Surrounded by a good chain

One thing that is quite obvious, but that never ceases to amaze and please me, is the wonderful chain of creative, talented and with deep feelings friends I found in the blogland. Isn't it beautiful and really priceless to be surrounded by real artists in so many ways, from food to crafts, from poetry to photography, from witchery to jewelry?

I've been thinking of it lately, it makes me want to stick around with you guys forever, so fun and smart you are, not to mention the incredible support I always find here. It's what I call my virtual coven, :o) With pagans and non-pagans great, sensitive minds that come to send the best vibes whenever one needs, or to have a fun word. It's like that "tree phone list" on Practical Magic movie: we "call" the horde by posting our thoughts, ideas, crafts, doubts or fears, and an instant feedback comes, creating a real chain of energy that can only work helping our mind, hearts and souls to feel warm and cared, and also provoke awesome brain-storms to keep us sharp and in motion. This is rare and I'm aware of it.

Creative, sweet and super-talented souls like Kris, Suzie, Dawn, Holly, Meri, Aileni, Kelli, Mama Kelly, Angelica, Angelique, Angela, Marcia, Gabby, Blue, Janet, Eva, Dani, Danni, Nate, Brett, Marie, Rhiannon, Linda, Bridgett, Micael, Leila, Tori, Costas, Malkuth, Ponderosa, Danae, Wizardess, Lyn, Autumn, Zedral, Lilith, Sabrina, Kim, Stacie, Christer, Roan, Kathy, Michelle, Michele, Amy, K, Andréann, Ocean, Rue, Jaz, Janie, Jamie, Denise, Jules... The list is endless, so forgive if I left anyone out! I feel lucky and blessed to have found the right pack, when it could be easy to be disapointed. What I know is that I am in the right place, at the right time, surrounded by the right people. Period. ^-^

The Weekend in Black and White

Hello, mono maniacs! :o)

I wanted to share this, two new vintage candle holders I bought at Etsy for my altar and Lucas's. I loved them, big and with a depression around the candle hole for placing stones or salt, lovely!



For more monochrome photos, visit the meme's main page, hosted by Dragonstar, and join the fun.

My charming little witch

Lucas after his shower, just before getting ready to school. Now imagine this little guy in 20 years, with this smile and this look, the girls won't resist, lol!

Working and working

** Warning: This is one of those very long posts! **

These days I've been luckly (luckly in my mind, heart and pocket, hehehe) super-busy with orders at my shop, and I'm the kind of witch who gets even a bit obssessive, mainly thinking about it... all the time, lol! After my last bad love experiences, this is exactly what I needed, to overload my mind with Goddesses and Gods lores and symbolisms to create new embroideries, and leave no room for sad or depressive thoughts - because this is not my "natural nature", but you know how tricky a mind can be when finding room to wander... So if I'm not visiting you guys as I should, this is the reason, do forgive me!

Angelique, the talented artist and lovely friend, is keeping me specially busy this week (among other people's requests!). I've been surrounded by herbs, felts, threads and drawings to reach the best representations for the "babies" she asked of me. One of the cool things is that while I work I can teach Lucas about the myths - you know how immensely curious my little witch is, with his impossible questions that crack me up and make me wonder who this little boy is in fact, but this is for another post.

Since Sunday the weather changed a lot, for better. The sun is very warm and I can't resist enjoying its rays, so I work outside, leaning against our wall covered with ivy. I take my stuff and work there, drinking water from my bottle, while Lucas read his books to me. Now it's his Outer Space book's turn, and he's "teaching" me about the Sun, the planets and stars.

I have some babies to show off" :o))

Iris, the Rainbow Goddess, came first, with wormwood in Her stuffing:


Then Isis, the gentle but fierce Goddess, with red roses:


Oshun, the sweet waters deity, with jasmine:


I still have Yemanja to finish, and a new Freyja, because I think it can get better, and Hades...

I also made Arachne, with rosemary, for my cool friend (who's so cool that spins her own wool to create awesome stuff!) Angelica:


Marcia, one of my oldest online friends, asked me to make a Goddess-to-hug for her cute little daughter, who's been facing problems to sleep. I made an extra-large Cuba, the Roman goddess who protects little kids's at night, with no beads or hanging ribbons, and filled it with lavander and chamomile for obvious reasons. I hope She helps little V to get sweet dreams!


