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.

You left me boundaries of pain
Capacious as the sea,
Between eternity and time,
Your consciousness and me.

There are words you think you will never hear and others you believe shall never dare grace your lips or fingertips.

For me, this month has been filled with a cavalcade of both.

On the afternoon of July 4, 2022, seemingly out of the blue, my husband (Tony) left me and ended our marriage.

In a matter of a few sentences, he said that he no longer feels romantic love for me, wants a swift divorce, and that our shared home is to be sold ASAP.

Had a meteorite plummeted from the heavens and fallen on my head, I would have been less surprised.

That at least could have been explained by science.

This… this makes zero sense.

Up until the moment that those life-shattering sentences were uttered, I would have told you with the utmost conviction that our love was deeper and our relationship stronger than ever before.

I have never been unfaithful, and I genuinely believe that Tony has not either.

Like most couples, we have had our ups and downs, disagreements and tiffs over the years, but they were usually few and far between (and were normally quickly resolved or simply moved beyond when they did occur).

As far as I know, (up until now) neither of us wanted to radically overhaul or change our lives, move to a different part of the country/world, switch career paths, or anything substantial like that.

There has never been any abuse whatsoever of any kind perpetrated by either party.

Likewise, neither of us has (or has ever had) a substance abuse, drinking, or gambling problem (or any other serious vice or addiction).

Looking in from an outsider’s perspective, I understand that this situation, therefore, makes little to no sense.

Believe me, as the person on the receiving end of the lightning-fast death blow of my marriage, no one gets that better than I do.

I have only vagaries to go on at present and so am just about as in the dark as everyone else right now.

I loved – and continue to love – Tony with every ounce of my being. We have been together since 2004, marrying a mere seven months after we met in October of that same year (a beautiful love story that I detailed here).

Through countless trials and tribulations, times tougher than a kodiak bear, and moments when the only thing that made our happiness greater was magnifying it off of the other person, we stuck together, always growing closer and stronger as a cohesive unit.

I do not know what exactly changed in Tony and I will not theorize as to such publicly.

No matter what he may do or how profoundly he has altered both of our lives, I hold him dearer to me than words could ever fully convay.

Naturally, I have offered to do just about anything to try and fix us.

Considering that I did not know we were in trouble – let alone broken – I cannot overstate how much I would go to the ends of the earth to make us whole again. To try couples counselling, to attempt a trial separation period, to move homes, anything I can possibly think of, but these are not paths Tony is currently open to venturing down together.

At present, the door to my heart remains wide open to the possibility – however slim – of us reuniting. That said, while I keep that door open, please know that I understand and accept that more likely than not, he may never cross its threshold again.

As you might imagine, my life has been completely turned on its head. On top of the mental and physical agony that I am in at the moment, I have been thrust out into the world on my own for the first time in eighteen years.

In the process working at breakneck speed to handle the legal and myriad pragmatic sides of being jarringly separated from the man I believed I would forever call my husband.

Flipflopping between the worst emotional pain of my life and the continued shock that still teeters on numbness at times, I have been navigating the waters of getting my legal affairs in order, searching for housing that I can somehow afford for myself and our dog (who will be living with me) in Canada’s third most expensive housing market, packing up our current home, and getting ready to list our house for sale this coming week.

Gone in the blink of an eye is living in the home we created together following the arson house fire that we experienced in October 2016. A cozy roof and four walls that held not only our day-to-day existence, but innumerable memories of times past paired with scores of hopes and dreams for the future.

A shared vision for our tomorrow that up until twenty days ago, I believed we would long continue to write together on the pages of history. Our hands holding the metaphorical pen in unison that would do so.

But sometimes the inkwell inexplicably gets tipped over or runs dry and the life you envisioned is now one you must mourn so as to somehow – some unfathomable how – find the ability to carry on when every breath, every heartbeat, every waking second hurts like death itself.

For the end of any serious relationship – be it a marriage or otherwise – is unquestionably a form of death.

Sometimes the end is a long time coming.

In others, such as this, it proves to be the most shocking and unforeseen event that may ever happen to a person.

For me, it is the latter (and I am very much factoring the arson fire into that statement).

Tony wasn’t just my husband, he was my very best friend. My greatest source of comfort and support, my rock, my calm in the perpetual storm that is life, my biggest cheerleader, my reason to smile no matter what life threw our way, my soulmate… my everything.

Just as I am certain in my heart of hearts that I was for him as well. If not for the whole, then for very nearly the entire eighteen magical years we experienced together.

I don’t know where we went wrong, because I truly did not believe anything was seriously amiss – let alone (again) to such a profound degree. Perhaps I will never know – the onus of answers lies squarely on my beloved’s shoulders.

Like many of us, I have weathered my fair share of serious challenges and losses over the years. From becoming a multi-chronic illness fighter in my teens to the aforementioned fire and many others, life has thrown so many curveballs at me that I could probably play in the Major Leagues at this point.

This, however, is the swiftest, hardest, and most difficult thus far in my 38 years on earth.

That said, no matter how much the mere act of existing hurts at a cellular level right now, I believe I will find a way to keep going. To start over once again.

Doing so without a penny or an asset to my name, and – due to the severity of my chronic health problems – with, at best, sporadic self-employment. (Note, as per our separation agreement, I will be receiving monthly alimony payments for a number of years provided Tony remains employed, but will still be doing everything in my power to generate additional income so as to meet my most important basic daily living and medical expenses.)

My marriage is over, and I am in the throes of grief unlike any I have ever known. Yet dawn follows even the darkest eve and surely, somehow, I will get through this living nightmare and the indescribable heartache that accompanies it.

Due to the massive number of serious challenges I am facing and tackling at present, it is impossible for me to keep publishing fresh content here right now.

As such, from today onward, I am putting this blog (Witchcrafted Life) on what I hope beyond hope will be a temporary – not permanent – hiatus as I deal with everything that the abrupt and wholly unforeseen end of a marriage entails.

Whether to return (be it at my usual posting pace or a more reduced one) or to simply provide you with an update on how things are going in my life, I will do my best to post here at some point in the coming fall months (potentially October or November).

Much as I will not be creating new blog content (or craft projects for that matter), I cannot realistically see staying abreast of + commenting on other peoples’ sites in the near future. My heartfelt apologies about that to those whose blogs I regularly visit.

As I have told Tony in the wake of this devastating situation, over the course of the past eighteen years we were blessed to share together, all I have ever wanted – and still want – is for him to be happy, healthy, content/fulfilled, and loved.  

Until July 4^th of this year, I believed those things would continue to happen in no small part through our life together.

If Tony thinks he is able to do so to a greater degree in a new life that he creates for himself, then with genuine love in my heart – no matter how much it pains me to say goodbye – I hope that he experiences each of those things all the more and is able to find whatever it is he felt/feels our marriage was no longer providing him with at this point in time.

For every tear that has fallen from my exhausted eyes over the past three weeks (they feel as though they must number in the millions by now), I will forever have the gift of an infinitely larger number of cherished, happy, soulful memories from the course our marriage to look back on with the deepest of gratitude and affection.

There is nothing in existence that I would trade for the years we shared, the unforgettable times we experienced, and those very memories that were forged in the fires of our love.

Thank you, sweet friends, for allowing me to share a few humble paragraphs about this situation with each of you.

Until we connect again, please know that you will be fiercely missed, always appreciated, and wished a joyful summer-into-fall (or winter-into-spring if you are south of the equator).

Abundant love,

Autumn

The post My Marriage Abruptly Ended – Putting Witchcrafted Life on Hiatus appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

This is not the first time I have been queried on this point (or similar variants of it) – nor, I’m sure, will it be the last.

The wording of this question always catches my eye. The person is not directly asking me why I am a witch, but rather why I would willingly associate with a word that, more often than not in their eyes, holds strongly negative or even “evil” connotations.

Ask ten, three hundred, or five thousand witches this same question and chances are you will receive nearly as many different replies as to why they have decided to call themselves witches.

