Sick but still productive

I caught a cold this weekend which is not a lot of fun but has not stopped me from getting some things done that I have been needing to work on.

I have been getting a bit more writing done in my book.
Got about 7pgs written the other day.
Not quite as much as I usually do when I am sick, but it is a start.
I am hoping to write more soon.
I have around or just over 250pgs written now which isn’t too bad.


I have also the past two or three days been working on a rough draft of a painting I will be doing.
It is so interesting to see how each piece I add to it makes the whole thing evolve into something more or different from what it was when I started.
I would post pictures of it but I cannot yet considering I have been requested not to understandably by the person who commissioned me to paint it.
Mostly so that a specific someone will not see it before it is finished.
I haven’t started it on canvas yet being that I wanted to make sure that the colors would not clash once on the piece since there are a few which I cannot name.
Wanted to make sure I got the brush stroke pattern that my client and I liked for a few portions,
And basically so I could see how it would all be laid out and not in pencil.
I don’t mind doing the bit of extra work and think it will be worth it in the end to do it this way rather than find out something just isn’t clicking that would be hard to fix later.
That way when it comes time for canvas, I can know where everything goes and how it is supposed to look that would make everyone happiest.
I never want to paint something that someone is only moderately happy with,
Especially if it is something they have come to me to paint for them.
It is their vision, their idea.
I am just putting it to canvas as best as I can see it
to give them a physical representation of that vision.


I finally got what I think will be just about all I will be able to edit from the photos we took from the Dec 2010 photo shoot I did with one of my friends.
Her camera was malfunctioning so it would say it was getting clear shots, show clear shots, but in reality it was really blurry…
Most of them I could not fix at all, which is really sad, but oh well.
I did get some of them fixed up and edited.
(my editing skills are horrid haha but I made do… A few of them I had help with :)
I had a lot of fun on that shoot and going through and editing a good handful of those pictures tonight makes me think about the next shoot and what we will have planned.
Hopefully with a better working camera next time.
I might be able to fix up a couple more of the pictures, but so far I think I have about 14 out of I think it was 103 shots we took.
Which really is not that many shots for a typical photo shoot but we were kind of on a slight time cap and it was a spur of the moment thing.
If we had taken more, it would have just been more to throw out most likely so its not a big deal that we didn’t get many. Just wish more of them would have come out clear.
It was more for the adventure and a good time than it was for the shoot this time.
I only had about 30 minutes to get ready and leave from being in PJs to fully made up.
Don’t know how I did that one when you count in that I had to also piece together my dress as well….
Katie (photographer and my model for part of the night as well) was quite happy with the shots that did come out.
That made me happy since I really liked a few of them and hoped she would too.


During my relaxing I watched some shows/movies.
Ghostbusters (always a good choice)
Gingersnaps (love)
Iron Man 2
(first time I had seen it, thought it was hilarious. Especially the coconut line)
New Vampire Diaries (one of my favorite series)
New Nikita (really starting to like this show more and more)


Not too recently but a month or so ago I saw the Grindhouse movies.
Death Proof
&
Planet Terror
(Loved them both)


I have been slacking on my Apothecary work but there isn’t a whole lot I can do in my shop right now until I can pick up more supplies at some point to make more products.
I always feel antsy when I go long periods of time between making things.
I am a crafter and an alchemist.
I need to keep busy in some way or another…
I know I am writing and painting, but its not always enough for me to only be doing a couple of things. I need many things to keep my attention and from being antsy.
Which I have been feeling recently when it comes to my shop stuff.
I want to make more tree of life pendants and possibly some herbal massage oil soon if I am able to.
Just not sure what kinds yet.
I hate it when I feel like my shop is kind of dead at the moment.
Its not super dead but it could be doing a bit better than it is, I just haven’t been able to do much work wise on it recently to get the word out there about it since it is still newly open to the public.
Its a slow growing process that has been giving me a lot of good feedback on my products thus far which is great but I would like to bring in more repeat clients, new clients, and sales, just need to do a little better marketing which takes time and effort.
Once I am feeling a bit better I might look that over again.
Being that I make my own products and run the business by myself solely;
it can be hard to do everything at once.
Sometimes things take longer because of this but I expect that and have no problem with it.
I am patient, most of the time ^_~

I still have a BOS that I have yet to finish and post up…
Mostly due to the fact that I am not sure what to do with it.
I almost don’t want to do anything to it at all since I like how it looks now but maybe it does still need something in the center of the oval?
I really don’t know.
I have been mulling it over for awhile now and have not come to a conclusion as to what I think it should look like once it is finished. I still love where it is going but the only thing I could think of that I would want in the middle of it I do not think I could do. I am thinking of other ideas so that the book will not be laying around my house forever and I can get it listed in my shop soon.

This is currently what the book looks like.
It has a detachable wand on the front left side of the cover near the spine as you can see in the picture. The wand which is maple, book, and book marker, were hand made.
All the flowers and vine like stems were gathered by me and are real.

Anyways, this is long enough and I think I shall go make myself a cup of tea.
Echinacea elder tea is helping with my cold.
I was happy to find I still had half a box in my cupboard.
I really like the stuff and drink it even when I am not sick.
^_^

New Zodiac Signs?

