A Celebration Song for the New Year ~ Marvin Gaye "Got To Give It Up"

Best Wishes to All for a Happy, Healthly & Prosperous 2014!!!

Surprise mail!

One of the many reasons in which I enjoy blogging as much as I do, is because of all of the wonderful, caring friends I have met along the way. The special group of friends I have been blessed to interact with via the blog-o-sphere have been nothing less than, among other things, supportive and I am very proud to be able to call them my "friends."

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to actually meet one of my dear blogger friends, Robin Larkspur from Wiccan Writes while on en route with my hubby and family to Ontario, Canada. We shared a very special lunch at a Cracker Barrell in New York and I will always be forever grateful for that opportunity ...

Yesterday, after hubby and I arrived home from his aunt and uncle's anniversary party, I received a wonderful surpise in the mail. It was an awesome little gift from Robin! Along with a beautiful Yule card to both my hubby and myself, she gave me this really GREAT book of cat carols ~ I just love it! Thank you so much, Robin, from the bottom of my heart ...

 And, speaking of special gifts, about a week ago I also received a another very personal Yule card and gift from another very dear friend of mine, Stacy from Magic Love Crow! A beautiful set of silver charms ~ a  gorgeous mermaid and a heart in two really nice carrier bags ...

The other side of the mermiad charm has the word, WISH engraved on it. Thank you so much Stacy, I carry them in my purse so that they are with me everywhere I go!

Wishing everyone a wonderful rest of the weekend!!

Another reason to celebrate ...

  
Greetings all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Yule! Yesterday was an extremely busy day for me. In the early afternoon, my hubby and I attended his aunt and uncle's 60th Wedding Anniversary Party. Wow, imagine that, 60 years and still as much in love as ever! Eventhough it was held indoors, the weather was beautiful here ~ in the mid 60's and sunny so it was a nice day for all their family and friends who joined them in celebration. 

Since this was a biggie, our gift to them was a sliver and white musical snowglobe with the word, "Forever" inside the glass ball, and played, "The Wedding March." It was really quite lovely.

Then, last night I set up my altar downstairs and performed a solitary Yule ritual. I would have actually preferred to celebrate with my dear friend Lady Sabrina Rhiannon and her coven this year, but as usual time just simply got away from me with the holiday season already here ...

Although I do enjoy the holidays, I can not wait to have a bit of "down time" when it is all over.  ;)

Merry Yule and Blessed Be to ALL!

Getting there ...

A few months ago, I had written a post telling you all about my dramatic hair loss due to my drastic weight loss. In short, I lost too much weight too quickly which caused telogen effluvium. In other words, I put my system into a sort of "shock" mode. And to make matters worse, I made the mistake of failing to take supplements in order to replenish my body with the vitamins and nutrients I was lacking during that time due to some serious dieting

My Dermatologist prescribed 50 MG of spironolactone to help speed up my hair growth a bit. In addition, I also continued to take biotin, zinc, B-complex, and multi-vitamins for women and I have cut my hair much shorter so that it is not as heavy. I am beginning to see a difference over the past few months from when I first discovered the problem.

Before ...

Progress so far ...

As you can see, my horrid grey hair is definatey showing at this point. But, the good news is my doctor said that I may color my hair, especially if I am using the wash-out kind which I have always used. I have found that Garnier sells a product which washes out after about 24 washings. I must admit that I am still a little nervious about putting anything chemical on my scalp, but I will give it a try. If worse comes to worse, I guess there is always a wig!

Homemade Gifts: Yule Treats for Cats & Dogs

With the sabbat of Yule approaching, we do not want to forget our furr babies. What do they love most in the whole world (other than us)? Well, treats of course! Here are a couple of sweet little recipes, one for cats and one for dogs, which you may wish to try. Special Thanks to our awesome vet, Eagles Peak Animal Clinic for these great recipes!
 

 Chicken Treats for Cats

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, shredded

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/3 cup cornmeal

1 tbsp. softened margarine

While your oven is preheating to 350 degrees F, combine the chicken, broth and margarine, then add the cornmeal and flour. Knead the dough into a ball and then roll it out to 1/4 inch. Cut into 1 inch pieces and bake for 20 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Healthy Pumpkin Balls for Dogs

This snack is not only delicious, but it is also filled with fiber, vitamin A, betacarotene, potassium, and iron.

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

4 tbsp. molasses

4 tbsp. water

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix pumpkin, molasses, vegetable oil, and water together in a bowl. Add the whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon to the mixture and stir until dough softens. Scoop out small spoonful's of dough and roll into balls on your hands (wet hands work best). Place the balls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and flaten with a fork. Bake approximately 25 minutes until dough is hardened.

(resource: Eagles Peak Animal Clinic Newsletter ~ Winter 2013)

The Beauty of the Season

Last night, my hubby, mom, my brother and I took a ride to a place called, "Christmas Village." This is a huge venue which is set up every year in Bernville, PA specifically for the holiday season. It draws quite a crowd from all over and if you have ever been there, you can immediately see why. It has beautifully put together displays in windows, thousands of gorgeous lights decorated in shapes and such around each and every village, they sell delicious food including home baked cookies made right there as you wait, and a couple of wonderful gift shoppes which sell dozens and dozens of collectibles and handmade crafts ...

 My brother Kerry & I having a little fun at one of the character displays

My hubby, my mom & Kerry

The down side ~ we only live a couple of miles away from it, but it took us an hour and a half to get there due to heavy traffic. The best time to go is during the week if you can, but we were unable to do so. We still had a great time and everyone was extremely pleasant to one another. In fact, a very nice gentleman walked up to us after observing me taking pictures and offered to take a pick of my mom and I (seen above) for us. He called it "pay it forward" and we did. My hubby was asked if he would take a group pic of some teenagers and he was happy to oblige. 

All in all, a really awesome family night out. I may no longer be Christian in faith, but I very much appreciate the beauty of the season in any case.,

Giving Back

Every year at work, the Travelers employees set up a Christmas Angel Tree. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is a tree with red (child) and green (seniors) Salvation Army cards hung on it. Written on these cards are gift wishes from a child or senior citizen in need. I usually pick the seniors cards because: (A) everyone seems to always take the child cards, and (B) the seniors really do not ask for much other than what they actually need. 

This year; however, I picked two cards ~ a senior man and a senior woman. My cat Kiki played the role of Santa's Little Helper when it came to wrapping the presents ...

  For "William," a set of various brand new pots and pans ...

 and for "Sherry," a fresh new set of bath towels ~ two large, two small, two hand towels, and four wash rags ...

In addition to the Angel Tree, I also like to give bags of toys, stuffed animals, etc., to "Toys For Tots" every year. These are all items which were requested and I am more than happy to help. I may not be rich, but I do what I can.

Black Friday Tradition

Greetings all! For those of you who celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving AND, for that matter, those of us like myself who spend almost every single holiday with family and therefore also celebrate the non-Wiccan/Pagan holidays since they do,  I hope everyone had a very relaxing and pleasant day!

What next? Well, for me it was my usual tradition of putting up the Yule decorations on Black Friday. That's right, I refuse to step one foot outside the house on that day unless absolutely necessary. I would much rather spend one of the few days that I have away from my work life in the house doing something that I enjoy. And as always, I get plenty of help from the kitties who took turns playing lying underneath the Yule Tree while I was attempting to decorate it ...

After some serious playtime, it was time to get down to some rather serious work ...

And there you have it folks, what a day! Here's wishing ALL a very wonderful and fun-filled weekend!!