Where It Began…..

…… Was as a child growing up with my parents and also my grandmother (aka Nana) and my uncle who all lived with us together. Since both my parents had to work, I was fortunate to spend time at home with Nana. From her, I learned how to work jigsaw puzzles, loving to read and crocheting.

On Saturday evenings, we’d all drive to shop at Great Eastern Mills on Rt 46 Totowa and one of the things I looked forward to was a trip to the book department with my grandmother where we’d hunt for the next Nancy Drew Mystery for us to read. We usually got two or three so that we could each read one without having to wait for the other to finish it. From there, I began to hunt out other reading as I grew up at the library. Shakespeare, Greek mythology even in fifth and sixth grade. And it was in those grades, I found the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey and my introduction to the world of fantasy was complete. As you can see (points to her screen name) it’s been a life long love.

With that history, its not surprising that I am now a fan of the Harry Potter seriesof JK Rowling. What was surprising was that it took me till 2002 to really begin reading it and become enthralled with it all.

During those years, I also watched as my grandmother crocheted. She would sit with steel hooks (which I am fortunate enough to now have) and thread and do amazing things. She made me an entire blouse out of Irish Rose motifs. I also saw the creative abilities of my godmother who crocheted as well (and still does even in her 80’s). By the age of nine, Nana had taught me the basics and I would make small things — change purses, doll scarves — whatever I could think of.

Over the years, I’ve added other crafts to my “repetoire” as it were: counted cross stitch, scrapbooking, sewing, knitting and others. It was no surprise that somehow, my love of reading and my love of crafts would eventually meet up and I would begin crafting Harry Potter related items. Somehow that led to my working as a crafty witch here at the Leaky Caulron where I have made some wonderful friends.

Hopefully, I can share my love of both Harry and Crafts with you in this blog.