So…those of you lovely people that have watched my last couple of Wednesday online chats will be aware we are having our bathroom renovated. Two weeks ago the lovely building crew arrived and on the first day ripped out the entire bathroom, it was loud and chaotic and happened to be the first Wednesday chat back after Christmas. Eric spent most of the first few days barking every time the builders spoke or a floorboard creaked. Thankfully he has calmed down since then and gotten more used to them being in the house. They are fabulous chaps who have worked hard over the past couple of weeks. Most of the past two weeks has been spent on ‘behind the scenes’ stuff such as pipework and electrics. Yesterday however the tiling began, and it is already looking wonderful.
We also managed to pick the coldest month to have no window in the bathroom and the front door open most of the day, we are special like that.
Not having a shower to use has been a bit of a trial, thankfully we have been able to pop to our daughter and son in law’s house during the day for our ablutions, but it is quite wearing I will be honest!
Hopefully by this time next week everything will be finished, and we will have a sparkly new bathroom…
It has been difficult to work with the noise and the disruption though. I have managed to get some of the Hedge Witch book written in the quieter periods, but it has been a struggle.
January
January has never been my favourite month but this year it has been a tough one. Having been poorly over Christmas and then the chaos of the past couple of weeks it has been a rough January so far (although I do appreciate it is not horrendous and I know people that have real issues they are dealing with, I am just being a diva). However, February isn’t that far away now, and the tips of spring bulbs are beginning to peep above the ground out in the garden.
An artistic itch
I am itching to start a new project that involves rooting through all my witchy items and herbals cupboard (it involves oracle cards) and I have a head full of ideas. Once I can get there it is going to be an interesting journey. You guessed it, I cannot get to the cupboard at the moment because it is in the spare room that is currently filled with boxes of bathroom fixtures and fittings!
Here there be dragons
So that I don’t harp on about bathrooms and how miserable I am with it all, I will inject a little dragon magic into this blog post. I don’t usually publicise a book until a couple of months before the release date but so many people have asked me about the Pagan Portals Dragon Magic book that I have had to release the info out into the wilds already. It was an absolute pleasure to write and took me down so many rabbit holes, or perhaps I should call them knucker holes? Having worked with dragon magic for many years it was an interesting journey to get down onto paper. The artwork for the font cover was designed by the incredibly talented Matty Greenfield who is Moon Books’ Social Media Manager and Designer and happens to have a love of dragons too. When he asked what I wanted I just said, ‘a fire dragon’, what he created was totally amazing. Pagan Portals Dragon Magic will be released on 28th June 2024 but is available now for pre-order.
A calendar
We were asked to create a calendar or some form of list for events run by Kitchen Witch, which we have now done. The Kitchen Witch website now includes a ‘what’s on’ page that lists the online rituals, study halls and events that the KW team will be attending and it can be found here https://www.kitchenwitchhearth.net/whats-on
Books, books and more books
Even though I already have a whole list of signed book contracts (for which I am eternally grateful) I had another idea recently and after speaking to my incredibly lovely editor at Moon Books I have accepted a further book contract. My problem is, which one do I write first? I might do a poll on facebook to see what people want. Currently the contracts for books to write I have are:
Household Magic
Pagan Portals - Minerva
Witchcraft: Daily Practice
Working with Animal Magic
Crone, Hag & Witch
The daily practice one I am trying to write a bit for each day, it doesn’t always happen but I am trying!
I think the Crone, Hag & Witch and Working with Animal Magic ones are calling to me first, but it is a fluid process and one that changes daily.
Jigsaws
I was looking for something to use as a distraction from spending hours staring at a computer screen, I didn't want to swap it for staring at a TV screen and I wanted to give my eyes a rest for book reading wasn't in the frame either. Although I do spend a lot of time reading, a huge amount of that is research. Pete came up with the answer by giving me a Discworld jigsaw puzzle. It started something...we now spend Sunday morning with cups of coffee pouring over a puzzle. It has become a good way to switch off at the end of the work day too. Eric has only eaten one or two pieces so far.
In other, other news
We have new fancy funky business cards, Pete designed some new cards for myself and for the Kitchen Witch team. They are useful to have to give out when someone wants more information about what I do or what the Kitchen Witch School is all about. It makes us feel very professional and grown up…
Onwards and upwards as they saying goes, sending out my thanks to you all for your patience in listening to my bathroom moans and for your continued support. ♥
