Lady Amber of Rewall

K designed her own costume this year...

Lady Amber of Redwall: warrior squirrel, archer, only one ear, lost the other in battle.

Once again, very few people know who she is is, but she's happy. The tail was pure luck and a complete and total success, it even sways when she walks. Or does the E-slide. The bow and arrows turned out to be way too functional. The arrows are now securely hot glued in their quiver.

And just for fun, long, long ago, in our very own kitchen,

I made K's Princess Leia costume 25 years to the day after my mom and I made mine

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Just a few treats for the day.

I found these wonderful ping pong eyeballs at the grocery store and I just couldn't help myself. Modeled by my lovely assistant Igor...

A crochet Mad-Eye Moody Eye!

And, K's favorite hat...

It was K's idea to add the braids, so it would be like Ron's hat in POA. I've made three candy corn hats so far, and they are a big hit. We gave one to a friend of K's and she's worn it to school ever since. And for Halloween this friend is going as a "Spider nailed, goth angel, candy cornian!" Very cute!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!

K has actually stopped coughing!!!!!!

Party Time!!! Lamp Shades on Heads People!!!!

"Be the bass!"

K's practicing her bass in the living room, and I'm in the kitchen making dinner.

I hear "Mom, I can't see!"

I do not panic,... because I live with her,... everyday. I walk calmly to the living room and this is what I see....

I told her I thought her Halloween costume looked great.

After she extricated herself, I got the obligatory "Oh Mom," eyes and everything. I told her I'd be here till she's 18 and to remember to tip her waitress.

She looked at me like I was insane.

Coming from a kid wearing an imitating vinyl string bass case and gaucho pants. Please. Gaucho pants are so last year.

Adipose!!!!!

Is that cute or what! I love the the cute little tushie and the toes. Just love adipose toes!

I used the pattern posted by imaginarybf on crafty_tardis. This is a link to her post. Little Posie was slept on last night and tried to go to school today. Silly Adipose.

"Help me, Help me, Damsel in Distress,..."

I have been humming this little ditty for the last hour. I blame you Pren.



Damsel in Distress from Sue Fink on Vimeo.

We are hand feeding Hummingbirds!!

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I know this is not a great picture, and I will get a better one, but can you see the hummingbird!!!!

They don't even wait for us to hang up the feeder anymore! I just refilled the feeder, the second time today, and there were at least 6 trying to eat while I held the feeder. The ones in the air fight and squeak and are generally horrid to each other. And they all look you over very closely, just in case you might be hiding something sweet somewhere. They are very interested in ears, especially those attached to little girls.

Harry Potter Paper Piecing... Oh, I like it!

The delightful and talented Jenn posts paper pieced quilt square patterns one of her blogs H P Paper Piecing. Her patterns are absolutely beautiful, and really quite,... easy is not the word, they are complex, but they are well presented and quite manageable. I have sewn two of her patterns so far, Fawkes the Phoenix, above, and Harry's Scar, which I made into a hobo bag for a swap this past summer

I've never been interested in quilting per say, but paper piecing is really fascinating. It appeals very much to the little mathematician that lurks in me, yearning for symmetry and curves approximated by straight lines.

Jenn is running a contest, design and make your own paper pieced Harry Potter based Quilt square. I'm not quite ready to design, but I can't wait to see the entries.

My Little Mandrake is growing out of her pot... sniff...

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K found her Mandrake costume in the closet on Sunday. She can still fit in the pot, but, she can't slide down inside and hide anymore. At least not without a bit of a struggle. She's had such fun with this costume. She and her friend V attended a Deathly Hallows release party last year at the library dressed as Mandrakes.

They spent the whole time sneaking in and out of their pot. I guess that means they are ready for dicing and stewing. Which now I think about it, is about the best description of puberty I have ever heard.

Poor little Mandrakes.

Adipose anyone?

Pren asked for a stencil for K's Adipose T-shirt (oh, about two months ago,... so sorry.) You can download it here. K thought salmon was the perfect color for adipose babies.

If you used K's pattern, please let me know, she would be so thrilled.

Accio Tissue!

K is home sick today. She made some signs for her door.

She got the idea from one of her favorite books,

I am freezing cranapple juice into throat coolers as I type.

Look what we grew!

Pretty isn't it.

Ants do not like ginger.

