Airmid is the December Goddess of the Month Hand Embroidery

 I am happy to say I had time yesterday evening to get some stitching in and pleased to present the last Goddess of the Month hand embroidery for 2021, Airmid (also known as Airmed, Airmeith or Airmedh) is the Irish Goddess associated with healing, and particularly herbal healing. She is also associated with gardening, nature, family and loyalty.

I completed the stitching late last night, washed off the stitch and wash product and hung her up to dry, this morning I snapped her photo wrinkled fabric and all. Here is a close up of the foraging bag at her hip.

I haven't decided if I am going to do a new monthly challenge for 2022. I may just continue on with goddesses though nothing is set in stone, currently I am in the midst of creating a new Greenman piece. 

Here is a look back at all 12 Goddesses I hand embroidered during 2021

  All these pieces have to be trim to the same size if I decide to make them into a quilt, if not just trimmed and finished, possible ideas include: altar cloth, wall hanging, prayer flags, framed or mounted and made into a book. Well there is time to decide. I'm sure like everyone else this week I have a few things I want to finish up and things to get done before the start of a brand new year.

 

Christmas Eve

 Well I made it to Christmas Eve 2021 and despite several set backs this year I am feeling pretty good. 

I decided to pass on putting up a Yule tree this year, I had it pulled out of the box, spread out the branches and left it for a day or two, when I opened the box of ornaments I realized I just didn't feel like decorating a tree this year.  So I boxed up the tree, put away the ornaments and decided this arrangement would work perfectly for me this year.

My arrangement of silk flowers, pinecones, berries and greenery was all I needed this year, oh and my vintage Yule log which has been packed in a box since 2011, I was planning to remove the plastic decorations and remake it but decided to leave it.  I think it fits in with the vintage table cloth.

This is my $5.00 bargain I picked up at Walmart the other day while I was browsing the garden center.

It's just an assortment of evergreens and a few faux berries all stuck into florist foam, it smells divine and marked down from $39.95 to $5.00 I grabbed one.  It's turning a bit brown so I have to trim it each morning. It sits on my table in the kitchen and all those boxes around the table are now gone.

Later today between chores and stitching I'm going to sit down and read through the latest issue of Beachcombing magazine before the new issue arrives.  The subscription was a thoughtful gift from a dear friend I lost this year.  

She knew how much I love the beach and sea glass and one day an issue arrived in the mail for my birthday.  I knew who sent it right away right before I became ill in 2020 we had been walking the beach and I was lamenting how finding sea glass on the beaches in Florida is rare, well for me anyway and that I was planning to visit a few of the beaches where finding it wasn't as difficult but not without a challenge.  A few weeks later the magazine arrived, I didn't even know such a magazine existed.  Perhaps this year I will make it to a few of those beach glass beaches.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Blessed Yule and the happiest New Year yet!

 

Midway through December and a completed Baba Yaga

 Time is just flying by, can you believe we are in the middle of December, where does the time go? This is going to be a short post.

Having online retail shops and working from home this time of the year can be a challenge, this year I don't think I have slowed down since mid October, it's great on one hand business is doing well and this year I am able to get through all of the days without help, it's exhausting by the end of the day but nothing like last year when I was so ill I needed both my son and daughter in-law to help with the pulling and packing orders and dropping off at the post office.  

This year I have managed to do it all once again, which feels great.  I mentioned being exhausted at the end of the day which has been a problem since having the heart surgery in July, I don't feel as energetic as I think I should be. So in the new year I am going to see a new cardiologist for a second opinion.

During my down time I have been stitching my goddess of the month hand embroidery pieces, I had posted the Elen of the Ways and Baba Yaga while she was being stitched, here she is completely stitched.

I love the expression on her face, she turned out exactly like I had hoped she would.  I am currently stitching the final goddess for the year, Airmid for December.  Recently I posted a photo of the Baba Yaga in one of the Facebook groups I am in and someone pointed out she isn't a goddess but a witch.  I know she is a witch but I follow a goddess spirituality path and consider her a goddess as well.

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.

Samhain Blessings

 

And as the light around us fades

In golden shadows through the glade,

Like distant echoes down the hall,

we answer Samhain’s ancient call.

From everlasting times ’til now,

To storied lands, we all must bow;

Where magic rings within our souls

And as we shatter, we are whole.

This is the night to join the Dance,

Partake in all-renewing trance;

Where worlds within and out are One,

Our sacred journey now begun.

To greet the ones we loved before,

Our kith and kin from days of yore,

Forgiven foe and long-lost friend –

We dwell among you yet again.

For now the worldly veils are thin,

Where hope and healing can begin.

Our deeds are done; the hour is late

To rest within the arms of Fate.

By fin and feather, leaf and bark,

As sun now banks to sheltered spark;

This year of trial and joy is past

Within the Circle we have cast.

And as the light around us fades

In golden shadows through the glade,

Like distant echoes down the hall,

We answer Samhain’s ancient call”~ Marc Hirsch

Samhain Eve

 Charge of the Crone

Hear the words of the Grandmother of Time:
She who has been known as
Hecate, Erishkagel, Cerridwen, Kali-Ma,
Anna, Perenna, Spider Woman,
and many other names
– some feared, and some loved,
but none ever ignored.
She it is who brings wisdom and
the awareness of eternity.

She has been the Maiden, and remembers that joy.
She has been the Mother, and recalls that pleasure.
But age has changed her,
and taught her the mysteries of
the Wheel that is ever turning,
the Wheel that is life, death, and rebirth.
She is the whirling tornado, the erupting volcano,
the rising tidal wave, the trembling of the
earth’s crust.

With age comes an understanding of the past,
and a glimpse of the future.
For, in the turning of the Wheel,
the past is the future,
and the future is the past.
She is the Learned One, the Teacher,
the Bringer of Inevitable Change.

She is the Dark of the Moon, the Hidden One,
the invisible unknown that lies ahead.
But do not fear her for she is not malicious,
and her touch, however harsh, is love.

Only in ignorance is she scorned and reviled.
Those who do not know her,
parody her as the ugly old woman
whose powers were said to blight crops
and sour the milk in the cow.
It is fear that turns her age into abomination,
her wrinkles into hideous deformity,
and her voice into an evil and manipulative cackle.
For those who sought power over the earth were afraid
to face her wisdom and her unalterable truth.

But in the old days, we sat at her feet to learn the most ancient lore.
From her came the knowledge of the healing herbs, and the chants and songs that shaped our lives.
She sat in honour at our councils, our marketplaces, in our homes.
She governed our governing, and interpreted our laws.
She gave focus to our changing seasons.
She was our teacher, our oracle, our promise of rebirth.

Come, honour her as of old,
listen now to the words of Wise One,
the ancient Seer, the Crone!

Stitching Goddesses and Books to Read

 A stitching update for my Goddess a Month personal challenge.  Here are the latest 3 goddesses that I finally stitched and washed of the stitch and wash away product. I haven't ironed them yet.

For July the goddess Isis, her wings took forever to finish

Ariadne was my choice for August and she stitched up rather quickly.

The goddess Kali was for September, her arms look a bit sickly but after several attempts at drawing them I just said stitch it.

All in all I am happy with the results and will be happy when the last few are completed.  I fell behind with July and finally caught up in September after putting her aside to work on Ariadne and Kali.  I was avoiding the wings.  There are days when I  just don't feel like stitching, not many but I have learned that if I'm not feeling it then don't because I always wind up pulling out stitches.

The 2 new Witch 'Craft' books I pre-ordered a few weeks ago arrived this week, I am pleased with both

I have been crocheting for decades and these books had to be added to my collection, I have read Opal Luna's blog for a few years and made a few of her patterns so as soon as I knew the book was ready to pre-order I jumped on it.  

Other books on my reading table are Hemlock by Susan Wittig Albert, the newest in the China Bayles mystery series.

I have been reading this series since the 1990's and love how the characters have evolved over the years as well as the overall content of the stories.  This series began my love of herbal gardening, this is the 28th book in the series which began in 1992 with Thyme of Death.

This little gem by Katie Daisy How to be a Moonflower, because I love her artwork, oh and my newest teacup.

I'm also reading Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman, with the Book of Magic waiting in the wings.

I forgot I had bought this last year I began to read it but was still in so much pain I couldn't concentrate so I put it aside on my embroidery table and didn't realize it was under a dozen pieces of fabric waiting to be stitched.  I started it and so far I'm enjoying it very much.

On my visit to the Cardiologist office last Friday this beauty was greeting patients in the office. I just couldn't help snapping a photo.

This was my last visit with the cardiologist until February 2022, unless something comes up which I truly hope isn't going to happen.  I am on the well check list so each month I will receive a phone call from the office to check that all is well, if I need medication refills etc.

Well the hour is getting late so I will leave you with a bit of humor.

Okay time to go my needles are threaded and my teacup is almost empty.