Troublesome Flatmate

A concerned Mariana from Georgia, (U.S. of A.), asked in her comment from the previous post below...
"Any new news on Prof. Snape? Hopefully he's recovered from his umm little falling over accident!"

Oh! Mariana, I'm so glad you asked that!
As a matter of fact, I did receive another e-mail and photo on the well-travelled Potion's Master!!!

Snape's new flatmate, Karan, (but I like to call her Jane), writes this.....
-------------------
"Hi Becky: Well, it's been quite the week.
Severus is a lot more trouble
than I thought he'd be.

Last night after I went to bed, he graded all of
my midterm exams. I think he was trying to be helpful, but his grading
scheme is just bizarre! I mean, I can't give back tests with a grade of
'Troll' or 'Dreadful'! And the class average is 'Dreadful +'.

Tell me, how I'm supposed to enter that into the computer?
Oh, and he transfigured my feather duster into a quill to do the grading (see
picture) (click on to enlarge)




- you can see he looks quite pleased with himself) and now he
refuses to turn it back and use a pen like a normal person.

Also, weird items keep showing up on my shopping list. Asphodel? Mandrake roots? I
asked him if I could get these at Cold Storage or Carrefours, and he
rolled his eyes and said that any apothecary worth its salt would carry
them.

So now I have to find an apothecary. I don't know about Indiana,
but there aren't a lot of apothecaries in my neighbourhood.

He also said he needed shrivelfigs, but the closest thing I could find were fig
newtons. These ones were a bit old and shrivelly, so I thought they
would work in a pinch.

He rolled his eyes and said he should never have expected more from a dumb muggle who gave him a wand made out of an old chopstick. Sor-ry!

And when he told me he needed beetle eyes, I politely suggested he might make his own, considering there are beetles
everywhere here.

He refused to dignify that with a response, and is currently sulking in the office, while I work frantically to erase some
of his more abusive comments on the midterms. (Magical ink is quite
difficult to cover up with white-out, I'm finding.)

And he won't tell me what he needs all that stuff for, but I found a recipe for something
called Draught of Living Death. So now I'm worried he's planning on
using that on me. You know, you might have warned me that he would be
this way.... Take care, karen"

---------------------

I love how his new quill is pink!!! I giggled when I saw the photo. (It does match the pink bunny slippers I had made for my Snape doll a while ago).

I think it may be his favorite color. I'll bet he uses that pink parasol from his drink all the time when it's raining over there in Singapore. (Not that there's anything wrong with that). :D LOL!!!!

ANYWAY, I am now concerned about the other Snape doll I sent to North Carolina.
The last we'd heard from them was March 7th 2007. You remember the photo...




(Click on the pic for enlargement).
He didn't look too happy being among the moose. I hope all is well over there......

Spooky the Black Cat - Pillow

I bought this old pillow kit from e-bay two weeks ago. (click on pic for larger view).






I really loved how it looked. It's called a "primative embroidery" pillow. It came with felt, thread, and the pillow front and back.
Plus a side stip and felt for the piping even. They sure don't make kits as nice as these were. At least; not for the price you can pick up for one on e-bay.

ANYWAY, I just finished it.






Here's the front.(Click on it). Yes, I changed it somewhat again. Most notably the cat's eyes and tongue.
Cats are too dignified to have a tongue lolling out of it's mouth like they intended for it to have in the picture on the package.
And the eyes. Ugh! The original eyes look terrible, don't they?
Well. I added some cat's eye fasteners used for a stuffed animal cat. Then I embroidered around those. Wow. It makes such a huge difference.

Also, I decided the blue leaves had to go. Blue leaves????? So I cut them out and used them as templates over some felt I had already. One was a tiger print. One a leopard print. And yellow felt.
I used the left-over blue felt to make flowers instead of embroidering them.
I also decided not to embroider the weird eye on the sun. I flipped it over so that the outline for it didn't show.

Now for the back.....(Clicky)






I used a needlepoint picture I had already made a while ago but didn't know quite what to do with. (The original one in the package was just plain ecru fabric, (like the front but with nothing on it.) I used the blue leaves here adding them among the butterflies. It's stuffed with a square pillow. You can see where I sewed it shut on the back here at the bottom.

This pillow was so fun to make! It was another Columbia Minerva kit. Vintage kits are the best!!!!
(I'm calling the cat Spooky.)

Kangaroo Pouch

G'day, mate!



(Front and back).
I made this Kangaroo Pouch to go with the Aussie Flag Bag I made last year. It was supposed to be cell phone sized but it turned out to be 7" x 7". Ah well. After the drawstrings are pulled it does get smaller. And it's 100% cotton so if it were washed it would shrink I suppose. (But the colors might bleed into the white.)
The pattern of the kangaroo was a freebee I found here...
deirdre nelson's blog
(Just scroll down to the bottom.)
I used size 3 Aunt Lydia's denim crochet thread and a size H hook.

Bride of Frankenstein Afghan

Halloween is almost here. I have a surprise for you all......
(please click on the photo to enlarge it).






Tadaaaaa!!!!

The Bride of Frankenstein Afghan.

I'd been panning to make her for almost a year now. She's supposed to go with my Frankenstein afghan I made last year.
I wanted to post pictures of them side by side to see how it looks.




Ah, the happy couple at last.
The border around the Bride is actually a shocking electric purple but it looks blue in the photo.






This is the back of the afghan.




Happy Halloween!!!

Sing-a-Sling, You Sassy Thing...

I received two owls from the Perpetual Potions Professor Snape with some pictures as well!!! (Please click on the photo to enlarge them).





The first letter, written by his new flatmate explains:

"Hi Becky:
He says it was a terrible flight (thank goodness for the
motion sickness potion) but Snape has finally arrived in Singapore. He's
spending the morning sitting on my computer tower, enjoying the view of
the jungle, and frightening students who are coming by to ask about
their term papers (Old habits die hard). I've promised that when we get
back to my flat, I'll give him his wand and a Singapore Sling. I'll send
pictures of that too.
Best, Karen

P.S. - Thanks again. He's really adorable (I'm sure he would hate to
hear that though.)"

(She actually made him a wand out of a chopstick! I couldn't wait to see it!!!)

Then, I received this owl with two photos.....

"Hi Becky: As promised, Severus and I shared a Singapore sling when we
got back to my flat (See first photo --




his is the smaller drink on the ledge). Even though he offered extensive criticism of my potions
stirring technique, he was forced to admit the drink wasn't bad. In
fact, he finished both of them, and after getting all maudlin and
complaining about his miserable life, he passed out on the floor (see
second photo).




I suppose he was drinking on an empty stomache, and the
drinks were rather huge, but still.... Anyway, when I left for work, he
was still asleep on the sofa. Best, Karen"

Now this last photo is a moving, magical photo which I can't seem to capture on Photobucket so you'll just have to imagine this for yourselves folks. As can be expected, his speech was a bit slurred by this time. He reaches for his drink, (the aforementioned Singapore Sling), and he sings a happy toast which goes like this...
"Sing-a-Sling, you sassy thing!
Come to papa
before I drop ya!"
This is where he does, indeed, topple over after downing the rest of his umbrella-laden beverage.
I don't think I should mention, (but I will anyway), how, after he rallied, he lifted up the umbrella and began singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the musical Mary Poppins and danced rather dangerously on that ledge behind him doing a sort of high-wire act. Luckily there is glass in that window!

Anyway, I'm so happy that he is enjoying his new digs and I wish them all the best!!!!