We have only one bookshop on the island (tragic, isn't it?). A month ago, they had a few copies of Paolo Coelho's new book "The Witch of Portobello". I didn't have any cash on me at the time and, when I went back the next week, it was sold out. Woe me! I've been following his spiritual quest in his books for some time now and was so disappointed when I couldn't read his latest spiritual odyssey.

I decided to see if the book was available online and, hey presto, discovered that all his books were. Paolo Coelho himself opened a pirate blog for his readers to download books. He believes that "The sales increased a lot. There is no conflict between the fact that you have something for free, it stimulates people to read and to buy, because they have the possibility of trying".

Here is the link for "The Witch of Portobello":

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

and here are some others in pdf format.

If you want to read his books in other languages or prefer torrent and other file formats, go to Pirate Coelho.

I'm reading "The Witch of Portobello" online right now, but I'm looking forward to buying the book when it's available again. There's still nothing better than curling up with a favourite book and a cup of tea. And curling up is hard to do with a laptop...

It often helps to supplement your creative visualization by putting your energy into making a craft object for your needs. Focussing on drawing money into your life whilst crafting this money spell bottle will help you to manifest the money you desire. This spell is best done at the new moon.

You will need:
small glass vial with stopper
green glass paint
glass outliner in gold or copper
copper or brass wire
green and gold beads
green feather
gold coloured yarn
jump ring
jewellery tongs

Step-by-step instructions:
1. Paint the glass vial and draw the money rune Fehu (see picture) on it.
2. Wrap the wire around the neck of the vial a few times.
3. Make 2 beaded chains and attach to the wire.
4. Push a feather through the wire.
5. Attach a couple of dangling beaded chains to the other chains.
6. Wrap around the vial with gold coloured yarn.
7. Fill the bottle with any 7 of the following ingredients: malachite, jade or any other green gemstone, something copper or gold, a piece of root ginger, almond, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, patchouli oil

Hang it around your neck or on a keychain. Keep it in your handbag; just carry it on your person. Once you have made your magical money vial, don't obsess about it. Trust that the Universe will provide ...

In one of my many incarnations in this life, I was an English teacher. Usually, at some point during the year, I would ask my students to write out their ideal day using the 5 W's and How. It's an exercise I've done myself as well and find very useful as a creative visualization aid. (And as long as there's nobody around to check your grammar, writing down your ideal day is a lot of fun.)

The 5 W's are:
When? What? Who? Where? Why?
Add the How? to flesh out the details with sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.

First, grab a pen and paper and make a diagram or list of sorts.



In each of the areas jot down some ideas of how you would spend your ideal day. Write down or sketch as many details as you can. You might want to break up the activities into chronological time frames as well, i.e. a separate chart for the morning, afternoon and evening.

Here are some examples:
When?: after waking up in the morning at 7 a.m.
Where?: on my wooden verandah overgrown with bouganvillea, in my cane rocking chair, overlooking the sea
What?: drinking a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee and enjoying a breakfast of sweet juicy papaya and crispy toast
Who?: together with my beloved soulmate
Why? starting my day in a relaxed manner
How? contemplating the view and enjoying the intimacy of conversation
or:
When?: at 10 a.m.
Where?: in my large airy violet-walled art studio stocked with everything I could possibly need
What?: conducting a workshop on collage
Who?: together with lively creative workshop attendees
Why?: this is the course I'm currently giving
How?: with active participation, music in the background,

Spend some time imagining and filling in your diagram or list, then write down your story in the present tense as though you are living it. Fill it with details and make it vivid. Get excited about it. This is, after all, about creating your ideal future.

Read your ideal day visualization out loud to yourself every day or week with enthusiasm. If you visualize an event in great detail and with a lot of emotion, your subconscious mind will be "conned" into believing that it’s really happening. This is important, because once your subconscious believes your visualization to be a fact, the Universe will start sending you an endless amount of ideas and opportunities to start living your ideal life.

