Monsta & Pixie's Magnificent Adventure

Good Afternoon my sweetlings,

I've had such a wonderful, exciting, creative weekend! My amazing friend Naomi von Monsta came to stay and I had so much fun being with her. It was so great to have a witchy friend and Miss Monsta is quite new to the green path so it was almost like I had an apprentice, I loved it! It was also so much fun to spend time with another artist, especially one who draws the same sort of subjects as me (we both draw and paint the world of faerie, especially Unseelie fae).

Thank you so much for coming Monsta, we were so happy to have you and I was just filled with joy to have a kindred spirit to wander and wonder with.

 Miss Monsta at the Common, being a beautiful Gothly queen! The dress used to belong to me for a long time, it was a very special dress to me but I couldn't wear it anymore so I wanted to give it to Monsta. She loves it and said it's very comfy! She gave me a Lush Perfume, 'The Smell of Weather Turning', and it is gorgeous!

 It took us a while to realise that if we just turned around we wouldn't have the sun in our eyes...

 but we got there in the end! That's all that matters right?

 One of my faeries, who I believe may specifically be a troll. The moleskine doesn't take watercolour paint very well because it isn't a watercolour specific one so it tends to go a bit patchy.

 Naomi's AMAZING art, I'm seriously in awe of her skill. 

 Monsta took a picture of me painting :) I drew what turned out to be Pan.

 Painted Pan, his hair was a lot of fun to draw. 

 We took some charcoal discs and had some of Star Child's 'Gaia' incense burning, it was amazing! Unfortunately I dropped the little pot I had bought and it broke. A word to the wise, the bowl gets really incredibly hot with charcoal so watch your fingers.

 When we got home we made tea (vegan ratatouille, 100% amazing) and watched Tangled in bed with my rats. When the first song came on Ganny went crazy in his cage running about and standing up against the bars so we got him out, he would get really excited whenever one of the songs came on. We also had Sev out who would sit up and listen whenever a song came on as well. My boys have been raised with Disney music, I sing it to them so often and specifically sing Tangled songs if they don't feel very well (I would watch Tangled and sing to Dumbles just before he passed away, and did the same when Sev developed pneumonia).

Afterwards Monsta and I ground herbs and made Essential Oil mixes for the herbal fire we had in celebration for Lughnasadh. Here Monsta is writing down her recipe.

 Grinding up my herbs.

 Monsta and Steven by firelight, how cute is Monsta? I love her!

 

We threw the mixtures we had made onto the fire in intervals and talked lots. It was really lovely and just warmed my heart. It also apparently warmed a lot of slugs hearts because they were out in full force, one in particular took a real shine to Monsta and kept gliding it's way towards her constantly.

 This morning we did some more brewing together, making essential oil blends, incenses, massage and annointing oils. This is actually an annointing oil I made for one of my patients who needed a protective oil that would also banish and cleanse negative energy.

 My favourite shop find this weekend was this little guy, he is just absolutely gorgeous. The abalone shell is from Wales and when I got him home I realised he fit perfectly inside, clearly it was meant to be his seat! 

His darling face. I love that he's completely poseable, so cute.

The Bookish Pixie

Good Evening my dears, 

First of all I'd like to welcome those of you who have found me recently to my little hobbit hole. You'll find an excess of glitter, that most things sparkle, delicious scents waft through the air and if you have any peanuts or sunflower seeds on your person chances are my rats will teach you the secret to shrinking and riding around on them! 

Today I'd like to share with you my ever growing reading list as well as a few little sneaky peaks of my favourite things in the house. I'm a total fiend for second hand or just reduced price bookshops and I have found an excess of those recently after my visit to Glastonbury.

I was also very lucky to recieve some free books from a patient of our Herbalist at work, she had bought them in free to a good home so we've all had a rustle through and snaffled a few things! 

I'm quite sure we could build a fort with walls made entirely out of books now, they're on every shelf, stacked on top of everything and towering quite magnificently wherever you go.

top to bottom: Earth Medicine by Jamie Sams, Panchatantra by Pandit Vishnu Sharma, Chinese Folk Medicine and Acupuncture by Heinrich Wallnöfer, The Cherokee Herbal by J.T Garrett, Flower and Tree Magic by Richard Webster, The Shamanic Witch by Gail Wood and Kristen Madden and The Encyclopaedia of Essential Oils by Julia Lawless. 

