Cu-Poche Gryffindor Roombox

I got a Cu-Poche Anne some months ago and decided that she needed to have a room of her own. I've been VERY inspired by MyFroggyStuff's videos on YouTube, and ended up making this room and everything in it nearly entirely from scratch. :)

Melina is a First Year who got sorted into Gryffindor, but her family were all expecting her to be a Slytherin like the rest of them. Fortunately, her mum's a very understanding woman, and though she'd already knitted her a Slytherin scarf and cushion cover, she also made Melina a Gryffindor scarf and afghan. For her own part, Melina had a bit of a hard time reconciling expectations with reality. As a result, she started the House Unity Club at Hogwarts, and though it hasn't got a lot of members yet, their ranks are growing! When Melina's mum (a very crafty witch!) learned about her daughter's club, she braided a silver and maroon rug for her room, representative of -- OK, I don't really have to explain it, LOL!

Melina is a fan of the Holyhead Harpies, and a member of the S.P.E.W. club. Later on, I'll give more detailed pics and info!

It's in the Bag!

Now that it's back to school time, I thought some kawaii bags were in order, so I made a bunch of cute star bags for 1/4 and 1/6 size BJDs.  I got some adorable plastic chain to use for the straps, though some of them will also have really cool anodized aluminum chain.  I used sterling silver jump rings to attach the straps to the bags.  These were super fun to make! 

Wow, I really need to decide on a name for my sweet girl.  

I spent most of yesterday tearing apart the BILLY bookcases in the living room and rearranging everything.  Dags helped me disassemble and reassemble one that MuNKi and I had put together partly upside-down years ago. :-/  Although you could only tell by looking at it from the stairs or loft, it's good to finally have it fixed, LOL!

And now that it's Fall-ish, I've restarted the Harry Potter series AGAIN.  Love, love, LOVE that world!  

I'm still fixing up a shelf for the doll's home.  It's really coming along nicely!  And my use of The Secret for bringing in cash has bagged me another birthday party gig at the dojang.  Huzzah!  Now to sell some star bags! ^_^

Roar, Roar, Gryffindor!!

I'm about to start re-reading the Harry Potter books for the umpteenth time.  There's something about this time of year that make me just love living in that world.  OK, OK, I always love living there. Add to that that GuTTer MuNKi's mom gave us an American Girl doll when we visited last week (she used to work there before Mattel bought it), and THEN I found this adorable pattern on NyanPon.com, and I just HAD to make this:

 

Fun!  It's a great way to show Gryffindor pride at a Quidditch match, don'tcha think?  It's for sale now in my Etsy shop - just in time for Back-to-school!  Huzzah!  And I decided to offer a surprise dolly freebie if someone orders it before the end of August.  Does that seem like a decent idea?  We'll see.

In other news, we had a GREAT time visiting our families in Wisconsin, and miss them all like crazy.  Also, we went to Yue Wah (my fave Asian market in Madison) on our way out of town, and I tried Ramune for the first time (melon flavour.)  I am FASCINATED by it.  It's so tasty, and I love popping the glass ball down for that sparkling FIZZZZZZzzzzzzz!

Sooooo gooooood!  Can't wait to get another one. :)  I'm going to have to go to One World, soon!

Potter Pics

It's really bright out here!


Carpe Noctem. If it ever comes.


Caught by the prize patrol!


This is fun!


Jelly slug?


Bertie Botts vomit flavour!


Eeeeew!


Is it a permanent tattoo?


It's cold!


But cool!
(I was going to get this as a tramp stamp to surprise MuNKi, but they were only doing arms and faces. ^_^ )


Dragon for Prawn


Friend's dragon. Sweet!

***Don't read the caption below the next picture if you don't want a slightly veiled
spoiler.***


Photographic evidence (if a bit blurry) that we were right all along.


Sluggie ♥ Snape


OMG! Actual BOOOOOOOKS!!!!!


Almost made it!



Day 2


Someone cough up a copy for ME already!


Unimpressed.
(and Sky Chair™)

My last statement (below) contains a reference to the book. It's not a spoiler, but you might want to skip it anyway.

And FTR I ♥ MOLLY WEASLEY!!!!

I think she got the best line in the book. ^_^

Just One Word

Excellent!

Harroin

I dislike drug references. They make me uncomfortable. But I like puns too much to pass up on this title. :-P ^_^

The new Harry is stinking great so far. We bought another copy at Sam's today and things work like this:

Mollusc reads one. Sluggie reads one. I commandeer one, read a chapter or two and give it back, then go steal the other one, read a chapter or two and give it back. I convince Sluggie to play a computer game while I read another chapter or two. I convince her she's having too much fun to quit and read some more. I finally return it and send Mollusc to the shower, stealing her book as soon as she she sets it down.

