Tuesday, July 19, 2011

I threw my first pot yesterday!

I had a rough morning yesterday, nothing really horrible, just not a fun morning, so I had lunch with a friend.  After lunch, she took me to a pottery studio and had a lady teach me how to throw a pot on a wheel.  It was such fun, I managed to make three pots, only messed up 3 in the process, and was told I'm a natural, to which I laughed and said thank you.

When we got in the car after cleaning up my massive mess, I asked my friend two questions.

1)  It's like crack right, The first one is free?  She said absolutely.  Though it turns out the first couple are free.

2)  She tells everyone they are a natural?  No!  The teacher is very nice, encourages everyone, but my friend has never heard the teacher say that to anyone.  Turns out, making a pot, that looks like a pot on ones first try, let alone three that actually look like pots, is unheard of.

We are going back to trim our pots on Thursday.  Might even take a class in August.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Mandrakes Rule!

We attended the Goodbye Harry party at Barnes and Noble last night. Haven't seen the movie yet, we're not late night people, so we're going on Saturday afternoon.  The party was great!  Really Well done!  K wasn't sure she wanted to dress up, so she wore her Lovegood GOF t-shirt, but brought her mandrake costume just in case.  We arrived early and we got in line for sorting, K chose Ravenclaw and was given a badge, acceptance letter and a Marauder's map.  All very nicely done.

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K held out about 10 minutes and then wanted to change into her mandrake costume.  We updated the costume to a teenage mandrake.  K wore a green t-shirt and jeans under her pot and I added the sign.

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It was huge hit, the moment she walked in the door people started saying, "She's a Mandrake!"  Loads of people said Hi and asked to have their picture taken with her.  Turns out a mandrake costume is a great conversation starter.

The party was so well done.  They had Potter Puppet Pals!

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The puppeteer had a doctor who related shirt on, so of course, they had to talk to him.

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A few thestrals, K did try to feed them, bit tricky,

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Madame Trelaney read tea leaves and told your fortune

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They gave away Hedwig and Snitch ballons.

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We didn't get any, but we are going to make a bunch, cause, that's what we do.

The cauldron Koolaid (Koolaid powder, water and dry ice)  was cool, but not something one would want to drink. Luckily, they sold Butterbeer that was really good! The local astronomy society brought a bunch of telescopes, totally useless indoors of course, but they let you play bean bag toss and gave out candy, so fun.  They had wizard trivia, Potions ring toss, and loads of give aways.  The Fat Lady wandered around and every so often, without warning, tried to break a glass with her voice.  She went off right next to us once.  That got your attention.

And a costume contest.  K took second place!  Won her second hardback copy of DH.  Xenophilious and six year old Luna Lovegood took first and deservedly so.

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Little Luna even handed out Quibblers!!!  They did a victory dance that was the cutest thing ever, twirling and hand flapping and everything.  Didn't get a picture, so wish I had.

All the winners were really good.  I love Hedwig.  That took a lot of work and was really well done.  And the voldemort, sorry Lord Voldemort, was brilliant.  She put a few strips of tape over her face and then white and red highlights.  Really well done.

All in all it was a wonderful night.

Goodbye Harry and Thanks for everything!