Henna MoonBellingham Henna

Imbolc is the white
All colors of light
After the snow storm
Seconds before the thaw
The blank page before you begin to draw
Imbloc is also dark and dense
the presence
of all color and possibility
the fresh laid garden before seeds and sun are added
The moment between lightning and thunder
                     between the joke and the laughter
The universe precisely one second before the big bang
Anticipatory emptiness
                     emptiness full of expectation
Silence…. empty…. waiting
The tingling of something about to happen
A ready receptacle awaiting the seeds of our abundance
A tipping point is occurring
The balance of Brigid’s creative, healing love
A hanging sensation as we wait
For spring to break

Chele 30JAN10

Blessed Brigid’s Day
Chalice well Photo Credit unknown

16-Jan 2010  

I celebrate the Wheel of the Year, eight holidays around the calendar. Following the seasons and turning the Earth. Last night I was part of a celebration in which all eight were represented and honored. Each person was the embodiment of their chosen holiday.  At each tuning I felt the quiet cold of spring, the intense heat of summer, the sweet crispness of fall and the little death of winter..I was honored to manifest Yule and it was quite an experience for me. As the wheel we danced around the Goddess and Holy King! I felt as if the Earth was singing with us, knowing we were honoring her in her full aspect. It was beautiful!

Today I feel invigorated recharged and ready to continue through the rest of the dark time of this year. Ready to meet each of these points on the wheel again as we turn to meet them. On Monday Dec 21,  Winter Solstice, the Earth will pause in its journey of tilting away from the sun, then it will start to tilt back and as it journeys around the sun the Northern half will turn to face it. In Australia they are celebrating the longest day while here in the North it is dark and cold.

Each turn of the wheel has an inherent beginning and ending with in it as does each day of our lives has a sunrise and sunset. Beginnings and endings are built into everything we do and the Wheel of the Year brings that home.

I feel so blessed to be a part of the Stella Maris Community and I want to thank all of the people who made last night a wonderful experience for us all.

I’m further blessed by the opportunity I had in meeting a new friend and experiencing her Solstice tree that she lights with actual candles. Each candle is lit with a wish and we watched them burn down, playing music, taking photos, doing Henna (of course!) and enjoying each other’s company. I was in awe of this sight. Each candle was held on by an antique holder and we all had the job of watching the tree to be sure a fire did not start.. what a sight!

Welcome Holy King Lord of light!! Bless us all on this night.

Happy Winter Solstice and for you down south Happy Summer Solstice!

PS: I am so looking forward to the new year of Henna and friends of Henna. I’ll be at the Farmer’s Market again this year, SummerStar, Northwest Lammas Festival and the Psychic Fair up at the UU Church on Yew Street. I’m very excited to get working again.

Here is looking forward to the 1^st day of Spring , Feb 2 Imbloc!  Stay warm out there! Love to all…

Hey hello everyone! I know it has been awhile since I have blogged.. been low as of late, missing good friends but it is now Mabon or the Fall Equinox and the wheel turns.  The Moon is new and things can always get better. Deep breath in, breathe out, repeat until done. Everything is as it should be. Blessed Be.

Currently I’m in Atlanta for a SharePoint Conference or “geek” Heaven or Hell depending on who you talk to.  Luckily two Henna artists near and dear to my heart live in Atlanta and were sweet enough to come see me last night.

 Barbara of “Admired Beauty”  and

Samantha from “Henna Odyssey”.  I had the pleasure of meeting them in California at the Henna Caravan conference. Barbara arrived covered in hers and Samantha’s beautiful Henna designs. Samantha was Henna-naked and ready for painting.  We went out to dinner to get reacquainted and then were attacked by a parrot before we returned to make with the Henna!  I wish my window could open as the Atlanta night was filled with sweet sounds of what Samantha calls “an abundance of critters”.

I was so honored to design Sam some slippers and Barbara gave me 2 beautiful designs on my foot and hand.  Barbara also make beautiful jewelry of which I was gifted a piece. Soon she will be up and ready to sell. They are both so talented! Too soon the night was over. I miss them already. We had such a great time. I gave Samantha my “Kree cone” as she has issues with RMS as well and now I do not have Henna to play with for the rest of my stay.  :( (Come back Girls!!! I miss you already!)  It was bittersweet visit as I wish they lived closer and hope (hope hope) they will come out my way some day. I tell you what, I will be seeing them at any conference they intend to attend. I love you ladies!

I’ve worked the last 2 weekends at the Farmer’s Market and this weekend, September 26 will be my last Market day until Halloween.  Mabon(fall equinox) and Samhain (Halloween) are my favorite holidays and I will be doing it up for the booth this year as market day actually falls on the big day.  After Oct 31, my Market season will be over but I believe the BFM continues until mid December. There you can find many many gifts for your loved ones. Also gift wise, I suggest you check out Etsy. Etsy is a fantastic site full of homemade and handmade goods from all over the world. On Esty there used to be a “buy local” special search. I can’t find it now but how cool if you could keep to your searches in your area. A fine site to spend money on. In December I will blog more about local gift giving and gift making as I am a firm believer of staying away from the “soul sucking mall” as much as humanly possible.  

