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!!

Happy Thanksgiving Wishes to All!

To All ~

From:  Kim, Brett, Midnight, Kiki, Haley & Tabitha

New Crafts, Old Jewelry

Well, it would seem that in the mist of cleaning up and organizing the entire house, I had little time to post on either one of my blogs. At any rate however, I came across quite a few little items in my jeweltry box that had either been broken or I just outgrew. So, me being rather the little "pack rat" that I am, I decided to put the old jewelry which I could not bare to part with to good use. I began making scented bottles again.

Mermaid themes ...

Seasonal & Cat themes ...

Samhain/Halloween (front)

(back) 

Midsummer/Litha

Yule/Winter Solstice

Summer Love

Spring 

and my favorite Winnie the Pooh character Eeyore. This bottle was triangle-shaped and so I will show you all three sides ...

And so that was my idea of perserving my jewelry and special trinkets and such. Some I may later give away as gifts and others I will definately keep around as keepsakes. They are so much fun to make and fairly cheap to decorate.

What I've been up to ...

Hey there everyone! Guess you've been wondering where I've been? Well, if you are a follower of my other blog, "Witch Cats Blog," then you already know that I have been busting my behind for the past two weeks, with two extra vacation days from work, to thoroughly clean up our extremely messy attic! Let's face it, I have been giving it a "lick and a promise" for five whole years now, but everytime I would begin this very huge project, I would get so frusterated that I would just quit after a day or two. Not to mention that I can no longer tolerate the hot temperatures since peri-men, so I only attempted to dare go near the attic in either fall or winter months.

Now, anyone who knows me at all, knows that I am just like my mother ~ a clean fanatic!!! I must admit that I am the kinda gal who would much rather clean up the dirty dishes than cook the actual meal! That being said, after a couple of week nights after work and weekends, four whole days devoted to the only room in the house which looked like a cyclone had hit it, and a few injuries to my fingers and toes (yes, I said toes! LOL), this is how far I haven gotten currently ...

Before ...

and after ...

And as for hubby and kids, well, they were just more than happy to stay out of mom's way when she is in "work mode" ... ;)

Aside from cleaning up the attic, I also took advantage of the little time I have to take down the Samhain decorations, although, I still left some fall/autimn things out. Before we know it, it will soon be time to get ready for Yule. WOW, I really can't believe how this year has flown by so quickly. Either that, or it is true what they say about our perception of time as we all get older.

The Best Vet in the World!

For as long as I can remember, my parents have always put their trust in our family veterinarian, Dr. Sherbyn Ostrich. VMD. He started an animal clinic back in the 70's called, Cacoosing Animal Hospital. He was doing so well that he hired Dr. Carl Veltri who graduated from the very prestigious Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. During this time, Dr. Ostrich was elected as President of the American Veterinary Medical Association and also President of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Association. Aware that he would be gone for three years and would have little time to work at the hospital, he decided to sell his practice to the VCA Animal Hospital, a decision he had expressed to me that he would later regret!


No longer able to take our cats to Dr. Ostrich, we eventually ended up taking our cats to the "new" VCA Hospital in the same location simply because Dr. Veltri was still a part of them. A couple of months ago, we noticed a lump in the middle of Midnight's tail. Concerned, we took him to VCA. The vet, one of many new vets that come and go there, diagnosed his lump as a cyst and told us that we should "keep an eye on it" to make sure there was no change in size, color, etc. I would have preferred to have him seen by Dr. Veltri, but you are never guaranteed he will be working at the hospital when you have to make an appointment.

We decided to get a second opinion after we saw a recent article in our local newspaper which featured Berks County Vets, one of them being Dr. Ostrich who had very recently started another animal clinic called, "Eagle's Peak Animal Clinic. "Ah ha!" I said to my husband, "we found him again!" So we immediately took him to see Dr. Ostrich this past week and upon due examination, he informed us that Midnight had a blocked gland and that is what was causing his cyst. He sterilized the lump and then cauterized it really good as to not cause an infection, and for only HALF of the fee which VCA would have charged us, we walked out with him knowing that he was in the best of hands!

Dr. Sherbyn Ostrich

The next day, I called VCA to find out if Mr. Earl Gray's ashes had come back yet (since they had already sent me the bill a day later after telling me it would take about 2 weeks to get them back and then failed to call me when they did ... after all, they had already gotten their money), I immediately had all of our cats medical records transferred from VCA to Eagle's Peak Animal Clinic. Nuff said.

Let me tell you just how much integrity Dr. Ostrich has. A few months before he opened Eagle's Peak, he had decided to go back to the place where he started his practice in the first place, before it was sold to VCA Hospital. It wasn't very long before he left and I immediately thought to myself, "I'll bet he didn't like what was going on there." And, after speaking with him this week, I found out that I was right! In my opinion, VCA Hospitals are the greediest of the greedy, the most heartless of the veterinary businesses there are. They would rather see you put your beloved pet down then work with you on paying their extremely high and very insane vet bills! There is absolutely no question in my mind what-so-ever that they are ALL about the money, NOT  the well-being of the animals they treat! Personally, VCA Hospitals make me sick and I will never go back to them ever again. Period!


So, what makes him so good? Well, other than the fact that Dr. Ostrich has managed to save my parents dogs and our kitties in the past, while other vets were "resting on their laurels," Dr. Ostrich continued to educate himself throughout the years which only served to add to his long-time experience and knowledge of animals. I am extremely grateful to have found him after all these many years and I will continue to put my complete faith in him to take of our fur babies.

A Very Special Wedding!

What an emotional rollercoaster ride these last couple of weeks have been! From the untimely loss of our beloved kitty Mr. Earl Gray to all of those little things which simply just seem to add up. But, I must say that there was one light at the end of the tunnel and that was officiating at my dear friend, Kiki's, wedding ceremony today. It was held outdoors near the beautiful Blue Mountan Lake in Schuylkill Haven, PA where the reception took place at the nearby campgrounds. There was plenty of food, drink and fun for all their family and friends.

It was a rather quaint, romantic ceremony and between the lovely scenery and everyone's awesome enthusiasm, it seemed to be just perfect!

The Unity Candle I decorated for Kiki & Keith's wedding ceremony

The ceremony took place on the deck facing the lake.

 Kiki and Keith 

Kiki was so happy she could barely get through their vows without getting emotional. Kiki's grandaughter and my God-daughter, Kylie, in background wearing pink.

Lighting their Unity Candle

"I now pronounce you husband and wife!"

Posing with Kiki & Keith afterwards

The elated couple, Mr. & Mrs. Keith Williams!

A wonderful day was had by ALL! It couldn't been a more beautiful day, the good folks from the Blue Mountain Lakes who were kind enough to allow us to use their venue for the wedding ceremony were absolutely awesome, and I have never seen such a show of love and support from family and friends. I was very honored to have been a part of it and I couldn't be more happy for these two! I love them both!