Feng Shui for the New Year

Hi Everyone-
No "official show" to go w/this blog, but I thought that the tips needed to be delivered in a timely manner for the upcoming 2010 celebrations!!  Until we go back "live" on Jan  10th...have a safe, happy, joyous & abundant  new year!!!  Most of the tips are courtesy of Ellen Whitehurst of Astrology.com!

"Are ready for the best year ever? Burn seven candles anytime tonight to bring unlimited amounts of fortune and luck to the next 365 days. Or, a few minutes before the clock strikes midnight, open every door and window in the house, allowing the old to leave and the fresh and healthy new to come calling. Release any residual negativity stuck hanging around your house as well as bidding all the questionable vibes 'goodbye.' Don't forget that if you wash your face at midnight with pure well or rainwater and look into a mirror by candlelight then next year will have that mirror, mirror on the wall declaring you the most beauteous of all! Finally, as the final piece de la resistance of the whole year, make absolutely sure that the first words that anyone speaks to you in the brand new year are symbolic or representative of what you intend your year to be. HAPPY NEW YEAR will do it, but HAPPY, HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS, MAGICAL, PEACEFUL and LOVE-LY NEW YEAR says it even better. From me to you."-Ellen Whitehurst

"Clean your house from top to bottom today, or just do as thorough a job as time and Tide allow. It's important that you welcome in the energies of the New Year with a 'clean slate,' so to speak. If you don't have the time, energy or Ajax, just remember that it needs to be done sometime before the onset of the New Year. That said, you can supercharge your household and all your affairs with an ancient purification that promises to pack a powerful and prosperous punch. Take an old spoon and walk through the house slowly, making sure to visit each and every room. Visualize that the spoon is scooping up all the bad luck, negative vibes and stinky stuff in the house. Once you've done that, walk to a crossroads and bury the spoon there. Don't look back as you head home again. Sorry Tom Wolfe, in this case not only can you indeed go home again, but now it'll be chock filled with sparkling good luck! "-Ellen Whitehurst

Feeling "blue" and suffereing from pre/during/post holiday depression?  Here's a  blend of essential oils that when sprayed around your space with regularity and intent can bring comfort and personal peace as well as a scentual way to cope. Blend five drops of clove essential oil with ten drops of benzoin oil and then add fifteen drops of the mood lifting, spirit enhancing orange essential oil. Add this mix to steaming water and let the scent waft the wallowing away. The saying goes that there's no place like home for the holidays, but we know that home is where the heart is. From my heart to yours, if you are lonely, try this essential oil blend and soon enough you're sure to feel much better!

Here's some "FOOD" to bring you some luck in the New Year  that many cooks will absolutely swear by. And there are a host of different cultures that hold that anything cooked in the shape of a ring and eaten on New Year's Day brings tremendous good luck. This is because that shape symbolizes the ending of one year circling into the seamless beginning of the next one, completing a fortunate and delicious cycle. It's for that exact reason that the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will guarantee a jelly-filled and tasty year glazed with fortune and luck. Cabbage is another food that's eaten in many cultures in the belief that it brings good luck inside every crunchy bite. Salmon, oranges, black-eyed peas -- the list goes on.  And since candied ginger and apples, lemons and nutmeg all bring such big luck, well, the idea's not totally nuts!

Performing any sort of Feng Shui on New Year's Day using just one of the Oriental instruments can guarantee all the goodies that any burgeoning New Year can bring. Move 27 things around your house. Move the saltshaker over to where the peppershaker is and vice versa. Or hang a six-rod metal wind chime outside and to the left of the front door. Towards that same end, some of these same cultures say that hanging a rope of straw in the front of the house on this day will not only keep evil spirits away but will bestow blessings of happiness and joy. And be sure to laugh the day away. Many cultures and traditions believe that laughing on the first day of the New Year will bring smiles for days and weeks and twelve months to come! Eating foods shaped like a ring is also thought to bring blessings full circle. The Dutch eat donuts on New Year's Day while people in the southern United States eat black-eyed peas. And then there's the old axiom that eating cabbage on the New Year will make all the months to follow just flow and grow with health, happiness and prosperity. So, watch your thoughts, laugh a lot and eat circularly shaped food. And then have the best year ever!  (I'm VERY pro eating the donuts on New Year's Day!)

Make sure to read my article in SustainLane of De-cluttering & Organizing tips for the new year at: http://tinyurl.com/ye3ugaw

Wishing you all a very HAPPY, SAFE, JOYOUS & ABUNDANT New Year!!!  Here's to 2010....bring it on!!