One of the cutest orders came from as lady who asked me to create a set of mini Autumn dragons to be place at her pre-schooler's classroom, for Michaelmas in Spetember. They were filled with lavender, to give a hand her with her little kids:


And I was honored to be asked to create a Prim Kitty for Leila, that incredible artist, who recently lost her lovely Gypsy:


The same happened some time ago when I made a cute bunny for my friend Maebius's wife (and ohmigods, he sent the most incredible acrying mirror this week, one more story for another post):


And now that I caught up with all the True Blood past episodes that I missed, this is another good reason to keep myself busy, getting the patience to wait seven days for the next Sookie & Bill's adventures (sigh)!

It's just good to have this kind of challenge, in creating new versions for ancient deities, and having the good feeling that I'll make someone's home a bit happier with my babies in them. And I do love to think that the Gods get pleased with my efforts when looking at themselves ready to go to their new places. :o)
Thank you all in advance for your own patience, by the way, if you got to the end of this post awaken, lol!

ABC Wednesday - F is for Freyja

Hello, everybody! Another week for the ABC fun! And today the Goddess is Freyja.



She is the gorgeous Nordic goddess of love, beauty, fertility, wealth and war, and the leader of the Valkyries. Daughter of the god Njord, and the sister of Freyr. Later Freyja married the mysterious god Od, who disappeared. When she mourned for her lost husband, her tears changed into gold. Patron of young lovers, Freya is viewed as a force for good in the world – protector of the weak, healer, granter of magic and source of love and peace. Cats are particularly sacred to Freya. Two large blue cats given by Thor pull her chariot across the skies under the full moon. Her attributes are the necklace of the Brisings, which she obtained by sleeping with four dwarfs, a cloak of bird feathers, which allows its wearer to change into a falcon. That's an intriguing lady...

For more F posts, visit the ABC page, created by Denise Nesbitt, and join the fun!

Dreamboard on The Full Sturgeon Moon

I created this dreamboard two years ago, and it is still something I need - guess everybody needs reinforcing this from time to time: believing in yourself.

That's how I wish to shine this month (and the months to come!).

Join this beautiful circle and visit other dreamboards at Jamie Ridler's fabulous page.

My Ostara / Mabon giveaway!

** GIVEAWAY CLOSED **

As I said, I've been so lucky lately winning all these awesome prizes in the giveaways I entered, that I have to host a giveaway to thank you all for such fun too!

We'll have Ostara next month, one of our favorite sabbaths (and after this long and chilli Winter, I just can't wait for Spring to come!), and on the other side of the Hemisphere, you'll have Mabon - I know you'll all waiting for Autumn to come bringing Halloween a few weeks after as well! :o)

Soooo... I decided giving away a little pack of witchy goodies from my Etsy shop:

* A mini Goddess or God keychain of your choice... Maybe a mini Persephone like this one (thanks Angelique for allowing me to use your pic!)?


* A spooky skull keychain matching the chosen mini Goddess. For instance, this little guy perfectly matches Persephone:


* A matching tiny Goddess magnet similar to this one:


And

* A Goddess bookmarker created by my lovely niece Catarina:


Remember these are only examples, the choice about which Goddess or God you want is yours!

To enter (mandatory entry):

* Be or become a follower of my blog, AND LEAVE A COMMENT TELLING WHICH MINI GODDESS OR GOD YOU'D LIKE TO WIN.

For more chances to win (leave a separate comment for each entry, please!):

* Heart my Carioca Witch Etsy shop (1 entry);

* Blog about this giveaway (2 entries);

* Twitter about it (1 entry).

The giveaway ends on September 1st, when Lucas will pick up the winner from my witch hat. Good luck, friends! :o)

More lovely things arrived...

And the last beautiful prizes I won in giveaways arrived these days.

First, this absurdly awesome wooden frame so beautifully hand-painted by the great artist Leila, from Illustrated Ink, which is already with a photo of me and my little witch. I can't thank he enuogh for this wonderful piece of art, I love Leila's creations, I highly reccomend her work! :o)

Before framing...


After framing...



And then, this fantastic book I got from A Nu(de) Motivation, "Naked: How To Feel Naturally Healthy" by Linda Gray. It is priceless (and huge, a good surprise!), covering the four elements and what they can do to our body and soul: from natural food and cosmetic recipes to health tips and herbal remedies, inspiring ideas and thoughts to help creativity and inner power, plus really beautiful images.
As I said, a treasure, specially because it's signed by the Nu(de) girls! They were so sweet and also sent a cute "Hug" book for Lucas, and this gorgeous necklace from Cuba (perfect for my Spring-to-come clothes!)




Thank you, ladies, for these wonderful gifts, they made my days! :o)

The Weekend in Black and White

Hello, everybody!

