September 14, 2011
End of an EraBy Kelsey Purcell I found Harry Potter when I was five years old, and fourteen years have passed with this core piece of fiction ingraining itself most impressively into my life. This is the story of my journey with Harry Potter. My relationship, not only with the Harry Potter books, but also with each individual character, is more complex than I really care to admit or than I ever thought it’d be, but that’s the way it is. I’ve been ingrained into Harry Potter as Harry Potter...
June 20, 2011
I had been looking forward to my visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for years. As soon as the first announcement was made, I started planning. I became increasingly excited every time a new tidbit about the theme park was released. My family had already planned a trip to Orlando in late May of this year. The vaction plans had been set around other's work schedules and were firm. Imagine my excitement when I hear rumors of a soft opening!...
March 05, 2011
What if Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had to close? Not because of the plot of an evil Dark Lord, but instead because of funding. Surely, the wizarding community would be up in arms, asking their legislatures to do something about it.Recently, due to an enormous need for budget cuts, the United States government has seen the need to cut financial dollars that fund education. First, I realize that there need to be budget cuts, I know that we've got a huge amount...
February 14, 2011
I haven’t always been as crafty as I am now. I learnt to knit when I was young but because my mum wasn’t a great knitter I could only do basic things. I taught myself (through trial and error!) how to do cabling on a jumper. For several years I didn’t do any knitting as I was just too busy raising my family and working part time.Then came my first PC that could be connected up to the internet. It opened up a whole new world for me. Over several years I found my way to sites where I could...
February 03, 2011
One of the idea behind that *wonderful* New Year resolution of mine (/sarcasm) was to allow myself to finish WIPs and UFOs I have, and to get my supplies organized by getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. Though this month I haven’t been very productive on the first front (I made one pillow and almost finished my Ravenclaw Bikini), I have gotten started on the second front by unmounting my stamp collection. I have lots and lots of stamps, and yet I always seem to want to buy...
January 20, 2011
The New Year has come and gone, and with it my ambition to start anything new. This is not to say I will NOT start anything new. As a matter of fact, I absolutely plan to start something new. Just as soon as I finish all those projects I started...oh, about this time LAST year. Let's see...I managed to finish the sweater for my mother's 2009 Christmas present...in MAY. Subsequently, I finished TWO brand new ideas (and by brand new, I mean projects started in the...
January 13, 2011
As you may have seen (and if you haven’t, well now you know!) this month’s craft-along is about Taking Crafty Resolutions… And Keeping Them! It should be fun to see what people have resolved to doing in 2011, and encourage them to keep those resolutions although the year! That is… it will be fun for me to help them do that… as for my own resolution, well…The odds are it won’t be fun to keep it. In fact, scratch “the odds”… it won’t and I know it! You see, my resolution is...
January 09, 2011
Refresh, Renew, Resolve A new year is upon us. 2011. The year of the release of the LAST Harry Potter Film. This brings with it a deep sadness for me, and also a resolution.This year I resolve to fall in love with this series all over again. I vow to read all of the books again, in order. I will watch each movie and pore over every minute detail. I will find new or, perhaps, forgotten items to craft.In doing this I will, I’m sure, also rediscover the magic in normal, everyday things...just...
January 03, 2011
You know, it isn’t often I have a year like 2010. It was a year in which I truly took responsibility for myself. Sure, my parents bailed me out a couple times, I’m not saying I didn’t need help, but I clothed and fed myself, paid my bills, found work, and braved a new city on my own. In a lot of ways, 2010 was the first true year of my adulthood and I’m left with this feeling of pride that’s carrying me into 2011. It’s got me excited about the next 12 months...
November 17, 2010
So, I'm a week behind with all my blogging duties. I apologize. It's been a long crazy ride. And let me tell you why. On my personal blog, I'm doing a sort of 'count down' to Deathly Hallows, by posting every other week, about each movie that has come out so far. Last Monday I was supposed to write about Goblet of Fire. And I didn't. Not because I forgot. It has actually been pretty up front on my mind, along with this blog post. But because...
November 08, 2010
In just a few days we'll finally be able to see the beginnings of The Final Battle play out in front of our very eyes. Excited? Um, yeah...that is the understatement of the century! To celebrate this upcoming epic event the Crafty Witches have decided to play host to a little war of our own this month. Not Good vs. Evil. Not Harry vs. Voldemort. Not Molly Weasley vs. Bellatrix (though I can't WAIT to see that one!). No, this war has much more at stake. You see, we're having a Knitting vs....
October 27, 2010
Yesterday (which was Sunday), I spent the evening crafting, as I’m now trying to do every week. There was a bunch of things I wanted to make (stenciled onesises, a huge cross-stitch of a family picture, some sewing projects including a dress, curtains, etc.), but I settled on making Christmas ornaments similar to this one, only with color pictures of my family members on it. One of my projects for this year is to create some ornaments for a project I’ve called “My life in Christmas balls”....
October 18, 2010
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is fast approaching us. For those who are unfamiliar with NaNo, basically from November 1 – November 30, the writers of the world write like mad. The aim is to write a novel length story, so the goal is 50,000 words in a month. It sounds impossible, but it can be done AND has been done many times in NaNo past. This phenomenon first came to my attention in 2006 when I was deeply involved in Harry Potter Fan Fiction. It was when ‘Pudding’ first came...
October 08, 2010
You know that scene in the Goblet of Fire movie when Lucius is taunting the Weasleys at the Quidditch World Cup and Draco tries to join in, but his father sticks his cane right in his stomach? I must have seen that movie at least sixty times, but that part always makes me flinch. Now, here’s a character who likes to refer to Hermione as a “Mudblood,” never misses an opportunity to remind Ron of how poor his family is, and tries to serve Harry Potter up...
September 20, 2010
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