| Fairy Magik blog update! |
[17 Apr 2012|12:17pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 tired |
] |
I did a post on Nurturing Yourself Within and Without: http://www.fairymagik.com/?p=253 and I'm totally not following the number one step, mostly due to Mr. Gareth. But do as I say, not as I do. :-)
I will have a post tomorrow about my big one-year-old, complete with pictures!
|
|
| A Poem |
[19 Mar 2012|12:11pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 angry |
] |
An Open Letter
To Whom It May Concern:
I am not a cow
Nor a pig
Nor your slave.
I am not chattel.
My womb is my own
I have felt the quicksilver movement
Of early life within.
Life I created with my partner,
Not you.
Life I nurtured, that I endured hardship for,
By my choice.
It is true that
Women are vessels
For unborn children.
But if something is wrong with a vessel
Or what is stored in the vessel,
What would you do?
If you had a clay pot with cracks in it,
Would you try to store water?
Or would you dump out the water
And patch the cracks
Before trying to use the pot again?
If you had grain stored in that same pot,
And it became moldy,
Would you keep the grain in that pot
Until it returned to dirt?
Or would you throw away the grain
And hope for a better harvest next time?
It is the same for woman and unborn child.
Yes, it is true that
Women are vessels built for bearing children.
But a woman also has free will
And the ability to judge if her body or mind is cracked,
Unable to be used for this purpose.
Again, it is true.
We women are vessels.
Our bodies are designed for carrying children.
And being mostly men, perhaps you don't understand
The symbiotic nature of mother and unborn child,
The psychological and physical connections that
Manifest itself in strange and wonderful ways.
So you can't know the torture of carrying a dead or broken child within,
You can't even begin to empathize.
Why, then, would you think you can decide for us?
Force our bodies to your will?
Lock us away for the crime of being a woman?
Drive us to deeper and darker depths of our souls
In the name of your supposed Christian family values?
I understand that you are afraid.
That the world is shifting around you,
That light is being cast on all the lies you have built your life around.
I understand that you feel your power is slipping
Like sand through your fingers.
It is frightening to have the very core of your being
Shaken.
I understand, and I sympathize,
But I do not tolerate.
Your eyes WILL be opened by Truth.
Your worldview WILL change or you will be drowned in the rising tide.
You will NOT control my body or the bodies of my children.
I am a woman.
I am not a cow,
Nor a pig,
Nor a man.
I am stronger than all of these.
And we will prevail against you.
Sincerely,
Women of the United States
K. Tarkulich 03/2012
|
|
| Costume Commissions are a go! |
[15 Mar 2012|02:19pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 happy |
] |
If you have any costume or special occasion dress needs, please think of me! http://www.fairymagik.com/?page_id=146
I do hand-dyeing and craftwork as well.
To those of you helping me spread the word, thank you oh so very much, and if any others feel like giving me a bump via some social networking platform, please do so and know how much I appreciate each and every shout out. :-) And let me know if I can ever return the favor.
|
|
| Free ebook! |
[09 Mar 2012|10:24am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
happy |
] |
I can't believe I didn't post this here, but you can download my husband's first ebook for FREE through tomorrow - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/76687
If you like it, maybe you'll buy the sequel? Or leave a review somewhere? :-)
|
|
| Yes yes yes! |
[07 Oct 2011|02:20pm] |
"As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the
cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a
democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when
corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for waysto get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!"
|
|
| New York Times Op-Ed on Freelancing |
[16 Dec 2010|03:41pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 thoughtful |
] |
Wonderful Op-Ed piece about chasing down back pay as a freelance worker: opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/begging-for-your-pay/
I fortunately have only had small delays and have had to chase after a paycheck only once, and then it turned out to be a legit delay (sent to a wrong address), although there was always the fear of not knowing quite when or if the checks would come.
I love this comment in response to the article:
"A friend of Libertarian bent once asked me "why are artists so liberal? and against Capitalism?"
I had to tell him it was the most artists, musicians, writers have been treated unfairly and unethically by some self anointed capitalists at some point. We, as a society, claim to value artists and writers, but presumptive Speaker John Boehner's scorn at Speaker Pelosi remark "Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolar.." tells us what the creative are really worth.
