Reiki

Last weekend I got my Reiki Level 1 certification and I think I have finally formulated my thoughts on it.

I have always been fascinated by Reiki and the chakras and I do believe everything is connected and in an energy that we may not be able to perceive normally. On a practical level, I am hoping I can use Reiki to alleviate personal pain, both physical and psychological.

The course was an interesting experience for me. Reiki Level 1 is meant to teach you Reiki for yourself and maybe some people close to you. Reiki Level 2 is for people who want to start treating people professionally. So when I went in I did not expected to mainly do Reiki on myself and maybe learn a little theory on how to apply it to others. Not so. The course seemed very much aimed at people who want to do the Reiki Level 2 course as well and will start having clients. The instructor even referred to the classmate we were treating as "the client". I am not a natural people person and this was not something I was very comfortable with at the start - I even got nauseous and almost fainted giving my first treatment - but looking back I do think it was useful even though holding your hands out over someone can be very difficult on your arms and shoulders. The instructor, who I had received a treatment from in the past, was very good and told us about his journey. One of the messages he received from an acupuncturist was that everything is a gift. This is a hard concept for me to grasp and when he told us he applied this when he was diagnosed with leukemia I may have made some protesting noise. But perhaps adopting some of this attitude will be good for me as I do not deal well with unexpected setback and should I ever get cancer, I do believe a positive outlook will help a great deal. After the course I wrote down other things that I need to work on within myself as well.
When receiving a Reiki treatment from someone else, I did find it very relaxing to the point of almost falling asleep. I did not always feel anything in particular in terms of energy from who was treating me but I did occasionally twitch which is a good thing. When the instructor was giving me a treatment, he used a symbol signifiying emotional clarity on me, immediately after which my eyebrows twitched into a frown (I'm taking him on his word of course, I felt me brows twitch but as my eyes were closed I've no clue what he was doing). This makes sense as I had received an e-mail from my father that morning that left me very emotionally confused.
Since the weekend, I have been practising Reiki on myself every morning with mixed results. Some days I felt very little but this morning as I drew a symbol onto my heart chakra I felt moved to tears, I repeated this three times with the same results. Even on days I did not feel much from the treatment I found the day going smoother and things did not bother me on as profound a level as they might do normally.

Tonight I will be giving my husband a treatment for this first time, so I am interested to see how that goes.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found it interesting and/or useful.

Disappointment

Ever since I started the cruelty free journey I feel elated when someone is on my side, from my own husband to a large cosmetics company. Unfortunately this only makes disappointment bigger when they leave my side. I don't expect principles on this front from Tesco or Boots, I know where I stand and only buy necessities from them. But when Urban Decay sold to evil L'Oreal I felt betrayed.
And today I felt that again. The Netherlands has many Celtic, Medieval and Fantasy Festivals, one of the bigger ones being Castlefest. Mr. Dutchess and I have been considering a trip over there but of course we need to know what we can eat on location. I did some research online and was delighted to find the 2009 programme for the festival, informing me that they provide free range meat from the barbecue. But 2009 is four years ago and the 2012 booklet did not state this. It being the same caterer (The Cooking Highlander FYI) I hoped that their situation had not changed but to make sure, I e-mailed them. They replied this morning and while there's no point copying a Dutch message here it came down to this:

"We can't sell free range meat anymore. The costs are too high. We don't like it either".

This made me very angry. If they had just said they don't do it anymore due to cost I would not be pleased but business is business. However, it's this "can't" and "we don't like it either" that I have a problem with. They make it sounds like they have no choice but they do and they chose profit. Which is necessary to stay in business of course but what about raising the prices on the meat? People are well aware festival food is expensive and the notion that meat should be anything but is ridiculous, it's the most precious of foods. I know people might not accept the price rise as unfortunately the horrors of intensive farming are not a priority for most but still, there is a choice here and implying there isn't makes me see red. I told them all of this in a reply as well as that it will negatively influence my decision to attend the festival. They probably don't care but here's hoping it makes them think at least a little bit.

Bucket List

Now, I am not dying as far as I know. But recently I have felt a bit downtrodden about the fact that I feel very little passion about anything. I have plenty of interests: art, animals and their rights, spirituality, fantasy and many other things. But I don't feel that spark, that utter fulfilment from carrying out a certain activity. I don't have that feeling that I must do something and often my laziness, short attention span and lack of motivation take over. But I promised myself 2013 would be a good year so I decided that rather than looking for that one passion that is supposed to fulfil me until my dying day, I'd make a list of things I would - at some point in time - like to achieve. It is a focal point for my life and I hope adding to it will keep me enthusiastic, motivated and hopefully passionate about my life itself. I will be 27 in June and I may make highlight certain things on the list that I'd like to achieve before I reach 30. So here it is so far:

Have an exhibition of my artwork

Have art published in an annual

Have a year where I have grown all my own vegetables

Rear my own meat

Go trekking around new Zealand

Win a competition

Go on an overnight horse trek/ donkey or pony hike

Read a book in one sitting

Live outside of a city

Have a job in a creative field

Have a successful blog

Keep a journal for a whole year

Design and make a perfect item of clothing

Find my true style

Have a job working with animals

Give an Ignite Talk

 Play at least 5 whole songs/tracks on the guitar reasonably well.

