Knit Devotion

Write an essay about your broom.

Here’s what I had to say about that.  Sleek and sweet!

Whenever my DH has to go out of town, someone gets sick.  Unfortunately, he had to escape town to go visit his DG who is not doing well. I got to stay with the monsters.  This time it was my turn to get the crap. The other week DD had a sinus infection that went from her nose all the way down her throat. It was not pretty and the things we do for our kids would not have registered in my mind before them.  She does not like to blow her nose. So she lets the “green goop” (and I mean green) fill her nostrils and dry there.  Like I said NOT PRETTY.  Where dear mom has to clean out her nostrils so she can breathe.  UUUGGGHHHH!!!! I am so suprised it took me this long to get sick! DD at the same time has double ear infections. His, I didn’t have to clean out, Thank you!  Me….I get both. The last 4 days I have been fighting this crap while trying to keep my DS occupied. 

So here’s where the cruel joke comes in.  This morning I am finally feeling somewhat human again. I  am getting dressed and throw my back out.  NICE!!! I limp my butt to get the kids up and DD to school while DS wants to go to the park.  I don’t blame him since he has been cooped up with me for the last couple of days.  All I want to do is crawl back into bed with a pain killer and a muscle relaxer and sleep.  Can’t do that though, DH is not here and I have a monster to watch and another monster to pick up from school.

Like I said life is a cruel joke!

Later

Needless to say I haven’t done anything for HLBOES this week. But my package is almost done. I need to pick up some “orlando” things. HEHE..I have an idea for that.  Then I can mail it and I’m done with that part of the swap!

Our assignment is to write a short essay on the meanings of the House symbols.

Since my spoilee is from Ravenclaw…let’s start with that house.

The crest of the Ravenclaw House is a golden eagle on a blue field making their official colors (book) blue and bronze.  Their founder was Rowena Ravenclaw and the ghost is Helena Ravenclaw (Grey Lady).   A Ravenclaw values intelligence, creativity, wit and wisdom.  Because of the eagle, Rowling puts them with the element of air.

My house is Slytherin.  Our founder was Salazar Slytherin, who only wanted pure blood wizards to attend Hogwarts.  The Slytherin student values ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness.  And with these, the hunger for power is usually not far behind.  Our crest hold a serpent in a field of green and silver.  Rowling suggests we are the element of water. Our official book colors are green and silver.  The ghost of Slytherin house is the Blood Baron.

Next is Hufflepuff….Their crest is a badger in a field of yellow and black and corresponds to the earth element.  Their founder was Helga Hufflepuff and value hard work, loyalty, tolerance, and fair play.  The house ghost is the Fat Friar.

And last but best known because of our beloved Harry is Gryffindor.  Their crest is a lion on a field of red and gold.  Their founder, Godric Gryffindor was a very corageous man. Harry used his sword to defeat the balisk and Voldemort to save Hogwarts and the wizarding world once more.  Gryffindors correspond to the element of fire and value corage, daring, nerve and chivalry.  Their ghost is Nearly Headless Nick. 

Later
Curlatrix Black
Slytherin House
Information from Hp Lexicon and Ravenclaw websites.

The assignment is to fantasize.  Well, not that kind (ohhhh!)  Fantasize about your ideal Quidditch team.   Wardrobe, brooms, stadium, and stadium architect.

Here’s my team…..The Pindragons
Our wardrobe would be traditional style quidditch gear.  I love the look of the uniforms but the colors would be black with silver accents.  
Very quick and stealth looking.  The above pic will be our broom.  Sienna Storm, very quick, very sleek, and made out of oak.  Try to break that! (too bad it’s not bamboo…I love bamboo)
The stadium will look like the Coliseum in Rome.  Royal in architecture and to feel the energy in that place from past battles would be fantastic.  It’s incredible to walk into a place like that and feel the energy that flows from the old battles that have been there. Whether it is a new sporting arena or an old battle worn field, it all holds the energies from the past. To stand there and feel that power is like being in another world.

Here is my apparitions homework. We had to knit or crochet a bookmark (in our House colors for a bonus). I am in Slytherin House, green and silver.  I didn’t have silver yarn so I did white. If you look close you can see that I ran white yarn through the yarn overs. Close enough right?!  I do love this bookmark. It is easy and very quick plus it is beautiful. I am have plans for something different with it next time.  I will post pics later of it!

  Later  Curlatrix Black

Our assignment was to get someone to drink some “leaf-reading” tea and try to read their leaves. So my Monster is drinking some tea. I asked her to think of something important to her or something bothering her.  Here is her drinking the tea (and most of the leaves) and the leaves that were left……
    I think she was thinking about a little mouse that doesn’t live too far from our house.  What do you think?  I am worried because she was all into it and didn’t flinch when I asked her to “pose” for the experiment.
The second part of our assignment is to craft something that has to do with the proper drinking of the tea. Here is my screen printed tea towel.  You have to have a tea towel to properly drain the leaves and read them.

Later
Curlatrix Black
Slytherin House

      Our darling Charms professor gave us a fantastic assignment. We just needed to finish a crafting project we had started.  I have to say she did this assignment just in time.  I took the task of doing the corsages for my DD’s school Father/Daughter Dance AGAIN.  You would think after last year doing 200 live flower corsages on the Friday of the dance, would have taught me to say no.  Well this year we don’t have as many volunteers as we did last time. So I got to do them again. YEAH! I did get smart this year and used silk flowers instead. Only my thumbs are twice as sore from wrapping the wire from the flower around the bands. Then sticking my thumbs with the little wire in the bows. Finally bending the bands with my poor thumbs to get everything to stay in place.  My thumbs will never be right again. 
But thanks to my Charms professor…I now get points for my house.  I thank you and my thumbs thank you!

