Monday, November 16, 2009

New Product Giveaway~Winter Solstice Swag



Juniper and spice, and everything nice. That is what you will be getting with my latest giveaway.
My Witchlet and I had a busy weekend creating. Saturday was a rainy day here in New England so we spent the day drying apples, oranges and lemons. We sprinkled the apple slices with a blend of cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon before baking. We put them on wire racks on top of a baking sheet in a 250 degree oven for two hours. They came out perfect and my house smelled fabulous all day!
We also strung cranberries and wired them into hearts and circle shapes for ornaments.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day so we grabbed our collecting bag and headed to the park. Our collection bag is one of those green bags you buy for the market so you do not use the plastic bags. I have tons of those so we turned one into our collection bag. In this bag we have two pairs of scissors, a marker, two small glass jars with tops, and paper lunch sacks. This bag is great and having the separate bags allows us to collect and label our goodies.
We collected juniper, pine, pine cones, berries, grapevine twists, and acorns. We were at the park for about 3 hours and we had a wonderful time my Witchlet and I. It was a peaceful day and we even saw a little baby chipmunk with his little cheeks fat with nuts.
After our collecting we went for lunch at Burger King, Bella's choice, not mine..:)
Of course driving home I felt this tickling on my neck and pulled a lovely bug off of myself. It is amazing that I didn't get into an accident with the screaming and checking myself while driving for other members of the bugs family that were in my mind making a home in my scalp! Luckily it was only a 3 minute drive to Burger King where I almost stripped naked in the parking lot checking for bugs.
When we got home we soaked our acorns and pine cones in hot soapy water and scrubbed them clean. I also cleaned off the pine and juniper with lukewarm water.
Once our goodies were dry we created these lovely Winter Solstice Swags.
I created three, one for my shop, one for me, and one for the winner of this giveaway.
Your Winter Solstice Swag is made up of Pine and Juniper for it's base. I then added three cinnamon sticks, acorns, and pine cones. At the top is a spiced dried apple slice with a dried lemon slice and a lovely metallic bead in the center. I added a green crescent moon, a green star, and a gold star, which I glued on in different places on the swag. At the very top is a bow of green ribbon with a lovely green lamp work bead in the center.
The total piece measures about 10 inches long give or take.
This piece smells lovely and would make a lovely addition to your holiday decor.

Here are the magickal meanings of the objects in your Winter Solstice Swag:
Acorn:
Plenty, prosperity, good luck, birth, patience, and fruitfulness.

Cinnamon:
The masculine principle, power, love, spirituality, success, wealth, and healing. Associated with the Sun, and the element of fire.

Clove:
Strength, courage, and protection. Associated with Jupiter and Uranus, and the element of fire. Used in magical works for cleansing, protection, to bring prosperity, and to keep away negative forces.

Juniper:
Courage, protection, purity, and confidence. Associated with the planet Mercury.

Lemon:
Harvest, passion, discretion, luck, uplifting, energy clearing, and pride. Associated with the Sun. Said to bring protective spirits.

Pine:
Honesty, strength, fertility, generosity, silence, hope, solitude, and immortality. Pines cones were carried to increase fertility and for longevity. Pine needles have been burned as an incense to purify and cleanse. Branches were placed over beds to keep sickness away. Associated with the planet Mars and the element of air.
Pine Cone have been powerful, and ancient, symbols of Eternal Life

Apple:
Love, fertility, divination, luxury, knowledge, and romance. The apple has been associated with sexuality in most cultures.
Celtic: Fruit of knowledge, prophecy, and magic. The Silver Bough. The ancient Celts believed the apple had strong magic powers. It is also associated with the Other world. In many Celtic myths, people who travel to the Isles of Women and enter the Land of promise are met by a beautiful woman who carries an apple branch and promises to grant them their heart's desire. The apple was used to symbolize the goal of a quest.

To be eligible to win this enchanting Winter Solstice Swag you must:
1. Be a follower of my blog.
2. Comment on this post.
3. Tweet or blog about this giveaway and leave me the link to wear you have done so.
4. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

Thanks to all and good luck!



7 comments:

I'm So Pretty said...

What a beautiful creation!!! I'm a follower, and I blogged about your giveaway

http://ifartfairydust.blogspot.com/2009/11/gorgeous-winter-solstice-swag-giveaway.html

My email should show up if you click on my name above. Thank you for such a wonderful giveaway!!!

Rue said...

I can't enter the contest as you can't send plant material across the border (into Canada where I am) but I just wanted to say that I think it's very lovely!

I used to do this every year too - but have gotten a bit lazy over the past few years. You've inspired me to make my own swag though!

I'm glad you and your witchlet had such a nice weekend!

Magickal Enchantments said...

I'm so sorry to hear that Rue! I will keep your name in and if you win how about one of the Cranberry Ornaments we made?

Bridgett said...

I can only imagine the intoxicating smell! It's just lovely!

I am a follower of your blog.
I'm leaving a comment letting you know I'd LOVE to be entered in your giveaway. Yay!
My e-mail is bridgetteleigh75@aol.com

Thanks so much! Sounds like a wonderful way to spend the weekend to me. :)

)O(
boo

Danni said...

It sounds like you and your witchlet had a truly magical weekend, and I'd love to be entered to win this beautiful swag!

I'm a follower, my email is artful.danni(at)gmail.com

and I twittered about it here:
http://twitter.com/artful_danni

Hilary said...

This is gorgeous! I'm a follower

Anonymous said...

Absolutely beautiful!! I can only imagine that it must smell as wonderful as it looks!! I'm a new follower, and I have blogged about it today!! (http://talullahsworld.wordpress.com) I am inspired by your creations and would love to be entered in your give-a-way! My contact email is talullahsworld(at)sbcglobal(dot)net

Thank you and BB!!