Goodbye Maurice Sendak...

When my children were small I remember stumbling upon Where the Wild Things Are in a little bookstore in Phoenix. It quickly became the bedtime story of choice in my house and even now ranks up there as one of the top ten books my children remember me reading to them.

Farewell Maurice Sendak, thank you for all of the amazing stories you wrote for us and the stunningly beautiful illustrations you shared with us.

We will miss you

Autumnwind

San Francisco

My trip to San Francisco was amazing. I visited China Town, Japan Town, Fisherman’s Wharf and more. We took an evening tour of Alcatraz and strolled along the pier to watch the sea lions. I love San Francisco. Here are some of the things we saw:

Sea Lions at Pier 39

China Town

Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan Town

These drummers are amazing. I could have listened to them all day.

Such energy and skill!

La Boulange French Toast - I'd drive to San Francisco just for this!

Out building on Alcatraz - I am framing this for my travel wall.



This trip was amazing. My boyfriend and I went with my friend Kathy and her husband to celebrate my and Kathy's birthday. We were born on the same day in the same hospital and finally reconnected when we were in 6th grade. We've been friends ever since. We currently live on opposite sides of the country but hopefully one day we'll live closer. Right now, we plan to continue taking trips like this.

I took my first ride on a cable car - much more fun that I thought it would be.

Kathy and I were on the back and got to talk to the guy working in the brake.

One more yummy breakfast place!

While on our way to the city we stopped at the Michael Mondavi winery. Yum! I joined the wine club so we are heading over to Sonoma in June for a BBQ there. They make my favorite wine - Spellbound. So far I've tasted 3 of the Spellbound wines and all of them have been fantastic. These wines are something else I would make the drive for. They are that good!

So those are the highlights of my trip. It was fantastic and definitely magical.

Be sure to enter to win the dragon goodies I brought back from Chinatown in celebration of my 100th post. Check out this post for more details.

I is for Intuition – A Pagan Blog Project Post

in·tu·i·tion/ˌint(y)o͞oˈiSHən/Noun:

1. The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

2. A thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.

My uncles were both in professions that required trusting your intuition – one was a fireman and one a policeman. Growing up we used to spend a lot of summers together as a family and during those hot summer nights, after the sun had set and the dinner dishes had been washed and put away, my grandmother would break out the cards and she, my cousins and I would sit on the screened-in porch (which was the length of the house), play cards, eat Breyers Butter Pecan ice cream and listen to the adults tell stories.

My uncles loved to tell us stories about their exploits on the job. Sometimes I think they were trying to make a point about safety but we were too enthralled in the danger to get that point, at least back then we were. During the telling of these stories both uncles referred to the gut feelings they got as just another tool at their disposal. They didn’t think it was unusual, of course my mother’s family is gifted, most of them don’t acknowledge it but just about all of them have heightened senses, a stronger intuition if you will.

One story really stands out in my mine. One of my uncles also served in the military and was deployed overseas during the Vietnam War. His unit came under heavy fire and the soldier carrying their radio was killed. Despite that they were in a dangerous area and could be attacked again at any time my uncle KNEW he had to retrieve the Radio, even though it was heavy, it may not work and would slow him down, he had to do it. It was a gut feeling. So he took the time to retrieve it, strapped it on his back and kept moving on. About 15 minutes later their unit was attacked and suffered major casualties. The radio strapped to my uncle’s back saved his life. It took the brunt of the attack and he survived. When the attack happened, my grandmother was doing the dishes and saw my uncle in the window above the sink in her kitchen which faced the back yard. It was a brief glimpse of him in his fatigues and she heard him say “Ma, I’m OK”. She didn’t officially hear about the attack or that my uncle was OK for quite some time.  

Listening to my uncles taught me to trust my gut/intuition and my intuition has saved my hide on more than one occasion. Sometimes I feel silly, driving home a different way than normal, crossing the street sooner than I had planned on, or any number of things that may seem like a waste of time to others are common place to me. I have no idea why I get the feelings I do but I trust them. Who knows what could have happened had I not crossed the street based on that gut feeling. I could have been bitten by a dog who would have crossed my path, I may have tripped over something because I wasn’t paying attention, or any number of things, all I know is that my intuition is one of my senses, just like my sight and my hearing and I am going to use it just as I do them.

I believe that our intuition is just one more sense that we can use, just like our sense of taste, hearing or sight. If we listen to it, I believe our lives will become richer because we are using more information to make the decisions that affect our lives and the lives of those around us. If you are not used to trusting yourself, start slowly but start now. The more you trust in yourself and your intuition, the stronger it (and you) will become.

