Running Ragged

What ho!

Appears to be crocheted fabric.

Ah, yes. Another heart.

My initial attempt at making a rag rug. 

It measures approximately 18" wide by 24" high.

Wonky Heart Rag Rug

Oh, stop laughing.

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Dotty Wand

I finished my wand!

Okay ... so it isn't the prettiest project. This stuff is a lot harder than it looks!

My wand is fairly short to fit my little hands, and it features a candle waxy tip and polka dot handle.

I think that it's pretty charming!

Step on a Crack

You'll break your mother's back.

At least, that's what I learned as a kid walking to school. 

Step on this crack, you just might break her heart.

 
Love Squeezes Through

 

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Wizarding Wands

Something you never knew and never thought you'd need to know:
photographing wands is really quite hard when you're fairly amateur.


As I may have mentioned, I joined Pottermore nearly a year ago as a beta tester. Boy, did it require a lot of patience to be a beta tester. Potions going amiss, no dueling, the purple screen of death... That's a story for a different time, though.


I was thrilled when I joined and was told that a) I have a 10 3/4" holly unicorn hair slightly springy wand b) I'm a Gryffindor. My last year has been pretty satisfying/entertaining knowing I'm a Gryffindor (I even have the sweatshirt).


So when it was time to do my wand, I knew I wanted to try making the right wand. Here's fun things about making wands:


a. The instructions we had were a bit too basic and crazy hard to use as is.
b. I had to improvise a lot.
c. Once you get started, you may accidentally make two (like me).
d. You probably want to use a large glue gun, not small. I did both my wands with a small glue gun and had a really hard time filling them all the way.
e. Be careful with how much paper you use. One wand ended up getting a bunch cut off because otherwise it was too bulky around. The other was almost not enough paper.

The green one is the one I tried to make look like holly. Funny thing about holly, though. It's very hard to find a picture of holly wood online. Go ahead, do a search for it. You end up getting Hollywood results. And when you get holly results, it's the leaves. I kind of ended up making up what holly wood looks like. Oh well.


I actually used an itty bitty crochet hook to make "unicorn hair" which I actually did insert into the green wand. The other wand has a glue core, which Ollivander probably frowns on.


I'd filled the wands literally weeks before I ever got around to painting them. My wands were well on their way within two weeks of me posting the challenge. Then they got stalled. Then I visited my mom. Then the wands were magically done!

And before you ask, there's a bit of viney bits going on, but mostly that thought didn't work out in execution. Oh well.

I don't actually know what I'm going to do with them now that they're all done. Truth be told, I misplaced them for a few weeks after I brought them back to my house. So until I know what to do with them, I'll leave them on my desk and see how far they travel around my home before I come up with a real idea for them.

From the Sky

In 2008 I was on a plane from Hartford, CT to Washington, DC. I saw this land mass out the window. I don't know it's name or even where it's located. So I call it ...

Heart Island

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Tiny bubbles ...

On the Heart

Make me happy

Make me want to ...

... Get really clean

 
Bubblicious

While Jodie was in Post Falls last March for our 2012 Epic Spring Break Adventure, we headed to downtown Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for a little browse through Wigget's Antique Marketplace. We have a blast together, poking around in these creatively junquey shops. Jodie's a terrible influence on me, egging me on to buy little pretties I do not need, but that make me smile.

This little homemade heart-shaped soap fits just right in the palm of my hand. When I sniffed it, the fragrance reminded me of my childhood.

Jodie bought it as a gift to me. She's such a little sweetheart to her mom!

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Hearty Wizard Wand

W-a-a-a-a-y back in April, Julie issued a Group Challenge. We were to create our own Wizard Wand, like one you would own as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She pointed us to some directions on the web that appeared pretty straight forward. But it seems it took all four of us a bit of time to figure out just how to make our wands.

My first step was to pop over to Pottermore and go through the first chapters to get sorted into my house and find out what kind of wand chose me - for the wand always chooses the wizard! Turns out I am in the house of Ravenclaw (hooray!) and my wand is an 11-3/4" pear wood solid wand with a core of phoenix feather.

So while Julie was visiting one weekend, we hunkered down in my studio and started the process. I wanted to make mine as authentic as possible, matching the wand that chose me in Pottermore. Julie had already begun to make her wands, so was giving me some pointers. I did my best to follow the directions. It's a bit tricky to get the hot glue to fill up the tube. We ended up having to poke some extra holes in the middle of the wand and get some glue in through the side. 

I checked online to see what pear wood looks like and tried my best to mix paint to mimic the wood. Tricky, that. Julie had to help me. The fun part was decorating the wand with hot glue after the first coat of paint. I like the way my hearts and vines turned out. The holes I had to make to get the extra glue became knots in the wood. Looks pretty neat!

One thing I wish I had done is put a feather into my tube before filling it. I didn't think about that until too late. Shucks. Of course, finding a phoenix willing to give me a tail feather did present a problem. My final bit of fun was to use some glittery hot glue on the tip of the wand. It looks like it's ready to make some magic happen!

Of course, the best magic is the fun the four of us have together as we plan and execute our projects. I imagine you'll be seeing three more wizard wands in the near future.

Now ... 

Swish and Flick!

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