Betsy Snow White Bibliophile

Category: Witchy Things

  • 2023…

    2023…

    Here we are. It is January. The start to a new year is upon us. I have some simple goals for the year: read more 📚, write more ✒️, skate more 🛼, travel more🗺, play more 🎉, laugh more 😂, love more ❤,  witch more 🕯, and be more myself than ever before.

    My 2023 word of the year is:

    To me this means to believe in myself, believe in others, believe in the unbelievable, and just generally believe. I want to try to reconnect with the feeling of truly believing I had as a child. The witch in me is ready for this as well.

    I have already read two books this year to get my reading goals off to a good start. I am participating in the Girlxoxo 2023 Monthly Keyword Challenge. The idea is that you pick a book with one of these words in the title, or a related word to the keywords. The keywords for January are: crown, girl, whisper, black, heart, guide, all, and ever. They also have a group on Goodreads to keep up with others in the group.

    My first two books of the year were The Rogue Crown by A.K. Mulford and Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. I highly enjoyed both books and I feel like I am off to a very strong start this year. I set a super conservative goal of reading 24 books for 2023, but I am planning to revisit that after this month.

    What are you reading? Do you have any goals? I am also doing this crazy bingo that I found on pinterest. I will keep you updated on how that goes.

  • October 25- 27: October Bucket List, TBR and Book Bingo Check In!

    October 25- 27: October Bucket List, TBR and Book Bingo Check In!

    It has been a couple of days so, let’s check in on my October Bucket List, TBR and Book Bingo. I have already blogged about some of these events, but here we go:

    • Witch Walk 2022
    • Dark Market 2022
    • Carve a Pumpkin
    • Go to a Halloween Party
    • Celebrate our 10th anniversary
    • Attend Ren Faire at least once a weekend – It is the final weekend and once I hit October I have gone at least once a weekend.
    • Tales from the Crypt at Green Lawn Abbey – This is tomorrow night.
    • Finish and upgrade Mothman Costume for Faire – Got the final pieces on the way. Debuts on Sunday.
    • Read 4 books – I have read The Last Graduate, Pumpkin Pie, When Life Gives You Vampires and The Kiss Curse
    • Create a great basket for my spooky basket buddy
    • Have a fire and make smores
    • Send out Halloween Cards – Probably Hand delivering at this point. Shrug.
    • Complete the Lionarts Tarot Challenge for October

    So where am I at bookish Bingo:

    I got a Bingo thanks to The Kiss Curse! It put me over with people wearing disguises or costumes! This was genuinely fun.

    And the master video of Halloween Countdown for the 25th thru the 27th:

  • October 21-22: Witch Walk 2022

    On Saturday, at noon, several witches met at the gazebo in Goodale Park in Columbus, Ohio. We took a few pictures and then set forth to take a walk through the Short North.

    We proceeded to promenade until we reached The Eagle where we grab brunch and cocktails.

    My delicious Sandwich.

    After brunch we walked up to Prologue where I picked up two books:Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor and High Times in the Low Parlinent by Kelly Robson. I also got a cute bookmark and a whole bunch of stickers.

    Then my sister and I headed to Dark Market. They had amazing vendors, and Sacred Shimmy performed. Here is a video of Sacred Shimmy performing.

    I bought a bunch of different things. Several crystals, a spell frog, caramel apple body scrub made by my friend Heather, peacock quills, Mothman Earrings, and a big red hair flower with an anatomical heart. I could have bought so much more.

    Here is the extended cut of Halloween Countdown for 21 – 22:

  • Happy October 1st

    Happy October 1st

    October is my favorite month! I love the fall feeling (in Ohio we get cooler weather, leaves changing, and the whole shebang), the hot drinks, sweater weather, spoooky/witchy season, and just all of it!!

    I have my Halloween Advent Calendar which I have asked my nibling, Asher, to fill the first eight days of my calendar for me and the last 13 of the month are filled with the holiday countdown from Sucreabeille. I also bought the Kawaii Sicker Countdown by Pipsticks.

