The first and lesser blow was that my lover of almost two years left me at the beginning of July to take a job in Japan. I spent most of June helping him get ready to go, and was understandably depressed when he left; I was also planning a vacation for the last week of July with my niece, in MA. Unfortunately, the day my niece and I got back from our vacation, on August 2nd, her brother, my 15 year old nephew, committed suicide. We got the news as his mother, my sister, was driving my niece and I home from the airport. I spent the following weeks helping my sister and niece deal with the fallout, and dealing with my own grief.

Fall faded into winter and I started feeling somewhat better, and had a brief spurt of activity as I tried to get back into the swing of things. I twittered here and there, dabbled on Facebook… and then the cold weather came, even here in Florida. I do not know about the rest of you, but I do not do well in cold. I have arthritis in my neck, and this year it was made much, much worse by the unrelenting and unusually cold weather, to the point of crippling me — it has been all I can do to go to work each day and sit at the computer all day, and I have had nothing left over when I go home. I have been spending most every evening and weekend flat on my back, and even simple pleasures like needlework and reading have caused me so much pain that I would have to take frequent breaks. Working on the computer in my off hours on my own personal projects has been impossible. Now, I tend to hibernate during winter months anyway, and go into hermit mode. The cold weather makes me feel very sluggish and sleepy and sometimes depressed, and I do not feel up to talking to anyone or doing anything except quiet, passive activities like reading and crafts, snuggled up with my kitties. This year, after everything else that happened, and dealing with crippling pain, that period was much worse and lasted much, much longer than it has in the past.

Now, at last, I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. This week has seen the return of some warmth and spring-like weather, and unlike previous weeks, it did not hit just for a day or two and then plunge back into the 30s at night. I have been in much less pain this week and therefore in a much better mood, and have been able to manage a few hours sitting up in the living room working on my counted cross stitch, rather than ensconced in my bedroom with pillows under my neck. I got a Care and Feeding of Spirits Newsletter out for the first time since November. I booked another speaking engagement for our local Wiccan Meet Up at the end of May (I am speaking about modern day vampires again). And at the vampire meet up last Friday I asked everyone how they would feel about trying to make a book out of the recordings of our last two years worth of meetings. In other words, I am starting to feel up to being productive again, and the urge to write is creeping back into my veins like a caffeine IV. It is amazing what sunshine and a little warmth will do.

I have hopes that we have seen the last of Jack Frost for this season, at least here in Central Florida, and that my neck will therefore also continue to improve — though I worry what next winter will be like for me, as it has never been this bad before, and arthritis only gets progressively worse — there is no cure and there is no reversing the damage that is already done, we can only try to slow it down.

It is times like these when I really resonate with the story of Persephone, spending the winter months in the land of the dead and finally emerging to great celebration and happiness in spring to the land of the living. I hope I will be able to make up for my hiatus with extra productivity over the coming summer months and get some good material written here for you — I can definitely feel myself going into teaching and writing mode. Maybe it is just because it is spring, but I want to create something again, and that is always a healthy and joyous feeling!

Happy spring everyone.

BB,
Vivienne

If anyone has suggestions for articles they would like to see, please add your comments to this post, below.

Happy reading!

BB,

Vivienne

I made a fabulous find — for a wonder, I actually saw it first, before either of my friends.   A beautiful, early 20th century pump organ — still in working order, and worth at least $1,000.00 — and I bought it for a mere $150.00!!

The poor woman selling it had lost her job and was losing her home, and had to sell many of her treasured family heirlooms.  This organ had been with her family for two grandmothers, and it broke her heart to part with it.  But I have given it a good home where it will be loved and treasured.  (I hope to have some video footage up soon at Second Market Shopping).

We had a wonderful time opening up panels on the back and front.  The back, once I had brushed out a century of dust and polished it up with Old English, revealed a patent seal on a wheel component dating the part to July, 1806.

There was a possibility the front panel might have hidden treasure — the woman who sold it to us realized, as we were loading the organ onto the truck, that she and her brother had missed that panel.  When we asked them what they meant, she pointed out that in the 19th century, many families in the south had their houses taken from them because of the Civil War.  Her family apparently had occasionally hidden money and other valuables in panels of furniture.

Even though we didn’t find anything (I thought even a scrap of sheet music or an old letter would be a great find), the excitement of anticipation was wonderful.

As it happens, we needed to open the panel anyway, to fix one of the foot pedals.  When we first got the organ moved into position against the wall, I sat down to play a few notes and show my niece how a pump organ works.  (”First you plug it in,” joked boyfriend Magus).  I pressed the foot pedals until we heard the bellows starting to wheeze, and hit a few keys so she could hear it.  But then the right foot pedal went flat.  When we opened up the front panel we discovered that the straps attaching the pedals to the bellows were original (probably hemp), and one had snapped, rotten with age.

I’ve seen some interesting things in my life, but watching my boyfriend down on the floor, sewing two pieces of the pedal strap together, is going to go down as a treasured memory.  (I think we have some of that on video, too).