I cannot, and would not, speak for anyone else on this matter. I can only reply as to why I proudly choose to call myself a witch.

Why I call myself a witch

I call myself a witch because as a very young child, before I even fully understood in a spiritual or real-world context what that word and the practice of witchcraft entailed, a voice deep in the furthest reaches of my being told me that I was a witch.

Witchcraft came as naturally to me as drawing air, but it was a path that I made darn sure I was willing to take on the full complexities of and in doing so, to face the potential backlash, persecution, intolerance, ostracization, and even hatred that the label of witch and the act of witchcraft can carry with them.

I call myself a witch because I entered this world with a soul so old it feels as though it was already well-aged when the Big Bang occurred.

In the word witch I seek and see, find and cherish the past, the present, and the future.

I call myself a witch because I am willing, able and honoured to stand up for those impacted by the staggering hardship and trauma, crime and oppression that has been perpetuated over the course of human history – the Burning Times wholly included.

I call myself a witch because it elevates my autonomy. It gives me strength and power, the ability to stand as tall and proud as the lightest oak and to remain true to my innermost beliefs at all times.

I call myself a witch because I have devoted myself and my life, my spirit and soul, heart, body and mind to the study of witchcraft, magick, and Paganism.

I did not don the word “witch” on a whim, to follow a trend or because (as much as I do madly adore it) I’m a huge fan of Halloween.

I read hundreds of books on scores of religions and spiritual belief systems from around the world before I even dared to considered describing myself a witch to others. I have read far more since and each one has helped in its own way to add credence to my choice to become a witch.

I call myself a witch because I believe that there is a spirit or soul in everything – animals, rocks, plants, locations, etc – the world over.

This concept, animism, is a core tenant of my existence, how I engage with others, and why I would only knowingly hurt another living being as a last resort means of necessitated self-defence.

It is why I’ve heard the trees sing to each other, felt Gaia’s pulse beat in tandem with mine as I lay on the verdant grass of a warm June evening, drawn the moon and sun both down and experienced their life forces mingle with my own.

I call myself a witch because I am an empath. The feelings, concerns, stresses, joys, and (sometimes) even thoughts of others are something that I feel and understand as deeply. Perhaps, at times, even more so than my own.

I call myself a witch because I am a perpetual knowledge seeker. For the entirety of my life, I have been madly in love with learning. With following the path of understanding, with the fact that learning one thing can open up a pandora’s box of questions, all of which hold the potential to learn more and in doing so, to potentially grow further as a human being.

I am an impassioned believer in science and reason, but I also know, in my heart of hearts, that there is infinitely more at work in the universe that we do not (yet) know, fully understand, or even conceptualize than what humans presently place under these ever-expanding and shifting headers.

I call myself a witch because I honour nature and do everything that I realistically can to help, heal, nurture and support the planet and all living things that inhabit our world.

I call myself a witch because living in harmony with the Wheel of the Year brings me profound happiness, closeness to the universe, and strengthens my bonds to the ancestors.

As a child, I often questioned why there were not more holidays, especially ones that marked the start of each season. In discovering, as I grew older and began studying Paganism, that humankind had been honouring these points in the year since time immemorial and that some people still continue to do so, I felt a piece of my innermost self click immediately into place.

I call myself a witch because of the profound degree of comfort and acceptance coupled with the immense lack of fear that I have regarding death. I have traversed the veil, I work with my ancestors on a regular basis, I am more at home in a quiet cemetery than almost any public place that the living hang out in.

Death is a state I understand and appreciate. It ends much, but starts much as well. In death, our essential energy is transferred to another form. It does not vanish. Nothing is truly lost in the universe. It just materializes differently with each new iteration.

I call myself a witch because I know that I have the ability to manifest and help to create the outcomes that I desire in my life. I can face any situation and find ways to ensure that, if so desired, it is bolstered, bettered, assisted, protected, or otherwise aided or empowered by the actions that I take and changes set into motion via the witchcraft that I create.

I call myself a witch because I do not depend on others to save me or support me. I am strong and far from helpless. I am a woman, a human, who knows her worth and has learned, through no shortage of challenges and pain, to never let anyone diminish my validity.

I call myself a witch because doing so is right for me and my existence. In the process, I give space and respect to all those who opt to take on this word themselves, too – just as I do those who are not witches.

I have no agenda, no dogma, no disdain for or fear of others whose spiritual path differs from my own. I do not believe that there is “one true path” or religion that has a monopoly over all other spiritual journeys.

I call myself a witch because I can sense and feel things that go deeper than logic can explain. I converse and actively work with spirit allies, my ancestors, deities, the fae (who first presented themselves to me when I was a young child of just two or three), and creatures both of this world and outside of it.

These beings, energies and essences are not foreign or (usually!) frightening to me. They are as much a part of my world as the living humans and animals that I engage with every day.

I call myself a witch because I am proud to not fit into conventional moulds, but instead to march to the beat of my own drum. I have no desire to conform or go with the flock. I am the wolf howling at the moon in the hills overlooking the sheep farm below. I am free as a flowing river, ancient as the earth it traverses, and able to bend and flow as needed just as nimbly as the Nile.

I call myself a witch because incorporating and weaving magick, connection to the ancestors and nature into countless areas of my existence comes as easily and intrinsically as breathing in and out.

I call myself a witch because in my darkest hours, when I literally had nothing to my name, when I was abused or bullied or hurt, when chronic illness became (and remained) a huge part of my daily existence, when my depression took me to places so dark blackholes looked like the face of the sun by comparison, I reached deep down inside myself and using the strength of every last speck of stardust that aligned to create me, I dug in my heels, refused to give up, and never once lowered myself to the level of those who perpetrated these cruel acts against me.

I call myself a witch because, personally, it would be unfathomable for me to ever lord my beliefs over others, to see those who thought or believed differently as sinners simply because of those differences, or to feel that I had a mission to save their souls. We each save, if we so choose, our own souls, in the ways and manners that work best for our unique life paths.

I call myself a witch because I ascribe to no religion. I am a wild spirit, a free thinker, an impassioned believer in a great many things, but I am not – and have never been at any point in my life – religious.

I call myself a witch because my craft is so not driven by aesthetics or vanity. It is not a power trip or way for me to feel superior. It is honest and raw, refined and real. A continual learning process and source of joy, hope, introspection, growth, love, peace and pleasure.

I call myself a witch because I am as certain as anyone could ever be that I have lived past lives. The memories I possess from some of them are as vivid and real as many from this lifetime. I think/believe that a good many – if not all – humans live multiple lives across the universe.

I call myself a witch, because I embrace the duality and interconnectedness of light and dark, that each one exists because of the other and that these two polarities are to be found in every person, every bit as much as they are in the realm of nature and the cosmos.

I call myself a witch because I am the master and keeper of my own mind, body and spirit. This is not up for debate. Autonomy and independence are indescribably important to me and I will fight for them, if need be, with every ounce of energy I possess.

I call myself a witch because I was born a healer, a comforter, a nurturer. I do not want anyone, any animal, any being, or our planet to suffer or feel pain – and when they do, I feel drawn to help and comfort, support and bolster them to the best of my witchy abilities.

I call myself a witch because my intuition guides me to do so. I have an indescribably close bond + profound reverence for my intuition, which you can bet your bottom dollar, I follow and heed.  

I call myself a witch because I am 100% responsible for my actions, my choices in life, my inner happiness, my sense of self-worth, my ability to be do the right thing in every possible situation, and to own my mistakes when they occur.

I call myself a witch because I am willing to stand behind this title and what it means both broadly, and in the realm of my own life, in the 21^st century. I see and experience incredible beauty, meaning, conviction, strength, hope, history, sovereignty, independence, reliance, creativity, humility and power alike in the world witch.

I call myself a witch because there is nothing else I want to be called more. Nothing that feels truer, more right, more natural, or more aligned with every molecule in my being, each breath I draw.

I call myself a witch because I am a witch

The reasons above are by no means the only ones that explain why I call myself a witch. Others exist at present and I’m certain more will blossom into being the longer that I’m a witch. And this, unto itself, is yet another reason why I call myself a witch.