On Flickr I have posted many new photos for you to play with … I hope I will see you this Saturday for More Henna fun.  Here’s some love for you from Atlanta!

XXOO

Chele

Happy Friday night B’Hamsters! The theme for this summer was certainly SUN!  How did you like your heat wave? I liked it NOT!  While I did get a chance to swim in Whatcom Lake and the Nooksack River I still got a touch of heat stroke, not fun.

I hope you all stayed cool out there while we were on hiatus. I went on many adventures, Vancouver Washington to see “She Who Watches” (Petroglyphs  along the Columbia River) among other things, A tour of Washington’s many volcanoes. I communed with nature and friends for Lammas the Harvest of the 1st fruits. And realized just how hard I had been working that I had lost touch with so many great people. Love to you all and thank you for your patience, unwavering faith and caring.

I saw bats emerge from their sleep under the full moon at Hovander park, Almost got eaten by a Bear in the North Cascades National Park (sounded like a bear I swear) and saw the new baby Beluga whale at the Vancouver Aquarium. Of course I Hennaed many, many long distance friends. I was very busy during my time away from the market and have many new designs to share with everyone.

I was looking over my email and received a nice note from Rick, Coordinator for the Farmers Market. He wanted to be sure I had not melted and stated, “your customer base have constantly been asking for you”. Thanks for sharing that Rick! How sweet to be missed and wanted. I look forward to seeing everyone again too!

And soon! We are coming back to the Market tomorrow! I just made a fresh batch of Henna with frankincense, sweet orange and bergamot, yum yum! Now it is sitting under some rose quartz soaking up love and under the Tarot card “the Sun” soaking up the happiness just for you . I tell you, Jenny and I am well rested and ready to get back to work.  Looks as if Saturday will start out cloudy and turn into mostly sunny, so dress in layers and come see us.

I want to hear all about your heat wave stories.. Isn’t it great the world is back to normal?.. i.e. wet.

Independence day was incredible! What a great day .. sunny, full of happy people ready to play! And it was Jenny’s 1st day at the booth. She was fantastic! we had a great time and her designs are so fun and different. you have to come and check her out. You can see some of her designs on her flicker page. Jenny Gerfen. She’ll be here with me again today , the sun’s out again.. come down and get some cooling summer Henna.. See you there! Chele

Lately husband and I have been watching the HBO Miniseries “John Adams”. I’m so amazed what people were able to accomplish without flush toilets and running water. Seriously though, I’m so grateful to our forefathers for our independence. However imperfect, they sacrificed much for what we have today. One of my favorite quotes from Adams was “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. So that their sons [and daughter’s] will have the freedom to pursue art and poetry.” I’m pursing that very thing, thank you!

I’ve been a very busy bee since I wrote last, please check out my all new flicker page which I revamped and added a lot more photos for you to look at. On June 20, Midsummer, we Drove to Eugene, OR. There I Hennaed the belly of friends of mine about to have their 1st child. We almost didn’t make it in time as the false contractions had us thinking she was having that baby that day!

Then onward to Ashland, Oregon for the RawUnion festival. Ashland was beautiful, the food was amazing, I felt incredible eating it and I was re-inspired to gain better health. I discovered this fabulous website RAWFU http://www.rawfu.com/. They have a fantastic online community of people supporting each other in good health. Recipes, photos, ‘facebook’ like interface, everything! Check it out if you are interested. I had a Henna Healing booth at RawUnion and I felt it was a big success. I really enjoyed connecting with people and helping them with their various transitions. (More to come on Henna healing at this website soon.)

This Saturday I’m back at the Bellingham Farmer’s Market and I am very excited. One of my favorite holidays and there are many events going on in town and I hope you make the market one of your stops! This weekend I will have a new addition to my booth, Lately I have been so busy at the market I have reluctantly had to turn people away. Luckily Jenny Gerfen has come into my life and has agreed to work with me at the market. She is a great artist and has a style all her own. Her positive and bubbly personality fits right in with me and I know you will love her too. Come see me and meet Jenny. I miss everyone; I sure hope I will see you there. I’m only bringing Red, White and Blue glitter and we are going to have a rockin’ time. Whatever you do decide to do I hope you enjoy your weekend! Yours Chele

Hello all I hope you had a wonderful week. It was sure a beautiful one!  This week has been super busy for me. I had the Market Saturday where I did some really great work and had only a tiny bit of memory on the camera to take photos~! I did lots of feet this time and really enjoying it!

Then I had another private party and pregnancy belly!

 I just love doing Bellies!..

This weekend will be the beginning of a 3 week break from the Farmer’s Market. I will not be back until July 4^th.  I decided I needed a change of scenery.

Instead come see me this weekend at the Woodside Spiritual Center’s Metaphysical Fair and Silent Auction. This will be 8 hours of spiritual awakenings! Come see Tarot readers,

 Crystal healers, massage therapists, Aura readers and much more.  I will be offering Henna healings and Mainstream Henna as well.  The event is free admission so please come and join us!