Riding a dog sled

I will be updating and adding to this as I go along. I feel good about it!

Pinterest

So I recently deactivated my Facebook account because it wasn't doing it for me anymore. Thinking it would free up much of my time was an illusion because I walked straight into the wonderful world of Pinterest. Now this is my kind of social media! I am quite visually orientated and love love love looking at pretty pictures. Pinterest basically IS that. You can collect pictures into a collage or board and I have been doing this for hours now. I really must stop.

For any followers, my name on Pinterest is DutchessLinda. I make boards about animals, interiors, exteriors, pretty celebrities, inspiring art and whatever will come to mind!

Essence Nail Varnish Review

Last week I discovered that my local pharmacy sells a very affordable and cruelty free make-up brand called Essence (please clock on the link for their statement on animal testing). While I would be inclined to go for a premium brand for products that go on my face, I saw no harm in trying out a new nail polish at a mere EURO1,79. I chose shade 117, "I'm So Very". Take a look at it below

As you can see the shade looks the same on my thumb as it does in the bottle. It went on opaque in one layer and I covered it with a layer of top coat. I put it on on Friday afternoon and it stayed on perfectly until today and then it has only chipped in one place. So I must say I am very impressed with the quality of the varnish, especially considering the price and highly recommend giving it a try if you can find it in your area!

Green Parrot

Another painting, digital this time. Done in Painter 11. I love pretty birds!

Escapism

This is the view from my sitting room window right now:

 

It looks pretty nice and normally it is but the rain and wind don't come out in the photo. For that and so many other reasons I could really do with a trip away. It is absolutely not an option right now but sometimes dreaming about where to go can be just as nice. So I reckon blogging a holiday wishlist will give me something to look forward to. So here goes, in order of achievability:

Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland. One of the few places in this country I have not even come close to visiting yet. I hear fantastic things about Dingle as well as its surrounding countryside. And I really want to see Fungi the dolphin while he is still within this plain of existence.

Castlefest, Lisse, The Netherlands. Or really any other medieval fantasy festival in my home country! The costumes, the music, the mead...magic. It is in August so gods willing, I might be able to go this year.

Dartmoor, Co. Devon, United Kingdom. Speaking of magic, look at this tree! Just one of the things the mysterious Dartmoor has to offer. Its zoo, its ponies, its plains, its forests...I wanna go there so bad.

The Black Forest, Germany. Forests are pretty much my favourite kind of place and I would love to again visit a large one. I have never paid my home land's biggest neighbour a proper visit and I think the Black Forest would be the perfect way to change that.

Scandinavia and Finland. Particularly an Ice Hotel in one of those places. It just looks so...cool!

Transylvania, Romania. North and East Europe are still decidedly undiscovered by me. Transylvania just looks so beautiful and it tickles my imagination. There is a place to stay that has an actual count for a host!

New Zealand. Middle-Earth itself. It's the dream. I don't even know that much about the place because I think too much research would make the want to go there unbearable. Typing it into Google Images speaks for itself.

So there we have it. The list I will turn to when I'm in the mood for daydreaming.

Duct Tape Dress Dummy

There are many tutorials on YouTube that teach you how to make your own dress form out of a few few cheap materials. If you do a lot of sewing, this is an economical and true to your form alternative to a shop bought dummy.
Last weekend, I decided to give it a shot. Full disclosure, I decided to do this on a day that I was very hungover and while my husband was taping me up he had to stop a few times so that I could run to the toilet and throw up. We also stopped fairly early in the process because being wrapped in the tape was driving me crazy. This no doubt had an effect on the overall result:

Here it is modelling my leather corset!

So basically you need:
- A tight piece of clothing of a thin fabric that reaches over your bum and over your shoulders and up up to your neck. So basically a turtleneck mini dress with short sleeves.
- Duct tape. I am very tall (6'2") and one 50m roll was enough for one layer at least.
- A partner in crime.
- Scissors
- Something to fill the form with, I bought 2 large cushion fillers.
- Patience.


Please check one of the many tutorials for instructions as doing this does work well. I was impressed with how mine came out, given the fact that it was done as quickly as possible and I had to bend over in it to...you know. I will probably give this another try soon as it will probably come out better without interruptions. All that needs to be added is a stand and I'm good to go. Only thing is of course it is not adjustable so if you're currently trying to alter your body weight or shape, wait until you're happy with how you look.

Good luck!