Divination class
Dear Diary,
Fleur Lovegoods shared some information she had learned in Divination, so I decided to go learn a little bit too! Here’s what I found out about myself!
It’s actually rather accurate, with a few subtle errors. I suppose for a first try, it’s not bad…
What Cecilia Means |
 You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It’s easy to get you excited… which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don’t stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don’t get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic “Type A” personality. |
Hog-wide Schoolwork
I’m not entirely sure why all of Hogwarts has been given an assignment, but I’m excited! This is a fascinating subject – the four Triwizard champions are so fascinating to me!
Fleur Isabelle Weasley, as she is known now, was born to the Delacour family around 1977. Her father was a French wizard; not much is known about him except his appearance. Her mother, Apolline, was half veela. Fleur’s veela grandmother was the source of the veela hair contained in her 9 1/2″ rosewood wand. We don’t know much about her before her entry to become and acceptance as a Triwizard Champion in 1994 at the age of 17. At the competition, she met Bill Weasley, and eventually the two fell in love and married.
Fleur’s heritage is mostly unknown with the exception of her grandmother, who was a veela. Veela appear to be strikingly beautiful human women until they are irritated or angered, at which point they turn into rather scary looking beasts, with long scaly wings and birdlike heads. Their song can be dangerous to males, encouraging rash behavior that would likely result in death.
Fleur was the champion for Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, likely located in southeast France. Its heraldry is thus: vert two wands or in saltire each three mullets or. (Or something like that, my heraldry is a little dusty) The school itself is known for being somewhat ethereal compared to Hogwarts or Durmstrang: it is housed in a palace rather than a castle and what little is said about it indicates that from the food, to classes, to celebrations, everything is light and wispy. It seems to me to be a very feminine, girly school, and so I would most definitely not fit in there. Actually, if there was a Ravenclaw house at Durmstrang, I’d probably fit in fine, as I tend to be more of a rough and tumble, gruff sort.
I hope that’s good enough for my assignment! I’d better get back to the “real” work now!
Ravenclaw quiz #4
Of course, I look and find the house quiz waiting for me just as I’m digging out from under the mountain of other homework!!! Not complaining, mind you – this is way better.
1. What colorless and odorless potion forces the drinker to tell the truth?
Veritaserum
2. If the spell to Apparate goes wrong and leaves half of you behind, you have been what?
Splinched
3. Who wrote the Standard Books of Spells Grades 1 and 2?
Miranda Goshawk
4. What is it called when brother wands meet?
Priori Incantatem, or the Reverse Spell effect
5. Name the charm used by Ludo at the World Cup to amplify his voice.
Sonorus
6. For what is the charm Aparecium used?
To make invisible ink appear/become visible
7. What charm requires the use of a Secret-Keeper?
Fidelius
8. What color should the Strengthening Potion be?
Clear Turquoise (OoP, Chapter 15)
9. What plants are used in preparing a confusing potion?
Confusing and Beffudlement Draught? Scurvy-grass, lovage, and sneezewort
10. What condition is cured by Glumbumble?
Hysteria caused by eating Alihotsy
11. What potion makes a werewolf safe so he can keep his mind when he transforms, and what substance makes it useless?
Wolfsbane Potion, negated by Sugar
12. When does Fluxweed, an ingredient used in making Polyjuice Potion, have to be picked?
At the full moon
13. What color should a Shrinking Solution be?
Bright acid green
14. What potion is made from asphodel and wormwood?
Draught of Living Death
15. For what are Jobberknoll feathers used?
Memory Potions and Truth Serums
Homework galore!
Dear Diary,
I don’t have much time because I accidentally took a 20 minute nap a few minutes ago instead of doing homework! It’s getting toward the end of the term and I’m awfully tired. I have a bunch of final projects to get working on, plus regular homework, and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be able to complete it all in time! In one of my classes, all of the students are about a week behind, so I’m hoping that the professor will understand and give us some leeway. He is out sick today anyhow, so I turned in last week’s assignment (he let us turn it in today) and plan to work on the other one that was supposed to be due today over the next few days to try to get caught up. I’m not sure how well it will work.
I’m trying to split up my work through the day and allow some time for crafting, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s such a great idea. I mean, I know I need it for my own sanity but if I’m not done with my homework I don’t know how much sanity I’m saving. I’m so glad that next term, my class load will be a little lighter. I registered this morning and decided to take a light load to offset some costs associated with wizardcare and give myself a bit of a break. Then comes summer, and I won’t be doing any classes over the summer – I plan to stay in touch with all my new friends at Hogwarts, though! The problem is getting through this term. I can feel myself starting to burn out, and that’s a dangerous place for me to be. I really want to maintain my O average (for muggles, that’s a 4.0) but I might be overextending myself to do it. Argh, this is frustrating.
