Blog Party and Giveaway!

Hey everyone! The Domestic Witch is having an October Blog Party and I'm going to be there! Swing on over and check it out!

Also....The Domestic Witch is having an awesome GIVEAWAY called Queen of Cups Giveaway in honor of her 100th follower. Woohoo! The Domestic Witch is one of my favorite blogs. She really knows her magick and lives it everyday. See for yourself and go on by and see what this giveaway is all about. :)

So, what did I do with those blackberries I harvested this weekend? See for yourself. :)

Nothing smells better than a warm home with fresh baked pies in the oven to welcome Fall!

Peaceful blessings all!

'Tis the Season to Harvest those Magickal Blackberries!

Yesterday my girlfriend and I decided to take her two horses (Ari and Magic) out trail riding. So, we loaded them up, drove to the trails, saddled them up and then it happened. Magic backed up into a rock and sliced his leg! After a few moments of "freaking out" I calmed Magic down (told him to use his own magick to heal himself) while Debbie tended to his poor little injured leg. We stayed there for awhile, making sure the blood stopped and Magic was fine (which we accomplished) and headed home afterwards.

So.....we decided not to lose the whole afternoon and decided to harvest blackberries! Deb has blackberry bushes lining her long driveway and we got our bowls out and started harvesting. :)

The boys even helped us out!

Ari did a great job! Stuck his whole head in the bushes (ouch!). Oh Ari, you need to clean up after yourself! Lol!

Magic was still a bit mad from his wound. If looks could kill!

And look at all the blackberries we harvested! Aren't they so plump and full of life?

I haven't done much with blackberry magick but I did learn a few new things.

Botanical name: Rubus villosus

Deities associated with blackberries: Venus and Brigit

Gender: Female (traditional western Western European magickal gender)

Western element: water

Magickal uses: healing

Magickal substitutions: Rosemary and rose

Ritual uses: Offerings to Venus

I am fairly new in learning the magickal uses of blackberries. If you know of anymore information, please let me know! :)

Now...time to make a blackberry pie or some cobbler! Venus would love that. :)

Harvest Prosperity Tea

I sense Fall in the air with the changing of the leaves and a little bite in the air in the evenings. I recall this time last year my girlfriend and I made this wonderful prosperity tea and it worked wonders, prosperity-wise!

This wonderful tea is packed with cinnamon, candied ginger, cloves, chamomile, fresh mint, cinnamon sticks and vanilla (real vanilla bean - scraped). I can't even remember the measurement for each one but we crushed everything with a mortar and pestle and steeped it all in boiling water over the stove. When we were done we poured ourselves a hot, steeping cup each and topped with fresh mint. For the remainder of the tea, we put them in jars and put them in the refrigerator for refreshing cold tea! We made this tea on the New Moon and drank slowly until the Full Moon to get the full effect from the Universe! Who could ask for more perfect ingredients for Fall than these?

I think it's about time to make some more. :) My little Miss Mocha (aka the The Queen) is ready for Fall. She loves sleeping under the covers. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Peaceful Blessings....

P.S. Thank you all for your wonderful, encouraging comments in my last post. I feel 100% better!

Challenged

This week has been especially challenging for me. My beliefs have been challenged. Every core of my being has been challenged. I think all of you may have experienced this at some point in your life. What hurts me the most is that who I am, what I'm about is only about good intentions, only about giving and caring for others...caring for animals, God's animals but because our society has dubbed what we are all about, I have to challenge those that are naive about what they don't know. And what comes after that? What they don't know, scares them. I have been especially emotional lately and the last few days I have found myself crying. Crying because I so badly want to be me. I want to be me in a society that has standards for LIFE. I respect the living, I respect the dead...I even respect those darn annoying little ants that get into our kitchen cupboards. Yep...I can't just wipe 'em up like everyone else does. I have to scoop them all up and throw them outside so they can live their little lives continuing to annoy all of us because that's what they're about. That's what they do. Who am I to disrupt nature (because they're only searching for bits and pieces of food to survive on)? I'm allowing those little ants to be themselves. I know I must sound wacko at this point. Okay, so maybe that's going a little too far but did I get my point across at all?

I'm being challenged. Challenged. I've heard that word throughout my life, time and time again. Michelle, you're being challenged. Michelle, challenge yourself. Michelle, he's asking for a challenge. And each time I was challenged, it made me stronger, as me, than before.

So. I am being challenged. All I can say is look out because a stronger me is going to emerge from all of this. The nice me, I should add, with even more love to give than ever before. ;)

I quote Aunt Frances from the movie Practical Magic.

"My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!"

