Wanderlust and Pixie Dust

Musings of a rebellious Romani You can find me on Facebook at: Facebook.com/WanderlustAndPixieDust

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Busy, Busy, Little Fox!

Hello everyone, It has been awhile hasn't it?! I am so excited to tell all of you about the new adventure I am embarking on! The Poet's House is back in business, though, please note I am no longer doing Massage Therapy in any form. I know, I know, but don't be too disappointed I am now working with textiles and jewelry and will be selling beautiful, bohemian accessories for all of you! I will be getting a booth at the upcoming Farmers Markets this summer (Which are now EVERY Saturday! Yippee!) I am also going to get a booth at the First Friday Art Trail in the Tornado Gallery courtyard. Besides all of those ventures, I also hope to sell my products around town and will be speaking with local businesses soon. If you own a local business and would like to feature some of my products, please contact me! All of that aside, you can find me on Etsy for now at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePoetsHouse I am just starting out, but I've been working fervently to get my stock built up, trying out new styles and different looks to find the ones that are best. All of my jewelry is one-of-a-kind, which means I do not make repeats. Despite that, if you see something you like and its not in your size or it is sold before you can purchase it, please contact me and I can try to make something similar. I use recycled Sari fabric and try to get my charms, beads, hemp and other bangles from local sources or small-business artists. For the next few weeks I am working to post a few items every day, so if you don't see something you like right now 'favourite' my Etsy page and check back frequently for new stock. I am so excited to share this journey with all of you. I am sorry that I will no longer be doing Massage Therapy, but it simply is too strenuous on my body with being sick. I grew up in a family of artists and writers and have always returned to art as a safe haven and a sort of meditation. I am so grateful to finally make it into a business. Working with jewelry and my art is therapeautic for me as a person, works with my life around how sick I am each day and allows me to share my love of bohemian, Romani textile art with all of you. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in the past with my Massage Therapy business, and I hope to see all of you at the local markets or send you a special little piece of art from The Poet's House, very soon! Namaste-- M Ps-Please Share my page with your friends and family and help me get the word out~

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My night-time Lush routine

I've been told on many occasions that I should receive money from Lush because I am such a great Marketing person for them. I constantly talk about how much I adore the company, their ethics and the products. I have removed almost everything from my bathroom cupboard that isn't Vegan, or at least ethically sourced, cruelty free and healthy for you. I used to be a big Eminence girl, but I found that Lush is much more hip and cheaper while still retaining an all natural/hippie feel to their products.

I will post a few blogs on Lush in the next few weeks but to get things rolling I thought I would share with you my NIGHT routine. Right now I am going through some really hellacious skin issues because of the massive amounts of medicines I have to take for Crohns disease. My skin is pretty much a nightmare. I normally have oily/combination skin that is sensitive and a bit finicky, but right now its really pissed off. So, I have been trying my best to make it happy on top of taking Acutane (which I took once before when this same issue happened from medicines last time I had a flare-up of Crohns.) Acutane really dries your skin/lips/eyes out so I am constantly using moisturiser, lotion and lipgloss.

The products I use at night are as following:

1st-Cleanser- Let The Good Times Roll from Lush

2nd-Toner- Rosehip Tonique from Eminence

3rd-Serum- Grease Lightning from Lush

4th-Eye Serum- Neroli Eye Serum from Eminence

5th-Moisturiser-Imperialis from Lush

6th-Body Lotion-Dream Cream

I included Ultrabland which is a makeup removing cleanser from Lush because I will be starting that tomorrow as I just used the last of my "Let the Good Times Roll" cleanser. I will give a separate review of that later.

This night routine is what I do on an average night, but once or twice a week I exfoliate, do a pour opening toner tab and a masque. I will do another blog on the weekly routine as well as my shower routine and morning routine :) I use different products for all of them.