Even though I won’t ever play it, because I don’t want to risk damaging it (e.g., breaking the clearly fragile straps), it is a gorgeous piece of furniture that I will treasure.  I count myself incredibly lucky to have found such a lovely item at a yard sale for such a low price.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

My sister will be taking more pictures in daylight with a real camera (these were taken Monday evening, with Magus’ cell phone).  As soon as we have better pictures with more detailed close ups, I’ll post them here.  If anybody out there can give me more information about this piece, please add it to the comments here, or email me:

Shipman Organ Co., High Point NC (serial no.) 6094

I did some research and found out that company started doing business after the turn of the 20th century, under another name, and didn’t change the name to Shipman until the first factory burned down in 1911, so we know it’s early 20th century rather than 19th.  But that’s all I’ve been able to find out about it.  If anyone knows where I can use the serial number to get information about this piece, it would be greatly appreciated if you post such in the comments section, as well).

Thanks!

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***

I’m working on a new article for Article Base, on whether it’s possible to be Turned into a vampire.  That’s the topic for our next vampire meet up, the first Friday in February.  I’ll post the meeting notice and the Talk Shoe conference call information in my next post.

***

Nephilim United is in the process of finishing our first video in our educational how-to craft series, carving realistic foam tombstones.  The video is in the editing process right now, but as soon as it is up and available for sale I will post here and let you know.

***

I’m probably going to be replenishing my stock of tarot decks and maybe buying some new books for my eBay store; in the meantime I need to get some more of Carla’s belly dance costumes up, and the t-shirts and spaghetti-strap tanks similar to the tote bags with her art work.  I’ve got lots of my used books to get up, too.  Too much to do, too little time!  But I’ll get things up here and there.  If there is a particular deck or book you are interested in, please let me know.  You can post a comment here or email me.

***

I’m going to be receiving my Warriors soon (in Lucumi).  Then I’m going to receive Ayao sometime later this year.  Don’t forget to check out my godfather’s books in the a-store (my Padrino is Ocha’ni Lele).

***

I’ve been on a crazy puzzle phase lately.  I’ve loved crosswords and other puzzles since I was a kid, but the last few months I’ve been voraciously consuming puzzle books!  That seems to be petering out a bit now, as I get more into some new craft projects.

I just finished crocheting a queen-size afghan for my parents and gave it to them for their Christmas wedding anniversary.  The last few years I have been on an afghan kick, each one a year-long project.  Now I’m interested in doing smaller, more challenging knit and crochet projects again, so I’ve gotten lots of patterns for various kinds of bags, and have been making pouches, iPod sleeves, and so forth for carrying all my different accessories.  I want to do a laptop bag next.  I’ve also started latching a rug, and at the same time I bought that from Herrschners, I also bought a needlepoint pillow kit that will go very nicely with the finished rug.

Maybe once I get my own necessities made, I will make some bags in goth colors to put up for sale at eBay.  If there is any particular kind of bag or item that you think would be popular or particularly useful, please let me know.  I won’t be able to mass produce anything, but I figure I can put up the occasional one-of-a-kind hand-made item for sale.

Okay, enough of the general update stuff.  I’ll get the vampire meet up notice up next and go from there, giving more details on my research and what I’ve been reading.

Happy 2009!  Happy Obama Presidency!

BB,

Vivienne

To make up for that, I’ve posted three new articles this week at Article Base:

The Truth About Modern Day Vampires (an excerpt of the article I wrote for the Instant Magick October newsletter):

5 Things You Can Do to Change the Country and the World and

The History of Halloween – or – What is Samhain?
These are in addition to the other two articles I had up:

Sarah Palin’s Black Magic connections and How to Use Magick Spells to Positively Affect the Presidential Election – and Why You Should, for a grand total of 5 articles at Article Base!

Hopefully these will hold you til I get back, and make for enjoyable Halloween and pre-election reading.

Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween, everyone!  I’ll talk to you when I get back.

BB,

Vivienne

P.S., don’t forget, the free bonus material being offered at www.careandfeedingofspirits.com is going to expire soon, and I won’t be here to give you another reminder.  The “Subtle Samhain Celebration” article and “The Patriot’s Spell Book” will both be removed by Nov. 5 at the latest, so order On the Care and Feeding of Spirits now and don’t miss out!  I think you will find this book very useful and enjoyable reading for Samhain/Halloween.

P.P.S. DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!

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I especially wanted to make sure everyone was aware of certain offers I’m making that click bank would not allow me to include because of their policy regarding event tickets. Everyone who buys the book is eligible to participate in a FREE 2 hour teleconference on the subject; I’m limiting the conference to 20 people, but if I fill one up fast I will set up another one for the overflow. I can record these through Talk Shoe, so I will also be able to make the podcast available for free for anyone who couldn’t attend by phone, but the podcast archive will only be available to people who have purchased the book.

The second offer they wouldn’t let me post was that at the end of the teleconference I will be holding a drawing from the names of the attendees. First prize will be a FREE 10 minute tarot reading over the phone, and second prize will be a FREE On the Care and Feeding of Spirits magnet.

Buying the book will take you a download page where the book and the free bonus material (a limited time offer only available through 10/31 and 11/4) can be downloaded instantly, and there is a form there to fill out to sign up for the free enewsletter that will be used to send out the schedule for the teleconference (or to mail out the bound copies of the book for the people who want one). I also hope to use the enewsletter to post some of the stories and questions that come up during the teleconference to create an additional resource.

So, lots of new free topical stuff for Halloween/Samhain, everyone. Have a Happy Halloween, and a Blessed Samhain!

BB,
Vivienne

Please take a look at the articles and comment here to let me know what you think, how I can improve further articles on the subject, or if there is anything about the subject that you would like to know more about in another article.

Enjoy!

BB,

Vivienne

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