Feeling like today was a productive day

[lenyberry]

 Work kinda sucked, but I got some good stuff done afterwards! Picked up both my DVD's and the fiber-optic tree I salvaged from a dumpster a few years ago out of storage, got the next bit of my bookshelf reorganized, also did my headboard and put the tree up. 

Gosh this looks so much better than the previous mess I had up there! No idea why someone threw that tree away, it's in perfect shape and was even in its box and everything. But I'm not gonna complain about finding a free holiday tree that's just the right size for my space.

I also finalized the two incense blends I was working on and made up a larger batch of the Yule blend, and gathered more juniper to use for the cleansing blend as well.

Wishing the rest of my room looked as good as the bits of it I've gotten around to, but I'll get there if I don't run out of steam halfway through... and heck, even if I DO run out of steam before finishing, at least the overall total organization level will be better than it was before. 

Comments

[theuncertainhour]

That looks gorgeous! I especially love the carved wooden drawers and the sparkly amethyst. Making your own incense sounds amazing - do you live near a forest or something in order to be able to forage for ingredients? I'm citybound but would love to give it a go!

[lenyberry]

I do live near a forest, about a 10-15min drive away from the edge of national forest land. But honestly I do most of my ingredient foraging even closer to home, from landscape plants and vacant lots (with attention to both the ethics and legalities of that kind of foraging, but no one minds if I gather a handful of fallen pine needles by the parking lot or similar). There's a row of juniper trees right by the mailboxes in the condo complex I live in currently, and no one cares if I snip a few sprigs on occasion.

Even citybound I bet you could find some landscape plants that could be foraged from. Just don't trespass or make a nuisance of yourself in the process, and when in doubt get permission from whoever owns the property the plants are on. But honestly, odds are good no one gives a crap about a handful of pine needles or picking up a fallen stick. Protip too... learn the basics of tree maintenance, how to prune stuff well and particularly how to take out dead branches safely without damaging the tree. Then when you see a tree you'd like some wood from in someone's yard, that has dead branches on it, just bring your tools (like a hand-saw) and a vehicle to haul the branches away if there's very much (you might also want a ladder if the tree's very big and/or you're not a very good tree-climber), and knock on the door at a reasonable time for people to be at home and awake. Say you're a hobbyist woodcarver and you noticed their tree has a dead branch, would it be alright for you to remove it for them and keep the wood? Most homeowners find tree maintenance an annoying chore, and if you're offering to take it off their hands for free there's a decent chance they'll jump at the opportunity. Of course be polite if they say no and don't just steal branches from people's yards without permission, but, I've gotten some good wood that way, and more often run into "nobody answers the door" than "someone answers but tells me I can't have their dead branch". Also, in the early spring when tree-maintenance season is in full swing, you can roam neighborhoods and if someone's got a pile of prunings on the curb for pickup, you can also use the similar spiel of "hobbyist woodcarver" to ask to take some of the pile, or just... honestly, it's probably safe to assume no one gives a crap if you take a few sticks out of a pile that's already basically "in the trash" and going to be hauled off and chipped anyway, so long as you don't make a mess of the pile digging through it.

Also it's possible to just order ingredients online, if you really can't forage them locally. I like Mountain Rose Herbs a lot for a source.