**Let the Good Times Roll**

This is a really delicious smelling cleanser from Lush that was originally part of their Christmas line, but people adored it so much they brought it back as a full-time product. I notice that it gets bought up from the online store pretty quickly every time they put a new batch up. This cleanser smells like sugar cookies or caramel cookies to me. Its very sweet and is made with Polenta! It has a very simple ingredient list which is mostly corn products (Corn oil, Corn meal, Maize flower) and Gardenia oil for scent. The best part of this cleanser is it is very exfoliating without being abrasive on your skin. I love the scent of Ocean Salt (a salt exfoliating product by Lush) but it is so damn abrasive that it makes my face hurt and very red and painful. But, Let the Good Times Roll is gentle enough you could use it as a daily cleanser and exfoliant. I'm not sure if I will be buying any soon, as with all Lush products they have a limited shelf life and I am not a big fan of sugary scents for daily use. If you are a vanilla/cookie smell kind of person you will really enjoy this. It pairs well with the Popcorn lip scrub because they share the same scent. It is definitely a fun product for a girls night.

**Eminence Rosehip Tonique**

This tonique is meant for sensitive skin and really helps with over oily skin as well. The smell isn't anything amazing, sort of a medicinal rose scent. When I purchased this I was very big into Eminence products because I received a discount at my Spa job and I was around them all the time. They are made with all natural ingredients (fruits, veggies, herbs, spices) with the idea that you could actually eat them and so you are putting on your skin things that you would put into your body, unlike some of the chemical laden shitstorm of cosmetic products we would never ingest. The downside to Eminence products is this body alone was 32 dollars. Some of the most expensive Lush products (which are much bigger sizes than this) cost in the range of 25-30 dollars. I am going to a Lush toner once I finish this bottle. If you arent familiar with Toners, they tend to add moisture and open your pores to prepare your skin for moisturiser and serums. They aren't super life-changing products, but if you can afford to have one they are beneficial. They also are great if you dont want to wear a lot of makeup and spritz your face for a "dewy" look.

**Grease Lightning**

This is a really fabulous little serum that is WAY cheaper than any of the Eminence serums I tried over the years. I have also noticed a lot more benefit from it than any of Eminence's serums. Grease lightning is like the Clinique or any other name brand spot treatments you use for specific acne blemishes. You dab a tiny bit on and it goes to work drying out the blemish. It has Witch Hazel and Tea Tree Oil which are naturally anti-fungal/anti-bacterial. It dries your skin out quite a bit so I recommend using a moisturiser afterwards if you dont have very oily skin. I really love this product and recommend it to anyone who has issues with oily/blemished skin. At 14 dollars it is a lot cheaper and much more natural than many products out there.

**Neroli Eye Serum**

This is another of my favourite products. It happens to be by Eminence and is on the steep side price-wise, but it definitely is great to have if you get dark-circles, crows feet, or stay out drinking more nights of the week than you can count! It smells amazing and pulls all the skin nice and taut near your eyes making you feel more awake and wide-eyed. I use it every night before bed, but I often dab a little on in the morning or the middle of the day if I am sleepy and my eyes are showing it. The only thing you have to be careful of is getting it in places other than your eyes. Ive noticed if I go too high on my eyebrows or too low onto my cheeks it makes me break out. Its made for the very delicate skin around your eyes and is a definite wonder product.

**Imperialis**

I LOVE this moisturiser. It smells exactly like Tiger Lillys, which is a scent you never get in products. Tiger lillys bring me back instantly to summers in Pennsylvania as a child, so I have nostalgia every time I open this jar to put it on my face. The downside to this product is it caused my face to become more oily when I used it before taking acutane. I would recommend it for people with real combination skin or dry skin, but not purely oily skin because it increases the oil production too much. It's a fabulous mid-range moisturiser and I'm glad my skin is dry enough I can use it now.

**Dream Cream**

This is one of Lush's top selling products for sensitive/eczema/psoriasis skin. It smells like oats and chamomile to me, which isn't a scent I would choose to smell like but it isn't a bad smell. I use this mostly before bed on my legs and arms and it is super hydrating and healing. I've heard from a couple friends how it has become a life-saver for their skin issues and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in need of extra care when it comes to their skin.

