Entries Tagged 'Buried Treasure' ↓
September 3rd, 2010 — Buried Treasure, News and Site Updates
by First Mate Keira
One of my all time favorite costumes to put together was Moaning Myrtle, which I dressed up as for the five Potter film, Order of the Phoenix. I planned this costume way in advance because I wanted to be a great Hogwarts ghost.
I knew going into costume designing that I did not want to go as a white sheet ghost. I wanted to look like a ghost from the films, all silvery and white and transparent (well maybe not transparent that’d be difficult to pull off).
If you want to go as Moaning Myrtle you will need to create a Hogwarts school girl outfit all in white or cream or gray.
- Cloak – cheap white fabric fastened by a handmade craft clay pin
- Pin – designed with white craft clay
to look like a Hogwarts badge with all four houses represented
- Vest – hand knitted vest, though yours certainly doesn’t have to be, and I didn’t make mine either, my mother did a long time ago way before Potter came along
- Tie – gray, borrowed from my dad
- Shirt – simple white button down, easiest thing to grab
- Skirt – white pleated skirt, toughest to track down but I did it!
- Tights – white, another easy find
- Knee High Socks – another item borrowed from dad
- Penny Loafers – white, semi-difficult to track down
- Glasses – Harry Potter plastic glasses (exactly this type: Round Wizard Glasses
) coated in glue and silver sparkles.
- Hair – braided and sprayed with silver hair glitter (hard to tell in picture lighting)
The final look? Fabulous!
Your Turn: Have you ever dressed up as Moaning Myrtle or another Hogwarts ghost? What did you do?
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September 1st, 2010 — Buried Treasure, News and Site Updates
by First Mate Keira
I’ve dressed up as Rita Skeeter twice now. I just love that viper of a reporter with her poison green quill. The first time I was Rita Skeeter I was as she appeared in Goblet of Fire
. The second time I was Rita Skeeter I was dressed as she would be after Hermione captured her and forced her to become a better journalist… as in out of a job and sloppy.
When my hair was brassy from a bad hair bleaching job, I simply had a person design an elaborate concoction of curls on the back of my head. Sort of like a fancy prom up-do. It was held in place not by hairspray but by bobbypins
to keep the curls sleek and stylish. The second time around I borrowed a very short curly blond wig and put it on lopsided. That was fun too.
My jewelry both times was a pair of bat and spider earrings. It’s hard to tell in the picture. They were bought around Halloween time when these sort of designs were in boutiques.
I made Rita’s cat eye glasses out of a dollar store pair of reading glasses. It’s an easy craft project. You will need feathers, rhinestones, and glue. Add the feathers to the corners of the glasses to create the cat eye effect and glue rhinestones in whatever pattern you like to the frames. The first Rita costume requires the glasses to look perfect. The second costume can be sloppy or have parts of the design snapped off to create that run-down look.
Both times I brought with me a bright peacock feather to act as my Quick Quotes Quill. I even brought a sample of writing pre-written out as my tester. The quote you’ll want is from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where Rita sequesters Harry in the broom closet. It details how fabulous Rita is and how sharp her quill.
Your Turn: Have you ever dressed up as Rita Skeeter? What did you do?
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August 30th, 2010 — Buried Treasure, News and Site Updates
by First Mate Keira
The next time you are going to a Harry Potter midnight release or party you can go dress up as Luna Lovegood. There are several ways to do this and they’re all pretty fun to put together.
The first thing you will have to decide is if you’re going in robes or in regular clothes. Robes are pretty easy, you can either substitute a standard witch costume or buy some basic black fabric to fashion a robe out of. For regular clothes you have to be sneaky. You can be a little more tailored like in the movies or you can go the book route – in odd Muggle combinations. A fitted sweater and jeans would do in a pinch though.
Next you have to decide on jewelry because jewelry is a pretty standard feature for Luna. She likes to wear wacky out there pieces and is famous for her radish earrings and Butterbeer bottle cap necklace. I made my earrings out of some craft clay
(I highly suggest you hollow out the beads before baking otherwise they are super heavy) and designed a Butterbeer logo on Photoshop to fit a Starbuck Frappuccino cap. I then printed them out and superglued them onto the caps and then superglued the caps together in a V formation and hung with fishing line to make it look like it was floating because of magic.
I even designed a working edition of the Quibbler using Photoshop. I printed it out and stapled and glued the pages to make it work properly. It was a huge hit during the fourth Harry Potter movie release, Goblet of Fire
. Everybody in the line wanted to read it and take pictures with it, especially once they saw that it was designed to be read right side up when the cover was upside-down.