Maybe I should just get what needs to be done for tomorrow completed and go to bed early tonight. No crafting, no games, just bed. We’ll see…
le sigh.
Dear Diary,
I feel I have to admit to a certain amount of frustration, as I wasn’t even looking where the snitch was found. I’m not sure how it happened, but some logistical owls must have gotten eaten somewhere in the flurry of getting ready for Quidditch, and the list of blogs that I searched was not the same as the list on the main HSKS blog. Darnit. I suppose it was my own fault, and next time I’ll be even more prepared, so Ravenclaw will catch that thing! After all, we deserve it!
I’m also a little upset that I skipped my weekly knitting circle to not catch the snitch, particularly since it’s the only time I set aside for JUST ME during the week. Maybe I’m a little moody today, but I could cry (and would, if I weren’t sitting in a room with a ton of other people) knowing that I gave up that time for nothing. It was my choice, though, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. I hope I’m not putting too much of my real life aside to attend Hogwarts.
I do want to congratulate the Gryffindors for getting the snitch again. I’m not particularly happy that they did, but congratulations are still in order. I think I’ll go find a quiet corner somewhere now.
Quidditch ~ Round Two
Quidditch ~ Round Two
1. With whom does Ginny go to the Yule Ball?
a. Neville
2. When Harry arrives at the Burrow and Mrs. Weasley makes them all dinner the night before they leave for the Quidditch World Cup, what does her wand turn into?
a. rubber mouse
3. Since some of the sixth-year girls didn’t have any quills on them, what did they think Krum might sign their hats in?
c. lipstick
4. How old does the Quick Quotes Quill say that Rita Skeeter is?
a. 43
5. What color cloak is wormtail wearing in the Riddle house?
b. Black
6. What color is “Mad Eye” Moody’s magical eye?
d. Blue
7. What color are the robes that Rita Skeeter was wearing when Harry meets her at the Weighing of the Wands ceremony?
b. Magenta
8. What does Sirius Black tell Harry, Ron and Hermione to call him when speaking around anyone else?
b. Snuffles
9. Which team beat Wales, disqualifying them from competing for the Quidditch World Cup?
c. Uganda
10. What does Madame Maxime say is the only thing her steeds will drink?
c. single-malt whiskey
Picture Hunt
Goblet of Fire
Madam Maxime
Dragon from first challenge
Viktor Krum
Madam Pomfrey
The Chronicles of The Bag, part II
Last night, we left off designing the bag. The process didn’t take all that long, but in the making of the bag lots of things had to be changed. If I were to do it again, I would do a few things significantly differently. First, I made the main body of the bag in one piece and sewed the bottom on in two pieces to make sure that the bottom seams would be enclosed and that both the inside and outside would be pretty. Here’s the bag after the first piece of the bottom – I put interfacing all over this bag so that it would hold its shape EVERYWHERE.
I like how the bottom turned out in the long run, but the second half of that bottom took a REALLY long time. Next time I decide to do a bag like this, I’m going to make two panels for the big sides and one thin strip for the bottom and ends. Perhaps even continuing that strip up to be the longer strap.
Now, I’m going to back up a bit and tell you about the main panels. Since it needed to be pretty inside and out, I didn’t want a bunch of seams showing on the outside OR the inside. What to do? Well, since I planned to cut it twice as tall as I wanted it and just fold over, I put on the decoration and pockets before folding. Then everything got put together over the course of a few curse-filled days (stinkin’ bottom, never doing it that way again!) and the final stuff started falling into place as well.
For the final touches:
The S on one panel (not really a final touch, but worth talking about nonetheless) is some awesome scale print fabric we found. I gathered it on both sides to provide the shaping, then one side was sewn to the panel. A small strip of rolled up fleece was put inside the snake to keep it fluffy, then the other side was sewn down. Two yellow beads made the eyes!
The same fabric got used as the hanging flap to keep the bag closed when on the move (it got eyes too), a long shoulder strap and two short straps. The long strap can be folded down into the bag and fits along the ends and bottom to hide out of the way when not in use.
At this point, I thought I was done. Looking over the bag, however, I found a mysterious seam I apparently forgot to close up. As I was trying to figure out what I had done “wrong” and exploring the non-sewn seam, I realized that it was an accident that was going to be great fun to exploit rather than fix. As it happened, that little spot was the perfect place for a wand pocket (or long straight needles, if they’re small enough) so I set out to make a wand to fit the pocket. I found myself some neat instructions, put the wand together (and thanked my lucky stars I have so much “junk” around the house, because I found silver leaf wax rub that I’d use “someday”) and let it dry before putting it in the bag.
