Welcome, tonight is the night of the last full moon of 2024, known as the ‘Cold Moon’, or the ‘Long Night Moon’, named after the cold winter weather and early nights we receive in the month of December.

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Towards the end of any year, especially during a Full Moon, I tend to reflect on all of the goals I’ve set in the years prior, all that I’ve accomplished and all that I still have yet to do, but this year I plan on having a different approach when it comes to setting goals for myself. Instead of creating my classic list of strict goals and deadlines, in the year of 2025, I plan to give myself more grace, to allow myself as much time as I need to complete larger and more elaborate projects, not to rush myself during the development process and to fully celebrate every project I accomplish before I immediately set off to find and check off a new one.

Of course, having goals and meeting deadlines is an important and crucial part of growth, especially when running an online jewelry business, so trust that I don’t plan on throwing away my entire schedule. Instead, I plan on giving myself more time to create, to not feel as though I have to make more and post constantly to please the Instagram or Twitter algorithm. I want to create slowly, more intentionally, and allow every art piece I create to stand on its own.

I may just be speaking for myself here but maybe you too can relate to the feeling of needing to outdo the last project you completed, to immediately set out for a new dream, a new achievement. But if we are always wanting to do more and be more, when do we take the time to truly reflect on and cherish all that we have already done?

So in 2025, I’m making the decision to be still, to fully revel in my accomplishments, especially the small ones. I’m choosing to use my free time wisely, spending every free moment pursuing hobbies and building my community so that I can come back to my work with newfound enthusiasm and avoid burnout.

In tonights newsletter, I’ll be discussing jewelry of course; a new release as well as a piece I’m currently working on, a few winter book and movie recommendations and lastly, I’ll be sharing all of my tips for finding and maintaining hobbies that I hope will be helpful for you, if you too share the same motivations as me, to live a slower and more purposely driven life in this upcoming New Year. Let’s begin.

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Luna De Sangre 𝜗𝜚 Shop Update 

The last time we spoke I left you with a small sneak peek at a woven necklace I was still in the process of designing. I am so very pleased to now show you the end result of this project.

The Isadora Woven Neckace 𝜗𝜚

I finalized the ‘Isadora Woven Necklace’ using over 2,000 seed beads and bicone crystals. The seed beads made of topaz and lined with amber, the bicone crystals made of topaz preciosa glass. Proud is such an understatement for this piece, bead weaving is a laborious task, one that I am so happy to have found in the year of 2023. When I was much younger, my grandmother taught me how to hand sew small items, we would sit together in her room with one of her favorite movies playing in the background and just sew project after project. Creating this necklace fully brought me back to those special moments I was able to spend with her, the act of choosing a proper needle size for my project, the proper thread, weaving in and out of a base material... Bead weaving is as close as I’ll get to once again creating art alongside her and for that I am forever grateful.

What’s To Come? 𝜗𝜚

I plan to release 1- 3 new jewelry pieces during the final weeks of December. The first release will be a bronze coin purse, the sister of the ‘Denari Coin Purse’ I released in October. Below is just a small peek at the design and color scheme I’ve chosen to complete this piece. I’m expecting to finalize the coin purse within the next few days, the exact date of release is to be announced…

Instagram Story Sale

Shortly after I release the coin purse, I will be hosting an Instagram story sale where I will be listing 30+ heavily discounted and ready to ship jewelry pieces. These pieces are items that I never got around to listing on the shop in 2024 or pieces I currently have too much stock of. The jewelry pieces will be available to bundle with other items or to purchase on their own. If you or a loved one would like to help me clear out my studio space for the New Year by treating yourself to new and discounted jewelry pieces you can tune into my Instagram story @lunadesangre during the final days of December, around the 27th - 31st to secure your adornments. xx

Winter Book Recommendations ❄

These are two of the most memorable novels I had the pleasure of reading last Winter and ones that I plan on re-reading during the final weeks of December. I firmly believe that these novels were intended to be read in the most cliche of ways; curled up in bed, with a mug of hot tea or coffee, during the coldest month of the year. But please don’t assume that these books deal with topics that are warm and cozy, in fact, these are the only two novels that have ever made me feel uneasy whilst reading them, or at the very least they made me take a few breaks from reading to look behind my shoulder and turn on some more lights.

‘Moon of the Crusted Snow’ by Waubgeshig Rice is an apocalyptic thriller set on a small rural Anishinaabe Reservation in Northern Canada. We begin the novel from the point of view of Evan Whitesky, a member of the Anishinaabe community. We slowly begin to understand that this community is one that thrives on relying on one another rather than outside sources for survival, a community that mainly lives off of their land, so when the outside world falls into a societal collapse, the Anishinaabe community is the last to feel the negative impacts. ‘Moon of the Crusted Snow’ is a story of resilience and how crucial it can be to surround youself with a strong and capable community. The feeling of isolation is so prevalant in this novel, I felt as though I was facing every obstacle right alongside the Anishinaabe community, cheering for their triumphs and mourning their losses. I adore this author and I still have yet to read an apocalyptic novel that has had the same impact that this one has had on me. If you end up reading this novel, you’ll be pleased to know that Rice recently released the sequel to this book, ‘Moon of the Turning Leaves’, so if you enjoy the book as much as I did, you will immediately have more to read.

