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Harty Porter

As promised in the last blog you get to see some travel adventures. There is a funny little back story to this blog. Several of our friends have recently moved away to finish grad school  and we were trying to figure out how to go see all of them scattered across the country. I suggested instead we all vacation together and go to the Wizarding World of  Harry Potter, which of course auto corrected to Harty Porter. At that point we decided it was destiny. 


Somehow we managed in a matter of just a few months to make real the Harty Porter trip of 2016. This involved coordinating the vacations of  7 adults with all of their adult lives and responsibilities, along with one teen and one child. I am astounded we pulled it off and so glad we did.  

We are absolutely exhausted from 26miles worth of running around theme parks but it was a great way to spend the anniversary of my mother in laws death. She was a big fan of Harry Potter and it gave us an excuse to be with friends. 

I’m not huge on taking pictures when I go places simply because I tend to be to busy making memories but here are a few. The universal parks have never interested me before but they have outdone themselves with Harry Potter. Their attention to detail is absolutely amazing. 


Knockturn alley was one of my favorite spots. It gave us a respite from the 116 degree heat index and had some cool interactive spots, as well as Borgan and Burkes which was probably the best shop in the park. 

There was also a super interesting little tattoo parlor in knockturn. I’ll post the Live Photos on the Tiny Bows Facebook so you can see the animation.

Escape from Gringotts  was by far the best theme park ride I’ve ever ridden. It’s a hybrid roller coaster so it is on rails and has dips and turns like a typical coaster, but the cart is also on a gimble which allows it to move around when the ride is stationary during a cinematic moment. Add to that excellent 3D as well as heat and water effects and it’s absolutely amazing.



Oh and of course we all went to olivanders and we all got wands



I didn’t just go to Harry Potter. There were other parts we enjoyed. And once again universal’s detail was amazing. 

Oh and I was reunited with a childhood friend. I lost my chilly willy stuffed animal when I was 5 and nothing could replace him. Until now. It only took 25 years.
I’ve mentioned that their attention to detail at universal is amazing but they also have amazing quality souviners and we will be redecorating the library thanks to their inspiration. So look outfit that. 

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Late for a date

Okay, not late. In fact, very early. Halloween is over a month away but I couldn’t help trying out a costume. I was actually inspired by the clock I demolished then repurposed way back in this blog post here. 

I’ve always loved Alice in Wonderland but I’ve never been able to pull off Alice herself (ok maybe when I was like, 6 with glorious long blond hair) 

  
So enter the white rabbit

I started with a base of high coverage foundation

     

 Then went in with white cream to highlight or bring certain features forward. Making my nose and upper lip appear more protuberant. I started out using a cream face paint then just decided NYX shadow base in Milk would work better, it did. 

I then did some cream shadows to get a more herbavore face going. A stark shadow low under the cheek bone and under the jaw line and down the nose and a little bit of shadow to upturn the lips. I kept all of these shadows grey to stay with in the monochromatic look. 

  

  
Then I set everything and intensified it with powders, turns out I don’t have a stark white powder but a slightly pearlescent eyeshadow worked relatively well and added a little more dimension

On to a few details I used a black eyeliner to do the philtrum (that little cleft under the nose) and black and grey to do the eye brows. 

  

  
I gave the brows a very flat and tapered (almost permanently worried) look

And I used a baby pink lipstick set with shadow for the nose.

  
For the eyes I did a really simple smokey look just running black liner through the water and tight line and smudging it through the lash line and along the crease. I wanted to keep it messy and easy. To give it some color I used the same pink shadow (or blush) I used on my nose to blend around the crease of the eye. Liberal amounts of mascara or false lashes and the eyes were done 

I also applied liberal amounts of blush which you can see in the eyeshadow picture.  I took it from the apples of the cheeks up to the temple area. To make sure I didn’t lose the highlight effect I did touch up with the pearlescent white as a cheekbone highlight. 

  
Now the fun details. I just took a small detail brush and using the same pink as before began to draw a clock face around one of my eyes. Enter the crisis where I can’t figure out if I did the clock face backwards thanks to how my spacial reasoning sucks then you add mirrors to that. 

  
Once I was satisfied with the placement I started to intensify it with darker colors making it look as though it were a shadow or brand on the face. First grey then a little black. 

  
Pop on some ears pin up the hair.

  
And put on your bunny smile.

I don’t have all my accessories yet. There will be a giant bow tie and of course my clock lantern. But I’m pretty happy with how it turned out for a first attempt. 

  

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Free!

I am going to attempt the impossible. I set out to make a completely free diy project.

  
And by free I mean by using leftover “junk” around the house.

  
Let’s start with some bottle caps, 10 to be exact. Grab my trustee nail polish and pick out a couple of contrasting colors. Paint 5 bottle caps one color 5 another.

  
A couple more colors and some Xs and Os, you can probably see where this is headed.

  
Next grab a little linen sack or something similar. This one came from some novelty gum Mr. Smith just had to have. Use a fabric pen or paint or just a sharpie to put on the grid.

  
Once everything is dry you can toss it all in the bag and voila you have an on the go conflict resolution implement for the kiddos, or frustration for the adults when they figure out how to always end up in a draw.