Monday, December 19, 2011

Secret Santa Can Suck It



So I got a wicked cool series of Secret Santa Can Suck It presents from the wonderful xJane at Mind on Fire. I've already added a tonne of "must have" items to my 'to buy' list, since it was a little late for me to add them to my Christmas present ideas list on the fridge (what with Australia being about a million miles from everywhere, according to the post office).

Of course, getting Secret Santa presents from someone means I get to buy (or not, in this case) presents for someone else and this year I drew Pensive from Pensive Pumpkin out of the Santa hat.

A quick scan of her blog leads me to believe she may be Pagan. I'm not 100% on this, since I've beena  bit short on time lately and didn't get a chance to read very extensively. I hope I'm right though, because I based pretty much all her presents on this theme.

First of all we have this absolutely stunning circlet:


Every girl loves a nice piece of jewelry and this is nice and simple. It's silver plated, which means it should go nicely on any skin type and should be wearable by most people (though of course, I don't have a budget with this so if she needs platinum then hell, why not? Let's have one made).

And for Pensive to keep her spells written in (or her recipes, or her innermost thoughts and dreams, or her passwords), I chose this leatherbound, buckled, and strapped journal:


Because hell yes, that's why. I love leatherbound books, and I love journals. Who wouldn't? The symbol on the front is customisable. If given the chance I would ask what she would like on it but since this is meant to be a secret I can't, so I suggest having a pumpkin.

Most women love candles. Most people like having money around the house. These candles are meant to attract money, and even if they don't work I bet they smell absolutely heavenly:


They're rolled in myrrh, fools gold, cinnamon, clove, sandalwood, nutmeg and devil's claw, among others. I want some for myself. In fact, I've added them to that 'to buy' list.

Alongside candles, every woman seems to get bath oils and the like for Christmas and birthdays. Although the tradition can get a little tired, I do love good handmade cosmetics and bath accessories and I loved the sound of this bath oil:


The Midnight Gypsy Magick and Moonlight Bath Salts are made with frankincense, sandalwood, lime, jasmine, vanilla, lavender, almond extract, along with a heap of herbs and plant extracts. It looks gorgeous.

While Pensive is relaxing in the bath, she may like to enjoy a good book. Probably shouldn't take this one in the tub though. It's likely a little heavy:

This book was written by a fairly well-known occultist and spiritualist named L W De Laurence. He actually converted to Catholicism later in life but before that happened he managed to bang out a few great books like this one, printed in 1939. It's apparently in brilliant condition and if Pensive loves books as much as I do she'll go crazy for this one.

Pensive's Thirteenth Day of Creepmas blog post had an image of a dude in what I think is a Baphomet costume. Baphomet was/is awesome. He was the god/demon that the Knights Templar were accused of (and subsequently wiped for) worshipping. Because of the association with the Templars, Baphomet has become linked to the Freemasons and all that Pagan/Christian cult conspiracy stuff. Then Alistair Crowley got an arm in and changed his public image even more. Look, it's weird, but if you're into weirdness like I am you'll see why it's cool.
Anyway, I had a look around and found this cute little guy on Amazon:


Assuming he's real, Baphomet probably doesn't appreciate me calling him cute. Whoops.

And finally, as I began posting all of this I suddenly remembered my friend Jon and the bowls that he makes. I really think that this handcrafted pewter dancing hare bowl could be something Pensive would like:


So. How do you think I went?

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Merry Christmas. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?

Right. So it's been a while. A LONG while. I've been rather slack this year haven't I?
Well I can't promise I'll be any better next year but I do have excuses!
I've moved in with my boyfriend and his family and although it's a big house, it's not mine, which means I've been sewing-machine-less for the last 6 months. It's driving me quite batty. His Mum keeps telling me I should bring my machine over, but if I do that I'll have to bring my sewing kit too, and then my fabric stash, and then my craft kits, and pretty soon her spare bedroom would be chock full of my stuff. So for now I'm holding back on the craft somewhat.

I will TRY to be more diligent in the new year. I do have a few things I plan to make and I'll try to blog about them, but being the start of a new year I'll have a whole heap of stuff to get ready and plan and start, so I won't have a whole lot of time to blog. Obviously I'll be starting uni again. I also have my boyfriend's 21st birthday party to organise and fancy dress costumes to make for us both AND my Mum. Then I also have the new horsemanship classes my best friend and I will be taking. And the cruise we're all going on in February. And an all-day concert that's also in February. And the BF and I will be down the coast for much of January too. So it's a packed start to the year.

For now though I have a little time on my hands so I thought I'd stop in and drop a line to my millions of adoring fans *cough, cough* and let everyone know I'm not dead yet. Just lazy.

Also there will be another post soon. I've gone and volunteered myself for the 'Secret Santa Can Suck It' game at Shadow Manor and will be putting up my own gift idea for my Secret Santa recipient by the 21st of December.

So anyway. Merry w00tmas.