And what most 'capitalists' won't admit is that it's about Power. Money is Power: withholding it when it is fairly owed is an abuse of power. And theft by another name."
|
|
| Inspiration Found! Ready for the Perspiration. |
[15 Nov 2010|12:43pm] |
|
Pete and I had a lovely weekend. Saturday we drove down to southern PA to spend the evening/night with my brother and his family. I love my nieces and nephew so much. On the way, we stopped at Country Cupboard (a restaurant similar to Cracker Barrels but bigger) and decided to treat ourselves to the lunch buffet, promising to ourselves to eat a lighter and cheaper dinner. Then my brother treated us to the best Chinese buffet I’ve ever been to. So yummy but so much food! I felt stuffed like I do after a holiday dinner. In the car on the way back from dinner, Pete and I had fun with the kids coming up with goofy potential baby names, and then Saturday night I got to soak in their whirlpool bathtub (they are renting this amazing house for really cheap that’s owned by the son of someone who goes to the church where my brother is preaching). Sunday Pete and I drove 40 minutes from my brother’s house into Maryland to check out Faerie Con. It was lovely! We met up with Kat and Cory, looked at lots of shinies, and I wished I had at least $300 to spend if not more. We were able to talk with lots of artists, Pete handed out a few business cards, and we put in our interest to attend the Maryland Faerie Festival next year. This was one that I applied for this year but we didn’t get in because I sent the application kind of late in the process and slots were limited. Now maybe they’ll contact US though. Pete bought a print and three postcards, and I bought sun-dried tomato infused olive oil and garlic dip mix from a Reiki kitchen witch. So yummy and infused with positive energy spells! But I mostly bought it because it was really yummy. Afterwards, we had coffee with Kat and Cory and sat for a couple of hours chatting. They also gave us a little red fleece baby blanket with an elephant on it and Kat made a lovely cream hat for our little one. I’m so excited now to play with the baby stuff! So the atmosphere of Faerie Con was friendly and open and caring, which Pete and I felt immediately. I got so many compliments on my copper wire wings and a steampunk clothing vendor practically glomped me over them, and then when I explained the process to her, suggested a way to incorporate them into a relatively fast and easy product to sell on Etsy. I found that so amazing. Rather than keep an idea for themselves, they shared it. Pete had some moments like that with the artists he was talking to. But, as we expected, it is not a con where you make lots of money. So Pete and I will keep this on our maybe list for next few years, and if we can afford to go and realize we’ll only be breaking even but be able to network with amazing people and get really inspired, then we’ll go. If we haven’t done well at other events before time comes to apply, though, then we’ll hold off. We also got several ideas for bigger events to go to. Needless to say, Pete and I both are really fired up now to begin pursuing art and our business with renewed energy. It helps that the house is getting in order too. But yes, yay for inspiration and excitement and a desire to plan and move ahead. We’re too stubborn to NOT succeed.
|
|
| The Misery/Love co. |
[13 Oct 2010|01:39pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 sleepy |
] |
If you like perfume oils or know someone who does, please check out the Misery.Love Co here: www.etsy.com/shop/themiseryloveco.
The perfumes are amazing, and Rhi is running a great sale right now. If I had money, I would be buying oodles for myself. :-)
|
|
| On Artists |
[27 Sep 2010|07:39pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
contemplative |
] |
“The skjald is,” he says, “the chosen lookout of life who must reveal from his mountain what he sees at life’s deep fountain. When gripped by his vision,” he says further, the skjald is “neither quiescent nor lifeless but, on the contrary, lifted up into an exceptional state of sensitiveness in which he sees and feels things with peculiar vividness and power. I know of nothing in this material world to which the skjald may more fittingly be likened than a tuned harp with the wind playing upon it.” The hymnist Gruntvig quoted in Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark by JA Aaberg.
The skjald in Danish is a poet but moreso, one who speaks truth of the surrounding world even when others don't want to hear it, or in ways that others can't always understand. It is a definition difficult to translate into English, but I love this metaphor of a tuned harp being played by the wind.
|
|
| Reading from Project Gutenberg |
[03 Sep 2010|09:05am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
tired |
] |
I had a bad bout of insomnia last night, so I got up and went out in the living room to read on my computer a while. I finally (FINALLY) finished "A Naval History of the United States" that I got off of Project Gutenberg. It has taken me over a year to finish this work. It is five volumes saved in two electronic files, and covers colonial times up through the late 1890s, when it was written. It was incredibly interesting, especially the Revolutionary War section and the period leading up to the war of 1812. The author included snippets of firsthand accounts of battles and actually made a fair attempt to not demonize the enemies TOO much (which is rare for a historical work of that time).
