I decided a little while ago that I wanted more of my own work on my walls. I have some paintings I’ve done on the walls but wanted to do more embroidery and textile things for display.  I have several projects in process at the moment, several felt “banners” for my kitchen area altar are included.  Halloween, Autumn, Spring/Summer, and Yule.  They will be reversible and when I get some good pictures I will post them.

The other project is a huge Wheel of the Year in wool felt that is about 40″ in diameter.  The ivory felt wheel pieces (pie shaped pieces)will be appliqued onto a black felt background in such a way that the black makes spokes and a rim.  The hub is going to be a sun/moon.  The black will be embroidered with vines and leaves.  It is an ambitious project and who knows how long it will take me to do.  But I love it well and it’s a lot of fun. I haven’t decided yet if I want it to be simple or very embellished so I’m getting the pie pieces done to a certain point and moving on to the next.  If I grow tired and just want to hang it already at least it will be simply done.

I only have 4 sabbats in the stitching stage, Ostara, Litha, Mabon, and Samhain.  I’ve got Lammas and Beltaine designed but not cut out yet.  Imbolc is next with wooly lambs,  I’m a bit stumped by Yule because of the orientation of the piece.  Yule has a cardinal and pine and holly but how to place the cardinal still escapes me as it is a a long tall piece, not wide. The symbols are very traditional, nothing obscure, each piece having an animal and a plant.

The designs are completely mine and drawn freehand by me.  I’m feeling kind of proud of the drawing, if I do say so.  Quite pleased with myself.

The four pieces together.

I love altars.  I have several of them.  I belong to a community called pimp_my_altar and eagerly watch for updates of pictures.  I was turned on to that community by one of the several blogs I read, Dancing Down the Moon.  Per her request, I’ve put up a post with pictures of my own altars at home so that she and others can take a peek.

This is my main altar in my living room.  It is where I do my daily devotions to the deities that I work with.  I just changed it over to the fall decor this past weekend.  I change it’s decor for the sabbats although summer tends to stay the same from Litha through Lammas simply because I need simplicity in summer.  Typical altar, Goddess and God represented as well as the four elements.

The altars not shown here are my ancestor and family altar, my departed pets altar, East, and North.  The main altar lives in the south because north is a fireplace and just not big enough.

The main altar lives on top of a vintage buffet where I store all my candles and linens.

Seeing as how I’m not crazy about the very hot days of summer and basically tolerate them inside with my A/C on when it’s over 78, I’m happy to say that this is the coolest and wettest August in my memory.  Which is a wonderful thing. I get my garden watered for free.  My blackberries came to fruition this year.  I can wear the clothes that I am most comfortable in. I can work with the wool textiles that are the hardest to stand in the heat.  Fall is coming on in leaps and bounds and I’m The Happy.

The leaves are changing on the trees, just a little but it’s there. My cat’s shedding has decreased noticeably. The cooler evenings where I can actually sleep with the quilt on the bed. And the longing for making, and eating, pumpkin bread has begun.  I’m dying to use my cast iron corn bread pan with little corn cobs for the mini breads.  Mabon and then Samhain cometh.

I had a lovely quiet weekend with The Ex. We laid low after being so busy of late and watched videos and got all creative. We took two naps, ate comfort food, and didn’t leave the house, not once.  Unless you count taking out the garbage and feeding the strays.  I managed to get all kinds of puttering done.  Puttering is my favorite thing to do.  Even more than my embroidery and artwork, puttering and just letting myself live completely in the moment feels so darned good.  And I always manage to get things done that I didn’t even know needed doing.

I cleaned my main altar and made a new altar cloth.  I’ve been meaning to make this one for a couple years at least.  Got out the Autumn decor and candles and incense.  The directional altars also got an upgrade.  Dianne Sylvan’s post last Thursday inspired me to get a move on and I will be posting pictures soon so that she can check it out. Per her request to her readers.  I’m game.

I also began to draft up the slices for the remaining four wheel pieces from my wheel of the year project.  Perhaps I will take pictures of where the project stands right now and post them too.  I’m having a lot of fun with it as it just organically flows from my spirit.

Last week was really a doozy.  I got clobbered by some miscommunication, that wasn’t on my radar and should have been, in a volunteer group I participate in. It was unexpected and suffice it to say, I decided I would rather be happy than right and pulled out of the project. Another project that a friend had asked me to participate in and that I wasn’t eager to do got angry with me because I pulled out of that completely too.  And she had the nerve to take my partner aside and actually criticize me for doing it.  To him!  Not to me. Whoa. As if he wouldn’t tell me, bless his heart. 

