Wordless Wednesday

(Photo Credit: Brett Witycyak)

Project Clean Up: Day 1



As planned, I am doing my fall clean up beginning with the attic which I started last year. I much prefer to work in the attic during the cooler weather and so I always try to plan my vacation weeks in the fall. Today, I spent a couple of hours cleaning up and organizing the attic one box at a time.

Before ...

After

 

While going through some old boxes of clothing, I came across a black dress which I haven't worn since 1998 ...

 

 

Next, hubby's downstairs game room. :)

This and That ...

Happy Monday to everyone!!! As I had mentioned previously, this is my week vacation and  I have lots of things lined up to do. Started off this morning with oral surgery for my tooth implant. I have an absolutely wonderful doctor who explained the procedure to me step by step. He implanted a root (looks much like a screw)  up into my gum so that my dentist could make an artificial tooth made of porcelain and place it in. I had two stiches put in and I am scheduled to go back to my oral surgeon next week for follow up. After he gives the go-ahead, I can finally get my new tooth from my dentist. And so, it looks like I will be living on soup and other soft foods such a pudding and mashed potatoes for the next couple of days or so.

On Wednesday morning, I must drop off our cat, Kiki, at our vet for a procedure to find out if she has  polyps in her nasal cavities. If so, they will remove them while she is under anesthesia and we get to pay the ridiculously wallet-breaking bill! Oh well, what can you do? She is our little girl and we love her enough to not want to see her suffering unnecessarily.

Our Kiki-girl

Mr. Midnight cuddling up with Tabitha yesterday afternoon

Hubby and I are looking forward to a nice dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary this week. I picked up a cute little dress while my sister Aurora and I were out shopping last Saturday which I am planning on wearing out ...

(The front)

 

 

(The back)

 

I also bought a cool ceramic two-votive candle holder for Samhain/Halloween at our local Yankee Candle Store. Of course, it is adorned with cats! LOL!   ...

 

The votive candles I am using are my favorite fall scent, "Autumn Leaves."  

 

Well, I guess that's all for now, my friends ... Until next time, Brightest Blessings!!! 

A Family Affair: Our Mabon Celebration!



 

Although Mabon is not actually until this coming Wednesday, my sister Aurora Skye and I had decided to get together a little early for our ritual celebration. I re-vamped my solitary Mabon ritual so that it would work for two people and we kept it fairly simple and intimate.

 

 

The ceremony included the usual elements ~ casting the circle, calling of the corners, invocations of the Lord and Lady, meditation, blessing of the wine and bread, etc. After which we thanked all of the deities, closed our ritual, opened the circle, and remembered to give back to the Earth.
 

I made a couple of head wreaths for us to wear during ritual.

 

Aurora brought along four mini pumpkins which she grows herself in her backyard. We placed two on our altar and set the other two around a couple of the corner candles.
 

In the old days after my fellow solitary friends and I would gather for sabbat rituals, we would eat, drink, talk and be merry for the remainder of the evening. These days; however, Aurora and I much preferred to spend some sister time together by hanging out and perhaps doing a little shopping. As much as I really love having a house full of friends and family, sometimes it is nice to just simply relax and enjoy the day! 

 

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And so it begins!

Greetings, my friends! As of 4:30PM today, I have officially begun my week vacation!! I have a very busy week ahead planned with a special (albeit early) Mabon ritual celebration with my sister Aurora Skye tomorrow afternoon.

Looking forward to the time off and, most especially, Mabon. Hubby and I will also be celebrating our wedding anniversary next week as well ... more about that in a later post sometime next week.  :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

This and That ...

Greetings to everyone! Just a quick note to the winner's of the Mabon giveaway, I will be mailing out your gifts to you tomorrow afternoon so if you still haven't e-mailed me your address in which to send your gift to at Ladycaer1964@yahoo.com, please do so. ;)

 

After surprising my mom with her scrapbook, I realized that I had quite a few left over pics to use up and so I decided to throw together a little scrapbook for myself as well. This one; however, is a tribute to my all-time favorite men's skater (yup, you guessed it alright), the late Christopher Bowman who died in January of 2008. It is only a few pages long, but it is filled with lots of personal photos, magazine articles and quotes/interviews from over the years, and so on. I even organized it chronologically ...