Here are my feelings on the ones I've already dipped into:

The Cerokee Herbal: Very informative and interesting, the author shares some of the stories of how the herbs got their names as well as quite in depth descriptions of the herbs origins and uses. The herbs are split up into the four directions of medicine, each direction dealing with different conditions.

Flower and Tree Magic: This is quite a light book, it would be a good beginners book for anyone interested in how to work with flowers and plants in general, though I suspect a lot of people would probably find it a bit too fluffy and simplistic.

The Shamanic Witch: I haven't delved far into this yet, though it looks good. It does take a Wiccan route, but even if you're not of a Wiccan leaning I think it would make a good read.

The Encyclopaedia of Essential Oils: Super informative, clear and extensive. I love this, it has already helped me to make a few of my own concoctions.

top to bottom: The Way of the Wizard by Deepak Chopra, Loving What Is by Byron Katie, The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Bayerl, Teachings Around The Sacred Wheel by Lynn V. Andrews, The Book of Palmistry by Sasha Fenton and Malcom Wright and Shamanic Wisdomkeepers by Timothy Freke.

Of these I've only looked at The Master Book of Herbalism, which so far is incredibly informative and an ejoyable read. I'm really looking forward to the Byron Katie book. After hearing Halcyon talk about her a lot I was about to purchase one of her books but didn't end up doing it. A few weeks later I came across this in the 'free to a good home' bag at work, perfect!

Teachings Around the Sacred Wheel was sent to me by sweet Bryony Whistlecraft, thank you so much!

left to right: Days of Healing Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty, The Secret: Daily Teachings by Rhonda Byrne and a blank notebook.

I'm really excited about The Secret: Daily Teachings because I'm one of the folks that enjoyed both The Secret book and movie. It's great for flipping to a random page and finding some wisdom and inspiration.

The bird journal I bought in Avebury, it has lovely pages with a different picture on each, I'm using it to record my Essential Oils recipes.

Close up of the bird. The egg says Hawfinch so I expect that is what the bird is.

A box for essential oils which I bought in Wales (Llandudno, I think the shop was called Fairy Moon)

Essential oils left to right: Clove Bud, Vetiver, White Camphor, Sweet Orange, Rosewood, Black Pepper, Cypress, Benzoin.

Almost every single essential oil I have I have managed to buy on sale for a massively reduced price, or through some excellent sellers on Ebay. All of these are from Fresh Skin on Ebay who I highly recommend if you're into Essential Oils, these were inexpensive and they smell gorgeous as well as having lovely packaging. 

left to right: Peppermint, Gernaium, Ravensara, Oakmoss, Wintergreen, Juniperberry, Fennel, Ho Wood.

The two Meadows oils are from Avebury, the next two are Star Child oils, another from The Cat and Cauldron in Glastonbury, and the next 3 from Fairy Moon again.

left to right: Birch, Roman Chamomile, Clary Sage, Cinnamon, Cedarwood, Lavender, Scots Pine, Sage, Ivy.

Birch and Ivy are special blends from Star Child, Roman Chamomile and Clary Sage from the magic shop in Lincoln, Cinnamon from The Psychic Piglet in Glastonbury, the remainder from Fairy Moon in Wales.

My little cauldron, I waited so long to get one! It's the perfect size, and portable which is awesome.

No picture can do this crystal justice, it is beautiful and has a lovely vibe.

Amethyst and a Recordkeeper crystal in the Buddha's hand.

Ganesha with Obsidian.

and another Ganesha with Rose Quartz and surrounded by my little fertility goddesses. I'm not sure why but I get a really nice, balanced vibe when they're placed together like that, so I go with it.

Be Unapologetically Awesome : My Argument Against Self-Deprecation

Good Morning my dears,

Today I'd like to tackle a subject I've had rolling around in my mind for the past few months. I've been trying to formulate the right way to write about it and now I think it's time! Go get some popcorn and sit down in the grass with this little guy, this could get a little lengthy.

