A Tribute To Harry Potter And Halloween

An introduction and tribute to one of the greatest novel series and a sneak peek at the various Halloween facades of Sunday's quarters.

*A little piece I wrote last year after finally(!) having read the Harry Potter Series.*

Where One was a gift and the others, hauled and patiently searched for, this lucid sight of uncoordinated book cover designs, slightly battered with creased spines, are tellings of a reader.

From nox to lumos to nox, I read.

Not without a tandem of coffee and pastry, wishing I were munching on a piece of that treacle tart.

Some nights, I preferred to wear my leg warmers and socks with a cup of tea(or coffee, still)hehe...thinking if Doby can knit me a tea cozy.

Some mornings, I longed for that kippers and eggs breakfast, thinking of Ron's ginormous appetite.

But always with a notebook, pen, and smartphone at bay just in case I needed to jot down some thoughts, and usually quite a number, like the Half-Blood Prince.

Thoughts racing, immersed in the story, follow the Hogwarts Express:

Where there are the magical realm of wizards and witches, quidditch games, Fantastic Beasts, wand lore, potions, spells, and charms, abstractions such as death and love humanized the non-muggle race.

Magic is as powerful as these abstractions, perhaps, even the source of magic.

Death was always inevitable, sudden.

Love was never self-serving, everlasting.

Latin, oh, Latin names cleverly infused in each character profile. I'm thinking, Rowling's character image derivations are from their name origins (English and Latin). Whereas Albus in Latin means "white"; hence a white beard and hair color; and Severus, meaning "stern"; hence a rigid persona; a disciplinarian, to name a few. Other cases included Lee Jordan's "River" alias and Tom Marvolo Riddle's jumbled Voldemort.

Pretty much, names possessed underlying stories, connected to histories and other meanings(!) A bugging thought on the relevance of House passwords is still unanswered. Do they have anything to do with the current happenings in the School? One instance that clicked was after the fat lady binged at the Christmas feast and the password changed into "abstinence" and I'm still trying to substantiate the other passwords with evidence from previous passages... I'll stop here, for now. Mind your cages and trunks.

We've arrived:

Platform Nine and Three Quarters

This year's Halloween main door decor.

Another reason why I love the month of October: Halloween! Every year, our condominium building hosts a children's party and residents are welcome to participate by decorating their main door, an indicator that they're giving away treats.  I've ALWAYS looked forward to this because I am able to conceptualize and execute themes and designs, ready to get all artsy and crafty!  

My Process:

I use Pinterest to gather ideas or search up possible décor for a certain theme in mind or both. I also make sure to have themed giveaways to go with the decor. Once I've ideated, drafted, and visualized how I want the door to look like, I rummage for recycled materials (e.g. brown grocery paper bags, strings, and box cut outs), paper materials (e.g. cartolina from my sisters, foil, felt, crepe etc.), and found items and materials (e.g. fake spiders, web, glitter, chalk etc.) at home which I may use. I also print and cut out elaborate and detailed designs (e.g. emblems, symbols, signages), if not draw them, as part of the décor component. The only time I'll purchase is when I need a specific color and type of material and if we don't have a stock of any item at home.

Some Insights:

• You'll be surprised with what you can do with the basic paper materials: cartolina, crepe, and felt. They're flexible and handy (easy to cut, paste, tape, fold, draw on) to use and you can pretty much create a number of things out of it (see other décor and packaging).

• It's also heartening to see kids and their guardians recognize and treasure the décor made and giveaways handed out. For one, they start taking photos of and with the designs; and another, as they are literally getting/receiving the giveaways they're just full of energy and everything's wiped out in like five seconds. haha

Of Tricks: Bubble Potions and Treats: Quidditch Whistles. These were our Harry Potter giveaways!

Halloween Décor Portfolio

2017: Pumpkin Patch and Scarecrow! Inspired by a penchant for the autumn season and a dream of celebrating my birthday (and thanksgiving) when pumpkins are abundant and leaves are all orange and brown!

~Mummy packets~ and, yes! we ALSO used crepe. :D

2016:

When I searched for "Halloween door décor" in Pinterest, a mummy was one of the results. Tweaked it up a bit by adding the fake web and spiders, tomb-ish mummy encasing made from crumpled grocery paper bags, and "home of the mummy" signage. Mom created the packaging for the candy!

P.S. If you want to achieve "The Mummy"" look, choose crepe which is cost effective (and a more appropriate material) than (bathroom) tissue rolls. hihi