How have you been doing in recent months?

First off, please allow me to extend my deepest and most appreciative heartfelt thanks to all those who reached out to me in the months spanning my post about the sudden end of my nearly 18-year marriage and the present day.

Your soul-touching support, compassion, kindness, empathy, relaying of personal stories involving your own very difficult relationship issues and breakups over the years, and so much more have bolstered + helped me a good deal (and still continue to, for that matter).

Secondly, in the midst of everything that has been transpiring in my life lately, I completely forgot that back in the late spring/early summer, I penned and scheduled some blog posts which were originally intended to go live in either July or August.

In the midst of contending with the unforeseen events of July 2022, I ended up bumping them ahead all the way to December and then promptly (and, I think you will agree, rather understandably!) 110% forgetting that I had done so.

It wasn’t until I saw a flurry of new blog comments suddenly come in recently that I realized these long auto-scheduled posts had unintentionally gone live this month.

My bad all the way!

Not that there is anything wrong with sharing these posts now (or at any point in time). There certainly is not.

It is just that I fully intended for my first post since this past July to be a brief life update, not a project share or other type of entry.

Therefore, I sincerely apologize that things played out how they did. Just as I do to all those readers who I know were wondering why a life update post had not happened before I launched back into more of my usual type of blogging content.

With those points said, please allow me to now give you a little overview of how some things have unfolded for me in recent months.

In the time since the post about the sudden breakdown of my marriage, I was very fortunate to find housing for myself and (my dog) Annie.

After a ton of searching and applying to various rental properties across much of the Okanagan and Lower Shuswap Valleys, I was extremely fortunate to ultimately sign a lease on a lovely little townhouse all to ourselves.

It is located in a larger town roughly 25 minutes away from the small, rural community of Armstrong, BC, where Tony and I had been residing since moving there together in early 2018.

Working largely at the same breakneck speed I had undertaken throughout July and early August to get our entire house packed up, spic-and-span clean, staged for viewings, listed for sale, and so forth, from mid-August to mid-September, I quickly unpacked and set up my new home.

It was – and still is – tremendously strange, sad, and foreign feeling for me to assemble the trappings of each room of a house that is simply for myself (and Annie). Every home from the second half of 2004 onward until this summer was one that Tony and I shared as husband and wife.

As the summer wore on, the initial state of mind-blowing shock, the gargantuan sudden upsets to my life, and the intense feelings of unprecedented blindsidedness began to decrease.

Naturally, though, a vast amount of internal pain, grief, longing, trauma processing, and life rebuilding remain part of my daily world and will no doubt continue to for quite some time still to come.

One does not have the proverbial rug of a marriage they cherished and believed would be eternal – coupled, moreover, with the loss of the person they love/loved, valued, cared about, respected, desired, would have done almost anything for, and trusted more than anybody else in the world – pulled out from under them and magically bounce back with the dexterity of a rubber band.

Far from it.

The thought occurred to me recently that my initial unfathomably brutal heartache and emotional/mental/physical/spiritual pain was/is akin to a very serious acute injury. And, you know, in many ways it is.

However, as time leaps ever forward and the disbelief, marathon cries that often spanned or totaled anywhere from 5 – 14+ hours per day in the initial months (I still continue to cry frequently, though especially long periods of weeping are not, at present, as common for me as they were in the summer and early fall), and the bigger picture of the reality that is my current life all came to be, that pain has gradually morphed into a state that could be looked upon more as a chronic illness of sorts.

(As someone who has been a fighter of over 15 different serious chronic illnesses for more than two decades now, I know from which I speak.)

That does not automatically mean this state of internal health and, likewise, that of my life, in general, will remain entrenched in the deepest, darkest bowels of heartache, grief, longing, and endless reflections on the past for all of time.

And yet, that said, one never fully gets over trauma of this magnitude. A loss this hard-hitting, devastating, and brutally painful.

The experience of witnessing the person I would have gladly taken a bullet for walk out of my/our life in the blink of a tear-filled eye.

The dissipation of a future I firmly believed would be shared and treasured together and the overall pain of an ordeal this earth-shattering will remain with me – at least in part – always.

As, personally, I believe these things (and many others related to this year’s events) should.

In surviving the most hellacious, stressful, hurtful, and challenging periods of our lives, we (hopefully!) learn, grow, and come to see life through wider eyes and with an even more tender heart.

In a ton of different ways, I am a radically different person today than I was before the events of this past July.

Many positive changes have happened organically, others were a conscious decision to approach things in a better, healthier/healing light. And plenty more still were a blend of both organic and conscious efforts.

For, never have I hurt more.

Never have I grown more in the span of just a few brief months.

Never have I longed for anyone (Tony) or anything (our marriage) more in my entire life. Not by the length of the universe.

Never have I so bravely taken hold of the reigns of a profoundly difficult situation and been able to re-establish my basic needs (i.e., safe housing) again as quickly.

Never have I yearned to turn back the hands of time and with the crystal-clear clarity of hindsight alter the past (for the better) more than in the wake of this summer’s crushing events.

Never have I been stronger.

Never have I wished more that an event (the – from my perspective at least – incredibly abrupt end of our beloved, sacred, one-of-kind marriage) in my/our life had not occurred (and that it would never have occurred, in an ideal world).

Never, for months on end, have I consciously had to choose quite as hard to some-inexplicable-how keep going when I was certain that death would hurt (me) infinitely less than what I was enduring in that excruciatingly difficult moment.

Never have I pined for someone even 1/1,000,000,000 as much as I do for Tony.

I wake up every day and continue to expect him to be right there beside me (or at least under the same roof). I experience something comparable to a phantom limb-like sensation of his hand in mind, feel his strong, protective arms around my body and his tender lips upon my own.

I hear his gorgeous Italian voice and his wonderfully infectious laugh. Feel the warmth of his soul reverting joyfully in synch with mine, see the wise and witty twinkle in his deep chocolate-hued eyes, listen to him pull into the driveway, snuggle together as we watch our favourite movies and TV series, face each of life’s challenges and positives alike as a mighty, love fuelled couple.

These things and countless others echo throughout my every breath and heartbeat.

With a few exceptions, though (for example, thankfully the two of us have remained on amicable terms and do interact periodically for various reasons, so I still get to see and hear Tony in person from time to time), I am phenomenally, soul-crushingly aware of the fact that they are no more.

And that, in turn, somehow I must – and already am – find(ing) the ability to exist without them. Without Tony as my darling husband, my lover, my best friend, my rock, my soulmate. Just as I must go on without our shared existence.

Both despite and, I firmly believe, because of the highly challenging difficulties of this year, I’ve actually made massive positive strides on the mental health front.

(I have experienced major depression, various types of anxiety, and some PTSD for much of my entire life. Though, mercifully, at this point in time, I’ve almost entirely healed from the latter. )

As a result, ironically, it could be said, I am currently in a healthier, more stable place on the mental health front than I have been in longer than I can precisely recall (think 10+ years – if not more like 20+ years).

From late September (2022) onward, I have begun to experience days of zero depression (often coupled with a huge reduction in anxiety as well).

Zip, zilch, nil, nada. Not a single iota.

I had all but completely forgotten what a state of being completely free of depression felt like.

It is, in some respects, akin to breathing pure air of the cleanest and freshest variety after decades of existing on bottled oxygen.

Not every day is completely depression free (yet?). However, even when that all-too-familiar state of mental being resurfaces, it almost always does so at a drastically lower level than what had become long become my norm for many years.

Whereas countless periods throughout my life were spent somewhere between 7 – 10 on the depression scale (with ten being the highest possible level), these days when it pops up here and there, it does so in the 1 – 2.5, maybe 3, max, range.  

In fact, it is so drastically reduced that I am finding these sorts of vastly lower levels of depression/melancholy have little to no impact whatsoever as far as I can perceive on my internal state, my day-to-day life, my interactions and relationships with others, and plenty of other things both big and small alike.

I routinely stop and marvel at this previously unimaginable change (sometimes it brings me to the point of shedding tears of happiness and gratitude). This current mental health miracle and the renewed zest for life (relative to everything that has been going on as of late) that it has firmly instilled in me once more.

That said, I am very aware that mental health challenges rarely follow a linear path. Be it in terms of their development or, when possible, their treatment/lessening/remission/healing.

Therefore, I fully accept that there may be (and feel that I am now considerably better prepared to face) potential future spikes in my depression, should they occur going forward from this year.

It is safe to say that there are usually myriad factors that contribute to a person experiencing serious ongoing depression (for me, most of my depression has always been situationally caused). And likely there are just as many – if not more – that must go into its reduction for those who experience this very real, very life-impacting mental health battle.

While, OF COURSE!!!, depression is obviously not something one can turn on or off like a light switch (far from it), I do think that in a fair number of instances there are steps that can be undertaken to help lessen its severity.

Personally, I knew that if I had a snowball’s chance of not only somehow surviving, but in time (I hope and pray with every ounce of my being) thriving again, it would be borderline impossible for me to do so while living on my own if my depression + anxiety were raging out of control.

Without the aid of any harmful substances, risky or self-destructive behaviours, or various other negative choices one could opt for, as I started to gradually piece my world back together again, I reexamined not only my life + myself in general but also my mental state.

In doing so, I began to realize there were quite a few mindsets, approaches to life, thought processes, elements of my daily existence, and so forth that were contributing undesirably to my mental health that I could either part ways with entirely or reduce/alter significantly enough for them to further help improve the innermost workings of my ol’ grey matter.

Recently, I wrote something to my dear sister, which I feel fits perfectly in the course of this post as well. Thus, I am going to share it essentially verbatim with all of you as well.

Every now and then, YouTube suggests a clip from the TV show Hoarders to me and I will sometimes watch it when that occurs.

In one of them I saw somewhat recently, a clinical psychologist they have featured many times over the years (Dr. Robin Zasio) said a line that resonated with me immediately: “I don’t know why people have to get so broken to heal, but that’s what happened with you.”

She spoke these words in relation to the hoarder they were trying to help, but I feel like that statement applies immensely to me as well. 

In what surely stands as the most painfully ironic series of events in my entire life, it would take being shattered into billions upon billions of infinitesimally small pieces and experiencing pain so searing it would make swimming in molten lava feel like doing a polar bear dip by comparison to start healing/improving some of the most challenging aspects of my existence. 

The past 5.5 months have been the absolute worst, most difficult, painful, stressful, and heartbreaking of my entire existence by an enormous mile. Virtually nothing of any importance about them has felt right, familiar, normal, comforting, easy, or complete. 

Sometime around late August, however, a thought occurred to me that I had never really had before. 

Just about every time prior in my entire life when something massive had come along that shattered my/our world (or a shattered a solid chunk of it at least), my gut instinct was to immediately scramble to put the pieces back together as close to the way they had been arranged before that event occurred. 

(One example of this is how in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 arson fire, without even stopping to give it conscious consideration, I instinctually thought that I needed to start building up a vintage/repro wardrobe again without pausing to ask myself if that was actually what my heart most wanted to do at that point in time.)

Objectively, I think that this reaction and approach are innate to most humans and that they are not necessarily bad/negative things in many instances.

The thought that struck me like a million tsunami waves crashing into my mind at the same time was, “What if instead of trying to piece back together everything that is shattered, you held onto the best/most important parts and strove to rearrange, remove, or replace, as applicable, the rest?”.

It was – and is – a concept both plainly simple and extraordinarily challenging. And yet, that is precisely what I have attempted – and will continue to actively do – to the best of my abilities.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I could easily fill a book the size of which would give War and Peace a run for its money discussing elements of this year’s life-altering events.

Sometimes though, it is best to know when to put the breaks on for the present moment and I feel like the above paragraphs are a solid place to do just that.

Now, those two (again) completely unintentionally published project share posts + this one itself aside, you may be wondering about my long-term plans for this blog.

I have not reached a point yet in my healing/trauma processing/life-rebuilding journey that would even begin to facilitate engaging in our wonderful blogging community + posting at my pre-July 2022 level again (which averaged 4 – 6 entries per month).

And though my new dedicated craft space has been set up since this September, I have not created a single paper crafting project since before this summer’s devastating events.

I will not make any promises at the moment regarding my blogging plans/schedule in the near to quasi-near future. That would not be fair to either of us.

However, what I will say is that, if possible, I would like to *try* to post at least one new entry here roughly every 4 – 10ish weeks throughout the initial (and possibly longer than that) months of 2023.

So whether I one day return to a similar pre-marriage-breakdown blog posting level or opt to share entries here somewhat less frequently, in the long run, I do intend to put more new content up on this site. Yay!

That is a welcome thought which makes me smile on a great many levels (as does thinking about the day when my MIA paper crafting mojo returns).

Thank you all again beyond words for your kind, extremely caring support and understanding in recent months.

I am certain that this year would have been notably more challenging for me were it not for your thoughtfulness.

