A song for Sunday

The treasures of an ancient Egyptian tomb, thought to be more than 3,500 years old, have been unveiled ...

Yule decorating

Since I could not risk putting up the large Yule tree this year because Merlin is still too small yet, I used my miniature tree on top of my entertainment center ...

I put small miniature ornaments on it with a string of colored lights and all of my special cat ornaments as well.  
Other living room decorations as Leo looks on from the kitchen ...

Some kitchen stuff ...

In the bathroom I placed a decorative tealight holder.

And my Christmas mermaids with light blue glass balls hang on the bathroom wall along with the seashell ornaments ...

And finally, my Christmas/Yule mermaid bathroom towels.

And all the while, little Merlin is hanging out in the catio on the cat condo watching the rain come down in between naps ...

Friday odds and ends

Greetings, friends. I hope everyone had a good week! Wednesday evening, I had dinner with my friends Deb and Dave at PJ's and picked up the pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving dinner. 

The homemade pumpkin bread - delicious!

I also got a chance to wear my new holiday dress from "Plato's Closet" to dinner. They just opened up a store near me about a month ago. This dress was only $12.00.

A little pic of J.J. enjoying his new baby blanket! Thank you so much for sending me this pic Deb! :)

Today, I put away the rest of my fall decorations and began adorning my house with Yule and winter decor. I am not finished yet, but I did get to finish the Pittsburgh Steelers scarf as a gift for Aurora Skye's hubby ... I hope he likes it.

(front)

(back)

I had to cut out the diamond symbols as best I could by hand because I could not find anything else to use as a cut-out. I used colored felt and then hand sewed them on the scarf. I also used a new type of yarn called macaroon. It is a large skein with different color cakes all in one bundle. This was the closest thing I could get to the Steelers colors.

Tomorrow, I plan to finish up my decorating. Have a good weekend all.

A little holiday humor ...

Holiday Eve quick post ... from Merlin

Merlin here posting for mommy today. She has been pretty busy lately (I keep her going all the time!) so she asked me to write a quick post for her. BTW, don't I look cute playing wit my toys in the catio?

Anyway, mommy had a special request this week from her friend Deb to crochet a baby blanket for her grandson J.J. She will be giving it to her tonight when she goes to dinner wit her to pick up the homemade pumpkin bread for tomorrow (hope she gives me some of that bread) ...

She says she is also working on a special scarf as a gift for Auntie Aurora Skye's husband. Since he loves the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, she is making him a decorative scarf for Yule. She will post a pic of it after she is finished wit it.

From me and my kitty siblings (and momma too, of course) here is wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving Day for those who celebrate it wit their family and friends!

~  Luv Merlin 
😽😽😽

Monday this and that ...

Good morning dear friends and welcome to another Monday. Since this is a holiday week and Thursday is Thanksgiving, I will not be around much. My mom and I were invited to a family dinner at a relatives house and we will be going there this year. I also have a lot of running around to do this week so I will be fairly busy. I have decided to take a break from FB as well. I just need to get away from it for a little while, but for now I will still be blogging until further notice.  

To be honest, my heart is just not into the holidays very much this year, but I am trying hard to raise my spirits and push on. Usually decorating helps make me feel a lot better so we shall see. As my wise dad used to always say whenever I would ask him how he managed to get through the really hard times in his life, "Well, I just try to remember that there is always someone out there in this world who has worse troubles than me." And alas, he was right of course.

I will be picking up some homemade pumpkin bread on Wednesday from my friend Deb to take along with me for Thanksgiving dinner. I do not like to show up at someones house and not show my appreciation by not bringing a gift or something.

Have a great and blessed week everyone!

A song for Sunday ... and other stuff

Greetings, friends! There is not much happening here since the snow storm - been pretty sunny, cold, and calm and tomorrow they say it is back to rain again here. Yesterday, I went shopping with my mom for her yearly Boscov Days that is a three day long benefit in which both current and retired employees like my mom can enjoy a wonderful double discount (meaning she gets both her normal employee discount on top of any items already on sale). She uses her Boscov's card and charges everything on it for Christmas gifts and if I buy anything for myself or for my own gifts for others, I pay her whatever I owe of what she put on her card when we get home from shopping. This is a blessing, especially this year!

I also began (to keep my mind occupied) putting away some of my fall decorations and replacing them with a few winter/Yule stuff. I usually wait until Black Friday to do this as I never venture out in the insanity that is holiday shopping, but I needed to keep my mind busy lately. BTW, strangely enough, this is my horoscope for today:

Pisces Daily Horoscope

Nov 18, 2018 -
Maintain your mental health-which is prerequisite for spiritual life. Mind is the gateway of life because everything whether it is good/bad comes through mind. It helps in solving life problems and endows one with requisite light. Avoid overspending and dubious financial schemes. Your domestic scene will be somewhat unpredictable. You are going to make your life worthy by giving pleasure and forgiving for past mistakes. Seminars and exhibitions will provide you with new knowledge and contacts. It is better to be thoughtful about your future than to worry about it. Therefore, do not waste your energy in worrying and draw a creative plan for your future.

