Thoughts

 Sometimes I think my daughter is punished for being dyslexic. 

She has regular classes, but she also has classes to get help for dyslexia. This means sometimes she will have two or three live lessons back to back, and then she still has her four regular lessons to do. 

She has extra homework, because she needs "practice." Reading is encouraged, which is fine, but she rarely reads unless I have her read to me, and then I am not supposed to help. Which just seems backwards to me. If she's reading it wrong on her own, she may not know. Or maybe she does know it's wrong, but she thinks she's too dumb to understand. 

Why can't she just have dyslexic classes that are geared to her? This is online school, so it's not like she would be holding up the rest of the class. I think she needs to hear AND see the words, but that's deemed as "reading to her," or she isn't really reading, "just waiting to hear the words." 

She's only had one teacher that I thought really helped. She was very gentle, patient, and kind. All the kids seemed to like her. The other teachers weren't bad, but they seemed indifferent to the fact that the students were all different people. 

Maybe we shouldn't have kids conforming to one standard. 

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It is raining here yet again. It has rained a lot. I think one of my apple trees is dying from overwatering. All the leaves are wilted. It's too big for me to move, and since it's raining, I feel achy. I'm thinking of putting a tarp over the tree; if we have one big enough to cover it.

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My husband comes home from Pennsylvania tonight. He was gone 6 days. 

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I started going out to the studio each day, even if I wasn't working on anything. I put a blank journal on my desk so I can make notes and stay focused. 

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I made more key necklaces. This used up some tiny balls of leftover yarn. I gave one of the keys to my daughter. She thinks they're cool. I decided to spin cords with the next batch. 

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I was wondering why some people are stubbornly insistent on supporting politicians determined to strip them of rights. I realized it's the same mindset as football teams. Down here in the south, football is almost a religion. People are sort of born into rooting for a team. Whatever team your family roots for, that's the colors you will wear. You naturally assume your team is the best. You may feel sorry for the people who like different teams. At some point, probably when the team loses a game, you will wonder why your family loves the team. You may wonder how many times the team has lost or won. Or maybe you go to a friend's house, who roots for your rival team. You may notice friend's parents have a nicer house or own more cars or they've traveled out of the country. Now you start to wonder if the rival team is better because a better class of people roots for them. Maybe winning a football game doesn't matter if you have plenty of money. 

Politics works the same way. If your parents are democrat or republican, you were assigned that party at birth. Your parents vote the way their parents told them to vote. They refuse to even consider the other side; it's wrong. Sure, there's been hard times, but stick with what works for us. Blind loyalty means ignoring things have not worked for years because questioning things is BAD. It's really uncomfortable to think about difficult questions. Sometimes it's uncomfortable to think at all. People just wave whatever banner they were given, and they might wish things were different or better, but they aren't going to do anything about it. 

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Did you know HIPAA was based on Roe vs Wade? Doctors are no longer required to notify you of your HIPAA rights. If you ask for them, they will give them to you. Do you think it matters if you no longer check that little box about information being disclosed to outside parties?  

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In 12 more days, the boys leave to visit relatives for the summer. I have managed to clean the house, and I would like to keep it that way. I am more relaxed. I am making more art. I worked through the project pile and got a few things completed. I am almost done with May's Tree, and I have figured out what June's Tree will be. I think Studio Sunday will be about dragons. I have two dragon sewing projects, and this weekend I will write about at least one of them. 

That's all for now. Blessed be, my dears. Stay safe and well.

The Key of Success

 

Turns out, keys are another hard to photograph item. The front has a lovely design, so I am calling this the key of success. 

The back has A2817 I do not know what the numbers mean. I think this is a door key, but IDK. I picked four or five keys to work with. Right now I'm using yarn. I haven't spun a cord yet; this is a simple crochet chain of repeating knots. I haven't listed this in the shop either. I wanted to make a few, get a feel for making the cords and seeing which keys I feel drawn to. 

So tell me what you think. Should I list the keys as ordinary door, lock, car key? In some instances, I won't know what kind of key it is. Thus, I like the idea of naming them for success, luck, love, etc, but I realized not everyone will feel the same. I think I should alert people to any magick or spells that have been placed on a key, but I dislike selling spells because people expect the spells to work flawlessly, regardless of whether they followed instructions. 

I also have some skeleton keys, which would probably be more popular. I also thought of just selling the keys, but I don't want to list every individual key. Maybe I shouldn't list these until I know how they will do. But then there's the whole problem of people visiting my shop without making a purchase. Or I sell something, make more, then crickets. Did I mention I am really fed up with Etsy? 

Selling Keys

 Good morning, my dears! Earlier today I was reading my journal and I realized I had an idea, but I never did anything with it.

I have lots of keys. My father worked in construction his whole life, and often brought spare keys home. I've done several art projects with keys over the years. I still haven't used them up. Whenever a spell calls for a key, I have plenty to choose from.

Some of them are very unique. 

So my original idea was to make key necklaces for my Etsy shop. I could spin the cords. I also have several choices in threads, yarn, and cords despite being a fiber artist for decades. I could probably make a cord for each key I own and still not make a dent in my stash. 

Would any of you want a key necklace? Since I have so many, I am willing to do a giveaway, maybe make a purchase from my shop, get a free necklace. Or maybe a drawing for everyone who comments on a post. I've seen other artists doing raffles- donate a dollar, get a chance to win something expense. The problem with raffles is if not many people participate, you are giving away your hard work for $5, and shipping is probably more than that. I'm not real sure about a raffle. Maybe if I had hundreds of followers. But a key necklace giveaway should work. Let me know. I'll make a few and post pictures. 