Let me wrap up this post (hey, wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a small life update? Evidently, in true Autumn form, I couldn’t stop at just a tiny handful of paragraphs ) by wishing all of you the sweetest, safest, happiest, healthiest, and most magic(k)al of holiday seasons.

Whatever you celebrate, whatever you hold dear, whatever brings you inner joy this month, may these things and many other positives number more for you than all of the snowflakes that will tumble to the ground across the world this chilly season.

Merriest festive season and nothing but the best and brightest to each of you for 2023!

The post A Big Apology to All of my Readers and a Small Life Update appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Though I’ve mentioned my birthday in passing sometime around its date in each of the previous two years Witchcrafted Life has been online, I have not yet devoted a post to the subject.

Having decided by early June that I wanted to do so this time around, I began brainstorming a slew of possible topics to write about on this front.

Various ideas stuck in my mind for a few days at a time and, I have no doubt, each would make for a lovely entry unto itself.

However, the concept at the heart of today’s post is the one that soared above the rest and as a result, is what I am sharing with each of you on this, my 38^th (GF) cake day.

While in the most literal of senses, the word “truth” is precisely that. The factual actuality of a situation, event, statement, and so forth.

Yet, we each have our own truths as well. Many are likewise factual, but in a way, when dealing with the subject of personal truths, the word “truth” can almost become synonymous with others such as “lessons”, “experiences”, or even “battles”.

To my mind, certain truths are indesputable. The earth is round, we 100% went to the moon, death is inevitable, and Halloween is the best holiday of all time!

Okay, maybe that last one is more of a personal opinion, but you can see where I am going with this all the same.

The following list is not an exhaustive one and I delight in thinking that come five, fifteen, or (if I am immensely fortunate) fifty years from now, it would be both longer and contain other lessons/truths that I have yet to encounter or which are being learned as we speak.

I am not saying that these entries apply to everyone and completely understand that some of them might not jive with your own outlook on life. That is completely okay!

After all, we often differ in varying ways from one another and this is amongst the most beautiful and inspiring aspects of the human experience.

After a profoundly difficult and very long labour that very nearly claimed both of our lives, on a sizzling hot July night in 1984 my mother brought me into this world. A few hours later, a powerful summer thunderstorm raged outside the hospital windows as a first-time mom and her early – but not quite premie – infant snuggled together. Exhausted, elated, and bonded more closely than two adjacent atoms from that moment onward.

Like many of us, at this point in my life, I could easily pen a multi-volume autobiography of my life (the last decade alone could probably fill an entire library shelf! ). This post is not the Reader’s Digest version of that.

No, it is a list of some of the most important, meaningful, impactful, and valuable things I have come to call my own truths + life lessons thus far after nearly four decades of calling this ol’ spinning rock of ours home.

And while I could, likewise, speak at substantial length about each of the following points, given that birthdays should generally be lighthearted times of mirth and merriment, I didn’t want to delve too exhaustedly.

Most, if not all, of these statements speak for themselves so the addition of just a few more words or lines to expand on them feels right to me at present.

Take what you wish from them, agree or disagree, and remember that the rapidly perishing art of civility is one that we can all do our part to keep from giving up the ghost entirely.

38 of The Most Important Truths I Have Learned in My 38 Years of Life

1. Always do the right thing, even when no one is looking. In fact, it is all the more important to do the right thing when you are not being watched. It is often easy to act in front of others in the way(s) we believe they want us to, but the true measure of a person’s character comes from what they do when there are few, if any, eyes (or cameras, for that matter) on them.

2. It is okay to help someone carry their baggage, but remember that you are no one’s porter but your own. Often in life, what starts out as innocently aiding another person with their troubles can quickly spiral into you getting trapped under the weight of someone else’s problems, stresses, or hardships.

There is rarely anything wrong with being helpful. However, it is vital to always remember you are not here to hold up the weight of the entire world for anyone else (especially, fellow adults) – no matter how much you love and care about them.

3. Sometimes failing is vastly more beneficial than succeeding. Winning or achieving our goals is fantastic, but there are time when far greater lessons lie in not being the first to cross the proverbial finish line – or, in some cases, ever crossing it at all.

Lick your wounds, if applicable, study what went off the rails or could have been done differently, and instead of wallowing in defeat or failure, use what you learned to propel you forward as a stronger, wiser human being.

4. We miss 100% of the shots we don’t take. This line comes from hockey legend (and fellow Canadian) Wayne Gretzky and, goodness gracious, is it true.

It can be scary (if not downright terrifying sometimes) to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones, to wander even a metre beyond the border of familiarity, or to risk failing spectacularly (see the above point).

Yet, at the same time, the possibility of a positive outcome lies with each shot we take in life and while it is wise to be cautious at times, we do ourselves a profound disservice by not taking a leap of faith and trying the unknown/new/scary sometimes.

5. You are going to get hurt. Likely many, many times. This is normal. While I am not suggesting anyone be a glutton for punishment, trying to hide from situations that may cause us emotional/mental/spiritual pain is like trying to avoid getting wet when you’re caught outside in an open field sans an umbrella during a rainstorm.

It is simply not going to happen.

6. Never depend on another person for your happiness. Early on in life, as I lived through a childhood of immeasurable disfunction and a litany of abuse, I innately discovered (in part due to watching many adults in my life fail to understand this important point about themselves) that I am the one who is most responsible for my own happiness.

Right then and there, before I had even hit a double-digit age, I pledged to consciously choose happiness whenever possible and to remember that I am the person who most powerfully fans the flame of my own inner joy.

That does not mean being pollyannish or naïve, embracing toxic positivity, hiding from difficulty or putting on a false emotional front 24/7, rather that because I do not expect anyone else to make me happy, I owe it to myself all the more to generate my own sense of happiness from deep within my very being.

7. Good manners – as well as kind words – go a very long way. Simple as that.

8. Healthy, loving, respectful relationships take work, but if you constantly feel exhausted/stressed out by them, they are likely not any of those things.

Great relationships are rather like well-oiled and operating machines. Sure, they need tune-ups, inspections, and general maintenance periodically, but they should not require you to work on them 24/7 in order to barely keep them chugging along.

Hard as it can be, sometimes in order to save yourself and return a greater sense of stability/wellness/freedom to your life, you will have to end (or greatly alter the dynamics of) certain relationships.

In the long run, you will almost always thank yourself as you look back marvelling over how long you endured a situation that truly was not working.

9. Learn to laugh at yourself. As someone who is extremely shy, introverted, self-conscious, and prone to anxiety, this has been a tough one for me at times over the years. However, that has only made me more determined to laugh at myself when the situation calls for it.

We all make mistakes and blunders, do silly things unintentionally, find ourselves in embarrassing situations, say the wrong words, and get egg on our face from time to time. So what!

There are far worse things in this world and berating ourselves, lashing out at others, hiding in shame, or fixating on what happened doesn’t change the past, so why fret when you could simply laugh and move on!

10. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again – but also know when to throw in the towel. Ask anyone who knows me well in real life and chances are one of the first words they will use to describe me is tenacious.

Tony even goes so far as to lovingly say I am as stubborn as a bulldog.

And you know what? I will happily take that as the compliment I know he intends it to be.

I will push myself to the extreme, fight tooth and nail to make things that matter to me come to fruition, and not back down easily.

However, at the same time, I have come to learn the value that resides in knowing when to admit that something is just not working out as it should.

There is no shame in that admission. At the end of the day, it usually far better and beneficial to give up trying to fix something that is seriously broken and instead start on a new build that might work out this time around.

11. No one is perfect. Not me, not you, not any mortal being that has ever walked the face of the earth. We all make mistakes, have bad days, say and do things we regret, make poor choices, forget important things, and hurt others (whether we intend to do so or not).

The sooner in life you embrace that, the happier, less stressful, and more easygoing the rest of your existence will be.

While it is fine to hold certain standards in terms of what you hope for/expect from others, remember that we are all just human, all learning, and that in many cases, deserving of a second (or third, etc) chance.

In recent years this point has all been thrown out of the societal window and we are doing nothing but harming ourselves as a species in the process. So, in some instances at least, let’s cut people a bit more slack, remember that the times when we ourselves have fallen short, and don’t be harsher on others for their shortcomings or mistakes than is legitimately warranted.

12. The little things matter a lot. Sure, we might remember the big events, the fabulous vacations, and the annual holidays we observe more than some random Thursday in February, but at the end of the day most peoples’ lives are filled with far more small, often meaningful experiences and joys than mammoth ones.

Value, take note of, share, and try to be thankful for the little things. They are, in fact, far bigger and more important than we often realize in the moment and help to make up the backbone of our existence.

13. Wear whatever you want! This is the 21^st century and, in many parts of the world at least, most people are free to sport anything they choose. As much as I do believe that some attire is better suited to certain settings/occasions than others, I am an even bigger proponent of marching to the beat of one’s own sartorial drum.

This was something I reiterated time and time again when I ran a vintage fashion blog for nearly a decade. This concept holds no less true for me – or anyone else – today than it did back in those delightfully fun 1940s and 50s clothing-filled days.

It can take guts to step out of the current fashion status quo and, yes, you might get some flack, unwanted comments, strange looks, or curious questions, but that is usually no reason to not dress however your heart pleases and your budget permits.

I learned a long time ago that the more I dressed in tune with the style(s) my own heart most adored at the time, the happier and less stressed I was. In speaking to others with unique styles, they have said much the same thing and I animatedly believe it rings true for a good deal of us the world over.

14. Hurt people hurt people. As touched on point #5 on this list, we all experience hurt, pain, sorrow, and negative experiences throughout the course of our lives.

However, the more a person suffers without knowing and/or having the proper outlets to help them cope, heal, process their trauma, speak about their ordeals, and (if applicable) rebuild their lives again, the more likely they are to lash out at others. Using their misplaced pain as a weapon of false power/control and/or way to temporarily block out some of their own suffering

We see this generational trauma, in those who come home from war, in bullying, in survivors of abuse, and countless others.

Some scars may never heal entirely. However, the short-lived, misguided sense of power or emotional pacification we may receive from directing our own pain unjustly at others is never the best route to healing for us and only stands to lengthen the journey for both ourselves and our unwitting victims in the process.

15. Eat ice cream for dinner. Remember when you were a kid and you used to say that when you grew up you would eat ice cream (or candy, chocolate bars, French fries, pizza, etc) morning, noon, and night?

And that you would stay up until 2 am, play video games (or whatever else your young self adored doing for fun) daily, and spend a bunch of time with your friends?

Umm, yeah, so how did those plans turn out?

Somewhere along the line, “adulting” (to use the parlance of the day) entered our lives and in the process, we forgot that a lot of the time, we have the ability to just let loose and embrace fun.

Whether that does in fact involve sitting down to a tub of Cookies and Cream for dinner or not, it is painfully easy to lose sight of the fact that as adults, we often have vastly more autonomy over our own lives than we tend to realize and that there is much to be said for keeping our inner child content no matter how many birthdays we experience.

16. Let it go. Long before Frozen made this wise piece of advice into a saccharine earworm, the principle existed and is no less true today than at any point in human history.

Seriously. Just let it go.

I know, it can hard or frightening to drop our pain, to forgive others (remember that forgiveness does not equate to forgetting and that in the act of forgiving another, we free ourselves further from the grasp of what they did to us), and to let sleeping dogs lie.

And that is all the more reason why we should try to do so. Life wasn’t meant to be easy all the time, but we can often make the road we trod a less difficult one by dropping a lot of unnecessary baggage along the way and mindfully choosing not to let the negatives/challenges/hardship/pain in our life fully define who we are.

17. We need so much less than we think/believe we do to be genuinely happy. Look, I’m not a minimalist and I certainly adore most of what I own.

That said, I can tell you having experienced multiple times in my life when all of my worldly goods fit into just one or two suitcase – and an instance when I had virtually nothing at all – that while material goods can bring us a measure of happiness and have their rightful place in our lives, at the end of the day, we cannot carry any of what we own with us when we cross over to the other side.

Be grateful for what you have. Take stock in the fact that the items you may desire exist in the world and that alone their presence is a wonderful thing unto itself whether you ever obtain them or not, and try not to fill your life with scads of possessions that you don’t actually need or love (and which *may* be transference for other things that are lacking or missing entirely from your world).

18. It is never too late to have a happy childhood. Let’s face it, not that many of us had idyllic youths – and, sadly, some of us scarcely got to experience a sense of childhood point blank.

Yet as American author Tom Robbins astutely reminds us, it is never (or at least rarely) too late to create a sense of the kind of joyful, stable childhood we wish we had later on in our in ourlife.

In the process, I have come to learn, we often do a great deal of inner healing from the difficulties of our early years.

19. Make things for the sake of making them. Not for praise, not to sell, not to flaunt online, not to try and one-up anybody, and, just as importantly, regardless of if you currently excel on a particular creative front or not.