As you may have surmised, the very reasons why I call myself a witch are one in the same with why I am a witch.

Most anybody can be a witch, if they truly want to be one. This word and its domain are not beyond the grasp of those who are willing to embrace, live, and honour it.

I do not feel that being a witch makes me inherently special and I certainly am not a witch to garner attention, flaunt my witchiness around, or tell anyone else how to explicitly be a witch themselves.

Questioning why you are a witch is important

Granted most of us probably don’t want to be asked why we are a witch or why we call ourselves a witch around the clock, but this question doesn’t have to inherently get your guard up unless there is just cause for such.

Some people will ask with an agenda – possibly to try to proselytize, mock, shame, belittle or otherwise insult you – others will be genuinely curious (perhaps they themselves are having witchy stirrings and want to learn more).

In most settings, you do not need to respond in detail and can simply say that you would prefer not to answer that question. The call is yours. As always, I urge you to use your intuition and best judgement.

Beyond being asked why we call ourselves witches by other people, I feel that it is very important that we examine this question on a personal level, exploring and defining why we choose to apply the label of “witch” to ourselves.

Your answers are apt to be highly personalized. They may share points in common with my own and those of others, or they might be substantially different.

The fact that we are able to set forth our own personal definition of what being a witch means and why we call ourselves witches is, unto itself, another reason why I am a witch.

The beautiful, liberating autonomy and freedom to follow a spiritual path that makes sense to, and works well for, us on our own terms is a fantastic and hugely empowering thing.

You might think that this post was penned because the aforementioned woman’s question upset, hurt or bothered me. It did none of those things.

What it did do, was give me the lovely opportunity to stop and once again reflect on what being a witch means to me, why I place this title upon myself, and how profoundly grateful I am to be a witch.

And for that – much like her question itself – I sincerely thank her.

In closing, I would like to leave you with these supportive reminders, from one witch to another.

Do not be afraid to call yourself a witch. Privately, publicly or both, the choice is yours. However, if you do use this word, stand behind it with pride and passion.

Do not let anyone – EVER! – tell you that you’re not a witch if, in fact, you are one.

Don’t feel you have to justify being a witch to anyone other than yourself.

Do embrace your unique, wonderful witchiness.

Do continue to grow, evolve and strengthen your knowledge + abilities as a witch

Do witch on your own terms.

Do know and understand why you are a witch and what being one means to, and for, you.

The post Why I call myself a witch appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

As of yesterday, the fall equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, the season that was is no more. Some rejoice as summer’s fiery wrath retreats, others bemoan the end of such heat and all it entails, and others still are relatively ambivalent about the matter.

However you slice it, summer has drawn to an (official) end.

This was a season, much like the year as a whole, that I doubt many of us will soon forget. And while a mere three months have elapsed since the Spring 2020 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me, it’s safe to say that it feels as though significantly more time has transpired.

This summer wasn’t what I had in mine on many fronts. Nor was it for a good many of us.

Yet, even with some curveballs, challenges, unplanned hiatuses from the good ol’ interwebs, and enough heat to melt the ice rings of Saturn, I loved this summer.

Not a little, not a bit, not even a decent amount, but with a passion that matched the warmth that often drained me so intensely.

It wasn’t a perfect season, nor an easy one. No vacations transpired, (sadly) it wasn’t spent with loved ones due to continued self-isolating and social distancing, and my birthday, back in July, was the least eventful in a decade or more, yet this summer stole my heart.

I spent a lot of time outside, when possible, either in our backyard or on nature walks in secluded local areas. Under hazy summer sunrises and stunning skies full of the kind of twinkling stars one would never see in areas with greater degrees of light pollution, alongside lofty evergreens and breathtaking fields of golden hay, I walked.

And walked, and walked some more.

As walking has long been, effectively, the only form of exercise my health readily permits me to partake in (and even then, there are times when such is not possible) and I’m no stranger to clocking many a KM in a single day. Yet there was something different about the pavement and dirt paths alike that I pounded this summer.

In a world where so much has changed rapidly, where the future feels less certain, and which has altered so much of our usual existence, walking was (and is) familiar.

It is also, relatively speaking, one of the safer activities a person can publicly engage in these days, especially if you opt for quiet areas where few others tend to tread.

Walking sooths me powerfully. It has always felt like a way for me to show my health that it doesn’t always have the upper hand on my daily existence. It aligns beautifully with my spirituality, it gives me plenty of awesome bonding time with our darling dog, and it is just plain fun.

As I do each year, I will walk as late into the autumn as the weather permits. Once the inches/feet of snow that are inevitably come calling again, my walking generally switches from outdoors to indoors care of our treadmill. And while I actually really enjoy treadmilling, with each rotation of the belt, I know I’ll be daydreaming of spring’s bare ground.

But perhaps I’m getting a touch ahead of myself.

There are two whole seasons to go between then and now, and the one that is wrapping up as we speak will be delved into here today in the third edition in this quarterly blog post series.

So many things have caught my eye, inspired, informed and entertained me throughout the summer of 2020.

Indeed, it is hard to narrow the list down to a wee handful. Yet, for the sake of time and space, that I must.

Thus, I present you with the Summer 2020 of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me.

May the entries it houses resonate with you as well – and as always, if you have a (non-spam/commercial) link that’s recently caught your own eye and which you’d like to share in the comments below, please feel free to do so.

Magick, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Spirituality

-As the season’s shift and we embrace the extraordinary beauty of autumn upon the natural landscape, now is an especially wonderful time to follow the helpful suggestions on How to Work With the Plant Allies in Your Neighborhood housed in this lovely post.

-Carving pumpkins can be oodles of fun. It’s a hugely beloved tradition with longstanding European roots that were carried over to the new world by immigrants in centuries past.

Bringing a carving tool to a pumpkin’s flesh can also be a magickal, symbolic and/or highly spiritually charged act as well – as can the designs we scope out of the gourd’s flesh.

I can think of few more Pagan/witchery images better suited to emblazing into a pumpkin than the sacred pentagram. If you’re keen to do just that this fall (or anytime, for that matter), be sure to visit Deborah’s tutorial on How to Carve a Pentagram Pumpkin.

-In recent years, in some corners of the Pagan/witchery sphere, we’ve seen a bit of step back from the ultra structured craft that dominated the earlier decades of contemporary Wicca/witchcraft.

There is something wonderful, I believe, about structure and tradition though and while it is not for everyone, plenty of us enjoy and actively connect with these aspects of our own spiritual journey.

Whether you fall into that camp or not (and, of course, it should go without saying, but I will do so all the same, one take on this subject is not better or more “witchy” than the other), I recommend giving Astrea’s Hardwired For Tradition: Some People Are Better At Traditions Than Others a read.

-Salts of many varieties are an ingredient that I – like many of us – reach for often both in the kitchen and in my spiritual workings (and of course, as a culinarily inclinded witch, the two overlap a good deal).

When the distinct nip of autumn returns and we head towards Samhain, black salt comes to the fore all the more in my workings.

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own black salt or learn more about this powerful ingredient, swing by Otherworldly Oracle and read Witches Black Salt Recipe + What is Witches Black Salt Used For?

-There are certain things, I’ve long come to notice, that are commonly horded lovingly collected by many a witchy soul. Bottles and jars, with their limitless uses, are two such items.

If you’ve been looking for a fast, stylish way to beautify some of the glass containers you’ve amassed, this charming tutorial that shows you how to make DIY Herbs and Spices Apothecary Jars may be just the ticket!

-Two things that most of us are open as we go about our lives are harmony (aka, balance/serenity) and good luck. In the face of everything that we’ve both personally and collectively experienced this year, these two factors are welcome all the more.

If you’re looking for ways to try to increase one or both of these areas in your life, this post on how to make Good Luck and Harmony Water from renowned Pagan author/blogger/witch Silver Raven Wolf is apt to appeal to you.

