25th Annual Celtic Classic

 

Today we attended the 25th Anniversary of the Celtic Classic Highland Games and Festival in Bethlehem, PA. This is an extremely large yearly celebration held on the last weekend of September.

This event has authentic Irish and Scottish cuisine, music, entertainment and games.  They hold bagpipe competitions in the street and field, and Drum Major constests (kilts in toe) with contestants from all over ...

These guys are called, "Dark Rose" and hail from New York

Exciting live Celtic music!

 

River Dancing!

 

Stone Tossing in the sports arena

 

A Drum Major throwing his baton high in the air! He caught it!

 

Participants of all ages got into the spirit!

 

Dozens of cool venders

 

 

A police officer all dressed up and posing pretty for the camera!

 

 

And, of course, I couldn't resist picking up these little beauties! It is "The Four Seasons of Green Man." I orderd the other two for the set from the vender who just happenes to live a mile away from us ...

 

 

Hubby also surprised me with this gorgeous sitting mermaid for the house. I just love her! ...

 

 

We had such a great time and I took the pics with the new Fuji Digital camera that hubby gave me for our wedding anniversary. I got him a very large, heavy crystal mug from "Things Remembered" with his name engraved on a silver plate.

 

Tomorrow is the last day of my week's vacation and I will be cleaning much of the day.  I also found out just last night that I was the winnner of Sandy Sandy's awesome Fall Giveaway as well as winning a wonderful piece from Stacy from her blog MagicLoveCrow!  Whoo hoo! I am so excited about the beautiful artwork I will be receiving in the mail from these very talented artists! All in all, it's been a pretty great time off for me. I could get used to this! LOL!

 

Decorating Cat-Style

It's no big secret how much I LOVE cats! When it comes to decorating the house, Samhain is escpecially fun for me. Not only is it my favorite sabbat, but it also gives me a great excuse to adorn my home with even more cat paraphernalia ...

 Three Witchy Kittens with Jack-O-Lanterns votive candle holder

 

Black Cat tart burner

 

Muscial Haunted House with Dancing Ghosts which plays "Ghostbusters"

 

6-Tea Light Yankee Candle Haunted House holder

 

Witch Wooden Russian Doll Set

 

Ghost Lights 

 

Most of these decorations I have had for many, many years and I traditionally put out every year. This year; however, I will have a brand new addition to my collection, ~ a MagicLoveCrow original painting which I recently won in Stacy's Birthday Giveaway! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STACY AND THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! :D

 

 

Stacy has allowed the winner of this awesome art to actually name the painting. So I named it, simply, "Crow's Autumn Day." What do you think, Stacy? LOL!

 

Have a magickal weekend ALL!!!

Fun Friday ~ Ancient Egyptian Music - Creator Sun God

Just a warning regarding NetworkedBlogs!!!

Over the past couple of days, I have noticed a considerable drop in my followers status on my NetworkedBlogs account. For those of you who also use this application and have lost followers on their blogs, the following message was posted on their home page yesterday:

NetworkedBlogs

Wednesday via NetworkedBlogs

We're removing old user accounts that have uninstalled NetworkedBlogs from our system. You might notice a drop in blog follower count.

 

https://www.facebook.com/networkedblogs

 

I have been utilizing NetworkedBlogs through my Facebook account for both my blogs and I know that some of you do also.

 

Just wanted to give you all a "heads-up" that if you have lost some of your followers there, it is NOT you! I read on the feed that someone had actually lost 100 followers in one day!!! It is just NetworkedBlogs messing with your accounts ... again.

 

Brightest Blessings ~

Kim

Some encouraging news!

Greetings everyone! First of all, my friends, I want to thank you ALL for your wonderful input regarding my house "visiter." On Tuesday, my sister Robin and I cleansed and blessed our home. I can already feel a lightness in the air which was not there previously. I much agree that this time of the year the veil makes it very easy for spirits to venture ~ be they passed on family or friends, or the uninvited sort. After the cleansing and blessing, I spoke to the spirit (or spirits) which were present and assured them that if they were family members, they were always welcome, but if they were not, I bid them to leave the house and go back to their respective areas in peace.

Now for a bit more good news. Upon reading my horoscope for today, I feel quite confident that things will definitely get better this week ...