Creating something that was not there before we spun it into being is one of the most rewarding, meaningful, and even cathartic experiences we can have.

Not everything we make will be a winner and that is completely fine. Having fun, letting your creativity take flight, and losing yourself in the moment are each worth far more than even the most valuable painting in the world could fetch at auction.

20. Listen. Really, really listen. Not because you are counting down the milliseconds until it is your turn to talk next, but because you value what the other person is saying (regardless of if you agree with it or not) and respect their right to speak.

There is often just as much – if not more – to be learned from hearing what someone with differing views of life experiences from your own has to say.

It is easy to talk, harder (for many at least) to listen. Hone and actively practise this skill. It will take you far.

21. Get the thing(s) you least want to do out of the way first. Our parents often told us that if we wanted dessert, we had to eat our vegetables first (though, I don’t recall hearing this myself very often as I was that odd kid out who would have happily traded a second helping of carrots for a slice of carrot cake ).

That is an important life lesson that extends far beyond the dinner table.

Instead of putting off or flat out avoiding the difficult elements of your day/week/month, try to tackle them as soon as you possibly can.

The sense of freedom, serenity, and happiness that comes from knowing that they are no longer looming over your head will help you succeed all the more in the other, likely preferable, tasks that lay ahead of you (plus, potentially lift a decent sized weight off of your shoulders in the process).

22. There are (usually) far worse things in life than being offended. Lest Twitter implode at the mere thought, we are going to get offended sometimes. It happens, it is normal, and it does not necessarily mean that someone has actually done anything genuinely wrong towards/against you.

An important part of being a well-adjusted adult is accepting this fact, opting to not make a big deal out of things that do not warrant it, and simply moving on.

23. Spend your money on experiences, not just things. I remember hearing grownups say this when I was little and while I understood and could appreciate the sentiment, it would not be until I was old enough to vote, have a mortgage and all those fun things that hitting the age of 18+ entails that I would fully come to realize just how profoundly right they were.

If you have the means, try to allocate some of your budget for experiences. That doesn’t have to mean lavish vacations, huge parties, or front-row seats at a concert.

It can be taking your aging father on a road trip to his boyhood town (possibly for the last time), attending classes for a skill or area of study you have always wanted to pick up, going out to that incredible restaurant you keep hearing about, or countless other scenarios where the experience you have and the memories you make trump just about any physical item(s) you could have spent that same time and money on.

24. Almost nothing truly worthwhile comes easy. Goals take hard work and time. Success takes failure and perseverance, and excelling in a given area requires dedication coupled with frustration, times when you feel like giving up, and plenty of trial and error along the way.

Good.

More often than not, the harder we work, the sweeter and more meaningful reaching (or even exceeding) our target feels when it does eventually happen.

As the classic adage says, Rome was not built in day, so why should we expect our own lofty undertakings to be any different?

25. Value your elders. Once, not so long ago in the course of human history, it was extremely common + normal for multiple generations of a family to live together under the same roof.

And while, of course, this does still happen in some cases, in some parts of the world at least, it is no longer the norm.

I believe there is often great benefit to surrounding ourselves with those of generations other than our own – very much including those who have been blessed to reach their golden years.

Chances are they’ve learned a thing or two in their time that you could benefit from hearing or being taught how to do.

Sure, you might cringe over some of what your great-grandma says or want to roll your eyes when you aging mom tells you the same story about something that happened when you were a little kid for the 50^th time, but these things are often a small price to pay for the wisdom, love, and life experience that the elderly frequently have to impart to us.

Cherish the older individuals in your life and make sure to let them know just how much they mean to you before it too late.

26. Embrace change. This is a concept that sends a cold shudder down many a spin. I get it, truly I do. However, change accompanies death as one of the only certainties in each of our existences.

You can either exhaust yourself to bone swimming against the current of change, or do your best to float in the direction that it is flowing.

I find it helpful to shift the focus from what may be disappearing or being altered when change occurs and instead on the positives (or, as the case may be, seemingly hidden silver linings) that might soon enter my life.

Plus, what fun would life be if stayed the same day in and day? Change is important, necessarily, and a great opportunity for personal growth.

27. Don’t punish your current romantic interest for the sins, so to speak, of past partners.

This is a toughie. Nearly everyone who has had one or more difficult/abusive/stressful/etc romantic relationships tends to act and respond in certain ways in their next relationship(s) as a result of what befell them in the past.

Yet, it is vital that we give people a chance to show their own true colours before we jump to any conclusions or jeopardize a great thing before it has scarcely got of the ground because of what we experienced with prior partners.

Talk to the person (or people) you are with now, be open about what you’ve gone through and the lasting impacts that/those experiences have had on you (and likewise, give them ample time to share the same with you, if applicable).

You can even ask them to help you further your healing journey and in turn, offer to be a part of theirs. The bond that can stem from this kind of mutual desire to work towards the healthiest, safest, most respectful, and happiest relationship you can realistically share with someone is often worth more than its weight in gold.

28. An eye for an eye only leaves two people partially blind. It is woefully normal to feel the need for retaliation when someone has wronged or deeply hurt you, yet that is rarely (outside of situations where the law should be involved, of course) the best or wisest approach.

Instead of giving into knee-jerk reactions or scheming about how you can get even, remember that hurting someone else to make yourself feel better is about as smart an idea as building a house on quicksand.

It might look good for a moment, but chances are nothing of lasting worth will come of it in the end.

Instead, depending on the situation, it is often far better to speak to the offending party, remove yourself from the situation, or choose to take the highroad and let what they did roll off your back.

29. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink. Most of us are familiar with this classic expression and there’s a reason for that: it is very true!

No matter how much you may try to help, support, provide for, or otherwise attempt to present a person with what they may need, at the end of the day, they will only learn/change/grow if they want to do so.

Learn how to recognize when you’ve done a reasonable amount and yet nothing seems to be working. Step back at that point and wait to see if the horse gets thirsty or not in the end.

You cannot – and should not! – forcibly change people, so why drive yourself around the bend trying to accomplish the impossible?

30. Always have something to look forward to. It does not have to be big or break bank, but do everything in your power to always have at least one thing that you will enjoy doing/be happy about to look forward to in life.

This was something that was drilled home for me immensely in the years immediately following when (in my teens) I suddenly became a multi-severe chronic illness fighter and so much of my life was turned completely upside down.

For me, no matter what, Halloween / Samhain is something that I look forward to immensely the whole year through.

If I am blessed to have other things to eagerly anticipate throughout a given year, I consider myself very fortunate and lean as much as I can into the sense of hope and positivity that these lovely upcoming events stand to house.

Try to find one or two things that you can look forward to annually and to pepper others that (may) change from year to year into the mix as well.

Knowing that something positive is coming down the pipeline can do an immeasurable amount of good for our psyches, motivation levels, and general day-to-day mood alike.

31. You are going to look back on your younger self and cringe. Likely A LOT.

Whether it was your Flock of Seagulls haircut in the 1980s, the cheesy love poems you wrote in junior high, some of the romantic partners you chose, or a trillion other things, if you have grown and matured further even a little bit over the years, chances are you will wince when you reflect back on some of things you used to do.

That is great. No, seriously, it is! You want to keep developing as a person, honing your skills, making wiser choices, and progressing in life.

And chances are, by much the same token, there will also be points from years past that you look back on and feel immensely proud of yourself for doing.

Think of it as a bit of nostalgic yaying and naying, if you will.

32. Go outside. Often. Really often. Really, really often.

I sincerely understand that access to the great outdoors is easier to come by for some of us than others and, likewise, that not everyone is keen to do their best Bear Grylls impression.

Nor do you have to! Science backs up the immense importance of spending even just small pockets of time outside and the value that doing so imparts to our overall well-being.

Whether nature looks like sitting out on the deck of your 15th-floor big city apartment, walking your kids to school along a rural road, enjoying a good book on the beach, or any other positive scenario, try to spend time outside on a regular basis.

It can do wonders for your mood, provide inspiration, stir up old memories and create new ones, bolster your spirituality, and help to remind you of the vital link between humanity and the natural world that quite literally keeps us alive.

(Note: Exceptions to this point are, of course, made in cases where spending time outdoors is either limited or simply not possible due to things such as medical reasons or being incarcerated.)

33. Try to do at least one thing daily that will make your future better. This doesn’t have to be something massive by any means, but the impact such actions may have on the bigger picture of your life can be.

Countless options fall under this broad header. It could entail setting aside 15 minutes for daily mindful meditation, giving yourself an evening of self-care each week, getting up an hour earlier to exercise before starting the work day, breaking away from toxic people in your life, forgiving yourself (and/or others), doing volunteer work, finally tackling a project you’ve been procrastinating over, writing 1,000 words of your novel each night before bed, or anything else that stands to help make your future brighter, healthier, and/or more enjoyable.  

34. Do not lose sight of a person’s intentions. Tony (my husband) has, as many of us do, certain wise statements that he says periodically. One of which is that a person’s intentions often matter as much (or more) as their words.

While it is entirely possible for someone to try and whitewash manipulation, gaslighting, deception, or other negative actions behind claiming that they had good intentions, it can often be quite easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and not value or understand when someone was genuinely doing something kind/caring/thoughtful with no malintent behind it.

Even when someone’s actions or words may seem (or be) negative, at times there can still be a kernel of positivity or goodness behind them. Not always, of course, but sometimes for sure.

Try to look at the situation through their eyes, not just your own. Assess the bigger picture of what led them to do or say what they did, and remember that almost no one will treat you the way you want every single time you engage with them.

35. Take pride in an honest day’s work. I do not care if you are a housekeeper, a brain surgeon, a kindergarten teacher, or the president of a Fortune 500 company. A hard, honest day’s worth is something to be proud of.

Respect your own work and, every bit as much so, that of other people. Someone’s worth is in no way measured primarily by their pay cheque or job title, and the moment you start believing that it is, you need to have a serious heart-to-heart with yourself and check that mindset pronto!

36. We are, as Ram Dass wisely said, all just walking each other home. In other words, go easy on your fellow human beings, try not to sweat the small stuff, and remember that everyone is fighting their own battles.

Most are trying and doing the best that they can with the skills, resources, knowledge, and abilities they presently possess. Be kind and civil, and never forget that death finds us all sooner or later.

37. It is not so much what happens to us in life, as how we respond to it that matters most. Exceedingly rare is the life lived without heartache, trauma, stress, challenges, or even the unthinkable occurring.

And while it can be scarily easy to get stuck in a state of victimhood or to use something unfortunate as an excuse to not move ahead in life, that is no way to live.

Vent, process grief, try to heal, learn from hardship, and embrace the remarkable resilience that is innate in just about all of us.

Believe me when I say that you can get through almost anything, no matter how dark the moment may seem, and that you never know just how strong you can be until difficult circumstances push you to the extreme.

38. Love.

Love often. Love hard. Love freely. Love wisely. Love for all the right reasons and none of the wrong. Love not because you expect it (or anything else) in return. Love when it is easy and, especially (circumstantially speaking, naturally) when it is hard.

Love because tomorrow is in no way guaranteed. Love for those times when you longed for it but came up empty or lacking.

Love because there is so much pain and hate in the world that could, if we finally collectively got our act together and smartened up, be greatly lessened by an abundance of love.

Love as an example to others. Love in remembrance of those who have loved you but are now gone. Love because it is free.

Love because it makes your life better. Love to help and to heal. Love for the ways in which it inspires both yourself and others.

Love who you are – or, if you cannot do so at present, vow to work at it until doing so comes as naturally as breathing air.

Love when times are good and when the going gets tough. Love for the joy it imparts and the way it makes both you and the receiver feel.

Love your interests, love places, love pets, love learning, love sharing, love the first crocus of spring and the last jewel-toned leaf of fall. Find so many things to love that you quickly lose track of them all.

Love because, for all we know, it might very well be the meaning of life. Or at the very least, a profound way to add meaning, worth, and beauty to our lives and those we bestow our love upon.

I look forward to many more truths yet to come

The moment I stop learning or stop growing as a person is the moment I should pack it all in right then and there.

The universe houses an infinite amount to be learned and experienced and none of us, no matter if we live to fifty, eighty, or a hundred and ten, can ever do more than lightly graze the merest of surfaces on those fronts.

And so it should be. Life is not forever – though our souls or the energy we are comprised of may be.

Like the title and main verse of the 1977 song We’re Here For a Good Time (Not a Long Time) by the Canadian rock band Trooper reminds us, our time on this planet is far too short not to try and make the best of things when can.

Embrace the positives, acknowledge and process the negatives, and try your darnedest to routinely have a good time on this wild ride called life.

And on that note, my sweet friends, I will wrap up here for now. The electric mixer is calling my name and before I can heed its beckoning, I have an annual birthday tarot/oracle card spread to lay out in front of my now 38-year-old eyes.

