A photo by Lucas

My talented witch photographer took this one yesterday, right in front of our house, just before the storm began again:

Seems like he'll follow my brother's steps...

Something so simple like freedom

I've been reading for some time already the Generation Y blog, written by the fantastic woman Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban blogger who tries to keep her right of free speech in Cuba. While for us to have a blog and freely post about anything, at anytime we want to, is so simple, for her this is something that needs to be carefuly planned, since there's no home Internet in Cuba and cyber cafes charge exhorbitant values for people to be online. She can't leave the country, even being awarded by international newspapers for her well-written blog and new book - she was awarded in Brazil, and despite efforts from our government, she couldn't be in person to receive her prize, only able to send a virtual thank you speech. About two weeks ago, he was kidnapped for a couple of hours and spanked by Castro's policemen, who threated her because she was going too far with her criticisms against government.
Courageous as she is, she started taking photos of the policemen and policewomen who follows her wherever she goes, and posted such photos on her blog.

It always makes me feel so mad when I read about this kind of abusive way of leadership. Dictators should never exist. Shame on them.

Monochrome Weekly & ABC Wednesday - R is for rainy skies

Today I'll post both memes with one photo, if you don't mind, I'm so behind! We had such weird weather lately, with sunny days and stormy afternoons and nights! I took this B&W photo of a Rainy afternoon, I guess it shows it all!



For more Mono photos, visit its main page, and for the ABC photos, click here.

Updates 2

This weekend I took Lucas downtown to buy a present for Rodrigo, since his birthday is on the 25th. I let Lucas choose from the store, the gift, to the card, so he chose a beautiful t-shirt with a beach on the front side, and a pair of socks. He also chose a cute card with a kitty holding a birthday cake, and wrote a message, adding sweet drawings of smile faces, and of course, pentagrams (LOL). I'll send everything today, so it will arrive him in time - it takes longer than usual for the Mail to reach the tiny town of his. It's important to keep this tradition of choosing presents for his dad, and I would never deny him this pleasure. My relationship with Rodrigo ended, but he'll always be Lucas' father.

Yesterday we had the awesome surprise of receiving a package from Sabrina, from whom I had bought this delicate Hestia:


Along with the gorgeous altered card, guess what came? This super-cool castle for King Arthur, Lancelot and Nemo (yes, my brother-in-law gave him another fish...)! According to Sabrina, a king must have his castle, and although mad at her at first because the expense she had, I had to agree that they got happy and all curious with their new ornament, and Lucas got excited and proud of it!

Thank you again, girl! Lucas told everybody about it and how the fishes love the castle (specially Nemo, that tries to get into the cave all the time! LOL)

The weather here is still the weirdest. Most time sunny days with ncredibly rainy afternoons and nights, hug storms that make fetching Lucas from school a pain... We had a total 4-hour blackout last week that let in darkness 18 states!!! Government is still trying to explain what happened to that super-complex energy system to get down that way...

I'm busy creating new goddesses and gods, and it's been fun to imagine new embroideries. SO this week will be a short one for posting again.

Wish you all a wonderful week!

Quickly Update

Helo, everybody!

This week I didn't blogged as much as I use and love to. But for a good cause, I've been all busy these days with orders from my Etsy! :o) That's simply great, and surely makes me feel a bit better about Christmas for Lucas! LOL I mean, since I know my ex won't help me on this, it's perfect to get some income right now.

Next week I'll be back with my boring posts for your torture! hehehe

Only one thing: I'm so, but so pissed off with our Brazilian President, Lula. Can't stand this man no more. He's so desperate because after two consecutive mandates he'll have to pass his power to someone else next year, he's now trying at all costs to stay, and travels all the time around the globe with his false image of a good President. Arght. I'm sick with it. Maybe another day I'll post more deeply about it. Hate politics.

Hope everybody have a great weekend, in case we don't talk then!

More support!

... That's what friends are for. Mrs. B. was such a sweetie and made this cool button for my Kimberly post, and added toher sidebar! I'll keep it on mine as well, so I can go on blogging and keep the help!