-You know that feeling on Christmas morning after all the gifts have been opened and you’re now left staring at a sea of tattered paper and discarded bows strew around the room? Or what about after a party when the last guest has departed and you look upon more dishes than Bed, Bath and Beyond houses, wondering where they all came from and how you’ll find the energy to tackle them?

Now, what about when a spell – especially a really great spell that you jived with big time – is complete and you need to get rid of some or all of the materials that you used for it?

Ask any witch whose been witching for a while and chances are, they’ve found themselves in this spot. Not quite sure what to do, when to do it, or where to dispose of the remnants of one’s magickal workings.

Fear not, Rachel Patterson (whose stellar book, Witchcraft Into The Wilds, I reviewed here earlier this year) has got you covered care of her handy post, Ending and Disposing of Spells.

One read of this entry and, hopefully, you’ll feel a lot less potential uncertainty or stress the next time you wrap up a magickal working.

Card Making, Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting, and Other Crafts

-For all intents, I’m not a sewer. It’s an artform that I hugely admire and wish to high heaven that I had a natural knack for, but I’m old enough to recognize where my strengths lay and to make peace with those areas that I’m unlikely to ever excel at.

That said, A) one can always improve their skills by actively learning and practicing more, and B) both sewers and many other crafters alike are likely to find some terrific project inspiration care of the List of Fabric Manufacturer’s Free Project Pages that Julie from The Crafty Quilter has thoughtfully compiled for all of us.

-I enjoy heat embossing as much as the next person and have long turned to the classic paper crafting technique for a wide range of projects. Sometimes though, it can be fun and refreshing to shake things up and create similar looks with products other than actual embossing powder itself.

One of the best, quickest, and most effective alternatives that I’ve seen to date is this very cool look at how to create Faux Heat Embossing With Duct Tape.

After you’ve read this post, don’t be surprised if your SO comes asking where all the duct tape in the house has suddenly vanished to!

-If you’re a face mask wearer, you may have found yourself wishing that the ones you’ve been sporting were roomier (but still effective, of course!).

Fear not, there’s a handy homemade way to make that possible via Helen’s easy, excellent Breathable DIY Face Mask Tutorial.

-The longer the pandemic rages on, the longer many of us are going without normal human activities like embracing or otherwise touching other people (save perhaps from those who share our home/immediate circle).

I know that I certainly am (what I wouldn’t give to safely hug my nearest and dearest again!) and as such, the interesting ideas put forth in the post Is Craft Booming in Covid Because We’re Starved for Touch? really struck a chord with me as both a crafter and a human, point-blank.

-In this day and age of tech, plastic, and a continual bombardment of what is supposed to be the latest and greatest children’s toys around, it can be downright refreshing to step away from the modern toybox and return to the simple joys of something like paper toys.

Case in point, this great post starring Twelve Easy Paper Toys to Print, Cut and Assemble.

While the use of a printer does add a modern element to the process, the end result is decidedly yesteryear in its classic charm and appeal, while being no less at home in today’s world, where non-tech toy options are more important than ever.

-There is just something about buttons – or items that depict them – that steals my heart away time after time. Like many a crafter, I have a beloved button stash (filled with a mix of modern and vintage offerings) and frequently work with this versatile embellishment.

You can imagine then, the plethora of beats that my heart skipped when I saw this tremendously lovely – and very creative – All the Buttons Quilt Tutorial that the uber-talented Heidi from Fabric Mutt created and shared on her blog a few weeks ago.

If I ever get the quilting bug, this is going straight to the top of my “top make” pile.

-Under the header of “cutest handmade masks around” belongs these head-turningly adorable Halloween Crochet Face Masks, which are sure to delight youngsters and the young at heart alike.

And while you’re on Sarah’s site, be sure to check out her delectable recipes, including this one for Crock Pot Candy Corn Bark that is perfect for fall’s return.

-When I was a little girl, my mom kept many of her most treasured recipes written out by hand on recipe cards. Though she stored them in a specially designed binder made just for this purpose, the presence of those recipe cards in my early life instilled a connection to, and fondness for, recipes cards in me from an early age that is still going strong today.

Thus, I’m naturally drawn to recipe cards and the books and boxes many folks use to house them.

One of the most charming handmade options I’ve encountered lately is this beautiful Just Roll With It Farmhouse Kitchen Recipe Box, which would make for incredible gift or addition to your own kitchen alike.

What’s shaking in my life and on my radar

Good things, my lovelies, good things aplenty!

This summer might have kicked my behind at times, but it was also thoroughly awesome in certain other respects.

One of which is that this season really, really, helped me to get a better perspective on certain areas of my life.

It also introduced some very beneficial (and, no exaggeration, desperately needed) positive changes to certain aspects of my health + corresponding energy levels, and at the same time helped me to experience summer again in a way that I haven’t in far more years than I care to count.

Tony and I stayed put this summer, refraining from travel due to the pandemic. We’ve been extremely fortunate to remain virus-free and to not have this devastating illness hit any of our loved ones on either side of the Atlantic.

We shared many of the above-mentioned walks together (though plenty were solo adventures with Annie by my side), got to know some of our neighbours better, made many delicious seasonal meals, and were able to tackle a number of tasks/jobs in our lives that were in serious need of being accomplished.

I feel very renewed right now.

I know that this current energy and sense of corresponding positivity is unlikely to last indefinitely. However, while it’s here, I’m revelling in it and giving mighty thanks to the universe for helping to make this state possible.

As usual, the links that I’m sharing in the “Me” section of this post are one seriously mixed bag. If you ask me though, that’s a big part of the reason why lists like this are such fun. You just never know what they may house.

-Avocados have been enjoying a serious moment in recent years (both on toast and otherwise), though they’ve been savoured by many long before Instagram entered the picture.

If you’ve ever cut into an avocado and wished that you could keep it from browning faster than the speed of light, this ultra-simple trick is here to save the day: This Waste-Free Hack Will Keep Your Cut Avocados Ripe Longer.

-Dolly Parton’s beloved hit, Jolene, is one of my favourite country western songs of all time. Its haunting depth, soulful lyrics and captivating melody have helped to turn it into a musical classic at this point.

As much as I adore Dolly’s version, I have to say, I’m also more than a little bit smitten with this very clever take, which sees Jolene’s lyrics tweaked and sung – gorgeously, may I add – in a Bardic Medieval Style.

Trust me, after one listen, thy will likely find thyself playing this gem on repeat from here on out.

(And speaking of content pertaining to that period of time, I rather enjoyed this look at The World of Medieval Dogdom from History Today.)

-It’s safe to say that there are – speaking of music – far more Christmas season tunes than ones aimed at, or especially well suited to, fall time celebrations.

Thankfully, however, a toe-tapping slew of All Hallows’ Eve songs exist and compiling a playlist or otherwise enjoying them is something I do with extra gusto the moment September returns.

If you’re much the same, or just want a great lineup of music to help you celebrate the spookiest chapter of the year, be sure to check of Good Housekeeping’s list of 50 Spooky Halloween Songs You Need to Play at Your Costume Party (or anytime!).

You may also enjoy their fab list of 80 Fun and Creepy Ideas for a Halloween Party to Remember.

-I’m all for curve-hugging attire, but I also appreciate the way less form-fitting attire can look and feel, so I’ve rather been loving the fact that loose-fitting shirts – including classic t-shirts – are having a moment again this year.

How to Wear a Comfy, Giant T-Shirt and Still Look Stylish is just the ticket if you’re also feeling the siren’s call to roomier garb these days.

Plus, bonus points for the mega 1980s and 90s fashion nostalgia that oversized shirts can stir in many of us who were alive during those decades.

-Let’s face it, most of us use at least one social media platform these days. Sharing images is one of the highlights of these digital communities and certainly amongst my favourite elements of SM.

If you’ve been wondering what the current ideal sizes are for SM photos, graphics and the like, look no further than this handy list of Social Media Sizes, which provides image size specs for twenty of the top current social media platforms.

-Unquestionably, one of the most important things to occur in 2020 is the greater awareness of, and expanding social platform for, black lives and the important voices they house.

