Happy Thanksgiving

 

Getting Stitched in November

Thanksgiving is on the horizon and then straight on decking the halls for the Winter Solstice and the Yuletide season. 

November is moving through the days so quick my head is spinning though probably the effects of the blood thinner medication I take. Really I don't need to add dizziness to my list of ailments I'm too busy;

 The online shops are crazy busy this time of year, usually things get hectic in the last week of October straight on to the New Year, this year however with delays in unloading cargo ships things have picked up at the end of September and has kept at a steady pace.  

As busy as I have been I've had time to get in some stitching, the hand embroidery for my October goddess Elen of the Ways is complete:

I am currently working on the November goddess, Baba Yaga:

If you aren't familiar with Baba Yaga here are some interesting bits on Baba Yaga the ‘old woman’ of autumn was called Baba by the Slavic inhabitants of eastern Europe, Boba by the Lithuanians. This seasonal divinity lived in the last sheaf of grain harvested in a year, and the woman who bound it would bear a child that year. Baba passed into Russian folk legend as the awesome Baba Yaga, a witchlike woman who rowed through the air in a mortar, using a pestle for Her oar, sweeping the traces of Her flight from the air with a broom.

Back in June of 2016 I took part in a Goddess a Week challenge and created this Baba Yaga for week 2, She was hand embroidered and crayon tinted on white on white print cotton fabric.

When I'm not stitching a goddess or other project I am planning ahead for 2022 and a new monthly embroidery project, I have a few ideas floating around in my head as well as ideas sent to me by friends here are a few of the ideas: a mermaid a month, a god a month, a witch or a witch hat a month.  I leaning towards a tree or leaf a month, possibly the Celtic tree calendar in wedges to make a wheel, my ideas are endless. 

This week in between packing and shipping orders and stitching Baba Yaga I'll be reading Gateway to the Modern Crone by Jude Downes. Maybe I will stitch a crone a month. 

Well that's about it for this post, it's getting late so I better go make something for dinner before I forget again.  I'll leave you with a bit of humor.

Early November Days

 The first week of November has been a mixed bag of weather with heavy rain falling Thursday and continuing through much of the weekend. It has brought much cooler temps with the low last night at 48 degrees, due to the rain and overcast skies it's quite chilly here in north central Florida, but it feels great.

When the weather is filled with the scent of wood smoke, and there is a frigid breeze blowing I long for snow flurries, warm gloves and hot cocoa after my morning walk.  While I don't have the snow flurries, I do have gloves and hot cocoa in my cup and memories of long gone days of brightly colored leaves and November snow storms.  We would be lost without our memories.

While I won't be walking among leaves of gold, red and orange, my heart remembers those days when I would take long walks hearing the leaves crunch beneath my feet, the aroma of damp wet leaves filling my nostrils, inhaling the crisp air deep into my soul.  

If everything comes together with my health I am planning to head north this month to catch the last of the autumn leaves, I say if because my health has been a rollercoaster ride for nearly 2 years and I don't want to jeopardize my progress. So it will be a spontaneous trip if all goes well, and if not I have photos and memories to rely on for another autumn and hope for next year.

I have been doing a daily card draw this month using the Wisdom of the Crone oracle deck.  Today my card is Empowerment.

I bought this card deck over 10 years ago used it a few times then put it on the shelf, it was early days of being a Crone and the cards weren't really speaking to me yet, now they are, the words sometimes hit right to the center of me.

The stitching on the goddess a month project is going along nicely for October I chose Elen of the Ways

I didn't take any progress photos and have just washed the stitch and wash away product off I have the finished piece drying then I will post the finished piece.  November goddess will be started later today I trying to decide between Baba Yaga or Freya.