Term Break and good mail!

I haven't been journaling much lately, as I've been relaxing and enjoying time with my family while away from Hogwarts. I love being at home, but I find myself missing all the friendship and adventure at Hogwarts! The lack of homework, though, is allowing me to get some knitting done! I finished a pair of socks last week, started another one (a gift), and started a scarf (another gift!)

Although I haven't had the joy of receiving my sock kit yet, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive and owl with my 2nd prize of the term... some Gryffindor colored Lorna's Laces sock yarn. It's called "Parry Hotter", and came with a note explaining that it's an exclusive colorway! Even though I'm not a Gryffindor, my boyfriend Viktor Scamander is, so I'll be able to wear some Gryffindor colored socks to secretly support him during Quidditch matches, while still showing my Ravenclaw pride! I promise I'll take a picture of the Lorna's Laces and the Faery Fiber's Fawkes yarn that I won in a House Quiz soon! I finally got new batteries for my muggle camera, and now it works like a charm. (Could be the longevity charm I put on the batteries before putting them in the camera!)

I am looking forward to signing up for the next sock kit swap! My sister Jade may be attending Hogwarts this year. Her birthday is right at the cut-off date, so my parents may talk to the headmistress about keeping her home for one more year since they think she might not be quite ready for all the responsibility that comes with studying magic away from home. I'd never tell my parents this, but I hope they do decide to keep her home... I like enjoying Hogwarts without having to keep an eye on my little sister. I'm sure they'd expect me to remind her to study and keep her out of trouble. She can be a bit of a trouble-maker, so that would really take away from my own study time. At least I can be fairly certain that she would NOT be sorted into Ravenclaw. Then I would only be responsible for looking after her in the main areas of the castle, and could just do my own thing when I'm in Ravenclaw Tower.

'Tis better to give

than to receive. Or at least maybe just as good!
I'm still looking forward to the arrival of an owl with a package for me, but I really did have such a great time reading about all the stuff I sent to my pal, Perpetua Phoenixfire. You can read about it and see pictures here.
I think I must've had as much (or maybe more) fun reading her re-cap of it as she did opening it all up!
Also, Marty arrived back home today with some Muggle spells to increase (or, in one of our cases, decrease) the amount of galleons in your bank. I think the Muggles call them taxes. Even though I would've thought Marty'd be tired after all that traveling, he was still feeling strong enough to carry two parcels! Besides the tax spells, he brought a notebook from a 6th grader at a Muggle school. The notebook had already traveled around the western and midwestern United States, where each host wrote a journal entry and added some photos. The teacher included a note saying to send the book back to the class on May 1. I added some pictures and information right away and prepared to send it off to a friend in a frosty Muggle village in Alaska. After some quick treats for Marty and a quick snuggle, I sent him back off with the notebook, the Muggle tax spells, some birthday cards and letters. Poor Marty!

Way to go, Marty!

I heard today that Marty made it all the way to my partner, Perpetua Phoenixfire (the Gryffindor). I'm so glad that he made it (he did have an entire ocean to cross after all!) and especially glad that my partner liked the package! I was so nervous about both! My partner has been involved in a lot of swaps, and since this was my first one, I was a little bit afraid that I might be doing it all "wrong". But her happy words on my blog and on the main blog just brightened my day! Very exciting! Now I'll be waiting for Marty to get back here, because I have some letters I need to send out to my grandma, my aunts and a couple friends whose birthdays I've missed! It didn't take him as much time as I thought it might to get all the way to Perpetua's house, so here's hoping that he'll be back soon and I can get all those things sent off!

Yum!

I just have to share the recipe for some deliciously magical brownies! I'm glad to be on term break so I can hang around with our house-elf taste-testing some yummy sweets! In need of a sugar rush? Click here!
I wonder how long it will be before Marty gets back from dropping off my partner's owl. He has quite a trip...maybe another week or so before he returns. In the meantime, I'll be watching the skies for an owl bringing my own swap kit!

Bye, Marty!

My sweet owl Marty took off yesterday with the package for my spoilee! He has a long long journey ahead of him, so I hope he doesn't get too tired and drop the package. There are a couple of breakable things in there! I hope it gets there soon so I can breathe easy...I'm not only hoping that it makes it there, I'm also hoping that my partner will love it! Or at least enjoy it!

Oh boy!

I went to read the Daily Prophet today and saw my name there! I won an award for being one of the Most Consistent Bloggers! Very exciting! I've had such luck lately with owls coming my way with wonderful goodies... my yarn order, some new Muggle clothes to wear once we get off Platform 9 3/4, some sickles from my grandma...I can't wait to see what my prize will be!

A Magical Package!

No, not my swap partner's owl yet (but that's okay, since I haven't sent mine out either...no matter what my intentions are, I guess I'm just a last-minute kind of gal!) but a wonderful package from a Muggle-net knitting store called Eat.Sleep.Knit In addition to the yarn I ordered, which was pretty wonderful (and I'm already making a list of the possible yarns I could buy for next term's swap partner!), there were all sorts of great extra goodies in the package! A free pattern! Color cards (but not for the colors...for the different types of yarn offered at the store)! Candy! Scratch-offs! And a winning scratch-off for me! If I had that much fun opening that package, I can only imagine my excitement when the owl arrives with my swap package!

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

There sure were lots of tricks going on around here yesterday! April Fool's day was full of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and other practical jokes. One of my classmates got me by saying there was a small rip in the back of my robes. Some of the other girls were all excited about Professor Black covering all of our classes yesterday... they were April Fooled as well.

April 1st also means that this term at Hogwarts is rapidly coming to an end. Good thing another term is right around the corner!