It’s my most favorite time of the year…

Ahhh, October. My very favorite and my best time of year. It’s cool in the mornings (yaaay!), and it’s chilly at  night (sweaters!), and I can turn the oven on, and Tasha can play outside again:

Okay, so it’s more likely she can sit outside again. ahem. Kitty’s do as kitty’s will. Anyway, It’s finally Autumn in these here parts, with the long suffering days and nights of stifling heat long behind us. We should only have a few spots of dry heat here and there this month, so here’s hoping and fingers crossed and all that!

September was full of new starts, doing, life, and dreaming of better days to come. I started taking a class, which is going well. I have officially left the community garden that I joined at the start of this summer. After dreaming and planning for vegetable gardens my entire adult life, it seems that the practice is not as satisfying as the dream. But, you know what they say- try everything in life once, the fun things twice! So, I’ve let it go and am refocusing on my herbs and flowers here at the house (which is much more satisfying, truth be told! Snip snip right outside the door and voila! instant yummyness in the kitchen.) It’s also allowed me to get back to my morning walks. With scenes like this to wake up to, I’m definitely not regretting my decision:

I also worked up the courage to start running a table at the weekly Dungeons and Dragons night at our local gaming store. Such a lot of fun! But it’s really just a disguise for a lot of hard work, planning, rules lawyering, and meeting new people once a week. Oh, and playing with toys a bit, too. Painting figurines, sourcing rule books, gaming mats, rules cheatsheets, tokens, and figuring out how to transport all of the above once a week is a bit of a chore, but I’ve learned a lot over the last few months. And it’s a great cure for my crippling case of shyness, at any rate!

Trying new things is important aspect of life- it keeps you engaged, happy, and active. Keeps the mind agile and your outlook positive, which I believe are very important to a happy, productive life. But there is such a thing as trying to do too much, and it seems it’s time to take a few things off my plate. I want to do so much, but there is only so many hours in the day. Studying for school has taken precedence over my hobbies. Cooking dinner is more important than chores. It’s a give and take. I absolutely love Fall, and start to shift over into Making mode this time of year, but I’ve had to be a lot more selective of what I put on my crafting list. Knitting mittens instead of blankets, sewing napkins instead of another quilt, tote bags instead of purses, that sort of thing. Now that California has passed a Bill to ban plastic grocery bags, I want to make a few of my grocery totes in plain brown linen, something that won’t shout “I’m a homemade bag”, but will be nicer and cheaper than the ready made, over priced things out in the shops. I’ve already made a quick Fall couch throw, and have a new round of cloth napkins in creamy off-white linen planned that will work for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Easy peasy, and fun to do to boot!

So, the start of another new school year, a lovely new brisk Fall, and a new personal schedule. Now, if I can just get my new textbook away from the Faeries- they’re using it as a ping pong table!

 

March 3, 2014: Enter Spring!

Letters from the editor:

March, 2014 has certainly come in like a lion this year! The weekend started with a ferocious rain storm- lots of wind, lashing rain, cloudy skies, dark afternoons- it was wonderful! Coupled with a lovely morning of library book sales, second hand book stores, a light lunch at our favorite organic spot, and a whole afternoon of puttering, cooking, and cleaning, it was a glorious beginning to this last month of winter, the prelude to Spring.

The Vernal Equinox hits around March 20^th this year, on a Thursday no less! However, it feels as if Ostara has come early in my part of the world, with warm days, no rain and the flowers, trees and even the birds convinced it’s Spring already! I’ll be glad for the time change this Sunday- Daylight Savings hits this month, and not a moment too soon. It’s also St. Patrick’s Day in a few weeks, so I’ve planned a menu of Irish favorites to share with you.

I’ll be crafting a breath of fresh air this month with some new linens, and the garden will be spruced up after the latest rainstorm, with possibly a few new additions out there as well. A sightseeing trip to an old neighborhood favorite; a bit of an in-depth look at my favorite springtime faeries; and a little redecorating/reorganizing of a few spaces will round out the goings-on in this space, with the month finished out by the next “chapter” in my little story experiment. I am quite enjoying this new format- it’s been flowing along nicely, and I’ve found it a lot easier to sit down and actually write for a change. Thank you for joining me here, at the Magickwyrds Journal- I look forward to your comments, suggestions and opinions!

February 3rd, 2014

Letters from the editor:

So- how do you like it? This is such a delicious new look for the old blog, don’t you think? I needed something to inspire me, something to entice me to spend some more time in this space. It had gotten a little hard to come up with posts this last year- my postings had been a bit too sporadic for my peace of mind. I really enjoyed my writing project at the beginning of last year, and wanted to do something similar this time around- but what to do? I like to play with newsletters for my personal enjoyment, printing up Menus and Programs for my little events at home, so naturally my thoughts turned to ideas of Columns and Articles as a welcome change for blog post ideas this year! It has reinvigorated my zeal for this project of mine- which started out as a lark one June afternoon, and has turned into a 4 year odyssey of challenges,accomplishments, soul searching, projects- and not a few musings and lists!

Through it all the appearance of the blog hasn’t changed but a very little, so I do hope the new theme isn’t too jarring- I wanted something Light and Refreshing, Bright, Open and Airy. I quite like it. It gives me a sense of a quiet, empty page- just waiting for thoughts, nonjudgmental and curious- like an eager, kind friend waiting to hear the latest from the Magickwyrds Journal.

A Strange Change in the Wind…

Well- hopefully not that strange! I thought we could all use a bit of a change of pace around here, and updated the old blog a bit. Shined her up, tossed some things out, rearranged what was left, and voila! I quite like it, and hope that you all will too!

I’ve also decided to change the content as well- it’s been so long since we’ve had any sort of structure in this space, I thought it was high time for a bit of a change, don’t you think? We’ll set up a kind of an on-line Journal, perhaps even the feel of an old fashioned Magazine, shall we? How does that sound? And to break it down for you, I’ve created a new List!

Our new categories are:

Letter from the Editor (perhaps I’ll change that title, but the intent shall remain the same; once a month, a few words to set the tone, hmm?)

Cleaning (Recipes for cleaning supplies, tips, hints, admonitions, bewailments, you know-the vagaries of life in a dirty house!)

Cooking (ooo- this one will be scrumptious! Recipes, receipts, formulas, techniques, etc.)

Crafting (How about an easy-to-do project, for everyone to join in on once a month? With Instructions and step-by-step pictures to boot!)

Gardening (Well, it wouldn’t be a Magickwyrds production without pictures of the lovely Hedge out the Backdoor, now would it?)

Myth & Lore (Faeries, Trolls, Mice and Men- basically anything that catches my fancy we’ll use as a monthly theme- sort of a backdrop for the whole issue? That ought to keep everything in line…)

Seasonal (We could throw a Party for Mother Nature, with the theme inspired by the current Season!)

Sightseeing (A place to put all those lovely pictures of our Outings.)

Writing (I’ve had ever-so-many-ideas popping into my head for more chapters in the Market Faire book- stay tuned for Plot, Conflicts and maybe even some Themes in the coming months.)

Well, that sounds just marvelous, doesn’t it? I love a good Spring  Cleaning, and this dusty shelf certainly could benefit from it I dare say! I look forward to seeing how this “new” space progresses this year, and all your thoughts on our New Look as well!