Blessings to all and to all a good night. xoxo

Come Mr. Tally Man, Tally Me Banana....

"The true origin of Bananas, world's most popular fruit, is found in the region of Malaysia. By way of curious visitors, bananas traveled from there to India where they are mentioned in the Buddhist Pali writings dating back to the 6th century BCE. In his campaign in India in 327 BCE, Alexander the Great relished his first taste of the banana, an usual fruit he saw growing on tall trees. He is even credited with bringing the banana from India to the Western world. According to Chinese historian Yang Fu, China was tending plantations of bananas in 200 CE. These bananas grew only in the southern region of China and were considered exotic, rare fruits that never became popular with the Chinese masses until the 20th century."

Taken from http://www.banana.com/

And now for something tasty!

Banana Smoothie

1 banana
1 cup cold milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

In a blender, combine banana, milk, egg, wheat germ, honey, vanilla and nutmeg. Blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled glass and serve.

I Won Another Giveaway!

I just LOVE seeing boxes sitting in front of my door when I come home and yesterday, one was sitting there...all alone...waiting for me, just me! Yep, I have been a lucky gal lately. I won a giveaway (and I have another coming!). :) I won this giveaway from The Domestic Witch. She is one fun witch, let me tell you. In fact, I'd call her the Martha Stewart of witches! She loves cooking, organizing, decorating, cleaning, anything vintage and she knows how to have fun with her Ya-Ya sisters! Her blog is so fun. In fact, she lists what housekeeping she is doing that day and tells you have to weave magic into everyday chores. Also, she has the most adorable family, especially her sweet little boy, Angelus.

She packaged everything up so sweetly all the way down to the dried flowers on her beautiful stationary. :)

How sweet is this?

Protection bag filled with a snowflake obsidian, moonstone & lapis lazuli and Anubis Rock made from coal. This mix of stones brings balance, protection, serenity and purity into one's life. I just love it!

Then she was sweet enough to throw in this bonus gift, a vintage Household magazine from 1951! I love vintage magazines. It's always so fun to see the ads they published back then. They even have some vintage recipes (that I must try) although there really is no such thing as a vintage recipe...recipes seem to span time or should I say they're timeless. :)

Here's the funny part. As I was writing this post and watching the Hallmark Channel at the same time (my favorite channel of all time) this movie was playing. One of my favorites! It's called The Good Witch. It's so enchanting! If you haven't watched it, it replays often on The Hallmark Channel. Anyway, I see a lot of similarities in The Good Witch and The Domestic Witch! :)

Thank you so much Domestic Witch! I know these stones will bring me positive energy! Here's the big question...will they make me as domestic as you? I hope so! ;) If you haven't stopped by, please swing over so she can sprinkle a little magic into your life!

xoxo

Getting Reconnected with Spirit

It's been awhile since I've been genuinely connected with Spirit. In fact, this is proof....see the dust on my little cabinet that holds all my herbs, candles, incense. etc? Shame on you, Michelle! My sister in Spirit, Thea and I are going to start getting reconnected and get back into doing energy work together. We are so opposite (yin and yang) and yet we come together beautifully as one during energy work (meditation included). We are going to include yoga into the mix as well! Balance..isn't that the key in most things in our lives? Time to get reconnected. Where do you keep your Tools?

Spirits Among Us!

So, as you all know our paranormal group had an investigation Friday night. First off, I think you all should know it's never as dramatic as you see on TV. :) Our investigations are usually uneventful until we review all the equipment and find something. However, we did have a few interesting things happen that gave us pause.

To start with, we decided to test all of our psychic abilities and each guessed what color the house would be. Yellow, green, white or grey. I picked grey. When we arrived, we found the house to be grey. :) I have been an understudy to our two active psychics in our group this past year. They each say I have the gift but that I need more confidence in my abilities. Well, everyone has the ability, really. It's just how much you are willing to do to expand those abilities. For me, I can't think long about what comes to me. As quick as it comes, I write it down or tell someone. This past week before the investigation, I had a few impressions come to me. I felt a strong male presence there that is very attached to the lady of the house. A kind spirit...and quite fond of her. I also felt the presence of a little girl, about eight years old, wearing yellow. I also knew there was a dog buried on their property and his spirit wanders as well. I should start off by saying our two psychics could not make it that evening but they gave us their impressions of what they sensed before we went. They informed our team lead and did not tell any of us until after the investigation. In any event, I asked the lady of the house who's dog it was that was buried underneath the Magnolia tree. She said "Oh! That's Maynard, our neighbor's dog". :) Everyone was shocked that I did not hesitate when I pointed towards the direction of the tree. I felt his presence sort of wandering the area. I think I tend to feel the presence of animal spirits before I feel the presence of humans. Go figure. ;) I then asked who the little girl was that was in the house. She said, "Oh the kids talk to her all the time. Her name is Emily." I asked her if she wears a yellow dress, or if the kids notice her wearing a yellow dress. She didn't know but said her daughter's favorite color is yellow. Not sure what the correlation is there. When we were doing our EVP session we asked Emily if she was there. As soon as the question was asked the KII meter blinked three times. Other than that it never went off again. We had several cold spots that the temperature gauge caught....from 50 degrees down to 22 degrees almost immediately. As far as the male spirit goes, the lady of the house stated she would feel her feet being tickled in the middle of the night...or a hand stroking her back in the laundry room. I feel as though this male presence reminds her of someone that he was very close to.