Thank you girl, you know you rock! :o)

If any of you blogger friends wants to grab it to your page, just go ahead!

A blogger friend in need and my way to help

This cute hand-embroidery was made by the awesome artist Kimberly, from Tea Towel Creek.
She was diagnosed with an incurable bladder disease, and is going through serious medical issues because she has no insurance. I know first-hand how hard it is to deal with medical issues when money is too tight - or non-existent, when my late older was ill, and we were lucky to get generous donations from friends and family. I learnt about her sad story via Mrs. B. The good thing is that we can help her by purchasing her beautiful prim patterns by $1 each. Why not visiting her shop and choosing one of her exclusive patterns? That's what I did yesterday, and I love them!

Also, I decided making something else to try helping Kimberly out a bit more. If you buy one my spooky keyrings at my Etsy shop , I'll redirect the money to Kimberly via Paypal. I'll send an extra little gift as a thank you, and an email with the Paypal invoice, so you can be sure the money went to the right hands!!

Crafty Chick is selling her Creations!

Danae, aka the Crafty Chick, is about to open her first Etsy shop, and is displaying many of her super-cool art on her blog, where people can already choose and buy directly via Paypal!

She's got many beautiful item, from jewelry to greeting cards and scrapbooks.
And you can help her to choose her Etsy shop's name as well!

Go check it out, it's really worthy!

The hands of a wonderful artist

Early this morning, when I opened the newspaper, I had the grateful surprise of meeting the art of a Brazilian 85-year-old lady, whose hands create beautiful, expressive women in clay, using natural colors from the earth. Izabel Mendes, aka "Mestra Dona Izabel", started creating kitchen tools in clay to sell and help raising her kids after his husband died when she was young, back in the beginning of last century. Soon she had the idea of making dolls recreating ordinary scenes that she watched in her life, like weddings, funerals, births.

Not by chance, her skills developed to a form of art that became famous beyond her tiny village in Minas Gerais state, Vale do Jequitinhonha (now try to say this word out loud! LOL). Turists from abroad would travel hundred kilometers by bus just to see and buy her awesome ladies. She was generous enough to teach many people in her village the art of clay moulding, so that they could survive their hard life.

Now there's a Prize for new artisans with her name to help Brazilian artisans.

The happy end for this lady who, in the beginning, used to walk 11 kilometers to sell her tools at popular fairs, is that she will have her first individual exhibition in a famous Sao Paulo Gallery, and her clay ladies got an upgrade becoming real art - with equable sale prices.

I'm in love with her!

Petrópolis almost 40°C

People, it's hard to believe that it's so hot here! If it's like this right now, I don't want to think how it's going to be when Summer actually comes, in December...

Sleeping with open windows, super-light clothes, drinking tons of water, taking two or three showers a day, wow!!

On the other hand, Nature is gorgeous now. Such exhuberant trees, a bright blue sky with no clouds. It's a pleasure to walk in the streets (as long as you carry a bottle of water in your hand, of course...) and feel the wind on my face - yes, this an advantage of living in the mountains, there is always some cool breeze around.

Nights are beautiful, starry and clean. I take some long times just being alone outside the house, meditating about my life and which way to go. Sometimes everything seems so blurry and uncertain. But I'll keep the faith.

Irresistible giveaways

Now you tell me, how to resist when two cool blogger friends decide giving away, each one, a set of handmade runes??

Mother's Moon's Message is giving away this gorgeous set of willow runes made by herself:


And Domestic Witch is also giving away a wonderful set of rose quatz runes:


You have to join these! :o)

ABC Wednesday - P is for Penguin

Penguin is such a lovely animal, and it's my little son's nickname at home (pingüim, in Portuguese). I nicknamed him "penguin" when he started walking, those clumsy steps that only babies know how to do. And it stayed for life! I even want to have one tattooed on my ankle as a reminder of that funny time.

For more P photos, visit the ABC page.

Cemeteries...