Long after the sea of black squares that filled our IG streams earlier this year, it is crucial that we listen, learn, educate ourselves, and be allies today, tomorrow, and always.

Hearing about the black experiences that people live daily is an important component of this. I’ve been doing so a good deal lately with several stories in particular standing out for me.

One of which is the engaging and (arguably) rather unique, given the author’s uncommon ancestral combination, I’m Inuk, but I’m Black: Comprehending My Identity as an Inuk Jamaican Woman.

-Yes, summer is winding down, but if there’s one thing you can count on when it comes to the seasons, it’s that they’ll return again next year!

Get a jump start on celebrating Halloween during the sunniest season care of this list of 15 Things You Need for Summerween (all of which can certainly also do festive double duty once fall returns).

Parting is such sweet sorrow

(Because, clearly, we’ve got a Willie S. theme going on in this post. )

So much of the wonder and appeal of the seasons, I firmly believe, is their very brevity. We may love (or loath) certain chapters of the year more than others, but when all is said and done, we are passive witnesses to changes that are beyond our control.

We love them both for what they bring in the moment and for how they make us yearn for their return – or conversely, give mighty thanks that we won’t face them again for about nine more months.

Not since childhood can I remember longing to hold onto summer to such a degree.

Of course, while I don’t wish for any of the negatives it housed (be it for me/us personally or in the world at large) to continue, I would love dearly to have a few more weeks of crystal clear nights as warm as a bathtub, vibrant greenery as far as the eye can see, and the unmatched languid allure of a season that refuses to be rushed.

My heart will pine for summer, my mind will cradle the memories of the vanishing season we just savoured, and my soul will wait with equal parts patience and anticipation for the return of the year’s toastiest chapter.

That said, if heatwaves want to long walk off a short cliff, I seriously won’t mind!

But perhaps I’m being too harsh there though. As tough as this summer’s heat was and as much of a number as it did on me at times, what would summer (in the Western Hemisphere) be without its infamous dog days and the brilliantly bright sunshine they house?

Not quite the same, if you ask me. Not quite the same.

And so, I – like all of us on this side of the equator – will soon part ways with summer. Some will say good riddance, others will join me in wishing we could capture the season as easily as a photograph and hold it in our hands just a little bit longer.

Thankfully, as much as I can wax poetically about summer, I can do so all the more for the season that is upon us: fall time!

Sweet, stunning, glorious, gorgeous autumn!

It’s far from a state secret that fall is my favourite chapter of the year. The one that most aligns with my deepest self and spiritual path, that I pine for all throughout the other 3/4ths of the year, and the season that makes me feel most alive. By a wide mile.

This summer was awesome, enjoyable and happiness-inducing in some respects, but even with that being the case, it can’t hold a pumpkin spice scented candle to fall in my books.

I have one heck of a fun, festive, and full schedule of blog and Instagram posts coming down the pipeline for autumn 2020.

Whether you’re a fellow falloholic like me or not, I hope that you enjoy the content that I have planned and that there will be no shortage of elements – treasured classics and new favourites alike – in the coming season that help to spark joy in your world.

And so, while it is with a heavy heart that I part ways with summer, it is with an elation filled one that I slip into a cozy cardigan, gleefully rewatch Hocus Pocus + It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for the umpteenth time, connect all the more with my witchery, and count down the nanoseconds until October 31^st!

Thank you, summer, for all that you were, all that you taught me, and the changes you brought. You will be missed and treasured.

Now, however, it is time to swap our sundresses and shades for tights and scarves and scare up more than a little bit of autumn magick.

Who’s with me?

The post Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me: Summer 2020 Edition 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.

In the roughly twelve weeks since the inaugural edition of the quarterly Magick, Craft Makes and Me debuted, we’ve witnessed the world endure the continued ravages, impacts of a pandemic that is still going strong, and some remarkable happenings pertaining race in America (and by extension, elsewhere across the globe).

Here at our house, and within our family on both sides of the Atlantic (all of my husband’s family lives in his homeland of Italy), I am very thankful to report that we’ve remained virus-free so far.

While certain public rules have been relaxed and various non-essential business and public locations have reopened in recent weeks in our area, we’ve opted to remain in strict self-isolation for the time being.

When the winter edition of this post appeared here, there was still an abundance of snow on the ground, icicles dangling from the roof, and daily subzero temperatures. What a difference a handful of weeks makes when it comes to the changing of the seasonal guard!

Spring began in earnest around these North Okanagan parts at the start of May and, in true Canadian fashion, by the end of that month, we were already experiencing temperatures in the low 30s Celsius.

When the next edition rolls around that the end of the summer, we’ll be witnessing the Wheel of The Year rotate into the gloriousness that is autumn.

As much as I adore fall with every last fibre of my being, I’m in no mad rush to put summertime to bed quite yet.

Though summer can be a challenging season in some respects, it’s also a beautiful, dreamy, even heady portion of the year and one that never fails to make me feel especially young at heart.

Right here and now, however, let’s take a gander at some of the witchy/Pagan/magick, crafting, and various other various links (the latter falling under the “Me” header of this post) that caught my eye during the turbulent months of spring that our world just endured.

Magick, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Spirituality

-Anytime two of my very favourite things – cooking and witchery – combine, chances are, I’m going to pounce on it like Annie on a tennis ball!

This pairing is examined through the lens of edible delights that are especially well suited to the moon in Other Worldly Oracle’s fantastic Full Moon Food Guide, which is chock-a-block with tasty recipes, food suggestions, and creative ideas.

-Candles, incense, smudge sticks – if you can safely burn it in a magickal context, a good many witches and Pagans are likely doing so as we speak.

However, there are plenty of times and/or reasons why you may want to cleanse without the need for matches or a lighter.

Willow’swonderful look at this very topic is explored in-depth in her recent post, 13 Smoke Free Ways to Cleanse, which may be of particular interest to those who are highly sensitive or allergic to smoke, incense and the like.

-Scrying is an ancient and widely used form of divination that has been practiced by various cultures around the world for many thousands of years. It remains popular to this day, particularly with some of us in the witchcraft and Wiccan communities.

One of the most common – and I would argue, effective – forms of scrying is mirror scrying. If you’ve always wanted to give it a go, but didn’t have a suitable mirror to work with, you’ll definitely want to visit this informative post that takes you through all the steps needed to Make Your Own Scrying Mirror.

-I am a firm believer that one can come to witchery and/or Paganism at any point in their life. However, there there are some of us for whom an ingrained sense that we were witches has been with us throughout our entire lives.

This topic is explored in Astrea’s insightful post, Born This Way: Witchcraft Comes Naturally to Some, which – as a “born witch” – I found myself nodding in agreement with from top to bottom.

-Spring and summer are peak seasons in many parts of the Western Hemisphere for early morning dew. If you’re keen to gather and put this potent, wonderful natural magickal ingredient to work in your witchcraft, be sure to check out Annwyn’s lovely video and accompanying blog post on How to Collect Dew.

-We in the 21^st century have a tendency to praise and elevate the act of being busy to near god-like status. Productivity is certainly important and has its rightful place, but so does the vital act of downtime and the ability to leave at least a few hours of our lives unencumbered with frenetic activity.

In The Magickal Art of Doing Nothing, Phoenix explores this topic and helps to remind us all of just how essential it is to simply be at peace with the present moment every now and then.

Card Making, Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting, and Other Crafts

-Going all the way back to my earliest collections – housed in the de rigour magnetic page photo albums of the day – back in the 1980s and early 90s, to the bevy of them that reside in my craft room today, I’ve loved and actively used stickers throughout my whole life.

You can just imagine then how much my eyes lit up and my creative juices started flowing when I recently spotted this handy-dandy post on how to make your own DIY Vintage Spring Flower Stickers. (The method for which you could easily apply – adhesive related pun intended – to a wide range of other sticker images as well.)

