A quickie

I'm back from my little vacation..
Yay!
I managed to not gain any weight over the last week or so, which considering all the junk I ate, is a miracle!
That is a good sign!
I did not get any of my organizing done that I planned.
My dad was in the hospital for a week and time was spent there, and after, making sure he is taken care of.
I am so excited to start the new year, with a fresh start on everything (I hope)
I can reboot my life and begin my journeys again.
Let's see how it works out!
I am going to start a new blog, for weight loss only. This just seems easier for me. I am not good at scheduling, if you haven't noticed.
I will have one for my family and random things, one for my crafts, and one for weight loss.
A bit of juggling, but easier for me to keep things straight.
so, if you are interested, join me on my other blogs, when I get the last one going :)

Feedback

So apparently I am not a good writer.
I chose first person, present tense to write my story. I thought, hell, why not be different? Original?
Well.. that is crap! :) I have been told it doesn't work.
Yes, it is harder to maintain that level for a million pages, but why doesn't it work?
I want the reader to feel my character. To live the story the same time as it is happening.
No?
I submitted a tidbit of my wip to someone who will remain nameless :)
and got some great feedback.
First of which, first person, present tense doesn't work.
*sigh*
so.. I suppose I will change that.
should I?
I have been told and have read lots of places, no one likes it.
Ok. I will change it.

Then I love this!
I have adverbitis :)
too many adverbs?
*longer, bigger sigh*
I tend to show and not tell.
ok. I get this.
But every book I have ever read, does the same thing.
If not worse. *whine*
I suppose I need to rethink this writing thing.
again.

I loved getting this advice.
I did.
Then I thought, I suck!
Moving on.
Yay for the weekend to let this soak in.
Because the said person, will take another look after I've made the adjustments and changes.
Squeee!!!

Happy Friday!

NaNo

So.. I totally failed NaNoWriMo..
Yeppers.
I got a whopping 1000 words.
In a month!
I know..

But at least I thought about my story.
And I got that 1000 words that I didn't have in October. Right?

Sigh

Maybe one day, I will get organized and on track with everything I want to do.
I have piles of fabric waiting for me to create things.
I have piles and stacks and overflowing bins of scrapping and cardmaking goodies waiting, well, screaming at me, to play with them..
I have notebooks and pages and pages of notes waiting for me to arrange them into a book.
I have a messy, unorganized, neglected home waiting for a mop and vacuum.
I have kids with birthdays, dances, homework..
I need to workout for at least two hours to feel less fat.
dont forget the laundry, cooking, and oh.. yep.. work.
and the hubby.
and the dad.
and that damn angry birds app on my phone that I can't put down!
Shopping?
pfft

My Love "wish dolls"

Check these out!! I made these little "wish dolls" as I think I will call them.. (they are voodoo dolls) :)
I filled them with "love herbs" :) These are goddess shaped. I have more patterns to use..

I think they turned out pretty cute, can't wait to make more!! I have them listed in my etsy shop now!

I made little charm necklaces for the person who purchases them to wear :)

Wadda you think?

before and after

So, these arent the best pics.. but I cut and colored my hair and had to show the before and after pics..

I cut over eight inches off, and it's still long :)

I colored it a dark auburn, but it looks reddish, go figure..

My double chins are almost gone yipee!!

n-e-ways... have a great day!

opinions needed please

I am thinking of starting another blog, yep..that would make three..
but this one would be just for my weight loss adventures..

Wadda ya think?
Does anyone care about that here?
Do I need a separate blog for that?
prolly huh?

:)

Thank you Vets!

Today isn't just about saying "Happy Veterans Day"
It is about knowing the sacrifices they have made, and make for us every day.
The months and sometimes years before they see their families.
Missing birthdays, first steps, first teeth, first dates and all the daily activities we take for granted.
 The children growing up without knowing who their mom's and dad's were.
The holiday's spent alone on soil unfamiliar to them.
The nights filled with sleeplessness because fear keeps them awake.
The daily luxuries they live without.
The funerals.

Everything we take for granted living in the great country we have.
Remember, they are the ones who make it possible.

If you do anything today, thank a Veteran.
Thank them for everything they do, and have done for us.

I thank you all, past, present, and future veterans. All my family members, immediate and extended.. Thank you!
My dad
My grampa
My sister
My ex brother in law (sorry sis, had to)
My brother
My father in law
My cousin (in law) lol
My long time friend and "lil bro"

And all the wifes, husbands and friends who have supported and supports my vets...
Thank you!!!!

Have a great day!

psst... it's me!

hello!!

I've been awol for a bit... lack of internet and time does stuff like that..

I just barely finished a few pages of my story for NANOWRIMO in my bed :)
with a pen
and paper
and flash cards
yay!
I got the ball rolling..
now..
just to find time and a plot..
*looks around for help*

:)
I'll check back soon with ya'll to see how you are n stuff

off to bed.. maybe I'll have a wicked awesome dream and I will have my story!

