Image via Wikipedia

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a real chapter check-in, and there is some backing up and starting over involved.

1. Morning pages – I haven’t missed a day since I started this path. I do feel like I’m starting to spin my wheels a bit. I’m at my core intensely private (hard to see when I blog so much, but believe me, you really don’t see anything.) I’m finding in that process that I tend to hide things even from myself. That’s not healthy, especially when I strive to live in a state of total honesty with myself about who I am, what I’m doing and what my motivations are. Given that I’m a Wiccan priestess I was very surprised at how much I was dodging the whole “tell me all your thoughts on God” exercise. There’s stuff there. A lot of it. In fact, I kept trying to find excuses to not do my morning pages, but it really is that runner’s thing: if I don’t do it, I start to feel not doing it now.

2. Artist’s Date – Yes, I went to the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. I had a strange shamanic experience that I meant to blog and didn’t. It involved talking buddhas, mask art, all sorts of nifty stuff. I finally made time to go into the Africa/South America wing that every one of my friends previously avoided studiously. I can see why they did – fear. I’m glad that I did; it was very raw stuff that speaks straight to a witch. In fact, I see it as the best part of the musueum.

I’m glad I went. I’ve been half-assing my artist’s dates for quite awhile, and I’m recognizing that if this whole thing is really  going to work – and it has started to, with me 16 pages into a book and with one short book to edit and sell as a pdf – I need to stick with those dates, and be firm with my dear ones that this is my time. Paradoxically, I realize I need to reach out to some of my friends a little more. I’m limited in resources and can’t travel much beyond downtown, but I’m still trying to make it work.

3. Synchronicity – Yes, I did experience synchronicity. I attended a party and met a fellow who had the ceremonial magic perspective on Eros. My relationship is much different from CM – to them he’s all sex all the time, and my relationship is very much different from that, in that it is definitely a family association. I had intended to make another more casual party the next day, and I’m afraid I missed out – my brain and body screamed for a break.

4. Issues concerning my recovery – Yes, some major issues came out that go beyond my body issues and my frustration that I’m not gladitorial. I was quite surprised at what they were, and how it relates to my own relationship to the divine. It came down to this grand question: So what’s in it for me? I’ve been conditioned to go right ahead if that answer is Nothing, but it’s no longer an acceptable reply. In fact, circumstances conspired earlier this week to make it clear to me that my days of doing something for nothing are absolutely over and ne’er to return again. I’m pretty sure it’s a universal edict – this isn’t just on a volunteer basis, but on a person to person one as well.

I’ve added some links as to what’s occupying my mind of late, as well.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Police target protesters at RNC convention
• The Art Subscription Project – artmarketblog.com
• Better to lie than make excuses says study
• To Big Business, the Conventions Mean Opportunity
• Janice Min Hates Fat People AND Stupid People

Share on Facebook

Summer Vegetable SkilletModified from Cooking LightSummer Vegetable SkilletIngredients1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil1 cup fresh English peas, shelled1 cup fresh yellow corn kernels (about 2 ears)2 teaspoons minced jalapeno1 large garlic clove, minced1 cup okra, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch pieces1 cup fresh baby spinach1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered2 tablespoons fresh lime juicesalt and freshly ground pepper to tasteDirections 1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shelled peas and enough water to barely cover. Cook over high heat for two minutes. 2. Add corn; sauté 3 minutes. 3. Add jalapeño, garlic, and okra; saute 3 more minutes. 4. Stir in spinach leaves, and cook another 2 minutes, until leaves have begun to wilt. 5. Stir in tomatoes, then remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients.Serves 4.

Make Use of Your Summer Vegetables with a Skillet Stir-Fry | cooking light, corn, in season | yumsugar – Food, Drink, & Entertaining.

Tags: flock, food, recipe, shiny_objects

Share on Facebook

Image via Wikipedia

It’s the deep end of the waning moon coming out of a rather virulent Mars direct.¹ It really is a good time to cleanse – get rid of what needs getting rid of to make space for the great things about to come into my life, although cleansing feels a little weird as I’ve only been in this space a month.

So, after a self-esteem battering session in my closet yesterday I was relatively happy to yank out five clothing items as instructed and move them on. Between oil stains, mystery stains and a disconcerting tendency to ride up flashing body parts no one but Mike really needs or wants to see on someone my age and size, I was only too happy to dispose of them.

I have two social commitments this weekend, too, and in the process of finding things to dispose of I recognized some outfit possibilities I had not previously considered – so it turned out to have its own reward!