-Few fruits say spring and early summer better – or more iconically – than strawberries! If you’re in the mood to dish up a lovely serving of the paper variety of this fabulous produce offering, then you’ll definitely want to check out this DIY Paper Strawberry Tutorial over on Maggie Holmes’ inspiring blog.

-It likely comes as little surprise that the century which saw the invention and meteoric rise in popularity of photography would in turn produce a wide range of picture frames to help house some of the millions of photos that were taken at the time.

While real examples of Victorian photo frames often command steep prices these days, thanks to this lovely Victorian Folding Photo Frame Tutorial, with a few basic craft supplies and access to a digital die cutting machine, you can now whip up all the 19th century picture frames that your heart desires!

-Love working with alcohol markers but aren’t sure which ones to invest in or which might work most effectively for a given project? Let Ivana’s excellent and very informative comparison of The Best Alcohol Markers help ensure you find and work with the right markers for your crafting needs.

-When you think of summertime foods, what jumps out at you first? Ice cream? Watermelon? Lemonade? What about that beloved classic, a freshly made cheeseburger?

If you’ve been looking for a fun new pincushion to create, why not have a go at making this darling DIY Cheeseburger Pincushion?

It has all the look, but none of the grilling work involved with the real deal.

And of course, vegans, vegetarians, and plant-based eaters can just as easily imagine that it’s their favourite meat-free (and potentially dairy-free) burger instead.

-Valentine’s Day was a few months ago, but there’s no reason why you can’t whip up this fabulously charming Gothic Valoween Garland anytime and proudly use it as year-round décor. (An easy DIY craft project that involves both hearts and coffins it is a serious winner in my books!)

What’s shaking in my life and on my radar

Wow, I remember thinking back in March that I had scarce little of note to report in terms of what had been transpiring in our lives then.

After three more months of being in strict self-isolation, I have even less of note to share – which sounds dreadfully dull, I know!

Our days are full of the usual happenings of life, however, and goodness knows I could use about a thousand more hours in every day to get a mere fraction of what I’d like/need to accomplish done.  

As we’ve been at home around the clock lately though, I don’t have too many adventurous tales to regale you with this time around.

Looking ahead to the summer months, both Tony and I will celebrate our birthdays before the season draws to a close. Our beautiful country of Canada also turns another year older soon too, hitting the venerable age of 153 come July 1^st.

Historically, Tony and I have usually taken at least one get-away (usually a road trip somewhere within Western Canada) between mid-spring and late autumn.

However, with the very real safety concerns surrounding the pandemic so far this year (to say nothing of possible subsequent waves of it), we’ve not planned a trip for 2020.

For two souls who adore and derive a great deal of positive benefits from travelling, including the sheer joy of having an upcoming trip to look forward to, this has been a bit strange indeed!

Of course, many others are in similar boats and tons of folks have had to cancel or postpone travel plans (including one of my aunts and her daughter who were set to visit France this summer), and we’ll just make the best of things here at home for the time being.

The safer we are now and the more precautions we currently take to help stop the spread of Covid-19, the faster we might be able to return to a world where it’s safe to once again travel, visit with others, and do more activities in public point-blank.

-At the very end of April, on the six-month mark to Halloween (a date that many Halloween fans affectionately refer to as Halfoween), I shared a fun post highlighting 31 Ways to Celebrate Halloween All Year Long.

After I wrote that entry, I found myself thinking (not for the first time) about various ways to help ensure that I have an environmentally friendly Halloween/Samhain celebration.

This led me to find a very handy Guide to Greening Halloween, which abounds with tons of useful, practical and enjoyable ways to help keep your October 31^st all the more planet-friendly.

-If you think that things like cosplaying and sci-fi related conventions are a relatively new invention, Vintage Everyday is here with a slew of photos from the 1966 Science Fiction & Fantasy Costume Contestants Posing at the 24^th World Science Fiction Convention that will quickly prove these much-loved passions have been going strong for many decades now.

-It’s safe to say that one of the most important aspects to the continuation of life on this planet – the world’s oceans – is in a dire state and in need of immediate help.

An extraordinary ‘Landmark’ Study Lays Road Map for Exactly How We Can Restore Oceans to Former Glory in Just One Generation, and I know that I won’t be alone in hoping to the stars above (and the starfish below) that the approaches it proposes are able to be put into action.

-Should you happen to be a fellow lover of edible flowers, want a gorgeous dessert to serve at your next tea party or bridal shower, or an ideal sunny weather sabbat feast treat, may I present you with Lindsay and Jonas’s gorgeous Violet Shortbread Cookie Recipe.

-While the amount of TV that I’ve watched during this time of self-isolation has changed little from my usual levels, I have been making a point to view shows, movies and documentaries that really speak to me on a deep level.

One of the most stand-out titles in that respect that I’ve viewed recently is a documentary on Netflix called Crip Camp, which was just released this year.

It is a stirring, poignant and much needed look at how a mid-twentieth century American camp for special needs individuals helped to plant some of the seeds for the immensely long overdue social and political revolution that took place within the disabled community during the past century.

If you’re not already doing so, why not pop on over to Instagram and follow my account there? I post a wide range of content pertaining to witchery and Paganism, crafts, nature, history and vintage, travel, our daily life (including snaps of Annie), and more!

Summer lovin’

While fall time will forever reign supreme for me personally, I’m the first to admit that summer holds a special place in my heart as well.

Between the fact that it’s the season into which I born, the one in which Tony and I became engaged (back in 2004), and that it’s the prelude to my favourite chapter of the year, it’s hard not to adore summertime.

There’s dreamily perfect warm nights, ice cold drinks, the magick and marvelousness of both Litha and Lammas, sunsets so stunning they evoke tears, vibrant gardens, sundresses, feeling the sun-baked earth beneath your bare feet, and so much more to enjoy + appreciate about this season.

At this point, all any of us can do is guess and prepare in regards to what the summer may hold in store pandemic wise.

It would be amazing, nay, extraordinary, if the world was in a vastly safer, healthier place come the fall equinox, but the realist in me isn’t going to place any bets on that being the case.

What I will confidently do, however, is strive to have a beautiful, enjoyable and very meaningful season, whether we remain in self-isolation the whole time or not.

And you can count on plenty of fun, informative new content here, as well as on my Instagram account.

In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll cover a wide array of topics, from Canada Day to book reviews, summer sabbat posts to ones that will lead us straight into the magickal months of fall.

It is my unwavering hope that each of you will have a safe, healthy, peaceful and positive summer (or winter, if you’re south of the equator), and we can all met back here in three months for the next installment of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me.

What are you most excited about this summer? Any standout plans in the works?

The post Spring 2020 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Now that we’re a few weeks into this blog’s life, I thought it would be a lot of fun to chat about more about my past, present and future as a paper crafter, why I’m not currently seeking design team work, and what I might have named this blog, had it been solely paper crafting related.

Please note: The projects shown in this post were all created prior to the arson fire (see below) that we experienced tin 2016.

Who am I?

Isn’t the great question that we’re all asking ourselves!

Deep philosophical discussions aside, if we’re meeting for the very first time, I would suggest you read my inaugural post and my About Page to get to know me a bit better.

Beyond what is housed in those two spots, from a scrapbooking perspective, I feel that it’s worth noting that I am…

-(At the time of writing) 35 years old.

-The first of three children (I have both a younger brother and sister), the oldest grandchild and oldest first-degree cousin on both sides of my family.

-Married to an incredible man named Tony. We met in March 2004, had a whirlwind romance, and tied the knot about seven months later in October of that same year. We had a very small civil ceremony wedding with less than ten guests in attendance.

-Not a parent / do not have any children. (I plan to discuss this topic as it pertains to both my own life and childless paper crafters in general later on this year.)

-An aunt to one adorable youngster, our nephew, Jarno, who lives in Italy with his folks (my sister-in-law and her husband).

-A lifelong history buff and vintage lover (for several years I ran a popular vintage fashion and lifestyle blog, which I retired in March 2017).

