

My card for August from the Wheel of the Year spread I did at the beginning of the year was the Ace of Swords. This card symbolizes courage, new ideas, mental breakthroughs, and clarity. Cut away the excess and focus on your goals. I chose Iolite for motivation and bringing order to chaos, and Stromatolite for stability, creative, and new beginnings.
The first of August brings with it the celebration of Lammas or Lughnasadh. I received this beautiful stitched gift from a friend for my birthday and I’m absolutely in love with it and so touched that she created something so meaningful for me. I loved this photo with the dappled light because it is a reminder that August 1st marks the beginning of the changing of the light. Lammas is a celebration of the first loaves from the harvest that will carry us through the winter months.
To celebrate, I made zucchini bread for the first time. I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it, but it is really good and I’m pleased with how they came out.


In the months since I purchased the Anima Mundi tarot deck from The Creeping Moon, I’ve been contemplating the Nocturna Oracle Deck as well. I finally decided to place an order and it is even more beautiful in person than I could have anticipated. I love the artwork, I love that the deck begins with Dusk and ends with Dawn, and I love that coincidentally it includes a Cecropia moth (my current stitching project). I’ve never used oracle cards, so I’m looking forward to exploring them further.
Eric also bought me a book on runes. He’d bought me the rose quartz set of runes some time ago and I thought I had a reference book in my personal library, but alas it disappeared over the years. This book looks really good and it covers more than just the meaning of the runes themselves, so I’m looking forward to diving into it further. Many many years ago I bought a set of handmade ceramic runes at Scarborough Faire, but they apparently disappeared into the ether along with that book I had. So, I’m happy to have both runes and book now to delve into.


I took the week off for my birthday and one of the things I did was work on my haunted dollhouse project. I’m currently working on creating the flooring for the attic. I figured I’d start in a section that doesn’t have to be “perfect” for my first foray into doing this. I’m using popsicle sticks to create wood planks and I’ve cut out chipboard to fit the configuration of the room itself (there’s a cut out for the staircase, for example). Once I get everything cut out and glued to the chipboard, then I’ll stain it. (It took a LOT longer to cut the rounded ends off those popsicle sticks than I was anticipating.)
My birthday dawned rainy and overcast, which is my favorite kind of day. Both Ramses and I enjoyed it. For my birthday dinner, Eric made homemade sausage pizza at my request and a lemon cake with lemon icing that he put sprinkles on to make it “fancy”. I worked more on my attic flooring for the dollhouse and I started a new cross-stitch project. It’s so nice to have the week off of work to enjoy myself and play a bit.


My birthday gift to myself was another gorgeous piece from Bloodmilk. I thought I’d share what I posted on Instagram when this piece arrived…
I often struggle to put my feelings into words in a way that holds the same depth and descriptiveness of my thoughts and emotions, but still I try to use my love of language to encompass all that I’m trying to convey. Weeks ago, I had my hand poised to finally purchase a piece of jewelry from Bloodmilk that has been calling to me for some time when the unexpected happened. A new collection was previewed entitled Time is a Phoenix, and at the heart of it was an hourglass pendant. It is part of my nature to observe, to reflect, to take time to come to decisions. So when I say that the force of the call of this piece to me was unforeseen and unexpected, you might have an inkling how I surprised myself by redirecting my planned purchase to this hourglass. This piece speaks to the time we have been living in, how time is fluid – moving quickly and yet also slowly, how we can recreate ourselves over and over again simply by overturning the hourglass. The moon and stars of course are dear symbols to me, reminding me of our expansiveness and the galaxies of creativity and ideas within us. I read a post from Moonflesh that mentioned this piece transports them to a world of fantasy novels and time travels, places steeped in magic. And I completely resonated with those words. It is a piece that reminds me of immersing myself in other worlds, other timelines, where the essence of magical things can be experienced. This piece arrived on my doorstep on Saturday and I haven’t wanted to take it off. The sheer weight of it, the tactile details I can run my thumb across to soothe me and remind me that time is, indeed, a phoenix, and the beauty and artistry of this piece are unparalleled. Thank you, Jess, for creating these pieces that speak to me deeply, that make me feel like at least one other person in the world understands me and can put into words and talismans what I cannot.

Happy birthday month to me. It was a pretty good one.