What’s Brewing?

by Sharon | Sep 30, 2016

Halloween Is Such A Fun Time Of Year!

The imagination can truly run wild when you find a nice picture of a witch and a boiling cauldron.

The book could be a normal recipe book . . . not some book of spells to bewitch the neighborhood . . . They could be making a nice stew with fresh herbs and spices for a cold fall evening meal.

Maybe it is more fun to imagine something magical or mysterious. A love potion . . . a prosperity spell . . . or some recipe for disaster . . . Honestly, would someone truly want disaster? I would hope not . . . life is full of good times and difficult times . . . and we get through them all . . . wanting much more good in our lives.

I think witches have been given a bad reputation . . . there are good witches . . . and those who don’t seem to do good things . . . just as there are people who make wrong choices . . .

I choose to think more positively and my imagination goes toward these women brewing something good . . . yet, given the look of the liquid in the cauldron . . . something interesting is brewing . . .

It does look like an old book . . . and what is in the pitcher? The expression on the witch’s face has me a bit concerned . . .

I do wonder what has been placed inside the cauldron . . . and what is the woman with the pitcher saying? Is it some magic spell?

Quite some time ago, I was at a local antique mall where people sell their family treasures . . . or estate sale finds.

I’ve bought quite a few antiques over the years . . . but nothing like what the woman I met there told me . . . I’ll call her Myrtle . . . she looked like a friend of my mother’s with that name. She found this old cookbook. She was looking for old family recipes. Well, she had one collection of them . . . but there was another book of them she was desperate to find.

It seems her daughter was in the attic and decided to clean things out and sell them to pay her rent. She had recently lost her job and was working at the local diner. She needed a better paying job, but by selling some of her grandmother’s old stuff, she was making ends meet.

Myrtle was furious . . . “If that book gets in the wrong hands . . .”

This did put a new slant on it . . . Myrtle was looking for special recipes . . . with special ingredients . . . that made things happen . . .

I wanted to hear Myrtle’s story . . . but I wasn’t sure she would tell me what I needed to know . . . I was willing to help her find the book . . . as a matter of fact I think I had the book she was seeking.

I loved the old binding of the book and thought it would look good on my book shelf along with my Halloween paper crafts. The pages were cross referenced without any real recipes inside. The old calligraphy was beautiful and I thought it was interesting.

Evidently, alone each book didn’t have “the power” or information necessary to make anything happen.

The more Myrtle spoke, the more determined I was to keep the two books separate. There are just some things that should be hidden away in an attic . . . or separated . . . never to be joined together again.

I knew my intentions for the old book, but I didn’t know Myrtle’s.

This is one of those moral dilemmas we don’t like facing . . . but I faced mine and decided that there was a reason Myrtle’s mother kept the books separate for all these years . . . and a reason Myrtle never thought to put them together . . . until now . . . And she wasn’t going to tell me about it.

I think things happen for a reason. I believe those two books were separated on purpose and should remain separated . . . and there’s always the possibility that Myrtle’s book and mine are not the pair she’s seeking.

I don’t know . . . What do you think?

This time of year I do think about Myrtle and her daughter . . . and the book . . . I do wonder if Myrtle ever found it . . . or if I have it . . .

It looks very similar to Ray O’Bannon’s book safe. This is a fun free printable you can make, display on your bookshelf or coffee table or give as gifts filled with fun fall treats. Or keep your family secret recipes . . . They are easy to make and fun for all ages.

Click the link above to go to my earlier post with the links to RavensBlight’s book safes. They come in two styles for your crafting pleasure.

I have one filled with odds and ends of ephemera I’ll use sometime in one of my mini-albums. It’s a nice place for old photographs, too. Or even, antique mall finds you want to keep safe.

I do hope you enjoyed my story . . . and will make some book safes for your friends and family . . . You can add a title to your book . . . maybe even change the cover to give it a more personal look and feel for your fall favor box.

I would hope people would save these boxes and keep them for their own keepsakes or treasures after the goodies I put inside are gone.

Have fun and Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon