Blue Plum Festival

I have returned to Tennessee after a brief stint a little ways north of here with family (trust me, not as fun as it sounds).
Almost as soon as I return I am put to work.
For those of you local to the eastern part of Tennessee (or the western part of North Carolina) you'll have passed through Johnson City (surely...I hope). I work in a little shop on Main street where I have created my new family.
Night, my life-partner, is the chef here, I'm a barrista/tarot trainee/henna artist, and the owner, June, is...well she does a lil bit of everything.

Blue Plum was last weekend. From what I understand, the festival is based on the founder of Johnson City, a Mr. Plum? Theres vendors, food, music, and on and on.
Unique Treasures opened a booth in front of the store featuring $1 one card tarot readings, $5 henna tattoos from the Henna Dragon, local artwork, and Lapis Rose, the wood burning fairy. We had everything from fairy wing t-shirts and woodburned tarot boxes to Coca-Cola and handmade quilts (all of which is still available at the store). Inside the store we served food and iced coffees while people sat around trying to cool off.
The tarot and henna were a hit! I'm training and can read one card pulls with only a little bit of stumbling around. As for henna tatooing, there were times that i had one right after another and thought my hand would fall off.
June and Night had quite a few full spread readings at $20 all of which may result in regular returning customers.
All the business we gained form one card pulls has led us to plan on setting up tabels every weekend for $1 one card readings after 7 o'clock.

Now that Blue Plum is over its strange to not wake up and be busy almost as soon as we open. I kinda miss the rushes and being able to just sit outside and do tarot readings for most of the day.
Instead, my focus now is to work on planning events, sketching out ideas for a clothing line, and revising my henna portfolio.

Summer Starting

Huzzah for the end of finals and the school year!
Starting off the summer with my thoughts spinning…

I just read Soul Agreement by Dick and Tara Sutphen. The book gives different cases of people (some famous, others healers, some in the metaphysical ring, others in the music biz) that Dick and Tara have guided into past-life regression and have given a full astrological charting that connect to the regression.
The book also covers parallels, wanderers, and other ideas connected to those living today.
Soul Agreement is an excellent book in explaining past lives and the way they effect all relationships in this life (beyond just soul mates which so many books cover it becomes ridiculous). There is a reason a mother and daughter don’t get along or why one cannot seem to let go of an abusive partner. This is definitely a topic I would like to look into more myself.

I’m still working on my Henna Magick book. I have found a Reiki healer that uses henna but I need to get a paper that will protect both of our rights for her to electronically sign before we go on any further in my research with her. I’ve done a few rituals, both somewhat small.
I’d like to go ahead and write up a brief explanation of the benefits of henna for skin, hair, and nails, as well as a brief history of henna tattooing. Once I get the technical stuff out of the way I can get to the fun part of ritual, spell, and henna work.

Where is Henna Magick?

So I've been interested in researching how Henna has been used in magick and ritual but I haven't been able to find any books or sites or anything on the subject.
My first reaction is...well if I can't find any books, why not make one instead. (make anyone think of the Grinch much?)
If you can find rites, spels, workings that use Henna I would appreciate the aid.
Also, if you would like to help out, come get some henna tats or if you are working a rite and think a henna tat would help then give me a hollar.
Thanks and Blessings,
Dawn

Henna

Had my first job at Unique Treasures Saturday. Did henna on a teenage girl, and sadly it was not my best. She kind of surprised me with a custom piece (a claddagh with a clover instead of a heart, which sort of defeats the point of the symbol in my opinion). I did the piece as a bracelet, explaining the symbol to the girl and giving advice on how to take care of her tattoo. I asked that she not move her wrist around much until it dries and let her be. She ruined it within minutes and asked me to fix it. I said I would if she let me take a picture of the piece. She did but I don’t think I’ll be using the picture due to the piece’s ruin…the clover looked more and more like a glob no matter how I messed with it.
I did three free pieces for the owners of Unique Treasures and will put up the pictures in a new photobucket account when I can.
My jac bottle clogged up and I had no mylar cones with me, a mistake I will not repeat that is for sure.
For my first time doing henna there I think it went rather well. In all I made 8 dollars and some change (the girl’s mother had to pay with debit card which has a fee at the shop).If you’re ever in Johnson City, TN on a Saturday stop by downtown at Unique Treasures for some excellent coffee and a henna tat.