I have to say, I do not know what to think about of of this new found knowledge on the zodiac... I have not done much research on it myself but I was aware of there being more than 12 zodiac signs so there being a 13th is not the issue. Them changing the dates around however and confusing everyone (Including me) is... In reading the article below I have found that apparently my zodiac sign has been wrong all along as have a lot of others; though some will stay the same depending on which day they were born.

~The article~

A Minnesota astronomer confirms what many have suspected: Your horoscope is quite possibly wrong.

Earth's shifts on its axis over the past 3,000 years have changed the 12 zodiac signs. For example, think your sign is Aquarius? You may be a Pisces. (There's also a 13th sign, Ophiuchus, that's based on a constellation the ancient Babylonians threw out for symmetry thousands of years ago.)

So who's to blame for this scam on zodiac devotees?

The ancient Babylonians based the zodiac on which constellation the sun appeared to be in when a person was born. Since then, the moon's has exerted a gravitation pull on Earth, causing a "wobble" on its axis that has shifted the stars' alignment by about a month, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

"Because of this change in the tilt, the Earth is over here and the sun is in a different constellation than it was 3,000 years ago when this study of the stars began," astronomer Parke Kunkle told the Twin Cities' KARE-TV.

The shift isn't new, Kunkle says -- the zodiac world just hasn't taken the wobble into account.

Here's your new sign below:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16

Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11

Pisces: March 11-April 18

Aries: April 18-May 13

Taurus: May 13-June 21

Gemini: June 21-July 20

Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10

Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16

Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30

Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23

Scorpio: Nov. 23-Nov. 29

Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17

Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20 

~End Article~

So the problem I am finding with this is that though I was iffy with some of the things my sign said about me (the sign I knew myself to be, not the new one), I could still relate to it. There was a lot I learned to avoid and could work on from learning about my sign. I then learned about rising sun signs and what mine was, which also explained why I did not act like most people with my sign. Not only that but a lot of my closest friends had the sign which was the sign of my rising sun. This new sign I have makes no sense to me. I know a decent bit about it being that another family member has/had it, and though I have a few traits, I would not say I have enough to classify me as being under that sign. It just does not fit. I am not the only one who feels this way. I am not saying there may not be a more accurate sign that may apply to me, but I do not feel this is it. Not to mention the new sign that family member would have... the old one fit far too perfectly for this new one to make any sense. What I wonder is if in discovering all of this, maybe the dates got overlapped the wrong way or some sort of time/date calculation is wrong from then to translate into the now. I am no astrologist or astronomer so I really cannot speak much on the matter I can only speculate on possibilities. There is just too much that doesn't make sense with too many people I am seeing. Which also makes me wonder, had we all grown up in a world where we had known this list above to be the zodiac would it still feel weird or would it just be our normal because that is what we know and are used to?

I still feel like there is a link missing in all of this and that maybe they released this old/new found information (because it is old information, just lost information) too soon without filling all those gaps and preparing answers for all those questions that would arise from all of this.

Currently I am hesitant to accept or reject anything until I have further information.

Obviously the zodiac does not rule ones life and can be quite off in some cases. It is more of a generalization than a pin point or mapping of your life, past or future. It does not guarantee you will have any positive or negative psychological/emotional/social aspects just because you were born under a certain sign; though it is helpful and can generally be correct on a more broad scale, with some on a more specific scale.

The zodiac has many uses for it which is yet another reason why this big change means a lot for some of us. For some it means no change at all, for others it means big change.

I do feel sorry for those (especially if it turns out that this is and always has been the zodiac we just weren't aware of it) who have gotten tattoos of their signs somewhere on their bodies... and then they turn out to be another sign... crazy to think is it not?

I am honestly not sure how much importance I hold to all of this, at least currently. Maybe once everything is researched and set in stone so to speak (which obviously  nothing ever is, its almost always speculation) It is just weird to grow up thinking one thing all your life and then one day be told not only has it changed, but it has always been the other way you just never knew about it. It's thought provoking. What does this really mean to me? What does this really change for me? It does not change who I am, what I do, or anything really... I guess everyone is so upset because it is like reading that someone is telling you, you are something that you are not. Especially if it is a sign that is not like you in almost any way. Whether this is true or not people have to remember, your sign does not make you who you are, it does not deem anything, you do. If you do not like something, you change it or take the steps to better yourself.
So just because you may have a new sign, does not mean it will change who you are...
Because if you think about it, if this is true, it has been your sign all along and you have been the way you are knowing your true sign or not knowing, right?
Anyways, point made.

Not really looking to start a debate on the topic being that I do not really have an opinion on it yet, so posting a comment stating one way or another will most likely get you an ambiguous/speculative response from me since I will not sway one way or the other as of yet. For matters like this opinions, though always welcome, without many facts are hard to say much on until more facts are gathered on the matter.
I am not doing any hard research on the matter at the moment but I will probably post something If I get any new information on the matter if it is different than what I have already shown above.


Also on a side note: Lets say your sign has changed but you have always found the correspondences within the old sign to work and do not find the new ones to work as well, keep working with the old ones or incorporate them in with the new ones. Your intuition is a powerful thing, if something is working then stick to it. If you know a certain stone, herb, oil, color, works best for you and its not in your sign, or has never corresponded to your sign, that does not matter at all.
Your body knows what it needs and will tell you.
If you feel drawn to it then stick to those, and don't worry about who's sign its attached to.
If it works for you that is all that matters.