I will indeed be striving for a good time today and encourage you all to do the same, no matter how close or far away you currently are from your own birthday.

Thank you for being here with me and for the 2.5+ awesome years of blogging we have already shared together. I can hardly wait to experience the next year of my life with all of you as well.

Okay, it is time to go pull some cards, bake a scrumptious dessert, and bask in the glow of a rather sizable number of birthday candles.

The post 38 of The Most Important Truths I Have Learned in My 38 Years of Life (Shared on My 38th Birthday) appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity. – William Samuel Johnson

Since launching this quarterly blog post series in 2020, I have often begun my “Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me” entries with a quote pertaining to the forthcoming season.

There is no shortage of excellent quotes to be had about this revitalizing time of the year. However, while we are technically two short days away from the start of springtime, a different season, so to speak, has fallen upon the earth once again: that of profoundly devastating war.

I know and am the first to acknowledge that, heartbreakingly, there have been wars in one part of the world or another pretty much continually since time immemorial. The preceding (and present) years of the 21^st century fully included.

No serious conflict is without suffering, loss, injustice, hardship, sacrifice, and long-lasting devastation. Yet few wars since the final days of WW2 have, mercifully, brought with them the imminent possibility of another large-scale global war.

That is until the world’s biggest country (geographically speaking) decided to wage battle against a peaceful neighbouring nation for absolutely no good – or moreover, even remotely justifiable – reason.

Generally speaking, I go out of my way to avoid the news (especially as an HSP and an empath), knowing that if something is big or important enough, I will surely find out about it one way or another.

However, like a great deal of us, I have been glued to news reports regarding the horrific conflict in Ukraine.

Tears fall from my eyes like shrapnel of the soul. They are shed in unison with the millions that tumble from the exhausted, frightened, and utterly perplexed eyes of countless Ukrainians. To say nothing of the rest of the world, too.

As with most tragedies, there is a powerful sense of the surreal to what is happening in Eastern Europe right now.

Surely, we will all wake up tomorrow or the next day or the day after that and realize that the past three (going on four) weeks have been a hellacious nightmare.

Yet, as is so often the case, the very worst nightmares stem not from our sleeping minds, but from the atrocities that are carried out by certain individuals, groups, or nations when we are acutely awake.

I need only climb a few short branches back in time on my family tree to quickly come face-to-face with ancestors who hailed both from Russia and what is present-day Ukraine + Moldova. Some of whom immigrated to Canada as recently as the 1930s.

I knew and loved a few of these people firsthand before their respective passings during the early years of my childhood.

They were not far-off relations from centuries-long past. They were amongst my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great aunts + uncles. They embraced their new homeland with gusto but never lost sight of the culture, traditions, and memories they had grown up experiencing on the other side of the world.

As is the case for most people, it should go without saying that I am 100% on the side of Ukraine (and that of the Russian citizens who are strongly opposed to this incredibly brutal conflict).

It would be unconscionable in my books not to be.

This is not the first time in their nation’s long and fascinating history that Ukraine has come under siege or been unfathomably brutalized in other ways. For example, (WARNING: the following link includes graphic subject matter and images that may be difficult/disturbing for some viewers – especially younger ones) the Holodomor that occurred under the tyrannical reign of Joseph Stalin.

I have no doubt that many people in Ukraine knew prior to this war’s onset that they were strong, proud, capable individuals.

However, both inside and all the more so outside of the country itself, it is safe to say that few could have imagined just how incredibly strong and resilient 21st-century Ukrainians would prove to be.

The quote that begins this post stems from one of America’s founding fathers, William Samuel Johnson. It is no less true today than it was in the 18^th century. If anything, it may in fact hold even more weight nowadays.

Of course, though this colonial-era quote houses male pronouns, it is safe to say that Ukrainians of all genders are showing amazing fortitude and bravery in the face of their nation literally being razed to the ground.

So long as nuclear and biological weapons are not introduced into the fold, I continue to believe that Ukraine has a very real chance of winning this sham of a war.

Not a sham in the sense of it being make-believe (sadly, nothing could be further from the truth), but rather a sham because of its senseless and unprovoked nature.

As many of us keep a watchful eye on news updates viewed on TV, cell phone, tablet, and computer screens, the ravages of war growing ever more horrendous with each passing minute, it can be hard to shift our focus to lighter matters.

For not the first time in my life, tragedy drives home an intensely strong sense of what, at the end of the day, really matters and what can at times seem rather trivial and/or happy-go-lucky by comparison.

Just as it is doing for countless other souls across the globe right now as well.

We go on though, our hearts heavy with emotions such as grief, anger, and fear. We keep trying to live the lives that we are immeasurably blessed to have to the best of our abilities.

Ukraine is never far from our minds – nor is the looming threat of global war – as we do so. We have been starkly reminded of how, objectively, any of our own countries could theoretically find itself in the same sort of situation.

Thousands of miles away from Eastern Europe, snow still dots the landscape around our corner of British Columbia.

Springtime has phoned and made reservations, but it has not checked into its suite just yet.

It is coming through. The ever-earlier arrival of sunlight each morning, the orchestra of bird songs that have begun to fill the air once again, and the first brave crocuses that proudly stretch their necks above the frozen ground all assure us that spring will be here before we know it.

With just two days to go until the official start of spring in the Western Hemisphere, it is time for a fresh new edition of this reoccurring post series.

As usual, the Winter 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me is a link love post featuring online content that caught my eye during the past three months, coupled with a peek into what has been transpiring lately in my own life.

Magick, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Spirituality

–Advice for the Beginner Witch: It is scarcely a secret that witchery has seen a massive rise in popularity both over the past few decades and all the more so in recent years.

Naturally, this has led to the presence of a good deal more newbie witches and/or those who may have flirted with the craft previously, but never dedicated themselves to it and now feel a calling to do just that.

It can be – especially in this day and age of social media – challenging to start out as a new witch. It seems like there is so much to know and do and learn. Getting overwhelming or feeling like you must keep up with the witchy Joneses (many of whom have been practicing for ten, twenty-five, forty – you name it – years at this point) can easily happen.

Go easy on yourself, dear witchling, and find both advice and encouragement from this lovely post that guides new witches through some very useful approaches to beginning your beautiful journey into witchhood.

–Cute Witch Art Projects for Kids: Save for our six-year-old nephew (who lives in Italy), there are currently no young kids in our immediate family. If there were (and they lived nearby), I would love to spend a fun-filled afternoon with them making the simple, budget-friendly witch-related art projects that are featured in this charming post from Moody Moons.  

(Another recent post from Moody Moons that really resonated with me is her terrific tutorial on how to make DIY Green Witch’s Runes with Wood Rounds.)

–50 Signs that You’re an Old Soul: In my experience, many old souls inherently know that they are precisely that. However, sometimes a person may not be aware of their beautifully aged soul or, if they are, they might like to learn more about the subject. Finding, in the process, shared traits and experiences with plenty of their fellow old souls.

If you consider yourself to be one – or know somebody who does – be sure to pop on by Other Worldly Oracle’s excellent look at 50 ways to tell that you are an old soul.

–How to Make a Lovely Herb Drying Rack: Now, granted, this link could have gone in the more generic crafty column above. However, given how many witchy/Pagan folks are deeply interested in herbology, I figured that this link would be at squarely home in this section, too.

While most herbs (especially those grown outdoors) have not rebloomed again yet this year, in due course they will. If you have been itching to find an effective way to dry more of them yourself, this lovely tutorial on how to make a hanging herb drying rack has your back all the way.

–Make a Tiered Herb Planter with Dollar Store Buckets: And carrying on with the herb growing theme – because, if you can’t go all out on gardening-related topics in the spring, when can you? – this fantastic and very wallet-friendly approach to making a tiered herb planter with inexpensive buckets from the dollar store is a great approach for those on a budget or anyone looking to save some green (see what I did there? ) on the herb growing front.

–7 Reasons Why Self-Love is Spiritually Empowering: These days, most of us are familiar with the concepts of self-care and self-love. Ideally, we try our best to successfully make time in our busy lives to focus on these important areas. In doing so, however, have you ever stopped to think about the connections that can (and often do) exist between self-love and your spirituality?

This great post from Reroot Your Life explores that very subject and offers up seven excellent reasons why self-love is spiritually empowering.

–The Ethics of Divining World Events: It is human nature to look for answers, insight and (ideally) comfort when times get not only tough, but downright brutal.

For those who engage in various forms of divination, it can likewise come naturally to us to seek (possible!!!) answers with the cards, runes, or most other methods of divining.

This thought-provoking post from esteemed witchery/Paganism blogger + author John Beckett (I cannot recommend his book The Path of Paganism highly enough) delves into the pros and cons, ethically speaking, of doing just for major world events.

No matter which side of the fence you fall on when it comes to this subject, John’s fairhanded article is well worth reading during these tremendously uncertain times.

Cardmaking, Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting, and Other Crafts

–A Simple Lavender Wreath to Celebrate Spring: While “simple” in terms of the number of products required and ease of creation, rest assured that this elegant spring wreath is a head-turningly beautiful way to add extra seasonal pizzazz to any door (or wall) in your home.

–Cuddly Pompom Easter Bunny Tutorial: If you are in the mood for a melt-your-heart adorable springtime craft that is both easy and fabulously festive (not to mention a great gift idea), allow me to suggest this delightful pompom Easter (or Ostara) Bunny tutorial.

(For more awesome spring, Ostara, and Easter craft ideas, be sure to check out my post 35 Wonderful Ostara Crafts, DIY Projects, and Décor Ideas for The Spring Equinox.)

–DIY Flower Butterfly Wings: In my latest project share post (Delightful Butterfly-Themed Happy Ostara Shaker Card for the Spring Equinox) I discussed how butterflies are a harbinger of spring’s return that I – like many of us – can never get enough of.

If you have ever wanted to make a pair of your very own wearable butterfly wings, this photo-filled DIY project post will guide you through how to do just that.

The inclusion of dried flowers/leaves makes these wings especially enchanting. Not to mention more than lovely enough to proudly display, when not being worn, in your home as the work of magical art that they are.

(I cannot help but think how fantastic this project would also look with jewel-toned fall leaves, should you wish to make different seasonal versions of wearable butterfly wings.)

–DIY Gold Foil Vintage Bee Birthday Cards: Much like butterflies, bees are another winged friend that helps to signal spring’s return and who does so much to help keep nature in bloom year after year.

If you are in the mood to celebrate bees in papercrafting form during the upcoming season (or anytime), this gorgeous gold foil card project from Diana at Dreams Factory is a stunning way to do just that.

(If you do not happen to have the tools, such as a laminator, that she uses here, I suspect a somewhat similar look could be achieved by using a good-sized bee stamp, clear embossing ink, and a rich metallic gold embossing powder such as Princess Gold from Ranger.)

And from the same blog, I adore this post on How to Make DIY Spray Inks in Any Colour.

–Four Ways to Organize Your Sticker Addiction: This post is a few years old, but I just hit upon it this winter and felt that it would be right at home in the next edition of this link love series.

Sticker storage can often be a challenge for those of us who cannot get enough of this charming craft product. Yet finding effective ways to store our beloved stickers is often considerably trickier than amassing them in the first place.

In this post, the author weighs the pros and cons of four different approaches for storing planner-related stickers. However, these same ideas can easily translate into just about any kind of sticker your heart desires.

–Oh Romeo Mini Quilt: As I have mentioned a time or two before, I am not a quilter. However, I adore this awesome fabric craft all the same.

I find there are numerous similarities between quilting and papercrafting and am continually inspired by many different types of quilted projects.

Case in point, this fabulously creative “Oh Romeo Mini Quilt” is an enchanting fabric art ode to one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays.  

–3-D Paper Eggs: Where would spring be without a bevy of eggs and all manner of craft + décor items depicting them?

Whether you are keen to ditch dyed eggs or would like a fun project to accompany that classic springtime act, this super easy-to-replicate tutorial guides you through how to make three-dimensional paper eggs that can be hung around your home for an extra sweet dose of seasonal cheer.

What’s Shaking in My Life and On My Radar

This winter passed, as they pretty much always do around these parts, in a flurry of snowflakes, bone-chilling temps, parkas, and warm woollen mittens.

Three cold snaps punctuated the already frozen air, though none saw the mercury drop below -30C/-22F.

Believe me when I say that by Canadian standards, that really isn’t too bad.

As I mentioned here a few blog posts ago, my sister contracted Covid this winter. Thankfully, she did not become extremely ill and/or require hospitalization. While she is still in the process of healing and regaining energy, I am grateful beyond measure to report that she is doing a fair bit better these days.

None of our other loved ones came down with Covid this winter (nor did Tony or I), which we are also endlessly thankful about. One can only speculate as to if that same statement can be made in another three months – let alone at the end of the year.

