Anyway. What I had been planning to talk about was the simple magic of your home. But since this is unofficial, I can ramble more and be less overtly witchy.
For as long as I can remember, my apartments have tended to become the social gathering spot for my friends. The fact that some of my apartments have been real holes hasn't changed this fact in the slightest - I'm not sure if it's because I let people sleep on the floor, or because everyone always tells my sister and I how 'homey' our places are.
I'm a Libra, which is my handy excuse for my obsession with making even the shitholes look as nice as my budget allows.I'm also a goddamn witch, which explains my obsession with making it 'feel' like home.
Currently I reside in a basement suite. It has low ceilings, but my sister and I are short so we never notice. The building's quite new, and my long-time friends have unanimously decreed it the nicest apartment I've had in Vancouver.
I've also got a real honest-to-goodness grown-up job now, as does Voodoo. This means we can afford to outfit our home with whatever we like. (Not to slam the Jizz Couch - a sofa we found in the lobby of one of our apartment buildings when we were in our very early twenties. It was named for the fact that we had no way of telling who had fucked on it.)
Recently we've been looking to upgrade the ancient crappy bookshelves in our living room to something a bit more stylish. And last week my sister found a beautiful and - more shocking for Vancouver - affordable credenza.
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| Oh yeeeeeah. |
The living room, as you can probably tell, is where we strive for our very best retro-lounge vibe. This is where we entertain guests so to me it makes sense to have decor that's fun and conducive to parties.
My bedroom's totally different. When I first moved in, I was thrilled to finally have a bedroom at all - in our last place I slept in a large closet. After some thought I decided that since my bedroom would become the space in which I did the vats majority of my magical an ritual work, I would model the atmosphere on something appropriate......the Aunts' house in Practical Magic.
So. Lots of wood. Botanical prints. Something comforting and clean.
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| Dresser set up pre-Beltane ritual. |
Not everyone is like this, I'm sure - hell, I watch Hoarders! - but I am and so it seems smarter to just run with it. I suppose it all relates back a bit to the idea of creating mood in magic - you pick certain colours, scents, symbols in order to put your being in line with a particular purpose. The home is no different in my opinion. In fact, I'd say it's even more important than just throwing a purple altar cloth on since rituals are usually done for a short period of time but your home is where you spend a great deal of your life.
Do you take pains to have your living space reflect a certain mood? Have you noticed how your decor shifts over time? (Mine sure has... there was a point that involved lots of black paint and those bigass Celtic knotwork wall hangings....)
I always had the same view of a home being a place where people gather - for the short-short time I had my own place that is. As often as possible, I'd have friends and family gather around our crappy, half-broken Ikea kitchen table, next to the ancestor altar and talk politics and religion all night, while passing around a bottle. People loved it and, damn, do I miss it terribly. Any kind of pseudo-philosophical drunk-talk is soul-food for me. Aquarius brain and all. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the bedroom pics - the trees on the wall is an awesome touch. My bedroom decor is a complete rock em sock em mish-mash, but nearly all my favorite pieces and accessories are Indian or Asian in flavor - big wicker baskets for my crap, a lantern I never use, but love to death, some mirrors and stuff. I'm dying for the day I have a place I can decorate from the ground up the way I want it.
This is why you should move to Canada. You can sit on my Ikea couch and get hammered. The rolling bar is right next to the living room!
ReplyDeleteWe're not allowed to paint, so wall decals were the obvious solution. There's a place in town that lets you pick custom colours for every design, so that's what I did for the trees.
Oh man, I used to have Moroccan lanterns and stuff! My gypsy phase, really. I totally love that look. When you do get your own place, you'll have to take photos for me. (I love decor photos. I spend way too much time on Apartment Therapy dot com.)
I'm totally going to get a rolling bar - I know that's the kind of accessory my mom would instantly love.
DeleteOh, dude! That reminds me... we have a travel bar! I'm so gonna take photos and show you!
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