Wordless Wednesday

I know it's Wordless Wednesday, but this needs a little explanation...

The Hubs and I have joined a group called Belegarth which does Medieval fighting with foam weapons.  A good friend of ours came down for practice last night, and I posted some pictures of them 'fighting'. A friend of that friend almost immediately Photo shopped them and made the swords Light Sabers.  Without a doubt, this made the Hubs night, and he is still smiling about it this morning! Now, here are a few more pics, sans Light Sabers, although there was a band of Hobbits who attacked.

Happy Wednesday!

H.W.

Little Altars Everywhere

Last week Jiji and I made her a paper altar quilt so she could start building a personal altar in her room.  It made me realize that my house is riddled with altars and shrines.  This, in my opinion, is a very good thing.  We have the public, family altar which is just inside the front door and kept plain.  We decorate it and choose tools for each particular ritual, festival, or spell.

On the other side of the door is the Ganesha shrine.

And across the living room is the hutch, which holds a few different shrines, as well as most of our magickal tools which live on the bottom shelf.

My Reiki grid on the middle shelf.

with my focus candle in front

and my Faery shrine at the top. My Faery guide, Miss P, says hello!

and on top the Lady, Lord, and the Green Faery watch over us.

In the kitchen I have a small household shrine, you will notice the chickens are represented.  They are not just pampered, they are blessed.

and in my room, a Triple Goddess shrine that is actually three smaller shrines to each the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

And the outdoor altar with a little offering stone under it.

and, of course, now we have Jiji's personal altar.

That is about 10 separate little sacred spaces in and around our house.  Not to mention the ring of salt, stones, and wards that enclose our little property.  I like this, and tend to be a 'shrine builder' because I like to look around and be reminded of my blessings.  I like to think of my house and my life as blessed, and my house reflects that.  This is what a Magickal life means to me.  My faith, my Path is not reserved for Sabbats or festivals or full moons.  I walk in Magick and blessings, with my family beside me, every minute of the day.  I stir Reiki symbols into my cooking, bathe myself and my children.in positive energy with each shower and bath.  We pray, we sing, we talk about the Lady and Lord, and to them.  We bless the Quarters, and invite their Guardians in to play.  We look for blessings to be grateful for and lose count.  We have had our share of storms, our share of bad, but we walk through it, and we walk away from it.  I look around my home and see the Divine, in both my altars and shrines and in their work in my life and family.  My house could be empty and still I would feel this way, but I would rather stuff it full of treasures that make it look to others how it feels to me.

H.W.

Wordless Wednesday

Last April, 8 months Pregnant.

Punk Rock Diapers

Mojo has grown out of her diapers, and my sewing machine, ancient and battered before I ever got it from Freecycle to begin with, is in too bad of shape to use.  Luckily for me, my awesome neighbor Sarah is a seamstress and starting her own sewing and alterations business.  I took all the parts and pieces of the diapers over to her and the first one was sent over, hot off her sewing machine, via Jiji just moments ago.  Here it is, in all it's Punk Rock glory!

Is that the cutest thing EVAR or what?  So, I wanted to share the cuteness, and the awesomeness of Sarah for making them for me on short notice.  Just in case you need some sewing awesomeness for yourself, check out Sarah Jane's Studio on Facebook and her brand new Esty site.  She makes Hemp jewelry, clothes for kids and adults (I especially LOVE her refashioned kids clothes, pics on her FB page) bags, bunny slippers, and just random cool stuff. I know Mojo will have this at her upcoming 1st birthday party.

So stop by if you have a minute and take a look.  She does great work and is a way cool WAHM!

Best. Weekend. Ever!

It's done, our long journey to building our chicken coop is finished, and this weekend we moved the birds in.  They LOVE it, and have all been waiting at the pop out door to be let out into the run each morning.  We still have to round them up at night and put them in the coop, but I have read that in about a week they will learn to go in at night where it's warm.  It is still getting a little chilly at night, so we have the heat light hung in there, but they all just snuggle up in the nest boxes anyway!  I made a little flower bed and planted some marigolds, since it has gone from 'tractor' to 'coop' and will be stationary.  I think it makes it look super-cute!  The ducks are still being kinda jerky, mostly the Rouen, Guinness.  The Khaki Campbell, Coco, is pretty chill with the chicks, until Guinness starts some trouble.  I think Guinness will be dinner soon.