This book does not have any slow places so far. It's addictive. But to be nice (and here is where you must award me Mother of the Year or perhaps Century) I prise the book from my hand and allow the girls to take it to bed while MuNKi and I watch a movie. This is not easy. This is painful. I find myself shaking and delirious. Is that a dementor in the corner? Hermione is giggling and waving at me from the other couch. She wants me to go and get the book back. No! I can do this!

Who am I kidding? No I can't. Accio book! Accio book! Why isn't it working? Accio book dammit!!

I struggle through the Russell Crowe film. The trembling won't stop and Russell doesn't look nearly as hot as usual. Jeff doesn't get nearly enough lines. That guy who's in everything these days appears, and his wistful ogling of Christie's bum almost distracts me, but I can feel myself sliding back into that pit of desperation. I need the book. Nothing is good without the book. The book makes everything sharper, brighter, and better-smelling.

The stupid film doesn't have a blooper reel. WTF is wrong with directors these days?! How am I supposed to keep going like this? There are 3 Russell Crowe music vids on the menu, and a desperate mashing of buttons on the remote produces 3 songs with pretty good melody, rather decent singing and crap lyrics. Oh the humanity!

One of those kids had better be asleep by now. That's all I can say.

Night Owl

How long do you think I would have to stay up to snatch the book from the hands of a finally sleeping child?

It will be like the Tooth Fairy. Only in reverse. And with a book. And no tooth.

This is the very last first time I get to read a new Harry Potter book. I've decided to try and savour it as much as possible.

Who's Giddy?

OMG now that we have our wristband, it is really sinking in.

If you were at our house today you would hear random shouts of:

"Who's excited?"

"Who's giddy?"

and

"Olé!"

You would be treated, as well, to rousing renditions of "The Mysterious Ticking Noise."

The kids are bouncing off the walls. Well, they're currently swinging and singing (the Mysterious Ticking Noise Song) and shouting, but you know. *I'm* bouncing off the walls.

This is something the likes of which my kids may never see again. I'm excited for me, but mostly, I'm excited for them.

"I've found the source of the Mysterious Ticking Noise; it's a pipe bomb!"

"Yaaaaaaaaaaay!"

Day Zero!!

OK peeps! Technically, this is Pottergasm day! (it's 12:10pm) Wow, huh?

After a chat with Amanda, I realised that I would need to call the store in the morning and find out more about expected crowd sizes, limitations on customer numbers, etc. Yikes. I think we're going to have to skive off of red-belt classes. We need some of Fred and George's Skiving Snack Boxes. ^_^

It's not so bad if we do. We busted our butts in class today. Bigtime. I got plenty of exercise just laughing during warmups after the guy behind me made a comment during jumping jacks that I immediately misinterpreted. MuNKi joined in the frivolity immediately, realising instantly what I must have heard (or thought I'd heard) and there was some general silliness from there on out. I love this group of people! :)

We had a full house and got paired up on bags and worked so stinking hard! I soaked my entire shirt just in class. Usually it takes class and sparring to do this. Sorry if that's TMI. It just feels really amazingly great to work like that and come out still smiling. ^_^ And then it was on to sparring, where I got paired up with the sweatiest guy in class for drills. He literally rains on the floor. Seriously. That was a good match-up since we both have long legs. We killed ourselves even more, and still managed to have a good time. Somehow the guys paired up beside us both got broken. But they'll be OK. It wasn't anything serious.

Earlier today the sky opened up and just dropped an ocean on us. It was amazing! I love thunderstorms. The Littles and I left the house in dry weather, though there was a bolt of lightning rending the sky in front of us. By the time we got to the stoplight by the library (a block-ish away) it was HAILING. And when we reached the library about a minute later, I could barely see a thing. I let the Littles out and parked (fortunately the closest spot possible was available) and then RAN. Didn't matter. I was drenched. What fun! The wind was blowing like crazy. I gathered the herd, and we watched the wind and rain for a bit, then RAN to the car. Well, some of the girls started running the wrong way (towards where we always park) and by the time we were all in the van, yes, we may as well have been swimming.

When we got home, there was no lightning left, so the Bigs played out in the rain and hail. What fun. :) I love when the weather is hairy like that.

Have a very Harry day. ^_^

We Be Jammin'

In the last 2 days, we (and by "we" I mean MuNKi) have produced 30 some jars of cherry jelly and 4 larger jars of cherry jam. Mostly I just helped grab things, squeeze stuff, and pour goo here and there.

We didn't have any fiascoes, and I think all of the jars went "plink." (the noise the lid makes when it sucks down and seals as the stuff cools)

My mission today (should I choose to accept it) is to discern which area bookstore is going to have the ass-kickingest midnight Harry Potter release soirée.