As for the next book, ‘The Overnight Guest’ by Heather Gudenkauf, this novel is a suspenseful horror novel set in a rented cabin during a brutal winter storm. In this novel we follow our main character ‘Wylie’, a True Crime writer who decides to rent a farmhouse over the winter with the intention of buckling down and writing her next novel. While settling into her newly rented space, a snow storm rolls in, killing her power and snowing her in, all of which was expected by Wylie, she was well aware and prepared for the forecast of that winter, what she wasn’t prepared for was the small mute child she soon discovers in the snow outside of her cabin. This book was incredibly fast paced, full of twists and turns, a genuinely haunting read, it definitely didn’t help that I read this book while alone in my apartment during a winter storm but hey, I love a good atmosphere. ‘The Overnight Guest’ is truly a perfect read for a cold winter night in.

Holiday Movie Recommendations ❆

In all honesty, I never watched Christmas movies growing up, I lived in a strictly horror genre loving household, so I never could have imagined that I would one day be recommending not one but ~three~ Christmas movies. Fortunately, in recent years, my partner has slowly started introducing me to the world of Christmas movies; a genre of movies that you have to fully suspend your disbelief to fully enjoy and I can honestly say that with these 3 movies, I had no problems doing just so.

Let’s start with Klaus (2019). So this movie is one of my most recent watches and oh my, this movie has the cutest animation style I’ve seen in a long time. I would even say a bit Tim Burton-esque in certain scenes. The movie starts with the introduction of our main character Jesper whose basically a nepo baby with a lack of ambition, his dad decides to change this negative characteristic of his son by sending him off to work as a postman in the strange and sleepy town of ‘Smeerensburg’. The movie slowly develops into a retelling of the origination of Santa Claus. It’s super cute, super cheesy and a film that is definitely on the list of movies I’ll be re-watching the morning of the 25th.

Next, we have the movie ‘Love Hard’ (2021). Okay so if you love Nina Dobrev as much as I love Nina Dobrev (I’m talking to all fellow Vampire Diary lovers right now), then I don’t need to convince you to watch this movie. But, if you aren’t familiar with her, maybe you’re familiar with the second lead in this movie, Jimmy Yang, the stand-up comedian/actor that rose to fame in recent years. This duo plays our two main characters in Lovehard, Nina Dobrev plays the role of Natalie, a blogger in New York City who writes columns about her struggles of online dating and her perpetual singleness, until one day that all changes when she begins to pursue an online relationship with a man named Tag, a man she matches with on an online dating app. Well at least she thinks she’s getting to know a man named Tag... This movie is ultimately a classic catfish story with a fake relationship trope. ‘Love Hard’ (2021) is a very cute, feel-good movie, a perfect one to watch with friends around the holidays.

Lastly, we have the movie ‘Falling for Christmas’, this one came out in 2022 and I’ve been watching it every Christmas since because when they announce a Christmas movie starring Lindsay Lohan, you don’t ask questions about the plot, you don’t even care about the plot, you just sit down and watch it. Of course, if you do care about the plot of a movie you plan to watch, that’s completely understandable. Basically, Lindsay Lohan plays a snobby nepo baby who crashes her jet ski into a snow bank resulting in her losing her memory and becoming a better person. Honestly, I just realized that there’s a lot of Christmas movies about nepo babies becoming better people once their core feelings towards money are taken away from them and that’s an idea we should explore more of… Anyhoo, ‘Falling for Christmas’ (2022) is the sappiest movie on this list, one that you 100% need to suspend your disbelief to watch but when Lindsay Lohan is the main character, how could you possibly pass this one up.

Cozy Winter Hobbies ❆

Most of the free time I have is spent towards pursuing one of my many cozy hobbies, a list that is continuously growing and fluctuating with the seasons! Having an evergrowing list of hobbies has given me something to look forward to after a long work day, hobbies have given me the space to fully unwind and destress rather than mindlessly scroll on my phone at night and I would love to share my story on how I grew to love and maintain all of these hobbies.

