ELSECAR

On Sunday DH and I travelled to Doncaster to pick up my DSis, then we all had a trip over to Elsecar Heritage Centre to visit the Mind, Body and Spirit event being held there. We arrived just after 10.30am and realised that the Centre was holding a family event as well, as it was already fairly busy - though the M,B&S event itself was, thankfully, a little quieter.

Initially we did a quick lap of the hall so I could find Leonie, my tarot card reader, and book a session with her. I got the 11.15am slot which meant there was a little time to kill so we set off on a wander around the hall to see what delights there were. Our first stop was at a stand that sold natural soaps and essential oils. I've recently found that the liquid anti-bacterial soap we have in the kitchen badly dries my hands out, leading to severe chapping, so I've had to start using olive oil based soap to stop the problem. There were lots of lovely combinations on the stall and these were the ones we bought:


My DSis bought the same ones. The green one (clary sage, tea tree and peppermint) is mildly antiseptic so will be good for the kitchen - normally I can't stand the smell of tea tree but the peppermint masks it nicely without being too overpowering. Probably a good one for a possible smelly feet problem too! LOL The honey and oatmeal will be a good exfoliator and the eucalyptus, rosemary and lemon would be good to use when we're suffering from colds - I got it mainly to put beside my bed, so the smell would aid restful breathing whilst asleep. The patchouli essential oil I got for using in my oil burner.

Next stop was the Pink Saluu clothing stall. The lady recognised me from last time around when DH bought me a couple of tops - I was chuffed to bits when she noticed I'd lost weight! I really saw the evidence of the weight loss when I tried on this silk top:

It's a Medium. I haven't seen the inside of anything in medium for a very looooong time. It's still slightly tight over the hips but by the time my holiday comes around it shouldn't be any more. Yay! I fell in love with the colour of this: one minute it looks blue, the next it looks green. Gorgeous! Yes, I am also definitely feeling more confident as I am being drawn to more vibrant colours and feel happy about wearing them. :0

It was soon time for my reading with Leonie. It was very interesting: some of what came up confirmed things that she'd told me in my previous reading, some other possibilities (such as DH and redundancy) were more actualities this time, though she said not to worry, as he would find another job fairly soon after. DS's love-life seems set to take-off around Christmas time, when he will either meet a girl or a friendship will blossom into more - the possibility of working in Australia or New Zealand for a couple of years came up with him again too. As for me, well it seems I will probably have a job in a year or so's time. Initially I will try charity work for a while (funnily enough, the thought of volunteering to work in the hospice book shop in my local High Street has kept cropping up recently!) and this will give me the confidence to stop thinking "I can't do that" when looking at jobs and start thinking "Yes, I can do that" and going for it. There was also a message from Dad and several other loved ones from the other side popped in to say hello - Leonie was a little bemused by how many! All in all it was quite a positive reading, despite the redundancy cropping up, and I came away feeling quite positive about the future. :0

After this we had a dinner break, going out to the car to eat: I'd brought some ham salad tortillas with me and DH and DSis bought sandwiches there. Once we'd had our fill DSis and I ventured back into the hall whilst DH had a little wander over to see the steam trains first - Thomas Tank was there, pulling carriages to give the kiddies a ride. :0) Things were getting alot busier by this time and it was quite a squeeze to get round at times - the aisles were way too narrow really.

This time round I spotted, on the He Hi She Lo crystal stall, exactly what I'd been looking for for a while........ my pink angel:

She represents my guardian angel and is carved rose quartz, one of the crystals I'm drawn to very often. Even before Aureen, the Reiki Master at the Earth Energies Clinic, told me I had a beautiful pink guardian angel I'd been looking for just that: a pink rose quartz angel, another one of those odd "coincidences" - or intuitions - that have occured regularly through my life. This is the spot where she will be staying for now.

There were some nice jewellery stalls there but one in particular really took our eye: Fruit Bat Designs (site is under construction but it will be worth popping by when it's up and running). The lady works wholly with silver and gemstones and all are hand made by her. As much as I was tempted by some of her beautiful creations I restricted myself to a ring:

The one I bought from her is the amethyst one on my forefinger - a very delicate looking and pretty design and it goes nicely with my amethyst bracelet. As you can see I also like amber but those two were previous buys from the Rainbow Room over in Market Rasen. :0) You have no idea of how much hassle taking that pic was - juggling a camera one-handed is bad for your nerves and blood pressure! LOL

One of my stop-off points is always the Spiralling stall. I didn't need any incense sticks this time but I did come away with two scented sachets:

The rose one is now sat in my nightie drawer, nicely scenting it and the knicker drawer above. LOL I love the Lotus scent, tending to use those incense sticks more than any others, and will hang that sachet near my armchair so I can smell it whenever I sit down to stitch. :0)

There was another clothing stall (didn't get a card with details on) which we had a nosey at and I fell in love with a really funky blouse in blue, with darker blue splashes in it, a lace up ribbon front (wide enough to fit me with a little room but adjustable as I lose more weight) and with small sisha mirrors stitched to it. Very modern (unlike me!) and the sort of thing I've always wanted to wear but was too big for. My DSis kindly bought it for me for my birthday present, so I won't get my hot little hands on it until July - I will have lost more weight by then and it will be in time to take with me on our holiday, so I'll be able to wear it on our anniversary. :0)

Whilst walking past the stall where I bought my lovely pottery moon gazing hare last year I spotted a different one and this one was specifically for outside. When I showed it to DH he couldn't resist it either, so the little fella came home with us and this is where he now lives:

As you can see the dwarf narcissi in my pot are starting to bloom, so there's a nice bright splash of sunny yellow now - guaranteed to bring a smile to my face whenever I see them. :0)

None of us had any kind of treatments whilst at the event - it got too busy and none of us like being on view to all and sundry plus now I have regular Reiki treatments with Aureen I prefer not to have that done by anyone else.

By about 2pm we'd all had enough of the busyness, had seen everything several times over and had had enough retail therapy so we decided to go back to my DSis's. We finished the night off with a take-out Chinese (chicken foo yung and rice is OK with my diet), nattered some, watched a little TV (can't miss Lark Rise to Candleford!) and finally headed home around 9pm. We slept well that night, I can tell you! LOL

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I have an appointment at the Clinic with Jan, the Herbalist, again and I hope to hear some more good news then so I will post about that later in the week. Two posts in one week on here......... must be a record. ;0)

Thank you for visiting - hope you enjoyed your visit and found something of interest. :0)