I recently joined the Pagans of Etsy Street Team. I’ve been Pagan for over fifteen years (OK, now I feel old), although I am an abominably lazy Pagan. I tend to observe my religion when I’m not too busy doing other things, if you know what I mean.
Etsy, though, has given me an opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals and hopefully re-kindle my practice a bit. (Have I mentioned today how much I love Etsy?) I’ve also started designing a line of shop graphics for Pagan Etsy sellers. I found a great image of an old book (actually a Bible originally – I do get some pleasure out of co-opting Christian imagery for Pagan purposes, rather than the other way around, which has been the norm for the past couple of milennia!), which I made into a very cool Book of Shadows, if I do say so. The graphic is available as a full Etsy shop start-up kit or shop makeover, including sale and vacation banners, thank you and reserved graphics, and a business card (or hang tag – your choice!), for only $35.
View on Etsy
We’ve got our Christmas tree up! This is the first time I’ve had a tree for Christmas in more than TEN YEARS. I’ve moved around too much, and had such tiny crap apartments. I’m not a huge celebrator of Christmas at the best of times, but I love having a tree in the house. The smell reminds me of being a little kid.
Recently I spoke to my sister, who lives back in Canada. To save money on plane fare, she and her boyfriend are driving from Victoria to Calgary to spend Christmas with my parents. For the uninitiated, this is an eighteen-hour drive, through the (aptly named) Rocky Mountains. In driving/melting/frozen/pick-the-adjective-of-your-choice snow. We used to do the same drive in reverse every summer holiday from when I was about ten, and let me tell you, there’s a reason they make T-shirts reading “I survived the Coquihalla Highway“.
Meanwhile, here in balmy England, I’ve decorated the house with greenery from my garden. We’ve got holly, ivy and mistletoe a-plenty, and I popped to the local churchyard and robbed the yew trees of some abundant boughs. The yew tree, for those who are interested, was associated with the land of the dead by early Germanic peoples, including the Angles and the Saxons; and it’s still found in graveyards in old churches all over England. (I find this fascinating, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that very few of you share the feeling.)
I’ve just listed a new premade Etsy banner with a fun Edwardian graphic of a masqued ball – available now for only $7!
View on Etsy
I really like winter in England. Coming from Canada, where the winters are LONG and COLD and REALLY LONG and DID I MENTION FREAKIN’ COLD?, winter in England seems like a bit of an amateur season. The leaves fall off the trees (mostly – some last remarkably long, and the ivy always stays green), it gets a bit chilly – not enough to have to wear a hat, generally (the word ‘toque’ is unknown here, whereas in Canada it’s practically a religion) – and occasionally there’s a pretty little sprinkle of snow. How twee! It’s like a winter-themed amusement park ride.
I’m speaking for the south of England here, mind. The three months I spent in Manchester were the coldest I’ve experienced here yet. And those three months were June, July and August.
Last night was particularly pretty. There was a full moon, and since we don’t live in the glare of London any more, we could actually see the full effect of the moonlight lighting up the fields around the house. There was a light frost, and you could see it sparkling on everything. And looking out the window around midnight, I saw a couple of muntjac deer in the garden. (Muntjac deer are so sweet! They’re like chipmunk deer!)
All very picture-postcard, really. In the spirit of the season, I’ve made a couple of Christmas card designs, and some gift tag templates, which are a great way to save money – only $4 for a high-resolution PDF, which you can print as many times as you need.
Buy through Cafepress
The Husband and I went out for Greek tonight – well, we went out intending to go to a Greek restaurant, anyway. We ended up at a place Simon remembers fondly from about eight years ago (he grew up around Cambridge, and we moved up here from London almost two years ago). Apparently it used to be a great little hole-in-the-wall Greek restaurant, but they seemed to have moved their menu more towards ‘generic international’ in recent years. I ended up with a dish called, imaginatively, ‘Prawns and Courgettes’, which was a pile of tiny rubbery prawns covered in a layer of colourless slices of courgette, all swimming in cream and covered in melted cheese, apparently devoid of any seasoning whatsoever. Served with chips. Hmm.
On the upside, the starters of hummous, taramasalata and tzatziki were great, and I got to drink the lion’s share of a bottle of retsina. Simon thinks the pine-sap taste of retsina is really bizarre and overpowering, but I love it. I’m afraid I will never be a proper wine snob.
I’ve been working really hard this week getting the Rowan Tree Design website ready for launch and expanding my product range. I’ve started working on a line of affordable ready-made websites, which include five fully customized pages and a year of free hosting for only $125 (USD). My sites are chock-a-block with loads of lush vintage-inspired graphics – perfect for anyone who wants a great look for their business quickly, at an AMAZINGLY cheap price!
Click here to see the full range of available websites