I had the bag. I had the yarn. I had the stitch markers. What about the pattern??? Well, I wasn’t sure what kind of patterns I was supposed to find, so I did a lot of searching online. I found one pattern that would work for the kind of yarn I got Penelope, but it seemed a little… well, less than inspiring. I went ahead and printed it off to send, and left my options open. Then, as fate would have it, I was looking up other patterns for myself one day and saw a pattern… THE pattern. It’s not perfect for the yarn I got Penelope, but it IS PERFECT for a Slytherin!!! I laughed with glee and set about printing it off too!
All that was left was putting the kit together! You can see finished kit pictures here. I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey as much as I did. I can’t wait for next term, and I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am that Penelope likes her kit!!!
The Chronicles of The Bag, part I
(Also known as Kit Crazy part I)
This is my very first swap. Ever. Having said that, as soon as I started thinking about a bag I wanted to try to design and sew one myself. I’ve been sewing for MUCH longer than I’ve been knitting, especially considering I’ve been knitting for just over a month now, and crocheting for about two months longer than that.
Knowing I wanted to sew the bag, I had to start thinking about a design. I know that Penelope is not very stationary, so the bag needed to be able to travel well. Having a background in some aspects of her current life, I know she’s probably around a lot of dust and dirt on occasion. That ruled out fabrics of a nonwashable nature (as if I’d even consider dry clean fabrics for a kit bag, but still!!!) and required, in my mind, some major sturdiness. Imagine my surprise (and glee) when I came across silver corduroy fabric in the Red Tag section of the local big box fabric store!!! Silver, not so much gray. Fabric for main body of bag? Check.
The next step was designing the actual bag. I had seen a really interesting chart of the Slytherin snake and decided to do it in filet crochet to cover one side of the bag. I had some leftover Lion Brand Wool-ease in Forest Green Heather from making a Slytherin scarf for Malcolm, and set to work. Within rows, however, I realized that I would be INSANE to make a bag as big as the snake was turning out to be. Oops. Back to the drawing board. I knew I wanted a snake on one side of the bag, so I allowed myself to mull over that and went back to overall bag design.
The dimensions of the bag itself ended up being somewhere around 8×10x3″, which is just about the size of a small canvas tote bag. As I designed it, I started thinking that I really wanted it to be able to open up for quick access to small pockets. A quick look in my huge stash of random sewing stuff that will be “useful someday” I find to my relief a strip of snaps on cotton webbing stuff. Score! The pockets get designed so that on one side, they’ll hold all the yarn for a sock project. The other side has a series of shorter pockets that can hold stitch markers, scissors, etc. Two of the shorter pockets are narrow enough to hold a set of short DPNs without easily offering them to the gods of lost needles. The inside has to be as pretty as the outside since it’ll be able to open. Okay! Let’s get to work!
to be continued…
House Quiz
I’ve been so worried about Penelope’s kit and so preoccupied with homework, a wizardling’s second birthday, and Singles Awareness Day I almost FORGOT to do the house quiz!!!
So without further adieu (or procrastination) here are my answers:
1. What is Professor McGonnagall’s first name?
Minerva
2. Who is the librarian of Hogwarts?
Madam Irma Pince
3. What is Madam Rosmerta’s job?
She’s the hottest Three Broomsticks barwench around… AND she owns the bar too!
4. What is Rita Skeeter’s secret?
She’s an unregistered beetle Animagus.
5. Madam Hooch is instructor of what subject?
FLYING. WHEEEEE!
6. Who is Parvati Patil’s best friend?
Lavender Brown
7. What Quidditch position does Cho Chang play?
She’s a Seeker, just like Harry.
8. What is the name of Fleur Delacour’s little sister?
Gabrielle Delacour
9. Who is professor of Divination?
Sybill Trelawney
10. Who wrote “A History of Magic”?
Bathilda Bagshot
OKAY! Good! I’ve done that! PHEW!
SHE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!
She got it, she got it, she got it!!!
*sigh of relief* According to my calculations, Penelope’s package should have arrived on her doorstep on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Imagine my nerves when it didn’t arrive and didn’t arrive… I was worried someone had accosted and stolen the owl I borrowed at school to send the package – apparently it just got lost or ran into some inclement weather. I’m not going to worry about that now, since it did manage to arrive. If I’d had to wait through this weekend, I might have pulled all my hair out!
Stay tuned for The Chronicles of The Bag. I wanted to wait until she saw her bag before sharing this journey, since a lot of it would have given away EXACTLY what I was doing. I can post pictures of the process, too!!! Hooray!!!