What I want to talk about today is self-deprecation and how much I loathe it. Not only that, I want to show you that you don't need it. According to Wiki we Brits have this down to a fine art, I want to change that!

So what is self-deprecation?

self-deprecating

adj

1. having a tendency to disparage oneself.

2. Tending to undervalue oneself and one's abilities.

Basically, the art of putting yourself down. 

Our society, at least at the present time, seems to absolutely love people who are self-deprecating. I've read quite a few interviews with celebrities (Stephen Fry and Daniel Radcliffe being the main examples) where within the first paragraph they're described as self-deprecating, this being cited as a reason why the interviewer and thus the reader would love them. 

Often self-deprecation is linked with being humble, down to earth, aware of the fact that you're just like everybody else. I can understand why those traits are lovable and admirable but self-deprecation is actually a pretty insidious red herring in that setting. 

The trait of putting yourself down is deeply linked with being humble in our psyché and yet those two things actually have no real link, you don't have to be self-deprecating to be humble, you can very easily be humble without undervaluing yourself.

The problem with self-deprecation is that it soaks into your mind as you see it and hear it and manages to bypass any rational argument you might have against the idea of it. More than that, it's seen as such a desirable and admirable trait that we're subconciously being told that undervaluing ourselves and our talents, if not flat out criticizing ourselves, is the 'correct' way to behave. If you put yourself down you put yourself closer to the people you're interacting with, if you refuse to acknowledge how awesome you are you don't make anyone uncomfortable. 

Honestly, I think that is total rubbish. This quote from Marianne Williamson springs to mind.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

 We are taught to feel that playing small, purposefully shrinking and refusing to accept that we are brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous is what we should do. To be likeable to others we have to dislike ourselves, or at least act as though we do. If you're constantly putting yourself down, trying to make your achievements seem lesser, trying to make yourself seem worse, eventually you will start to believe it. We attack our own self-esteem, attack ourselves, so that nobody else will.

Yet, more now than ever, we're being told that it's actually ok to love yourself. More than that, it's great! There are more and more people fighting against the media messages of imperfection as a weakness, as a generation we're standing up and saying 'hey, you know what? There is nothing wrong with having imperfections! I am not defined by my imperfections!', we're fighting against being told that we should feel inadequate and that is fantastic. Now it's time to focus that same passion on ourselves, it's time to stop putting ourselves down.

Going back to my previous point, self-deprecation is seen as a way of putting yourself on a level with somebody else. The thing is, why are we being taught that the level we have to go to, in order to meet the people around us, is lower? Why are we not taught to assume that people are actually on the same level as us, the high level of awesome, inspiring, intelligent, creative greatness? Why are we not taught that we're all on that level, we're all on an equal footing and we all have something fantastic about ourselves that we can share. If we sink down in order to meet other people we're denying ourselves and others the chance to be proud of how great we are, to share what brings us joy instead of what makes us feel bad. The idea that we even should put ourselves down to appear more likeable to others creates an image in our minds that we're not all on the same level to begin with, it creates more of a divide than if we all simply started off confident that we are all just as good as each other. 

I want to propose that you CAN be awesome, and know you are awesome, without being big headed or full of yourself. Loving yourself is healthy, hating on yourself for any reason is not. Talking about your skills, talents, and just generally being happy with yourself is not a bad thing. You can appreciate yourself and still appreciate others just as much. You can be a brilliant, shining, cosmic star (we all are anyway, scientifically) and still talk to other people without making everybody run screaming from you. People will love you for your amazingness if you share it so shine your light, shine on! We are not serving each other by dimming our lights, we are only assuring others that it is ok to be dimmed, that we should be dimmed. 

So next time you're talking to somebody and you get to talk about something you love about yourself, do just that. Tell them why you are SO great, and then ask them the same. Don't make yourself look bad and give them the message that it's ok if they feel bad too, nip that thing right in the bud and turn it around. Shine your light and get them to shine their light right alongside you, be a twin super nova, be a group of stars! Love yourself and love others, teach them that they can love themselves without fear as well. Light up the darkness, I believe in you ♥

Saturday Stars, Lovely Links #6

Good Evening my sweetlings,

Lets get some magical link action going! This week I have had one message coming through loud and clear for me, from everywhere and anywhere. That message was of Manifestation in all shapes and forms. I've come across SO many different people talking about the Power of Attraction, I've had heart to hearts in bed, I've gotten my spiritual butt kicked (and I'm thankful!), and I've had my fires reignited by amazing stories. 

