Stephanie's Studio

Poof! We planted, and the little seedlings took. They fluttered in the wind, and were visited by bees and butterflies. The seedlings and plants seemed to enjoy the composted earth and worms, by all indications. As you can see, the garden took. It flourished and filled in. With a few hiccups along the way, finally, as you can see from the lower images, we have wonderful vegetables and herbs that are also useful for magickal herbalism and Hoodoo. My little herb garden, (not pictured here) is in fact, packed with goodies, including soapwort, patchouli, basil, horehound, lemon verbena, lemon balm and more. I will be sharing some pictures and ways of using these wonderful herbs magickally, or other ways, shortly. This post will be continued. Next time, I'll be sharing the process of making a magickal spiritual-cleansing broom or two, from the broom corn shown above (which is much taller now). After t...

I've been waiting for this post for a long time. It shares the growing journey of my urban garden. Hubby and I in Grant Park, early Spring. We've got the idea... This compost has been in development, maturing behind our home, for many, many years. We needed to pick out loads of refuse, stones and so forth before getting started. This is a close-up of the compost, still laden with leaves and twigs before being broken down, as well as rocks, and other things we didn't want to be a part of the planting. Lots of juicy worms were in here, to stay! Late Spring Broom Corn, because you know you always need a nice handmade broom around, as well as other seedlings, waiting to get planted.  Gorgeous David Austin, Olivia Rose. This rose was selected for its name, in relation to my daughter, as much as for its beautiful scent and form. Sumi-e ink on Mulberry Rice Paper Painting by Stephanie Rose Bird c. 2017. Feeling inspired by all the planting!...

This weekend, I had the pleasure of presenting my new release "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss" at Afriware Books and Events, an African-centered bookstore in Maywood, Illinois to a wonderfully receptive audience. Topics covered included making juice from popular soul food fruits and veggies and making mojo bags for self-determination and strength. My daughter Olivia Bird took these action photos: Gettin' that mojo workin' Self-determination, Strength and Confidence-building Mojo "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss" display at Afriware Sharing the book's Preface Thanks to all involved, including Afriware staff, volunteers, my family and the folks who came out on a beautiful Saturday Summer afternoon and supported my work.

Happy to announce that my 6th book has been published by a small publishing house in England called Green Magic Publishing! You can find it  here. It is a very unique book, that has been a long time coming - 14 years actually! When I began writing it my adult children were still living at home and my youngest, who is about to graduate from high school, was little more than a toddler. Time flies but book writing seems to take forever! The release of, Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss feels like a birth. It has had growing pains, changes and the labor of bringing it into this world - a labor of love. I'm offering a series of workshops at Life Force Arts Center in Chicago, to kick off the book and get you into its unique type of hands-on healing and transformation work. This first one is inspired by Welsh Goddess Cerrwiden. Following is a description and how you can sign up at  Life Force Arts Center. Cerrwiden’s Pig: Shifting and Personal Transfor...

My plate is full with demanding, though fun and meaningful, projects. I thought I could participate in the A to Z Blogger's Challenge but can not. This year I'm going to support fellow bloggers from the sidelines during April, visiting your blogs when I can.  I'm in the final stages of editing my soon-to-be-released book, writing my 7th book and preparing for my fall solo exhibition of my art, and that is a very full plate. I hope to do a good job with what I'm working on and put my passion there. I'm stepping out of the challenge before it begins in order to write, edit and paint. See you all on your blogs during the A to Z Challenge, and hope to participate again in 2018!

I'm all in, once again.  This is my third year of participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. This will be an intense spurt of reading and writing for me, as I'm also editing one book and writing another. I will do my best to stay in, and keep up! For the month of April (2017) I will be blogging and visiting other blogs. This is a fun and meaningful practice that I've taken on to increase conversations with other readers and bloggers. I am always happy to see newcomers and, whether you comment or not, you are welcome. A Month of African Proverbs My 2017 theme is drawn from my soon-to-be released book "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss." I have a section of my book that contains African Proverbs. I will be spending time on each of those proverbs, exploring their meaning and inspiration regarding losing weight or otherwise transforming yourself. Here is the definition of the word  proverb:  (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple...

I know it's cliche, but OMG (meaning, Oh my goddesses) I'm so happy today. After a lengthy and energized discussion about race, at the family dinner table Sunday night, I woke up and finished my 6th book on Martin Luther King's Birthday. In fact, the last section is called "Woke." I will be sharing more on this soon-to-be-released title soon, but wanted to share this incredible news with you today! I say incredible because it took about 14 years to put this book together and go through my personal journey - which is still very much a work-in-progress . The book is "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss." It should be released sometime this spring or summer!

So you made a mistake? Now what? Cover it up, fix it or apologize? How about…gasp, accessing the damage, learning what you can and then, moving forward? I don’t know where you stand with your Judge but mine is ruthless. She looks down her nose at me constantly, worse of all, my Judge is within me, always ready to chirp in, whether I request it or not. I say, as I look forward to this New Year: Judge, you are dismissed! Get lost. Piss off. I have made a mistake. Is it monumental? No. Will it hurt people? Yes. Most importantly, is it fixable? Yes! No one likes making mistakes, but they happen. I love the “I Love Lucy Show” (the original, in black and white) because Lucille Ball’s outrageously humorous touch invites us to see mistakes in a funny way. We laugh with her not at her, as she falls into one unexpected dilemma after another. Instead of saying to ourselves: this is terrible; we ‘feel’ in our gut: this is funny! What if our lives could be the same way? I k...

Oh boy! It's been a while since I've been in this space. Apologies! There are so many things I have to do, want to do, need to do; sometimes blogging has to wait. Other times, like this morning, it calls to me. This morning it said: hey girlfriend, it's blogging time. I get weird about New Year's. Some years I want to deny it; power through; act like somehow, it didn't happen. This year I am welcoming 2017 by doing my creative rituals, such as writing out intentions, otherwise known as resolutions, and creating a dream board (still in-process). You've seen me write a lot about the Law of Attraction, and how the Universe is active in our every day lives, listening for our directives. I've seldom seen the Law of Attraction come to life so brilliantly as when I create and post a dream board somewhere in my home. Amazing! Have you created one? What has come from it? In some ways I think 2016 was a terrible year. I was stuck, looking, waiting, wanting, but....