Since we got our first snow fall of the year this past week, I thought that this song would fit the occasion pretty well. Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Friday odds and ends ...

Happy Friday! Not much planned for the weekend, how 'bout you? We had the snow mix all day yesterday. I think I will just stay in today and clean up the house after clearing off the snow in the driveway and on the cars. We got hit pretty hard for the FAR TOO EARLY first snow fall of the season and we ended up getting about 7 inches in my area followed by sleet and rain as predicted. The roads were horrible, there were accidents everywhere, and I only thank Goddess I did not have to venture out into it. However, I do worry so about my sister and her hubby making a safe trip home from work every time we get a snow storm. 

In other news, I received an email yesterday morning from our dear long-time High Priestess friend of many years, Lady Sabrina Rhiannon regarding her upcoming Yule ritual celebration in December. Both my sister Aurora Skye and I got an invite to join she and her coven as we did this past Samhain. Speaking of Yule, I picked up a really great small electric Himalayan fireplace space heater on sale at a good price at Ollie's Bargain Outlet on Thursday. I plan on using in my altar room this winter ...

Has anyone been watching American Horror Story: Apocalypse and seen the season finale on Wednesday night? This series is a string of stories tied together using the same general actors and actresses and IMO it is either hit or miss with their stories - some really good and some not so much let's just say. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the ending as much as they built it up the last few episodes. Although it was nice to see yet another cameo by Stevie Nicks, it was truly pointless and added absolutely nothing to the story itself. In this scene, she sang a lovely version of her song, 'Gypsy' on the piano. Have to say it was quite beautiful of course ...

"Hello witches!"

To watch and listen to this version of 'Gypsy' just click here.

)o(        )o(       )o(        )o(        )o(        )o(        )o(        )o(

Well friends, here is one last Elton John song for the road. Have a good weekend everyone!

Hey there everyone!

Greetings friends! Sorry I have not been around much this week, but as you can well imagine I have been pretty distracted as of late with some things. However, I did want to apologize and let you all know that I will be around to your blogs at some point today. I also want to thank everyone for your kind words regarding my last post about my MIL. I will try to update you as much as I am able to. For now, things are touch and go with her as her doctor recently pulled her driver's license due to (I believe anyway) a combination of her health issues and her last stunt with her alcohol problem showing up for the umpteenth time on her hospital medical records.

We are under a winter weather advisory for today and they are calling for a wintery mix of snow, sleet and rain with snow up to three inches possibly. We shall see, but right now it is very dark and cloudy outside here. In fact, it has already begun snowing ...

Yesterday, I had lunch with my friend Deb. We ended up going to the Park City Mall and I found a great sale at Boscov's Department Store on left over Halloween shirts. I just could not resist this one ... lol!

I also bought this lovely mermaid necklace. It says, "Believe" ...

(Front and back)

Wishing you all a blessed day! 

A post update ...

Yup I know, but at this point that is exactly what I feel like doing. As hard as I try, it just seems as though life continues to get more challenging. It gets harder and harder to deal with the things you can not control - things that are happening around you and in your life.

I am not one to feel sorry for myself, nor am I someone who talks about a lot of personal things as I realize that everyone has their own problems to contend with in their own lives. However, I am now at a crossroads where I am still struggling to find a job to pay our bills so that we do not lose our home (and quite possibly our fur babies as well), I am constantly trying to juggle taking care of my own mother and my sanity, and now I need to deal with yet another difficult issue - my MIL.

I can not get into all of it here, but the short version of the story is that she had been going down hill mentally after my father-in-law got very ill and has only gotten much worse since his death. She has taken up drinking heavily (the hard stuff - vodka of all things!) and taking bad falls because of it. She gets inebriated and pops her bad hip out of joint, etc. Recently, she got drunk and fell down on her head and has a bad lump from it. We spent the night in the emergency room last Friday night and spoke yet again to the doctors about her drinking problem which, of course, she denies having. We have spoken to her numerous times about getting grief counseling, but she refuses. We are at our wits end with the situation. Every time she takes a fall (which she causes by what she is doing to herself) it takes a medical and physical toll on her body. So far, she has had four hip surgeries and they gave her physical therapy at home. I fear that if she does not stop her drinking, one of these days the doctors will not be able to help her anymore ... or worse. 

We have tried everything you can think of to help her, but to no avail. We are going to try one more intervention today and pray for the best. I love her dearly and I worry so much about everything. Please keep her in your thoughts, friends.

A Saturday late post ...

Good evening everyone! I've been keeping fairly busy with family issues the last few days or so (more about that for another post). Speaking of family problems, I just found out that the Tim Hawkins concert we had tickets for in Maryland for next weekend has been cancelled by Hawkins due to "a family emergency" so we are told that we will be refunded our money sometime this coming week ... bummer as that show was my anniversary gift. Oh well, stuff happens.

