but also for defense. What is

needing to be healed? What new opportunities are surfacing that you need to

strike out for and take advantage of?

It can also reflect that your own creative forces are awakening. The stimulation

of the kundalini usually has physiological as well as spiritual consequences.

Physiologically it can activate the sexual drive, bring more energy, etc. Spiritually it can stimulate greater perception of how to apply your insight and intuition.

Your own vision and intuition will become more accurate.

To understand the specific role your snake totem will play within your life,

first begin by examining the form it takes. This alone will tell you much. Every

snake has a head, body, and tail, and there are a wide variety of snakes. Some are

poisonous, almost all can bite, and some squeeze and strangle their prey by coiling

around it. Examine your snake's markings, and the patterns of its scales. A

diamond-back rattler is named for its pattern of scales. Examine the significance

of geometric shapes. This will help you to define the role the snake will have in

your life.

The rattlesnake, for example, moves around only during the cool hours of the

night. Extreme heat is deadly to it. You may find for yourself that becoming more

nocturnal would be of benefit. It has a sidewinding motion to its movement. It

also has a special sense organ, a small pit in the head that reacts to heat put out by

other creatures. This is how it senses its prey. On a symbolic level this indicates for

those with this totem an increasing sensitivity to the auras of others. You may start

seeing them soon, but you will definitely start sensing them. Trust what you feel

around others, no matter how strange it may seem.

Always examine some of the qualities and characteristics of the snake in general.

Kitchen Witch Wands

Okay so i've had a few inquiries about my kitchen witch wands i have hanging in my kitchen.

The ones I currently have aren't really elaborate but they suit my needs:)

All you need is some wooden spoon. i get mine from the dollar store.

Some kind of anointing oil, I use one I special made for all my crafts.

Now you can either wood burn your runes and marking in or you can use a paint pen. Keep in mind these are for magic and deco only not for use with food. I have separate ones I use with food, tinctures, brews etc.

Pain or carve into your spoon whatever runes you want and whatever symbols you wish. You can inlay stones (that's what i'm planing on for the next one but i'm currently in the market for a very large wooden spoon and just cant find any local)

Rub the oil on the spoon and bless it on an altar. Ive set my kitchen window seal as an altar.

Hang it in your kitchen as deco or use it to direct energy before making magical tinctures, brews ointments etc.

   Happy Crafting
           *Spiritrunner*

Paper lanterns Update

Okay so here is my first attempt at it, they actually would have been fairly perfect except i forgot to turn the seam in the back of the bag:s...

Pardon my crappy lighting...giant shade trees do not make for good pictures sometimes. 

again my crappy lighting and camera...sigh one day i'll have a bitching one..anyway this was attempt # we'll try again in a few days...on another note of summer.. todays pics of events...

Swimming and ice cream what more could a kid want?:P