Later
Curlatrix Black
Slytherin House

I really enjoyed this project. I had been wanting to use this yarn I had bought a while back but couldn’t find the right thing.    I think it turned out well.  The snitch design is better in person.  Pictures don’t do it justice. Like most things, they are always better in person. 

Here’s the quiz for Potions….Let’s see how I do..

1. Name the two known Potions professors at Hogwarts during the books.
Include which book(s) each of them were professors during. (1)   Slughorn 6-7 Snape 1-5

2. Name the five pieces of equipment that a student of Potions is expected to have. (1)

      basic Potions ingredient kit
     Magic Draughts and Potions Book
     Size 2 cauldron
     scales
     vials glass
    

3. Give me the name and the person who invented the potion that is used as a remedy for the common cold. (1)   Glover Hipworth pepperup potion

4.
What does the Polyjuice potion do? Name at least four of the
ingredients. Tell me at least two of the characters who used this
potion in the books and tell me what it did to them. (2)

    Allows the person who drinks it to become a person or animal that they specifically made the potion for and only for a limited time.

      something from the person you want to become (hair, fingernails, toenails, snot)
      boomslang skin
      fluxweed
      lacewing flies

     Most well know is Ron, Harry, and Hermione who turned into Crabbe, Goyle, and a cat (Hermione)

5. What is a bezoar and what is it used for? (1)
    
      stone from a goat stomach about the size of a kidney and used as antidote to most poisons.

6. Tell me what the Amorentia potion is. What would yours smell like? (1)

    love potion
    pumpkin pie and peppermint

7.
Name three Potions ingredients that can be found in the Muggle world.
What are each of these items used for in each situation? How to Muggles
and Wizards use these things differently? (2) 

   leeches–polyjuice potion–muggle world to bleed out patients with blood diseases.

    belladonna– part of standard potion making kit–muggle world– used to be used to dilate eyes

    lovage–Confusing and befuddlement draughts– muggle world–used as culinary herb.(part of
        carrot family

8. What is your favorite Potion and why? (1)
   
    skele-grow..because I am always breaking something and it would save me alot of time and trips
   to the emergency room.
 
 
9.
There are at least two Potions which are mentioned as being illegal to
the students at Hogwarts, but they get used in the series. Which two
are these and what do they do? (2) 

   Armortentia (love potions) makes the person infatuated or deeply obsessed with the giver of the potion.
   polyjuice potion makes the person someone else (who ever you made the potion for) for a limited
   amount of time.

10. Name the three ingredients in the Draught of the Living Death. In what year do the Hogwarts students brew this potion? (2) 
    
     asphodel
     valerian roots
    sopophorous bean
  6th year

11.
We all know that Remus Lupin is a werewolf. During his time teaching at
Hogwarts, Snape makes him the wolfsbane potion to counteract some of
these nasty effects. There is one ingredient which Lupin says will
render the effects useless. What is this ingredient and why is it
important? (1)

     sugar. It’s not really important but the potion tastes nasty and “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”  (sorry, I just had to!!)

Extra Credit

There
are many mentions of Potions in various Muggle books. Name at least one
reference to any well-known Muggle book (either one that does not have
anything to do with magic or one that has a very archaic
view of it, so DO NOT give me a fantasy novel). What is this Potion
used for? By whom? How do Muggle views of Potions differ from our own?
Is there an ingredients list to this particular Potion? If so, what
items are necessary to make it? Are there any Potions that exist in the
wizarding world that have similar effects? If so, which one(s)? I want
at least five decent sentences.  (5)

(Go along with me on this one for just a sec)

The Joy of Cooking is my book.  Since potions are just recipes of ingredients brought together to create something else (the whole being greater than the sum of it’s parts).  You also have to follow the directions very carefully to produce what you are trying to make or else you will fail.  For instance, bakers making bread use a “magical” concoction of yeast (a living thing), water, and the” magic ingredient” sugar to make the bread rise. So I would consider the yeast concoction an  Air potion.  Without it your bread will be a rock.  Muggles use this potion although they are called recipes almost everyday.  There is one potion that is a swelling potion which is similar.

I love this quiz. I was able to do most of it off the top of my head. I just finished the DS game of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  In that you have to make polyjuice potion and find the ingredients. It kept true to the book. It’s a great game if you are looking for something to do while you wait to pick up your kids from school and you want a break from knitting.  The other answers were from HPL: encyclopedia of potions .  This is a great source for potions and other things Harry.

Later
Curlatrix Black Slytherin House

       Our Magical Creatures homework this time was to knit a cat. Someone found this really cool cat pattern on Ravelry. It was done in just a regular yarn and it looked like an ipod cat. (which I really liked)   When I went looking through my stash for something appropriate for this project I found this yarn.  My Dd has wanted me to knit her something since she took over my owl.  So I thought the two would fit together really well.

I would like to introduce you to Tonks the cat.  She is the child of my work with transfiguration.  See I tried to transfigure my favorite baby blanket into a cat.  Didn’t quite work out. She’s pretty much all cat except when she coughs, it’s stuffing instead of hair.

Later