Book Review: Parenting Pagan Tots by Janet Callahan

I first heard of Janet Callahan and her work with pagan parenting on Twitter from a Pagan Business Network tweet. I clicked through and found myself engrossed in her website's blog and signed up for her Planning Pagan Holidays eCourse.

Inspired and curious, I went on to buy her book Parenting Pagan Tots. My son is 11 months old currently and already so mobile he is getting into everything. His interest in all that Mama and Dada are doing is rampant. I thought Parenting Pagan Tots sounded like a great guide for the months and couple of years to come.

One of the questions Parenting Pagan Tots first approaches is whether or not to even raise a child in pagan spirituality. I love Janet's response to parents who choose not to "indoctrinate" their children and, in choosing not to teach them their path, leave them floundering to figure things out on their own. She points out that many of us came to our pagan paths not from atheism but from other belief systems, which become our foundations for exploring other religions. As we learn, we can remove that foundation, having built a new one that better suits us. As someone who is for raising children in the parent's belief system, especially in a way that isn't forcing specific dogma on them or allowing them to to take oaths to remain with a certain path, I resonated a lot with what she was saying.

One of the great things about this book was that it went beyond philosophical speculation about children and spirituality. Janet offers a lot of ideas about activities to help young children get involved with a parent's religious practice without forcing them to cope with ideas too old for them. Some of her suggestions for little ones are ideas I've already been playing around with such as a Waldorf nature table, sensory play, and letting children play with crystals (my son loves carnelian too, haha).

Ideas in particular that I loved were the scent jars (cotton balls with essential oils in glass jars) for smell sensory play and using the Farmers Market as a way to see the seasons and purchase food to cook and teach children about the foods, cooking, gratitude, etc. I have been eyeballing the game Wildcraft that she mentions in the book and most likely will be purchasing it at some point in the future.

Janet does come at this concept from a Wiccan perspective with some focus on things like traditional ritual tools (chalice, athame, etc). While that isn't part of my path, I did glean some ideas from her suggestions. I mention it here only because some parents of non-wiccan or high magic paths might skip these passages thinking the suggestions don't pertain to them. Instead, I encourage you to read these passages with an open mind and replace things like delicate chalice or heavy crystal salt bowl with tools that you use in your practice (putting away tarot cards but allowing your toddler to carefully, with supervision, explore your pendulum).

Lastly, the list of resources at the end is a fantastic reference as well for new pagan parents. I've added those resources to the growing list here on Terrestrials.

I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it for pagan parents of babies and toddlers who are looking for a book to help them make that first step. I will say that it is probably not for parents who already are well versed or have a set plan for incorporating their children into their pagan practice.

Book Review: Witchy Crafts

Witchy Crafts
60 Enchanted Projects for the Creative Witch
By Lexa Olick

Create powerfully magical crafts, tools, and more with this unique book offering step-by-step instructions for sixty witchy crafts you'll treasure for years to come. Let personal energy flow through your hands and into these fun and imaginative ideas especially designed for witches.
Witchy Crafts is an illustrated two-part manual with Part One covering techniques, preparing your craft projects, and gathering the necessary materials. In Part Two you'll find all sixty craft projects with detailed instructions...
Along with color photos, step-by-step drawings, and correspondence charts, you'll also find numerous helpful tips. Learn how to craft by the seasons, avoid common mistakes, and form a craft group.

I sadly did not have the time to create every single one of the sixty projects in Witchy Crafts - I did do 6 of them from different sections to try and get a good idea of Lexa's instructional style and how workable each project was. The following 6 projects are the outcome, for good or bad, hah!

Witchy Crafts has something in it for every magickal crafter! There are crafts for beginners, crafts for experts, crafts for low budget, and crafts for when you want to go all-out on an altar piece or gift. Some of the crafts are huge and might take a week to make while others are tiny and could take less than an hour if you know what you're doing. There are crafts for every type of magickal practitioner as well, in my opinion. None of the crafts in this book have a definite religious brand on them and they can all be tweaked a little to suit your needs and style. 

Pentacle Purse

I was so excited to see some crochet projects in this book! I love to crochet and I'm all the time looking for witchy patterns online and in books.

I ended up gifting this purse before I could take a picture of the finished piece, sorry. 