Did I tell you all that I have fibromyalgia?  A chronic pain and fatigue syndrome?  While I consider it to be mostly in remission if I am not careful with my schedule I can put myself into a full blown pain cycle that can take weeks or months to recover from.  Not to mention the accompanying depression, fatigue, IBS, and other various fun symptoms of the FMS beast. So I must really make sure to take care of myself.  Get enough sleep, eat right, make my 12 step meetings so I don’t die, and make sure that I have time to create because that will kill my soul to not do that. 

Drama, I just hate drama, and there has been far too much drama of late.  Should I chalk it all up to Venus Retrograde right after Mercury Retrograde? Perhaps.  I think though that the universe has given me enough thumps on the head lately in this area of my life (including the broken friendship which stemmed from that group) to let me know that I just don’t belong there.  And I’m okay with it because I don’t think I want to belong there.  Must follow my bliss.  Whee!

Here is my MUST do list:

• Donations for the annual Samhain Spiraldance Fundraiser for Gaia’s Temple: 3 pouches, 3 checkbook covers, 2 hats, 1 eyepillow all embroidered and sewn by hand by October 10th  (Bliss)
• Embroidered felt Wheel of the Year for myself (Bliss)
• Yule presents all to be hand made for my family and friends: several pairs of knit socks, one wall hanging, several pieces of jewelry, homemade soaps and candles, shortbread and a myriad of other things (Bliss)
• 5 permanent commitments every month: Oloteas 4th Saturday, Gaia’s Temple 2nd Sunday, Jeshua 1st Saturday, 12th step phones 2nd Saturday, SCA Business Meeting 3rd Monday, 12 step meetings every Monday and Friday evening (all but one is Bliss)
• I am responsible for the Arts and Sciences display and competition and getting the prizes in order, three of which I am providing myself, one of which still has to be made for an SCA event in September (not so much Bliss)
• Organize classes through the end of the year for said SCA group (not so much Bliss)

Here is my WANNA do list:

• Ritual clothing that consists of sabbat short tunics I can wear with jeans.  I’m a jeans and clogs/boots kind of gal.  And while I love dresses I can only wear them in weather that allows me to wear tights.  So I really want some tunics I can wear that are festive and spiritually symbolic and yet feel like my regular clothes (Bliss)
• More altar and ritual items (Bliss)
• Finish up the other wall hangings that are in queue (Bliss)
• Make some slipcovers for my old chair (Bliss)
• Some other house and ritual decorations (Bliss)

Overall I think I’m coming out on top in the Bliss area and that is verra nice.

So, when my stint with the SCA group mentioned several times above is over, that part of my life is going to fade away.  I’ll still go to the random event and when motivated I’ll do a new demo on the Medieval Tailor website, but for now at least, I want to get those classes organized, that last prize made, and be done until after Yule.

I’m really looking forward to the rituals that are coming up and all the festivities and activities that go with them.  The baking for the potlucks, the making of garlands and other bits, the rain, the quiet project season…

Aside from all I said above, I feel very good, am quite happy, and love life. Yes indeed I do.  Blessings to all who are having difficulties at this time, may your road level off.

My personal web page is reborn.  This is where the galleries of my work in textiles, photos, and paint reside. 

It has a new design, I finally organized and discarded some things, and I’m very pleased.  To learn more about me, that is the place to go. Well sort of, I don’t open my heart there but the mundane aspects of my life are there in a nutshell.

Enjoy!

I thought you would like to know about this urgent campaign to free the remaining South Korean aid workers who have been taken hostage by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. The Taliban have already executed 2 hostages, and are threatening to execute the rest this week–an action that could trigger a mass evacuation of life-giving humanitarian aid from all of Afghanistan.
 
The situation is desperate, but there is hope. The Taliban are from the Pashtun ethnic group, and observe a strict code called ‘Pashtunwali.’ This code demands “hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers”. There are rumours of infighting among the Taliban over these kidnappings, because they clearly violate the code.

This week, Avaaz members are running a petition as a full page ad in a major newspaper in Afghanistan, the Killid Weekly–and directly contacting the official Taliban spokesperson, Qari Yusef Ahmadi, to deliver the message to the Taliban leadership.

The Killid Weekly ad, and the phone call to Ahmadi, will be more effective the greater our numbers. We need to get well over 100,000 signers in the next 24 hours, and massively grow the petition this week. Please forward this email to as many friends as possible and ask them to sign the petition at the link below:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Thanks!