Your editor has checked over her parchment, and our points stand thusly…
~ Point Totals ~
Witch Weekly : 0 readers, 0 beans** , for an average of 0 beans per reader.
Daily Prophet 2 readers, 140 beans** , for an average of 70 beans per reader.
The Quibbler : 2 readers, 140 beans** , for an average of 70 beans per reader.
Which Broomstick : 0 readers, 0 beans** , for an average of 0 beans per reader.
Hello Friends! My apologies for basically not existing for the 2 months of this semester. I cannot tell you how sick I was from Christmas, until basically the first week of March. We got RSV, flu, norovirus, and some other unknown crud. The kiddo was running a fever for weeks and weeks. Every time we’d get sick, she’d get well first, and Jim & I several days later. Once we were all well, I’d go back to the Y to workout, and she would immediately pick up something else at Child Watch. We were only ever healthy for about 4 days, before she’d bring us something new. Then by the time we were finally well, I was knee deep in planning her birthday shenanigans, and I’m just finally starting to catch up after that insanity. Meanwhile, the kiddo is napping less and less. She napped often while sick, but now that she’s well, she generally can’t sleep. And she finally just got a toddler bed. (She is so small that she’s been in a this whole time crib!) We’re trying to mentally adjust to knowing she’s loose in her room. Plus she learned how to open the baby gates from the living room, so there’s basically no way to contain Hurricane Ada anymore. Plus, she was able to start Preschool the day after her birthday, so that has changed all of our schedules. Suffice to say, it’s all been a lot.
So much in fact, that I only now just realized that I never made a Hermione’s Homework Planner page for the term, as I promised/planned to. Thank you so much @Moonflame for writing one up for everyone to share. I truly appreciate it.
Now that I’ve been able to do a points tally, I’m going to see what projects I’ve managed to accomplish this term… Wish me luck.
That is…a lot. Even those who might not know the joys of flu season with a toddler in the middle of a sleep regression can appreciate that nothing else is getting done in that situation. (hugs)
Prompt/Challenge Title: McGonagall’s Office
Project Name & Page Link: Monochrome Book
Team: Daily Prophet
Brief Description: I have a visitor in town this weekend so of course she needed an Easter Basket. I also made ones for two of my coworkers who have Sunday hours that I’m leaving on their desk today, and one for my grandfather. I used the traditional paper plate technique and then gussied them up with washi tape and some grosgrain ribbon. I had to switch to plain knots on the final two because I was down to the final inches on the spool.
OMG @MistressJennie that sounds harrying! I hope you get to smoother waters soon and can all stay well for a good long time!
@Trillian Those are ADORABLE! I’ve never seen that technique before! Thanks for the link!
Prompt/Challenge Title: Forbidden Forest
Project Name & Page Link: Red Book
Team: Daily Prophet
Brief Description: We’re going kind of literal with the “meaty” part of the theme and the appearance of the paper I used for the covers. It’s actually a really subtle flower print under the kind of grungey finish but whatever!
Prompt/Challenge Title: Quidditch Pitch
Project Name & Page Link: Birthday Party Decorations (32 Tissue Paper Flowers!)
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: Each of these paper flowers took about 10 minutes to put together. Not a huge deal to do one, but there were 32 of the suckers! There was no way I would have enough time to do them all at once, so I kept them on my cutting table, and did one whenever I had a spare 10 minutes, over the course of about 5 weeks.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Dueling Club
Project Name & Page Link: Bike Basket/Bag
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: We got Ada a balance bike for her birthday, and I decided that she needed a bike basket to go with it. I followed an online tutorial for this one, and everything seemed to be going fine, until I went to strap it to the bike. The straps were WAYYYY too small. Evidently that crafter had a smaller cross bar, or no padding there. Since I had used up every inch of the black lining making the first set of straps, I had to use something else to make the second set. I found some leftover black & white striped quilt binding in my stash and used that. I think it adds a cute pop of pattern.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Dumbledore’s Office
Project Name & Page Link: A Diamond in the Scraps Quilt
Charity Item Cunningham Children’s Home
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: I brought new life to a huge pile of scrap fabrics. Many were sent to me by fantastic LC members!
