Movie Weekend #10 November 5, 6, and 7

According the holidayinsights.com, the first week of November is "chemistry week". So our movies for the weekend will all celebrate chemistry, even if it isn't the strictly scientific kind of chemistry.

This week's choices:

Sleepless in Seattle ***

Sweet Home Alabama ***

Serendipity ***

Notting Hill ***

As always, *** means available to view instantly from Netflix. Leave a comment with your favorite, and I'll post the results November 4th.

Projects of the week!

Hi Badgers! Have I got some lovelies for you. Please click the links for their hand ins and show them some love.

Number one is a lovely vest made by knitbunnie for her daughter. A perfect herbology project with leafy goodness.


Up next are a pair of adorable mushroom wrist warmers volkat made for DADA. She did a wonderful job knitting them and then went the extra mile to steek them.


Project the third is a beautiful Ishbel that Bijou3owl made for Muggle Studies. She did an amazing job and finished it in only 6 days.


And last but not least is a cute little cardigan made by frimptes. Fantastic job!



That's all for this week Puffs! So keep on crafting and you just might make the next POW!

Pumpkin Prep with the House Elf Liaison

It's Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and that brings cooler weather, changing leaves and pumpkins! Pumpkin patches pop up everywhere this time of year, and, while most of the pumpkins sold there aren't the tastiest varieties, that doesn't mean we can't talk about our favorite pumpkin recipes!

The House Elves want to know...What's your favorite pumpkin recipe?

Here's mine, we make these every year-

Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup shortening
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix all dry ingredients together thoroughly. Cut in the shortening until fine. In a separate bowl, combine egg, pumpkin and milk. Add this to the dry mixture and mix until just moistened. Stir in raisins. Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full. (this recipe is for 12 muffins) If desired you can sprinkle a little sugar on top of each muffin. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Yum!

Halloween Movie Weekend!!

I put up a poll asking for people's favorite Halloween movies. My original intention was to use a random number generator to choose 4 titles to vote for. But based on a (good!) question by YellowRaincoat, asking why not just choose the top 4 instead of randomly, I looked over the list again. There were 3 clear favorites, one with 8 votes, and two with 5. Six other movies received 2 votes each. So I used the random number generator to choose one from those 6.

So, your favorites (in order of preference):

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Hocus Pocus

Beetlejuice (available for instant viewing)

And the random entry:

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Leave a comment with your choice, and they'll be counted to decide which movie we'll be watching for Halloween weekend!

Going Shopping with the House Elf Liaison

So, the House Elves have learned about the Muggle invention of grocery stores with their aisles lined with food and they are all atwitter. House Elves just conjure up the things they cook, so they don't really understand what "ingredients" are, except for when you're talking Potions. They want to learn more about these strange places! Let's help them out by sharing our grocery lists with them.

The House Elves want to know...What's on your grocery list?

Hint: you might want to pick up a can or two of pumpkin for next week!

Projects of the Week!

Hey Badgers! Time for some projects of the week from October. Get ready to drool!

This lovely scarf from jaydee is our first POW. This fall inspired project is just wonderful.


Up next we have some Mad Men inspired socks made by sdhsmc86 for Muggle Studies. I absolutely adore Mad Men, and I know Don would love these socks.


Next we have some fabulous purple yarn, ingeniously dyed with beets by Mushroom. I can't believe you dyed it with beets; that is just so cool!


And our final project this week is from our beloved HoH, Leesy. She knit this gorgeous Orenburg lace shawl in 6 days!


That's all for this week Puffs! So keep on crafting and you just might make the next POW!

Movie Weekend #8 October 22, 23, and 24

Since Halloween is quickly approaching, this weeekend's movie titles are all a little bit scary (or possibly a lot scary, depending on personal opinion!).

As always, movies indicated *** can be watched instantly from Netflix. Leave a comment with your favorite; I'll tally the results and post the winner October 21st.

Dragonfly ***

The Sixth Sense ***

The Skeleton Key ***

What Lies Beneath

Something Special with the House Elf Liaison

Canadians just celebrated Thanksgiving and it's coming up in the USA too, not to mention all the other holidays and special occasions that come around this time of year. What do you like to eat on a special occasion? Do you like to break out that special gourmet cookbook and whip up a five course meal? Or that tattered, much loved recipe from your grandmother's recipe box? Or would you rather go out to a restaurant and let someone else do the heavy lifting?

The House Elves want to know...What's your favorite special occasion meal? Share your most special recipes, favorite restaurant splurges, or touching stories!

Movie Weekend #7, October 15, 16, 17

October 11th is "It's my Party Day", so our theme this week is "...and I'll cry if I want to." Grab a box of tissues, and watch a tear-jerker!

Leave a comment with your favorite - I'll tally the votes and post the result on October 14th. Movies indicated with *** are available to view instantly from Netlifx.

Steel Magnolias ***

Ghost ***

Bright Star ***

Titanic (1997 version)

Badger Badger Mushroom

Our Giraffe Stampede for History of Magic was a huge success, and in keeping with that, I'm proposing a Mushroom Stomp for DADA this month. Craftyshanna introduced me (and many others, I'm sure!) to the badger-badger-mushroom video, and I think it would be a great start to a group project submission. We're still working out the story bits, but it promises to be a lot of fun. All you have to do is craft something mushroom related, and Ravelry has 65 free patterns to help you do just that. We'll be posting them on the 22nd, to get them finished up and submitted before our House Pride Exhibition starts. To keep up with the Stomp, check in regularly with the Badgertastic Group Projects thread.

Speaking of the HPE, Minsue had the fabulous idea to do a HPE HECK project this month with a House Elf House Pride Drill Team. We're still ironing out the details, but I'll let you know once all the decisions have been finalized. The Quidditch Tie-along is still going strong, as well. Will you be ready to show off your tie during the HPE?

Finally, the October yardage challenge in underway. Congratulations to epazia for using up 5235 yards last month! That's amazing! Even more amazing are the final tally numbers for September: 1300 woven yards, 2614 spun yards, and 38,335.8 knit/crocheted yards. I'm in awe, guys. And I totally need to start calculating my yardage ;)

Time for Breakfast with the House Elf Liaison

It's a new month and every day is a new day. Mom always said that breakfast was the most important meal, and the House Elves agree. Please share your favorite breakfast ideas, recipes, experiences, anything at all about food in the morning!

The House Elves want to know... What is your go-to breakfast?

Movie Weekend #6 October 8, 9, 10

According to http://www.holidayinsights.com/ , October 9th is Curious Events Day, although it says they were unable to uncover any factual information about this 'holiday'. So to observe this holiday we'll have a list of movies containing events so curious that they can only be described as magical.

The movie choices are:

The Color of Magic***

The NeverEnding Story***

Labyrinth***

The Illusionist

Movies indicated with *** are available to view instantly from Netflix. Please leave a comment with your favorite title - I'll count the votes and post the winner on Thursday.

Projects of the Week!

Hey there Puffs! I have some more projects of the week for you to ogle! What with all the last minute submissions at the end of September I had to give you 4 projects this week.

First up we have angel101580's gorgeous Vine Yolk Cardigan. Finishing this baby in a month deserves loads of kudos. A shout out to SuperM who also submitted this cardigan this week.


Next we have some fantastic colourwork mittens made by kikipotamus. Can you believe this was her first major stranded project?


Some beautiful purple handspun by kell13 is up next! Her spinning just keeps getting better and better. Great work!


And last but not least we have this adorable illusion knitting baby blanket by m8land. I'm sure the little one will love it.


That's all for this week Puffs! So keep on crafting and you just might make the next POW!