Anyway, while I was cleaning up the basement this past week, I found this old original 33 1/3 Elton John vinyl album I used to play as a kid. It is the "Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy" album which only my generation perhaps would remember. I loved it (and still do). The title song is (yep, you guessed it) written by Bernie Taupin about he and Elton John. There are quite a few really great tracks on this album ('Tower of Babel', 'Bitter Fingers', 'We All Fall in Love Sometimes', 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight') and one of the reason's that I love it so much is because a) the music seemed to have much deeper overtones than their songs which followed after and b) Elton's voice was, in my humble opinion, at it's peak and the best he has ever sounded. Even the live versions I found on YouTube from this time period were the BEST!

In 1967, after answering an ad placed by Liberty Records, Elton John (born Reginald Dwight) met and partnered up with lyricist Bernie Taupin. A partnership which still continues to this day. Taupin, who has clearly expressed that he is very happy being on the sidelines while Elton takes the stage glory, writes the poetic words on paper and sends them to John who then in turn writes the music for all of their hits (and non-hits) from their albums & CD's. In spite of the fact that the two could not be more different, the collaboration works beautifully. Factoid: The pretty song 'Tiny Dancer' was written about Taupin's then girlfriend, 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' was written about John's suicide attempt back in the 70's,  and as most people already know the song 'Candle in the Wind' was written about the life and death of the legendary Marilyn Monroe.

John & Taupin in the 70's.

... and now.

Have a great night all!!

Throwback Thursday

Greetings all and happy Thursday! I want to thank everyone for your well wishes on my job interview. As far as I know, it went fairly well. I scored an 83 percent on my test and now I wait and see if they contact me in regards to whether I will be expected to be hired or not.

After my interview, I had to buy a couple of new dress pants as the ones I bought a few months ago were a little big around the waist. No big deal really since I wore a nice blouse over top of them, but at least I have some pants that fit better for now.

I also had to stop off at the CVS Pharmacy store for a few little items. While I was there, I saw this cool little snow globe and decided to place one of the costume pics from the weekend in it. It kinda reminded me of a crystal ball ...

Here is a left over pic taken before we left for the ball last Saturday night ...

Today, I must take my mom to her eye doctor appointment as she can not drive home after they put the drops in her eyes to dilate them. Not much else going on after that but to go home and chill with the kitties the rest of the day. Have a great one friends!!

A Tuesday quick post ...

Greetings everyone! Just a little Tuesday post as there is not much going on here today. It is yet another wet, miserable rainy day as was yesterday in my area of PA ... yuk!!

In other news, while cleaning up and organizing around the house yesterday (wasn't much else to do anyhow), I received a phone call from my former employer I worked for many years back regarding a claims adjuster position (training actually). They set up an interview to meet with me for today at 1PM. To be honest, I am extremely nervous. I have not had to deal with office workforce interviews and tests (especially on the computer!) in at least 14 years since my last job. I called up the human resources department from my recent former employer to make sure that my "possibly" taking a job for another insurance company would not interfere with my severance pay as they made us sign a contract just after we got let go from them. They told me no, I will still continue to receive that benefit until the first week of January. Oh well, I can only do the best I can and see what (if anything) comes of it.

My dad, my husband, me, and my mom on my wedding day - 2001.

I also got a call yesterday from my mom. Nothing important at all, she said she saw the article in our local newspaper about the Reading Pagan & Witches Masquerade Ball which I attended over the weekend. She was freaking about it (I told her beforehand that I was going and even showed her my costume) and she also wanted to know why I did not mention who was hosting it. I told her the truth - that it was just a masquerade party with music, food, dancing, raffle prizes, etc. and to be honest, I never even thought twice about "who" was holding it so I never relayed that ... not that it matters at all! I love my mother dearly, but she never accepted the fact that I am a Wiccan even after all these years. She is certainly NOT my dad who not only supported me but completely understood it. In fact, she threatened to not attend my wedding years ago because I did not get married as a Christian in a church somewhere. - my beloved father convinced her otherwise. Funny thing is, she had not stepped foot in a church in many, many years now and when my brother and I stopped going to church when I was 14 years old, she stopped going as well.  Family, what  can you do sometimes, eh?

After my interview, I will finish up my puttering around the house. Hopefully, tomorrow we will see some sun again! Have a great day all!
 

Reading Pagans & Witches Masquerade Ball 2018

Happy Sunday everyone! I had a great time last night at the Reading Pagans & Witches Masquerade Ball held at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Wyomissing, PA. Here are a few pics from the evening ...

Lovely party favors of black silk bags filled with candy.

We had the fortunate opportunity to meet some new folks. We sat at one of non-reserved tables as we did not know anyone attending, but we all got to talk and enjoy one another's company ...

Desiree and her husband Jeff.

Sharing a big smile with Franklin.

 These gals were so much fun to hang with! This is  Marilyn Monroe (Kim) and her beautiful gang of lovelies!

Goofing around with Kim.

A table full of donated prizes you could win from various vendors.

 Lots of dancing ...

Dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

We ate a delicious meal, watched the costume contest on the dance floor, and it was just a fabulous affair. Before the night was over, the hosts of The Reading Pagans & Witches announced that they were officially changing the name of their group going forward to The Pagan Awareness Coalition.

To tell you the truth, I had no idea what to expect from this event as I had never been to this particular one before.  I would definitely go again given the chance. Have a great day all!