• Turns out on my long drives, I only needed to find cemeteries to encourage more stopping to stretch breaks. I am almost certain I have done irreparable harm to my tight hip and now painfully spiderveined driving leg through my excessive car trips over the last 5 years (but particularly this summer). I always think about stopping more, but alas….

    After happening upon the delightfully sunny cemetery on Tuesday, I purposely found another during the drive home today. My colleagues are now referring to it as my “cemetery stretches”.

  • I am ecstatic to announce the re-opening of my Etsy shop!

    I’ve been contemplating, imagining, ruminating, and procrastinating putting together my shop ideas for more years than I would like to admit. And it’s finally here!

    Hand crafted items have not yet been posed for their professional headshot, so aren’t active, but will be coming soon. Some of the items you can expect to see are:

    • Altar Tchotchkes
    • Tarot + Oracle Cards
    • Rescued Planner Items
    • Vision Board Kits
    • Self Care Ritual Kits
    • Blind Date with a Journal

    Leave a comment with the types of items you’d like to find in the Sunroom Shop.

  • Today would have been my grandfather’s 96th birthday. It seemed fitting that his longtime friend sent me a photo of the church flyer for his upcoming memorial on today of all days.

    One of the funniest recent memories of Papa was while we were visiting him at the care facility. He wasn’t at his best, and he was definitely wishing to do things in his own time and not on anyone else’s – but that was difficult given his inability to be independent. At one point after a nap he wanted to get out of bed, and he wanted my help in doing so (I had been helping him with transition, so it wasn’t out of the question).

    Unfortunately, the staff had undressed him. So when I told him I couldn’t get him up, he wanted to know why. I replied, “You don’t have any pants on.” His eyebrows shot up, and he exclaimed, “Good night!” It was the same tone I would have exclaimed, “Jesus Christ!” But, of course, his statement was delightfully old-fashioned and endearing and much more charming. We are working to bring this exclamation back into our regular vernacular.

    Happy Birthday, Papa. You are missed. You deserve a better memorial than your family has afforded you. I love you.

    “Good night, sweet prince, may flights of angels wing you to your rest.”

  • As an ADHDer (diagnosed a few months ago at 45) – I like to pick up craft habits and then toss them aside. Well, really I lovingly put them away and then forget they exist. But in 2016 the world of paper planners exploded, and I knew it was meant for me.

    Growing up I was obsessed with calendars. I had my own room and I always had at least three calendars each year – partly for the art. Turns out it also landed me a career in hospitality (two decades in event planning). The joy I find in paper planners that you ALSO decorate is never ending. I have shelves filled with filled planners, empty planners, and a million stickers.

    I love it and encourage everyone to find something that brings them so much joy and USE THE STICKERS.

  • Today was a travel day, and I spent most of it in the car. At around the halfway point, I happened upon the smallest cemetery along a country lane. The Sun made an appearance, and the air was refreshing. It made me want to seek out more graveyards during my drives.

  • Today’s reflection seems to have me landing on my head – so many of my spreads lately have been reversals, which can feel so odd, as I’ve only done reversals for the past year. I was hoping for something a bit more fluffy for my first foray into reflecting in this space, but The Universe is not typicallly one to pull punches.

    I find little comfort in the Six of Swords Rx; in fact, I find it down right frustrating – I want to be ready to move on to the next stage. I am taking minute steps, but stopping for a moment to think about what emotional baggage I am still carrying forward and knowing that I don’t actually want to unpack those bags is a titch discouraging.

    The Lovers Rx and the lack of harmony is absolutely due to my inability (okay, unwillingness) to deal with the unresolved issues hinted at in the previous card. The trauma and coping mechanisms in place can only lead to a misalignment within myself and, therefore, how I respond to others.

    Seeing The Magician Rx cuts me to my core – I want to walk through life with my power ready at hand; I can see, when looking through this lens, however, that my power truly lies in my willingness to live authentically and truthfully. If I continue to try to move forward without resovling my wounds it can only weaken me and jeopordize everything I mean to accomplish.