The picture above is just above the train tracks where the accident took place. You can see orbs but orbs are very hard to verify as they can be particles of dust or dust on the lens. However, in my review of my DVR recorder that was setup in the master bedroom (where both me and Jen, another gal in our group felt a lot of activity) I caught a moving orb....that appeared then disappeared as if purposefully. Not just a fading effect either. I also caught some very erratic light movement in the room as well. I'll get the opinion of the others that are in our group when we have our meeting next weekend. :) I haven't reviewed my voice recorder but I'm anxious to see if I caught anything!

As a side note, the psychics also let us know the land was once inhabited by Native Americans. The owner showed us at least ten arrowheads they had found on their property since they have lived there. These arrowheads were amazingly PERFECT in shape.

If anything, our group had tons of fun and it's always the anticipation of something happening that gets us excited.

I will be working on our official website this week and will let you all know when it's up and running. Our group actually has a new name. We are called Paranormal Researchers of Oregon Foundation (P.R.O.O.F.). We will work towards becoming a family member of TAPS. :) Wish us luck!

On another quick side note. I went to the cat shelter this morning (I volunteer every Sunday at a local no kill cat shelter). It's the next best thing to taking home a thousand strays. Lol! See this cute guy here? He came in as a very feral cat, very terrified and would not let anyone touch him. Every time I came in I would talk with him and work with him on a social level. Today, when he saw me he let out a meow and came right up to me to pet him. It made my heart fill with joy. I love it when hard work and love pays off like this...especially when it involves trust.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I was able to relax today and get a few things done around the house. I did, however, break the belt on my vacuum. Dang, what was that huge thing I sucked up. Lol! So, off to Target I went....and spent over $100.00! Why does that always happen when I go to Target?!

A Date With a Few Spirits Tonight!

Tonight our paranormal research group has an investigation at a private residence. Come out, come out, spirits...wherever you are. Equipments ready, senses ready. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Happy Friday all!

A Giveaway Win for the Vintage Sage!

I am so excited! I've won a giveaway for the Vintage Sage and it's a box of full of mushrooms and toadstools! You're probably thinking, huh? Well take a look here at these wonderful mushrooms created by Wendy at Blue Rock Gourds .

They're like something that Alice would have taken a bite out of in Wonderland! :)

But I promise I won't eat them. Wendy doesn't make JUST mushrooms, she makes all kinds of things out of the gourds they grow! If you checkout her website you can see her collection and she has an Etsy shop so swing on over and say hi! She's just a doll herself. :) Thank you, Wendy!!!

Blessed by the Domestic Witch!

I'm so excited! I have been blessed by the Domestic Witch. :)

The Domestic Witch Blog Award!
For Achievement in Magical Housecrafting

If you've been bestowed The Domestic Witch Blog Award:

~ Pass the award on to 3 blogs about Domestic Witchery that you really enjoy.

~ Include the award in your blog post.

~ Link the nominees within your post.

~ Don't forget to mention the person who gave you the award.

~ Let your chosen winners know that they received The Domestic Witch Blog Award by commenting on their blog.

NOW...I bestow this special gift onto....

1. The Play of Light and Shadow

2. Octoberfarm

3. Rue and Hyssop

The Domestic Witch was my very first magickal blog that I followed and I follow to this day! She lives her daily life filled with magick and fun whether it's cooking up something in her cauldron or decorating her magickal home inhabited by her hubby and adorable son! If you haven't visited her yet swing on over and feel the positive energy!! :) Thank you Domestic Witch!!!

I also won my first giveaway for The Vintage Sage and will be posting all about this gal's fun art on my next post!

Stay tuned...and allow the magick of endless possibilities fill your life!

The Vintage Sage

Do You Believe in Fairies?

All artwork by Nene Thomas