It gets to be too long between posts, and I stay away because there's just too much to cover!
But here goes:
A week ago Sat. was the Wiccaning for Shonna's children, Elen and William. It was really a wonderful ceremony, and a lot of people from the Pagan list WitchGrove were there in person, so I got to meet so many people that I know, but had never met. Good times! After the Wiccaning, we went to the local Ren Faire. It had great live Celtic music, and a really good herbal stand where I picked up some more incense supplies. Although I didn't pick up the copal I saw there, and I'm kicking myself now.

I've been busy working around the house! Dave and I have decided to make a few changes in our lives; we want to stop being so lazy and just get some things *done* instead of saying "it'd be so great if...". Now we can just say "It's great!". LOL

I finished doing the touch-up paint in the bedroom (finally), painted all the trim and the doors, and then I stamped wine-colored leaves around the room. It looks pretty good! I'm happy with it. I still need to do the color blocking and stamping above the mirror in the bathroom section, then the bedroom will be completely finished.
Now we're painting the master bathroom. We bought a light fixture for in there, and it's a lot brighter than it was. During the day it's fine, because it has that big window, but at night if Rhiannon took a bubble bath, it was sort of dark and dingy in there. We're looking around for a towel rack and tp holder. Dave worked on the tub - he scraped off all the gunky grout and regrouted everything, so it looks so much nicer. He also finished my PANTRY!!!!! Yay! He converted our front hall closet into a pantry for me, since we never use the closet and the kitchen just does not have enough cupboard space. It turned out so nice, I'm completely thrilled with it!

A lady on a list with me is moving to LA, and she was giving away all of her candle-making supplies, so Dave and I went to pick them up a week ago Sunday. I've been experimenting. I made an orange pillar candle that smells like pumpkin spice. MMMM I also made a Samhain candle with sage, calendula, and mugwort, and added some myrrh essential oil for a bit of a scent. I love it!

The same girl was giving away her bedroom furniture, so we took the end tables. They were black lacquer with gold trim - they have 2 doors and 2 shelves inside, so lots of storage (which we need). I pulled the trim off, and painted the tables "plum raisin" to go with our room. I also bought new door handles - they're antique brass with leafy-looking ends. I took a 'before' and 'after' pic, so I'll post those too. I'm so happy with how they turned out, they look awesome in our room. The whole room is coming together so nicely, I'm pumped! Today I just got another Amy Brown print; my brother had sent me two for my birthday, but I exchanged one for this one, since I already had the one he sent. I can't wait to get it framed, I have the perfect spot for it - it will really fill in the one wall in our bedroom.

Dave is now working on painting our entryway - "cozy cottage", a light sandy color. He bought a new light for overhead, which is great since the current one is cheesey and cheap looking. It's just the one the builders put in when the house was new, so it isn't that great. I can't wait until he gets it done. He's going to carry that color around the corner into Rhiannon's play area, so then I can finally get the stencilling done in there. I'm going to stencil the quote from the Peter Pan movie that Rhia loves to say; "I do believe in faeries! I do! I do!".
Up next for me is the 2nd coat in the master bath. I'm going to use a slightly lighter color of the sage green, paint it on and then wipe it around. I think they call that rag-rolling, but I'm not sure. I've never done a faux finish before, so I figured I'd try it out in there, since it's such a small space. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

I've still been practicing and learning the Tarot; I got some good advice on how to continue to learn and expand, and I've been trying out some of the suggestions. I may give up the larger 10-card spreads for now and just do smaller readings. I've been working with the shorter ones, and they seem more meaningful to me, and I'm more confident in my interpretations.

See what I mean about hating to post when it's been two weeks? :) Ah, well, now I'm caught up and hopefully won't fall too far behind again. I had a bit of an emotional weekend, so I'll try to post about that soon, too.