October is almost here, do you know where your blog party is??????

Between this blog and Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts, I am participating in 4 Octoberish events and 1 Dia de Los Muertos blog event. Slacker you say???????

Nicely enough, there will be some overlap of partying. And because I am tearing about, trying to get my Octoberish stuff all in one pile to play, I am going to send you to my wickediest darlings blog to check out the possibilities. Magaly at Pagan Culture always does the very best job of promoting and advertising the upcoming festivities. So please go check it out here.

I hope that you will, if not participate, at least enjoy the offerings by so many talented Halloween-a-holics, witches and tricker treat-o-philes.

Ready, set, ding dong................

Stay calm, carry on and pay no attention to the mess..........

Chaos is in the eye of the beholder.

One person's disarray is another person's comfortable place.

"Don't throw your trash in my backyard, my backyard, my backyard.
Don't throw your trash in my backyard, my backyard's full." A favorite kid's song entitled Fish Heads.


Vintage celluloid whisk broom from an Etsy seller Tuckers Primitives

For me Autumn is time of gathering, collecting, organizing and dare I say the word, cleaning? More than the spring, I have an emotional, physical and magickal reason/need for wanting my space to be cleaned and especially cleared.

You know, get all the bad juju swept out the door and all the "woo-woo" put in the right protective places to keep us tidy, safe and sound. Every year right after Mabon, I begin the process. It usually takes me a week to complete the task. This year may take longer because the fam is in the way, what with Mr. Oblivious' vacation and the last of the 52 card pickup redo of rooms in the house, but I will persevere and by mid October, we'll be all ready for the dark months.

Delft whisk brrom set from an Etsy seller Wild for Vintage

How about you? Do you have autumnal preparation traditions?
Have a super week my lovelies, squoozes and smooches, The Olde Bagg

Practical Magic blog party at Practically Magickal

Please visit my "arting" blog here to see my posting for the Practical Magic blog party at Practically Magickal.

There you can see how to win chocolate frogs and midnight margarita glasses.

Thanks.

Here' a favorite quote from the movie:

Aunt Jet: He's squatting inside her like a toad. This is what comes from dabbling. You can't practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it.

Mabon Blessings

Autumn Equinox, Mabon, Second Harvest has continued to grow in importance in my life as I get older. Go figure. But I do believe, in my own life, I have arrived at the door of Winter.

I have always been drawn to and drawn comfort from all things autumnal. Nothing makes me happier than to have pumpkins, corn and wheat at the front door, fall leaves on the dining table and the smell of apples and cinnamon brewing on the stove.

When "having your colors done" was popular, I had wished I was an Autumn so I could wear warm browns, yummy golds, dark rich red, vibrant oranges....but no, I am a Winter. But I am an Aries, a fire sign and naturally am drawn to those colors.

As I look around my home...yep those colors I see everywhere I look, terra cotta, blood red, warm taupe, rich cherry and oak. When given a chance, I'll go for warm tones everytime.

And I live with a daughter who love blues, greens and purples. So when we redid our redo of rooms....there is this turquoise color streaming out of Shelley's new bedroom. Wow, vibrant and sassy and totally her. Mrs. Brady green and off the hook purple also grace this Piscean room. Add to that the mermaid, ocean, watery vibe and you have our perpetual good natured battle of color and style.

GK will be moving into her new room this weekend. She's a funny one that...an earth sign and she chose without any input from either Mom or me, a brown bedspread with flowers in pink, hot pink, turquoise and leaf green. Oh silly people, did we think it would be any different?

It has been a long time coming to GK moving in but well worth the wait. I say that because while getting Shelley's new room ready, we needed a new wall light fixture, the electrician discovered a "hot mess" of wires that potentially could have and actually should have caused a fire. Good thing he was doing this as a favor or I might have thought the worst of the diagnosis (being the money sceptic I am).

Blessings arrive in all kinds of packages. We have to be thankful for the length of time it took for us to do the redo because this friend would not have been available in his capacity of electrician until now. We might have missed the opportunity to have found our potential fire hazard. All things happen as they should, when they should.

Which brings me back to Mabon. Whatever your favorite colors are, I hope you will take the seasonal cue and enjoy autumn because it starts tomorrow.

Gypsy Dreams winners

Thank you to all the lovelies who came by to visit, saw our gypsy maiden, and then entered the giveaway by leaving a comment.


Van Gogh's Gypsy Caravans

I want to thank our host for the party Celia. This was so much fun. I learned so much about the gypsy culture. Got to see wonderful photos including but not limited to fabulous gypsy horses, gypsified environments and artwork done by all of you. Made some new friends, shared a cuppa and have some plans for more gypsifying in my life.

The winner of the NQR hearts are: Georgina, Melanie and Mina

The winner of the spanish deck of cards is: Kiki aka Victoria

I will visit the winners, if possible, to notify of your win but if you could email me at turtle8603 at comcast dot net and give me your address, that would be perfection.

Until next year, sweet dreams my gypsy sisters.

Oma Linda

How much fun was that?????

I swear, blog partys just keep getting more and more fun. It is always a treat to let the grands have a hand in these deals. GK and Ry are hambones and ya'll are a captive audience. Gives me a chance to do my Mickey Rooney imitation...."let's find a barn and put on a show". And this time the barn wasn't too awful far from what we were doing. You must know we were at our special friends Morning Bray Farms for our photo shoot.

GK and her bestest goat buddy Meggie

The donkeys keeping an eye on Mr. Ry

We girls did the photos and the boys visited the ducks and Da Boyz. Must admit that I just knew Ms. GK was gonna make a terrific gypsy maiden. The red dress and muck boots were contributed by Mrs. Morning Bray and were a big hit with all of us. The dress is from Paris and GK said she will never part with it. Now the boots may only last a few more months.....weeds and these kids have lots in common....fast growth.