I try to have one book from Project Gutenberg going at all times, and I've read some really interesting works, including one of the first fantasy novels, which is actually a math lesson in disguise, a few interesting histories, a few Victorian children's novellas, some travel works, some poems, some early 1900s short romance stories. So far I've only quit reading two of the pieces, an educational treatise by a Harvard president from the 1800s and a really dry history of a very specific parsonage in England. I'm working my way SLOWLY through the author list alphabetically (I'm still on the Abbotts, and I started about four or five years ago!), and I don't read the same author's work back to back. If an author has ten books, it takes twenty to read them all since I'll do every other one. I imagine if I had some kind of digital reader, I would get through the works faster, since it is rather a pain to sit and read on my laptop, but for right now, it's what I got.
I really like the idea of reading these works that have been long forgotten in history, that I'm allowing the author to live on in a way that is significant. I also love expanding my knowledge, and the histories especially intrigue me when they include pieces from the diaries of common people.
My next book is about Danish hymns written in the 1940s. I read the first chapter last night, and this is another one that is really interesting. It goes into the history of the hymns, and in later chapters the biographies of the most famous hymnists, and then intersperses them with the lyrics written down. The Danes use really strong imagery, and in the first chapter, there were definite pagan imagery still incorporated in the Christian hymns, which fascinates me. This book is MUCH shorter, and shouldn't take me long to get through at all.
Just thought I'd share a little of my OCD tendencies, and the wealth of work that is available for free from Project Gutenberg. When I have extra money some day, I plan on giving them some monetary support. But for right now, my verbal support will have to suffice.
|
|
| Presents and Midsummer's Update (Finally!) |
[26 Aug 2010|04:31pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
happy |
] |
I’ve only gotten a few of my birthday gifts so far, but I am very happy with them. My brother and sister-in-law got me this enormous print of a long-haired girl playing the flute and all these magical things going on in the background. I joked that the girl was me, but it does look a little like me in the long wavy hair and blue-ish eyes. Once it’s hanging in a couple of weeks, I will take pictures. My aunt the nun got me a beautiful porcelain fairy bell. And Petey gave me two of three gifts last night (the last hasn’t come in yet): a figurine of two fairies kissing in a leaf boat which I adore (finally a fairy figurine that’s mine and not Pete’s!) and the Rodgers and Hammerstein song collection. This book was one I used to check out from the library ALL the time, and I found it at the amazing used bookstore in Portland but it was way too expensive. I mentioned to Pete how much I used to love the book and he remembered and got it for me! Off of ebay, so he got a deal. The book is from 1958, hardcover, with beautiful color illustrations (Sarah, you would love them for glamourkin, but this book is all mine!) and tidbits on each of the shows, and then the sheet music. I seriously cried when I opened it because I didn’t expect it at all, it was just one of those throw away comments. So basically Pete won himself best husband of the year award for that and for being so amazing doing all the cooking and dishes lately. I also got $10 from Pete’s grandma and a card (such a grandma thing to do!) so I’m going to save that and hopefully use it towards getting some Bpal this fall. Cuz it’s been over a year since I’ve bought Bpal, and almost a year since I bought ANY smellies to try (my last buys were Misery/Love and Woobie). And now FINALLY I am going to start talking about my summer, starting with the Midsummer’s celebration at Sarah and Jenn’s house. ( Click to read about and see the fae! )
|
|
| Paying it Forward - Help the wildlife from the Oil Spill |
[12 Jun 2010|11:08am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
hopeful |
] |
My awesome friend Dom (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) subtlegray ) helped make/edit this video with local Buffalo musician Scott Celani.
All profits from buying this song are going to the National Wildlife Federation, which is working right now in the gulf to save the local wildlife.
Buy the song (only $1.99) or donate direct to the Federation if you can, and pass this message of hope along it's way. www.cdbaby.com/cd/ScottCelaniBand1
We may not be able to make a huge difference in the world, but the little changes that we can make, especially to well-deserved groups, can add up.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
productive