Drum roll please ...

Blessed be and happy Saturday all! As promised, I am ready to announce the winners of my Special Wiccan Life 200th follower Give-Away . Let's see now ...

Mix and stir and blend it so,
Pick four winners ~ here we go!

The winner of the Glass Rose-decorated Pentagram votive candle holder is Monique at Magpie Hollow

The winner of Edain McCoy's book, "Lady of the Night" is Aurora Skye

The winner of the large Heart-shaped Witch Bottle is Judy B.

And finally, the winner of Dorothy Morrison's book, "The Craft: A Witch's Book of Shadows" is Desert Siren from Everyday Domestic Goddess

Congratulations to all of the winners and a very sincere "THANK YOU" to each and every one of you who participated in the drawing!!!

As always, I ask the winner's to please e-mail me their addresses at Ladycaer1964@yahoo.com so that I may send them their prizes.   AND, as always, your personal addresses will remain private!! In the interest of fairness; however, you must claim your gifts via e-mail within three days from the date of this post. Anyone who does not claim their prize may lose it and another winner will be chosen in its' place.

Again, many thanks to all of you and have a blessed weekend!!!

Friendly Reminder ...

Just a little reminder about The Wiccan Life drawing which will be held tomorrow morning.  So make sure to check in to find out if you were a winner of any of the four give-away gifts!!! ;)

Brightest Blessings all ~
Kim

Oops! A surprise ...

Have I ever told you how dangerous it is to put me in a book store? I ran into "Barnes & Noble" on my lunch hour today for the express reason of buying the new Jackson Galaxy book, "Cat Daddy," and waltzed out with two additional books. LOL!

So, I thought that, in addtion to the three give-away gifts mentioned in my previous post about the Wiccan Life drawing, I would add one more prize to the pot.

One of these two great books will be given away as a fourth gift ...

"The Craft: A Witch's Book of Shadows" by Pagan author Dorothy Morrison

"Cunningham's Book of Shadows" by Solitary Wiccan author Scott Cunningham

But, it is a surprise so I will not reveal which one until next Saturday's drawing!

Blessings All,

Kim

Special Wiccan Life Give-Away!

Merry Meet all! Guess what, everyone? I now have 200 beautiful blog friends! And as my special way of saying, "Thank you!" to all of you for sharing your lives with me through Blogland, I have decided to have a "Wiccan Life Blog Give-away!"

I will be giving away three special gifts:

The first gift is a Glass Rose-decorated Pentagram votive candle holder ...

The second prize is Edain McCoy's awesome book, "Lady of the Night" ...

And the third give-away is a large decocrative Heart-shaped Witch Bottle ...

All you need to do to enter the drawing is:

1) You must be a member of this blog (it's only fair); and,

2) Leave a message in the comment section of this post letting me know that you wish to be added to the drawing.

It's that easy!!! The drawing will be on Saturday, June 30th.


Brightest Blessings all !

Kim

Fun Friday ~ "Summertime Blues"

Happy Friday everyone!!!  Summer is definitely in full swing already as we have had a high of 99 degress here in Reading, PA! Shrew!!! Anyway, I thought a cool song would be in order so I posted a great version of Brian Setzer singing the awesome "Summertime Blues" (and legendary Wolfman Jack of course) LOL!!

HERE'S WISHING ALL A VERY COOL WEEKEND!!!

The race is on ...

As some of you may already be aware, I will be officiating a legal handfasting this coming October on the weekend of Samhain. As fate would have it, I already have a Priestess dress as I bought a dress last year to wear for my handfasting renewal of vows ceremony. However, I have not gotten to wear it yet as hubby and I decided to wait until this September to have it instead. 

Dress for Handfasting in October and our renewal of vows ceremony ~ hopefully. (check out my cat Kiki in the background)

Unfortunately, I have gained a few pounds since then and I now must try to lose at least some of it before the October ceremony. This is, of course, a task which is much easier said than done! I have always had to battle my weight ever since I was a teenager and I have found that the diet plans which worked for me over the years no longer work for me now!

