Moving to my own website...

Hi all,

I'm pleased to announce that I am moving my blog over to my new dedicated website, which you will find linked in the image below. I hope regular readers here will follow me over to my new website which has my new blog, more details about me and my web store.

I'll see you over there - and thank you so much for following me here! I hope I will continue to see you over at the official new home for Kimble Witchery.

Thanks!

Kimble x

Finding my creative spark again

Many of you won't know this, but I write a lot. Not just blog posts either (although this is my newest and most exciting idea). In high school I wrote a lot of poetry - mostly dark, angsty poems full of sadness and unrequited love and the violence I never could express otherwise. Then I moved on to writing other things - articles for an online fanzine I set up dedicated to Hanson, and occasionally I embarked on more ambitious projects. In my young and ardent ambition, I began to write novella-length stories about my favourite band, including myself and my friends in them as characters.

I had no idea that fanfiction was even a thing back then. It was 1998 and I was just finding my voice. Back then it included a serious Mary Sue complex, no idea what on earth the term lemons meant, but some idea in how to string a story together. I still have those early stories. I can't bear to part with them, they are sentimental.

These days, as well as the more mainstream blog posts and poems I continue to write, I still write fanfiction. I write Harry Potter fanfiction currently as I am a massive Potterhead. I publish my work on a popular fanfiction site and enjoy the dynamic of having my work critiqued by a large range of people. I was inspired to start writing HP fanfiction as a result of reading the original series and also finding out that a friend of mine wrote fanfiction too. And then I discovered the ship that would kickstart my return to the fanfiction world - Dramione.

If you've no idea what it means, it refers to the pairing of two seemingly opposite characters; Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger. If you are not into HP please feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph. I won't be offended. For those who are still with me, I love this ship. I think it makes so much damn sense. They are on opposite sides but they are so similar in so many important ways that I really think it would have been an exciting match. I won't go into a long description of all my reasons for that - just know that I really, really believe it would have worked.

But back to the story at hand. I began writing a multi chaptered Dramione story, and uploaded ten chapters before I took a very long hiatus. I wouldn't like to guess how long I was away, but it was certainly a few months. This was because I was going through a lot of personal issues - losing my job, suffering with some health issues and also the stress and chaos that came with my impending nuptials. I married the man who I love more than anything, the wedding was wonderful and soon my life calmed down again. But I'd lost my mojo at that point - my muse had disappeared.

I began reading fanfiction again about a month ago, and to my delight it has sparked my creativity again. I wrote a 3,500 word chapter today and after some editing, uploaded it to the site. It's live now and I feel energised. I know this is one story I will finish as I have it planned out (in skeleton form, but I know what the ending will be).

If you're interested, please take a look at my work. You can review as a guest if you wish or alternatively if you are a member of the site already, feel free to leave me a review. All feedback is welcomed.

Thank you for reading this post, and I'll be back on Friday with my next one. See you then!

Lots of exciting changes!

So as you may have noticed, this blog has a whole new look. I've been working very hard to make this blog more professional to look at and generally a cooler place to be. 

I'm also excited to announce my new Facebook page, where you can connect with me and let me know what you think of my blog and share what kind of things you want me to post about. There's a brand new plugin in the sidebar to enable you to 'like' my page right now. :) Posts I make should also be linked there!

I've also streamlined things a bit so that everything is now under one name - Kimble Witchery. Kimble is my nickname, and witchery is what I do so I figured it would be the ideal name for my blog page.

I'm also changing the post schedule a little bit - going from Thursdays to Fridays. I will continue to post on Tuesdays and I may also add a weekend update... we will see how it all goes. In the meantime, I hope you'll come back to my blog often and keep up with my posts. Thanks for reading this one!

See you on the other side!

Ageism in entertainment

A couple of weeks ago, Madonna took a tumble onstage during her performance at the Brit Awards. It was a massive hoohah, with Giorgio Armani weighing in and calling her 'difficult' after she explained that her cape (designed by Armani) hadn't come undone as it was supposed to. Now before we go any further; let me preface this by stating for the record that I'm not a Madonna fan. However, I do respect her - she's had a long and successful career in the music business.

But that's not what I'm basing this post about. To me it highlighted a massive undercurrent in today's society. Twitter was on fire with tweets about the fall moments after it happened and I saw lots of jokes in the same kind of style - some joking that some of her dancers would get fired for example - but there were a lot of people mentioning hip replacements. That got me thinking.