I love taking photos of Lucas while he's playing around. The messier the shot, the better! :o)

I took this one a couple of months ago, at the Crystal Palace:



For more monochrome photos, visit the meme's main page, hosted by Dragonstar, and join the fun.

Medals giveaway's Winner

Sorry for delay in posting the giveaway's winner... I was going to pick up the name last night, but I ran out of batteries.

So, this beautiful sunny morning, Lucas did it!



Congrats, Kim! Email me your shipping address, so Julio can send your set of medals!

Thanks for everybody who joined the fun, and stay tuned, later I'll have another giveaway with my witchycrafts! :o)

My Harry Potter and his wand

Lucas is madly in love with Harry Potter movies and books. One of my dearest friends, Holly, who's constantly spoiling my little witch, sent him a lovely b-day card with HP and also a bookmark with Edwiges, Harry's owl, that Lucas simply loved and is proudly using to save his latest book's read pages. I'll post a photo here asap! :o)

A couple of weeks ago he got a little branch from an old fallen tree at his school, and decided it would be his new altar wand. He rasped it with a scissor to remove its bark, polished it with a sandpaper and made his favorite magickal drawings on the surfaces. Then he put it into a plastic bag full of sea salt for cleansing (it was the waning moon), and placed it outside to empower it under the hidden moon on tat rainy night.

The morning after I glued on the tip a cute triagular crystal I had bought for him, and he wrapped it with his chosen blue silk ribbon. It looks cute!


Of course when he saw me taking its photo, he wanted to take one too with his wand in hand and his "Harry Potter pose" that you see above... Boys! hehe

And now he has two wands, one natural with no ornaments for honoring the Earth element, and this brand-ne one, to open and close the circle at our rituals!

ABC Wednesday - E is for Epona

Ah, more ABC! :o) I really love this and the monochrome memes...

I couldn't think of any deity for this week other than Epona. What a lovely Goddess!

She's the Celtic Goddess who protects horses, mules and monkeys. She's also a goddess of fertility, and is usually represented with a cornucopy, with keys in her hand, or on horseback, very much like Rhiannon (another dear Goddess to me). She is the only Celtic deity accepted with no changes in ancient Rome for her protective love for horses and thus, Rome's cavalry.

There's not much information about her, but it's said she was born of a man and a mare, who gave birth to her only daughter, the beautiful Epona, who became the Queen of Horses and dreams.

I love all animals, and horses, with their wild power and strenght, are a wonderful gift of Nature. Someone said, "There's something about the outside of a horse that's good for the inside of a man". Alas, I'm a horrible rider...

For more E posts, visit the ABC page, created by Denise Nesbitt, and join the fun!

*The image is from Amy Brown, another amazing artist I adore.

The Weekend in Black & White

One more week, and we're back to this cool meme. I haven't blogging as often as I wished... Working on my felt Goddesses during the day, and at night, watching True Blood, catching up with past episodes my nephew dowloaded for me - only now I'm finally in the begining of season 3. I'm absolutely addicted to this series. Hesitated for a long time to follow it, only watching random episodes, but now I can't resist! I higly recommend it if you love vampires too. It's perfect.

OH, I'm wandering... Back to humanland, lol! This is one of my favorites pieces from my brother's archive: an old, abandoned factory's window:



For more monochrome photos, visit the meme's main page, hosted by Dragonstar, and join the fun.

Rio de Janeiro's Touristic Medals Giveaway!

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**


My long time, awesome and sweet Brazilian friend Julio opened his Etsy shop to sell his beautiful touristic medals with Rio de Janeiro's wonderful spots.

His decorative medals are made with sturdy zamac metal wiht a bright cover, and are perfect for medal collectors, Brazil fans or for those who simply love collecting cool stuff!

Julio is offering a set of four medals in old gold cover featuring Copacabana Beach, Sugar Loaf, Christ Redeemer and Maracana's famous spots, and I'm happy to host this giveaway for him!

To enter (mandatory entries):

* Be or become a follower of my blog;

* Leave a comment telling me what's your favorite touristic spot in the world that you'd like to visit.

For more chances to win (leave a separate comment for each entry):

* Heart Brazilian Medals Etsy shop (1 entry);

* Blog about this giveaway (2 entries);

* Twitter about it (1 entry).