Halloween pics (warning.. lots of pics)

I just had to share these real quick..
I have some pics of the awesome houses we visited in the neighborhood.. I love when people go for it on the decorations!

The white dots are rain :) I think it looks kinda cool!

Here are a couple of the finished jack-o-lanterns with candles..

I have no idea why my camera flashed.. I didn't want it to, but didn't realize it until I loaded the pics.. then I just didn't want to mess with it anymore   :)

here's me n hubby and some friends (ignore my triple chins please)

 I'm the one on the left in red :)

 Hubby's the one on the left Capt'n Jack :)

Here are some of the kidlets.. These are at the rec center trick or treating thingy they had..

 Yep..snuck one more of me in there.. lol.. I just loved these pics.. they had a whole wall of them!

 The rock star teenager is now a dead gypsy.. anything is awesome dead, right?

 My creepy little girl! She's a big ten year old now!
And please disregard the messy bookshelf in the background :)

Thats about it for now.. If you've hung in there this long.. have a great day!

November is NaNoWriMo.. so I hope to have some posts up soon about all that writing fun!

We Have a Winner!!

Yay.. I am so sorry I am late posting this.. I haven't had internet for a few days...

I have a winner on the CSN stores giveaway!!

Thanks to random.org

...................
..........
........

True Random Number Generator




Min:  1

Max: 7

Result:

2

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

#2 is non other than MRS B! woohoo!!
Congrats Mrs B.. send me an email so I can give CSN stores your info :)

witchywoman77@hotmail.com


I'll be back soon with some Halloween pics :)

Carving pumpkins!

I love this time of year.. I decided this year... I am going to make my own, from scratch (not can) pumpkin pies and cookies and more!! I can't wait!! (I did get extra pumpkins)

We carved pumkpins.. Gotta love how serious they get when doing this..
I don't have the finished products, we need to get candles and I will post them later..

But for now.. here is some history of the "Carving of Pumpkins"
Take it with a grain of salt..
I found many different stories, but most lead to this basic info from:

History.com:

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.


Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

Wikipedia:

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time encompassing customs of medieval holy days as well as contemporary cultures. The souling practice of commemorating the souls in purgatory with candle lanterns carved from turnips, became adapted into the making of jack-o'-lanterns. In traditional Celtic Halloween festivals, large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces, and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits.
The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark.
The American tradition of carving pumpkins preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.

I am learning lots about Halloween..so I will have more on this later, I just wanted to share the basics on Carving pumpkins. :)

Extending the giveaway Until Halloween!

Since no one seems to want free stuff right now.. I will extend my giveaway until Halloween. You will have until 12:00 noon MST to enter. Leave a comment on this post or the Giveaway one below it to enter! Tell me what item you would like most and you will get $40 free to purchase anything from CSN stores!!
Easy Peasy!

The rules:
you must be a follower
you must leave a comment on either post regarding the giveaway telling me what you would like
you need to have a valid email attached to your comment or blog so I can contact you if you win..

That's it!

A giveaway!!! Extended!!!!

I have been honored to have been selected to host a giveaway!!!
My first!! yay!

Does anyone need to do some re-decorating?

CSN stores has offered up one of my followers a $40 gift card to Dining Rooms Direct

They have so many wonderful items on their site. They have over 200 online stores to choose from!

Dining tables, dining room chairs, accessories and much more!

Take a peeksy at the link above and let me know in a comment on this post what you would like to get! You will have the option to use the gift card at any of their online stores!

I will keep this open until Sunday @ 8:00 pm MST so you all have a chance to browse. (Extended until Halloween)
I will choose one at random and let you know, so please make sure you have a valid link or email.

The fine print:
There may be shipping charges for Canadian addresses, and as far as I know, it's open to everyone..

Oh and you must be a follower to qualify :)


Have a great day!

Good Monday Morning!

Welcome to my little blog..
For those that are visiting from Mrs B, thank you for stopping by!
For those that have been followers through my insanness (is that a word?) Thank you!!

I don't have much to report today, Sunday's dinner with the dead was great. It wasn't quite what I expected but it was still pretty cool..

We started off by having salad and soup.. I learned that eating tomatoes in any form was considered a magical act, since the tomato was called "the love apple" and considered a poisonous fruit that only Witches could consume.
so.. We had tomato soup. :)
There was so much to learn, I tried to remember it all.. But, after we were done, the hostess gave us a paper with all the meanings behind the courses and foods. :)

Then we lit candles, turned off the lights, and listened to poems, harp music and singing while silently enjoying the company of our dead loved ones. It was pretty emotional for most, there were tears and smiles, but everyone, I think, was spending the time they needed to reconnect or just be there with their loved one.

After the silence and darkness, we came back to this world with dessert. I did have a piece of pie, it was soooo good!

Here are a couple pics I took with my phone when we were allowed.. They aren't very good but still..