Also a few weeks ago, Tony and I received our booster shots (aka, our third vaccinations) and will continue to be the first in line for any future Covid vaccines that may be offered to the Canadian public.

Even though I personally think it is too soon to do so, earlier this week the BC provincial government rescinded the law mandating that masks be worn in most types of businesses and other enclosed public spaces.

I am starkly aware of the fact that a huge percentage of the population will, if not toss their masks away outright, then at least banish them to the back of the closet.

It is very easy to understand why and just as I have maintained since the get-go with the pandemic, to each their own when it comes to navigating the challenging waters of the Coronavirus.

Personally, however, as someone who is immune-compromised, I will continue to sport a mask to all the same types of places I have been doing so for the past couple of years. Far better to be safe than sorry.

With so much uncertainty in the world right now – and with the pandemic still going strong – we have not made much in the way of plans yet for the coming spring and summer months.

And after the especially brutal wildfire season that ravaged BC last year (it stands as one of the all-time worst on record here), we are already feeling a bit of trepidation regarding what the coming sizzling hot months may hold in store for our province this year.

Much as I wish with all my might that I could state the polar opposite, I do not have any positive updates regarding the serious and incredibly perplexing “new” medical issues that I have been battling since 2020.

Diagnoses are still proving wildly elusive, as is anything even approaching the degree of health care that I should be receiving to help get to the bottom of what on earth is impacting me.

I am no stranger (far from it!) to fighting tirelessly for diagnoses and the overall state of my health. I have been doing that for twenty, going on twenty-one years straight now.

Not, however, let me clarify, for most of these latest health issues themselves, but rather for just about all of my other chronic illnesses that preceded them.

Ever since these new medical challenges entered my life, at the start of each new season I find myself looking towards the end of it, hoping beyond measure that there will be some form of positive health-related changes by then. Some desperately needed help. Some sign that instead of continuing to worsen, things are stabilizing – or perhaps even showing a flicker of improvement.

And though my body and overall state of health continue to deteriorate and weaken further with each passing week, I am resolute in my hope and in my unceasing drive to get the medical answers, help, and treatment(s) that I NEED no matter how long I must battle for each one of those vital things.

On a far more upbeat note, the Spring Equinox is just two days away!

That day is when I will personally be observing the heart of the Ostara season. And while (as is often the case) I will do so in the company of lingering wintertime snow and ice, I am wonderfully excited to celebrate the newness, positivity, rebirth, and fresh possibilities that spring houses.

Then, come the first week of April, we will celebrate my mother’s birthday. I am hopeful that – after two years of not being able to safely do so – we can spend in person with her (just as we were able to do for my own b-day last summer).

I have said it before, but I will happily say it again: my mom’s birthday is akin to a second start of spring for me and always heralds the return of bloom, baby chick, and rainbow season all the more.

And speaking of my birthday, it is now less than four months away. A fact which I can scarcely believe!

First, though, we get to experience the beauty and wonder of spring, as the natural world breaks free of its lengthy wintertime hibernation and brightens our days both literally and figuratively in many enjoyable ways.

I have a lot of ideas for fun, informative, and inspiring blog posts here in the coming months – including, all things willing, a brand-new edition of the Cemetery Journeys post series that I launched here last year.

A number of you have emailed to ask me when that would be happening, so I am striving as hard as I can to get the next exciting journey up this spring.

And now, sweet dears, on with a smattering of assorted links that leapt out at me over the course of these past three snow-covered months.

–Emily Brontes’ Lost Second Novel: It is safe to say that Wuthering Heights stands as one of the best known and most beloved novels ever published.

Tragically, its author died young at the age of just thirty years old. Leaving, at the time, an unpublished second manuscript that we know with a good degree of certainty existed at one point, but which has sadly been long lost to the hands of time (or perhaps, as some strongly suspect destroyed by one of her sisters).

This engaging article takes a gander at Emily’s iconic inaugural novel, while also digging into the mystery surrounding what her second book may have been about as well as what fate might have befallen that now (presumably) long-lost second manuscript.

–11 Ways to Wear a Bat Bow: Whether you would only rock a bat bow in October or could easily – and gleefully – do so the whole year round, this charming post suggests eleven fun ways to inject some sartorial bat-themed goodness into your attire as often as your heart desires.  

–Goth Fast Fashion and Why It Isn’t Always a Good Thing: Regardless of your preferred personal style(s), this post – from Gothic Charm School author Jillian Venters – poses some insightful and important points that apply to a sizable percentage of clothing consumers in many parts of the world.

Fast fashion may be de rigueur in the sphere of 21st-century attire, but as Jillian wisely argues, it is often far from the choice we should be making – at least on a regular basis.

–Lost Women of Science Podcast: This recently launched podcast series (from New York Times reporter Katie Hafner) is on a mission to shine the very well-deserved spotlight on female scientists whose work, and in many cases, names, are little known despite the important contributions they made not only to the field, but to life on earth, point-blank.

The first scientist to be featured is Dorothy Andersen, a physician and pathologist who forever changed the lives of many people around the world when, in 1938, she discovered and defined cystic fibrosis.

As a passionate lover of science (and staunch advocate for women in STEM), I eagerly looking forward to seeing what other women will be featured in future editions of this much-needed podcast.  

–Metal Pens Pre-17^th Century: Much like the link pertaining to sticker organization shared above, this post has a few years under its belt.

It remains a gem all the same and, being a lifelong writer myself, I could not help but share it here – especially since the concept of metal pens is not something many of us associate with times preceding the Victorian era (let alone prior to the 1600s!).

As this article clearly demonstrates, however, they are invention that stretches centuries back in time prior to that point and which have been evolving for hundreds of years now.

–The Top Ten Strangest Snakes in The World: If you happen to have ophidiophobia, please be advised that chances are this link is not for you.

If, on the other hand, you are not afraid of snakes and would like to learn more about some of the most unique and (often) rarest of our slithering reptile friends, read on a very cool selection of ten unforgettable types of serpents.

–Metal Pens Pre-17^th Century: Much like the link pertaining to sticker organization shared above, this post has a few years under its belt.

It remains a gem all the same, and as a writer myself, I could not help but share it here – especially since the concept of metal pens is not something many of us associate with times preceding the Victorian era (let alone prior to the 1600s!).

As this article clearly demonstrates, however, they are an invention that stretches centuries back in time prior to that point and which has been evolving for hundreds of years now.

–Toronto Based Startup is Combatting Deforestation with Tree Planting Drones: There is no denying the profound importance of reforestation in the battle against the ever more alarming climate crisis that our planet is besieged with these days.

While there are various ways to plant and grow new trees, few are as innovative or original as that from Canadian Flash Forest, which is using drones to plant new trees.

How many trees, you may ask? At the time this article was written last year, no less than 300,000 seed pods had been dropped across specific parts of Canada.

One can only wonder how high that total will continue to climb – and hope, all the while, that this clever technique rapidly catches on around the globe.

Bonus link: Last October I shared a post here called 13 Awesome Cemetery Focused Blogs Every Taphophile Should Be Following.

In that post, one of the blogs that I featured was of renowned author Loren Rhodes, whose work spans both the fiction and nonfiction spheres.

Those who enjoy books pertaining to taphophilia-related topics may be familiar with Rhodes’ work, including her wonderful books 199 Cemeteries to See Before Your Die and This Morbid Life: Essays.

Thanks to that post, Loren and I connected for the first time ever and have remained in touch since (which is the coolest thing in – pun fully intended – my books, as I have been a big fan of her work for quite some time now).

Loren emailed me a few days ago to share that she would be launching a Kickstarter campaign (which is now live) to help back her newest release: Death’s Garden Revisited: Relationships with Cemeteries.

The title brings together personal reflections from numerous people around the world who have strong connections (for a myriad of different reasons) to cemeteries.

As a passionate taphophile who finds few experiences in life more enjoyable, spiritually fulfilling, and inspiring than visiting cemeteries, you can imagine how delighted I was to learn about Loren’s latest writing project.

Whether you enjoy genealogy, history, the art and design of cemeteries, or just about anything else pertaining to burial grounds, this book is apt to be right up your alley.

If you would like to help bring Death’s Garden Revisited to the point of publication, I encourage you to please consider donating to Loren’s Kickstarter campaign.

Hold Fast to Dreams

Though it has only been three short months since the Autumn 2021 edition of this post series appeared, for reasons both global and personal, it feels more like two years have elapsed between now and when we said farewell to fall.

Exceedingly few amongst us could have predicted when this winter began that less than a single season later, the world would be rocked once again by an unthinkable tragedy of epic proportion.

That is what has happened though and as with everything that leaves a stamp in indelible ink upon human history, we as a species will be forever impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Assuming, that is, that our species is able to keep going beyond the current generation.

I am nothing if not an optimist, but I am also the poster child for realists everywhere.

Since my early youth, I have studied the first two world wars to a degree that I cannot even begin to measure.

My eyes have taken in hundreds, if not thousands, of books and hours of programming alike pertaining to these world-altering conflicts – especially WW2 and the holocaust.

Beyond those two massive conflicts, I have been drawn to studying and trying to make sense of war, famine, genocide and other forms of the worst possible things human beings can do to one another for as far back as I can recall.

Everything that I have learned, viewed through lenses both philosophical and pragmatic, and laid awake at night thinking about, currently braces me for even more brutal days ahead.

Just like the citizens of Ukraine and countless others around the globe, I hold tight to the belief that the guns will be silenced, the bombs returned to their hiding places, and that the carnage and devastation will end before we as a collective whole do things from which there is no coming back.

As a young girl, one of the first pieces of poetry that I remember learning by heart in school was Dreams by the wonderful American poet, Langston Hughes. It goes as follows:

Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Some thirty years on from when I committed those poignant and powerful lines to memory, they remain with me verbatim.

As I lay my head down to sleep each night and again when that ever-brighter dawn wrestles me from slumber, I find Hughes’s words echoing through my thoughts.

They live in my heart and will remain there for as long as it continues to beat.

The dream, in this instance, is one of unwavering hope for an end to the war in Ukraine, the suffering on both sides, and the ability for the survivors to be able to one day piece their shattered lives back together again.

Their futures will not be the same ones that lay before them a few agonizingly short weeks ago, but there is still hope and the prospect of some sort of stability again.

We, as a planet, did in 1918 and again in 1945. Now, before WW3 truly does erupt, let’s stop this madness and do it again in the spring of 2022.

The very fate of the world may be riding on it.

As we look towards the coming season – be it spring on this side of the equator of my beloved autumn for those south of it – there are not words enough to convey how much I hope that you are able to have a safe season wherever you call home.

My deepest wishes for wellness, happiness, and peace to each of you, cherished friends – and to everyone who calls this remarkable planet of ours home.

The post Winter 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

I knew at once that this was what I wanted to share here for the second week of September.

As you may be aware, in the fall of 2016, my husband and I lost our home, very nearly everything we owned, and infinitely most devastating, our beloved cat (Stella) in an arson fire.

This is a subject I discussed in greater depth here and which, while it does surface from time to time on this site, I generally do not wish to put at the forefront of most of my Witchcrafted Life posts.

However, the fifth anniversary of the life-changing date is fast approaching.

It will arrive on October 13^th, bringing with it half a decade of existence since our world was turned on its head faster than you can dial 9-1-1.

If I lived until the last flicker of light in the universe burned out, I will never forget that fateful day, nor the extraordinary challenges, changes, redirections, and outpouring of kindness that followed in the aftermath.

In the house that we lived in at the time of the fire, my crafting space was in the basement in a room that served both as a craft corner, photo studio, packaging centre for the items I was selling via my (then) Etsy vintage shop, and sundry other uses.

On top of the flames that tore through the entire structure, our home was further damaged by the substantial volume of water that pumped onto/into it to keep the fire from quickly spreading to other closely situated homes.

Of course, that was a smart move and did a lot to help prevent the fire from leaping to additional houses.

However, multiple feet of water sat in the basement of our burned-out house for weeks on end (as the fire department, police, and insurance companies each did their own thorough investigations of the structure), quickly causing mould to grow and rodents to set up camp.

Even if that hadn’t been the case though, the flames alone would have caused nearly as much damage and virtually everything in my craft room – as with the rest of the house – would have been obliterated.

When people find out that we experienced an arson house fire and that I’m a paper crafter, they often ask me how I decided if I wanted to keep crafting or not.

There was never a shadow of doubt in my mind that as soon as I possibly could, I would begin paper crafting again.

Far from deterring me from picking up this beloved part of my life, the fire drove home all the more how phenomenally important it is (for me) to document and celebrate our life together, my childhood and family, trips we take, holidays we celebrate and so much more.

Just as the staggering outpouring of compassion, support, and generosity we received from friends, relatives, and complete strangers alike served as a reminder of how vital it is for me to create and give handmade cards (and other projects) to a wide range of people in my life.

