Wild About Harry: Molly Weasley Has Been Busy

Molly Weasley insisted on making scarves for all of the first years at Hogwarts this term.  It was an ambitious project, one voiced ages ago, and scoffed at a few times, secretly knowing she'd try anyway.  When asked if we'd have scarves, I did lie.  I lied right through my teeth, just in case Molly Weasley ran out of time.  I hate committing to anything that may have an enormous amount of pressure  (scarves, procreating, etc.). Well, dearest Molly finished them all weeks ago (even before Hankie's) and finished tucking in all of their strings last week.  They're not perfect, but they'll work just fine.  Not that they'll need scarves in July, but you never know.  

Wild About Harry: The Letters Have Been Sent

I shared more detailed photos on Facebook, but these will have to do.

And yes, my house smells like burnt paper.  But it was all worth it, especially when The Redhead was in shock that I actually burned the edges of the paper.  She commented on how I go "above and beyond."  Hmm....glad she noticed.

Wild About Harry: Sorting my Hatred

I think many people have ended up hating the sorting hat.  Maybe they hated it for putting them in Hufflepuff.  Oh that'd upset me, definitely.

And then there's me....who hates this hat with every fiber in my being...and its being.  Stupid, stupid hat.  It has officially become one of the hardest projects I've ever done and perhaps it's because I foolishly thought this would be easy.  A piece of cake.



A piece of fruitcake maybe.




Stupid, stupid hat.




I thought if I took a simple witch's hat, using the form, this would be a breeze.

It sounded like a good plan at the time.

Taking foam I stole from our old couch as I tore it apart, I formed a face on the hat.  I did a lot of folding and stuffing that you can't quite see from my photos, and the "nose" and "mouth" protrudes quite a bit.  I used A LOT of hot glue to do this.

Just foam and glue.

I then started adding extra foam pieces over the hat to help with "wrinkles" and such.

I wanted the hat to be taller and the tip to have more of a shape, so I added more foam there too.

It looked like a mess, but it was coming along as I had intended.

And then it was time to add the fabric.

What I didn't know when I picked up this cheap polyester blend fabric, was that it would be heavy.  I thought, "wow, this will be so easy to drape. It's flexible.  It's stretchy.  It's awesome."  IT"S HEAVY!  You may not think so, but try taking two yards of fabric and gluing it ever so slowly over a witch's hat.  I felt like I was suffocating.  I was so irate.  I also didn't count on the WITCH HAT MELTING.  It was seriously melting!!!!!  This was my least favorite project ever and I will repeat that as many times as I wish.

Be glad you weren't around to feel my blood boil.

The issue is that I can be a bit of a perfectionist.  And not a "oh my gosh, I'm such a perfectionist."  No, I'm a "well, I can be a perfectionist at times."  I'm a keep doing something over and over until I realize it will never be perfect.  I'm a person who knowingly admits perfection isn't achievable.

And yet, I expected this hat to be perfect.  The Redhead claims it is.  That doesn't keep me from hating it any less.  I will tell you it looks much better in person as there's a sheen in the fabric that does not photograph well.



But I still hate that hat.

Wild About Harry: A Scarf for Hankie

Meet Hankie.  He is the Best Husky Friend of The Redhead.  Despite his appearance, he just turned two in January.  And if we're going somewhere, it's safe to assume that Hankie is coming along.

Also, it made sense to make sure Hankie had a scarf for Hogwarts.  He may end up being too young to receive his letter, but chances are, he'll attend anyway.  He's a rule breaker like that.  And yes, I indeed made his scarf.  Is it perfect? No.  Am I taking orders? NO.  Regardless, Hankie loves it, even if it was 100 degrees out today.  And that was not an exaggeration.  

Wild About Harry: Mindy the Mandrake

So...I went and made a mandrake almost a month ago.  I wasn't going to.  And yet I did.  I couldn't help myself.

I can't so easily explain how to make this one though.  I can only tell you I used pantyhose, stuffing, my imagination, and started molding her using needle and a thread,

The Redhead named her Mindy and The Redhead's reaction seeing her the very first time has been permanently embedded in my brain.

Just staring at her makes me giddy.  And she's just as adorable in person.

 That face!

That body!

That Redhead!

She loved her so much that she had Mindy spend the first couple of nights in her room in a little bed.

Mindy has been well cared for.

And so far, we haven't even needed earphones while being in her presence.  But it's only time.

For now though, she's in her pot.  Waiting.

Wild About Harry: A Monstrous Mess

On May 9th, almost a month ago, I made a monstrous mess.  Then again, I've been making lots of messes around my house.

And I've also made some very simple things.  It varies.

It's amazing the things you can make with simple materials such as pom-poms.

And wooden boxes from Michael's.  And foam.

And eyeballs.

For $4.99, you can buy a wooden "book" from Michael's.  It looks like a book!  And if you use a coupon like I did, it's even cheaper.

I used some leftover foam I had in the garage.  In fact, I tore up a couch for this foam.  True story.  We had this couch that was NOT worth passing on, so I started tearing it up.  And I saved a lot of the foam sheets from it, knowing I would use them for something, anything.

So my something, anything started like this.

And then this.

And before I knew it, I was at this point.  With some funky teeth from the Dollar Tree.

 And creepy eyes from the Hobby Lobbyists.

The only real snag came when I noticed what happened to my jeans!

It looked like I skinned a cat or at least shaved one or something.

And this photo is mild in comparison to the real mess.

Yeah.  That's the couch.

And the leftover fabric.

It looks like I stuck the cat in a bag.

But this.  This is amazing.

If you're unfamiliar what this actually is, you need to get out more.  Read more.  Watch more.

Because this is the Monster Book of Monsters.

Or the Monster Book of Messes, as I've dubbed it.

Our poor couch.

So with easy supplies, Hogwarts has been coming along quite magically.

These are puffy pygmies, or rather, pygmy puffs.  Just in case you didn't know.

He was hungry.

I think Hagrid would be proud.