I've never liked cemeteries. Mind me, in Brazil 99% of them are ugly, with no nature around, nor trees, not even a bit of grass. Only concrete under, above, on the sides, as you can see above, Petropolis' (those sparse trees don't count, they're there before it was built!). And the smell of dead flowers in the air. Thus, I never ever go to a cemetery unless there's no other way, like when my dad, my gradma and my older sister died. After funeral, I never return for leaving flowers or whatever. Not my stuff, I respect those who like going to, etc. I just don't feel comfortable there, too opressive.

So imagine my surprise when my sweet little witch asked me to visit the local cemetery on our way back from the park! Yesterday was Dia dos Mortos like in many other places, and he was all curious about it.

As we walk almost in front of it, I just couldn't say no, and of course, I managed to sound natural when accepting his idea. And there we went, walking into the place as if goin to a zoo. Lucas would stop at the first line of graves and ask me, "who's buried here, and here"?

We walked along the lanes, until getting to where my dad and my sister's graves are. Thre we stopped and Lucas wanted to pray a bit (after confirming with me that the Goddess would listen to him even into a catholic cemetery), then we left the place and went home.

The experience was good in the end. It made things look as they are, it made his imagination calm down, and it obviously quenched his curiosity. This way he won't imagine that skeletons and ghouls (...) are around, and it's a place where we can go and leave safely.
He knows I don't visitng these places, but it was important for him. But I do hope this was the last time, for a long time from now!

Monochrome Weekly

Okay, I just can't resist posting Lucas' photos, so bear with me!! LOL

Here's him when 15 days old, asleep after "taking part" of his first quick full moon ritual in my arms while being breast-fed, in an originally b&w photo taken by my brother Evaldo:





For more cool Mono Maiacs, visit Aileni's meme page.

Celebrating Beltane

This year we celebrated our Beltane in our simple way as usual. This time I couldn't afford to prepare any special meals, but we did our dance around a improvised maypole, using three colored satin ribbons and my mom's line handle. Of course, this was one the best part for Lucas.

In the afternoon, along with my sister Claudia (who was spending the weekend in Petropolis with her family, is not pagan but loves my son to death), we decorated our white candles with colored pens, inscribing magik symbols representing the sabbath, like flames, mayoples, pentagrams, suns an even an Algiz on Lucas', just because he knows this is my favorite rune.

In the evening, we both wrote our good wishes on pieces of paper, to be burnt on our cauldrons during the ritual. Another best part for Lucas, since this was the first time he did write his own wishes by himself with his cute hand-writting. When he finished writting, he asked me, "what else can I wish? I already have everything I need!" Obviously, that melted my heart.

Lucas prayed in silence after opening the circle, in front of his altar, and then we repeat the whole process in front of my altar. We watched in the dark until the flames in both cauldrons starved, while focusing in all the good things we wish for our lives, hoping they'll come true.

After that, we simply went to bed, and that was our Beltane night! I thanked for being blessed with my sweet son, and asked for strenght to keep in motion.

I hope you all had a good Samhain & Halloween!

On the last day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

... We say goodbye for this awesome fun. I have to thank Kris for all this month long party, and to congrats her for this incredible job she did. I just can't imagine how it is to deal with a daily multiple giveaway plus haunted tours, plus blogger guests, plus a personal life with three kids and a hubby (and Taner!!! LOL). I'm sure we are all happy to have met such cool new people and to get great gifts!
Hope you all have a blessed Samhain honouring your late loved ones, and a Halloween nght with fun and candies! :o)

Here we'll celebrate our little Beltane ritual, I'll post photos asap!

So let's go party on this very last day!!

... A super Salem bag of goodies from Octoberfarm!

A Creepy Cute Crochet book from Quirk Books!

A gorgeous pendant from Aunia Kahn!

A Peeking Sal Organic Tote from Funky Green Machine!

Good lucky for us all today! Letme know how your holiday was!! :o)

On the 30th day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

Aawww.. I can't believe how fast this month has ended! *snif* Tomorrow Kris' fun is over, so let's party while we can!!

Today we can get...

... A Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters' signed copy from Quirk Classics! Please, please!!

A one year subscription to Circle magazine! Please, please, please!!!!!!!!