As a naturally tenacious and highly driven person, even when the chips were down and I had quite literally nothing but the clothes on my back, I knew I would paper craft again.

And so, awesomely, joyfully, and blessedly, I have. My current craft space is a lot smaller – as is the stash of products it houses.

It wasn’t economically possible for us to replace most of what was lost and, by and large, I have not tried to do so. The goal is not to replicate what was, but rather to create a safe, happy here and now that is conducive to who we are and what we love doing in the present.

With the fifth anniversary of the fire just over a month away, I wanted to take a little while to stop and reconnect with some of the pre-fire Halloween projects I made that I most adored.

The blaze destroyed not only all of my completed projects (save, of course, for those that had been given to others as gifts over the years), but all of my craft supplies, as well as our computers and external hard drives.

This means that, in terms of my pre-fire craft projects, I only have photos of those makes that had been shared online pre-fire (and which were still online at the time of the fire).

As a result, without photos of some of my creations, numerous projects will forever exist simply in memory form for me.

Thankfully, however, care of various internet sources, I’ve been able to gather up images of some of the paper crafting projects that I made between 2010 (when I began scrapbooking and card making) and 2016, the year of the fire.

Join me then, won’t you, as we revisit some of the pre-fire Halloween projects that I adored the most and which continue to inspire my current makes to this day.

A handful of my very favourite pre-fire Halloween scrapbook page and cards

Note: As the lists of supplies used to make these projects were kept in notebooks and lost in the fire, I cannot detail all of the items used to create them. Many of which are, objectively, long out of stock/production at this point anyhow.

That said, if you have any questions about the materials or techniques used on this Halloween makes, please don’t hesitate to ask and I will gladly do my very best to deliver a helpful reply your way.

As well, please bear in mind that these photos, while digital, are several years old and that they are downloaded copies of the originals (thus the image quality may have been compressed or otherwise altered by whatever site/platform they were/are hosted on).

Also, both cell phone and DSLR image quality have improved considerably since then – as have my skills behind the lens . Plus, at the time these pics were taken, I was really into somewhat overexposing my project share photos – something that is generally not my approach at present.

Halloween (1985) scrapbook page: In this distressed, shabby chic orange and black page we hop back to the mid-1980s with a glimpse of me and my mama enjoying All Hallows’ Eve together (check out this recent project share post for a layout featuring the two of us on my very first October 31st).

My talented mom made the adorable ghost costume that I’m sporting here. Aww!

To date, this layout stands as one of my favourites that I have ever created.

Double, Double, Cuteness & Trouble scrapbook page: I wish the image quality was better for this page, as it was such a cute, fun one. Hopefully, you can still get a sense of it here all the same.

In this layout, we progress ahead another year or two as this was me on either my 3rd or 4th Halloween – naturally, I went as a witch.

Again, my sweet mom made my festive outfit. A few years on (as we will see in a later scrapbook layout detailed below), my little sister would sport the same darling witch costume.

When Witches Go Riding Halloween card: An eye-catching and somewhat unexpected colour palette of classic orange, black and white partner with shades such as pale lavender, teal, and turquoise in this chic bow bedecked Halloween greeting.

Halloween Princesses scrapbook page: This sweetly spooky page celebrated the fact that, a few years apart, my sister and I wore the same pretty pink (store-bought) princess costume.

I adore the pre-made die cut jack-o-lantern paper that played a starring role on this layout and would love to see a company release something similar again today.

Pumpkins (Bear’s Fruit Stand) scrapbook page: Growing up, my family had a wonderful tradition of vising some of the local produce stands and farmer’s markets in our area each autumn.

In this circa 1993 photo, my siblings and I are sitting on a mountain of beautiful pumpkins at our family’s very favourite fruit stand, called Bear’s, located in the tiny South Okanagan community of Keremeos.

Hope Your Halloween is Crawling with Fun Halloween card: A classic colour palette and Halloween critter – the spooky spider – take the lead on this rhinestone and glittery black arachnid-filled card.

Halloween Helper Kitty scrapbook page: Two photos – one in black and white, the other in colour – accompany journaling about the fact that our beloved late cat, Stella, who usually left our spooky season decor in peace, had a real penchant for playing with this particular pumpkin decoration.

All Hallows’ Eve Costumed Kids scrapbook page: Another layout that I really wish I had a better quality image of. Still, anything is certainly better than nothing when it comes to documenting lost paper crafting projects.

This fun Halloween layout shines the spotlight on what my brother, sister, and I wore for a fun-filled night of trick-or-treating in the mid-1990s (note, as mentioned above, my sister is rocking the same adorable witch costume that I had worn around the same age).

I madly adore the 3D beaded bats peppered around this layout. If memory serves me right they *may* have been from either Prima or the Michael’s house brand, Recollections.

If anyone ever sees similar bat embellishments for sale online at a site that ships to Canada or in person here on Canadian soil, please do not hesitate to let me know (TY!).

Wishing You a Very Happy Halloween card: Border punched layers, pretty flourishes, and glitter-adorned pumpkins galore call this teal and earth-toned card home.

Swap out the sentiment and this lovely greeting could easily work for other fall time happenings as well, such as Mabon and Thanksgiving.

She’s Got Halloween Spirit scrapbook page: While my sister’s favourite holiday is Christmas, much as with my mom and me, she adores October 31st as well.

This sweet photo of my sis as a toddler shows her helping to scoop the guts out of a pumpkin that would soon be carved in our family’s grinning jack-o-lantern that year.

Trick or Treat scrapbook page: A bevy of embellishments, cheesecloth (that I hand-dyed), and spiders collide on this shabby chic Halloween layout that shows what my siblings and I wore for Halloween 1991.

The inspiration for this layout’s colour palette stems directly from the costumes that the three of us sported that night (note the Unicef box – who else remembers collecting for this important charity on Halloween night as a youngster?).

This scrapbook page is another that rests firmly amongst the ranks of my all-time favourite that I have ever made.

Have a Bewitching Halloween card: Distressed and border punched edges, elegant rhinestone trim, harlequin print paper, and an eye-catching black coloured witch silhouette sticker add up to a fun meets classic Halloween card that I’d happily replicate again today, if I still had the same supplies.

I might give it a go with similar, but different items, for a 2020s take on this greeting that was made close to a decade ago now.

Which of these festively fun, spookily sweet, and marvellously macabre paper crafting projects is your favourite?

Looking back, looking ahead

Far from causing me pain or tearing open wounds that have, mercifully, done a pretty good job of healing, looking back at these projects brings me a lot of joy.

I love being reminded of my past creative makes, what elements of my paper crafting style have stayed the same and which have changed/evolved/improved since then, the stories these projects tell, and the happiness – both in myself and, when applicable, in others – that the end results delivered.

As we head towards the official start of fall and all throughout my favourite chapter of the year, I will be sharing numerous freshly made autumn, Thanksgiving, and Halloween/Samhain related paper crafting projects here with you.

This point also delivers a bevy of joy my way and I can hardly wait to unveil my fall 2021 crop of crafty makes.

Each project that a creative soul brings into being is shaped in some way – be it tiny or large – by what they’ve previously created.

As crafters and artists, we don’t need to stand on the shoulders of giants, we are our own giants and muses.

The projects highlighted in this post each helped to hone and further develop my skills and style, the very things that I love to share here with you via my project posts all year round.

For September 2021, the pre-fire projects shared here are my latest entry for #MakeHalloween365.

Save for some of the cards and other items that were given as gifts, all of these projects are long gone in corporal form, living on instead in spirit and digital photos.

They did not get a chance to appear in the moment as part of #MakeHalloween365, as I just created this fun Halloween project share hashtag earlier this year.

They get the opportunity to do so now, however, and I hope that while they are not the newest of makes, they are able to inspire you and embody the heart of this hashtag all the same.

I may not make the fire the centre of many of my blog posts, but when I do, I generally want there to be a positive element to the end message of such entries.

In this instance, for me, that is one of hope and perseverance, of not letting the unthinkable rob you of your passions, and of finding a way back to the light of positivity even on the darkest of nights.

Thank you, cherished friends, for being here with me on this site and on social media, and for experiencing the poignant journey that is my post-fire paper crafting and life in general.

There will never, not in all the languages of the universe, be enough words for me to convey just how much that means to – and motivates – me.

If I could, I would make fall and Halloween themed cards for each of you, but as that isn’t possible, I hope that you will look upon the projects I post online as a way of conveying my heartfelt gratitude to each of you.

Here’s to the magnificence, inspiration, nostalgia, and, in turn, present-day happiness of pumpkin spice, crunchy leaf, and grinning ghost season – may it be as kind to you as you, sweet souls, are to me.

The post A Handful of My Very Favourite Pre-fire Halloween Scrapbook Pages and Cards appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

What a radically different place the planet was when the inaugural edition of this quarterly link love blog post appeared.

Most of us were already aware that a massive worldwide threat was upon us, but we had little idea just how severe and far reaching the pandemic’s impact would be. Just as we were only starting to get an inkling of the ways in which it would impact both our own individual lives and society as a collective whole.

One year on, while the vaccine is starting to have a positive impact in terms of seeing a decrease in global case numbers, the pandemic is certainly not over yet and it remains anyone’s guess as to when that incredible day will come.

Of course, even when it does, the trauma and lasting impact of the pandemic will still be felt through many facets of society – and in the lives of many, if not most, of us who were able to make it through this immensely challenging time.

Events like this do not happen in a vacuum and do not fade with the sunrise on the first day after they’ve officially ended.

They are felt and remembered for years, decades, lifetimes, multiple generations.

When the time comes, we will need to collectively band together and support one another with healing, grief and trauma processing, and life rebuilding.

Will everyone pitch in or even acknowledge as much? Sadly, naturally, no.

Yet just as a good many of us have done our best to help out our fellow humans in the past year or so by taking measures such as self-isolating, social distancing, wearing masks, sticking to our bubbles, and so forth, likewise, I tend to think, we will collectively help one another to move ahead in a post-Covid-19 world.

Time of great difficulty are often likened to winter. An apt and understandable comparison, given the inherent harshness of the year’s coldest, darkest, and often most unforgiving chapter.

As this presence of this post denotes, the literal season of winter has, in the Northern Hemisphere, drawn to a close once more.

Sure, some areas still have snow and ice, and sporting bare feet or arms this early on might be jumping the gun a tad, but thanks to the Spring Equinox on Saturday, winter is officially over.

This winter was long, both literally and figurative. It began in our area back in mid-October and hasn’t entirely given up the ghost yet. When all is said and done, its duration will span somewhere in the realm of half a year.

I’m grateful that generally, speaking I really enjoy winter. It (like autumn) appeals to my introverted soul and is often the season in which I am most productive, my mind feels the sharpest, and I can revel in the serene, even sacred coziness of the snowy months.

Spring is usually very short-lived around these parts. Going from temps well below freezing to ones in the 30s Celsius within a matter of weeks is almost par for the course around our neck of the Western Canadian woods.

As a result, in some respects, I feel like spring is the season I’m least acquainted with. Yet that is not to say, of course, that we don’t experience spring (we do) or that I don’t know and love this regenerative, beautiful chapter of the year (I definitely do!).

Simply that its brevity is usually a given and that, much as with autumn, we must strive as best we can to celebrate, honour, and delight in these mild, life renewing days for the brief span that they are upon us.

Right here and now, let’s keep on celebrating spring’s rebirth while we also take a gander at some of the witchy, crafting, and otherwise interesting/inspiring links from around the web that caught my eye over the course of this latest winter.

Magick, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Spirituality

–Black Pagan Community Leaders: A wonderful post that highlights some of today’s most engaging, informative, and inspiring Black Pagan voices.

–Dice Magic: Using Dice for Spellcraft and Divination: By far one of the most common elements of countless games the world over, the humble dice can also be used in a magickal/spiritual context as well.

If you’re keen to weave working, or divining (astragalomancy), with dice into your practice, be sure to check out Sidney Eileen’s detailed and highly engaging recent post on the subject.

–Eight Ways to Stay Witchy (and Sane) When Sick With Covid-19: While I hope to the stars above that none of you will need to avail of the advice detailed in this personal account of one magickal soul’s recent battle with Covid-19, if you do experience the virus as well, you may find this page to be of both comfort and help.

–40 Self Love Affirmations That Feel Like a Deep Breath: This supportive, beautiful list is a must-read for everyone and anyone who engages in the vital act of self-love (which, ideally, should be all of us!)

–How to Make a Floral Wreath for Ostara: The YouTube channel Magical Crafting is one of my all-time favourites on this platform. Not only are the creator’s projects witchy/Pagan, beautiful, and easy to follow along with if you want to replicate them yourself, but her soothing voice and skillfully presented videos make this channel a true must-watch in my books.