-A (sun sign) Cancer and, gosh, do I fit the profile for the most part. As much as I’m a homebody, I also have a great deal of wanderlust in my soul and find travel to be one of the most incredible and rewarding aspects of life. (If you’re curious, my moon sign is Sagittarius and my ascendant sign is Aquarius.)

When it all began

I officially began paper crafting in October 2010 (my first project was a layout about my maternal grandma that used a sheet of My Mine’s Eye paper as the main background paper).

Prior to that point, I had developed a deep interest in paper crafting and started to amass a stash of supplies at least a year before I began creating.

One of my aunts has been an avid paper crafter herself for multiple decades now. Her beautiful, heartwarming pages and handmade cards were (and still remain) a wonderful source of inspiration for me.

I’ve always been the nostalgic type. I’m an old soul who adores history, genealogy and preserving memories, and for me scrapbooking is a powerful way to unite and celebrate those important aspects of my life.

Between 2010 and 2016, while I wasn’t always able to actively engage in paper crafting for various reasons (moves, serious medical issues, etc), I did create whenever possible and was frequently active on the website scrapbook.com.

For a while during that time, I ran a paper crafting blog, but my spirituality and the fact that I was a witch were not a part of that site (which was retired and taken off line several years ago now).

When it all changed in the blink of an eye

If you’ve read my intro post or About Page, you may recall that in October 2016, my husband I experienced a devastating arson house fire that destroyed virtually all of our belongings and, infinitely more heartbreaking, took the life of our precious cat, Stella (pictured in the layout below).

Thank the universe, we ourselves and our darling dog (Annie) made it out alive.

As challenging as that experience was and as hard a road as we’ve had to forge ahead in order to rebuild our lives in the 3+ years since then, I try not to dwell excessively on what happened to us.

It was brutal, it changed us and our lives forever, and it taught us more than I could ever put into words, but I have zero desire for that tragedy to be a common focal point here on Witchcrafted Life. Or in my life point-blank.

Sometimes, however, it is bound to come up. In this case, I feel it warrants mentioning because the fire not only destroyed all of my crafting (paper and otherwise) supplies, it also wrecked the first six years of my paper crafting projects.

In addition, it destroyed all of our photos (physical and those stored on computers and external hard drives), mementos, and personal documents.

It is a surreal, horrible experience to lose every material thing you own in the world. No one should ever have to go through that for any reason. Yet, sadly, countless individuals and families do each year due to various reasons.

I wasn’t easy at all, and it pained me to my core to lose my scrapbook albums, photos, family treasures, craft supplies, and other belongings, but I had to move on. There was no option. No amount of sorrow or grief or depression (each of which I certainly experienced in the wake of the fire) was going to bring back what the flames had devoured.

Instead of bemoaning what happened, both myself and Tony were resolute in our determination to piece our lives back together again, start afresh where we could, and to focus on what presently is and what lies ahead, not what once was or could have been.

I should note, as I’m often asked about this point, while we did have renter’s insurance at the time, the maximum payout value was (unbeknownst to us until after tragedy struck) significantly smaller than the total value of our belongings. The max payout was more aligned with what we owned when, over 4.5 years prior, we moved into the house that burned down, not what we owned at the time of the fire.

Therefore, the payout did not allow enough room for us to replace most personal items (including my craft supplies). It went to critical expenses and household needs. Instead, we have gradually been acquiring new non-essentials when possible over the past three years and will continue to do so further as time goes on.

Note: As I was fortunate to have photos of some of my completed projects online in various spots at the time of fire, I have a visual record of a portion of my paper crafting work. Not, however, the whole body of it. Still, having anything is awesome and I’m super thankful for what does exist.

What the past 3+ years have been like

Busy! A roller coaster of highs and lows! Unexpected!

They’ve been pretty wild to say the least and not at all how I foresaw my early to mid-30s playing out. That’s life though. You never know what, be it positive or negative, is coming round the bend next and it’s usually best to roll with the punches, make the best of a rough situation, and hold tight to hope along the way.

After a succession of short-term rentals following the fire, in early 2018, Tony and I were able to purchase our first home. It is located in a charming little town in the northern end of British Columbia’s Okanagan region. We’re both smitten with the gorgeous scenery and landscape here, which breathtakingly marries woodland with farmland.

The achievement of this lifelong goal, especially so soon after the fire, is still hard to believe at times. It remains the most positive thing to happen to us since before the fire occurred.

2018 wasn’t all sunshine and new houses though, it also saw various heartbreaking events transpire to some of my relatives. These happenings hit me with the force of an asteroid and I’m still continuing to process and heal from them to this day.

Thankfully though, by and large, things are looking up for ourselves and my loved ones in general as 2020 finds its footing.

On the paper crafting front, my stash was started anew for me within days of the fire, when my aunt (mentioned above) blessed me with a truly thoughtful “starter scrapbooking kit” she had lovingly put together.

I was also incredibly fortunate to receive some paper crafting items from several kind-hearted, generous online scrapbooking friends, acquaintances, and even a few total strangers.

For as long as I live, I will grateful to, and for, those caring individuals whose compassion and desire to help a fellow crafter get back on her feet again played an integral role in ensuring that I was able to do just that.

Between 2017 and the summer of 2019, with my budding new paper crafting stash, I made a few projects (chiefly cards and layouts).

At first, it was strange and difficult to craft because my mind kept thinking that I still had all of my old pre-fire supplies and photographs. Rationally, of course, I knew that I do not and as time goes on, thankfully, this sense has lessened. It did certainly impact me a fair bit though as I began to ease into paper crafting again.

From the summer of 2019 onward, as time and my health have permitted, I’ve been going full steam ahead on the paper crafting front once more and loving every moment of it!

I feel like I’ve gotten my grove back and have been reveling in the joys, catharsis, and fun of paper crafting again.

So much so, that it led me to create this website. A blog that combines two hugely important aspects of who I am and what I hold dear: being a Pagan witch and paper crafting.

Where I’m at on the paper crafting front today

The launch of this site, which happened on January 1st of this year, has been at the heart of my paper crafting related focus in recent weeks.

Beyond that, I’d say that I’m in a good place again on the creativity front.

While it isn’t possible for me to actually craft daily, between this blog, social media, blogs and websites that I follow, conversations with fellow crafters, magazines, and much more, paper crafting is once again an integral part of my daily life (yay!!!).

Our house is quite, how shall we say, cozy, which means that space is at a premium (two people, both of whom work primarily from home, and a high energy 70 lb dog all share said space).

Thankfully, however, I have a small room on the ground floor (our house is a two-story home, both of which are above ground; there is no basement or functional attic) which, in a lot of ways, is the physical version of this very blog itself.

In that one wee room lives my main altar, the majority of my witchy related items, almost all of my books, and the entirety of my current craft supply stash.

I am truly grateful for this space, the empowering energy that it houses, the creativity and magick alike that flow through me when I’m in it, and what it represents in my life regarding how far we’ve come in just three years since the fire.  

My current stash of paper crafting items is an interesting mix of items. There are some areas (6×6 paper pads, for example) where things are fairly plentiful at present, others where they’re sparse, and some that are missing entirely.

I’ve long learned though that you can make a lot with a little where creativity involved and love to put the products that I do have to work in as many fun, fresh and imaginative ways as can.

What do I (currently) mostly make?

Scrapbook pages (especially 12 x 12 single-page layouts, but I’ve been hearing the siren’s call towards smaller sized pages on and off lately, too), cards of all sorts, tags, mini albums, home, and seasonal décor projects, and gift packaging/wrapping.

Plus an array of paper crafting projects pertaining to my spiritual path (including sabbat themed cards and tags for fellow witchy friends around the world) – as you might have guessed by this point.

How would I define my paper crafting style

“Shabby goth” springs to mind!

My work often embodies feminine, dark/spooky, elegant, sweet, detailed, layered, tattered and distressed, inked, antique and vintage, nature inspired, fall and Halloween related, and dimensional techniques and products.

Stitching – faux, die cut, real – is a biggie, too.

These elements – coupled with including journaling on most of my layouts – are some of the key factors that help to define my personal scrapbooking, card making and paper crafting style in general.