    Halloween Advent Calendar

    I am also planning to read more this month so…

    Bookish Bingo Board

    Expect to hear more from me as the month goes on. And see if I get a bingo. And check out October with me. For more random you can find me on TikTok @betsysnowwhite.

  • November has come!

    Happy November First! The last day of the Ohio Renaissance Festival was yesterday, and while I am sad that the season is over, I am happy to be free to devote time to some other parts of my life. This season of the festival was one of the best I can remember. Wench Collecting took off this year in a way that was unexpected and led to our local growing almost doubling in size as the season moved on and more wenches are planning to join in the off season. We were able to sponsor five wenches into the guild, and have the money for several more. Being the Madam for the local is one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever taken on and I am so proud of what this group is becoming. And we have so much more on the horizon, including the groups first election since 2018 when we formed the group and I became madame. I have no idea if any of my fellow wenches would like to take up the mantle and run to be madame next year, but I know that whether I am madame again or I am unseated the impact of this inaugural privy council has laid an amazing groundwork for the leadership to come.

    Beyond this I have a lot planned for the month of November. One I am participating in Nanowrimo this year, but rather than a novel my goal is to blog every day for the month of November. In the past I did Blogtober, but I just couldn’t swing it this year so I decided to do November instead. I am also doing my first walk in a long time on Thanksgiving, a five mile Turkey Trot. I am attending the Witches Ball, doing a lot of holiday crafting, attending some other events with wenches and the lady gang. Who knows what I might get into? I hope you will come along for the ride, enjoy the scenery and keep me company along the way.

    On the first day of November I am thankful for my amazing husband who took all of the photos below for me without complaint, following me around the Festival as I chased down all the wenches. I love that man with my whole soul and I don’t know what I would do without him.

    So many Wenches!!!!

  • Witches of Legend Oracle

    Witches of Legend Oracle

    My wonderful husband, Seth, backed a kickstarter for me for the Witches of Legend Oracle by Annabelle Lewis. The art was just so gorgeous that I couldn’t resist. Seth would call me in to show me updates and new cards as they were created, additional tiers that were added, and so much more. The deck was fully funded, starting production and then, Pandemic. After a bunch of delays the decks finally made their way to Annabelle, and then on their way to us.

    AND MINE ARRIVED TODAY!!

    I am a little excited. Opening the box I saw black tissue paper and a sticker saying Thank you for supporting my small business.

    When you opened it up you saw a beautiful black velvet Tarot bag.

    Under the Tarot Bag was a Reading Cloth.

    Also included was a gorgeous enamel pin of Nyx, prints of Hecate and Medusa, and stickers of Medusa, Hecate’s familiar and The Morrigan.

    And, then there is the deck itself. It comes in a nice box, but it is a little big so I will probably use the velvet bag. The book is really nice and has space for adding your own notes for each of the cards. I love it a lot. The deck itself is gorgeous and comprised of 34 cards. The art is ink and watercolor and the palette is primarily monochrome with hints of gold. The deck has beautiful gold edging and feels wonderful in the hand. I am so excited to begin working with it.

  • Tarot Impulse Purchases

    Tarot Impulse Purchases

    I have mentioned before that I am slightly obsessed with/addicted to Tarot and Oracle decks. I have many. I want many more. In the last week I got two Tarot decks and one Oracle deck in the mail. The tarot decks I recently impulse bought from Zulily (they had a collection all about witchy stuff). Seth kickstarted the oracle deck for me pre-pandemic, but then pandemic, so they just finally arrived stateside and were shippable. I am going to make a separate post for the oracle.

    So, Tarot Decks: I picked up the Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle and the Tarot of the Divine by Yoshi Yoshitani.

    The Tarot of the Divine I was familiar with because a friend, lady gang member, wench Mary bought it and I was enamored, but hadn’t picked up a copy yet. It is “Inspired by deities, folklore, & fairy tales from around the world.” The deck itself has matte, textured cards that are pretty thick but feel nice in the hand. The box is really nice and I think I will use it to store the deck. The book has color photos of each card and explanations of the inspiration behind each card. I haven’t tried reading with it yet, but I really like the vivid imagery and the folklore backgrounds.