A spooky keyring from me, the Carioca Witch, along with a cute god magnet made by Lucas! :o)

So let's go, tomorrow is the last day!

On the 29th day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

Oh... Only three days left for the fun... Oh well, today she brings...

Beautiful orange and black earrings from Native Dawn!

A super-cool witchy magnet made with up-cycled can lids from Picard Creative!

Hurry up! Don't miss these last chances! :o)

My first Cernunnos doll

Lucas was demanding me to create a god, "a male god!", as he said LOL. So I finally decided trying this one for Etsy (already there today, actually). It was overdue, infact. I hand-embroidered the horns on the sides on his head, and used the same Goddess pattern, only changing his abdomen to look more like a male's. What do you guys think about it? Approved? Be gentle, I'm a very sensitive and fragile witch concerning criticisms! LOL

I know the year is in the end when...

... My mother starts baking her secret recipe's Holland honey breads to sell! I can smell the wonderful scent that immediately takes me back to my childhood. Mom makes these honey bread since I was a baby, to sell before Christmas to her long-time clients in Rio - every year she bakes around 100!. It's with this money that she afford to have our Christmas night the way she loves it, with presents for everybody and a beautiful midnight meal (of course, after we all grew up and started working, we help her with money and bringing dishes & presents for her/our Christmas special night). This recipe was given to her by her bestfriend's mother, who made her swear she would never give it to anyone! And she never gave it, not even for us, her poor daughters! LOL That's my momther, her word is forever. She says that before dying, she will leave a copy for us (meaning that we'll need to wait one or two centuries, I hope!).

It's the best honey bread I've ever eaten, and there's nothing like it in the market. SO here I am, typing and feeling this wonderful perfume...

ABC Wednesday - O is for Obi Wan Kenobi!

When I thought what I could post on the O week, I could only think of Alec Guinness's Obi Wan Kenobi, go figure it...



This Star Wars' character was a huge impact for my simple childhood. I just fell in love with his strong personality, his non-conformist spirit, his beautiful look. It's my favorite character ever, snce I was 9. And it's Alec Guinness, after all. May the Force be with you! :o)

For more O photos, visit the ABC page.

On the 28th day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

... We have only a few days left to have fun *snif*, so don't miss it!

You can get a subscription to Witches & Pagans magazine! That would be great! :o)

A delicate feather charm from Mermaiden Creations!

Come on, hurry up! On Saturday the fun ends!

A set of super-cool recipe cards from Illustrated Ink!

A Halloween handmade doll from Two Stars!

Modern Pagan giveaway

These days giveaways are popping up at Internet, and I just can't resist trying my chances in many of them! :o)

The Modern Pagan interviews today the Bizarro fiction's author, Jeremy C. Shipp, who's releasing his intriguing book, Cursed. The interview is one of those we love to read, complete and full of information about this seldomly understood universe of Bizarro fiction, it's really great. And as a bonus, they're giving away a signed copy of the book! Check it out!

Monochrome Weekly

This is my father's family's coffee farm, where my dad was born and lived for 50 years. My mother and my siblings have great memories and funny stories about the time they lived there. When I was born, it was already sold due to the coffee's crisis, so I have no memories. Now it's a private property that can be visited.



For more cool Mono Maiacs, visit Aileni's meme page.

A new friend

I couldn't stand watching King Arthur swimming back and forth alone! So last week I went to the shop with Lucas and he chose a friend to keep him company. And here's Lancelot (Lucas asked me what the name of Arthur's best friend was, and I got what he meant...)! A cute little beauty, isn't he? Now they swim back and forth together! LOL We still don't know their genre, they're too small to see the difference, let's see if we'll need to change the names!

There's something weird about these fishes, and I want to know if it's common: whenever I get into the room, they follow me. Seriously! If I go the left side of the bowl, they swim to that direction. If I go the right side, they do the same. It gives me the creeps! I'm not used to fish habits, first time that I have one, so this is... weird to me. You guys who had or have, is it okay?

A new Etsy shop and a new giveaway

Krissy, from Thinking of Blue, is opening her beautiful Etsy shop, and to celebrate it, is giving away an awesome pendant! Check it out!