Some of my favourite paper crafting products

Text and wood grain print papers, anything old-fashioned looking, burlap, bling (rhinestones, pearls, wood pieces, metal pieces, etc), dimensional flowers and leaves, tulle and netting, trim and ribbon, seam binding, twine, metal dies, stickers, glitter glue, die cut shapes and chipboard pieces, border and shape punches, paint, sequins, Micron Pens, Copic markers, my Tim Holtz Stamp Platform, and yes, as old school as I know this sounds to many people, (gasp!) decorative edge scissors.

Some of my favourite paper crafting brands

My taste in paper crafting brands and products, much like in many areas of my life, tends to run eclectic, so I buy from a wide number of companies.

Sadly, some of my all-time favourite brands and/or product lines (think Webster’s Pages, 7 Gypsies, Teresa Collins, Jenni Bowlin, Maya Road, Petaloo, K & Company, and Ranger’s Adirondack line) are no longer produced or have radically shifted the focus of what they sell.

This point makes losing the items I had from those companies sting all the more.

Thankfully, however, there are still many terrific brands going strong as we embrace the 2020s.

I adore plenty of them, including – but certainly not limited to – Anna Griffin, Carta Bella, FabScraps, Graphic 45, Pink Paislee, Martha Stewart, Kaisercraft, Prima, Authentique Paper, Tim Holtz, Echo Park, Bo Bunny, 49^th and Market, DCWV, Tsukineko, and Pion Design (I don’t currently own anything from Pion, but, my word, do I melt like a snowman in April for their breathtaking offerings).

What die cutting machine do I use

I currently have a Sizzix Big Shot Machine. It’s a powerhouse of a die cutter and I love it to bits.

I do not, and to date have never had, an electric die cutting machine (i.e., Gemini, Silhouette Cameo, Brother ScanNCut).

I’d happily welcome an electric die cutter, especially since they are a lot easier on the ol’ wrists, but don’t foresee one coming my way anytime soon. Perhaps some day.

What do I use to take photos of my projects

I currently have an iPhone 7 and take photos of my projects with it. I shoot indoors using either artificial (tungsten) or natural light, depending on what time of the day it is.

If needed, I do minor photo editing on my phone, generally in Afterlight and/or VSCO.

Why I’m not actively seeking design team work (but remain open to the possibility)

Several ago, I was a design team member for a US based online scrapbooking store that has long since shut down. I had a wonderful time and am still in connect with some of my fellow design team member friends from those days.

However, that experience drilled home how challenging it can be for me to be a design team member due to the fact that I’m a multiple severe chronic illness fighter whose health and physical abilities can fluctuate significantly from day-to-day.

I’m the type of person who loves to give things my all, honour my commitments and deliver on time. There’s a very real risk I wouldn’t always be able to do that if I was on a design team (let alone multiple teams concurrently). A point that doesn’t sit right with me at all.

However, if the schedule was flexible, the requirements weren’t too extreme, and the company/website was understanding regarding my health, I would certainly consider taking part in design team work again (assuming of course, I was tapped to do or accepted for a specific team, if I applied).

What I might have called this blog had it been focused solely on paper crafting

As awesome as things like stamping, colouring with markers, and watercolouring are, and as much and I delight in employing them at times, I am a paper lover at heart.

I adore beautiful papers, writing on my layouts, layering paper (and cardstock) on my projects, collecting paper for my stash, you name it!

Thus, assuming that the URL was available, I may have named my blog “It’s all about the paper” or something to that extent.

To be honest, I didn’t really give much consideration to running a blog that was just about paper crafting at this point in my life.

I knew from the get-go that I wanted to write about both witchy topics and paper crafting ones alike, and thus Witchcrafted Life was born.

What inspires my paper crafting work

So… many… things!

The seasons and The Wheel of the Year, nature, art, music, books, fellow creative folks and makers, fashion, history, great colour combinations, my own personal experiences and dreams, my spirituality, traveling, photography, and oodles of other sources.

What else would you like to know about my paper crafting?

Now it’s your turn. What would you like to know about my paper crafting that wasn’t covered here?

Don’t be shy! Ask away! And while you’re at it, if there are specific types of paper crafting blog posts that you’d be keen to see here, please feel to let me know.

Your questions and ideas are welcome and sincerely appreciated.

The post Get to know Autumn Zenith, the Paper Crafting Pagan Witch appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

There is something auspicious and wonderful about such a day. It’s too rare, precious and magickally charged not to be utilized and celebrated.

It is also the perfect time to officially begin an exciting new project. In my case, that would be the very blog that you’re reading.

Why I’m launching this blog

On the evening of October 13, 2016, my husband and I lost our home, virtually all of our belongings, my home-based online business (an Etsy vintage shop), and infinitely most heartbreaking, our precious cat, Stella, in arson fire that destroyed the fourplex condo building we were living in at the time.

Losing quite literally everything but the clothes on your back changes a person. A lot.

It also changes your life, your priorities, your mindsets, your hopes, and dreams. 

Certain things remain, however. Ingrained, vital elements of who you are and what you love.

Two of the most important elements of my life before the fire were my spiritual path as a solitary Pagan witch and being a paper crafter.

While I let go of certain areas of my life post-fire and redistributed the degree of priority/importance that I gave to others, these two remained highly meaningful to me.

They are both key parts of my world every day, and now, I hope, they’ll become a part of yours as well.

Who I am and what I’ll be creating

I’m Autumn Zenith (please note: this is my Pagan, and vastly preferred, name) an empathic, old souled witch who resides in the woody wilds of British Columbia, Canada.

Here on Witchcrafted Life, I’ll be sharing my passion for paper crafting, including card making, scrapbooking, tag making, mini albums, home décor, and seasonal/holiday-related projects, as well as periodically delving various other crafting related topics.

I plan to bring you plenty of crafting related how-tos, project shares, journaling ideas, product features, giveaways, and much more.

Some of my paper crafting related posts will pertain to Paganism/witchcraft, others will be more secular.

One absolutely does not need to be a fellow witch or Pagan to enjoy and avail of the paper crafting posts that I’ll be sharing.

On the Paganism front, I plan to cover a wide breadth of subjects. This will likely include, but certainly not be limited to, the following areas:

• Real-world magick
• Handy tips and how-tos pertaining to witchcraft and Paganism
• Original spells
• The Wheel of the Year
• Working with the lunar cycles
• Magickal correspondences
• Kitchen and cottage magick (including Pagan recipes)
• Green witchcraft
• The Elements
• Working with spirit allies and animal spirit guides
• Book of Shadows/grimoire ideas
• Art magick
• DIY ideas for witchy crafts, home decor, sabbat items, etc
• Candle magick
• Budget-friendly witchery
• Tarot and oracle cards
• Divination
• Magickal tools
• Paganism/witchcraft and chronic illness (as well as mental health)
• Self-care
• Ancestor work
• Witchery and Paganism book and product reviews
• Personal empowerment through your spiritual path
• Being an empath

Some of my key goals in creating this blog

• To share my knowledge and passion for both witchcraft + Paganism and paper crafting with others
• To be continually motivated to create and craft, sharing many of my ideas, projects and ideas publicly 
• To create an inclusive, welcoming space that is open to paper crafters from all faiths, spiritual paths, walks of life, and genders, as well as those of all crafting styles and abilities
• To help me become a published Pagan book author
• To bring you fresh, original, informative content on a regular basis (multiple new posts will appear here each month)
• To further deepen my spiritual journey and to help + inspire, encourage and empower you on your own unique path

Witchcrafted Life is a fresh start with old roots

This blog is the new online home for a lifetime of experiences, spiritual happenings, handmade crafts, knowledge to be shared, and memories just waiting to happen.

It will be exciting, it will be magickal, it will be creative.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to signup on the top of the right-hand sidebar for my newsletter, and connect with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

You can also contact me directly anytime. I love hearing from, and connecting with, my readers.

The post New Year, New Decade, New Blog appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.