Day 13 - Furniture & Floors #cgsc2015

I have these excellent things to write about as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, by morning they're always a distant, vague memory of something brilliant. So here we go with something that is likely completely different than what I came up with in the middle of the night. Let me start, via illustration, of how to NOT clean your floors....



Mickey Mouse and David Stutler both taught us that Karma in the form of mop and bucket is a force to be reckoned with! Don't mess with magick, Me Pretties!

With that disclaimer said we will grab a duster, a vacuum, a couple of soft rags and a spray bottle with some furniture polish. Start wherever you feel called and get dusting to rid your furniture of all those energy sucking, vampire-like dust mites. Upholstered furniture can be vacuumed up, be sure to get into the crevices, couch diving can even be profitable sometimes ;). Polish up any glass furniture with your favourite window cleaner and make the wood furnishings gleam with some olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice (recipe below).

For the floors we're going to start at the front entry and end at the front entry, as in previous posts, travelling widdershins (counter-clockwise) around your house. Sprinkle your carpets with plain baking soda (or make up a jar of the recipe below) and leave that until the hard flooring is all clean, or at least 30 minutes. Sweep and/or vacuum as needed all the lino, laminate and wood flooring in your home, then mix up a bucket of the same cleaner from Day-11 and scrub the year's accumulation of negative, literal and figurative, grime away. Vacuum up all the baking soda and the nasties lurking in your carpet (you can use the baking soda on upholstered furniture as well). Finish up with a symbolic sweeping of all the past year out the front door; use your besom if you have one or a corn broom, but any broom will do, you could even fashion a quick a besom with a broken tree branch, some dry grass or twigs, and twine or even duct tape, be creative.

And there you have it Me Pretties, Day-13 done did! Have a beautiful one!

Furniture Polish

• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil or light olive oil
• 4 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• Add to spray bottle and shake well. Use a soft cloth to polish.

Carpet Deodorizer

• 1 cup of baking soda
• 1/4 cup of dried rosemary, lavendar or a blend of your favourites, or
• 15-20 drops of your favourite essential oil
• Combine in a large jar with a lid, shake well.
• Sprinkle on carpets and vacuum up after 30 - 60 minutes.

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

Ps."Far away, there in the sunshine, are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow their lead." ~Louisa May Alcott

Day 12 - Windows n' Doors #cgsc2015

Not sure what is up with me but I've been excessively tired the last couple of days so posts are coming in late, my apologies for the lateness each day me pretties. On an up note, we are nearing the end of this challenge and I have to say I've really enjoyed spending this time with each of you, I am so grateful for such a wonderful group and have loved all the sharing, support and encouragement. I may have to come up with another challenge as I'll miss all of you after this is all done!

Today is all about clearing the dust, dirt and negative energies of the year from all our doorways and windows. Let the sun (& the beautiful full moon) shine in! I've hummed and hawed about where to start this time as I really feel it is appropriate to end at the front entry, brushing the last of the negative energies out the door with a firm good riddance and a kick in the ass ;). But, I think we can both start and end there as we have with other challenges. Grab you bucket from wall washing and using the same wash formula we're going to wipe down the door frame, but not the door itself yet.

Also on hand you need to have your favourite window cleaner. Natural cleaner is of course always best but truth be told, I've not had a great deal of luck with the quality of clean with vinegar and water. I can't stand that blue stuff though so I use a product called Invisible Glass that I buy at Costco and cotton "flour sack" towels. The streak-free clean on windows in mirrors is hard to surpass so window cleaner is the one and only chemical cleaner I use. I will post a natural cleaner here as well too, one thing I do recommend though is never use paper towel (except the resusable kind, Bambooee, that stuff rocks); cotton towels, soft rags, or blank newspaper are excellent for window cleaner (best disposable paper I ever used for windows was the wrap we had for breakable items at a retail store I worked at, but I have no idea how to get that for home use).

As before, we will work widdershins from the front entry, so to our right we go. Dust and wash the casing/frame of each door and window, then wash the doors, windows, and mirrors. Our coat closet directly to the right in our entry is a mirrored sliding door, Invisible Glass is my best friend *stupid grin*. Closet doors, bathroom doors, other entries into the home including side doors, garage entries, and sliding patio doors, plus the doors and doorways into each room of your home. Along the way we're going to do the inside of the windows as well, at least the ones you can reach. If you have a good sprayer on your garden hose and if it is not too cold out I recommend at least a decent rinse on the outside doors, windows and steps as well. Last, but not least, we're going to open up that front door and give it and the threshold a good scrub down, dump the water outside if you can, or down the tub drain and envision all those negative energies flowing out with the dirty water. There it is, that sense of clean energy as you walk back into your home, so relaxing and yet so invigorating, isn't it?