Madonna is 58 years of age. She is not old by any stretch of the imagination and has the fitness of a much younger woman. It annoyed me that instantly everyone was painting her as a geriatric. There seems to be a massive disconnect between older male celebrities and older female celebrities. Sean Connery is 84 years of age but most women would tell you he still has it. His last major movie role was Entrapment in 1999, where he starred opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones. He was 69. She was 30.

Let's look at another actor (just for comparison). Harrison Ford has recently been filming the latest instalment of the Star Wars franchise. He is still a fixture in Hollywood, appearing in Paranoia (2013) and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (also 2013). At the time of writing, Mr Ford is 72 years of age.

Let's contrast this with how Hollywood regards older actresses. Kristin Scott-Thomas did an interesting BBC interview recently where she talked about the lack of roles for "50-something women". Off the top of my head I can only name three older women who frequently still appear on television and in movies; Dame Judi Dench (80 years old), Dame Helen Mirren (69 years old) and Dame Maggie Smith (also 80 years old). All three of them are British.

This is a sad thing. Have you noticed this too? Or do you disagree with me? I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments.

Have a great Wednesday and I will see you again on Thursday xoxo

Germs, boxsets and heels

A strange title, I'll admit.

But in a nutshell, that's been my week. Courtesy of my darling husband and the flea-infested germ pit that is his company's office (no windows and air conditioning, what can I say?), I am once again suffering with a cold. Not so good. Actually that's an understatement. I feel like death warmed up pretty much. But this post is already a day late and I didn't want to make this any later, so here I am.

Boxsets... what can I say other than I rediscovered Sex and the City. I know it's the best of the 90s but it is iconic for a reason. I loved it when I was in my middle to late teens, and throughout my 20-something years, and now that I'm into my 30s I'm relating to it again on a new level. I'm the same age as Carrie Bradshaw now pretty much and a lot of the questions they ask in the show are also applicable to my life. Granted, I'm not a single woman living in New York City - I'm a happily married woman living in an ex-mining town in South Wales; but I'm still a woman and a lot of it is still very relevant.

I always felt like each woman is a little bit of me. Carrie is my neurotic, self-conscious writer side. She overthinks WAY too much and always analyses everything to within an inch of its' life. Charlotte is my romantic side, the part of me that believes in champagne and chocolate and a dozen red roses on Valentine's Day. Miranda is my cynical, sharp-edged side but also reminds me of myself in the first year of university... focused and smart. Samantha (who is my favourite character without a doubt) is my sensual side, the freaky side of every woman. I don't sleep around like she does but she represents the free sensuality of a woman.

So, spurred on by the ladies of Manhattan, I decided to pop out and get some lunch today. I've been hiding at home and trying not to look like I fell out of a hospital bed somewhere. I decided on the spur of the moment to wear my favourite strappy sandals with my heels. They aren't particularly showy; if anything they are kind of middle of the road but I wore them with my jeans and I stepped out onto the streets. It's amazing how much confidence a pair of heels will give a woman. I felt really good, and everything was great....

Until my feet started to hurt. I'd forgotten how much heels hurt my feet and as a woman carrying excess body weight, my feet were none too happy with me. Still, I enjoyed my few moments feeling self-confident. I should do it more often.

Have a great weekend all, I'll be back on Tuesday! x

Spring cleaning and a bit of self-promotion

Sometimes it's just a feeling in your blood, something you have to do. Mr D and I have been a bit short on the old cashflow lately so today I have been scrabbling about the house trying to find stuff I no longer want and can therefore sell.

I managed to find £40 worth of old CDs, DVDs and games and that was just the beginning. I've still yet to go through my wardrobe and bookshelves.

I also now sell on Fiverr. If you look over to the right of this post you'll see a lovely little link to my Fiverr profile, where you can buy a tarot reading from me or a specially created spell for just $5 each. That's a bargain if ever I've seen one. I will likely add more things for sale there in the future so keep an eye on that page. :)

I also have an Etsy shop where I offer up specially created bath salts and room sprays for your magickal goals. Again, more listings will be going up soon. Link should be above!

It has always been my dream to make money doing the things I love to do. My witchery is my favourite thing in the world, and I would be immensely honoured and happy if these outlets allowed me to make even a small living. Please support me where you can and thank you SO much for reading as always.