The weirdest thing about me doing all this xmas stuff is that I’m not Christian! So why do I do it at all? Am I just too weak to resist the societal pressures? The capitalistic ideologies? Am I, by participating in this all this, being a hypocrit? I don’t think so! In fact, I would argue that if anything, I am being true to my Pagan beliefs by taking part! It all really started when I was just a child…

When I was about 8/9 years old, we went to my Grandma’s for xmas as she was very poorly and dying. That particular Christmas had a big impact on me. It changed the way I saw Xmas forever. Kids aren’t stupid and at some point we do work out that Santa isn’t “real”. We struggle for a year or two trying desperately to hold on to the belief. It is as if we know that by accepting and acknowledging the reality then we must lose a part of our innocence – we must grow up. We know that Xmas will never be the same once we cross that line and we fear that change. There is no going back from it either and we are aware that if we let on that we know the ‘truth’ then the number of pressies we get will drastically reduce. We drop hints and ask tentative probing questions in the hopes that our parents, family and friends will restore our faith. We go into a phase of denial and mentally twist everything to try and convince ourselves we are just being paranoid. Spending that particular Xmas with Grandma and at that particular age was a blessing. It not only shaped the way I came to think about Xmas, but also gave me a wonderful transition from believing to knowing without losing anything. Why?

Because my Grandma Vern always – without fail – had presents under her tree for everyone from Santa. For me, she kept the magic alive throughout her life, the spirit of the myth. Although she was a Christian, the message that came across to me was that it wasn’t solely about Jesus or Christianity … it was about re-creating a bit of innocent magic for those you love. To return to your childhood and those exciting times before the myth exploded. So, like her, for me it never will fade. For me, there will always be Santa purely for the magick he brings to our lives … how much more Pagan can I get?!?!

I am glad we spent that year with her otherwise I would never have known how special she made this festive holiday. I also learned that when she was younger, struggling to make ends meet and working in a factory (where she was exposed to asbestos which she subsequently got the cancer from) that she didn’t have time to get a tree until Christmas Eve. So she would go and get the scraggliest tree, the one no one else wanted then take it home and decorate it like royalty.

I wish I could have gotten to know her more. She died the following Spring – not bad since she was originally not expected to last through the night but managed to keep going for 9 months! But at least I have a lasting legacy from that small amount of time that will last throughout my life. Bless you Grandma Vern & may Santa bestow his magick on you once again this year – wherever you are!

Merry Xmas!

At the top of this page you will see a link to “Psilly Facts About Psaryce”.

It’s a new page where you can read and learn about the senseless things that make me, well ME!

So have a read, have fun & post comments!!!!

xo

I got another overlocker through Freecycle last night having decided to give it a try instead of continuing the hung for a lower looper for my other one. The kind donor did say it had been given to her but she’d never used it and it had been living in a cupboard for ages.

I got it home and discovered it was filthy! Also someone had ‘borrowed’ the plug. Luckily I had a plug spare so repaired that … spent 2-3 hours cleaning it in detail (cloths, QTips, paint brushes, cleaner, you name it). It was sparkling by the time I finished with it! Then I oiled it generously as the crank didn’t want to turn very well and gave it a new lightbulb.

The needle in it was broken so the next morning (today) I had to find some that fit (sadly my normal machine needles don’t). My first point of call was a friend (June) who has a sewing business (Recycle & Sew) as I thought she would either have some or would know where to get them. My internet searches revealed the machine is American (and ancient) so when I couldn’t get through to June, I began calling around local shops (I’m far too impatient to order online in these situations!) thinking I wouldn’t find them. But to my delight, in the end I did manage to find a place not far away (Eastleigh Sewing Centre – nice people – friendly & helpful).

So I get home with needles and did the struggle to get them into the machine properly – it’s very fiddly and you could do with having multiple, tiny hands for this! The success of fitting them was sadly short lived as the fun of threading it came – Ahhhhhh! There wasn’t an instruction manual but I found one online (Yea!) only it was a PDF of scanned manual and the images weren’t very clear (Boo!) so threading was partially done by guess work. Both of the loopers were tricky and in the end I took one off the machine to clean it to find the hole! So once threaded up, off I went to test it out knowing I’d need to tweak a few bits.