 

 

"Hans Brinker From Hell" is a title which Bowman gave to himself in regards to his own real-life rebel, bad boy persona. In a sport that is, for the most part anyway, considered effeminate, Bowman took a rather aggressive approach to proving his masculinity. According to his coach of 18 years, Frank Carroll, he "had a girl in every part of the world including communist countries." He had very unconventional training habits, and when he improvised his long program at the 1990 World Figure Skating Championships (an unbelievably gutsy performance which won him the bronze medal), it frustrated Carroll so much that he had decided he had had enough. And, in spite of all that he had done to try and help Christopher throughout the years, including getting him into the Betty Ford Clinic and further taking care of him while he was in drug rehab, he finally gave up. After that, Bowman had been coached by Toller Cranston for a short period of time and then, finally, the reputable John Nicks who coached him until Bowman's retirement from competitive skating in 1992.



 

 

 

 

Christopher Bowman's skating career was, to say the very least, amazing considering all of his self-destructive behavior, most notably his (according to him) $950 a day cocaine addiction and his affinity for being a reckless free-spirit in a sport which requires the ultimate commitment and personal sacrifice. This had caused two of his three coaches to quit working with him. One thing that always astounded me is how someone with so many demons off the ice achieved so much success on it. It speaks volumes to just how "naturally talented" Chris truly was!

In her book, “Figure Skating: A Celebration,” author Beverly Smith says of Bowman:

‘The most amazing quadruple jumps ever seen were probably those done during a sparsely attended practice session at the World Championships in Munich in 1991. American Christopher Bowman, a self-described “Hans Brinker from Hell,” knew that his coaches Ellen Burka and Toller Cranston, were angry with him for his poor training habits and hearty enjoyment of party life. During the final practice, he skated up to the boards, held up one finger to his disgruntled mentors, and said, “Watch this.”

The controversial skater landed three quadruple toe-loops in a row, just to please them and to ease the stoney silence. He had never landed any before, and he has never since. Had Bowman ever trained with any discipline, any skater, including Browning, would have been hard pressed to defeat him.’

 

Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, once told the Chicago Tribune, "If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would pick Christopher as one. He had natural charisma, natural athleticism, he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds and he always seemed so relaxed about it."

 

 1992 World Figure Skating Championships (last competitive performance)

*Oakland, California, USA - 1992 World Figure Skating Championships, Men's Free Skate - Christopher moved up from 5th to 4th Place after this skate!*

https://youtu.be/sHBCTuiX6-k

During what would be his last amateur performance at the 1992 World Championships in Oakland, he injured himself near the end of his long program. Always a fighter, he bravely finished his competitive routine, pushing through the pain which you could see in his face with every jump he did. After he had finished, he hobbled off of the ice holding his left knee while his coach John Nicks helped him to the “kiss and cry” area to await his scores from the judges.

 

His cause of death was ruled an accidental drug overdose, leaving his fans and admirer's wondering how someone who, as his former coach Frank Carroll was once quoted as saying, "could have been one of the greats," had never quite found the drive within himself to live up to his full potential.

 

All the same, the skating world had lost a very talented, unique, and truly beautiful individual who, for better or worse, lived his life on his own terms ... always.

And the winner's are ...



Good morning, my friends and Happy Saturday to you! As promised, I am going to announce the winner's of this year's "Countdown to Mabon Giveaway."

So, here goes ~ the winner of the small MacIntosh Apple-scented candle is Mary (mxtodist123) ...

Small MacIntosh Apple scented candle

 

Autumn wreath #1 is Dora (Peppylady) ...

 

Small Autumn wreath #1

 

And the winner of Autumn wreath #2 is Jan!

  

Small Autumn wreath #2

Congratulations to everyone! I hope you all enjoy your gifts and a very special "Thank You" to all who participated in my giveaway!! Hopefully, I will be able to host more of these within the next couple of months or so.

As usual, I will make every effort to contact the winner's through their blogs. The winner's will have three business days from the date of this announcement post to claim their gift by e-mailing me the address in which they wish their gift to be sent. My e-mail address is Ladycaer1964@yahoo.com, unless I am informed otherwise through my e-mail by the winner of any unforeseen circumstances. Should I not hear from the winner's, another name will be picked in their place. So, please do try to let me known within those three days to ensure your gift gets mailed out to you!

I wish everyone a very glorious weekend and a safe and relaxing Labor Day!