When I first moved to New York, around three years ago, I decided that my new office space/jewelry studio would not only be a room filled with work projects but it would be a room that had a designated hobby corner. I decided to invest in a cozy desk, lots of decor and I slowly collected any and all of the supplies I needed to pursue hobbies that interested me; I can now proudly say that I have supplies for a plethora of art mediums such as watercolor, oil pastels, gouache, markers, acrylics & colored pencils. I have designated notebooks for all of my topics of interests such as tarot and runes, I have bookshelves filled with books for every reading mood I could possibly be in. Creating this space was not something that happened overnight for me, it took me many years to create a cozy space in my home that I could fully immerse myself in and it was, and still is, one of the best decisions I could have ever made for myself and one that I urge you to make as well!

Of course, your designated cozy hobby space does not have to be an entire room or a desk, it can be a chair, a couch, or even a bed. This area just needs to be a space where you can access and use the materials needed for the hobby of your choice! As you slowly find hobbies of interest, just remember to not get too discouraged if you don’t love the first hobby you try out, you can always find a different one or make the choice to revisit that hobby in the future. A hobby should be an exciting and stress-free activity that allows you to turn any outside world stresses off and focus on something that brings you joy. If you’re ready to find a cozy hobby for the winter, or potentially grow your list of hobbies right along with me, below are just a few of my recent favorites.

Coloring

Coloring is one of the first hobbies I found and grew to love, coloring is also one of the more relaxing and affordable hobbies to dive into. All you need to pursue this hobby is an art medium of your choice, a coloring book, and a flat surface. Once you’ve gathered your supplies, the art work is already there for you, all you have to do is choose colors and fill in shapes. I truly love how low energy coloring can be, you can color while sitting on your couch or in your bed, while watching a movie or listening to an audiobook/podcast. If any of this interests you, let’s dive into the supplies you need to get started!

Coloring Mediums

The two mediums I recommend using in most coloring books are markers or colored pencils. My favorite brand of markers are the Ohuhu Fine & Brush Tip Alcohol Markers, alcohol markers are great to use in coloring books because they tend to glide much smoother and create less streaks than water based markers but you can only use them in books that are one sided because the ink tends to bleed into the next page. If you happen to purchase a coloring book that is double sided (a book that has printed images on the front and back of the same page), you should use colored pencils instead. My favorite colored pencils to use are the Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, a very soft and opaque brand of colored pencils, but you absolutely don’t have to use what I use, any brand of markers or colored pencils work just fine! Especially if you’re just starting out, keep it simple, you can always expand your marker/coloring book collection in the future if you end up really loving the hobby as much as I do!

Coloring Books

As for coloring books, there are so many amazing artists out there with self published coloring books that you can find for around $5 - $15 on Amazon or Etsy.

My favorite one-sided coloring books to color in is anything designed by the Coco Wyo Group, you can find their books on Amazon ranging from $7 - $10. You can also follow them on Instagram, @cocowyo, where they post daily tips & tutorials for coloring in their coloring books if you want to add more depth to your pages using shadows, patterns and highlights.

My favorite double sided coloring books to color in are books by the artists Hanna Karlzon, Maria Trolle & Leila Duly. Hanna Karlzon’s coloring books are perfect for if you lean towards more of a witchy art style, Maria Trolle books are great for if you prefer a more whimsical art style, with a focus on small woodland creatures and forest scenes, lastly Leila Duly designs coloring books with some of the prettiest botanical floral designs!

There are so many different types of coloring books to choose from and even more being published as this hobby continues to grow in popularity, if you pursue this hobby I promise you are bound to find a style of book that suits you, Happy Coloring! <3

Journaling

If you’ve ever considered keeping a journal but consistently think to yourself that “you’ll never have the time to sit and write entire journal entries” or “you don’t have anything important to write about” or maybe you already have a journal and are just too intimidated by the empty pages to even begin putting pen to paper, here are a few tips that have helped me keep a journal.

1. There are so many different forms of journaling, journaling does not have to be a daily task where you mundanely write about what you ate that morning or what upset you during your day. You can keep a journal for just about anything. I personally have a designated journal where I record all of my favorite book quotes along with what they meant to me, I have one for my favorite poems, one that’s filled with polaroid pictures of the jewelry pieces I’ve created, one for studying tarot, one for studying runes. Whatever topic that interests you, you can keep a journal for it. You can fill your journal with mementos, with stickers, even with the flowers and leaves you find outside. Make it your own. By the end of next year you’ll have a whole life to look back on and that’s precisely why journaling can be so fulfilling.

2. Always remember why you decided to keep a journal in the first place. Do you want to keep a journal so you can look back fondly on the memories you made? Are you journaling to keep track of something? To look back on your former interests/ideas or to have the opportunity to meet a past version of yourself? Constantly reminding yourself of the reasons why you started journaling in the first place is what will keep you going. I’ve also found that re-reading past journal entries, even if I wrote them only yesterday, can be so rewarding, a lot can change in a day.

