Deborah J. Martin's Blog, page 15

Polling the Delegation

I love writing. I really do. But given that my day job also involves staring at a computer screen for hours on end, I need to get off my butt and do something on occasion. (Something that doesn’t involve housecleaning…)

When I had my shop open, that was easily accomplished. I’d be bagging herbs, making products, shipping products out…everything involving movement – and no computer screen. I miss that. Especially in the winter months when I can’t do anything in the garden.

A couple of weeks ago,...

Taking Witchcraft to Work

I’m lucky…I’m self-employed and my office is in my house so I can decorate and/or do anything I damned well please. The majority of the witches I know, however, aren’t that lucky. They work in a corporate environment and nine times of ten, whether the boss knows about their witchy tendencies or not, have to keep things under wraps in their office or cubicle. What’s a corporate witch to do? There are several things that, on the surface, are totally innocuous but have underlying magical capabil...

Sunday Rant

With the expansion of the Internet & lack of paper delivery here in the boonies, I wake up each morning with coffee & my computer…checking news, blogs, social networking, and the one special-interest forum I belong to.* Although I enjoy reading more than one view of current events & catching up with family, friends & acquaintances, I’m starting to re-think that process. Why?

Apart from the news (which seemingly is all bad these days), I’m seeing so much intolerance in the Pagan community it’s...

Lazy Sunday-Cat Style

It started raining about noon yesterday, so hubby & I settled down for an afternoon of reading. It does tend to get crowded on our dual-recliner:

Mischa-the-grump is getting more tolerant of the kittens – Yuri was cleaning Mischa’s ear

They migrated over to my chair & got even more comfortable

Maks decided to join them. Holding a book in front of me got much more difficult!

The post Lazy Sunday-Cat Style appeared first on Herby Lady.

A Tale of Two Soaps

Awhile back (dang! nearly 3 years ago!) I wrote a post about using soap as a way to incorporate magic into your hectic life. I’ve been faithfully making my magical soap – until about a month ago, that is. I ran out of base & kept forgetting to order more. Having used even the slivers up and still not remembered to order base, I bought a bar of commercial soap when doing the grocery shopping. Clean’s the main thing, right?

Clean is the main thing but it ain’t the only thing for this witch. A sh...

Herbal Dryer Sachets

A few weeks ago, I was in the mood to be crafty. Me being me, it had to involve herbs in some way and I didn’t have anything on the agenda in the shop. So, a few minutes on the Interwebs gave me an idea: herbal dryer sachets. I haven’t used a commercial dryer sheet in years (read this for why) and although the dryer balls work okay, I’m just not that thrilled with them.

I always have unbleached muslin on hand for experiments so sewed up a square, filled it with about an ounce of dried Lavender...

Out with the Old, In with the … Old?

Happy New Year! Sun’s New Year, Gregorian Calendar New Year … whatever floats your boat. Nothing prevents me from celebrating twice!

It’s custom at this time to review the last year and make resolutions plans for the new year. I’ll let you in on a secret: mine turned out to be a lot bigger than I’d thought. You see, I got called by a god. I’ve never done deity. Not that I haven’t believed in something bigger than me but that’s been amorphous – until now.

We first met a few years ago when I was...

Thinking …

I’m almost three chapters into Fudge’s life and Amy’s about to fall asleep. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Look here.) I wanted him to not only tell Amy about his life but also instruct her a little into the various ways magic was practiced during his long life. (Spoiler: he’s older than Yoda.) I’m finding he seems to be related in some way to my college marketing professor – droning, boring. He needs to be more like the guy that taught macro economics – putting life into a dull subject....

Spicing Up the Holidays

My inner child has been whining, “WHY?” for the last several days. WHY do we associate many warming spices with the holiday (Yule/Christmas) season? I’ve just spent a couple of hours browsing the Internet for answers and haven’t found a danged one. Oh, yes, there are plenty of sites giving generic spice history but nothing specifically associated with the holiday season.

So, I’m going to go out on a limb and do some conjecturing.

First, most of our holiday traditions come from the northern hemi...

Temporarily Abandoned Project

I have a problem.

I had an idea for an online course, based on my books (which are an outgrowth of my passion): teaching medicinal and magical herbalism together. I started writing it and made good progress … something like 70 pages of basic information. However, when I got to writing about the practical part of magical herbalism, I ran into a roadblock.

I have no idea how to put into words what I do almost completely by intuition. If I need to do a spell, my gut (and sometimes the plant spirit...