    And, in case, I was unable to sort all the above, The Universe wanted to make sure to hit me over the head with the Five of Wands Rx – directly highlighting my conflict avoidance tactics (such as trying to move to the next step without properly unpacking the issues). Why am I avoiding the unpacking? I’d like to pretend I don’t know, but it is absolutely because I’d have to process all the emotions – which is my least favourite thing to do.

    I’m certain the Four of Pentacles has appeared, not to caution me about frugality of wealth (although that doesn’t hurt), but to instead remind me that conserving my emotions is, in fact, the same issue Scrooge had. Stinginess in my love is where the real trouble is, because offering love and trust means getting hurt. And that hurt can only compound the wounds already in play.

    I am often as cold and collected as the King of Swords, or at least that is how I can come across – especially to those who I want to love the most, because if I show weakness, well, it leaves my poor bleeding heart out to be abandoned and tossed around.

    Ahhhh, my old foe, Vulnerability….

    My Altar with Tarot Spread: Six of Swords Reversed, The Lovers Reversed, The Magician Reversed, Five of Wands Reversed, Four of Pentacles, and the King of Swords (placed as my anchor card on a stack of my crystals). The deck used is “Modern Witch” by Lisa Sterle.
  • Question of the day from WordPress, “What have you been putting off? Why?” It’s as if The Universe is looking for a fight. Rather than stepping back as I remove my hoop earrings, I’m going to take a deep breath – the kind the ladies with high cheek bones and expensive athleisure wear tell you to do. The breathing with a purposeful count in, hold, and count out the release. Because this space is meant to be about seeking growth, speaking truths, and listening thoughtfully. I’m also going to try to limit the grimaces.

    Breathe in: one mississippi, two mississippi, three mississippi, four mississippi. Pause. Breathe out: one mississippi, two mississippi, three mississippi, four mississippi, five mississippi, six mississippi. Pause.

    I hope that works – my cheekbones are non-discernable without x-rays, and my leisure wear will not even be pretending to have anything to do with athleticism today.

    I’m going to choose one item from my years long “I really want to do this” list to mull over today: re-opening my Etsy shop.

    I spent a lovely amount of time in the ’00s-’10s with a small Etsy shop selling sewn felt (owl)ies (Yes, that was their “brand/style” name). They were fulfilling – kept my hands busy as I cut and sewed felt, fabric, and buttons in a variety of styles and wrote sweet bios for each (owl)ie’s personality. They were adopted out all over the world, and, I also enjoyed attending holiday shopping fairs or other vendor spots (at places like our favourite winery). I made mostly my own characters, but also did custom orders – even for some companies as gifts. It filled a need for me to keep my hands busy and kept me being a little creative.

    As a Dragon Crafter (aka Keeper of the Craft Hoard), I still have so many bits from that time (including many a small emblem (owl)ie for the wine gift bags I use to sell). I could easily update those darlings and sell them again, but that hasn’t been what’s been on my mind for so long.

    For more years than I would like to openly admit (especially to myself) – I’ve been gathering journals, a variety of used books I find interesting, cards to craft into oracle/inspiration cards, seemingly never ending collageable items for vision boards, and other tchotckes to share with the world. Mostly I want to upcycle items that could find new life and purpose and share out Happy Mail to bring some moment of joy and reflectiveness into other people’s lives.

    There is a need within me to be of service to people in some sort of a motivational or influencer or coaching way. It’s been that way as long as I can remember. I want to live authentically and help others do so as well.

    The why I’ve been putting it off is still cowering under some blankets in the dark corner. I think much of it is lingering depression and pandemic trauma. Some of it is my continuing workaholicism – this is where I find so much reassurance and worth in my ability to do my paid job that I burn through everything else that I should be spending time, care, and energy on (like my spouse, kid, health, enjoyment, etc.). It’s so easy to put it off until I have a few more items in inventory, or some “free time” to complete crafting a thing. I have buckets of items (almost literally). There are boxes of crafting bits and filing cabinets filled with vision boarding materials, closets filled with duplicate books and journals for creating kits, and let’s not talk about the state of my office floor.