  It seems official that we have 3 hens, 3 roos, so about the 2nd week in July our flock will lose the fellas.  I go back and forth on whether to get more chicks then or wait till next year.  It will probably depend on where we get more chicks from.  The farm where our current chicks came from has a 10 chick minimum order, and so we will only do that if we split with the neighbors again.  If not, be may try to get some Golden Comets, but we will have to drive a ways to get them.  We will see how it goes, I guess.

I really like the Barred Rocks, though, because they are dual purpose, and we so intend to butcher every year or every other year and replace with new chicks so we have optimum, young layers.  It might be best to just leave it to 3 hens and a duck this first year while we are adjusting, but we are really hooked on having chickens now and want more.  Square foot wise, we have room for 6-7 birds.

We had the greatest time working, playing, eating and just hanging out in the yard with the neighbors this weekend.  There was even a game of 'slips' (nighttime hide-and-seek) that the Hubs and one of the neighbor Dads joined in on Saturday night.  Sunday I was going to make bird feeders (thanks Pooka Pages!) with the girls, and since we had a few extra kids we grabbed a few extra coffee cans and they made some too!

In other garden news, here are a few progress pics of the garden boxes and yard.  Like I said, we got a lot done, and I just want to stand out there and look at the yard!

  

The Hubs is very proud that he got both the fountains cleaned out and running for the season, and I missed the sounds of the water over the winter.  We have one in front, one in back so we can listen to the relaxing water from most of the yard.

Back fountain

Front fountain

We also broke in the new 'beehive' fireplace by cooking dinner Saturday night on it.  Sausage and potatoes...YUM!

I know the cat that has adopted us was glad we ate every meal this weekend outside on the patio, the kids  and the Hubs 'dropped' a lot for her.

I am tired, sunburned, and sore...but I am sad the weekend is over.

H.W.

Monday Message

Good Morning!

The Faun

Iris of the Rainbows

The Singers of Healing, inverted

Natural Magick is swirling up in our lives.  Enjoy it, allow it to work and flow.  Dance it, sing it, trust it.  Light is breaking, and although there will be more storms, we survived this one, and found brightness and beauty in it's wake.  The dance of the lightning through a storm dark sky, the music of the rain on the roof and the wind in the trees.  The Sun paints a rainbow on the dissipating clouds.  A storm can be a blessing.  Those storms, hard as they are, blow the dead wood away it we let them, but we have to let them.  Let the cleansing wind clear out a space for seeds of the future, and let the storm water those seeds.  The things we cling to out of habit or fear are the things that weigh us down.  If your arms are filled with burdens and baggage, how can you embrace the Song of Healing?  Open up to healing, and open up to the gift of the storm, and sing.

H.W.

Paper Altar Quilt

This week our big home school project was starting an altar project for Jilly.  We made an "Altar Quilt" out of construction paper to map out the areas of the altar, quarters, and color and element correspondences.  She helped me glue it together, then I drew pictures we thought would help remind her of each element and the Pentacle, and she put the glitter on Lady, Lord, and Spirit patches.

  Now we have a basic setup to start learning about the altar, the elements, and the Lady and Lord.  We put empty baby food jars on each quarter and on Spirit so she can collect things that go with each element.  For example, on East she put some little bells, a yellow bead, and her meditation feather we got at Camp Chesterfield at the Spring Equinox service.  It will be a challenge to come up with objects for Fire that do not actually involve fire.  Hopefully we will find a lot of red stuff, and maybe a small cauldron.  She is already irritated I will not let her have candles on her altar!

We have always included Jilly in our practices,such as rituals, meditation and prayer.  She even likes to help me when I work with my Reiki grid, so if I have ever put you or yours on the healing list you got a little extra dose of Ladybug energy!  Recently she has become very interested and likes to 'cast spells' in the incense smoke and so I felt it was time to more directly teach her.  We have a family altar in the living room, and she has started to 'arrange' it, so to keep that area neat we decided she needed her own altar.  I donated some small Moon and Sun tea light holders, minus candles of course, but the rest of it she will be coming up with herself with toys, knick knacks, and found objects.  We have it laid out up on her dresser so Mojo can't reach it, and next week we will be making a box to keep her magickal tools in.  I can't wait to see what she comes up with to put in her element jars!

H.W.