This is my mom's place setting. You can kind of see her offering I sent her with. The little cup has some tea in it :)

this is really hard to see, but in the bottom left corner.. My hubby's sister Tami. She is who we honored also.

this was a great experience and I hope to do it every year.

I am truly glad I found this great group of Pagan's. Everyone is so nice and open. Willing to teach a newbie the ropes :)

There was so much more to the supper, but I just don't have the time to post it all.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you stick around.

Just a couple pics of my awesome space to create

I just wanted to show a few pics of my little crafting area now that I have decorated for Halloween..
Most of this I will keep up the rest of the year, and since I am participating in Smeared and Smudged 31-days-of-halloween on my other blog.. I will have at least 15 more projects to add to my collection!
The black skull is one I just made! It is hard to tell, but it is glittery and shiny..

This is part of my collection of homemade decorations..

 My "witchy" corner :)

 Lacey (youngest daughter) made this little piece of art.. She squished a skull in some red clay and added some spider webby stuff and wound some skulls around on ribbon, I am going to display it with honor

A little spider web youngest made.. She made at least ten of these! I have them hanging everywhere!!

I will have more soon!

Have a great day and stay tuned.. I have a surprise for Monday and hope to have something awesome!

something to share on Samhain

I found this while searching for things to learn about Samhain. Since I am pretty new to it all, I want to know what it is really all about.  I hope to share what I learn here, as I am getting it all in my BOS. :)

The Witches’ Spell

Act IV, Scene 1 from Macbeth (1606) by William Shakespeare


A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.

1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.

2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin’d.

3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—’tis time! ’tis time!

1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;

In the poison’d entrails throw.—

Toad, that under cold stone,

Days and nights has thirty-one;

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;

Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf

Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock digg’d i the dark;

Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;

Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,—

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,

For the ingrediants of our caldron.

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon’s blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.



Have a great day!

Why I love Sara!!

Check this out from Sara @ Babblingflow/blogiversary-arc-giveaway

SIGNED ARC of Matched, by Ally Condie


It even has a "to:" section, so you can fill your own name in :)

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.


Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.



SIGNED ARC of The Marbury Lens, by Andrew Smith

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.

There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind.

Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay.

But it’s not.


ARC of The Mockingbirds, by Daisy Whitney

Some schools have honor codes.

Others have handbooks.

Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.



Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way--the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds--a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.


ARC of Dust City, by Robert Paul Weston

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

His son, that's who.


Ever since his father's arrest for the murder of Little Red Riding Hood, teen wolf Henry Whelp has kept a low profile in a Home for Wayward Wolves . . . until a murder at the Home leads Henry to believe his father may have been framed.



Now, with the help of his kleptomaniac roommate, Jack, and a daring she-wolf named Fiona, Henry will have to venture deep into the heart of Dust City: a rundown, gritty metropolis where fairydust is craved by everyone and controlled by a dangerous mob of Water Nixies and their crime boss leader, Skinner.



ARC of Witch & Wizard: The Gift, by James Patterson and Ned Rust

When Whit & Wisty were imprisoned by the wicked forces of the totalitarian regime known as the New Order, they were barely able to escape with their lives. Now part of a hidden community of teens like themselves, Whit and Wisty have established themselves as leaders of the Resistance, willing to sacrifice anything to save kids kidnapped and brutally imprisoned by the New Order.


ARC of A Tale Dark & Grim, by Adam Gidwitz

In this mischievous and utterly original debut, Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm-inspired tales. As readers follow the siblings through a forest brimming with menacing foes, they learn the true story behind (and beyond) the bread crumbs, edible houses, and outwitted witches.



ARC of The Wolves of Andover, by Kathleen Kent

In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of his part in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the assassins sent from London to kill the executioner of Charles I or the wolves-in many forms-who hunt for blood.


Go check it out and let her know I sent ya!!

Just wanted to share

I have been loving October this year. I have enjoyed all the fun on the 31 days of Halloween Over at Smeared and Smudged.
I have loved seeing all the new blogs shared by Mrs B At Confessions of a Pagan soccer mom and I can't wait till it's my turn..
I have been creating my own decorations this year.. to add to the many I have..which I will share later.
I just wanted to share a few of the things I've made (I have most of them posted on my Crafty blog)

This is a little wooden box, about eight inches tall., that I picked up at a thrift store sometime ago. I had no idea what to do with it, until October! It has a "door" that slides up and off..so I decided to paint it, cover it with black paper, and then "collage" it with Halloween paper.

Then inside, I made a little scene with some stamping images and voila! A lovely Halloween Decoration for my windowsill.

This next one has a few pics so bear with me :)
I used an empty Protein powder can (I recycle) and covered it with some Halloween paper.
then I used some bamboo sticks and topped them with various stamped images. I added ribbon and some skulls and taa-daa! A cute decoration again, for my windowsill!

 And finally the last one I will share for now..
this is a little wooden coffin I covered with Silver paper and added a stamped image inside., Attached my little grumpie to accordian-ed paper so he will Pop out! and yep..another windowsill trinket!

Have a great night!