Your Turn: Have you dressed up as Luna Lovegood? What did you do?
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August 3rd, 2010 — Buried Treasure
by First Mate Keira
If you are planning to go to Harry Potter World check out the photos below and read the tips. They should make your trip to Potterland easier and more fun.
This is the backside of Hogsmeade. It's what you see on your way into Harry Potter World if you're coming from Jurassic Park. It must be magic, because there's snow in Florida!
Things to consider bringing to the park: a water bottle (it's so humid and hot); an umbrella (provides shade in sun and protection from afternoon showers); a small wash cloth that you can wet and use to cool yourself with (very practical!)
This is the line for the new ride at Harry Potter called the Forbidden Journey. This section of the line is only for those in need of a locker to store their gear and if you have any gear you must get in this line. If not you can bypass it entirely and get into the actual ride line. (Tip: Go Single Rider to avoid the wait. Our maximum wait time was 20 minutes; most of the time it's less.)
On the other hand you miss out on a bunch of cool things by going Single Rider on the Forbidden Journey. You miss seeing the Herbology greenhouse, the house point cup counter, the statue guarding Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the Golden trio talking about the ride, Ron making it snow on you, the Fat Lady's portrait, etc.
Tip: You can bring a camera, but they make you store it before you get strapped into your seat on the ride.
The herbology line area... it's windy and takes a while to get through but after this point you're in air conditioning and in our case we got hustled through the rest of the line very quickly.
Dumbledore's Office is a very cool area, lots of storage and display cases. Went through way too fast to get much more than this shot!
The DADA classroom. I loved the dragon skeleton. This is where Ron makes it snow on you. I think it was a lighting trick but again before I could get a better look the ride staff was moving us along.
These are some of the non-moving portraits in the Gryffindor common room. (The moving portraits turn black when you snap a photo of them.)
This is the Hippogriff Flight ride. It's short but fun if you want to meet Buckbeak.
More coming soon!
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August 2nd, 2010 — Buried Treasure
by First Mate Keira
The diplomatic response to this question is yes and no. I have no way of knowing what fandom your child is reading in or what stories they’re finding. And the scary thing might be that neither do you. The question then is what to do and to examine how you feel about the situation as a parent. Here are some basics about fanfiction to help you decide:
What is Fanfiction?
Fanfiction is a story based on the characters and world that belong to someone else.
Fanfiction is usually shortened to fanfic and can be based on movies, books, television shows, games, etc. The most popular book fandoms are easily Harry Potter and Twilight as there are thousands of fanfics based on them.
As fanfiction is generated by fans, there’s literally no telling what the writer will do when it comes to language (is there cursing?), adult situations (sex, drugs, etc.), and violence (how graphic is it?).
Most every fanfiction website has a format for rating the stories. These ratings are applied by the story’s writer and could be misleading. Generally however I have found writers to be fairly good at rating their stories for the appropriate audience.
Another concern is grammar and spelling. Most writers will have somebody else read their story first to help them get rid of any errors, but these things will slip through and sometimes writers could hardly care less about the quality of fanfic they’re delivering. Fanfic is not as polished as a published novel and that is something you should be aware of if you let your child read fanfic.
Does Your Child Read Outside of Fanfics?
Another important question to consider is how much time your child devotes to reading outside of fanfiction. Obviously, they’ve very into something and want more of it and are reading fanfic to get it.
If the fandom they’re reading is based on a book or book series, chances are your child is doing plenty of reading on and off the computer.
However, if your child is not an active reader and is very reluctant about starting new books and series, perhaps letting them read fanfiction is the best thing you can do for them because they are reading.
In-Progress fanfics could really boost your child’s reading pleasure, because they’re not facing a whole book, but one new chapter whenever the writer updates. Smaller chunks of writing might be easier to digest.
In the End I Suggest You Talk with Your Child
If you decide reading fanfiction is okay, the next step is to talk with your child to find out what fandoms they like and what type of stories they’re reading. Explain to them your concerns and talk to them about what ratings your okay with them reading. Set up ground rules and pay attention to what they read. You can do this by checking web browser history, looking at their fanfiction site profile and discovering what stories they like, and by asking directly. Perhaps you can even read the same fanfics together as something to do.
If you decide that you want to keep your child away from fanfiction you will have to have a talk as well. This time you will be explaining why you’ve come to the decision you have and be prepared to back it up (like citing a story you caught them reading and don’t approve of). Also be prepared to have your kid continue behind your back as it’s very easy to hide what they’re doing on the internet by clearing web browser history, deleting and creating a new profile, and using private browsing.
Your Turn: Where do you stand on fanfics and why?
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