Restorative Tea Recipe

This tea has been created for our friend’s recovery. Since she has to take a lot of medicines, there are several digestive herbs, that will keep the health of her digestive system. Sedative herbs have been added to help her sleep as much as she needs, to encourage the natural recovery of her body; finally, a good dose of Nettle will keep her iron levels high – and just because Nettle is one of those good-for-all herbs.

This tea has a really good taste, so it can be taken with or without sugar/honey, and hot or cold as you prefer. We made a bottle of it, and kept it in the fridge so she can take it all day long as she desires. I always recommend this method, as it is an easy and effective way to take herbal medicines, instead of making one cup at a time, which is obviously much more work.

- Two parts Spearmint (Mentha Spicata) – digestive;
- Two parts Orange Flower petals – sedative;
- Two parts Nettle (Urtica Dicoica) – nutritive;
- Two parts Fennel (Foeniculum Vulgare) – digestive;
- One part Chamomile (Matricaria Camomila) – sedative + digestive;
- One Part Lemon Verbena (Aloysia Triphylla) – sedative + digestive.

Boil one litre of distilled water. Turn the heat off completely, add the herbs, let sit for 7 minutes, strain.

I thought it would also be an excellent tea to recover from colds, specially for those people who get stomach sickness with colds. Another use for this recipe would be during menstruation, as several of those herbs reduce cramps, it is very high in iron and the taste is really comforting. Hope you enjoy this wonderful herbal medicine!

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Bits Of Magic

Three new oils for the shop – one for Ancestor work, one for Saint Expedite and one for Fairy work – all of them 100% herbal. Now they need to brew for at least a week before they’re listed.

Our Charity Project website page has been updated, showing the new pieces made with the yarn we received from our dearest Robin!

We are also working on a very special sale for our Newsletter subscribers! Somewhere along December, we will offer a selection of very special items only to those subscribed to the Newsletter, on very limited editions – that means they might never get to the shop if they’re sold out, because some of the supplies are really rare. So, if you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so HERE and participate. The pic above (and more we will add regularly of future posts) is an example of the pretties we’ve been creating for you!

And finally, a pic of the first day of painting of the commissioned piece! The future owner allowed me to document the process here – I have to say I am in love with this piece, and can’t wait to give it a good amount of work this weekend!

Have a wonderful weekend Witches, we’ll be back on Monday!

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Garden Pics

Rue, red clover, guava trees and herb robert:

Tulasi basil:

Pennyroyal, tulasi basil, spearmint and lemon basil:

Okra:

The day’s harvest: wild lettuce and rose geranium leaves, tulasi flowers to make a very special tincture, regular clover for love spells and the first corn cob from Frey’s plants.

And after all the work, a little stitching on the table runner. Not much achieved as it started raining and we had to come downstairs.

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The First Days Of The New Year

October 31 - offerings for the dead, and a very happy party which we needed as hell. Freya required to participate, and we obligued of course. Funniest moment – my brother requested to have his face painted like Eric Carr’s (drummer from KISS).

November 1 - A gift from the Spirits on the first day of the year. A Romani neighbour was pruning his orange tree, and gave us all the branches! Leaves for teas and herbal magick and wood for carving. This humble tree has many medicinal and magickal properties, and so much more coming from the hands of a Romani – new readers may not know this, but we live right in the middle of the biggest Romani community of the Canary Islands.

Preparing these branches for drying means separating them into four groups: Grade A leaves for teas, tinctures, soaps, etc; Grade B leaves for incenses, potpourri and other non-edible products; branches for amulets and ritual fires, and wood for carving. Also, we planted three cuttings from the upper ends of the healthiest branch. ZERO waste, and the amazing smell of citric trees filling the house. And well, it took both of us working for three hours to have it all done, but when you work with mother Natura, it’s her who sets the schedule, not us.

Got to finish this really quick crochet mittens (there wasn’t yarn left for more detailed work) using a version of the stitch I am working on the blanket I’m making.

November 2 - stayed in bed all day with a cold/supernatural activity exhaustion day. Too much Samhain fun! Not much accomplished as you can imagine, but it was nothing serious so with some homemade bread and soup the cold was gone. Highlight of the day – getting a surprise parcel from my dearest Ms. Graveyard Dirt, with a bunch of little Sacred Heart Of Jesus cards from Italy, and a gorgeous postcard from one of her own pictures that has been already framed and hung in front of my computer.

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 25

The mail woman woke us up with a swap from Kiki, the owner of Poppyswap, with whom we are exchanging our fabulous Artemisia (and other secret herby things) for some of her nettle seeds and her wonderful moxa, which is made with mugwort and used in acupuncture to enhance healing. Thanks so much Kiki!

We also finished the bunting and hung it on the cupboard, packed and shipped today’s orders and finished my last spellwork appointment until next week.

The Flora print was listed, as well as all the new original paintings you have seen in the last posts, at our Zibbet shop.

And – this moment. Sorry for the blurry pic, but this was too precious not to add it. For extra heart-melting effect, notice how their tails are entwined.

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 2

Today, an offering was made to the gods and goddess of the earth, that bless our garden with so much medicine and abundance.

This beautiful and huge worm was devouring our Blood Flower plant.

A Ladybug in the gardener’s hand. For an urban garden, with no parks or wild spaces near, every new bug is a small miracle.