Fortunately though, we have a skier downstairs in our laundry room which I have been able to utilize in the past. The last time I actually used it was in the year 2000 just a few months before hubby and I got married. You see, hubby bought me my handfasting/wedding dress the year before when we were in Salem, MA visiting friends. We both fell in love with it and thought it would be perfect for the wedding. Well, I managed to gain 45 pounds after that and I was very determained to get back into that dress in time for our handfasting no matter what I had to do! So, I began using the skier which did help me lose my first 10 pounds. That, and a calorie diet of nothing but salads and grilled chicken helped me lose a total of 50 pounds in 5 months time. I actually did continue to keep the weight off for a little over two years after that until I hit peri-men ~ UGH! That and constant stress took a huge toll on my aging bod! And confidentially, I really HATE salads and when I do decide to eat them, I never ever use salad dressing because I am really such a picky eater.

Anyway, I have been meaning to try to lose weight for quite some time now as it is affecting my knees as well as my blood sugar level. So far, I have been barely keeping my blood sugar at bay and my tests have come back dangerously close to the diabetic level. My doctor wants me to use the skier at least every other day for an entire 30 minutes. NOT happening, my friends. But, I will use it every day for 15 minutes after I get home from work.

I have never been the sort of person who feels comfortable joining a gym and exercising in front of others makes me extremely self-conscious. I have always had much better success doing things on my own. I realize that some people may feel that they need to be around others to get themselves motivated, but all I need to do is think hard about that dress size I need! After all, I can be quite subborn when I put my mind to something I want or need to do. Oh yeah, and I suppose a bit of luck wouldn't hurt either! LOL!

A lovely Father's Day

Today was a beautiful day here in Reading, PA for a Father's Day visit. The weather was nice 'n' breezy and, in spite of a couple of clouds hanging about, it decided not to rain.

First, we went to my parents to give my dad his Father's Day gift ...

We gave him a special card and his gift. He really loves Bath & Body Works Men's cologne called "Ocean"

 Here is a pic of my dad acting "goofy" with a pair of dark sunglasses he found in his coat pocket ~ LOL!


After we all enjoyed chicken on the grill with baked potatoes and corn, we headed out to hubby's parents place to spend some of Father's Day with my in-laws ...

Hubby's dad "Pop" also liked his card and gift from us!

All in all, a great day for us all! Hope you and yours had a fantastic weekend and a special Father's Day as well!

Brightest Blessings everyone!

Odds and ends

Happy Friday all! Today, I celebrated my sister Robin's birthday with her by treating her to a surprise lunch at Applebees. It was actually more like a "belated" birthday get-together as her birthday was on Tuesday, but today was the only day we could get our schedules in-synch. For her birthday, I also gave her a Gemini T-shirt (her Sun sign) which I bought for her while in Canada and a blue & white-colored, tri-scented candle called Ocean Breeze. And, since my mother-in-laws' birthday was yesterday (Flag Day), we will be celebrating hers with her this weekend.

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Now that we are home from vacation, I have a whole slue of things which I would like to accomplish. One, of course, is getting ready for my Solitary Midsummer sabbat celebration with my furr babies, and another being a project which I have been meaning to get to for some time now. I am planning to fix up our downstairs for my hubby so that he can have what he calls a "Game Room" ~ a place where he and his buddies can get together, hangout and play their card games and such. 

Since our cellar is very spacious, we will have more than enough room for one. I already have my Altar Room and Reiki Room set up down there, so I thought that it would be really nice if hubby had a personal space of his own as well. Besides, this may also allow me a bit more time to myself for blogging! LOL!

I would also like to wish a very Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful, loving and  well-deserving dad's out there in Blogland! As usual, we will be spending Father's Day Sunday at both my parents and hubby's folks to celebrate their special day with them.

Have a very blessed weekend everyone!

Fun Friday ~ Loreena McKennitt - Marco Polo (live)

A little T.L.C. for D-A-D

After we returned home from our vacation in Canada, I called my mom to let her know that we arrived home okay. She told me that my dad's pain had gotten really bad again and that his Pain Management physician will not even try to get him in the office to see him sooner than SIX weeks from now! Unbelievable! It is completely inconceivable to me that our medical field in this Country can't seem to get past their pocketbooks enough to get their priorities straight as to remember that ole hippocratic oath (or should I say "hyprocritic"?) they once took! This is just simply unexceptable ~ UGH!

So I told my mom to bring him over right away so that I could give him some sort of relief, albeit perhaps temporary, from his constant pain with extra reiki sessions. Atleast until the doctor will "agree" to see him.