The thing that keeps coming up, and I'm sure I'm meant to learn from this and share it with all of you, is that the Power of Attraction works whether you think it does or not. You can believe in it, you can completely disbelieve it, it doesn't matter. It is working all the time. It works for everything, it is indiscriminate in it's magnetism. Whether we believe something is 'bad' or 'good' means nothing because it will get the same amount of pull to everything.

In light of that, in light of the fact that you can give equal weight to what you DO want and what you DON'T want, because both are equally likely when we direct our attention to them, why not focus on what puts the spark in your soul? You have that power of intention, you have that power of focus, we all do, and when we put it into practice amazing things happen!

Here are some of my favourite links from this week. Even better, I've added a nifty widget so you can share your favourite links with me and your fellow sugar plums! I'd love to see what's inspiring you ♥

 ♥ Unicorns for Socialism is an amazing name for an awesome site! It has been one of my absolute favourites over the course of this year. Alexandra Franzen writes inspirational, butt kicking, hilarious and touching posts that leave you feeling fantastic and ready to go out there and give it your all. Whenever I read this site I end up buzzing around like a bee, plotting all the things I want to do.

♥ Sera Beak & Elisa Romeo talk to Jeanette Maw about The Law of Attraction ♥ Jeanette's story is so touching and incredibly reassuring, it's really a story that gives you that sense of 'if they can do it, I totally can!', she also dispels some of the most common myths (I wrote moths, I don't think she dispels moths!) about the Law of Attraction.

♥ Marie Forleo pops onto my radar like clockwork every 3 months, I'm pretty sure I could time it now! Marie is a force of nature, super funny, down to earth and playful, every post she makes is easy to relate to and full of ideas you can put into practice straight away. My favourite articles of hers right now are Fear vs. Intuition: How to Tell the Difference, Manifesting 101: A Step-by-Step Guide with Gabby Bernstein and Crazy Sexy Evolution: How Kris Carr Turned Her Passion into an Unexpected Business

♥ Wanna know some of my favourite books right now? Try The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Bayerl, Complete Herbal (Wordsworth Reference) by Nicholas Gent Culpeper and A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R Martin (I love the Lannisters I have to say! Who is your favourite house? Character?)

♥ Star Child has some of the best incenses and essential oils I've ever smelt, plus their packaging is gorgeous! I've been making up lots of oils and blends in preparation for launching them in my shop and I'm super excited about it.

♥ Would you like some beautiful sounds for your ears? Legends Of The Frost by Miracle Of Sound ft. Malukah (lovely and soothing, Steven and I love love love Malukah!), The Rains of Castamere from Game of Thrones (haunting), Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen (I'm not even slightly ashamed that I love this song!)

I'd love it if you'd share your favourite links! Just pop them in below ♥ (psst: you could totally input your own blog posts for me and everybody to take a peek at!)

Avebury Dreaming

Good Evening my dears, 

Today I'd like to share the photos I took at Avebury with you which will conclude my Glastonbury adventures. I'm still trying to get hold of the rest of the pictures I took in Wales that I didn't use my camera for. July has been full of adventuring! 

I hope you're all having a wonderful month, have you been on an adventure lately?

 

This lady was lost deep in communication with this ancient, wise tree. It was amazing to behold, I just had to take her photo.

The root looks like it has an apple, that age old sign of wisdom and knowledge. This tree was in a grove which was full of energy, it was beautiful.

A fairy toadstool I found. I decided to charge my Fairy Crystal green troll man beneath it and sat with it quietly for a little while. 

Sitting in a fairy throne. The tree had formed a natural chair which was incredibly comfortable, it felt so safe and peaceful sitting there. 

A crystal Steff bought at Crystals, the sister to my crystal. 

Steff found a tiny little nature spirit, he had the most perfect tiny face inside his hood.

Heather drew a picture for the tree using a piece of chalk we found in the earth.