 Pisces Horoscope:
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sep 27, 2012

A hectic time is coming to an end, leaving you some spare moments to catch your breath. Now is a fine time to sit down with yourself for some analytical thinking. Now that you can look back on the activities of the last couple days, weigh your actions against their results. Were your hypotheses and theories on the mark or somewhere left of center? Prepare to accept the truth even if you don`t really like it and consider how you might change things in the future.


And there it is! LOL!  I wish everyone a fantastic week!

Blessings ALL ~

Kim

Busy week ...

This week is my vacation week away from my full-time job. A time for which I always plan (and hope) to get the things done which I do not get much chance to do any other time during the course of the busy year.

I don't know about you guys, but when I have things I need to do at home, I much prefer to be alone. Now, please don't get me wrong as I love my hubby, but there are simply times when I need peace and quiet from the daily stress of my every day life. In other words, I need to put aside time just for me. So far ...

Day one: Hubby's car broke down and he can not get it into the garage until next Monday. Therefore, he had to borrow my in-laws car temporarily. He goes back to work tomorrow. The highlight of my day was when my sister Robin came over to spend the day with me. She helped me cleanse and bless the house and then we went shopping at the craft store for a few supplies to make some homemade wreaths ...

Day two: The landscapers which I had arranged for came out this morning to trim our trees (which were in desperate need of it). The tree branches next to our driveway were hanging down so low that they literally touched the roof of our cars while we were parked. Expensive? Very. Needed? Most definitely! They did an awesome job and I am indeed pleased! Around our house, there are nothing but trees, trees, and more trees ~ maple, walnut, oak ...

Next, we waited for the tow truck to come pick up hubby's car in the driveway. After they left, we dropped our cat Tabby off at the vet for her surgery tomorrow. We can pick her up on Friday afternoon sometime.

Perhaps tomorrow I will have an opportunity to do some things around the house which have been getting a "lick and a promise" for some time now. For some reason, I always feel so much better after I have gotten some well-needed work done.

Strange Happenings

Let me tell you all about something which has been going on in my cellar for the past couple of weeks now. Two weeks ago, I was cleaning the cat's litter box in the spare bedroom, when I heard a noise that sounded as though something had either fallen down the cellar steps or fell down in one of our closets? It definately caught my attention and I asked my hubby (who apparently had his headphones on at the time at the computer) if he "heard that"?!? Of course he didn't and I told him what I know I had heard. So I proceeded to have us both check the cellar, the attic and all of the closets in the house ~ nothing was out of place. So what in Goddess' name was it?

A few days later, it happened again, that same noise. And once again, hubby did not hear it. Last night while I was taking my shower, it happened yet again and it was so loud this time that I heard it over the running water and hubby finally heard it, too! Ahh! See, I am NOT crazy!

So while I was drying off, I heard hubby closing the cellar door after he ran downstairs to see what was going on? He also checked the attic again and all the closets, etc. Nothing had fallen, nothing was moved. I asked him what he thought it was and he replied, in true skeptic form, "It must have been something settling in the house." Okay, this house was built in the 1950's ~ settling, really? LOL! I, myself, have tried to figure out a logical explaination ~ is there something mechanical wrong down there? We have a tankless water heater so it can't be that.  Oil tank? Doubt it. Heater? Hubby has absoultely no clue either? It simply does not make sense.

I have decided to play it safe and tomorrow afternoon on the first day of my week's vacation I am going to completely cleanse and bless the house. I haven't done this in quite a long time and it is in need of it regardless. I find noises which I, nor my hubby, can not logically explain rather unsettling. Especially since hubby's deceased uncle and cousin who have also lived in this house before us have been seen by his brother and a couple of our friends during one of our Yule ceremonies a few years back. 

Luckily, my sister Robin is stopping by for a visit and I can enlist her help as well. Considering that up until now, we haven't experienced any strange happenings, I have to really wonder what is going and I am more than a tad concerned.

Meet Aunt Millie!

 

Good day everyone! I just finished getting the pics delevoped from last weekend's "memorable" trip to Maryland to visit hubby's Aunt Millie. She is a very spunky, up-beat, tell-it-like-it-is, down to earth gal! She's 95 years old and doesn't look a day over 70 ~ if that! I told her that she looks great and we all should be so blessed! Her reply: "Oh, you're just being kind. I know "how" I look ~ LOL!" She is a retired librarian and is heavily involved with the Maryland Historical Society, loves the theatre and jazz music. She is mostly self-sufficient since her husband's passing a few years ago and lives by herself ~ with her son and daughter not living too far away. What a dear woman she is!