Prompt/Challenge Title: Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall
Project Name & Page Link: Flower Pots for front porch
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: I love the look of flower pots on my front porch. I just also hate watering and caring for them all summer. Last summer the real flowers died in early August, and I realized I’m just not in a season of my life where I have time to water plants. The hanging pots were already filled with faux florals, so I decided to make pots for beside the door too. All the florals came from Joann’s, just as the liquidation started. They were 40% off, and still had tons of stock, so I was able to get plenty of each of the same stem.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Slytherin Common Room
Project Name & Page Link: Blue Plate Special Quilt
Charity Item Cunningham Children’s Home
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
This entire quilt came from leftovers of the Ghost quilts I’m making. It was all stash, some mine, and some from other LC members. I even managed to use offcuts of backing from other quilts to back this one.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Flooded Corridor Pt 2
Project Name & Page Link: Painted Butterfly Shirt
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
I used water to thin the paint for this shirt. I bought the purple shirt with the lace butterfly on it from Target, then painted it to match Flappy, a butterfly seen in Bluey, for Ada’s Blue & Butterflies Birthday.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Dormitory
Project Name & Page Link: Tie Dye Extravaganza
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
We made a huge mess in the garage, making tie dye shirts at Ada’s birthday. There were 26 people there, and I bought shirts for a few folks who couldn’t make it, so there were well over 30 garments dyed, and over 20 colors of dye.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Front Seat of the Ford Anglia
Project Name & Page Link: Painted Wood & Ceramic Butterflies
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: Since they had a limited color palette, once I mixed up the colors, I was able to fly through painting these wooden butterflies and ceramic butterfly dishes.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Lockhart’s Office
Project Name & Page Link: Bluey Butterfly Birthday Cake
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
Since I was going to spend a long time decorating this cake, I took a shortcut in baking and filling it. I used a boxed cake mix for the layers, and I used a jar of blackberry jam for filling.
Prompt/Challenge Title: McGonagall’s Office
Project Name & Page Link: Birthday Cupcakes
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
These cupcakes were both result of my own choices, and involve chocolate. I wanted to be sure I had enough of the butterflies and flowers I bought for the cake, so I got a lot. So much that I had a box of each leftover. Worried that I wouldn’t have enough cake to go around, I whipped up another boxed cake mix, to make chocolate cupcakes. I used leftover frosting, tinted purple, and topped them with the leftover decorations. It worked out great as some folks had to leave before we cut the cake, so I was able to send them home with cupcakes.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Hallway
Project Name & Page Link: Birthday Favor Bags
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
I made favor bags for Ada’s birthday too. I used pretty striped bags from Michaels, and filled them with Bluey fruit snacks, blue butterfly stickers, flower seeds that should grow well in this area, Wiley Wallaby licorice, and a few sticky geckos for them to throw at the ceiling. And each kid got to pick out their favorite of the decorated cookies to take home.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Housecraft - Stash
Project Name & Page Link: Reusable Fabric Easter Eggs
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
Made entirely from stash! Reusable fabric Easter Eggs, to hide every year.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Housecraft - WIP
Project Name & Page Link: Butterfly in the Night Sky Quilt
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
This sampler quilt was a WIP that lingered for awhile. Started before Thanksgiving, but then put away during the holidays. I was glad to finish it after New Years, and get it out of the studio.
It took me a full 2+ weeks to write up this latest project post dump. I’m so glad this term has another month left, because I would NOT be ready for next term to start tomorrow.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Hospital Wing
Project Name & Page Link: Baby Blanket
Charity: Church Prayer Shawl Group (if that counts)
Team: Daily Prophet
Brief Description: I needed some mindless crochet and this baby blanket pattern fits that bill very well. I think this is my third time making it and I always love the way it turns out.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Lockhart’s Office
Project Name & Page Link: Ombre Shawl
Charity: Church Prayer Shawl Group (if that counts)
Team: Daily Prophet
Brief Description: I was roped into joining the prayer shawl group at my childhood church. Everyone else there was knitting in patterns that I could tell would take forever to complete. A basic granny “square” crochet shawl was much more my speed and worked up fairly quickly.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Hallway
Project Name & Page Link: Scrappy Octavo
Team: Daily Prophet
Brief Description: I was making a tiny book (about palm size) out of scraps, which seemed a good place to try some different adhesives - a mix of PVA and methyl cellulose to slow the drying time and give me a chance to adjust things if needed. It worked quite well.
That baby blanket is adorable! Great color choices.
Reminder from the Editor…
This term of the HPC will close on May 31! And like last year, the new Summer Term will focus on the Quidditch season.
Meanwhile, I am leaving town early tomorrow morning, and will be gone until June 4th. Therefore, I’m going to try to post the new HPC term today, but ask you all to ignore it until June 1st. I will not be able to do a points total and announce a winner for THIS term until I’m back. (I’m taking Ada on her first plane ride to see her grandparents in NH. Parenting solo. Please pray to every god & goddess in the pantheon for my good luck and continued sanity.)
Thank you all for understanding!
Prompt/Challenge Title: Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall
Project Name & Page Link: Bedroom Remodels
Team: The Daily Prophet
Brief Description: You’ll have to go over to the Home Remodel and Redecorating thread for more pictures, but we’ve had the boys’ rooms redone and we almost completely redecorated afterwards. Still need to get some artwork hung up, but the basics are there.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Slytherin Common Room
Project Name & Page Link: Self-striping blue shortie socks
Team: The Daily Prophet
Brief Description: I let DS2 dig through my yarn stash to find some he liked for socks. He requested a pair of short socks with no elastic at the ankle. Not sure if he’s worn them yet, but the dog certainly thought they were passable (he loves socks, it’s weird).
