Showing posts with label Frightfully Funky Feather Wreath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frightfully Funky Feather Wreath. Show all posts
The Tusk Gallery
Hello Everyone! Here we are wrapping up week 3!

Oh MY! We still have much more to bring to you , so I'm hoping you don't get discouraged or lose interest. We are just days away from our Giveaway Extravaganza,and you surely don't want to miss out on that.

Remember, the Sirens are taking the weekend off, but our own Sosanna will be here on Saturday with another Saturday Craft-tacular. And again this week she has some awesome goodies to share with you. But now, from Stephanie at the Coexist Cafe... Are you ready to find your balance??

Samhain, Finding Balance 

By Stephanie Fox @ The Coexist Cafe

I have always loved Samhain, from the cool, crisp weather to the décor and festivities. Personally, this time of year has always been about coming full circle, not only in the general Wheel-of-the-Year sense, but the wheel of my own life as well. Projects come to a close, I start to withdraw into myself, and I sense a calm within myself and around the world.

I swear it’s not just the tea and the warm blanket and the cozy spot in which I carry a book talking! 

It’s difficult to achieve that balance, though, when so many other things around us, from jobs to families to events and everything in between, are pulling us in hundreds, maybe thousands, of directions every day. As much as we may want to allow the Earth to influence our lives – to want to slow down just as the days are – there may be no real way to achieve that!

Samhain emphasizes the need for more balance in our lives, especially when it comes to finding wholeness and acknowledging things that may be taboo or not very pleasant in order to achieve that sense of balance. Specifically, Samhain calls to our attentions the existence of death, the realities of the Underworld (whatever you may believe about afterlife), and the honoring of the end.

To achieve that equilibrium, especially at a time when life is most fragile and vulnerable, I’ve had to make a very difficult decision: To give a nod to my inability to manage too many things in my life, and to take on additional projects when I was already overwhelmed. I found myself procrastinating on things I needed to do, finding no time to do things I wanted to do, and still somehow feel like I was being pulled in those thousands of directions I was talking about! I was drowning. I like to think that was figurative, but there were some days I literally had to catch my breath.

I also had to accept the fact that I simply don’t have the physical or mental capacity to achieve everything I’ve wanted to do, especially this Samhain season, which was difficult to accept and even more difficult to follow through with in the form of limiting my activities and achieving balance between giving myself to others and giving myself to… well, myself!

There’s an interesting side to this realization and this attempt to find balance, and that’s wondering how your actions will affect those who have come to depend on you. This may lead to a sense of guilt for leaving those people high and dry, fear that you’ll not be invited to help later.

The stark reality, though, is that there may be some disappointment, but many will admire your ability to recognize when too much is just that, and will welcome your attempts to bring that balance to your life. (I wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying this with your boss without a discussion about how to bring about that balance without quitting a project or the job itself, though!)

I recently experienced this with Samhain's Sirens (yup, this very effort!!), and was so overwhelmed by the acceptance, the love, and the caring my fellow Sirens showed me not only through this whole project and in other parts of my magickal and everyday life, but when I realized that my plate was too full and I had to start dropping some things, including Samhain's Sirens. At least for my planned blog posts and giveaways. While I was worried about how they would think, what they would imagine, and whether they’d be okay with this at all, they were most worried about my health and my ability to find balance.

It was a very powerful, provoking lesson to learn: You often put more pressure on yourself than anyone else in your life, and while they won’t know your limitations, you will… so the one for whom you have to be most concerned should be yourself. Find that balance, achieve that serenity, and most of all, know that others will completely understand.

Thank you so much, my fellow Sirens, for teaching me such an important lesson. 

The Giveaway for Today!


Today's giveaway comes from Eliora over at Elegantly Enchanting. 

Book of Shadows / Bookmark, Pagekeeper - Grimoire, BOS

Elegant place marking for your Book of Shadows or Grimoire; sized to accommodate the largest volume. Seven slender satin ribbons each ending in a beaded bauble:

One each - Green, Yellow, Red and Blue, representing the Elements/Quarters
One - Purple, representing Spirit also holding a silver-pewter Pentacle charm
One - White, representing the God, accented with a Sun charm
One - Black, representing the Goddess, ending in a silvery Moon charm

The ribbons are gathered and tied together at the top with Three knots, and accented with a large silver-pewter pentacle. Beads and charms are an eclectic mix of metal, glass, and acrylic.