Magic Wand Incense Stand

Here was the first issue I came across in the book. I just cannot seem to make a wand stand out of incense cones. I was so excited about this craft too - buying patchouli cones and glue sticks and working away in scented bliss at the craft table...only to have the glue burn me and stick to EVERYTHING and the incense cones fall apart and the stand break away just after my picture was taken. Ack! 

I double and triple checked the book and couldn't figure out exactly what I did wrong. It migth have been the glue temperature, it might have been the type of incense cone I used, it might have been Mercury in retrograde or a void moon...who knows. If you attempt this particular project and it works for you, please let me know so I can see where we differed! 

Kitchen Witch Wand

Probably my favorite of the projects I created.

The spoon was one of my cheapest craft buys ever - got a pack of 3 bass wood spoons at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar. I used Aventurine and gold for the main color themes because I wanted this want to bring in growth, prosperity, and healing into my kitchen projects. The stone donut I bought at Stars of Alaska and the craft wire from Alaska Bead Company. 

I did, of course, have to add my own flair to the wand with replacing raffia/hemp with gold plated copper wire and doing a lil pyrographed sigil on the back. 

Sugar Body Scrub

I tried this out in 2 different recipes to which I added my own ingredients:
Latte: Add a teaspoon or so of used coffee grounds (does cause some coffee residue in bathtub to clean out later) and a couple of drops of patchouli

Calm: Add 5-10 drops lavender essential oil and some lavender blossoms (last part might cause lavender residue in the bathtub to clean out later)

These recipes are very different from each other in that the coffee recipe can add a caffeinated kick to your bath  while the lavender calms you down and relaxes you. I can't take credit for the first recipe at all (coffee and patchouli smell divine together btw) as I first tried it from a sampler bar at the organic foods store Earth Fare in Tennessee years ago - been in love ever since.

I'm Not Done Yet!

There are 60 projects in this book and I intend to try my hand at all of them eventually. Some of these would make such great Yule gifts for my witchy friends! I currently have on my crafty to-do list the Pentacle Wreath and Coasters, Goddess Cornucopia, all of the tarot projects (of course), the ritual capelet and clasp, and the Altar Fan. Yea, its a long to-do list...

Issues with the Book

Besides not being able to figure out what the hell went wrong with my incense cone wand stand...I did have a couple of other issues with the book.
When Lexa uses clay, such as in the Heirloom Chalice projects, she doesn't explain very clearly that baking the heirloom pieces like toys and buttons could cause them damage like melting and burning - big safety tip there. I know it should be common sense but I've seen enough craft projects in my time to know that people can get really into what they are doing and without gentle safety reminders they tend to forget that sort of thing.
In the chapter Marvelous Mixtures: Recipes to Delight the storage notes are lacking. When dealing with oils, especially base oils like cocoa butter and almond oil, I always consider the fact these might go rancid without proper storage. I was disappointed to find no notes on storing the lotion bars, sugar scrub, or milk bath and as to how long they should be stored for before going bad and no longer can use. This is something readers would have to look up on their own, so the book is not an all-encompassing resource for these crafts. 

Happy Little Chapter Extras 

I really loved all the little extra chapters added to the beginning and end of the book that sort of hugs the projects together.
The section on creating a craft group is wonderful for those witchy types that want to get together to celebrate and create. Its especially good for those of us who are solitary and hermits...ehem...to remind us to get out there and be around like-minded magickal people sometimes.
The Witch Trials and Errors chapter near the back of the book that covers different difficulties you might run into when creating these craft projects is super helpful. She covers allergic reactions, the need to work with non-porous materials like glass, and keeping your craft tools away from your kitchen tools.
I'm also a big fan of the charts in the Appendix. These are great and super simple references. I do, however, always recommend every practitioner create their own metaphysical correspondence charts at some point. 