The giveaway ends on Augut 20th, when Lucas will pick up the winner from my witch hat. Good luck! :o)

Of witches and assholes

I'm sorry for the post title... But I can't find any better way to start this. Those who are Facebok users know the huge commotion that hit all of us, friends of Kris Bradley, a.k.a. Mrs. B. Yesterday a totally (I never cease to remember)coward anonymous person reported her to the FB management stating that she was posting abusive comments on her FB page! I haven't seen for a long time something so unfair and out of context! As I repeated over and over at FB, if there's a person who deals fairly and with high-quality and careful words in her statements, it's Kris. Anyone who knows her, knows this simple fact. Somehow, a stupid person decided to be envious and low enough to report a false accusation against her, and because of this, our friend cannot comment on any page again, gods know for how long!

It sounds so absurd and unreal that it makes me think of the witch hunt. Seems like we're back to the Inquisition times, and I'm afraid anytime they'll want to "virtually" throw her on the lake to see if she drowns or not.

What enrages me most is that, till today, no one from Facebook sent a single line explaining exactly which "abusive comment" was posted to justify their decision of banning her right of commenting (simply because there is none!). I'm sure they haven't checked Mrs. B.'s posts, otherwise they'd understand there's nothing not even barely close to an abusive or unpolite word at her posts.

Fortunately, she has many wonderful friends who gave her immediate support, including creating a FB page to show our love.

My suggestion to Facebook is to add a mandatory link to their security report form so that, everytime someone reports an accusation, they have to show where the user crossed the limit, if so. At least we'd know if the accuser is being true or simply being mean.

ABC Wednesday - D is for Demeter

Another week is here and this time the letter is D.

And for me D is for Demeter (Ceres for the Roman).

In Greek mythology Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, the seasons, and the harvest. She presided also over the sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone (who was kidnapped by the god Hades... but this is another story...) were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries,probably passed to Greece during the Mycenean period (c.1800-1200 BC and it is believed that they were established in 1500 BC. Some scholars argued that the cult was a continuation of a Minoan goddess worship. The mysteries lasting two thousand years, were a major festival during the Hellenic era, later spreading to Rome. The name of the town, Eleusís, is a variant of the noun έλευσις, éleusis, arrival.

The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were kept secret, as initiation was believed to unite the worshipper with the gods and included promises of divine power and rewards in the afterlife. There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. Since the Mysteries involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, some scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from psychedelic agents.

Demeter's symbols are halo, torch and boar.

For more D posts, visit the ABC page, created by Denise Nesbitt, and join the fun!

*The beautiful image above is from the gifted artist Anne Baird's eGoddess cards collection.

*Reasearch source: Wikipedia.

A lovely giveaway!

Now tell me how to resist this lovely giveaway/party Domestic Witch is hosting?

She's giving away a wonderful set of lavender goodies, and to join it, she asks you to post something lavender-related on your blog. Anything, from recipes, to spells, to art, whatever you can think it would be interesting sharing with your readers. How cool is that?! Just can't wait to see the variety of ideas it will bring... And the best, it's a worldwide fun!

Being lavender one my top ten herbs, and being me the greedy witch that can't see a giveaway without joining it... I'm in! Come and participate too, you have until August 31st, be creative! I'll try to! :o)

The Weekend in Black and White

Hello again, my mono maniac friends!

I've been away for a while, but now I'm back to stay! :o)

Here's a cute photo of a dear Brazilian friend's puppy, Ozzie. I can't look at this without smiling like him!




For more Black & White photos, visit the main page, hosted by Dragonstar, and join the fun.

Keeping the strenght

The quote above is on of my favorites, something we should always remember, and practice, because it helps a lot cleaning our minds from the bad habit of often "playing" with bad thougths. Not an easy task though. Specially when it's 2am like right now, and mind defenses are so down. If there's something that truly disturbs me is when I catch myself with negative stuff crossing my mind and heart. Wee hours are full of mist and can lead me to my heart's hungry and dehydrated portion, that craves for love but simply can't trust after so many disillusionments, and became too cynical about it.

That's why I keep chocking it under tons of strenght and indifference so I can't hear it complain. Does it make any sense?

Sorry for the venting, but even the super-naturally-optmistic witch here has her bad days, and I decided not hiding it.

.. And that's what leads me back to this quote, my mantra these days that cheers me up!

Workforced or how to laugh over office nonsense

For over 15 years I worked as an executive bilingual secretary for multinational companies, and as anybody who's ever worked for one, or know someone who has, while being a chance to meet nice people and share experiences, life in the office can be mostly very stressful and tiring, not to mention a source of gossip and jealous, in the best soap-opera style! I very seldom talk about it here, but I have tons of funny/"tragic" stories to tell about those years...