Overall length is approximately 28 inches, the place keeper ribbons should fit any book up to 18 inches in height.

Remember:
Your first entry is to follow us here. (Make sure you comment and tell us that you're following!)

Bonus entries:

Go to Elegantly Enchanting  and peruse her wares. Come back and tell us what you like best there.

Make her page a favorite on Etsy and come back and tell us (separate entry)

Like us on Facebook- come back and tell us (separate entry)

Follow us on Twitter (come and tell us!- separate entry)

Blog about this giveaway (comment separately and send us a link to your blog post)

Tweet about this giveaway (comment separately and send us a link to your blog post)

Friday's Recipe!

The Devil’s Blood Halloween Themed Cocktail
from Barina Craft

Capture the haunting spirit of Halloween by mixing up some Devil’s Blood at home. This drink is a refreshing twist on the Cosmopoliton in a dark disguise for the holidays. 
Drink The Devil’s Blood:

Colored red sugar
4 oz cranberry juice
2 oz black vodka
Maraschino cherries

Start by rimming your glass with red sugar (moisten the rim, turn upside down and then press into a saucer containing the sugar - give it a twist for a thicker coating).  Fill completely with ice cubes and then about 3/4 of the way with cranberry juice.  Next, carefully add the black vodka over the cranberry juice by slowly pouring over a spoon. This will minimize any splashing & allow the multi colored layers to form.  Garnishing with a red cherry adds extra color and enhances the visual effect.

You can make ordinary vodka black by adding food coloring if unable to find at your local liquor store and substituting red corn syrup for the sugar allows you to create blood drips down the side.  Variations of this recipe and many other holiday drinks are included in the book Bartending Basics by Cheryl Charming.

Crafty Friday!


Frightfully Funky Feather Wreath
Alexa at The Swell Life

What you need:

Medium sized Styrofoam wreath blank
2 long black feather boas
3 small silver glitter plastic ornaments
3 sm/medium purple glitter plastic ornaments
3 large round glass orange ornaments
25-30 small padded protectors (they keep lamp bases, frames, etc. from scuffing hardwood)
Black Tulip 3-D Fashion Paint
Black spray paint
1 permanent marker
Glue gun with glue sticks

What you do:

1. Glue gun end of feather boa to Styrofoam wreath. Wrap around half of wreath and glue other end in place. Glue gun and wrap second boa around wreath blank until entire wreath is covered in feathers.

2. Spray paint sheet of padded protectors. Once dry, randomly stick on orange ornaments for "flocked" look.

3. Create large swirls on purple sparkle ornaments with black 3-D paint. Set upright in small container or on an ornament hanger and let dry.

4. Draw stripes on small silver balls with sharpie marker.

5. Once all ornaments are dry, adhere ornaments to Styrofoam part of wreath with glue gun. Fluff feathers around each ornament after glue is applied to make Styrofoam area unnoticeable. Let dry.

Helpful hint: Store wreath in an ornament wreath keeper to prevent loose feathers or damage to ornaments. Since the orange ornaments are glass, they should be handled with care and stored accordingly.

And the Winner Is! 


*drumroll please*  And the winner of Magaly's Fabulous BookFest  is..........  Renee Olson! ..........!!!! Congratulations, Renee!

Don't forget, you have until 8pm tonight to get in on Pixie's giveaway, then the whole weekend to enter for today's giveaway and Sosanna's Craftacular Saturday!

*Note: all winners are selected through random number generation. Be sure you enter each time separately so you can make the most of it.

Also, don't forget that each entry qualifies you for our Grand Prize Giveaway at the end of the celebration!

Song of the Day with Kestril Trueseeker 

I kind of love the disco funk meets Russian history in this last song in the series about notorious folks, Rasputin. Perhaps it is a little bit of a guilty pleasure, but I want to get up and dance to this.





Have a Wicked-good Weekend, Siren-lovers!
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