    I was not super familiar with the Modern Witch Tarot, but I liked the imagery a lot and decided I would pick it up too. I am not sad that I did. It is a deck based on the Smith-Waite deck, but with a wonderfully diverse imagery. The box is really nice for this deck as well. The cards are thick and very glossy which makes them easy to shuffle. This is another deck with vivid colors. And the book is super cute. Again, I haven’t read with it yet, but I am excited to do so.

  • 4 Days of Blogging

    4 Days of Blogging

    I recently ordered a new Tarot Deck (yes another one) The New Wave Tarot. I had been eyeing this one for some time from LastCraft Designs and then they announced that this printing would be the last ever, so I jumped in and pre-ordered. Per their site, “Each card features digital collages of 1980s musicians such as The Smiths, The Cure, Siouxsie Sioux, Joy Division, Berlin, Yazoo, Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Clan of Xymox, The Go-Gos, Cyndi Lauper, Culture Club along with esoteric imagery inspired by the Rider-Waite and Thoth tarot.” Even if I never really read with it the imagery is wonderful and a deck with Cyndi Lauper in it is perfect to me.

    In this deck instead of the normal suits: Cups – tea cups
    Wands – eyeliner
    Disks – LP Records
    Swords – microphone

  • 11 Days of Blogging

    11 Days of Blogging

    What’s your sign?

    I have mentioned before that I am a pisces, with an aquarius rising and a cancer moon, or what I like to call “I’m an emotional wreck bundle”. I am a collector of Pisces memes, and generally I can find a bit of myself in them, but it is possible I could find bits of myself in any sign. I am emotional, as a pisces is supposed to be emotional. I am prone to escapism, as a pisces is supposed to be. I am a dreamer, as a pisces is supposed to be. I am a bit odd, which could be any of these but it probably the aquarius placement that brings it through. *Shrug*

    I just know I enjoy reading about these little insights into who I am that are supposedly written in the stars. I enjoy knowing that some of the scents for pisces are sandalwood and lemon, which are two of my favorite smells. I have no problem being a bit of a stereotype of my horoscope. These are some of my favorite horoscope memes, and such from my phone.

    Do you feel like your sign is accurate? Why or why not?

  • 23 Days of Blogging

    I am still shopping far too much online. It is an issue and also I feel like I am supporting a lot of independent artists by from etsy and personal websites. I have ordered so many stickers, pins, shirts, bath bombs and other amazing things for myself online. Here are some of my favorites from this week. (Seriously this is just what was delivered this week, except the coffin earrings which are from last week I think.)

    Coffin Earrings by Kianayouwanna – These are amazing. You can fill them with anything and wear them. Want Valentine’s Day coffins? Bam. Easter? Bam. How could I resist that? I bought Black Lives Matter pins from Black Cat Insignia. I think it is important to be an ally, and important to support Black Owned businesses while doing so. These pins are super high quality and will live on my two favorite jackets.

    I bought some skate stickers, a patch and some sparkly pink razorblade charms for my skates from ProjectPinup. I am planning to fix up an old rusty skate case I own and I want to cover it in skate related stickers, so I have been buying skate stickers like a crazy person. I also bought a cropped sweatshirt from Blood and Thunder that says social distance skating club. I can’t wait to wear it. I love it so much!!

    I bought myself some witchy stickers for my skate case and for use in my planner. These adorable holiday stickers from Wise Minerva Studio for Imbolc, Ostara and Beltane. A “Support your local witches” sticker from Moonrise Goods Co. Holographic pentacle stickers from pastelspell which are so rainbow shiny they make me so happy.

    I also bought a bunch of bath bombs from my favorite bath bomb company Witch Baby Soap. Honestly I buy from them monthly, but I grabbed a big bunch this month because I was completely out.

    Today in the mail I got a fantastic shirt from the company, Out of Print, as well. They released this amazing shirt featuring the Muppets that I can remember being on the wall of the library in my elementary school or our public library when I was little. I had to have it.