You can find some of these plants growing wild or you might even have some in your garden already. They are also readily available at any store with a good bulk herb section or even in capsule form at your local drugstore.
Some common adaptogenic plants are:

• Ginseng
• Nettles
• Wild Yam
• Borage
• Chamomile
• Lavender

Incorporating any of these into your diet and connecting with them energetically can help bring about harmony and balance while supporting the body.
You can ingest the herbs or connect with their subtle energies or even better, do both:

• Make a big batch of tea for yourself and share some with friends.
• Dry the herbs and grind them in a coffee grinder, add a bit of dried garlic, onion and other flavorful seasonings and use as a table seasoning at mealtime.
• Dry the herbs by hanging them in bunches round your home or on your altar to invoke the energies into your home and raise the vibe.
• Make a vibrational tincture by infusing the herb in a mason jar of vodka for a full moon cycle, shaking daily. Strain and store in dark bottles. Drop a small amethyst, tigers eye or smoky quartz into the bottle to help invite even more healing and strength into your life.

However you choose to invite these helpful allies into your life, be sure to express gratitude to the inherent energies and take time to ground yourself whenever you start to feel depleted. Spread the love and share your plant wisdom with people around you and most of all, always do some research and be sure to identify any wild plant before ingesting it. Take only what you need and share what you can. Together we are stronger!
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- Amber Haase, Element Botanicals
www.elementbotanicals.ca | @elementbotanicals
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In the aftermath of the recent Trimet hate crime murders here in Portland, I felt the need to send a loud and clear message to the girls of my neighborhood, especially girls of color: You belong here. You are powerful. And you have your own magic.
@lorinelsonart posted her 2015 painting “Hell to Pay” earlier this year as a call to arms to fight hate with art. The piece depicts exact sort of fiery heroine I was looking for to grace the walls of our Little Free Library box.

To me, the beautiful yet strange illustrations of @munichartstudio feel as though they’ve slipped from the pages of an old, old storybook written in a language I don’t recognize. The artist herself is an enigma; @liquidnight claims to have once met her in person, but @hircumvetulum and I suspect Becky may actually be a stack of cats in a long coat, masquerading as a person. We’re huge fans of @munichartstudio here at The Creeping Museum, and we’re so excited to have her be part of our very first (tiny) real-world exhibition!

Our next “Ghost Stories” creator is Philadelphia-based poet, artist, curator, and moth Maggie Lily (@thehauntedhawkmoth). Visit her cut-paper fairy tale world at your own risk: it is as dark and dangerous as it is enchanting. Her book Mayflies - a collection of illustrated poems which chronicle a journey of healing from childhood sexual trauma - is intimate, disturbing, and heartbreakingly beautiful.

Just a day or two after I had a harebrained idea to use our Little Free Library as a public exhibition space, a mysterious little parcel arrived from Austria from imaginary friend Claudia Six (@iamyouaresix). Nestled within this unexpected (and auspicious) package was a tiny sculpture that could belong nowhere else but inside a dollhouse-sized imaginary museum, so of course it had to be included in our “Ghost Stories” exhibition. Claudia uses various mediums (including delightfully unexpected public installations) to bring bits and pieces of her fantastical world into ours - join her and she’ll be your imaginary friend, too.

“Unreliable curator” Danielle Schlunegger-Warner (@naturalistandco) makes everything from tiny worlds suspended in time inside tiny bell jars, to immersive walkthrough reimagined natural history installations. As a Glean artist-in-residence, she’s currently turning her wunderkammer eye to Portland’s waste transfer station to make magic from some of the city’s million-plus tons of annual landfill waste!

Layla Sullivan (@hircumvetulum) is one-half of The Creeping Museum, and lives and breathes art in any and every medium she can get her hands on. She’s even innovated a groundbreaking technique for painting with the byproducts of her salon, the Bobby Pin. We love you Layla! #gofortheartstayforthehairpiles

Not content to keep the art on the inside of the museum, I wanted to mount work on the outside for passers-by to enjoy. “Blessed Thistle” by Kathleen Lolley offers a magical symbol of protection and healing to library visitors. The Scotch thistle is associated with the Cross of Lorraine (emblem of Joan of Arc and the French Resistance) and is also the logo of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Neil Gaiman, attesting to the importance of libraries, declared that “Books are the way that we communicate with the dead.” But when the past speaks, are we listening?
​Our first exhibition, "Ghost Stories," features new work by Maggie Lily, Becky Munich, Claudia Six, Danielle Schlunegger-Warner, and Layla Sullivan.

Maggie Lily (@thehauntedhawkmoth) created “One Tuesday Death and Love met in the field as rabbits” especially for our “Ghost Stories” exhibition.
Maggie is selling 5 x 7 inch prints of this exquisite cut paper piece, with a secret story hidden on the back. Buy one for just $10 (plus shipping) and support two good causes: Half of the sale price goes to support the work of Maggie herself, a young emerging artist and writer (and recent graduate) who’s already active in a number of Philadelphia community arts projects. She’s generously donating the other half to Project SAFE, “an all-volunteer grassroots organization providing advocacy and support for women working in street economies.” SAFE’s mission is to “promote human rights-based public health among women working in the sex and drug trades on the street in Philadelphia.” Visit @thehauntedhawkmoth for more info on purchasing her prints!

Becky Munich (@munichartstudio) created “A Ghoul and Her Book” especially for “Ghost Stories,” the first exhibition inside our Little Free Library public gallery space. This original drawing is framed in a 3 inch x 4 inch antique paper cabinet card holder.
Becky generously volunteered to donate the proceeds from the sale of this piece to The Creeping Museum, to help fund more projects like this one. Thank you, Becky!!

Imaginary friend Claudia Six (@iamyouaresix) is magic. How else can you explain this tiny sculpture - entitled “i follow” - materializing on the doorstep of The Creeping Museum all the way from Austria, just a day or two after the idea of a tiny exhibition of tiny ghost art was first conceived? So of course we made some room for these little creeps in our “Ghost Stories” show!
Visit @iamyouaresix to see all the different mediums through which Claudia brings her wonderful imaginary world to life.

“Frozen Island” by Danielle Schlunegger-Warner (@naturalistandco) is a tiny diorama under glass. Suspended inside a 2 inch x 3 inch bell jar is a handmade model of a 19th century merchant ship navigating icebergs in an Arctic sea.
Danielle has elected to donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this piece to Our Children’s Trust (@youthvgov), an organization “elevating the voice of youth to secure the legal right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere for the benefit of all present and future generations.” This organization is supporting the landmark ‘Juliana v. U.S.’ lawsuit filed by a group of young people, asserting that through actions that cause climate change, the U.S. government has “violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.”
​This original artwork is available for sale in our shop.

What better way to celebrate a tiny library than with a tiny spider-lady in pursuit of a tiny fly-book? “Web” was conjured by our own Layla Sullivan (@hircumvetulum) in ink and watercolor on cold press paper. This wee 4.25 inch by 3.25 inch original is ready to hang in a vintage metal frame with convex glass (easel not included).
This original artwork is available for sale in our shop.

Although the focus of our tiny gallery is on original pieces of miniature art, I saved a spot in our “Ghost Stories” exhibition for this painting by @pantovola.art. “La Loba” was inspired by a Mexican folk tale about a wolf woman who collects the bones of animals and sings them back to life. Pantovola kindly made a miniature print just for our exhibition, but you can obtain the full-sized giclée of her painting in her Etsy shop.