Yule Fairy?

As I  have posted before, when you create figurative sculpture you learn quickly that the little creatures you are helping become "real" eventually take on a life and personality  all their own. Such was the case as I was getting ready to clothe my Yule "Fairy" for the swap I joined this season.

Take a look at who I ended up with. She was quite specific!

Here she is before she had "Skin and Bones"

Here she is with some of the fabric that I chose for her

And here she is before I packed her and sent her on her way to her new home.  She was Santa! Fortunately I had some left over fabric from a Santa Suit I made last year. I often joke about these little individuals getting bossy and demanding  but let me tell you, I heard her loud and clear and she is sassy! I hope her new mama loves her as much as I do. She has been fun to create and I am having a hard time letting her go!

I'll be catching up later this week with some pictures from my trip and one last Yule blog party for the season.

Yuletide Blessings 2011 Blog Party

Greetings,

Thank you for stopping by my party today. I want to thank  Astrea Sapphire's Almanac for hosting our event! Come on in, and make yourself comfy

As you can see, the table is set. Every year I like to "dress" our dining room table so that it looks festive. I try to do this early in the month so that we can enjoy it for a while.

 I found these gold star napkins and the tablecloth several years ago and I LOVE them. They just seem so festive and fun. I also like that I can add different items to make this look beautiful for Yule and then also fantastic for New Years.

The cookies are pretty good, the cream puffs are fantastic! Every year we host a Yule/Christmas/Holiday Party for our friends. This year we had lots of food and fun. We got to enjoy the company of the people we care about, listen to holiday music (most of the time* see below) Our friends outdid themselveswith food this year, we had blackberry pie, Cesar salad, tri-tip, teriaki meatballs, rum balls and much more. Makes me hungry just thinking about it! 

*We have an old Jukebox that has 45's in it. There are quite a few holiday songs in there, the trouble is, when we added the new records we forgot to change the labels so when you go to choose a song you really have no idea what you'll get. Part of the fun is to see what songs play. Sometimes we had great holiday songs, othertimes we had Frank Sinatra, then we got Aerosmith and Duran Duran.

These are some of my favorite ornaments. The pelican is the most recent addition to our tree. I found him while we were in St. Thomas on Vacation last month. He seems pretty happy to be here! I try to find an fun ornament for the Yule tree when we travel. I love to look at the tree and remember places that we have been.

Thanks for stopping by, I really enjoyed sharing a bit of my Yule traditions with you and I truly enjoyed your visit! I hope to see you again later.

Autumnwind

Yule festivities continue...

Check out the cute little blanket I decorated for my artist's group holiday party. This is a machine embroidered/appliqued fleece blanket. I got the plain fleece blanket from Ross and the embroidery designs from http://www.urbanthreads.com/ - my absolute favorite place for machine embroidery designs. They even have the Wheel of the Year designs- so cool!

I am kind of hoping I get to pick my own gift at the party this year! I am also talking a few loaves of the cranberry orange bread that I made yesterday...mmmmm. I love meeting with my artist friends, we call our group Clay Improv because you really never know what is going to happen there! I LOVE it. We get together at least once a month and work on various projects, this month we are just getting together to celebrate the season and our friendship!

Later this week I'll be posting some updated pictures of the Yule Fairy project and some amazing pictures I took while on vacation. Be sure to stop by on December 18th for the Yuletide Blessings Blog Party being hosted by Astrea Sapphir's Almanac and also on December 21st for the Yule Magic Blog Party being hosted by The Village Witch.

I hope to see you soon

Autumnwind

Witches Yultide Ball 2011

Greetings,

Thank you to The Witch of Howling Creek and On the Broomstick for hosting our gala event!

I am sorry my Yuletide party is a bit late. I am still recovering from vacation! Welcome to my Yuletide ball, I have been busy getting the house ready for guests, I hope you  enjoy your time with me!

Meet Frosty, he watches over our stockings...

Which are, of course, hung by the chimney with care

Then there's Father Christmas and his sleigh pulled by reindeer who watch from above

and Bugs and the Gingerbread Man hold our stockings steady

a sleigh full of goodies has already arrived

It is so nice of you to drop by tonight. There's mulled cider and warm cranberry orange loaf in the kitchen.

I hope to see you again soon,

Autumnwind

2012 Pagan Reading Challenge

Wow, I leave for a week and I get home to two great new challenges being hosted by The Domestic Pagan!

This challenge is dear to my heart.I love to read and I currently read often, however most of my books on the craft have been only partially read. You know what I mean. I start it, reads a few chapters, put it down and if I pick it up again it is for something specific. This challenge should inspire me to read those wonderful books through till the end.

I chose the intermediate level of the challenge, which is to read 16-20 books.

I look forward to sharing with you some of the wonderful books I have on the craft. Some are old, some are new and all of them have so far been partially read by me.

The challenge starts January 2012, I hope to see you there.

Books Read:

1) The Hollow - Nora Roberts  finished 01/06/2012

2) The Pagan Stone- Nora Roberts Finished 01/11/2012

3) Fairy Tale Rituals - Kenny Klein (In Progress)

4) the Elements ofRitual - Deborah Lipp (In Progress)

2012 Get Off Your Broom: A New Year's Witchy Fitness Challenge

I am so glad the The Domestic Pagan is hosting another fitness challenge. I was really impressed with the amount of useful imformation she provided during the first fitness challenge and the other participants were so supportive! This time I plan to actually lose some weight.

My goals for this three month fitness challenge are:

1) To lose about 15 pounds

2) To increase the number of times I exercise each week and

3) To increase the number of home cooked meals I make as well as the variety of  recipes I use.

On January 1, 2012 I will post my before picture and re-post my goals.

Hope to see you there!

Back from the Cruise- Get Off Your Broom Fitness Challenge Update

So the cruise was pretty awesome. We had a great time and I will share some of my favorite things from my vacation later this week.

While I have not had an official weigh in this week and I missed one last week, I did manage to get on the scale this morning and I am happy to report that I only gained 3.5 pounds on the cruise!!!

How did that happen? Well let me tell you, I mostly adopted a pescatarian diet. I ate lots of fruit and veggies, fish, shellfish and some dairy. I avoided the red meat and went with lighter desserts though I did have a couple of rich desserts that were totally worth the calories.

The food on the cruise was amazing, the portion sizes were perfect and I did not deprive myself, seriously, I won't be going on another vacation for a while so I enjoyed myself but I didn't go crazy. We also walked, a LOT! So the combination of smaller portions, more fruit and vegetables and extra exercise really did the trick!

I now have a list of foods that I want recipes for to try at home. I had a black cherry soup that was amazing!

I am still trying to catch up on everything so my next post will have lots more information.

All  in all, even though I am up a bit from where I started, I expect to end this challenge at the same weight I started at, since this means I won't have gained weight over the holidays AND during my vacation I will consider it a success!!