While Ostara is now underway, this wreath project might be one to bookmark for next year’s Spring Equinox or you may wish to make it now and enjoy it straight on until summer, connecting with the revitalizing energy and beauty of Ostara all season long.

–Walking the Path of Infertility and 5 Spiritual Tools to Help: Infertility is something that impacts millions around the world and as such is, of course, far from unknown amongst Pagans and witches.

Yet despite the prevalence of infertility coupled with the heartbreak, stress, challenges, and, sometimes, miracles that transpire daily for many souls, this topic is discussed surprisingly little in our community.

All the more reason then why this supportive post is a much-needed and welcome spiritually focused look a subject and experience that touches untold numbers of lives (my own included).

–Witch, You Vex Me: Jason Mankey injects his telltale wit and insight into this look at various elements of the modern Pagan/witchy world that routinely cause him to sharply raise an eyebrow – and, I would venture to say, likely let out an exasperated sigh every now and then, too.

Card Making, Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting, and Other Crafts

–DIY Crescent Moon Ring (Holder) Dish: Elegant, easy to make, and super handy to boot, this lovely DIY ring holder is so pretty, you might want to make a second one to use simply as home décor.

–DIY Dollar Store Beehives: Like many of us, I’m a creative soul on a tight budget. I mean really, really, you-might-not-actually-belief-me-if-I-told-you-just-how-tight budget.

Which is all the more reason then why I adore dollar store craft projects. It is incredible + inspiring what some folks can dream up with inexpensive items and a serious dose of imagination.

One of the most charming dollar store DIYs to cross my path lately is this cuter-than-cute dollar store beehive project.

It would be perfect as part of your seasonal décor, left out all year, included on an altar, used as a centrepiece, or to give as a bee-utiful gift.

–Furever Friends Home Décor Shaker Project: My lovely friend – and uber-talented crafter – Jennifer Snyder recently posted a tutorial for this pawsatively adorable pet themed home décor shaker project which is just too sweet and inspiring not share here.

–How to Make Your Own DIY Twisted Candles: Get the lux, cooler-than-cool look of twisted candles sans the often steep ticket price of store-bought versions with this helpful how-to post from Genevieve at Blue Augustine.

–How to Sew Mesh Produce Bags: A welcome alternative to the sea of plastic bags that call many produce departments home, these lightweight DIY mesh bags are an awesome way to reduce waste and carry your fresh fruit and veggies home in something that you can reuse time and time again.

–Layout Featuring Paper Pleating Tutorial: Over on the Graphic 45 blog, this elegantly pretty project recently caught my eye.

I adore pleating, but haven’t seen it used on scrapbook pages all that often in recent years (back in the late 90s/early 2000s it was a bit more common, including on some of Anna Griffin’s projects).

I’m all in favour of changing that and hope this lovely pleated page will inspire you to incorporate more of this classic folding (or scoring) technique into some of your papercrafting makes as well.

–Make a DIY Witch Hat in Any Size: Costume, home décor, sacred space adornment, Halloween decoration, or legit daily headwear, if so inclined. There is no shortage of uses for, and reasons to wear, a witch hat!

This helpful sewing tutorial guides you through how to make an iconic pointed witch’s hat with relatively few supplies and tools, and which is not so advanced to beyond the skills of many beginner level sewers.

What’s Shaking in My Life and On My Radar

Much as the stirrings of spring are busily getting underway, so too am I beginning the behind-the-scenes work on creating my recently announced ASMR YouTube channel.

It is my aim, all things willing, to have my first ASMR content up at some point this spring. With each step I take that brings this important dream of mine closer to reality, the more my heart sings with joy.

As for the season that just was, however, in many respects, things were (in relation to the current state of the world) life as usual.

We had a lengthy, snowy winter, which saw its coldest snap in February, care of an arctic front that stuck around for over two weeks.

March arrived gently, but eagerly at the same time. A mix of ongoing winter weather interspersed with milder temperatures and some of the first rain we’d seen since last fall.

Each holiday – be it national or Pagan – that came and went with the winter weeks was spent at home. Low-key, meaningful occurrences steeped in tradition, hope, and happiness.

I am grateful for the presence of Ostara this week. It is such a sweet, happy, beautiful sabbat. (If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out my recent post: 35 Wonderful Ostara Crafts, DIY Projects, and Decor Ideas for the Spring Equinox.)

Then, next up on the Wheel of the Year, we will embrace the warmth, passion, and ancient soul of Beltane as May begins, before winding our way to Litha (the Summer Solstice) about seven weeks beyond that point.

I’m really looking forward to embracing spring, continuing to prepare for the launch of my ASMR channel, working to grow my recently launched #MakeHalloween365 crafting community hashtag, and sharing lots of fun, inspiring new content here with all of you throughout the next three months.

For the moment though, let’s take a gander at a few things that caught my eye online during the toque-and-mitts season that just was.

–DIY Infused Vinegar Fabric Softener: I have extremely sensitive skin and have long needed to avoid most commercially prepared laundry products. Thankfully, there are a couple of store-bought detergents that my skin can presently handle. However, for things like dryer sheets or fabric softener, homemade versions using natural, chemical-free ingredients are usually my go-to choice.

This lovely, super easy DIY vinegar fabric softener calls for vinegar and the scent inclusion ingredient(s) of your choosing, and is a far sight kinder to one’s skin and pocketbook alike than most mass produced options on the market.

–15 Things You Could Do Instead of Comparing Yourself to Others: The pitfalls, stresses, and anxieties of comparing oneself to others are hard to avoid. And, for many of us, have become all the more so since the meteoric rise of social media.

I am not immune to falling under the potentially negative siren’s call of comparison myself. In fact, I was doing so more than my usual amount (in recent years) as 2021 got underway, which made the timing of this post crossing my path especially welcome.

I hope that it will help you as well if you’ve also been sizing yourself up against others a bit too much lately or have a tendency to do so in general.

–Historic (US) Mansions Left to Wrack and Ruin: In the Fall 2020 edition of this post series, I shared about an extraordinary historical American home that had sat largely untouched for decades and was delighted to see by your comments that I was far from alone in being utterly captivated by this story.

While most are not quite the (relatively) intact time capsules that particular home is, the large, beautiful houses highlighted in this post are instantly captivating as well and sure to appeal to many of my fellow fans of abandoned properties.

–Listen to Forests Around the World: This tranquil website allows you to listen to uploaded recordings that were made in various forests around the globe at the click of a mouse.

Whether you do so for relaxation, fun, or just sheer curiosity, if you’re anything like me, you may find yourself instantly hooked on this creative way to connect with parts of the planet that you might otherwise never hear sounds from.

–Scientists Recreate Voice of 3,000 Year Old Mummy: While in the field of archeological research the act and art of recreating the faces of the deceased has been well established for quite some time now, bringing voices of the past into the 21^st century is a rather new undertaking.

Recently, scientists have done just that with an identified mummy who was laid to rest three millennia ago and while we can’t know for certain that it’s an exact duplication of the deceased actual vocal notes, the concept behind this emerging field is one that may develop further and someday be common practise.

–The C. 1910 Photographs of Christina Broom: These gripping Edwardian images capture a vivid, earnest sense of the suffragette era they document, as seen quite literally through the lens of a woman of that period. A time that had one foot in the past, and the other striding boldly towards the unstoppable future.

Lean into the natural optimism of spring

It is impossible to know if, in another year’s time, the world will still be held tightly in the merciless grips of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Like virtually all of us, I hope with every fibre of my being that this global nightmare will be over by then.

Yet, as the past year has driven home time and time again, we simply to do not know how long or how far-reaching this pandemic may prove to be.

Spring is the season of renewal and rebirth. It has an ingrained lightness and joie de vivre imbued in its DNA.

As spring 2021 enters our lives, I am opting to focus on those kinds of positives, instead of worrying unduly on what may or may not lie ahead for the world in another year.

I am deeply mindful of these things, but am choosing not to let the great unknown that is the future rob me of whatever positives I can experience in the present moment (and I wholeheartedly encourage you to do the same).

Much like last year, this spring will be both similar and different from the others throughout my lifetime.

As things sit now, we don’t have any travel plans, family birthdays and other special events are likely to be observed sans gathering together, we will continue to limit exposure to the external world, and are certainly not hanging our masks up anytime soon.

Yet, at the same time, there will be a bevy of gorgeous blooms, the earthy, uplifting scents of a world bouncing back to life, and the comforting familiarity of sunshine to delight in throughout the next three months.

Spring is a hopeful time of the year. One that has a powerful, welcome ability to lift our spirits and keep the flames of our own internal hopes – whatever they may be – burning brightly.

Not, come to think of it, unlike that aforementioned sunshine, which helps to banish winter’s chill, grow gardens, and let – sooner or later – those aforementioned bare toes and arms feel the fresh air on our skin again (sans the risk of frostbite!).

Whatever this spring holds in store for us as individuals and as a planet, we will bravely face it head on.

And with a sizable amount of luck, and a great many vaccines given out, maybe, just maybe, come next spring the pandemic will be over. Here’s to hoping!!!

From the bottom of my heart, dear friends, I wish you each a safe, beautiful, sweet, sunny, and tremendously blessed spring.  

The post Winter 2021 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Be it Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Cleopatra and Marc Antony, Romeo and Juliet, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, King Arthur and Guinevere, or Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, many famous fictional couples have become household names.

And it is not uncommon for future characters to be built upon existing literary or mythological figures. For example, the couples in The Flintstones were heavily influenced by the 1950s Honeymooners sitcom.

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool romantic and have a great fondness for a lot of different fictional couples. None, however, hold quite as big or deeply rooted a spot in my heart as that devoted to Morticia and Gomez Addams.

They are #relionshipgoals. They are #lifegoals.

They are the last word on the perfect romantic couple in my books.

How the Addams Family started

Morticia A. Addams (née Frump) and Gomez Addams, along with many of their now-familiar relatives, were spun to life by American cartoonist Charles Samuel Addams for The New Yorker magazine back in the 1930s.

Fascinatingly, when these characters first appeared in The New Yorker, they were nameless and remained as such until the 1964 television series debuted.

At that time, Charles Addams himself gave the characters their monikers, selecting the homemade name of Morticia for the matriarch of the Addams clan.

It is a riff on the word mortician (as well as “mortis”, Latin for “death”), which tied into the themes of darkness and death that have always permeated this most spectacularly spooky of families.

Yet, for the Addams Family, every day was akin to All Hallows’ Eve and far from being aware that their look deviated from the norm, they frequently saw others as being the odd ones out.

They eschewed sunny days, flowers with blooms on their stems, and contemporary dinner table fare, amongst many other things.

For the family’s father, Charles Addams suggested either Repelli or Gomez, leaving the final choice up to the actor John Astin, who would portray the Addams Family dad in the sixties series. As you likely know, Mr. Astin selected the name of Gomez – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Though familiar to readers of The New Yorker from the late 1930s to the early sixties (they made their magazine debut in either 1937 or ‘38, depending on your source), by and large, the Addams Family were unknown to the general public prior to their TV debut in 1964.

It’s safe to say that from the very get-go, the entire family stood out.

With an exception made for The Munsters, there was nothing else quite like the Addams Family to be found on television at the time.

Back then, few people had even begun to conceptualize something akin to a goth lifestyle – let alone were yet living in a way that paid such homage to all things spooky, macabre and mysterious at any point in the year other than perhaps Halloween.

Each member of the Addams Family, including those who resided in the Addams’ home at 0001 Cemetery Lane (later changed to 1313 Cemetary Lane), such as Uncle Fester, Grandmama, the Addams’ children, Pugsley and Wednesday (with the addition in the 1993 Addams Family Values movie of baby Pubert); Thing, and the family butler, Lurch, had their own distinct style and personality.

They were quirky and fun, engaging and entertaining. And their near cavalier regard for how anyone else saw, thought or spoke about them appealed to me wildly as a child. It still does to this day.

Yet, it was the relationship between Morticia and Gomez Addams in particular that stuck with me most powerfully.

They were, and are, the perfect husband and wife couple as far as I’m concerned.

How the Morticia and Gomez Addams taught me what a happy, healthy, loving marriage could be

To say that my biological parents had an unhappy and highly dysfunctional relationship would be a serious understatement.

I didn’t grow up with the proverbial loving (towards one another) parents as they were portrayed on TV shows and movies of my generation. My home life didn’t resemble that of the Keatons, the Huxtables, the Taylors, or even the Connors.

Though, as a child, I could appreciate (and at times, powerfully yearn for) it, I did not know that sort of cheerful sunshine-and-roses stability firsthand and had few other couples in my family to look to as positive role models in this regard.

Instead, I found that I gravitated most towards the Addams as the pillar of what a strong, committed, supportive and incredibly loving relationship (and family home life) could be and look like.