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Have I Said Before…

… that this blog’s readers are among the most awesome people in the universe? I know I have, and today I have to say it again. Completely out of the blue, a reader offered to send us a whole box containing parts of several oak trees – the oak tree doesn’t grow here, so it is such a precious gift for us herb lovers! She has spoiled us with many other surprises, that I will keep for myself ;). Right now they are finishing drying on the witchy room, and soon they will be part of mojos, herbal healing and of course lots of magick.

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Wildharvesting Images

On Tuesday evening we went wildharvesting for some clay at one of our regular spots – but of course, we wandered off a bit and ended up exploring new zones and adding more spots to revisit during the winter, since right now the south facing areas of the island are all dry as a desert. We gathered Sabina leaves and seeds (Juniperus Phoenicea), Figs, Arabian Pea (Bituminaria Bituminosa), and of course the clay. At our first spot, we made an offering for the wildlife (swallows, mice, rabbits, lizards and an owl is what we have spotted so far), and checked that the lavender plants that we pruned are regrowing wonderfully and even flowering again. We planted wormwood seeds near the lavender, and brought back fig and almond tree cuttings to replant at home.

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New Items Listed!

Yemanya Holy Card

Yemanya holy card, made with a Photoshop collage that I created using images of a Yemanya statue that I repainted myself. The repainting work was made for the statue of our Priestess-In-Training at the House Of Eleggua Temple.
Yemaya is the mother Orisha of the Yorubas, goddess of the oceans and mother of most of the more powerful Orishas. She protects families, brings protection and wealth and is one of the most generous, kind and protective goddesses. Look for her protection when seeking growth, fertility and peace at the household.
The card measures approx 4×7 cms cms, a bit smaller than a business card. Use it to build a mini altar, keep it in your wallet, your car or anywhere where you need her protection. Laminated on both sides.

Solid Perfume + Herbal Lip Balm – Crossroads

All our lip balms and salves start with the creation of a herbal oil – first we make a decoction of the oil and herbs/roots and then the decoction stays on our herbal pantry for a week at least for a more powerful infusion. After the oil is ready, we strain it and mix it with unrefined, organic beeswax that we purchase from a local farmer.

This particular lip balm has been made infusing sunflower oil, which is made locally, and a mixture of fresh ginger root, coconut meat and spearmint. A hydrating, antioxidant mix of properties that will make your skin truly shine. I use all our products myself of course, and I have a super delicate skin type that’s allergic to most chemical components – that is the reason why we started making herbal products and later sharing them with our customers.

We have listed it both as a lip balm and as a solid perfume because you can actually use it on your whole body. The flavour oil is edible, and it does not contain any other chemicals. Use it as a perfume, for dry feet/elbows/knees, as a cuticle cream… more uses than you can count!

Flavour: mango+peach flavour oil. Really yummy!
Additives: NONE. Use your lip balm within one year after purchase.

Magickal properties: we choose ingredients not only for their medicinal use, but also for their magickal properties! This lip balm is called crossroads because on African-origined religions, these ingredients would be used to open the paths in life, as they are ingredients related to Eleggua, the Orisha of Destiny. Problems communicating with others? Then this is your lip balm!

Dry Lavender – Lavandula Stoechas

Wildharvested Lavender, 100% Organic.
Medicinal Properties: Lavender, besides its very known use as an insect repeller, has many beneficial medicinal properties: relieves anxiety and headache, eases digestion, reduces nightmares and night terrors, and being such a soft herbs is suitable for children (one small tea cup before bed, not more than three days in a row). It is also full of properties for your skin, healing sunburnt and soothing itchy and dry skin, and cleaning and disinfecting dirty pores. Make a skin tonic by infusing the leaves and buds, place it on the fridge or another fresh place, and apply every morning – you will see how radiant you look in no time.
Magickal properties: Lavender is a really holy plant that protects from negativity. Along with rosemary and thyme, it becomes a very powerful incense for banishing negativity. Lavender is specially fond of children, so placing a small bag of it over their beds can help driving nightmares away.

You can find all items at Etsy, and the herbals also at Poppyswap.

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The Weekend Of Two Witches

Friday
We repaired this jewelry chest we’ve had for ages – the cover had to be replaced, so I painted a new one and placed it on the living room to store magickal items, amulets and other loved bits.


I also painted this stone that I found last week during one of our wildharvesting excursions. You already know my love for Archangel Michael!

Saturday


We made two new sets of runes with powdered herbs, one magenta and one green, to be listed this week at the shop – an incredibly tedious work I have to say!

The evening was spent in the roof garden, pruning the huge rosemary plants to make smudge sticks, and sifting several thousands of wormwood, basil, fennel and catnip seeds . As soon as we test if the seeds are viable we will offer them along with the smudge sticks.
Sunday

We spent Sunday up to our eyes in herb dust, cleaning and reorganizing the witchy room. We also remade all the pics of the Herbal Section of the shop – but, being the crazy perfectionist I am, I may make them again as the light was not what I wanted. We listed several new herbs – Fennel, Fern, Spearmint, Basil and Catmint. The evening was again spent in the garden, pruning the huge geranium rose plant and planting the cuttings of wild grapes and lavender we brought from our wildharvesting excursions last week. Our planting season is about to begin as the summer ends – cute pics of seedlings assured in the coming weeks!

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