Several hours later … I had discovered it wasn’t picking up the left needle thread so I took that out of the equation … eventually discovered the needle was in wrong way round (the tops are round unlike my normal ones which are flat on the back side so the whole episode of fitting a needle was even more fiddly the second time around) … also found out that I hadn’t threaded the needle threads properly … at one point wanted to chuck the thing against a wall … another envisioned a huge bill to have it serviced … and yet another had me wondering how the nice, friendly lady could give such an instrument of torture to anyone … I even asked friends on Facebook to have the white jacket on stand-by!

But in the end I was victorious! I defeated the filthy little bugger and now it is submissively purring along beautifully Yeah ME! Okay it took me all day but I didn’t give up, I didn’t give in, I persevered and I kicked its overlocking ass! heehee

All that is left now is:

A. To think of a suitable name for this minx

and

B. To figure out what the heck I am going to do with it!!

Suggestions (as always) are welcomed! xo

Horsie Pictures for my Hoovy

Lilah (Night)

Kochav (Star)

]]> http://psaryce.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/day-8-in-israel/feed/ 0 psaryce Lilia Kochav http://psaryce.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/a-horse-for-hoovy/ http://psaryce.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/a-horse-for-hoovy/#comments Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:55:35 +0000 psaryce http://psaryce.wordpress.com/?p=162 ]]>

Seeing as this trip to Israel will be the first time I have gone away for more than a night (and I haven’t done that in years), I decided to make a present to give Hoovy before I leave. Well if truth be told I have bought a few wee things for Daddy to give her while I am away but they are just little things and I wanted something special to say “I love you”.

With that in mind I set about turning a free pattern I downloded last year to make “Zeek the Zebra” into a horse. Now all the years I have been sewing, I have avoided making stuffed toys because I find the instructions to be indecipherable and the pieces too small with too many sharpish turns to make. But seeing as this is kind of a big thing (maybe even a milestone?) I decided to give it a go.

Using left over flannel sheet bits from when I made myself warmy pyjamas last year, I cut out the pieces and started trying to work out how the puzzle was meant to go together. Eventually, after sewing a few bits together, I worked out that 4 of the pattern pieces were supposed to be joined together in pairs BEFORE cutting out! Since I had used tiny stitches and it was flannel I stood no chance of unpicking the seams and making it work so had to cut them out the right way and start over. Luckily I still have a fairly big piece of the fabric left and those bits which couldn’t be rescued were cut up and used as some of the stuffing.

Before sewing this time, I remembered having some fluffy light pink wool (or yarn for the Yanks!) and dug that out. The instructions said to glue the mane on but I opted to stitch it into the seam instead as it will last longer that way (plus I hate using glue if I don’t have to).

I used part of an old pillow that I had washed and used for stuffing last year. The horse seemed to require loads but somehow still have 1/3 of the pillow left to pook out and use for other projects. Anyways, after stuffing and sticthing up the final bits, I realised why it took so much … this is one fat horsey! Fat but VERY cuddly and uber soft and will no doubt be loved to death. I have said elsewhere that if I was a bad Mummy, I would pack it in my suitcase, take it with me and keep him for myself. But I am not evil and instead am anxious to give it to her on Sunday!

So, without further ado, here he is … The Horse for Hoovy!

And the close up!

Okay I know he isn’t perfect but that is the point for me. See his little ears? I left the edges raw so they will fray over time

Oops! I am behind in posting! Day 3’s video came out awful and then yesterday I was out most of the day and was so tired I decided to wait before posting to avoid it being in gibberish. On the plus side, I did 2 videos yesterday so bonus!

Day 3

Wednesday (day 3) was a crazy day where plans kept changing. Yoni’s school is apparently in the habit of letting out early so Dan & I had to forego some of our plans to go and collect him. The journey was good though as I got to see orchards and a few kibbutzs’ plus the place where Dan & Esti get LPG for their van. I also saw horses! Here are a few pictures from that day…

The LPG Petrol Station!

There are ‘normal’ ones too but not with LPG.

This is part of one Kibbutz – it was across the dirt road from the petrol station.

Dan took this pic – I’ll go back and get ones closer up. The Palamino on the right was so gorgeous! The mane and tail were shiny and beautiful and made me wish I could see my Hoovy riding it.

This is not so good a picture but it is a dark brown horse and her foal. These horses were just around the corner from the LPG station so easy to go back and take more pictures!

