It is strange to imagine that Samhain is only one day away.  I have been busy over the course of the week and had not realized until a few minutes ago that it is the 30th of the month today – tomorrow is Samhain!

I hope that everyone is more ready for this than I have turned out to be this year, but then — I have not exactly been looking forward to Samhain this year as I have in years past. For me, the day can just simply pass on by and be behind me rather than ahead of me.  I would not mind any at all.

I still have not really decided if I will be doing anything for Samhain or not.

Tags: halloween, october, Samhain

I got my desktop computer set back up, so as soon as I can get GIMP installed again and the images from my camera edited I will share pictures of what the handbound book I am making looks like.  I am really happy with how it is turning out and can’t wait to see the thing finished, I just am not sure if I will have the heart to sell it once it is finished.

Tags: book, BOS, bound, hand, handbound, ooak

I have been finding out that one of the biggest problems I have is finding the time to do a ritual.  It seems like whenever I think I have some time to cast a circle and work a spell or something, someone comes by to visit, or someone calls or I am needed for something… even late at night.  It is driving me crazy trying to sort out me time to work on spells and ritual.  I have it narrowed down now to where I think I should be able to have private time between 1am and 4am, so I think I will make around 2 or 3 in the morning my
target time for personal time to focus on casting a circle and working spells.

Tags: magic, ritual, spell, wicca, witch

I have been working on a dragon painting for the cover of an artist book that can be used for either an artist to keep their sketches or as a book of shadows by a pagan that loved dragon magic.

I’m very happy with how the book is turning out, but until I get back my desktop computer  I can’t share any pictures of it.  I’ll get some pictures of it as soon as I can, however, and share them with everyone here.

Tags: book, Bookbinding, dragon, pagan, shadows, spell, wicca

I have been working on getting a copy of my BOS organized for sharing with others in the form of a handbound BOS.  It is not exactly easy, since a lot of what will be going into it are actually things I have not written down before, being kept in my head rather than in any book or on a computer.  So many of my spells are done from memory rather than being read recipe-like from a BOS that I really never write many of them down, so creating a working BOS to share with others means a lot of things that were never written before now need to be set to paper to supplement my BOS and make it complete.

Tags: book, Bookbinding, pagan, shadows, spell, wicca

I have been working on a Book of Shadows to hand bind for selling to raise some much needed money.  It is going good so far, I am to the point of adding spells to the book, so it is going along quite nicely and I expect I should be ready to enter it into the computer for printing and binding by next week.   When I am ready to sell it, I will post where it is listed so you can all check it out.

I do not feel like doing anything for Samhain or any of the other sabbats / holidays that normally would have been celebrated by my family.  It just… it’s not something I particularly feel up to.  Mentally or emotionally.

Still, I am going to try to do at least some preparing in case I change my mind as the dates near.  I think rather than focus on celebrations of Samhain at the moment, I will probably focus more on the history of the day and where it originated and how it has changed over the years.

It is not easy to research house elves on the Internet now days, since most of the information you will get back concerns the house elves of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does make it difficult for someone that is trying to research the history of house elves in legends. Even Wikipedia only makes passing note of the house elf in reference to The Brother’s Grimm story of The Elves and the Shoemaker, then it references the house elves of Harry Potter.

What lead me to researching house elves is a mission I have set myself to. My mother had wanted me to inherit her and my dad’s house as payment for the lifetime I set aside to be their caregiver. Troubles hit members of the family with the mortgage crisis and several close family members were going to lose their homes if they did not get fast help – so, we took out a reverse mortgage on my parent’s home to save the homes of others in the family.

Now, with the passing of my mom, I am forced to realize that there is a very real probability that I will be losing my parents home if something happens to my dad. Should anything happen to him, the entire amount due against this house (somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000) will come due in full or the house will be seized by the mortgage company. After having spent my entire life taking care of my parents, I have no hope of ever getting a bank to help me refinance their home, so I would face losing that home.

This brings me to the house elves. In addition to other efforts to raise the money I have to raise, I have began creating one of a kind (OOAK) house elf figures that I will be selling to help raise money that will go toward saving my parent’s house. I have been a doll artist for 30 years The elves will be limited edition collectibles with the mission of going out into the world and helping me save my parents house.

The first snowfall of the year is here. We got a pretty good dusting of snow where I live, the flakes at one point looking to be in clusters roughly an inch across as they fell quickly to the ground, coating it in a blanket of white cold.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am not ready for the winter to be here. The yard is not yet ready for it and I certainly am not ready for it on a mental level – and the house – brrrrrrr…. the house is so not ready for winter to be here. Heating system is not working, so it’s chilly in here as I write this.

I had planned to do a lot of work on this site over the past month, however, a personal loss in September forced me to not do a lot of things – including not eating.  I am trying to get back to a lot of things, and one of those things is back to working on my Book of Shadows and bookbinding.

I have started working on a BOS that I can bind and offer for sale.  It is an effort to help in raising some very needed money.  I’ll add more details here as I work on it and get closer to having it ready for sale.