Thorne’s world has been a busy place lately, no doubt about it. The last 45 days or so have seen me back in full production mode. Stained Glass:

A huge undertaking with my first home made sugar skulls for Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead for we gringos) I want to give a huge shout out to Angela, of MexicanSugarSkull.com. She has a wonderful array of Day of the Dead items and sugar skull molds and supplies and she is quick not only to ship your items, but to offer advice and assistance. She even came to visit me at one of my Pomona Show dates! Thank you, Angela!!

I still have a few Sugar Skulls and various sugar art items for sale at my Etsy Store In case you didn’t know, they last just about forever, if taken care of properly. The molded sugar takes about a year (for the larger pieces, especially) to fully cure, but as long as you keep your sugar art dry it will last for 15 years or more. Never put it in a sealed container- that’s the trick. If you put them away after the holiday, just wrap them in tissue paper and put them in a cardboard box where they can breathe.

I had loads of fun and enjoyed the people and many beautiful ofrendas at the Dia De Los Muertos Celebration in Riverside, CA. I had a booth there for the 3 hour show and it was packed!

Thorne's World Booth @ Riverside DotD Celebration

A Traditiona Ofrenda @ Riverside DotD

My personal Favorite Ofrenda @ Riverside

But that was then and this is now. My frantic pace continues as I get in production for our local weekly Farmer’s Market and Craft Fair and gear up for the Winter Solstice Festival hosted by Long Beach Women Spirit on December 4th. On the drawing board are a variety of projects ranging from stained glass, to bird houses, to broken tile and stained glass mosaic, to bath salts and magickal gift baskets, to scented fire starters and maybe even aromatherapy candles…

You might guess that every flat surface in my entire house and both studios is covered in working (and semi organized) clutter! It’s driving me crazy! (I can’t imagine how I’m ever going to get it all cleaned up to decorate for the holidays- maybe I’ll just drape it all in maple leaves and then cover that in tinsel and call it good!)

No matter how busy I am though, I have to take some time to give back. A little gratitude. A little “as above, so below”. You see, in Thorne’s World the Universe rewards right action. That’s one of the many reasons that every night (or morning as the case may be- your mileage may vary but in Thornesworld it’s still “night” until I go to sleep), while I unwind from my busy day watching a little CSI or my new fav show, AMC’s The Walking Dead, I crochet at least one 6″ square for Shelly’s SAS 2010. Our Shelly is a red headed gal from Texas with a heart as big as her home state. This is her 3rd year organizing happy hookers like me from all around the world to crochet 6″ squares- as many or as few as we each wish- to be made into afghans for kids with cancer. It puts a perfect cap of love and giving on my day. Stop by her place and check it out, or join the SAS 2010 FaceBook Group to learn more about this awesome project.

Wow. See what happens when I don’t post regularly? I do just go on, don’t I? More soon, constant readers.

Peace, out!

It is that time again. Time to add my voice to the many who have already contributed their blog posts for today at least to Mimi’s yearly BlogBlast for Peace.

The recent news of the teen suicides, although I’m sure many more have gone unnoticed by the media over the years, has broken my heart. We have lived too long in a world filled with cruelty and violence when parents and educators just accept the harassment, bullying and torture as normal kid behavior. It’s not normal kid behavior. It’s wild animal behavior. It’s the pack mentality that in nature culls the weak or sickly from the herd and has been somehow assimilated by humanity to cull the different and unique. The children who don’t fit the demographic. Who is teaching these children, these bullies, to hate? To prey on these gay kids? Their parents- society. It breaks my heart. So today in honor of the BlogBlast for Peace I ask you to:

TEACH PEACE

This October has Thornie busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!!! Along with my usual Fall Cleaning (the subject of a TT in 2007), this year I’m rockin’ n rollin’ with a few other projects. Here goes:

1) Cleaning and decorating my Ancestor Altar for the coming Holidays:

2) Making Stained Glass to sell at my Etsy Store:

3) Brewing up some special Magickal Bath Salts:

4) Getting Firewood (The hot, sweaty, red faced image of Thorne is NOT going here!)

5) Filling sandbags and digging trenches to keep the doghouses and cellar and kitchen porch from flooding.

6) Getting super excited about NaNoWriMo!

7) Shooting some of my Vintage goodies and trying to find good homes for them:

9) Making Dia de los Muertos Altars

10) Making sugar skulls

11) Having more Drawings and Giveaways!!! (Like THIS ONE)

12) Finishing our Princess’ quilt(I’m nearly done! Border quilting and binding and BAM! It’s on its way to her.):

13) Last and definitely least…. ugh… Seeking outside employment.

Well, that was fun! Head on over to Thursday Thirteen and tell um Thornie sent cha… err… check out a whole bunch of TT-ers!

Peace, out!