Sunday, August 29, 2010

Movie Weekend #1 - White Squall!!

The "movie weekend" polls may be moved to a tab of their own in the future, but for now, I'm too excited to wait.

Here's how it will work:

On Mondays (or Sundays if I'm too impatient), I'll post a list of movies. Reply in the comments which one you'd prefer, and I'll tally them up and announce the "winner" on Thursday. (In case of a tie, I guess I'll give myself the right to cast the deciding vote, unless anyone objects to that!) I'll start a thread in the H:MoA (Hufflepuff: Made of Awesome) board where we can discuss the movie to our hearts' content.

Our first Movie Weekend will be the upcoming Labor Day holiday - September 3, 4, 5 and 6.

This week's theme is: Stay Out of the Water!

Your movie choices are:

Jaws ****
Jaws II****
White Squall****
The Perfect Storm

Movies indicated with **** are available using the Netflix Watch Instantly feature.

Don't forget to check your local library for available titles - some libraries will let you request titles from other branches as well!

UPDATE - Thursday September 2

The decision's been reached - we'll be watching "White Squall" for this first movie weekend.

Now I'm off the see if I can find anymore ideas for movie-related snacks!

The list of movies for next week should show up on Sunday, at 6:00 pm Princess Onica time.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Are you ready for September 1st?

Hi! I'm Fluttervale, TA for DADA this term, and one of your house Bloggers. Are you ready for the Fall Term? Here's what I do before each term.

1. I get the main forum ready to read. I start by ignoring all the old threads (because I find lots of threads visually distracting). Today, I removed everything that wasn't stickied except the Hufflepuff Common Room. (I ignored a few stickies, too, that I'm not participating in.) Just click in the "status" box next to each thread, and the option to ignore comes up. Once term starts, I'll ignore all of the common rooms except my own, and I generally ignore old class threads as well from previous months.

2. I read all of the remaining threads until I was caught up. Because, you know, I get behind on these things.

3. I visited the Hufflepuff House Group and did the same. I checked in on the Blog post (since I'm obviously part of the Blog team!) and will shortly be active in that group, just as soon as this post is posted.

4. I checked my Queue, and made sure that all the patterns that I'd like to work on this term are in my queue, and that all my patterns are printed. I even set aside the yarn in a special bin for classes. My goal this term is to knit up scarves and dishcloths, and I have some mittens/handwear patterns as well that I'd like to do for classes.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

July winner

Ladies, gentlemen and badgers, the prize winners from July have been announced.

Let's applaud anneadeline who received an award for her extraordinary thigh-high rainbow socks! From what I've heard these socks are not only warm and cute, but they also banish dementors and attract unicorns. How cool is that?

Congratulations, anneadeline!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Fall 2010 Mentoring!

MENTORING!!!

Fall 2010 Cetes

In fall 2010, we will have 10 Cetes of Badgers. Each Cete will have at least one 4th year or higher leader ("Mama Badger" or "Papa Badger"), one 2nd or 3rd year, and however many firsties that balances out to. If I have more than 10 volunteers from each group, some groups may have additional upperclassmen to help out the firsties.

Each Cete will be given a name (a species/sub-species of Badger) and we will carry those Cetes forward so you can be a permanent member of that Cete. We'll make it up as we go along with the various what-ifs. Members are always welcome to Cete-hop and visit the others, of course, or do one of those "visit to stay" sorts of things! Each Cete will have it's own thread in the Hufflepuff House Group which should make it easier for everyone to stay in touch.

So, if you'd like to be part of the mentoring program, please PM Fluttervale on Ravelry and let her know, as well as your year, so I can make sure to balance out everyone. I need Upperclassman sign-ups by the 28th, please. (If you sign up later, that's cool, I'll still stick you in a Cete, I just would really like to get the upperclassmen figured out before the Firsties.)

If you are a firstie and asked for Hufflepuff, you will almost certainly become a Huff--we are the least-requested house since the books make us out to be the least competitive. But we have a great supportive atmosphere, and at least once a term discuss just about every topic on the planet. Firsties, please do NOT PM me letting me know you want a mentor, you will get one, I promise! ScarlettB gives me a list so that I can match you up.

Remember: Of all the species representing the various houses, we are the highest up on the food chain! Let's have a great term and be welcoming to our Firsties!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

July nominations

Hello, everyone. First of all, I'd like to apologize for falling off the face of the earth last month. July was a bad month for me and August isn't much better really, but at least I have some prize announcements to cheer me up. As always we've had some extraordinary projects to represent the noble house of Hufflepuff. You guys are amazing. So without further ado, the talented nominees!

In Quidditch, yarnvista drew everyone's attention with her mega awesome mega blanket for the mega challenge.
In the OWLs, Pacasha was nominated for her Unicorn inspired cabled sweater and Bijou3owl was nominated for her twinkling night sky Aeolian.
In Potions, SuperM received a nomination for her adorable songbird shawl.
In HoM, Evucis was nominated for her Little Dolls sweater, modeled by the cutest little doll ever. And since we're on the subject, StitchyWitchy was nominated for her sweet baby Lily Luna Potter doll.
In Ancient Runes, Evucis was nominated for her cute Flutter-by Daffodil socks.
In DADA, kreachr was nominated for her so beautiful South African Merino handspun, anneadeline was nominated for her extraordinarily long (!) rainbow socks and Evucis was nominated for her amazing dragonfly sweater. Pay special attention when voting for your favorite DADA projects, because the nominations are not in order. I believe Hilltopkatie was so busy drooling over kreachr's handspun that she forgot to nominate anyone else until the very end of the thread.
In charms, Evucis received a nomination for her frosted petals shawl. So romantic!
And, in Herbology, tiggersjp was nominated for her cabled Dixie pillow. Looks really cozy!

Good job, nominees! Congratulations!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Summer Break!

Wow! So another term is over. NEWT's were announced. (Anyone having fun with NEWT's?) Everyone's working on Exploding Snap! and their OWL proposals.

So what sorts of things do you plan on crafting for next term? Me (Fluttervale), I am planning on getting all of the charity cotton knit up into burp/washcloths for charity and some of the acrylic into scarves. I also have two OWL's planned: Charms & Herbology.

Don't forget that now is a good time to start thinking of your holiday crafting. I know I need to get on the ball with shopping and everything before it's the week before Christmas!