3. A journal entry does not have to be long, you absolutely do not need to write for hours on end, unless you want to, your journal entry can be a word you heard earlier that day that you really liked the sound of, you can even write down the definition next to it if you like. It doesn’t even have to be a word, as I mentioned earlier, some days I simply write down the date and place a flower next to it. The flower I found outside my apartment is now my journal entry for the day.

4. Let your journal be as pretty or as plain as you need it to be. If you’re too scared to “ruin” a pretty or expensive journal, if this is something that stops you from recording your life down, buy a cheap spiral notebook and use the pencil you already have. And if you need your journal to be the most beautiful journal anyone has ever written in, so you have incentive to continue to write in it, go buy the prettiest one you can find along with a fountain pen while you’re at it! Paperblanks Co. has some of the prettiest and most high quality journals I have ever found, keeping a pretty and well-made notebook at my desk never fails to encourage me to begin a new entry.

5. Finally, don’t be discouraged if you don’t find yourself writing in your journal every day, or even every week. Give yourself grace. There are no rules to journaling, only the rules that you place on yourself for an activity that should be a rewarding one. If you choose to pursue this hobby, be kind to yourself and remember your reason for starting a journal; to look back on your interests and your ideas, to meet a past version of yourself one day, whatever the reason, it truly is a privilege to exist on paper.

Cozy Gaming

Cozy gaming! Okay so with my already very long list of hobbies, I did not expect to find a new one this year and honestly this one found me. I never thought I would enjoy playing video games, I’m so sorry but the idea of playing a video game had never appealed to me in the past but just a few weeks ago my thoughts towards gaming completely changed.

Around the first week of December my partner & I were visited by two of our close friends, Joanna & Taylor (if either of you are reading this, I love you dearly & thank you so much for being patient with me while I learned how a controller works…I know this couldn’t have been an easy task). During their visit we decided that we mostly wanted to stay home and relax, I usually read, bake or sit and watch them play video games during our time together but this particular weekend I decided to join in and I quickly discovered that I had been missing out on a hobby that has the ability to be so cute and relaxing!

After hours of gaming with friends that weekend, I slowly became familiar with how to work a controller, I also discovered what type of game play I could see myself enjoying in the future so after they left, I decided to dust off the old Nintendo Switch my partner had lying around the living room (a purchase we made and quickly forgot about during the covid lockdown), I began to watch gaming reviews and download a few games, all of which led me to developing a small addiction to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Of course I had heard of this game before, my older brother adored playing Zelda when we were younger but I never expected a video game to be so well developed and to have such an engaging storyline, you can just feel how much time and energy went into creating this world, one that I was truly missing out on.

If you decide to pick up cozy gaming this winter as your new hobby, there are so many Youtubers online who specialize in finding and reviewing cozy games, I recommend watching their videos and doing your research before making any purchases just to make sure your money is well spent! A few of my favorite cozy gaming creators that I’ve found are @CozyKGames, @MonicaKim & @Cosyorenda.

Revisiting Books From Your Childhood

If you’re an active reader of this newsletter, I’m sure you already know that I spend a lot of my free time finding new books to read, this is what led me to thinking about all of the books I read and loved as a child. Books like ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society’ & ‘Little House on the Prairie’ are just a few of the books that immediately come to mind and I’m sure you have a list of your very own! I quickly decided that I would love nothing more than to dedicate one of my afternoons during my upcoming Christmas break to tap into my childhood nostalgia by re-reading the top 3 books from my childhood and maybe you can too!

Baking

I have always adored baking, not so much cooking, but baking has always been a rewarding and enjoyable hobby for me. I love following directions, taking precise measurements, having my house smell like a dream, and of course in the end you’re rewarded with a sweet treat for yourself or one you can share with your family and friends! Baking is a hobby you can fully dive into or you can keep it simple by finding quick and easy recipes to follow. If you want to try your hand at baking, I fully believe that cookies are one of the easiest baked goods to begin with so let me share with you my favorite Oatmeal Cookie recipe to get you started!

Click here to view the full recipe online.

Some tips to make sure these cookies come out perfect every time is to always chill your dough for at least 30 minutes in the fridge prior to baking, I promise you do not want to skip this part, it will dramatically effect the density of your cookies, always line your baking sheet with parchment paper, and lastly, use the middle rack in your oven for an even bake. Enjoy!

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If you have any book, movie or cozy hobby recommendations that you would like to share with me, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below!

(The comment section is only available on the official website, if you’re reading this newsletter in your email, please click here to leave your comment.) ❦

Before I Say Goodbye…𝜗𝜚

If you’ve come this far in the newsletterI want you to know that you are so appreciated, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and reading all that I have to say, it truly means the world to me. This newsletter has been such an outlet for me, one that I am so grateful to have discovered this year. Wishing you the coziest of holidays & the happiest new year!

All my love, - Kiani Jade -`♡´-

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