Lush is really a fabulous company and after you've used up the products in these cute little black tubs you can clean them out thoroughly and trade 5 of them back in for a free fresh face masque. They have quite a few masques you can choose from and they have to be refrigerated due to being very perishable (it sounds like a bitch, but that just means its FULL of natural, healthy ingredients!)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend :)

Namaste,

M

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Late last night the snow began to fall, blanketing everything in preparation for all who would wake hours later from their warm beds with sleepy eyes and happy hearts. There is something magical about snow as it is falling that we as humans can only perceive with some semblance of awe. No matter your secondary feelings, nobody can deny the first reaction of awe when you wake to see the soft, untouched snow on sidewalk and lawn or better yet, when you are going about your day and suddenly the soft, white flakes begin to drift down from the sky.

I suppose it is ironic that we have not had snow since November in Texas but on the dawning of Imbolc there is a solid few inches of snow on the ground. I would count this as a good omen, myself, though the Groundhog apparently thought otherwise this year and decided there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Personally, I am ready for Spring. I am ready to clean the grief and negative energy from my life. I am ready for happiness and new life, growth and warmth. It is very difficult to celebrate this holiday of new birth when I have just lost something so precious to me. However, in the wheel of the year we know that with Winter comes death so that in the Spring new life can blossom. The earth teaches us this on a very basic level, but it is very hard for me to look at this death as anything containing growth when it was so premature and so heartbreaking.

I plan on making my Breton Spring Stewp today and while the rest of the country is celebrating the Superbowl, I will be celebrating this holiday of birth and light coming back into the world.

The recipe for my soup can be found Here

It has a mix of root vegetables like Potatoe, Carrot, Leak, Onion, and Asparagus but also milk (I use non-dairy hemp) to symbolise the birth of spring. It really is a delicious and hearty soup to stave away the last lingerings of winter cold.

I would like to wish everyone a very merry Imbolc one last time before I head off to done warm clothes and go to the grocery store for ingredients. Poppy and I are going to my mothers for the Superbowl, but really its just an excuse for her to play with another dog and me to cook without having to do dishes!

Enjoy!

-M

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((Bella Luna passed away January 28th 2013. After I returned home from the Veterinarians office I immediately wrote this Facebook piece, as I have a difficult time expressing emotions outside of my writing.))

My beautiful little Bella went to the Summerlands today. She was just shy of 12 years and I loved that little cat more than anything in this world. She has been my best friend since I was twelve years old. I remember when my mother told me I could finally have a cat. I wanted a pet more than anything but with all the moving as a kid, living in apartments unable to afford the pet fees, it wasn't feasible until the year I turned 12 and had been harping on my mother for ages.

   I remember sitting at the computer and going over page after page of names, deciding on the perfect name for her. I was stuck between Mignon or Bella. One Saturday I dragged my mum into Petsmart "just to look" (though in the back of my head I just knew I was going to get a cat that day.) We browsed the few kittens in cages and right at the end there was this sweet little black tortoise shell kitten that was pawing at her cage, meowing and climbing the bars to get to me. What did the name say on the crate? Bella, of course. My mother couldn't deny the Serendipity of the situation and we bought her that afternoon.

  I remember bringing her home, my very first pet that was all my own, and setting her in her little cat bed on my bed. The first thing she did was leap down and run frantically around the perimeter of the house meowing up a storm. Bella was a strong, fierce, Aries. She came into my life vocal as all hell and I will always remember her this way in my minds eye. I was homeschooled that semester because I was an outcast and made fun of in my Christian private school. My mother had the best intentions with homeschooling but even the best intentions fall by the wayside when you have a moody, gothic, depressed preteen. The few days she got me to sit down with a book I ended up drawing and daydreaming. One such day I had decided I was fascinated by house flys. I kept getting frustrated because I couldn't draw the housefly from memory and didn't have a subject to go off of. I announced this with a loud huff and within seconds, here came little Bella meowing with that characteristic "full mouth" meow I grew to love over the years. She hopped up on the table and spit out a housefly. I knew in that instant that this cat was much more than your average feline. She was my familiar, my best friend, my nurse, and my fur baby. She was extremely smart and always off on an adventure, slipping out the dog door and roaming the yard only to bring me decapitated mice, grasshoppers and cockroaches. Some mornings you would wake up and come out to the kitchen to find a little army of dead bugs lined up across the threshold and a proud Bella not far off.

