Kids say the darndest things, no?

"I wanna play cowboy. You be cow, Mama"

"Eating hurts! No eat people! Eating people hurts!"



"Mean dinosaurs go in jail" ... "What about the good dinosaurs, Cam?" ... "No. Not good dinosaurs. Only mean dinosaurs go in jail."

"Apple butter, apple butter" (This is funny, because he was sitting in the bath, splashing as he yelled "apple butter" over and over. Even funnier that he won't try it and thinks it's gross "Apple butter, bleh!")

Animal friends

For the last week or so, Cam and I have had an animal visitor at our place. He just showed up one day and has been hanging out ever since. Who came to call? Our very own praying mantis! I've been calling him Manny; how original, right?

Yesterday, I left the house to get Camden from preschool, and saw Manny on Cam's bike. "Manny," I said, "Cam's gonna want to go to the park, and he's gonna want to ride his bike. You'd better climb back over to the charcoal bag." Of course, praying mantises probably don't speak very good English. But they're excellent at staying still. So he was still there when we got back. And Camden wanted to go to the park, and Camden wanted to ride the bike. Of course.

So I picked up the brush for the grill, and started pushing it at Manny. I was kinda worried he'd fly away (praying mantises can fly, can't they?) or that he'd attack me. After a little convincing, I managed to get Manny onto the brush, and I set him over on the pumpkin plant.

This morning I looked for him, and to my dismay, I couldn't find him. I was certain he'd gotten pissed off and left. An hour or so later, though, I found him hiding under a leaf. Hurrah! Except, now he's hiding somewhere else.

I think I'm attached to this praying mantis. And I think that's unhealthy. lol But it's going to be a sad day when he does decide to fly the coop. I just might cry.

Little pick-me-ups

I like to do things for myself that make me smile. Generally these things are a bit more, and a bit less, than buying myself a candy bar.

I don't have a printer at home. So when I need something printed, say a paper or some music I've been working on, I'll email the file to myself and print it at school. (Yes, I have a junk drive. Sometimes, though, I can't find it or I think I'll forget it, as I seem to do quite often, so I email. Much safer!) Anyway, it's really boring getting an email from yourself that contains nothing but a file to download. So I write to myself. lol Nothing too in depth or lengthy, because I know how my day is going/has gone. But always a little note that says something along the lines of:

You're beautiful.

Have a wonderful day!

You're better than you think you are.

Smile, because it makes you about ten times as lovely.

You're well on your way to making your dreams come true.

While I generally know what my email is going to say (sometimes, I do forget!) it's still nice. I tell myself these things because they make me smile, and they make me feel good. I also have a habit of telling these things/similar things to my friends or other people that I know well enough to talk to.

So, dear readers. How do you brighten your day? How do you brighten the day of others?

Rained out

Yesterday morning at a bright and cheery 7.45 in the morning, I left my apartment for school in high spirits. My professor had left some music out for me to pick up, and I was going to work on some arranging. As I sat down in the computer lab and opened Finale (music program) in walks a fellow student with an umbrella? "Is it raining?" I asked him in ABSOLUTE HORROR. Because, you see, I live about a mile away from school -- and I walked. He said no, it's not raining, but it will be. I figured there was nothing to do except finish up my work as quickly as possible and hope to the gods I made it home before it started pouring.

I step out of the music building to a very pleasant cool breeze. Uh oh. I look to the eastern skies -- cloudy, but not too much. My gaze swings over to the western skies, and I kid you not, my reaction was to say (loudly) "Holy shit!" and start running. It was black. Black! At nine o'clock in the morning! Not only that, but it was already sprinkling! "Please, please, please let me make it home!" I begged to whoever would listen.

I'm not quite in shape enough to run all the way home. I think I made it about three blocks before I gave up on the running and settled for a quick walk. Every time I crossed a street, I would look to the west, trying to gauge how fast the storm was coming. And every time I crossed the street, I would pick up my pace and usually utter some expletive or another. lol

Luckily, the gods/weather spirits heard my pleas. It actually stopped sprinkling during my walk home. And the rain didn't hit until I'd been home for about five minutes. And then it stormed. And it stopped. And come nightfall, it stormed some more.

This morning in class, everyone was talking about how they'd stayed up all night because of the storms, listening to the thunder and reports on tornado warnings.

And I slept through it all! As did my mother (who's visiting for a day) and Camden.

Journaling in July - Page 3

If you've been reading my blog for a while, or if you've gone and read all of my past entries, you know I'm a musician. And if you've done neither of those things.... Well, I'm a musician. I'm entering into my fourth year of music study at college and am well on my way to being an elementary music teacher. Excitement! When I was in high school, thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, all I could think was "music." But I like music and I like children (usually) and elementary music ed seems like more of a "fun" job than, say, working in an office or even teaching high school band. So, in short, this week's spread is my music page, "Music: My soul, my life."

While it's nearly impossible to see in both the small and large picture, there is a poem winding around the treble clef that merges into the eighth note. It reads

Whenever I can't breathe
I can put my music on
The melodies take me away
Making me feel strong

On a high and windy cliffside
All alone and safe
This is where I go
It is my own special place


I can't take credit for the poem. Unfortunately, I can't really give credit for it, either. I found it online and can't remember where. Oops.

Working on the art journal has made me feel really creative. I've started digital scrapbooking. While a few people I've talked to have felt that this is "cheating" as far as scrapbooking goes, I disagree. Especially since these days so many photo memories are digital. Plus, I am far more artistic on a computer with premade fonts and such that can be edited and tweaked in any number of ways than I am trying to do it myself, by hand. Plus, you can get much more scrapping stuff for free in digital form than in non-digital form.