Glass Cleaner

Because who doesn't love Faerie doors?! ;)

• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 - 3 drops Dawn (optional)

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

Ps. Tomorrow is furniture & floors, so get your bucket, rags, brooms, mops and vacuums ready. Friday we're smudging, decorating, and setting up our ancestor altars so consider anything you may need for that. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll love ya tomorrow Me Pretties (and today, and yesterday ;) )! xx

Day 11 - Wall Washin': Let the Cleansing Begin #cgsc2015

At this point most of the decluttering and releasing has been done in the major areas of your home. We've covered the entries and halls, master bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, living and dining rooms, the craft and office areas/rooms. Things are looking much tidier and managable, your home feeling more and more like a place you want to spend your time in rather than avoiding certain areas, especially the bedroom which should always be your retreat. If you'd like to add finishing touches, plants and candles are lovely, throw in some fall colour if it will work with your current decor. And most importantly do remember, our goal is to make things better not perfect, perfection is unattainable unless you stop living in that space. Live in your home, it is neither a museum nor a show house.

Cartoon by Isabella Bannerman.

Having said all that we are not finished our work by any means. Now begins the clearing out of the negativity and stagnancy of the old year. The next few days we will open up the windows while we wash and smudge away any ickiness lingering in our homes. Today we will begin at the highest point in our home that we can reach and start washing away any gloom and grunge lingering from the past year.

We have a two story home, so I am starting with the wall surrounding the front door as it faces the stairway to the second floor. Dust the cobwebs out first if there are any and then wash the walls (I've included the "recipe" I use when cleansing, rather than simply washing). So you know the doors and windows are coming tomorrow so no need to clean the door frame or door at this time. I will wash that small bit of wall and then head straight up the stairs, washing the right side of the stairwell as high as I can reach. At the top of the stairs on the right is my son, Caleb's room, which I also use as my crafting space as he is only here every second weekend. Continuing to the right into his room I'll wash the walls in 3-4 foot sections, top to bottom, travelling widdershins back to the door. Back into the hallway takes me to Abby's room, the main bathroom, Alex's room and then our master bedroom with en suite. Returning into the hallway to wash the east wall and continue back down the opposite side of the stairwell.

From the front door again I will work to the right and widdershins around the main level hallways, bathroom, den, kitchen, dining room and living room. The den has recently had all the wallpaper taken down and walls scrubbed and painted, the kitchen actually has completely brand new walls and ceiling, so both areas will not be actually washed (paint is too new) but I will still do a symbolic washing and cleansing of the rooms. Heading into the basement only half of it is finished so I'll dust and wash what I can and symbolically cleanse down there. Back up those stairs, wiping on my right side (also newly painted so symbolically for me), around the corner the last of the main level entry and I finish up at the front door again.

Some practical tips for this task. A long handled duster is excellent for getting into those hard to reach corners. Our dollar stores here carry quite a variety here on the cheap but if you don't have one and cannot purchase one, no worries; grab a soft towel or a good size micro fibre cloth, use some large elastics and wrap the bristles of your broom with the cloth. This will work brilliantly with exactly the same results. When I'm doing a wall cleansing (which, truth be told, is the only time the walls really get a good wash anyway) I use the following:

Wall & Floor Cleaner

• 2 gallons hot water
• 1 cup of white vinegar
• 1 tsp of Dawn (optional)
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary leaves or 10 drops rosemary essential oil

Change the water often when it cools down too much, emptying the bucket in the garden, preferably watering your trees. If you've no garden to water the bathtub works well too, visualize the water getting to the roots of the trees nearby so the energies can be reused by Mother Earth. If you're not a fan of rosemary, or if another herb or herbal oil calls to you go ahead and change it up. This is about your home and what appeals to you, what brings you joy and uplifts your spirits :).

And that is it for Day 11, can you feel the stagnancy and negativity flowing out the windows?

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

Ps. Doors and windows tomorrow, aren't you excited? ;)

A Celtic's Guide to Samhain Cleaning & Cleansing

Preamble/History, whatever you would like to call it :)

My inspiration for creating and hosting this challenge is actually threefold. One is my husband, Doug, the second is a Facebook post made by a friend and the third was inspiration itself - I want a clean home, my favourite Sabbat is coming, I bet there are a couple of others that are in the same place, we could do it together!

