I am slow today!

Goodmorning everybody!

After a good nights sleep I am lazy today! All is going slow and at a very easy pace, not getting me anywhere!LOL

Then I remind myself it's a Sunday, and that is weekend and then we can take it a bit easy.

Not much going on here still.

I can show you some things I made for the forum, although it also doesn;t go quick enough. Still must think some things out for challenges, but I made one again yesterday. It was one for the Book of Shadows challenges this time the theme was Imbolc. Strange word to me, so I had to read about it on the forum, where Snowy gave us a very good explanation of it. I copied it so that you can get familiar with it too.



This month we do a layout about Imbloc. Strange word? Here you go ,some education.Imbolc (pronounced 'im'olk' also known as Oimelc) comes from an Irish word that was originally thought to mean 'in the belly' although many people translate it as 'ewe's milk' (oi-melc).Imbolc was one of the cornerstones of the Celtic calendar. For them the success of the new farming season was of great importance. As winter stores of food were getting low Imbolc rituals were performed to harness divine energy that would ensure a steady supply of food until the harvest six months later.Like many Celtic festivals, the Imbolc celebrations centred around the lighting of fires. Fire was perhaps more important for this festival than others as it was also the holy day of Brigid (also known as Bride, Brigit, Brid), the Goddess of fire, healing and fertility. The lighting of fires celebrated the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months. For the Christian calendar, this holiday was reformed and renamed 'Candlemas' when candles are lit to remember the purification of the Virgin Mary.Imbolc is still a special time for Pagans. As people who are deeply aware of what is going on in the natural world they recognise that there is strength in cold as well as heat, death as well as life. The Horned God reigns over the Autumn and Winter and and although the light and warmth of the world my be weak he is still in his power.Many feel that human actions are best when they reflect the actions of nature, so as the world slowly springs back into action it is time for the small tasks that are neglected through the busy year. Rituals and activities might include the making of candles, planting spring flowers, reading poetry and telling stories.Bride with her white wand is said to breathe life into the mouth of the dead Winter and to bring him to open his eyes to the tears and the smiles, the sighs and the laughter of Spring. The venom of the cold is said to tremble for its safety on Bride’s Day, and to flee for its life on Patrick’s Day.Bride stands for Brighid- St. Brighids Day , so as you can see many Christian Saints even have been taken over from pre-christian times.This is a challenge not just for Pagans/ Wiccans, because no matter what faith you are, you can create a layout which shows or describes nature at this time of year or any of the mentioned above and maybe give the layout a nice decorative tiltle or quote /poem you like. Or dig deeper into the history of this day and do a search and see what inspiration you get from it.



So even that I wasn't familiar with it, I tried to do a layout for the Imbolc. The colour I chose was light green for the background, as a token of new life, the fresh green leaves etc. Then white is an important colour for Imbolc,as well as light, so there is the white candle and the snowdrops as one of the first flowers even still in wintertime. And the picture with little poen is of St. Brigid. Here it is


If you click the picture you get a better view.

And now the freebie today. I am sure it will not be to the taste of many, but I was curious to see what I could make in a Gothic style. It's of course, in darker colours, a bit strange and even scary it may be, but it was fun doing something all different. So here is "Gloomy Mood". Tomorrow I will have an all different kind of thing, which I am sure will appeal to a lot of, regarding the theme I chose!!! Hahahaha, curious????????????

It should have been a short post, but with all the Imbolc explanation, it gave you something to read, hey? Have a very fine Sunday and pop in again tomorrow!


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