   She watched me move to Siena, Italy without her and threw a fit for the 5 months I was gone--knocking over plants, roaming the house meowing, and spending every night by my mothers head as a comfort. When I returned from Italy she followed me to 5 different homes, each one met with a mix of adventure and sadness for the one she had grown accustomed to. When I was 19 we got Toulouse and she found that she wasn't particularly fond of this tiny little mewling white kitten, but she tolerated him with a hiss and a swat if he came too close to her side of the bed. The year I was 19 she also became my nurse. I was diagnosed witch Crohns and spent some of the most difficult months of my life in bed, in agony. There was never a moment Bella wasn't sleeping next to me, following me to the bathroom or keeping an eye on me, she never left my side when I was sick. She would sit on the toilet seat watching me take a bath, come to the bathroom EVERY time I was brushing my hair with an onslaught of meows begging me to brush her fur with her own kitty brush. All 12 years of her life she slept in a cat bed next to my head. Every nightmare, every night going to sleep in tears, every single night unless she was ill she was there offering purrs and kisses on my face.

   When I lived In my last apartment the door was left open one night and she got outside. Always being the adventurer, she took the opportunity to explore leaving me frantic and in tears. Those were the two longest days of my life thinking I lost her. I lay on an air mattress in my living room and my mom had to come over and stay with me because I couldn't breathe, I couldn't function not knowing where she was. Then the second night extremely late, about 4am, she showed up meowing at the door. My mom said she watched me sleep walk to the door, open it, pick my dirty little black cat up with a few "you're in so much trouble"'s and crawl right back into bed with her curled under the blankets with me.    Bella would roam the house crying for me if I left the room and she didn't see me. She would run from the opposite end of the house out of a dead sleep if I called her name. She would bring me toy mice with that characteristic meow and drop them in my lap. She kissed my tears away when I was having a bad day. She was quite simply the best thing to happen to me during all the years I needed a best friend the most. I knew that she would never betray my trust and I could confide anything in her and she would just look at me with those loving, nonjudgmental, big, green eyes. Today was hard. Today was harder than hard. I have a chemotherapy treatment tomorrow, a cold, and my body feels like a lead weight. I had to watch the light leave my precious Bella's eyes and know that she's gone. That the still body laying on the table is just organic now. That all these memories and emotions from a Cat with a personality as big as the sun...are all I have left. I can't hold her anymore. I have no comfort from my other two pets--Toulouse just lays in her spot on the bed with a morose look in his eyes and Poppy is clueless. I have a giant hole inside of me and I can't breathe and I can't really think about the loss because it's too much to bear right now. She may have been an animal, but she truly was the glue that kept me together. She was the single most precious thing in my entire world and I just can't handle the immensity of this loss.

I love you, Isabella. I love you to the stars and back and I made the hardest decision of my life today letting you go. But, I couldn't bear to watch you suffer. You were such a strong spirit and you belong to the stars now. Burn bright, my darling.

[wanderlust-n-pixie-dust]

New Beginnings

Welcome old friends and new!

A year ago I set out on a fabulous Vegan food blogging adventure meant to last me a full year. Being a Pisces with a million interests, I fell quite short of that mark. I also ended up getting sick halfway through the year and things seemed to tumble out of control quite quickly. But, grieve not! I have returned and have an even better adventure planned for us :) Instead of returning to solely Vegan food blogging (Which can become extremely stressful having to come up with new recipes every week, especially when I'm not feeling well) I have created Wanderlust and Pixie Dust which is my fabulous little space of Facebook full of Romani folk magic, Celtic Paganism, Hippie Flower-Child antics and lots of Vegan food recipes.

My Facebook Page

This little off-shoot of Wanderlust and Pixie Dust will be for my blogs and often will cover less up-lifting topics like my battle with Crohns disease, the passing of my beloved familiar Bella this past week, and other life-events.

I hope you can follow me in both places and give me feedback on what you would prefer to see or enjoy seeing.  Thank you for all the support on my past blog and thank you for taking time to add this new page :)

You can still find my old Vegan food blog at:

365 Days of Vegan Food

Love and Light, Mallory