At the moment I have about a dozen pages or so. I'm hoping to do at least 50 (of the entire family, not just Camden) by Christmas and put them on a cd for my parents.

Blog Buttons

Okay, so I just realised, about 10 months into this blog :), that I don't have a place for my readers to leave their buttons! Don't I feel like a slacker? Yes, yes I do. Anyway, that's what this post is for.

If you want your button on my scrolling blogroll over there ------> leave the code in a comment, or a link to where I can find the code. And I'll add your button!

Monsters Revisited

It's almost hard to believe that it's been almost six months ago that Camden made friends with his monsters lurking in the dark. And about a month ago, two new monsters joined the party, which brings the count up to four! And you know, he hasn't been afraid of things going bump in the night once since we first spoke to them. He still doesn't care for the pitch black because he can't see, and I can't really blame him for that!

In the same vein of news: I think I'm making some of my own monster friends. Or dragon friends, to be more exact. Earlier this week as I was driving to my parents' house, I saw a cat-sized purple dragon curled up on the dashboard. Not very clearly; I still have some mental blocks against that sort of thing. But I saw him there, saw him raise his head to look at me then lay it back down as he basked in the sunlight. And last night, as I was lying down for bed, I felt something in my hair, up against my head. The visual image I got was a small shadowed dragon, just a little bigger than a mouse, making a nest in my hair. At some point she shared her name with me, and I heard her calling the purple dragon, so I learned his name, too. This morning when I woke up, my hair was a mess! Not knotted or anything, just lying completely in the wrong direction where the little one had been sleeping. lol

So, dearest readers, I ask you: do you have any monsters of your own lurking in the dark? Or in the bright gardens? Or in your cupboards, eating all your food?

Journaling in July - Page 2

This week, I lost one of my Sisters (not a blood relative, but one who was a member of a group of women on an online community I am a part of) to cancer. Her name was Padra. Her real name was Tricia. We all thought she had beat it. It was breast cancer. I remember some point last year, she had posted about having the breast reconstruction surgery done. And then just last week, or the week before, we all found out she was not doing well. She was moved to a hospice earlier this week and died the same day.

I barely knew this woman. And I cannot help but feel my life is worse for not having known her well; my life is worse because I will never get that chance. Those who knew her, though, always spoke of her smile. She had a smile for everyone. So my journal page this week is in her honour. I only wish that I was slightly more talented (or had any talent at all) when it came to visual arts.

For my Sister, Padra Sedai. The Light shine on you, and the Creator shelter you. The last embrace of the mother welcome you home.



Happy home-going, Sister.

A little on tarot

While each card has a symbolism and story specific to itself, you can draw the same general symbolism from the card by knowing some basics about the suit and also which number or court card it is.

Suits:

Wands are associated with air. The wands suit deals with career, projects, and inspiration.

Cups are associated with water. This suit deals with emotions, relationships, and creativity.

Swords are associated with fire and deal with challenges, intellect, and ways of thinking.

Pentacles have earth associations and deal with the physical world, money, and resources.

Minor Arcana cards:

The number cards show different situations of every day life.

Aces-new beginnings, opportunity
2-balance duality crossroads, choice
3-full expression of the suit, achievement
4-structure, stability, stagnation
5-instability, conflict, loss, opportunity for change
6- communication, problem solving, cooperation
7- reflection, assessment, motives
8-movement, action, change, power
9-fruition, attainment
10- completion end of cycle

The court cards bring personality to the aforementioned situations. They can represent other people or the querent, or usually just a facet of a person.

Pages-novices, eager, enthusiastic, sometimes shallow; can indicate a message the querent will receive
Knights-extremists, very focused, can be unbalanced or fanatical; may represent fast moving situations
Queen-mature and expressive; one who nurtures; prone to obsession
King-mature and expressive; one who organises and controls external matters, sometimes at the expense of internal or personal matters

Journaling in July - Page 1

Here's my first page for Journaling in July! It's based around the idea of knot magic (because, as we all know, I'm a fan). Click the photo above for a better view.

The book I'm using is a 6x9 inch leather bound journal with graph paper. It also has a handy bookmark string! You can't really tell from this picture, but I've distressed the long edge of the pages by cutting 3-4 pages at a time with those nifty crafting scissors that cut neat designs. This book is a cross between a journal, a spell book, a prayer book, and a book of shadows.

I started this page by painting some disconnected lines in dark green and purple, then added some dark blue spirals. Then I added the words in yarn/string, the little sayings, magazine clippings, and finally the black yarn around the one. The next few pages in the journal are going to be devoted to, what else, knot magic.

And I already have another idea in mind for my pages this coming week. :) Happy journaling!

Advertising 2 blogs

So I've been meaning to make this post for a few days, but I've been putting it off in favour of doing homework and being productive! (Yay for me!) And watching 30Rock. (Not so yay for me!)

The first blog (and giveaway!) is one that I found a few months ago called Handmade by Jessica who is a fantastic artist. She's just posted a tutorial on carving stamps! And she's trying to get some knowledge out there about her blog, so she's giving away a few stamps she's made herself (!) to some lucky winner!

And also!

If you happen to be following The Whimsical Cottage you know she's running a blog party.



And if you happen to be participating in said blog party (which involves making pages in an art journal!), you just might be interested in the link above to Jessica's blog so you can possibly win some nifty one-of-a-kind rubber stamps.

Happy creating, either way! :)

What I've learned this day

Today, I learned a very important lesson. One that I'm surprised isn't brought up, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, if you are planning on doing a knot spell that requires you to untie the knots to release the energy...

Don't be a dummy and tie the knots so tight you can't untie them.

... We shall see if cutting the knots with ceremonial sewing scissors releases the energies just as well. lol