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving and honestly I didn't think we'd be celebrating. You see nearly nine months ago, February 19th to be exact, we had a huge flood in our home which completely damaged our kitchen, to the point where it had to be fully gutted, right down to the wall studs. We were already in a state of flux at the time of this happening, planning for a wedding on March 21st (ours), moving the final vestiges of my previous home up to Edmonton, and living in the time capsule that was Doug's parents' house. Sorting through my things, his things, their things and just years of accumulation of stuff on all our parts, we were surrounded by life-draining, overwhelming, and down right piss-off amounts of crap. Yours, mine and ours had taken on an entirely new dimension!

I puttered here and there, sometimes working up the energy to make some real progress and then would hit a wall of frustration. Apathy - why bother until the kitchen is repaired? Two steps forward, 9,365 steps backward. A BAD BAD attitude and honestly we were both guilty of it. Doug may have worked more than even the busy season required and spent time at home glued to the TV. I slept, then slept some more, then pretended to get something done, procrastinated and the worst part, turned to buying things as I am wont to do when depressed. So much money spent on so many stupid little things at my new addiction, the weekly auctions.

This past Sunday became a turning point for both of us, though we each reacted in quite different ways. By 11:00 AM our kitchen & den were filled with dozens of flat-packed boxes and little plastic packages from Ikea. The kitchen cabinets (or at least most of them) had been delivered! We checked off all 173 items, labeled them by cabinet location, and proudly gazed at the next, and most important step, to returning to a life of some normalcy (as much as we can claim anyway, lol). These piles and piles of random sized boxes and bags, from the huge back panel of 36"x 96" to the tiny packages of hinge dampeners, represented our future kitchen. The fifty-dollar question - waiting again, how long until the contractor would come and do this part?

Doug, my amazing, patient, loving, and Oh so frustrated! husband took action while I buried my head in the sand of sleep in pure depressed, "OMG there is so much! I can't do this" frustration. For the past seven months our "kitchen" consisted of a stove, a fridge and a free-standing Cuisinart cabinet and we'd both had quite enough of it. Before lunch Doug grabbed his wallet and went out to buy the fixings for a home cooked turkey dinner. All afternoon, with the help of our 16 year old daughter, he cooked us a simple but delicious, from scratch, Thanksgiving supper. AND he began the process of measuring and preparation to install the cabinets. By the time he had supper ready to serve, Doug had also assembled and installed SIX of the upper cabinets. My hero!!

We plopped ourselves in front of the TV for a family Thanksgiving dinner (remember, no kitchen to eat in) while watching a movie. Ordinarily a Marvel film would have my undivided attention but that night a fire had been lit and I was not going to leave this all to hubby, time to make some real plans. Originally, this was all intended to be something I was doing alone, for myself and my family, then I came across a photo shared on facebook by a friend, "As I see the old year out, I sweep away all fear and doubt. The coming year will be good for me, As I become all I can be." Epiphany!  Plan a full out autumn cleaning expressly with the goal being a beautiful Samhain and beginning to the new Celtic Year!

Better yet, why do this alone?? It is, and always has been, my life purpose to help others, whether it is one person or one hundred, the numbers are not the point, I just want to help. If I am in this boat, there are likely others who are as well; the boat may look different in each person's case, but we are all feeling like we're baling as fast as we can with no visible progress. I sent out some feelers into Facebook land to see if I could drum up some interest. I did not expect the response I would get! In less than 24 hours from the first inklings of an idea 16 people had signed up, perhaps more by the time this post is live, and here we all are!! Welcome! I look forward to getting to know all of you <3.

I've set up the event page on facebook and I will also set up a closed group for private sharing for those that prefer that. From October 16th to October 30th we are going to work together to prepare our homes and ourselves for Samhain and a New Year on the Celtic Wheel.

This was not meant to be so flipping long, so I apologise for my wordiness :). But having said all that, I would love to hear from you before we begin, what are the challenges that you are facing, have been or will face, which brought you to join me here today? Please share in the comments on this blog post, on the event page and/or in the secret Facebook group.

An introduction and checklist of supplies will be posted Wednesday.

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

The picture that really started it all. Hubby straining the turkey gravy with his newly installed cabinets. I am ever so thankful for having such a wonderful husband!