New Toy

When I visited a friend, Curt's creative blog this morning and saw his Halloween Count down, I knew I had to have one for this blog.

If you click on the link below the countdown pic, you'll see a variety of themes and occasions to pick from. I like the full moon and tree from Curt's blog but I just had to have the cauldron on here. We are the Cauldron Cafe, after all hehe

The air has a crispness to it and it's beautiful here in the Ozarks. I know after the grandtoddler goes back home and hubby heads back to the boat next week, I'll be spending lots of time outside. It's my favorite weather for working around the property.

I'm also hoping to start a needlework project around Samhain. I'll post a link in a few days.

How are your plans for Samhain coming along? How do you celebrate our new year?

Stepping Back In

My internet has just been bizarre! And it feels good to have it back on a regular basis. It was so incredibly hot here - as it has been most everywhere from what I'm hearing. But after two months of dealing with HughesNet tech support we finally determined my modem was overheating. I couldn't stay on-line for more than 10 minutes at a crack. Very frustrating. Keep in mind, my house has central air and a dehumidfier. So we're not sure WHY. But a 10" fan sits on my desk, blowing on the modem whenever it's plugged in and everything seems to be working fine. Please Goddess, hear my prayer.

As I fought with internet issues, I was spending a lot of time with Mother Earth. I have almost 50 tomato plants, 30 green pepper plants and 15 banana pepper plants I've been trying to coax through the heat. The banana peppers have been flourishing. I'll have enough banana pepper pickles for awhile. The cantalope also did well. The tomatoes, not so much. With the heat has come an abundance of grass hoppers and they think my plants taste just scrumptious. I've been battling them and stink bugs (a grey, triangular-shaped beetle) with an organic mixture of tobacco tea, dish detergent and Listerine. It is helping some. Now to figure out what to do about the tomato worms. They too seem worse this year. I so wish I had chickens to feed them to.

I've not been working in my journal. My writing time has been spent with my weekly column in a local newspaper and working on contest entries in my spare time. I've pulled it off the stack and placed it by my bed so I'll remember to write in it.

One of my first projects was to reconstruct my altar but I've put off doing that because I know we'll be remodeling the bedroom soon and I'll have to move everything again. So for now, it's the bare bones.

I've been picking up scrapbook papers, stamps and images to put a creative slant to my BOS as time permits. I bought a sheet of underlayment to make my cover. I'm trying to decide if I want to use it for a binding as well. That would give it the appearance of an old bound book. What kind of BOS do you have?

A New Year is almost Here!

Merry Meet friends.

I am sorry it has taken me awhile to find my way back on the path to the Cauldron. It has been an interesting year with lots of little bumps along the way. I won't bore you with the where I've been, but know you were always in my thoughts and I was anxious to get back here.

A new year is upon us. We've had a few crisp mornings here in the Ozarks making me long for Autumn to come. The fall season has always been my time of rejuvination. I look forward to it like kids look forward to Christmas. For me, the season is full of so many blessed gifts.

With the coming of the New Year, I am itching to get back to my research and will begin regular postings again. I also am hoping for a couple of surprise guests in the coming weeks so hold on to your brooms.. it's going to get busy!

Many Blessings
Rain

A Shift in Time

After all my years of being in this body on this plane, it still amazes me how time passes so quickly. You'd think I'd be use to it by now.

Since the first of the year, I've been thinking about the next casket post. Imbolc would (at that time) be just a few short weeks away. Because I want to post these two weeks prior to needing the supplies, I knew I was good until about the 15th of the month. Then my household shifted drastically and time as I knew it, ceased to exist. Nothing life-threatening.. just life-altering for the time being.

At 48 years old I find myself solely responsible for a 2 yr old 24/7. Our daughter left for Nashville for a job interview (which she got and is now in the process of settling in music city). My husband left for his three weeks on the river boat. Tootsie Pop and I are having a ball. But by the end of the evening I'm tired. I manage to make it about two hours longer than she does. hehe. Not a bunch of time to keep up with email and the blogs.

How long this will last, I'm not sure. Hubby will be gone two more weeks and then I'll have an extra pair of eyes. She climbs everywhere! But until our daughter is settled and has moved the baby down there with her, my time isn't my own. I'll do my best to keep up here but the posts may not always come as far ahead of an event as I would prefer. Bear with me, please. Life will return to normal... someday.

Many Blessings
Rain