This is is, kiddos, we’re at our final Hogwarts House styling post, with my OG house, Ravenclaw. While there’s endless stories I could tell about the way Potter has intersected with my life and vastly improved it, in an ode to Ravenclaw house I wanted to focus in this post upon the books more purely, and my favourite aspects and characters from them.
Here we are, fellow wizards, we’re over halfway through the Houses. I’ve already styled Hufflepuff and Slytherin in a vintage Amy style, and today we look at Gryffindor, along with my story of how the series lead me to face up to some of my deepest anxieties and how it resulted in my flying across the world to attend the wedding of someone I’d never met.
If you missed last week’s posting kick off my Hogwarts Houses Vintage Style series, you can find it here. I began by styling a Hufflepuff themed outfit and by telling the story of how I got into the Potter series. This week I’m focusing on Slytherin, the house for which I would be most ill-fitted, and touching on how the series lead me to make new friends and deal with my dad’s death.
I suppose it’s possible there could be regular readers of this blog who don’t know that I’m a big Harry Potter fan, but following this post that won’t be likely. Because after at least a year of having this idea sitting in my drafts folder, I’ve finally carved out the time to create this styling series that was suggested by my good friend Mand; the Hogwarts houses, vintage style.
Once a week for the next four weeks I’ll be creating a vintage style outfit in the theme of each of the Hogwarts houses, and dedicating each post to sharing some of my own Potter story; how I got into the series, the friends I’ve made along the way, how my dad’s death entwined with my love of the books, why these books meant I traveled across the world to attend the wedding of someone I had never met, and, of course, which Hogwarts house I’m in. I’ll also be adding in snippets about my favourite characters, favourite book, and which parts of the story have most touched me.
Today, we’re going to start with Hufflepuff, the house of kindness, patience, hard work, loyalty and fair play. And, kind of more importantly, the house of yellow, because hello mustard!
For those of you celebrating Christmas the clock is swiftly counting down to the big day, but even so you might feel that you could do with getting a little more in the festive spirit, or perhaps that for some reason you can’t quite put your finger on, this year you’re sure your tree doesn’t look as good as other years. Maybe, contrary to both of those things, you are bursting with Christmassy excitement and dying to fit in one last festive craft project before Christmas truly arrives. Well, either way, I’ve got you covered. Why? Because it’s time, my little wizards, for us to learn how to make Golden Snitch Baubles.
Magical tree is magical
The great news is that it’s super easy and also inexpensive, and it would also make for a great last minute gift idea for your Harry Potter loving friend who already has all the merch you can think of.
What you’ll need:
What you’ll need
I got my baubles and silver spraypaint from Poundland for £1 each, my feathers from eBay for £2.48 for 100, and I got my glue gun from Hobbycraft forever ago for £5. Of course, if you can get your hands on feathers that are already silver that takes out a couple of steps for you right from the start. I only made 7 Snitches so they could be feature baubles on our tree (and, you know, because 7 is the most magically powerful number) but I had plenty of supplies left over to pass on to my sister so she could get her Potter loving children making as well.
Fun fact: In Danish translations, the Golden Snitch is called Det Gyldne Lyn, which means The Golden Lightning.
These baubles are very simple versions of the Golden Snitch, compared to the movie version which features engravings and embossments on the golden body of the snitch. If you wish to get that intricate with your Snitches you can use your glue gun to make fine lines of decoration on the snitch before you attach the wings, but doing so will mean you also have to buy gold paint to paint over the glue lines so that they match the golden bauble.
Step by Step guide:
Cutting the feathers into wings
Paint the wings silver
And there we have it! Your tree can now be witchy and Snitchy, something I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of Christmases already. If you don’t have time to fit in making these before Christmas you can keep an eye out in the January sales for the golden baubles needed to make them for next year, as all decorations will be on sale super cheap once Christmas is over.
Do you have any holiday decorations, handmade or otherwise, that rep your favourite fandom(s)? I’d love to hear about your festive fandom features in the comments 🙂
The first part of this pinup Hermione post focuses on the trip I took with friends to the WB Studio Tour, all in vintage styled Hogwarts costumes. While preparing for that event and ruminating on what exactly I would wear to be a pinup style version of literary badass nerd Hermione Granger, I found myself thinking up a lot of different ideas for this costume that could all be kept and worn again as my normal non-costumed self after the trip. I wanted something that would look school reminiscent when styled that way but wouldn’t be too uniform-feely outside of that context, so that I wouldn’t be paying out for something I wouldn’t wear again. Looking at all my costume options with that in mind got me thinking ahead to Halloween. Continue reading
Today’s blog post comes to you in two parts for a double whammy of pinup Hermione goodness. This post focuses on the trip I took to the WB Harry Potter Studio Tour in London with 3 of my nerdiest and loveliest pinup friends.
After meeting Kayla and Laura at The Pinup Picnic In The Park in June I fell in friend-love with them. Two wonderful, witty and sweet ladies, Sophie (my British Belles wifey) and I were both thrilled to discover the girls are big Potter fans just like we are. ‘Why don’t we do a Potter meet up then? We could go to the tour,’ it was suggested after we had all recovered from the Picnic. ‘OMG! Potter Pinups tour!’ was the response. It was almost immediately suggested that we go as pinup wizards. There was talk of representing all Hogwarts houses, or specific characters. In the end I opted for being Pinup Hermione, something I had been wanting to do for a year or so, and Soph, Kayla and Laura all chose to be vintagey Hogwarts students.
Casual Knight Bus ridin’
On the train up to London I couldn’t tell whether people were staring because they’d spotted my time turner and understood I was vaguely in character, or whether it as the usual that-girl-seems-to-be-from-a-whole-other-era stares. Once we got to the studio the states intensified–but that might be because Kayla and Laura were so excited they were spinning in their circle skirts and shrieking as we approached the entrance. We calmed it down a bit once we were indoors, but the staff immediately shared their appreciation of our outfits by handing us each a Potter Passport–a little booklet you get stamped as you walk round be studio, usually reserved for handing out to children. Clearly the Studio staff understood the calibre of the grown-women-children they were dealing with. Ha! Continue reading
Miss Amy May 