I survived this crazy corporate world by being always as calm and detached from the dark side as possible, and by keeping my sense of humor before everything, when everything seemed to be falling apart around me (and boy, many times I thought it would really happen!). That's how I survived with only a few battle scars.

So when I stumbled upon Workforced, I felt at home, lol! I could so easily relate to the sharp humor and hilarious posts, that I had to steal their button and keep reading their stuff. Don Joe, the mind behind it, criticizes the officeland with the right balance of fun and food for thought.

Even if you have never worked at companies, but love some bitter humor and sharp tongue, this blog is really worthy a visit, you'll probably get as addicted as I got!

ABC Wednesday - C is for Clio

Hello, my friends! I missed joining the ABC fun while I was offblog! It's cool to be back and I can't wait to see what evrybpdy came up with for the letter C.

I'll try to post some goddesses and gods for this ABC round, let's see if I make it to the end, with no interruptions! :o)

For me, this time, C is for Clio.

The Muse Clio, daughter of Zues & Mnemosyne, was the goddess of epic poetry and history and is also considered to be the inventor of the guitar. Her name was derived from the Greek verb kleô, "to make famous" or "celebrate."

Clio once fell madly in love with the King of Macedonia, Pierus and with Pierus she created the beautiful Hyacinth, the lover of Greek god Apollo.

Clio is often depicted dressed in purple with laurels on her hair, in the one hand holding a cornet and in the other a book, where she used to write.

For more C posts, visit the ABC page, created by Denise Nesbitt, and join the fun!

New shop banner & new Goddesses/Gods

**Update*
Above is the banner's final version, simply loved it! Already updated it at my Etsy shop for everybody to see it!.



My gorgeous and sweet niece Catarina, aka Tatá, surprised me today by sending me this cool image she created for my Etsy shop. I adored it! She put the Sugar Loaf on it, so cute! It's already proudly displayed at my Carioca Witch! :o)

While on my blog break, I was busy creating Goddesses and Gods for some good friends. I finally decided (remember that I am very slow sometimes concerning decisions, lol...) adding a pinch of correspondent herbs in their stuffing, and that's how it's going to be from now on. I'll soon have a big herbs' storage!

Here they are (bear with me! :o)):

Aphrodite (with cinnamon):


Airmid (with lavender, calendula and rosemary):


Hera (with apple seeds):


Ocean (this one was not filled with herbs... yet):


Poseidon (with chamomile):


Dionysus (with mint):


Hermes (with anise):


Is everybody still awaken?? lol

Now I'm busying my mind to create three Goddesses for friends: Cuba, Arachne and Freyja. Let's see what I can come up with...

And more giveaways and goodies at my door...

I've been really lucky lately concerning giveaways! :o)

This time what arrived was Jules's book I won at her Mooncat Farms Meanderings. A lovely witchy fantasy story with all the Nature magic we witches adore reading. I'll miss Kata when I finish the book this week! She was sweet and also sent me a couple of beautiful cards from her Etsy shop, that deserve being framed:



And last week my gorgeous witch friend Eva sent Lucas a very cool drawing set just in time for his birthday, that he immediatly started using for creating his dragons, monsters and castles:


And she made this super-lovely mermaid that is now hanging right in front of me, on my computer screen. It came on a cute tin can, I love her!:


Thank you girls for one more love across the ocean! :o)

Soon I'll be hosting a Goddess giveaway here, I feel blessed and want to thank you all with a little fun time, so stay tuned!

What a b-day!

Lucas's b-day was a busy one, and he enjoyed it a lot!



First we watched Shrek 3, with the movie ritual we adore: eating popcorn and drinking Grape soft drink. The theater was almost empty as if reserved only for us. The movie is really funny and has a sweet message behind all the mad story.



Then he had a blast rolling up and down on this crazy big plastic ball at the mall. I don't know how he didn't get dizzy upside down all the time, lol!


Then we ate at our fav patties' snackbar, just delicious!

We went to his favorite bookstore and he spent a long time choosing what to buy as a gift with the money his dad sent. He ended up taking three books: a pop-up book about a medieval castle with a huge, cool paper castle that shows its inside and characters, another one by Patrick Petit, "Passepeur: Scooter Terreur", and Emily Rodda's first "Deltora Quest". This is the best part for me, and that I've talking all the time at FB: he's totally n love with books. He's doing exactly what I used to do when I was his age, reading everywhere, all the time. It's like a dream come true, lol! Take a look:

At bedtime...


Before going to school...


With grandma...


I have a new bookworm at home to share my love for reading! :o))
Thank you all for the b-day wishes, you guys know what they mean to me! :o)