    It’s time. It is time. Really. Part of why it became so important for me to spend time in The Sunroom (I deleted standard social media apps – from Meta – in January), is because, as the consumate “coach”, I truly need an audience for what I plan to do. It seems to be written in my planets and nothing I can do to prevent that – so instead I’ll use it to bolster my motivation.

  • It’s time to grow up.

    There is a memory, at thirteen, which puzzles me, but still causes me to giggle. Every Christmas Break my family would take a long road trip to Southern California to visit family. I must have hit peek obnoxiousness and publically displayed it while we stopped for a meal, because as we loaded back into the truck my dad snapped at, “Why are acting like a child?” I’m certain the elicited response from me and my older, which were incredulous looks and then to break out into laughter, as I said, “I’m thirteen. I am a child,” did not help the situation. But the memory goes black. I’m sure he rolled his eyes and left us to our own.

    Now, as an actual adult (a very adult adult), and having a better understanding that my father likely has autism, sheds light on a whooooole lot of things. Including myself.

    I’m perpetually child-like – to this day, I love cartoons, coloring, toys, middle school humor.

    I spent college feeling like I was perpetually sixteen and that everyone around me was older and wiser. And I do mean, I thought everyone was actually older than me. I was always surprised when I would find a fellow student who I had taken to be senior to me, was actually a freshman. There was only one time this could have taken a bad turn, because I was also an awful flirt. At our local (rural) fair I once met the cutest boy – I was 18 and we were going to grab dinner one night, until I started talking to his nice enough, but less cute brother, who it turns out was also 18. He nicely mentioned how he and his younger brother… and I’ll stop there because I did stop there. Did not matter how cute that guy was, since he was 16 I was no longer so interested.

    When did I grow up? I remember the exact moment. It was quite freeing, although I have no idea why my adult timer suddenly went off.

    My thirtieth birthday, my besties and I dressed as pirates and had a raucous party – at the time, my daughter had recently turned four and I was a year or two into what would become my career for over two decades. I woke the morning after and suddenly the world looked different. I WAS the adult in the room. Although, never shy, and always one to share my opinion, I realized as an adult, that the other adults in the room would hear my opinions differently and, therefore, respond to me differently. As an equal. It was freeing to hold so much power.

    I doubt my tastes that run toward fantastical and cartoonish will ever change, but I am grateful every day that I never need to be a child again. I’m sure Peter Pan would be disappointed, but Wendy understands.

    • Let pups out (and back in)
    • Brew coffee
    • Head to altar, put on music (generally symphonic) and light candle
    • Read daily horoscope from Chani
    • Pull Tarot cards (currently using “Modern Witch“)
    • Pull Oracle cards (“Alice the Wonderland Oracle” and “Spirit Junkie“)
    • Write reflections in notebook
    • Play Tetris (on Classic Nintendo) -probably listening to a podcast
    • Shower or wash face
    • Moisturize, paint face, fix hair
    • Leave for work
  • Where I live, Octobers are magical. The sunlight turns golden all while the air becomes crisper and more refreshing. Plenty of days you can still accidently get a sunburn, but we’ve also seen snow. Our Octobers remind me of Septembers when I was a child (which, if one delves into why that is, is horribly depressing – but, for now, let’s ignore the broader implications of the seasonal shifts in weather).

    Stepping outside in the morning conjurs images of walks down my childhood driveway to catch the school bus, watching the sky slowly lighten. There was something so exciting about getting to school each day – much more exciting than going to work now – although, I am beginning to understand that this is not exactly the way I want to live life. I have definitely been romanticizing the past. I’ve done so since I was young – it’s no surprise when I went to college I ended up with a degree in history and religion. The past has always drawn me in.

    With serious reflection, though, I wonder how much that is because I am meant to learn lessons so I can move forward and relish the presence. Relish. This word came up the other day… oh! It was when Dr. Elizabeth Langer was speaking with Mel Robbins on the latter’s podcast about how to actually be mindful and understand our minds are not separate from our body. I mean, yes, of course, but, also, EUREKA! YES, OF COURSE!

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