Tania at Whole Living Today awarded me! Thank you! I feel truly honoured.



I'd like to pass them on to Sara at Crafts of Texture, Ivonnardona at Ivonnardona's Creations, Stephen at Birthing Your Dream and Christine at Live Passionately for providing lot's of inspiration and creativite ideas.

Strangely, this is the "spice" I love the most and actually can't live without.

You Are Cilantro

The bad news is that there are some people who can't stand you. The good news is that most people love you more than anything else in the world. You are distinct, unusual, fresh, and very controversial. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

What Spice Are You?

This week I've been getting into glass painting. These are three mugs (of the many, of course) that I painted. I usually sell them at the local market. The streaky effect is created by using glass paints instead of porcelain paint. Hope you get inspired to do your own.

Living on a tropical island, I am lucky to have a large supply of one of nature's most beneficial foodstuffs. Coconuts as well as coconut oil have always been a mainstay of the Seychelles diet.

Coconut oil is a food, and is one of the best cooking oils you can use. Unlike most vegetable oils, coconut oil's chemical structure is kept intact even when used in higher cooking temperatures and is therefore resistant to mutations of fatty acid chains. Research shows that the fatty acids found in coconut oil raise the body's metabolism, boost the immune system, and help provide greater energy which can also lead to weight loss.

Saturated fats have received a bad press in recent years. They've been linked to raising cholesterol levels and causing cardiovascular and other diseases. Coconut oil is rich in saturated fats, so many people put it in the same category as animal fats. Actually, in contrast to animal fats which contain cholesterol, coconut oil has no cholesterol.

There are two types of saturated fats: medium chain and long chain fatty acids. Coconut oil is mainly composed of medium chain fatty acids, which are easily digested and converted to energy. They do not raise cholesterol nor increase the risk of heart disease. Animal fats are long chain fatty acids, which have the ability to raise cholesterol and are easily stored in the body as fats.

Are there any people who live on saturated fats who are healthy? Yes! People who live in tropical climates and still have a diet high in coconut oil are healthier, have less heart disease, cancer, colon and weight problems, than unsaturated fat eaters. Two groups of people which have been studied are Melanesians and Mexicans from the Yucatan area. These people are slightly hyperthyroid (faster metabolism) because of the thyroid stimulating effects of coconut oil plus a diet which includes protein (fish) and adequate fruit (stimulates thyroid function).

The health benefits of coconut oil:

• Thyroid-stimulating and anti-aging The cholesterol-lowering properties of coconut oil are a direct result of its ability to stimulate thyroid function. In the presence of enough thyroid hormone, cholesterol (specifically LDL-cholesterol) is converted by enzymatic processes to anti-aging steroids, which are required to help prevent heart disease, senility, obesity, cancer and other diseases associated with aging and chronic degenerative diseases.
• Weight loss stimulating Because the thyroid gets stimulated, the metabolism gets boosted and calories get burnt faster resulting in the pounds coming off.
• Anti-cancer Studies have shown that in chemically induced cancers of the colon and breast (it does seem mean to do that, but researchers will be researchers...), coconut oil was by far more protective than unsaturated oils. One study showed that 32% of corn oil eaters got colon cancer whereas only 3% of coconut oil eaters got the cancer. Many other studies since the 1920's have shown an association between consumption of unsaturated oils and the incidence of cancer.
• Antimicrobial (antiseptic) Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids. One of these is lauric acid, which has strong anti-viral properties. It is present in breast milk and protects infants from viral, bacterial or protozoal infections. Lauric acid also has adverse effects on other pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, yeast and fungi. There has even been a lot of research recently on the benefits of lauric acid in HIV infections.

So how can we benefit from the wonderful healing properties of coconut oil? It can be used for frying, instead of other fats in baking, in puddings; it's up to your imagination. One of my favourites is coconut rice pudding. Yummy! The kitchen beckons ...