the bewitching hour.

...is almost upon us!

 

{this year's halloween cards}

all hallows eve.

xo. di.

*image 1, image 2 via poppytree's etsy shop, image 3 via sara jane studio's etsy shop

halloween decor: final round

it's halloween weekend!  my most favoritest holiday!  i think that calls for a couple of extra weekend posts, don't you?

just a few little touches to share with you all today. i had a lot of fun this season slowly adding to my halloween displays after much inspiration from fabulously creative bloggers.  so, for example, even though i already posted on my mantel, you'll see a few pictures of it below with new additions!  

{my "spooky book" collection!}

just one more day until all hallows eve!  are you ready?!  i most definitely am!

xo. di. 

*all images from my personal collection

legends: october.

the book legends by john miller catalogs "women who have changed the world."  given to me as a gift 8 years ago, it inspired me to dedicate the last friday of every month's post to a different legend (in my humble opinion).

this month, a natural choice for me if you've been reading my "potter watch" posts: j.k. rowling, author of the harry potter book series.

“the greatest gift the harry potter series has given 

to the world is the freedom to use our imaginations.” 

-oprah winfrey

 “in the end, love wins. . . when a person dies, love isn’t turned off like a tap, [a] faucet.  

it is an amazingly resilient part of us.”

{chapter one of book one, with movie stills} 

“i definitely know that…that love is the most important thing of all. and i remember thinking that when 9/11 happened. because those last phone calls were all about – knowing that this was the last thing i was going to say on this earth – was i love you. what’s more powerful than that? what’s more proof
than that?  beyond fear.  beyond death."

 

 {signature edition for bloomsbury cover art}

“and so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. it is impossible to live without failing at something.  unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”
-JKR, Harvard Commencement Speech

{special edition cover art}

“failure. it’s so important. it doesn’t get spoken about enough. we speak about success all the time.  but you know, i do not know any - i haven’t met anyone … not one of them didn’t have their failure.  more than one failure. it’s the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to the greatest success.”

{harry potter U.S. cover art}

to say that jkr and this series has had a significant impact on my life is certainly true, but also a vast understatement.  this woman deserves every bit of legend status that she receives.  

{the cast with jkr (from left rupert grint as ron weasley, jkr, emma watson as hermione granger, daniel radcliffe as harry potter ) 
at the premiere of harry potter and the half-blood prince, summer 2009}

"sometimes i know what i believe because of what i’ve written…”

xo. di.

*image 1, image 2 by horacio prada, image 3-6, 8 via bewitchthemind's flickr photostream, image 7 
**all quotes said by j.k. rowling to oprah winfrey, the oprah winfrey show's october 1, 2010 episode 

this & that: october

since i started this little blog, i've been carrying my camera with me almost every where i go.  i find a take so many more pictures than i ever have before, and i was already big into pictures.  i've also started noticing that i have a collection of images stored up that don't fit neatly into any sort of post, so all these great images never get shared.

that's why i came up with my newest monthly series: "this and that."  toward the end of each month, i'll put together a this & that post with all of those miscellaneous pictures, both mine and others i've found around the interwebs. 

 

and for my own photos:

{some more fall decor}

 

 {wandering lincoln park}

 {city hall - i love that mayor daley does this!}

 {full moon last week!}

{sunset on lake michigan from new buffalo, michigan}

xo. di.

 

*image 1 via lox papers, image 2 via 33 shades of green, image 3 via centsational girl, image 4 & 5 via poppytalk, image 6 via bloom, grow, love, all others from my personal collection

twisted.

anyone still in need of a halloween costume?!  how about this twisted and dark take on our beloved disney princesses.  

 

 

 

 

 

quite spooktacular.

xo. di.

*all images by illustrator jeffrey thomas via comics alliance (see the rest of the princesses there too!)

potter watch: part III

time for part III of my wizarding world of harry potter at universal islands of adventures review!  (part I and part II)!

getting sick of this yet?!  shoot, maybe.  ha.  well this is my second to last post, can you hang in there?  i promise there are cool things to see!  so today is all about the actual village...and the shops it contains.

as you walk into the harry potter "island," you are greeted with... the hogwarts express in hogsmeade station!

and now into the village we go...

 

shop windows galore

{mandrake!  complete with noises drifting from the shop window!}

and now a peek into the shops...

honeyduke's sweet shop

 

zonko's joke shop

 

ollivander's

 

the owl post

 

 {there's a "howler" in the middle of the window there!}

dervish & banges

 

{hagrid's the monster book of monsters!}

{being goofy and playing dress-up!}

visiting tip: ollivander's, the owl post, and dervish & banges are actually all connected to each other inside.  if you want to see ollivander help a witch or wizard choose her or his wand (or, i should say, have the wand choose the wizard!), there is a separate line for that.  they allow about 10 people in every 10 minutes, so this line becomes very long very fast, and doesn't die down at any point in the day.  so, if you have early admission, go there first, before it gets crazy.  seriously, go there first.  after the little presentation, they lead you into the combined owl post/dervish & banges where you can buy your own wand and countless other hogwarts-inspired souvenirs.  if you choose to skip the ollivander's presentation, you can just go into the owl post/dervish & banges, but note that as the day wears on, this shop gets a line too.  it moves faster than the ollivander's line, but it still exists.  either go through the shops (and this includes honeyduke's, zonko's, and the butterbeer stands p.s.) early in the day, or late in the day after a lot of families with young kids have already headed home.  you'll save yourself a lot of time AND annoyance by timing when you go where.  during the middle of the day (like 12-3 p.m.), we headed to the rest of the islands in the park (jurassic park, marvel, dr. seuss, etc.) and rode those rides while everyone else was at harry potter.  by the time we got back into the wizarding world, it was a much saner place!

a few extra touches

{the bathrooms had the voice of moaning myrtle chatting  with (more like yelling at!)  you - too cute!}

 {butterbeer tasted like cream soda on steroids - SO sweet, hard to drink more than one!}

  {i love my sirius black!}

 {just a couple of ravenclaws, hanging out in hogsmeade for the day...}

{the second entrance, on the other side of the village}

final next week potterwatch: inside the three broomsticks and hog's head pub!

xo. di.

*images from my personal collection