Morticia and Gomez shared a rock-solid, blissful, healthy marriage that was fostered by both togetherness and individuality.

The element of their uniqueness, their ability to disregard how they were perceived by others and to find joy in being who they really were spoke to me in a way that nothing in the fictional world ever had before – or has since, for that matter.

Gomez and Morticia Addams love each other. Not a little. Not just when it suits them. Not to get what they want out of the other person or anything of that nature, but because they are really and truly, head-over-heels, magnificently and completely in love.

Though they have the occasional tiff (as all couples do), at the end of the day, you know, you just know, that Morticia will always have Gomez’s back and that he has hers every bit as much.

They were a united front, a power couple before the term was even mainstream, a joy to watch, and a pair that any of us, no matter our personal histories with romance, can take some serious inspiration from.

Morticia and Gomez don’t just love one another, they make a point to work on their relationship.

They shower each other with compliments and praise, they support the other person’s interests, they nurture and care for one another, and they can’t fathom existing without their darling partner in this life or the next.

They would go to the ends of the earth for their beloved, they share fabulous sweet talk and pet names, they delight in the awesomeness that is their love and the fact that they found one another, they’re terrific parents to their children, and they melt like young lovers day after day – no matter how long they’ve been married for.

Plus, they have a rockin’ love life, they’re kind and accepting not only to/of each other and their relatives, but of pretty much everybody who crosses their path, and their picture could easily appear in the dictionary alongside the word “passion”.

It’s safe to say that Morticia and Gomez Addams have a love that will last until the end of time.

Celebrating true love in the spirit of the Addams Family

Today is my and Tony’s wedding anniversary.

On this day sixteen years ago, in a very small, very simple civil ceremony that was held at my mother’s house, the two of us tied the knot.

We were young, we were in love (our marriage took place just seven months after we first met), and we knew that much like Gomez and Morticia, we wanted to spend every last one of our days together. 

It brings me great happiness to say that we’ve been doing just that for over a decade and a half now.

We might not live in a rambling old Victorian mansion (oh, how I dearly wish that we did!) or have a pet lion, and all our relatives look like your average human.

Yet, humbly, I like to think that we have the sort of relationship that would make Morticia and Gomez Addams proud.

We started out with almost nothing to our names and began from scratch again following the arson house fire we experienced precisely four years and one day ago.

We have weathered immense storms, lived on two continents, gone through the complex Canadian immigration process (for Italian born Tony), battled countless health issues (mostly mine, but also a few of my dear husband’s), and have grown from near-teenagers with our own respective difficult pasts to fully-formed adults together.

Tony and I are unconventional for a host of different reasons (e.g., we met online at a time when such was much less common than it is now, we grew up in different cultures, we do not have children, I’m a Pagan witch and he’s a staunch atheist, etc), and at the end of the day, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Blending in with the rank and file is neither of our jams.

My husband isn’t just my best friend, he’s my rock and my guiding my star. I love him with a fire the heat of which would make molten lava feel like ice.

I would defend him against anyone or anything, and I respect, honour, cherish and adore him something fierce.

I support his dreams and goals, know his quirks inside and out, make him laugh and smile, comfort him, cheer him on, and still get goosebumps sometimes just looking at him.

And I am truly blessed that he feels the same way about me as well.

We do not take our relationship for granted. We work at it, we nourish and tend to it, and we put in the leg work – all of which pays off for us in spades.

Today we celebrate another year together, our hearts full of intense felicity about this fact.

Like Gomez and Morticia, we’re not your average couple and we delight in this fact – which we both believe has only helped to strengthen our bond and bring us even closer to one another.

I am very grateful for my husband, as he is for me – and perhaps to no one’s surprise, if you’ve read this far, we both adore and look up to the Addams.

They have a love to last the ages, and on this day we toast not only our own committed relationship but theirs as well.

Join me then, won’t you, in raising a glass – or an antique goblet with cobwebs wrapped around its stem – to Morticia and Gomez Addams.

Morticia and Gomez are one of the most inspiringly incredible fictional couples of all time. They have given pop culture, society as a whole, and especially those people who do not see themselves as being like most others a great deal.

And for that, and so much more, they have my unflapping adoration.

The post An ode to my favourite fictional couple of all time: Morticia and Gomez Addams (on my and Tony’s wedding anniversary) appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

My history of running personal websites stretches all the way back to 2004. The world and the web were both very different places then – as one would expect after a sixteen-year period in this fast-paced day and age that we live in.

Between then and now, I’ve had the pleasure of helming a handful of different websites and blogs. Thus far, the longest-running were active for eight and just shy of ten years, respectively.

I retired my last blog, which focused on vintage fashion and history, in March 2017. Doing so was gut-wrenchingly difficult. I agonized over the decision for months. It tore at my very core to walk away from something that I had poured my heart and soul, endless hours and untold amounts of energy into for such a long time.

And yet, in respect to the circumstances of my life and health at the time, I knew that retiring that website was the wisest choice for me in that moment. While I’ve often missed it and the awesome vintage blogging community that existed at the time, I’ve never regretted my choice.

In the nearly three years between when that blog was retired and when Witchcrafted Life sprang into being, I thought a great deal about if I would ever return to blogging again – and if I did, what kind of site I would create.

As time went on, guided by the universe, I came to realize that A) I definitely wanted and needed to return to blogging and B) I was going to do combine two of the most important aspects of my life – Paganism/witchery and paper crafting – as the primary topics that my new site would cover.

Despite those who are quick to decry as much, I do not believe that blogging as a medium is dead. I would never have started the very site that you’re now reading if I believed as much.

Has blogging changed substantially since the 2000s and early to mid-2010s? Absolutely.

Have a lot of people retired, abandoned or removed their blogs in recent years? You bet!

But that doesn’t mean that blogging has given up the ghost. Many folks who have been blogging for ages continue to do so and no shortage of new blogs pop up every year.

WitchcraftedLife.com is born

At the start of this year, I became one of those people. Again.

And the “again” is important, because WCL is not my first blog or website. Yes, I’d been out of the game (save for guest blogging) for a while, but much like riding a bike, blogging is something that you don’t just suddenly forget how to do.

For every “what if” thought, trepidation, and valid concern that my mind could dream up when I contemplated the idea of returning to blogging, a voice deep inside reminded me that I had a substantial amount of past experience to draw on.

At one point, I was blogging professionally with my vintage site. It was my full-time job (and then some!), and to say that I gave it 110% would be an honest-to-goodness understatement.

Yet, I didn’t (and don’t) want blogging to currently consume my every waking hour. There can be a lot of pros, perks and positives to taking that “I’m all in” sort of approach, but it can also be astronomically draining, stressful and difficult to maintain without running the risk of legitimate burnout.

In life, knowing what we don’t want is often every bit as important – if not more so – than knowing what we do, and it was critical for me that I set some personal boundaries before I kicked off a brand new site.

I knew that I needed to find a healthy balance between blogging and my offline life. I knew that as sharing homemade craft projects would play a key role in this website’s existence, I would need to factor in time and energy to create.

And I knew that as a multi-chronic illness fighter, the immense uncertainty of my health would need to be accounted for in respect to my posting frequency and the overall blogging related workload that I took on.

I was also aware that the blogging world, while not yet having succumbed to the fate of the dinosaurs, had changed a fair bit in recent years.

In a world where social media and video content (YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, etc) hold more sway and have higher user counts than ever, it can be genuinely challenging to grow a blog – especially one that combines not just a single niche topic, but two.

Nothing about my decision to return to blogging was rushed or done haphazardly – if anything, as my patience-of-a-saint husband will attest to, I likely overthought and over-disucssed the mother lovin’ heck out of things!

No matter how much one knows about a subject, plans and prepares for, things can – and often will – unfold differently than you expected. That’s life in a nutshell.

And I was ready for that. Ready for the trials and tribulations, positives, stresses, joys, challenges, adventures, and connections that blogging offers.

As soon as I felt ready to blog again, the name Witchcrafted Life came to me.

It was time.

I was prepared.

And so on the very first day of the first month of the first year of the new decade, this website went live.

Why I returned to blogging in 2020

From the moment I mastered the alphabet as a child, I began to write and I haven’t stopped since. What began as journaling and stories jotted down in crayon morphed into notebooks of teenage poetry and on to an adulthood that has been filled with more written words than I could ever begin to count.

Many, though not all, have been digital – as is true for a lot writers these days. We use the tools and mediums of our times, and that means things like blogs, websites, online magazines, and social media.

Writing gives me more of a voice than the one that exists my own mouth. It is joy and strength, empowerment and creativity for me.

I can picture my existence without countless things, even those of a basic needs level, but I genuinely cannot fathom a world in which I wasn’t writing in some capacity.

While I had other outlets, online and off, to write in between my previous blog and this one, including Instagram, few gave me the free reign, character count, or ability to captain my own creative ship the way that blogging does.

I returned because I love to write, need to write, start to go stir crazy if I don’t write in some capacity online or off.

But that wasn’t the only reason. After all, there are other ways to write besides blogging.

I also returned because I wanted to share my knowledge and passion on the topics that are at the heart of this blog, to connect with others who share those passions, and to help support and inspire people around the world to be true to themselves and their own innate creativity + inner magic(k).

It is my hope that blogging will also allow me to reach certain goals that are very important to me – including becoming a published book author.

Returning to blogging wasn’t a decision I made lightly. I had watched as hundreds of blogs on an array of topics that I enjoy shuttered their doors or were simply abandoned (zero judgement there, I promise you – I get it, I really do).

I knew that far fewer people were commenting on many blogs and that the community that had once helped to foster, nurture and support the growth of a lot of sites within a given niche wasn’t likely to be as extensive as it had once been.

In a sea of Buzzfeed lists, memes, tweets and selfies, blogging can look and feel downright antiquated at times. Yet, in many respects, the purposes that it serves and the reach it extends are greater and more important than ever.

Blogging is, generally, far less ethereal than the “here one moment, buried under five thousand new posts the next” realm of social media.

It might not generate something that is physically tangible, but it creates words that are crawled and indexed by search engines, that are not capped at 280 or 2,200 characters, and which can quickly and easily be linked to by other websites.

Compared to the temporary nature of many different digital platforms, blogging almost seems weighty.

It has substance and packs a punch (as can, please don’t get me wrong, SM and the like at times, too). It can be Googled and it allows a certain sort of creative freedom that, to my mind, other digital platforms are hard-pressed to top.

And you know what, I like blogging. In fact, I love blogging.

It can drive one up the wall and back again at times – but there are few things worth doing in life for which that isn’t the case.

Blogging is rewarding and fun. It excites me, it inspires me, it allows me to connect all the more with those who share my interests.

I know from experience that it also has the potential to blossom into so much more than just the sum of its parts.

The opportunities, skills, networking, friendships, collaborations, and other positives that can stem from blogging are invaluable for many of us who opt to steer our own vessels through the vast waters of the internet.

I returned to blogging because I have so much more that I want to say, share, learn, teach, and, I hope, both inspire others with and be inspired by.

Why did I create this paganism meets paper crafting blog?

As this post winds down, I’d like to take a moment to mention that while there is plenty of overlap between the two, the reasons why I returned to blogging point blank and the specific reasons why I started a site dedicated to both Paganism and paper crafting do differ in some respects.

For example, one of the driving forces behind this site coming into being is that it is very important for me to be an example of, and voice for, those who consider themselves “alternative” crafters or who don’t always feel that they or they work are/is fully accepted within their respective crafting sphere.

I know full well what it’s like to feel that way. Let’s face it, there aren’t a ton of Pagan paper crafters out there – let alone ones who are blogging about it.

Helping in my own small way to encourage others to always craft – and march – to the beat of their own drum, is incredibly near and dear to my heart.

This desire was one of a handful of key reasons behind why I launched a blog that covers the topics of both witchery/Paganism and paper crafting.

Some of the others were discussed in my inaugural post, and other still will likely be explored in greater detail here as time goes on.

How long will I blog for?

It is impossible to know how long Witchcrafted Life will be online for. I’ve learned that how and when websites and blog conclude rarely happens how we might have imagined.

I sincerely hope that this blog will have an extensive and wonderful life during which it is able to be of benefit, and bring supportive positivity, to many who encounter it.

That is my goal, my commitment, and my plan.

I didn’t spend more than two years contemplating whether to blog again (and what specifically it was that I was going to blog about) to dip my toes into the water once more and then promptly retreat back to dry land.

Nope, I’m all in.

This blog matters a great deal to me – as do the people who visit and help to support it.

And with all of my heart, I thank each person who engages with this website in any way. You are appreciated and valued beyond measure.

I returned to blogging for a multitude of reasons, and I have no doubt that others still to emerge will help ensure that I remain here for a good long while.

Which reminds me, I’ve got a new post to write, so I best get cracking.

The post Why I Returned to Blogging appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.