Blessed be. Stay safe and well.

Witch Wednesday

 

Studio Sunday

 My husband left for Pennsylvania today. He will be taking a class about airplane engines all week, and will be back on Friday. Yesterday, he took a road trip with a friend to get a lawn mower. I decided that was the perfect time to start deep cleaning our bedroom.

I cleaned the tall bookcase on the right, and that went so well, I also cleaned the shorter bookcase on the left. And that's where the Studio Sunday post comes in; I store work in progress on this bookcase. I have a lot. I'd like to finish some of these while he's gone. I don't know how much I will be able to do. Hopefully, next Sunday I will have things to show you.

I did make more progress with May's Tree. 

I have been wanting dragon stickers for my sewing machines. I can't find dragon stickers in my local stores. I decided to make my own stickers with Luis Royo paintings. These are the two I like best, even though only one has a dragon. I decided to start with these before making others. I found some dragon stickers on Etsy, but I never seem to have extra money when I think about this project. 

The other thing I did was delete Instagram from my phone. I did not see any way to delete my account. So I took screen shots of my daughter, logged out, then deleted the app. I don't think anyone I know is using Instagram anymore, and I NEVER get any likes on anything I post. I refuse to pay to verify who I am, or to boost posts that should be seen by my followers. Instagram was fun until Zuckberg got his greasy little mitts on it. Newsflash- social media should be social, not an advertising platform. 

Blessed be, my dears. Stay safe and well.

Friday Morning

 Good morning, my dears. I am moving very slowly this morning. We had several severe thunderstorms yesterday. I tried to sit on the couch and sew. I couldn't stitch for very long because it hurt to sit. And it hurt to lay down on the heating pad. I had nausea. So I gave up on sewing and started watching a movie. I took a muscle relaxer, which made me confused. I woke up with slightly less pain, but I don't want to do anything because I think the pain will amp up.  

Today is payday, so I am supposed to go pay bills and buy groceries. I think I will wait until my husband comes back from the doctor. He has an ear infection. He's been home sick since Wednesday. If he's home with our daughter, I can move as slowly as I need to and rest in the car for as long as I want. I can take my walking stick, wear my tennis shoes, and not talk to anyone unless I absolutely have to. 

I had a wonderful plan for art. I finished a couple of things yesterday, before the pain got too intense. I tried to list art for sale on DeviantArt, but it required tech savvy that I've never done before. So I put that aside until I can figure it out. Then I checked FB and found an ad for an Etsy alternative. That one had nothing but bad reviews. I found yet another site, but it didn't have much reviews, good or bad. I bookmarked the site so I could watch it myself. I searched for quilts, just to see how much they were going for, and I realized the way we photograph quilts for sale is flat and boring. There is nothing about the quilt photograph that conveys warmth or comfort or love. I'm not sure how to resolve that problem, but I know never again will I photograph any of my quilts laying flat for the primary photo. 

This is the photo I use for my Etsy shop. The quilt is hanging on the wall. Mirrors are also hard to photograph, and mine get more attention when I photograph them reflecting myself or one of my children. These are things I will be considering between now and the summer solstice, when I remake the banner for my Etsy shop. 

I have sat too long at my desk. My back is starting to hurt. Since my schedule has become so disrupted, I may not do a studio Sunday post this weekend. I'd like to actually write, have a logically planned post with a clear beginning, middle, and end with complete sentences and good photos. Maybe even explore a subject in depth, and articulate my thought and feelings. For instance-

This star has gotten some 241 views on DeviantArt. Which made me reconsider the art I am posting. Maybe I should lean heavier into textiles. Or, are people looking at it because they can't tell what it is from the thumbnail? But it also has more likes than anything else in my gallery, so IDK. 

Blessed be, my dears. I'll write again when the pills wear off. Stay safe and well.

Witch Wednesday

 Here's some things I've done in the past week:

I started setting up a crystal grid. 

I put malachite chips in each hole to remove negative energy and to promote prosperity. 

I printed out a grid, but I haven't set it up yet because I was working in my studio and I had a feeling one of my in-laws would just pop in unannounced. It has happened more than once. I try not to do anything very detailed unless I KNOW I will be uninterrupted. 

This is my thread jar, which is a spell to keep my enemies so entangled with their own problems that they can't bother me. I added a mirror. A Witch on tiktok says hexes must be worked over a mirror because that is the portal for your spell to reach its target. That made sense to me. I'm using the double sided mirror I found in the yard. I was using it to separate my energies from the outside world. Since I found it here, and since I was already using it in the window where I keep my thread jar, it seemed like the logical addition.

I started drawing more horse art. I have some spells in mind for this art, but I haven't worked out all the details yet. I'm thinking I will state intent, then add energies as I color, then do some kind of activation once I put my art on the Internet. Since this is my first attempt at this kind of spell, and since I haven't decided what kind of working I'm doing yet, I don't mind sharing the early stages. That does not mean I'll tell you everything later. I am developing an idea. Not all of my art becomes a spell, nor do I use magick in everything I make. 

I have another idea for a knot spell that I will be selling in my Etsy shop, but I haven't started on it yet. I don't know that I will list it as a spell when I sell them. 

Last, but not least, I have been increasing wards around my house. I put a bell on my backdoor. It worked so well, I decided to put one on the front door too. 

Blessed be, my dears. Stay safe and well.