Even all gussied up she can't resist being who she is.....Danger Jane

The newest soft eyed, long ear friend and Morning Bray, Ms. Gracie Belle

Don't forget, only 1 more day to sign up for the giveaways from the Gypsy Dream party and I'll announce the winners on Saturday morning.

Gypsy Dreams ****** blog party

Our gypsy dream is all about home.......wherever that may be.

The magic, the travel, the color, the style, whatever it is that calls to us in our gypsy dreams, we hope you will find just a bit of that in our pictorial of one certain gypsy maiden's Gypsy Dream.

This little gypsy had traveled many, many miles, sat around many, many campfires, listened to many, many stories and always wondered what it would be like to be a part of living in one place, on a farm. To have a place to stand still and listen to the now. To be able to have her own animals, land and place to call home. To have a bed to sleep in that did not sway with the movement of the caravan. And so she consulted the crystal to see where her future might be.

Reading the crystal ball, tarot cards, palms were all a part of her charm as was her lovely dancing to the tamborine and drum. She was always able to find the one person in a crowd who would pay to know what was to come next in their life. She was bright, flashy and true to her own heart. But still there was this unspoken longing.

But she knew

She dreamed

She wished

This is her dream and where it led her.

New duds

New friends

New focus

New BFF

After all it is only a dream......right??????

Thank you for joining us for our part of Gypsy Dreams 2011. I have posted more pictures of my hostess gifts here and hope that you will enter to win one of the four items in the giveaway (3 "Not Quite Right" Hearts and a reproduction deck of Spanish playing cards). I will draw names and post the winners on 9/17.

Gypsy Dream Giveaway...............

I do know this is the day before the Gypsy Dream blog party but.....well you know that I do love all my followers so much that I thought I would give you all an extra chance at the giveaway prizes for this party. I just love prizes, parties and you especially......

So I have four items for this party. Three, "Not Quite Right"Hearts themed just for this wonderful party and also a deck of lower arcane "fortune teller" cards. They are replicas of Spanish playing cards and can be used for telling, playing or paper play.

So to the directions...which by the way I very seldom ever read myself so I do understand. You may enter here and then again tomorrow at the Gypsy Dreams blog party posting. Don't need to join my blog in order to win, but if you are reading this, you probably already have huh? And for those of you who followed the link, please feel free to enter two times (once here and then once on tomorrw's party blog. It would be my pleasure to send anyone of these to a new bloggy friend as well.

this is the backside of the "NQR" hearts, tarot on two and questions on the third

My plan is to pick the winner on 9/17. I will have the four winners listed that morning. Good luck to all of you and don't forget to come and see our Gypsy Dream tomorrow. We had a wonderful time getting this one ready for you. But we always do.......

I'd like to talk with you about laboring......

No, this is not a post about child birth, although I do have an interesting tale of the birthing of my girl child.

No, this is a post about laboring as in working. Today is Labor Day. That is sort of an oxymoron in this day and age. This is truly my opinion and I am ready for any and all other points of view so bring it on my lovelies. I don't think the worker, as in the one who puts in an effort, takes pride in the outcome of their endeavors and is compensated for their 8 hours labor for 8 hours pay exist any longer.

This is not a politically based opinion but rather a praticial living point of view. I want you to know that my husband and I have always worked really hard for everything we have. He has for the almost 40 years we have been married, taken exactly 9 days sick leave. Worked longer hours to make sure the job got done. Done things for his employer off the clock because he saw the need to make that sacrifice for his future, hoping that this would pay off in respect, loyalty and security. Through the years we have seen less and less people interested in the same ideals.

I won't cast aspirtions on anyone except to say that working is not something people aspire to any longer. Having a paycheck is. I can't say that it is totally the workers fault. The bottom line has certainly taken over as the reason for employing folks. I can't remember "back in the day" an employer cutting hours, not offering benefits and having non trained, rude "who gives a shit" people work for them and respresent them to the public.....

None of this makes sense to me. People who don't care about each other is what the world has come too? Employers who take advantage of their workers????? Workers who don't do their jobs, don't come to work because they have sick leave not because they are ill, who only have a who cares attitude????

What happened to being good to each other? being nice? caring? On the part of either the employer or the employee....people in general?

As I type this both Shelley and Sweet Man are laboring at their jobs. She because she is loyal to her employer who can't afford to close the doors to the restaurant today. And Sweet Man because even if he is the senior manager, he works the holidays so the boneheads that work for him can have a day off and do you think they are appreciative? Nope. Do you think his corporation says "good boy"? Nope. And lastly do you think Sweet Man would do it any differently? Nope, because that is who he is. Siempre Fi is his thing. And his daughter is cut from the same cloth.

We are lucky because they have jobs, because they know how to work, because they care enough to do the work, because they are loyal and because we have each other. I know that that is not the case today for lots of families so don't think I don't realize how blessed we are.

Maybe I should have told you about the childbirth story, this turned into a bit of a rant, oooooopps.

This bodes well for September...........

I usually take the pups outside first thing in the morning and now that the boy has to be at school earlier, I am out with the coming of the sun. So beautiful and fresh this time of year, even if it doesn't last all that long until the heat is upon us once again.

This is what greeted me this morning.....a double rainbow (sorry for the wires).  Just moments after I snapped this shot, it was gone. And then Big Mama turtle conferred with me about the beauty of the morning.

Happy first of September and rainbows, especially for those of you who are in the midst of that horrible drought.