Share on Facebook

1. To non-astrology followers: think of astrology as a sort of shorthand for the emotional influences and random incidences of living if it helps it make ANY more sense to you. Or ignore it. Your choice! [↩]

The instructions in the book are to pick 5 flowers and to press them in wax paper. While that’s sweet and sentimental for some, I distinctly remember getting in a great deal of trouble for flower picking while I was on a Girl Scout campout of some sort thanks to Jill Lewin and Jenny Briggs conning me very persistently.¹

Since I find keeping bits of sentimental flotsam highly impractical – even my stuffed animals have a magickal purpose – I’m going the virtual route, instead. Each flower I picked has an emotional association or significance to me, and maybe a little story to go with it.

Clovers were my first introduction to herbal medicine and the idea of edible plants. You can pluck one of those petals and suck the end for a sweet honey taste – no bee spit. I tried to show this off for show-and-tell, but let’s just say that my mother and Mrs. Pyle² had different views on what was “cute.” I also found them extremely helpful in healing more quickly when I broke my ankle – they increase blood circulation, which staved off the worst of the depression I was going through at the time.

Due to circumstances entirely beyond my control, my friendship with Matt White was ruined. I knew things were going downhill when he tackled me and rubbed a dandelion down the back of the shirt I was wearing – knowing full well that it was a shirt I had borrowed from my dad. I got yelled at, and explaining I could not control the behavior of others fell on deaf ears. This was when I first began to suspect my parents were not the reasonable people I was raised to assume they were. Yes, the memory is sad, but I’ve bought my dad a couple of really nice shirts since then as I could afford to. These days I tincture dandelions and enjoy dandelion wine from time to time; it’s a very subtle, warm scent but not in the bright yellow way you’d expect. It does feel like you’re smelling the sun.

Tulips are my favorite flower – yes, I’m exposing my passkey secret. They’ve always heralded things I’ve enjoyed, like long walks home from school at the start of spring thaws. Also, my boyfriend is very much a Dutch heritage boy – his family hails from Pella, Iowa, which has a tulip festival we’d like to attend.

Magnolias were always a herald of school almost being out; my next door neighbor with the subsistence farm and the persistent dogs had a magnolia tree in his front yard. The heady scent made me dream of heady things like that burning forever passion that teenagers don’t realize needs rechargeable batteries and late nights dancing on a skyscraper roof. There was also an embarrassing poem about an embarrassing boy – and too my belated embarrassment, the boy was given the poem.³

I didn’t like the photographs of morning glories, so this is what I went with. Why morning glories? A weed version of them used to grow on the obstacle course around my elementary school – they were the first flower I ever attempted to make perfume with. While it was an unsuccessful attempt in that I chose to store them with water in an old bottle of Tinkerbell perfume, it was a very successful boy repellent and perhaps was the indirect inspiration behind my later design of LoserBGone, a tested and effective way of keeping trolls off you when you’re clubbing.

This is where the seeds of my perfumery began. And admittedly, Zombie Repellent smells way way better than that first attempt.

Share on Facebook

1. I really hope horrible things are happening to those two, the sort of horrible that makes you dread getting out of bed every day of your life. [↩]
2. another worthless teacher in the long run, unsurprising in Crown Point [↩]
3. There’s a very good chance he has long since burned, shredded, or otherwise disposed of it. [↩]

So, for the Artist’s Way, my cluster (xiane, digitalmayhem and miscellaneaarts) has agreed to do a reset to chapter 6 – I moved, another person had surgery, one went on vacation and one struggles with depression. Your life starts moving when you do this path, and sometimes the road itself starts shaking like a rogue carpet.

Given how half-assed my artist’s dates have become, I’m glad of the reset.  I’d like to hit some museums I haven’t been to in the area, and now that I’m slightly more transportation-challenged as I figure out my way around this new corner of the city (and now that Mike is working 4 days a week at his corporate job) it’s gotten a bit harder to get to the intriguing stuff.

So we’re restarting at the abundance chapter, which is the one that really jump starts the creativity. I’m already finding details I missed.

I’m already walking farther and more – it gets exhausting having to keep my guard up all the freaking time, and it’s nice to know if I make eye contact with a passerby the only exchange will be “hello.”

I guess I need to dig through the Downtown Journal, the City Pages and some of those local free papers. It’s where I always wind up finding the cool stuff.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Do You Recharge Your Creative Batteries?
• Artist seeks medical curiosities to photograph
• The more you control, the less you control
• Treating Depression With Exercise
• Treating Depression With Healthy Diet
• The Use Of Aroma Therapy For Depression
• How To Monitor Your Depression
• Top Tips to Help You Deal With Mild Depression

Share on Facebook

Magickal Realism is in the DZ Fantasy blog – two pieces in one day, I’m pretty thrilled. Also, Book Dust is the feature, which is my personal favorite of the fragrances I’ve created to date.

Share on Facebook

I got a feature on Styledash, which is a much needed self-confidence boost today. Yes, I know there’s a Slim Fast ad in an article with a Fat Chic link. Still, yay!