Rating

While I really, really loved the projects and the whole concept of the book, I did have a couple of working issues with it. In the end I give Witchy Crafts 4 Stars

The Author

Lexa Olick has been crafting for over twenty years, creating artwork through knitting, crochet, felting, ceramics, sewing, and more. Her artwork has been featured in the online magazine Dark Romance, Dog Fancy magazine, and the Showtime series The L-Word. Lexa is also a talented writer who as received numerous awards for her screenplays. 
Visit her online at WitchyCraftsBlog.com

My Homemade Soap Addiction - a review

So I have an addiction...to boutique, homemade soaps. I just love them. I love that they look like slices of fudge and smell so earthy and rick. I love their papery labels that look shabby chic or rustic. I love using them and making the whole shower smell like an enchanted wood.
My friends know this about me and most of them have similar addictions. My sister-at-heart Bizzy bought me and my son a stack of soaps from her local farmer's market not long before my pumpkin was born.

Tea and Soap Emporium, previously known as Four Sisters Farm, out of Kentucky makes lovely soap. I have tried their Lavender and their Citrus Mint. The latter of the two is sitting on my soap dish now and hints of it are still in the air in the bathroom.

When I first got a whiff of Citrus Mint, I thought it smelled masculine. I later decided that it wasn't so much that it smelled manly, it simply was without the floral or sweet-as-candy notes that so many essential oil soaps have. My husband likes to use it anyways. It is one of my favorites and rivals Basil-Mint as one of my favorite mint scent pairings for perfumes, soaps, and candles.

The lavender is for the baby, I remind myself as I lathered up with it during my retreat into the shower (my only time alone these days). The scent is floral and sweet but light. Tea and Soap Emporium explains the lightness:
"This isn't your grandmothers Lavender. We import our Lavender Essential Oil from a special province in Italy. We searched long and far till we found a essential oil that not only lives up to our quality standards, but doesn't have too much of the musty notes that some Lavender Essential oils deliver."
The result? I feel clean without being perfumed. My mother in law doesn't like the smell of lavender but had no complaints about this scent as she helped me bathe my son. She said he smelled fresh as a daisy.

When I went looking for the shop online I was impressed to find they they carry all sorts of items other than crafty, yummy-smelling soaps. The shop sports a Soap of the Month Club as well as a World Tea Club that is open to all "Wether You live local or far away from the Bluegrass." I will also admit I'm eye-balling their men's line of beard oils for my husband's No-Shave November beard and year-round mustache and goatee.

I also love their site head-note
"Thank you for supporting a small-family owned business."

*I was not paid for this review nor do I have any affiliation with this company. 

Delights from Handcrafted Honeybee

A little over a week ago I entered a contest on Twitter to guess how many lip balms were in a bucket on a picture shared by Handcrafted Honeybee on the INDIEbusiness feed.

A couple of days ago I received my prize in the mail.
A tube of Handcrafted Honeybee lipbalm and a sample of their probiotic deodorant!

The seratonin honey lipbalm had very little scent and flavor - mostly just the hint of beeswax. I ended up giving it to my husband to wear while at work (he works currently on a boat in the sun and his lips were getting badly chapped). This is a great balm for someone who doesn't want to wear anything with tint or too flavored. Only a little goes a long way as it tends to get too slick if too much is applied. I only put it on once in the morning and my lips felt soft all day. My husband now has soft, kissable lips!

The deodorant, because it is scented, I was a little wary of. I probably would have felt better if it had been their unscented, sensitive skin version as I do have allergies to some fragrance ingredients. That being said, I did test it on my arm and when nothing happened, I applied. After 2 days of wear I feel it is a good product that is very effective in eliminating body odor.
The coconut mango fragrance is sweet smelling and strong. It would be great for wearing when active like when I spend time in the garden or out walking in the heat. I usually prefer a lighter, less sweet scent but it wasn't off-putting.

I was curious about probiotics in deodorant as this was a new concept to me. I did my research and found that many companies are coming out with probiotic deodorants and deodorant bases for those DIYers out there.
David Wolfe explains the matter:
"Deodorants work primarily by killing the odor-causing bacterial in your armpits, but by doing so they often kill good bacterial also. In addition to killing off the good bacteria, they leach chemicals into the body through the skin and lymphatic system.
'Many natural deodorant recipes harness the natural anti-bacterial properties of essential oils, healing powers of coconut oil, and odor eliminating properties of baking soda...Natural deodorants provide the same odor protection while protecting your body from chemical overexposure."

*This quick review was on products I was given for free through a contest. I was not given the products for review nor was I paid for the review. None of the links provided are affiliated.