I know, I know, it sounds like an excuse. Maybe it is. Either way, I gave myself a pass yesterday, and have decided to start today, since I felt SO much better after a lot of sleep and rest and relaxation.
So what did I do - other than sleep - yesterday if I felt so bad? Well... I did a craft project. It's very simple, and I plan on adding onto it at some point, but I made my own calendar. :)
Why did I choose to do a calendar, of all things? Well, I never did get around to purchasing one for 2013, and it was driving me nuts, lol. The one that I wanted (Llewellyn's calendar) had a lot of extra info and was more money than I wanted to pay; and standard calendars didn't have all the stuff I wanted built in. So I figured making my own the way I wanted would be the best way to go. Plus, I already had everything necessary to make it:
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3 hole punch
White printer paper
Colored markers
Colored pens
Computer for quick reference
First thing I did was make a list of everything I wanted to include in my calendar.
Moon phases
Astrological phases the moon goes through
Void of course dates
Esbats
Sabbats
Religious holidays (other than the sabbats)
Federal holidays
Birthdays
Seasonal associations
Weekday color associations
Next, I came up with a template in pencil and went over it in black ink so that I could see the lines when I place a fresh piece of paper over it. And that's exactly what I did - traced over it, using a ruler (because it looked sloppy when I didn't; the first 3 months are traced by hand, but the last 9 months look much better).
Using my computer, I filled in the dates for each month. I used the hole at the end of my ruler (which I'm pretty sure is there so that you can hang it up or hook it through a binder) on each date for the moon phase, and colored in the moon phase by hand. Void of course was added, along with the astrological sign that the moon moves into (I found a resource that offered both in my time zone). All the sabbats, esbats, holidays, birthdays and any other personally significant or important days were also added to the calendar.
Last, but not least, everything was colored in. I added the elemental sign before and after the name of the month and colored in the month names and symbol with an appropriate color, color coded the days of the week, outlined sabbat and esbat days, etc.
I'm pretty satisfied with my results, but it was VERY time consuming. I intend on making at least one picture to accompany the homemade calendar, but haven't quite gotten around to making it yet.
After I did that, I took a nap - which was pretty great, I felt super refreshed afterwards, though it didn't last long. Once I got back up, I worked on creating a custom formal circle casting ritual. I'm not 100% satisfied with it yet, so I won't post it until I am.
Now that we're all caught up with what I did yesterday and didn't post, I'm going to end this one and update a post on what I did today. :)