And on a more positive note, my good friend Britnee recently asked me to be her oldest daughter Kylie's (Kylianna is her full name) God-Mother. I happily accepted this honor with pride as I can honestly say that this little girl is a child after my own heart ~ seriously! Uh-oh, I am not sure if that is a good thing or not? LOL!!!

We're back! (Part 2)

We arrived in Kingston, Ontario on Friday night and had dinner at their Holiday Inn since we couldn't board the "Kawartha Voyageur" until 8PM anyway. The name "Kawartha" by the way is Indian for "land of the shimmering waters." Now, for me and hubby, this boat was one of the most amazing things about this cruise. First of all, it was designed and built by the family who owns and runs the business ~ The Ackert's. It is the only cruise boat of its' kind and extremely unique at that! We traveled through 33 locks in 6 days and, everytime we had to go underneath a bridge, the nose of the bow lifted up from the front of the boat, the awning atop of the wheelhouse came down, and the wheelhouse itself lowered to about a quarter its' height! How? Well, they are all hydraulically built. Since the passengers were allowed inside the wheelhouse to chat with Captain John Ackert anytime except for when we were heading under a bridge of course, hubby and I were able to see the inside of it while the Captian explained the history of the Rideau (actually pronounced "reed-dow") and very graciously answered any questions we may have had. The wheelhouse has a square opening cut out of the ceiling above the Captain's chair so that when it comes down while going under bridges the captain does not get crushed and can also see outside the boat to navigate. It even has a fail-safe so that if something should happen to go wrong with the primary hydraulics, there will not be a problem. 

This is a view from the top deck where we were allowed to sit and you can see just how close the boat gets to the bridge

Here you can see the opening in the ceiling above the Captain's head in the wheelhouse

We traveled from Kingston to Ottawa, enjoying every tree, native bird, animal, horsefarm, island home, etc. One of the birds which we had gotten the chance to see was the beautiful osprey who like to nest in the bridge structures along the canal ...

We also made a few historical stops and explored the nearby towns of Westport and Merrickville for a bit of sight-seeing and shopping. While strolling along in Merrickville, we saw a couple of "old school" telephone boothes which actually did work. Here's hubby clowning around with them ... LOL!

We were served breakfast at 8AM, lunch at 12, a snack at 3, and dinner at 6 every day. There was no television on the boat except for in the Captian's quarters in the wheelhouse which also had a large bed, a shower, and a desk and computer. There was also a laundry room for the crew, small galley, a mini bar, nice size dining area, a small library, and a communal PC. It rained for the first three days we were there, but we did have a couple of  sunny ones as well ...

We arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday and had some time to walk around until the bus came to take us all back to Kingston. One of the things we enjoyed while in Ottawa was the beautiful "Hogback Falls" ...

 The funny thing about this trip was that it took us 6 days to travel up the Rideau Canal and only two hours to get us back by bus to where we started in Kingston. Talk about taking the long way, eh? LOL!

Ottawa, Ontario

All in all, a very memorable trip and one well worth taking. I would definately recommend this trip to anyone!

We're back! (Part 1 of 2)

Hey everyone! We're finally back from our vacation to Ontario, Canada! I've missed you all and I hope you had a wonderful week! Our trip was a very interesting and unique experience to say the least.

We were first off to Bingham, New York on Thursday (about a three hour drive from Reading, PA) for an overnight stay at a Best Western. Then on Friday, I had the most exciting and very fortunate opportunity to finally meet a "sister of the spirit!" My hubby, in-laws and I met up with Robin Larkspur of her fantastic blog, "Wiccan Writes," at a delicious Cracker Barrel in Cicero, N.Y. ~ a suburb near Syracuse. 

Two "sisters" and friends

(Robin beautifully wrapped my journal in green tissue paper using a sprig of her homegrown rosemary from her lovely garden!)

Although we both would have loved to have spent a bit more time together, we hugged, chatted some, laughed a lot, and were grateful to have had the chance to meet!  We surprised one another with lovely gifts. Robin gave me this beautiful journal in which she personally inscribed a special message inside. I am forever blessed, and indeed a better person at that, for knowing her ...

After we all had lunch, Robin wished us all a safe trip as we said our farewell's to one another. Then, it was off to the Wolf Island Ferry (with car and luggage in tow) to cross the border to Canada straight into Kingston to catch the boat headed for the Rideau!