Prompt/Challenge Title: Back fo the Library
Project Name & Page Link: Air Dry Clay Bowls
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: Oddly enough, I did in fact make these in a back corner of the Library. Well, the new Maker Space in the basement. I’ve been seeing other folks play with air dry clay, especially making bowls and other small dishes, but I hadn’t tried it myself. Since I already do so many crafts that are expensive, I always seem to talk myself out of supplies for more random crafts. But when a free class came up to make air dry clay bowls at my library, I jumped at the chance. A friend came with me, and we got these mostly done at the class, but needed them to dry further. So we waited a week, then got together again to finish decorating and sealing them. Bonus, we got to use up some of my fancier paints, like the Jacquard Lumiere shimmer ones.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom
Project Name & Page Link: Scrappy Zip Pouches for Teachers
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: These just seemed to come together so simply and easily. I pulled out my bins of 2.5" squares, dug through for Ada’s teacher’s favorite colors, and stitched them up in 2 afternoons.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Hagrid’s Cabin
Project Name & Page Link: Coiled Rope Easter Basket
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
I love making things with coiled clothesline, like baskets, bowls and trivets. I used up a rainbow batik Honey Bun to make this clothesline basket for my daughter for Easter.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Forbidden Forest
Project Name & Page Link: Scrappy Potholders
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description:
I don’t like scrappy improv piecing. It’s just not my jam. Not in my wheelhouse. Not something I feel comfortable doing. But I want to be easy-breezy, free flowing, waste-not, want-not scrappy piecer. So I try. These actually felt like they came together well, so I’m very happy with them.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Staff Room
Project Name & Page Link: Quilt As You Go Placemats
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: My mom asked for placemats a while ago. I’ve been meaning to make them, but never have time. So I tried a time-saving Quilt As You Go kit, that is basically pre-printed batting, where you sew-by-number. Easy peasy. The hardest part was biding 6 of the suckers.
Prompt/Challenge Title: Chamber of Secrets
Project Name & Page Link: D&D Mug Rug & Coffee Cozy
Team: Witch Weekly
Brief Description: This poor project was an WIP for a year and a half. It actually was there so long, it accidentally got buried under a small stack of scraps, and was nearly lost. Thankfully I was able to pull it out and finish it for our Anniversary this year. My husband loves it.
Ok friends, I did manage to get the Summer Term thread up. You will find it here:
You are welcome to say hello in the thread, but please don’t post new projects there until June 1st.
Hello Friends! I’m back from my trip… sorta. I just got home at midday. Unfortunately while I was in NH, I tripped over Ada, and fell on the back of my left wrist, and broke it. I’m currently in a brace and awaiting a real cast.
I’m really glad that I was able to get the new term posted before I left, because I’m not sure how soon I’ll be able to use my computer to do stuff for the HPC. For now, go ahead and start posting there. I’ll close up the Spring term when I can. Thanks for understanding!
Here’s hoping for a swift recovery!
Oh, no! I hope you heal up quickly!
Oh yikes! I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope the healing witch can find you a bottle of Skele-Gro!
Quick update: I saw an Orthopedist on Friday. Sadlyt the two ends of bone will not heal properly with just a cast and would probably never work right again. And as the doc put it “You’re far too young to lose mobility in your hands.” So I need surgery to put the bone back in alignment and add a metal plate. That’s going to happen tomorrow. Then I’ll be in a brace for 6 weeks, then 6 more weeks of physical therapy. I’ll probably be checking LC out of boredom while resting, but likely won’t be able to do much work around here. Knowing that I’m going in for surgery has me feeling some pretty hardcore anxiety, and normally I’d craft to relieve some of that stress. But no chance of that right now. 
Plus me being in a cast puts a big pause on things Ada would normally get to do all summer, like go to the library, day trips, swimming in our own pool, etc, so I’m having lots of mom guilt.
But in amusing news, Jim had to go to the livestock supply store to buy cow/horse birthing gloves, to wrap my arm up in, so I could get a shower. We have a box of 100 of these 39" gloves. 
I know the mom guilt well. Maybe tell yourself you’re having a “throwback” summer and embrace what it was like being a little kid back “in the day.”
Lots of kiddie pool/water table time, reading and coloring, maybe inviting some local friends over for “picnic playdates” (everyone brings their own lunches/snacks to limit how much you need to do. If that feels too weird for your hostess-with-the-mostest self call it “the teddie bear picnic,” have them bring stuffies, and teach them the song before they go free-play as you monitor from yard chairs having some grownup chit chat.
I am so sorry this happened to you. As a fellow mom of a young only-child I feel for you as you’re often both mom and playmate. Sending you good vibes for a smooth surgery day and hoping the summer exceeds your expectations for quality time with Ada.