Chilly in the garden

Here in Central Indiana it has dipped back to chilly, bordering on cold.  I am really glad we put the hoops on the square foot box!  We just went out this morning, whipped the plastic over the hoops, weighted it down with rocks and clamped one end then bam, cuddly warm seedlings!  Jilly's box has no hoops, but we covered her sunflower seedlings with the top of a 2liter bottle to keep it warm.  We planted some seeds in there the other day, but if the cold snap stunts them we have plenty more seeds, so crisis averted.

Also, while I was out there I took some pics of the coop, now moved into it's permanent position (the chicken tractor plan has been abandoned...it's too heavy. The Hubs and I almost killed ourselves moving it out there. They will just have to be happy with free range time.) and painted a nice grey/blue we got free at the recycling center.  I was going to tile it the other day, but the tiles were warped, so they are stacked in their under some heavy ceramic tiles till they are flat and it stops raining.  Beyond that, a door and the chicken wire over the yard and we are in business!  So far, we have begged, borrowed, or gotten free all the materials and tools except the chicken wire and the plumbers tape to attach the hoops.  We have only spent about $25 on the coop.  The birds have been moved into bigger brooders in the shed, with the heat lamp still, and are anxiously awaiting moving day.

  

We also drilled holes in 5 gallon buckets for feeder and a waterer.  Very high tech, I know, but I don't see a reason to get tricky if  simple works, and we have several buckets lying around.  I plan to just put a big rock in each to keep them from getting knocked over.  If they are fail, we have back-up plans to make auto-feeder/waterer still using buckets.  They are actually kinda cool, we just really need to wrap up the coop projects and move on to other projects.  Check them out HERE if you are interested in making a cool feeder..

So now, we will snuggle in and work on school inside where it is warm and dry!

H.W.

We Have a Winner!

Thanks to those who stopped by and entered, the winner is...Jana! I hope to be doing more give aways in the future, so if you have a product or craft you would like to donate or swap, please contact me pheonixfae@yahoo.com.  Congratz again, Jana, I will be contacting you soon to mail you your Spencer Lapidary prize pack.

H.W.

Wordless Wednesday

Stormy Sky

Last Chance to Enter...seriously

OOPPSS!!!

Today is the last chance to enter, I had the date wrong...so clicky clicky HERE and enter to win the Spencer Lapidary gift pack!

Last Chance to Enter

Entries end at midnight to win the Spencer Lapidary gift pack.  Please go HERE to leave a comment and enter to win.  If you just started following me, please leave a comment to enter, I will choose a winner by random number generator tomorrow.  Good luck and Blessed Be!

H.W.

Garden Update 4/5/10

We are exhausted around here from working all day in the yard and garden.  We got a ton of work done on the coop, and it's almost done! It primed the front, sides, and inside, and all that it needs now is the door, the chicken wire, tiles down on the coop floor, and a coat of paint.  I even made a swell sign for it...

 I did some weeding, rocked in the altar area for beds and it's ready for some plants (roses maybe) and Jilly and I got some planting done in our square foot boxes.  Jilly was very excited to plant the sunflowers that grew in the peat pots she planted at the Children's Museum water program.

Then we had chicken/duck play time with both our and the neighbors flocks.  The big chickens in the pic are the neighbors chickens from last year.  They are "mutts" from the hardware store and they did not get a single egg from them.  That is why we went in of the Plymouth Barred Rock chicks this year.  There is really starting to be a difference in the hens and roos, and I think now we have 3 of each.  We just have to decide if we want to replace the roosters we will butcher in July with new chicks this year or next.  Square foot wise the coop and run are big enough for 6-8 birds, and I don't think the ducks are going to be staying unless the stop being so cranky to us and the chicks.  They may go when we butcher the roosters.

I told the Hubs today, we may be crawling there, but I feel like we are heading to where we want to go as far as the yard, garden, and general homestead goals.  The coop I am especially proud of, because we have all worked on it as a family, Mojo out there with us in her stroller, and that really means so much to me.  It seems like in the past years when I have been working on the garden, it was just me with some help when I had something specific I needed a hand with, but this year I have everyone on board and pitching in with both physical work and ideas.  Hopefully we will get that last little bit on the coop done this week and get it moved our from the carport into the yard.  We moved the chicks and ducks out into the shed, into bigger crates, and put the heat lamp in there last weekend.  The ducks especially were getting stinky and it is hard to groom dogs who are obsessed with trying to eat the tasty chickens across the room.  More soon, as things develop!

P.S. Time is running out, enter my give away for the Spencer Lapidary prize pack!!!!!!

H.W