Share on Facebook

If you’re a cosmetics producer in the United States, this should definitely be a major stop for you: the FDA Cosmetics Lableing manual which has been around since 1991.

Summary of Regulatory Requirements for Labeling of CosmeticsMarketed in the United States.

Of particular significance lately is this:
“Products that are cosmetics but are also intended to treat or prevent disease, or affect the structure or functions of the human body, are considered also drugs and must comply with both the drug and cosmetic provisions of the law. Examples of products which are drugs as well as cosmetics are anticaries toothpastes (e.g., “fluoride” toothpastes), hormone creams, suntanning preparations intended to protect against sunburn, antiperspirants that are also deodorants, and antidandruff shampoos.

Most currently marketed cosmetics which are also drugs are over-the-counter drugs. Several are new drugs for which safety and effectiveness had to be proved to the agency before they could be marketed. A new drug is a drug which is not generally recognized by experts as safe and effective under the conditions of intended use or which has become so recognized but has not been used to a material extent or for a material time under such conditions.

The regulatory requirements for drugs are more extensive than the requirements applicable to cosmetics. For example, the FD&C Act requires that drug manufacturers register every year with the FDA and update their lists of all manufactured drugs twice annually. Additionally, drugs must be manufactured in accordance with current good manufacturing practice regulations as codified at 21 CFR 210 and 211.”

It doesn’t matter if this is topical. It doesn’t matter if it says “reputed to.” Any implication AT ALL your cosmetic can treat a malady will get it classified as a new drug.

From here, we’ll be talking about ingredient declarations. But for right now – even if it really does fix dandruff, you can’t tell your customers that without some serious testing.

Tags: fda_regulations

Share on Facebook

I am first and foremost a writer. I am a writer before I’m a perfumer, before I was ever a witch, before I was born, for all I know. And because of that, I’m having a small epiphany:
I can’t just make time to write. I have to put writing first. That’s what starting this whole strange process with the Artist’s Way has been about – removing my creative block and putting myself on track as a writer. That I want to do two million other things is just an extension of being a writer – because writers create characters, we conceivably actually get to be two million other things even if it is oddly vicarious. I have to remind myself that out of all the people I’ve known since childhood, I am the closest to my dreams. While I know there are those who would be ragingly jealous and hoping I fall flat on my face, I prefer to think that those perceptive enough to recognize my potential are still rooting for me.

Image by JF Sebastian via Flickr

This doesn’t rule out trying and being those other things – actress, small-time athlete, warlord, comedian – it just means that writing is and always will be my path to it. What kind of writing doesn’t even matter – it’s OK to write fanfic, because it helps me with my entirely original works. Derivative work isn’t automatically non-creative. It’s just derivative. Sometimes, it’s OK to be derivative if it gets you to go somewhere original.

Now that I know this about myself, some decisions need to be made about my writing and how I go about it. Perfume work and promotion will take place in the last half of the day. They are lower priority, though still important. Writing and self-care take place in the first half. My relationship, of course, is part of the center.

I’m so glad I’ve chosen Mike over everything. There aren’t words for how right he has made things for me.

Share on Facebook

I have an Amazon affiliate account. It doesn’t do much – I haven’t had a payout since I opened it two years ago, but hey, it’s passive income and it might passively get my a gift certificate I can put towards a Doctor Who DVD set or something else fun someday. And while Amazon, in its earliest days, was touted as a “green” option because cutting out Brick-and-Mortar somehow reduced waste, this sudden, oddly late hop on the green bandwagon made me raise an eyebrow.

There are some products they’ve got in their “green” section I’ve used. The lightbulbs – they’re awesome. They do save money, and they last for a LONG time – we installed some in our old apartment 3 years ago the week we moved in, and most were still functional the day we moved out.

If you ARE going to shop green, do a little research before you buy. Be skeptical of:
1. Carbon offset programs. There is absolutely no way of checking to see if companies are following through on these programs.
2. Anything touted as all-natural that is NOT USDA certified organic (or the Canadian/UK/EU equivalent.)
3. Cosmetics that may still contain petroleum products, pthalates or parabens. Make sure you know which paraben it is – preservatives are necessary, but not all preservatives were created equal.
4. Natural does not automatically mean “green or eco friendly.” There are natural substances that are fine “in the wild” that, concentrated into some human convenience product, becomes either too much of a good thing or somehow breaks down in unfortunate and unpredictable ways. Synthetic sometimes is quite eco-friendly, as synthetics can include materials that are recycled because they just can’t biodegrade – and if it’s not biodegradable, it’s got to be used somehow because it’s not going anywhere. Tencel and polar fleece are awesome examples of this.

So, with that said – happy shopping. READ THE LABELS, and do some research. I’m still looking for a good, sane, balanced, non-crazy green consumer guide.

Share on Facebook