Day 4

I spent this day at the Institute where Dan studies. It was an interesting day. First we walked for ages to get to the bus stop. The bus was a small van type but at least had air conditioning. A crazy drive for some distance and we finally got off and walked a fair way up the long drive leading to the institute. We were a bit early so had lunch. Dan went off to class but I opted to stay out and explore the campus. There are masses of Aloe plants growing in the plant beds – they are huge and I would just love to have one at home. There are also gigantic Eucalyptus trees and several flowers that I haven’t seen since living in America. Here are a few pictures of the plants and campus…

Aloe Plants

Palm Trees

Spikey Tree

Eucalyptus Tree Trunk

Palm Tree

Cactus Tree and Fruit

The football pitch

The “Auditorium”

While sitting out across from the auditorium, I was watching a cat (there are lots of cats) and without me seeing in advance, a small kitten hopped up onto my lap! He was just a wee one and soooo cute! So I grabbed my camera and recorded him … PLEASE EXCUSE THE RIDICULOUS AUDIO – I FORGOT THE CAMERA RECORDS SOUND AS WELL AS IMAGES!

Last year, I planted wildflower seeds in the small flower bed in the front of the house. A neighbourhood cat (or 2 or 3) unfortunately took to using said flowerbed as a huge litterbox. Aside from having to clean up the poo (yuck!) it also meant that my carefully planned planting got entirely mixed up!

I had ensured the taller flowers were at the back and graduating down to the smaller ones in the front as one would normally do. But as the cat(s) had other ideas, the flowers grew very erratically and the wildflower garden was much more wild than planned.

In April this year as some of the flowers were growing again I had the sense to move the ones I recognized as being tall to the back and everything was going along just fine. They were growing and aside from one tall purple flowering plant being at the front corner beside the path, they were not as badly mixed up as last year. (Although I did have to construct a fence to stop said tall purple flowering plant from falling into the path and getting trampled by careless people).

Why am I blogging this? Because two new species have appeared in the wildflower patch this year

First is a gorgeous bright orange flower that opens wide like a poppy in the sunshine and closes up at night. I had some warning of these as I had spied them growing and their tubular buds so I had been watching with interest to find out what they would look like as I didn’t know what they would be …

And the next surprise was two different purple bell shaped flowers that literally sprung up without me even noticing they were coming. One day I was coming out of the door to get into the car and there they were!

(Notice my wonky homemade fence!)

Aren’t these just sweet as can be?!

Now if anyone knows what any of these little darlings are, please let me know as I would love to have more of them!

Last but not least is not new to the garden but rather has grown from a twig I cut about 2.5 years ago and have nurtured along. That twig has grown into a lovely bush and seems very happy living outside my front door…

So that is it for this little flower show – once the plants I grew from seed this year bloom I will post pictures of them. They include … marigolds, cornflowers, sunflowers, echinacea and sweet sultans.

So far I have managed to take a few pictures of the 2 dogs and one of the cats here.

Roxy has taken to sleeping on my bed at nights but so far has always ‘thanked’ me for not chucking her out by giving me a wee doggy bat.

Paisley usually just brings me her bowl as I am trying to get to sleep – her way of trying to get some food out of me. She isn’t as cheeky as Roxy so won’t hop up onto the bed.

Muki is a sweetie – she does let me pet her sometimes but she just goes about her own business most of the time.

Roxy!

Paisley!

Muki!

So there they are – I will keep trying to get a picture of Puki but he is a shy cat. I highly doubt I’ll ever even get to see Uza because he stays in Adam’s room and apparently doesn’t like anyone in the house except for Adam (including the other animals).

]]> http://psaryce.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/roxy-paisley-muki/feed/ 0 psaryce Roxy Paisley Muki http://psaryce.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/day-2-in-israel/ http://psaryce.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/day-2-in-israel/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:03:30 +0000 psaryce http://psaryce.wordpress.com/?p=167 ]]>

I woke up later this morning (9.30 Israeli time) – body is still on UK time. There hasn’t been any clouds today so has felt hotter but drinking plenty of water is helping. Today Dan & I took Avraham into the city centre for an appointment. We got there early so had lunch. I had something similar to a kebab in pita bread with humous, tomatoes and cucumbers – yummy! We then meandered around and down to the beach … it was gorgeous!!!

So here’s my stupid video from this morning followed by pictures from the beach … enjoy!

The Beach!

Me on the Beach

So I made it here at last! I have the luxury of sleeping under a ceiling fan as well!!! I love sleeping under them – always find it so peaceful

Okay I made the short video below just a wee bit ago and didn’t even think of checking the state of my hair beforehand so please excuse as it is rather funky. I had a shower before bed and so it is flat and slept on!

Enjoy! Miss everyone already Love xo