I missed a couple of PBP posts but I am back on track now! Check out this post, my 100^th for a chance to win a couple of dragon related things I picked up in Chinatown last month.

Autumnwind



Yippee… 100 Posts!

I can’t believe this is my 100 Post on Beneath the Witch’s Moon. As I have mentioned before, I started this blog to become a part of the online Pagan community, to meet like minded people and to generally just have a little piece of online real estate. So far it has been a huge success.

I have met amazing people, learned so much, won a few cool things, met amazing people… I am really enjoying being a part of this world. Thank you, for welcoming me, thank you for listening to me and for sharing with me. (OK, before I start getting really sappy I’ll stop :0)

To celebrate this first (I hope of many) milestones for my blog I picked up a couple of fun things while I was in Chinatown in San Francisco last month.

 

In honor of this being the year of the Dragon I am celebrating my 100 post by giving away this wooden dragon and 4 sets of wooden chopsticks. I’ll also be throwing in a surprise trinket or two. The dragon measures 3 inches long, 1.5 inches wide and about 2 inches tall. He is so cute!

 For a chance to win this sweet little prize all you have to do is be a public follower of me and comment on this post. You have until Friday, May 11^th. I’ll be randomly drawing a name on Friday. Make sure you include your email address in the comment OR you can send me an email (autumnwindreno@aol.com) AFTER you leave a comment with your email address in it if you prefer not to post that information online.

For additional chances to win refer a friend to my blog, have them post a comment and mention that you sent them.

I will be catching up this weekend on lots of things. I can’t believe April is gone and May is well underway. Check back soon for lots of pictures from my latest adventures, a Pagan Blog Project Post and more.

Autumnwind

I'm Back!

Yippee! No more traveling for me until September. I am tired but home and I have so much to share! My next post will be my 100th post! Oh My Gosh! Who knew I had so much to talk about - OK, I am sure no one is surprised that I have so much to talk about.

Anyway, I did pick up a couple of cool things in San Francisco while I was there last weekend (it seems like it has been several weeks but it really wasn't) and I can't wait to give them away... see my next post, sometime this week, maybe tonight, to learn how YOU can win!

A couple of pictures to  brighten up this post, next weekend I'll be catching up with everything... whew!

This is the lovely ride over the Sierra Nevadas

The view from the Michael Mondavi Family Estate Winery - I want this view!

The Fremont Diner

Best diner I have ever been too!

Check back soon for my 100th post celebration!

Autumnwind

It's my Birthday...

Today is my birthday and it's been pretty amazing. My oldest and dearest friend and her hubby came to to visit me - she and I were born on the same day in the same hospital and we've been good friends since we were twelve, my amazing co-workers took me out for Thai food for lunch and made me a Zombie-Faerie birthday cake (I'll post some pictures next week) and to top it off, I am heading to San Francisco with my friend, her hubby and my boyfriend for a fun weekend - yay! I am feeling good, finally recharged and after next week (I am off to Las Vegas for business again on Wednesday) I'll be back home and back to as normal as my life gets - which, thankfully, is pretty normal.

Occasionally someone will tell me that they don't celebrate birthdays anymore because they are getting old- I figure celebrating another year of life is much better than the alternative and I am happy to have lived 46 amazing years so far and I really hope I get another 46 or so  healthy, happy years to come!

Have a great night, I'll catch you all later! Hopefully I'll finish my Pagan Blog Project post tonight, if not, I'll catch up next week =D

Reminder- my 100th post is coming soon (only 2 more posts!!) and I'll be brining back something special from San Francisco to celebrate with.

Autumnwind

I've Noticed a Pattern...

Stay Calm!

This has been one crazy week and when I realized that I haven't even looked into my studio in over 10 days I took a look at things and I began to notice a pattern in my life. Obviously I have a lot going on, work, kids, art, friends, more work... and I love that! Every now and then (about once every 6-8 weeks) I seem to take a non-scheduled break, I just stop everything, except work of course, and once I come out of my haze I feel guilty because I have all sorts of things I am working on and I feel as though I've dropped the ball.

This time I've decided to think that I didn't drop the ball, I just suspended it for a while. Yes, I will be late with a few of the posts that I planned but that is one of the reasons I am part of Blogging Without Obligation! Right??

Anyway, I am here, still alive and kicking. I have a couple of posts that I will be completing this week, one of which will be my 100th post! Wowsa! I am feeling pretty good about that. My birthday is Thursday and I will be heading to San Francisco with one of my best friends and our significant others! I can't wait.

Stay tuned, I have something fun planned for my 100th post, I'm heading to San Francisco (which means Chinatown to me) during the Year of the Dragon... a give-away is a must!

Autumnwind