On the 26th day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

After a huge storm in Petropolis, we find Monday sunny and sweet, and on this day Mrs. B. is offering...

A very cute A Halloween Snuggle Monster from Chasing my Star!

Two beautiful chainmail pieces from The Modern Pagan!

Great things for a great week!

On the 25th day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

http://bringingupsalamanders.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-25th-day-of-mrs-bs-halloween-party.html

On this windy Sunday, she brings...

Your choice bracelet from Wiccan Magick Shack!

The cool e-book Me and My Ghoulfriends from Rose Pressey!

A gorgeous Baba Yaga, Slavic Witch Goddess art card from Wishcraft Charms!

The guest blog and Haunted tour today are great as usual! Check them out!

A fun Saturday much appreciated and some thoughts.

We had a cool Saturday. In the morning, there was Lucas's school Environment Fair, where his class took fruits there and talked about their benefits, and also talked about how changes could be made to make life healthier and less polluting. Lucas' fruit was grape, one of his favorite ones! Here he is with his classmates (can you find him??):




After that, we went to a very good friends'house, to have a barbecue. The day was sunny, with a few clouds, so Lucas could enjoy the swimming pool and play with our friends' sweet grandson. We just loved being there, chatting, telling jokes and eating green salads, chicken and watching the kids' fun.





It's amazing how well Lucas adapted himself to his new life, and I don't cease to feel relieved with that. When I decided breaking up with my ex, my main concern and worry was Lucas' well-being, and for a moment I even hesitated, afraid of how the change would impact his little mind. But just for a little moment. Inside I knew he would be okay, as long as he would be away from verbal violence and daily stress towards me, and indirectly towards him.

But never in my best dreams I have thought he would be so well, so happy and mentally/emotionally healthy as he is. In three days he got totally adapted to the new school, even if the learning system was different in the beginning - and hand-writting was a challenge, he succeded and, according to his teacher (a great one, thank the gods!), he never gave it up, and now is easily following the class, and best of all, enjoying it. He even wanted to join the school's soccer team! And he always anxiously wait for Thursday, when classes are held. The fact that this is a catholic school never became an issue. Only once, in the very beginning, when he had his first Religion class (that actually is more like a class about moral attitudes and love for all human beings, etc.), he questioned the Religion teacher if he really needed to answer her questions. Th following day I talked to her and her general teacher about our beliefs, politely explaining why he wasn't going to pray with the class, but that he would respect the moment and be in good manners. Never we had any problems again.

And he loves living at my mother's, even sharing the bedroom with me - actually he loves it! My brother Evaldo is fun, loves him, and is always making him laugh with his childish jokes and silly faces. I watch him closely and I can see he's really okay. He may miss his dad, but he knows he's there for him, talks to him every week and knows he's loved. Seeing me okay helps a lot as well. If I was dpressed or unhappy, his reaction would be a disaster. But as I'm feeling light and well, he feels the same. It's simply wonderful to see my little son developing and taking a normal life without loud, harsh voices around, and really being this sweet, smart and lovely little boy he is. My heart just thanks.

Now I only have to find something to earn money and at the same time to be with him. I just can't go working 9 to 6 like before. Firstly, because he would need to stay with my mom, and she's 76, she already has her life, sometimes traveling with friends, and I can't take away her fredoom, no matter what she says. So as soon as the year is over (because it's too hard, if not impossible, to find something at this point of the year in Brazil), I'll look for a part-time job in the afternoon while he's at school - teaching private English classes is still my main goal. I put some of my handcrafts consigned at a local store, and I'll put some more at others, and hopefully they will sell. I'll start selling Suzie's cookies to cafes... I'll see if people here want dog-walkers - never seen any so far. Right now I keep making my witchycrafts to display at Etsy too.

What I know is that my life is taking its course, and sometimes my life in the rural seems like a weird dream, far away from my reality. And I feel good.

On the 24th day of Mrs. B.'s Halloween party...

She brings...

A print of Tami Murray Cline Photography's Ghost Moon photograph!

Your choice of an organizer from The Busy Body Book!!