My MIL sitting with Tulip, who also came along for the trip

 

 

After a four hour set-back of convention traffic and a bad car accident on the way to Ocean City, MD (which we ended up staying in Rehoboth anyhow), here are a few pics of our hotel suite we stayed overnight in at the Econo Lodge. It had a lounge area, three sinks, bathroom, two full-size beds, two televisions, two phones and a cool little deck to sit out on ...

 

 

All in all, it was a nice trip and I can't wait to see Aunt Millie again! Have a fantastic Sunday all!

BLESSED MABON! (and the winner's are ...)

 

“The countdown done;

  Mabon is here,

 Wishing you all

 The season’s cheer

  My offering now ~

  Whose names I choose; 

 These little trinkets

 For autumn’s muse!”

(Lady Caer Morganna)

 

 

And the winner of the Mabon Witch Bottle is ...

 

 

Fearless Fallen Angel from "The Rennaissance Woman"

 

 

And the Leafy Lantern goes to Desert Siren from "Everyday Domestic Goddess"

 

 

 

Congrats to both the winner's and a huge "Thank You" to all of you who have participated in the drawing! If the winner's would please e-mail me their addresses at Ladycaer1964@yahoo.com, I would be happy to send them their gifts. However, as per usual, if I do not hear from the winner's within three days, I will pick another winner in their place.

 

Today also happens to be my hubby and I's 11th Wedding Anniversary! That's right my friends, 11 years ago today, we had our legal Wiccan Handfasting on Mabon! For me, this season holds so many good things ~ the Goddess' beautiful bounty, the life-giving fruits of the God, and gorgeous colors all around us ...

 

 

Best wishes all for a very Blessed Mabon!

 

(image credits)

Just a quick reminder!

 

 

Just a Quick Reminder: The Countdown to Mabon Give-Away Drawing is TOMORROW!

I will catch up with you all tomorrow morning after I have picked the winning names … Good luck everyone!!!

Two small additions ...

Greetings everyone! First of all, I would like to thank all of you who have participated in my "Witchy Cats Halloween Photo Contest" so far. It is really great to get to know more about other cat lovers furr babies and hear their wonderfully touching stories!

I have added two more prizes to the photo contest. They are my very own handmade small hanging Witchy Cats wreaths ...

Have a great evening everyone! Blessed be!!!

The best laid plans ...

Greetings all! It's been a very busy weekend for us. Hubby drove us and the in-laws down to Maryland to visit his aunt Millie! What a hoot she is!  This woman is the most down-to-earth 95 year old lady I have EVER met in my life. She is in great shape for her age. She lives alone and still insists on doing her own cooking and cleanig (and she does them very well). Just amazes me so much!

Anyhow, the plan was to leave early Saturday morning, arrive in Maryland to drop off hubby's folks and stay for a little chat to catch up, drive to Ocean City and get a place to stay overnight, walk the boardwalk and shop and eat, head back to Aunt Millie's on Sunday afternoon for a spaghetti dinner and then finally head home as we both had to get up for work really early on Monday.

*SIGH* Well, here is how it went down. We left Aunt Millie's house, got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic at the Bay Bridge for two whole hours, when we finally got moving it wasn't long before we hit a dead stop on the turn off to Ocean City as there was a bad accident (medivac and all). So we decided to turn around and back-track to try Rehoboth Beach. Spent over an hour looking for a hotel to stay in for one night and we were about to give up when we saw Econo Lodge about twenty miles from Rehoboth Beach. As it turned out, there were apparently all kinds of conventions going on in the area ~ bikers all over the place! Silly us, we thought: "It is September so how busy could  the beaches be now anymore? We should have NO trouble getting a place to stay!" LOL!!!

Luckily, Econo Lodge had only three rooms open and we got the second to last one! It was a suite with a lounge area, two televisions, two phones, three sinks including the bathroom, two full-size beds, a microwave, refrig, and a deck! It was pretty cool actually. Then, on our way home driving into Reading, there was yet another set-back as we hot caught in construction going on at 7:00PM at night. SO glad to be home!

I took pics, but I had my regular camera instead of Hubby's digital so I am still waiting to be able to get the film developed from the weekend. But when I do, I will post the pics so you can all meet Aunt Millie! What a darling(and so spunky too)!

Hope you all had as "memorable" a weekend as we did!