November in pictures

November started with a snowstorm and life changed on the acreage. It was now harder to get everywhere! We are lucky that we live close to an important rural highway that gets plowed early in the morning before Daddy has to get to work.

First snowstorm on the acreage

Willowtree shoveling snow off the side deck

Yin and yang symbol in my green tea :)

In a pagans world signs mean ALOT. This was my morning green tea on a cold November day.

Willowtree and her puppy Whiskey

In May of last year my Zoe had puppies, Willowtree was allowed to keep one and she chose Whiskey :) He is full of personality and keeps her very busy. She has taught him to do a few tricks and plans to build him an agility course this spring. He is her best friend and very very protective of her :) the perfect companion.

Willowtree alphabetized the spell components in the spell room. What a great way to practice.

Willowtrees deep hair conditioner

 We had a spa day and did facials, deep hair treatments, manicures and body scrubs. All of the products used were made by us :) It is something that we have started doing on a monthly basis.

Ginger snaps

As always lots of baking is done in our house. These are Willowtrees famous ginger snaps she has perfected this recipe and made it uniquely her own.

Eco dome habitat

Bug got a surprise in the mail a eco dome habitat that has three different habitats one for frogs, one for bugs and an Ant hill. She can't wait till spring to find a frog to live in it. She put it together all by herself.

King Connaher had a cord of wood to stack.

Bug helped him out

With the snow came tobogganing. We love winter games :)

King Connaher and Bug tobogganing

Mom gets in on the fun too!

Bug did a photo of Missy Moo

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Such a cutie. Bug took 23 pics and I am not going to post them all lol

The Photographer self portrait

Bug lighting a Palo santo smudge

Bug was honored to be able to smudge the spellroom on her own for the Full Moon this month. She did an excellent job :) Fire safety is important and she is always reminded that Fire has a mind of its own.

Candle spells and protection bottle

As a family we designed a Witch bottle spell that we did on the Full moon this month. It is a protection ward as well as draws harmony, abundance, happiness and prosperity to our family. We had fun with this project and will do similar ones I am sure.

More on signs :) when ever I do a candle spell I always read the wax for omens. The Minions love doing this.

                                  What do you see??  We saw rabbits, a pregnant lady, the Goddess, horses, a turtle and a duck.

The many looks of King Connaher

Rocking the stash

He does quite the accent to go with this one.

Willowtree has taken a fascination in movie makeup and King Connaher with his love of theatrics and accent of the day loves it. They have spent hours doing costume and makeup effects.

October in pictures Part 2

Day of the dead skulls were a hit :) I picked up styrofoam skulls from the dollar store and a few large packs of self sticking rhinestones in multiple colors and we had lots of paint and glitter at home. We spent sometime looking at decorated skulls online then began our own.

Dollar store skulls ready to be made sacred

Markers work well too

It's a start

Bug decorating away

My finished Day of the Dead skull. It sits on the ancestor alter now.

Bug's finished skull

Willowtree's finished skull

One of our favorite ways to exercise is dancing. I do multiple forms, Willowtree is a bellydancer and Bug loves Jumpstyle!!! I have no worries of her not getting enough exercise lol when you see her jumpstyle you wonder were she can get so much energy for such a prolonged time lol

Bug practicing her Jumpstyle

The pics are blurry cause she is all over the place lol

She is going to be quite the dancer

The night we carved pumpkins the whole family was home for a change. This does not happen much anymore with the boys all working and Willowtrees social life being as busy as it is!

Ready to carve her Samhain Pumpkin

Big brother King Connaher lends a hand

Pulling out the guts is always the messy part lol We save all the seeds and roast them for a yummy snack later

Happily carving away

Finished Pumpkin Ooogie Boogie

Bugs demon pumpkin

On Samhain eve everyone went with Daddy to take Bug trick or treating. All of the minions except Bug are to old to trick or treat anymore but they sure love to take her :) I stayed home just in case we had some goulies show up for candy out here on the acreage. No such luck tho :( first time in my history that we have had no trick or treaters.

Bug all dressed up as a dark sorceress

Home with her loot.

Then it was time to celebrate the real meaning of Samhain....The beloved dead. We made offerings and said prayers at the Ancestor alter. Then we remembered our beloved dead with stories and sharing our favorite memories of them.

Offerings of Scotch and Jager were made and a plate of food from our feast was put out on the step for those wandering

Then we feasted!! As per tradition this supper is held in total silence.

Jello brain and pumpkins

Pomegranate liquor so prefect for Samhain

My cute little Jack o lantern stuffed peppers

This very special plate belongs to the ancestors and is used for their feast offerings

My witchy self :)

Zeddicus decided to help us with some baking lol stuck his nose right in the flour

and that was October in our house. I hope yours was as fun :)

October in pictures Part 1

We had a busy October, getting the land ready for winter as well as ourselves.
We started the month of with a nice long nature walk to collect supplies for making fall themed crafts. When we go for our nature walks we always include plant and tree identification and sometimes when we are lucky animal signs. On this day we found an area were deer bed down.

An assortment of natural art supplies all from our land

Bug used them as natural stamps to make leaf rubbings and for a collage.

Bug making a leaf rubbing

Then the day became very windy and Bug spent some time playing with the Air Elementals

Bug playing with the Sylphs

We spent alot of time getting the land ready for winter...

Strawberries were put in the ground ready to be bedded down for the winter

Reinforcing the fencing around the pig pen

Zed's girlfriends parents raise pigs and gifted us two, we will feed them our excess compost and butcher them in the spring. The minions feed them and make sure they have bedding, plus check the fencing on a regular basis. It is a good starter cause in the spring we will be getting two lambs another piglet plus chickens and rabbits.

The pathway down to the sacred spring and ancestor alter was cleared out better and Zed and King Connaher carved out natural stairs into the ravine wall to make it easier for Gramma to get down to those areas.

Stairs carved into the ravine wall

King Connaher switched it up a bit and had Willowtree dye his hair bright red

The Bug spent a day as a warrior wizard. Her costume choice for Samhain this year.

Some night time stargazing in the hottub

We made iron on transfer T-shirts, this was the first time Bug has used an iron so we had a iron safety lesson first.

Bugs finished shirt

I believe you are never to old to finger paint and I showed Bug that it is not just for babies lol

Bug also got some Moon sand, she spent alot of time playing with it, It is really cool like a sandy play dough that never dries out.

We found this really cool grow your own Lavender plant kit.

I asked Bug if she would like to plant it right away and put it in the window she said "No plants are planted in the spring I think we should wait." So we will wait till spring :)
We went to the Witches market in Edmonton and the Old Strathcona farmers market and bought all sorts of fun things. Enough that it warranted it's own blog post Witches market blog post 
On our way from one market to the other we saw a peaceful prayer protest by Buddhist monks against organ harvesting from Tibetan citizens and monks. It was a hard thing for the minions to see but really opened their eyes to how our countries are so very different.
Then we were in full Samhain mode! Decorating....

Costume choices..

Willowtree wants to be a black cat

Zeddicus wants to be a bunny

Bug making her Day of the Dead skull