what is this magic?

it's that time of year again...

Celestine does enjoy to feel festive. She's been planning her Christmas outfit too lately. She wants a red satin dress with red tulle under the skirt and a holly and berry hair decoration to match.

 

An October Activity

Quite a while back I designed an activity to go along with Witch's Cat. It is a guide for how to make your own little paper diorama based on the kitchen scene in the book. If you have kids maybe it is something they would enjoy as an autumn/Halloweeny activity.

HERE is the link to where you can print out a pdf of the activity. I would suggest printing it out on card if possible.

This is what is included:

A little Witch's Cat character with lots of kitchen items, some of them left blank for you to draw in your own things. 

The table with the red spotted table cloth as seen in the book:

And lots of food boxes which can be cut out and constructed.

A chair:
A saucepan:

 And also the background which you can print out and set behind the character if you so wish.

Harpercollins actually made a little video showing how to make the diorama which is on twitter. This is how theirs looked at the end:

★★★★★★★★★ 

Princess Ballroom!

Last week I made a ballroom for the princess books.  It ended up being the biggest room set I have ever made! I thought it ought to be big though as it was a royal ballroom.

It was requested that the floor should be wooden which was something I had to think about how to make- because the floor was so big . In the end I found some very thin sheets of wood, cut them into individual miniature planks and stuck them down one by one. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and I was really pleased with the effect so that was all good!

Here's a close up of the floor:

It was also suggested that a grand piano could be included in the ballroom. I was very taken with that idea so went right ahead and created a gold glittery piano fit for a princess.

Here's how the whole ballroom looked. The pillars and panels were another challenge- something I had not tried before. I was pleased with how they came out though. I also used a string of fairy lights poked through the walls to create lighting round the edge of the room.

Again the flowers were another little challenge. I bought some cheap ones and then spent quite a while painting them (with Henry's help!) different shades of purple and then glittering them up.

I took a few shots without daylight to show how the lights on the walls light up. I think it looks more atmospheric this way. 

Here come some princesses!

 I especially like their glittery skirts:

I am looking forward to seeing how all this will look once it's photographed professionally and put into one of the books!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Hello from Celestine

Hi everyone. It's Celestine here! Harriet's a little too busy to blog right now as it's the wedding eve eve and she has been busy setting everything up. I said 'Don't panic,' in my most calming of voices. I said 'I will take it upon myself to write a blog post. I know it's a great faff for me what with the keyboard being so big and everything (do you know how much longer it takes to type when you are only 4 inches tall!?) but I will do it for you out of the kindness of my heart. Harriet said 'Celestine writing a blog post is not really top of the to do list right now, don't worry about it' but I insisted. I absolutely insisted.

So yes, whilst everyone has been very busy today setting up the marquee and putting decorations up and finding boxes of fairies and driving here there and everywhere, I have been practicing being a bridesmaid. You can see how well I've been practicing by these photos. Do you like my necklace? I made it especially for the wedding. It's swarovski crystal. It's extremely sparkly.

Though actually... I won't really be a real real bridesmaid at the wedding sniff sniff...

I was very upset to hear this at first. I sobbed for absolutely days. But slowly I came round to understanding the reasons why:

One is that being so much smaller than the other bridesmaids I will not be able to keep up with them as they walk down the aisle. Even if I sprint at my fastest run. (And sprinting would just look silly anyway)

Two is that there would be a high risk of me being stepped on. And that would be even worse than looking silly sprinting down the aisle. A squashed Celestine would not be a nice wedding present for Harriet.

So then I suggested that I could be on top of the wedding cake instead of being a bridesmaid. But then I realised what a boring job that would be and I decided that it would just be better for me to watch the wedding from a nice safe place. So that is what I am going to do.

Harriet says it's ok because I am still a bridesmaid in spirit and I can still have a nice bridesmaids dress to wear in the colour of my choice. I chose pink becasue it suited me best. And then today I wore my bridesmaid dress and picked some flowers from the garden and had some photos taken. It's not as good as being a real bridesmaid but it will have to do.

It's actually quite a tragic story now I think about it all. 

Ah well...

I'm getting a bit tired from all this jumping around the keyboard now so I think I will wrap this up soon.

I might write another blog post sometime though. I've quite enjoyed it. It's been cathartic to talk about my experience of not being a bridesmaid.

I'll leave you with a photo of my lovely dressing table in my (unfinished) castle. You can see my sparkly swarovski wedding necklace sitting in my jewellery box (just before I put it on today). Also, on the left, my gold cornish pisky ornament I got when we went to Cornwall last year.

Bye for now!

Love Celestine 

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