We love Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds love sugar water. Ants love sugar water. We do not love ants. Ants do not love ginger. Therefore, must put ginger between ants and sugar water.

Solution: Take cap from a jug of milk, drill a hole slightly smaller than the size of the wire holding the feeder in center of cap, slide the cap on the wire, fill it with powdered ginger. No more ants! Hummingbirds don't seem to care. Cool.

Update: Ginger works really well with the tiny sugar ants, but the big red ants just arrived, and though they don't like it much, they fight through to the sugar.

Hum...

I've put a little oil on the wire hook and that has stopped them. For now.

K says the ants are evolving and will soon have feet that can walk through oil. She reads way too much, in a good way.

More updates as warranted.

Harry Potter Camp

K attended a week of Harry Potter Camp this summer at Sci Quest and she had a blast. This was her second year attending Pottering Around and it was new, different, and even more fun than the previous year. I've scanned the Camp itinerary if you would like to read it. ( Page 1, Page 2 and Page 3). It was jam packed with fun.

K, who feels she is a Ravenclaw, was sorted the first year she attended into Gryffindor and this year into Hufflepuff. Her house won the House Cup last year and came in a close second this year. K's detailed knowledge of all things Harry may have had something to do with that. (Although she did totally miss who the Half Blood Prince was on her first reading. Funny! She was not even 9 at the time and crying her eyes out over Dumbledor, but really.)

Along with dissecting owl pellets and applying scientific principals to the identification of Jelly Belly jelly beans (you can find the wonderful handout they used here), they made a couple of crafts that were just too cool. I was so surprised when she came home with a Dadcando wand.

She loved making it and it turned out so well, she made one for her HPC swap partner.

They also made a cauldron, which at first she thought was frightfully lame, but turned out really rather nice.

That's a raccoon finger puppet if your wondering. Kitty, as usual, has to check out everything I try to photograph.

My favorite craft was the Miniature Whomping Willow

Yup, it's a lunch sized paper bag, cut the top into strips, twist into shape and glue on some leaves. Isn't that great! Think of the goody bag possibilities!

Kitty liked it too.

It's hers.

K wants to go back to Pottering Around again next year. And volunteer at SciQuest when she's in High School and work there when she's in college. Not a bad plan.

Thank you!

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We received our swap goodies from Brenda and her daughter A (she has a beautiful name, but privacy concerns, you know.)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We love everything! K received a fabulous denim bag, with her favorite house colors stenciled on one side

And her favorite Ravenclaw on the other

We, and I stress the we part (that means share K!), also received a beautiful beaded necklace, bracelet, ring and charm chain.

The necklace is just beautiful and K has been wearing it every day after school.

Thank you again Brenda and A, your work is beautiful and we will be fighting over,... I mean sharing it for a long time to come.

Swap Happy!

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We participated in the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo Group Swap with your Kids. Our partners recieved their goodies, so here's what we sent: We wrapped everything in brown paper and strings and K made a label for each package.

First K made them a tiny potions kit. We put one of Tiffany's Potions labels (thanks Tiffany!) on the brown paper wrapper.





(Check out the leeches,... totaly disgusting... they cling to the jar!!!! K is so proud of them. They give me the whillies.)

I folded a little origami book out of parchment paper and K illustrated a Most Potent Potions Book.



K would like everyone to have their own! You can fold your own by printing out this picture, cutting it to size and following the basic directions for our Tiny Tales of the Beedle Bard.

The trunk we found here. Look under furniture for the mini sea chest. It's an easy to fold paper model that turned our quite nice and was just the right size.

Next K made them a Dadcando wand and a spell book. The wand had an Oivanders label and the the book was labeled from Florish and Blotts.




K also made them some Pigmy puffs, one of K's all time HP favorite crafts. (Thanks Jennifer!) They were labeled from Weesley Widard Wheezes, of course.


I made them a Wish necklace,



And a hobo type bag with one of Jennifer's wonderful paper pieced quilt squares. (Thanks again Jenn!)


Both from Madam Malkins. This was my first attempt at quiting anything. And yes, the scar is reversed. Rookie mistake. The fabric is Stars and Swirls (I found at Hancocks). Love it!

Last but not least, K folded them a Golden Snitch from Quality Quiditch Supplies,


And I folded them a Chinese Fireball, Dragon that was labeled "This parcel has been approved by the International Breeding Cooperation"


We had a lot of fun crafting for our partners! Can't wait till next summer.