so yesterday was the midnight screening for the last harry potter film, and...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
(for my review on part 1: go here)

the screening started half an hour late and a reminder to myself: no midnight screenings at george street ever again -.-
good thing about the crowd was they reacted pretty much in line with my own reactions, which is more than i can say for some of the other screenings i've been to...cough
 
anyway, once again, i went in unprepared. 

well, i was prepared to shed a few tears. 

but loooooooooooool, i didn't expect to be ugly-crying for like a FULL hour

-.- what the hell. 

not cool.
(also, not cool for isaac who was sitting beside me and just shaking his head at my sobs)

BEWARE: SPOILER FILLED POST

 harry potter & the deathly hallows: part 2
...

this is basically a my-feelings post rather than a recap because honestly i don't really remember what happened all that well
i thought it started off a bit slow but then about 20 minutes in, it really picked up and then kind of...never went back down

favourite parts
i loved the gringotts scene, and fully felt like i was actually on a rollercoaster. wouldn't be surprised at all if they incorporated it into the harrypotterworld ride.
HBC acting as hermione, she totally got her huffiness downpat
when everyone started putting up protection spells around hogwarts and it was like UNITY!
the random (intentionally) comedic moments amongst the intense,  like neville on the bridge, ron speaking parseltongue and minerva being cute
surprisingly, the scene with the grey lady...completely freaked me the fudge out. she was so creepy. but so well done.
snape's death, oh my gosh, pull out my heartstrings (so graphic, and yet, not)
how they showed the deaths, and just the montage during the pause in the battle
tears pouring when they showed fred's death, and lupin and tonks WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
(i was already crying when they were foreshadowing)
(and i still can't look at screencaps without wanting to tear up)
the pensieve scene...T.T...and harry's face as he chooses his death and just the whole part leading up to his death and...sob sob sob
like when all the parental figures in his life came back and gave him the pep talk :(
the score was, such a good tribute to earlier scores past and the drums just hit me at the core (lol i'm listening to it right now and feeling completely epic)
and then once again, the acting was just so. much. better. than the earlier films (note: this difference has been highlighted by the fact i watched POA over the weekend)
but ohmygosh, any time they showed a flashback to the older movies = tears in my eyes
i realise now, how many fierce female characters there are in the series - like minerva and bellatrix, fierce.
and the next generation of kids in the epilogue - albus severus, YOU ARE SUCH A DOLL.

could have been better
the final battle could have been a bit better - specfically, molly's fight against bellatrix...that could have been more epic
the aberforth scene was a bit lacking
some of the graphics were a bit weird...like in the gringotts vault...that was a little bit noticeably cgi for me, but not too bad
the kings cross chapter was a bit lolsy
i thought the whole section after harry's resurrection was a bit...iffy (because i'm nitpicking?), it was a series of random lolsy moments...like some randomly cheesy lines and then voldemort's laugh and that awkward hug with draco...like, what. the. hell.
...if i hadn't gotten used to their awkward treatment of romance, i would've been...-.-
just random things that were missing


but overall, i loved it.
it was such a fun, epic ride
i love the cast they picked and how they've turned out as adults (everyone knows i love a bit of offscreen comradery coughlotrcough)

love how the movies went from dodgy-ish but fun to good AND fun

it's so hard to explain what i feel about harry potter, because i'm not a massive fan and i'm not versed in the lore, i don't read fanfic and i don't camp out, i don't really feel compelled to defend it or anything...

but i've enjoyed waiting for the books to come out and the movies to come out. i don't think i realised until this year that i've just very coincidentally ended up reading the last few books the day they've come out, and very coincidentally ended up watching some of the movies the day they've come out. accidentally, sitting there on opening night, like it was fate. 

so it's just very randomly, magically, grown to mean a lot to me...

now, i can't wait to start rereading the books <3
and also, preparing myself to go again soon xD

 

mischief managed, 

donna.

this poor neglected blog

can't wait until i hand in my proposal...eventually...

if only this actually worked...

donna.

lol i love so many of them

but these just stand out tonight

donna.

most of the food was prepared by my mum
(even the sandwiches, since she thought my sandwiches sucked
so she ended up remaking them)
lol.

but i made cauldron cakes on my own.
and i know i've said this to death, but i've seriously never baked anything remotely complicated so i was super proud of how these looked (in photos) xD

i used bakingdom's double double chocolate cauldron cakes recipe

 

 

and then for the ~cockroach clusters

i just used the basic chocolate crackles recipe from the kellog's website 

mmmm~ copha <3

 

everything was pretty much standard DONNA'S AWESOME MUM party food
except the copious amounts of candy
that sugar...
still can NOT get over how much of it was consumed, considering the average age of the patrons was...23?
*not held responsible for any cavities aside from my own

donna.

decided i wanted a photobooth quite early on
because photobooths are SO AWESOME!

can't remember which website i followed the instructions for, but basically just needed these basics:

• dslr
• dlsr remote
• tripod
• laptop
• tethered shooting software - i used sofortbid
• fancy background
• fancy props - i made a bunch of moustache, lips etc out of felt and skewers, found a bunch of random stuff around the house (big sunnies, hats, etc)
• instructions for use

lol me testing the photobooth and random albus settings xD

was a major major success!
<3
will post up my top pics later tonight :P

donna.

probably the thing i put the most effort into, aside from the cauldron cakes
got both ideas from some other blogs that held some SUPER epic harry potter parties
(have the links saved somewhere but don't have them atm)

basically, i knew i really wanted to paint the platform 9 3/4 sign (lol)
and maybe even emulate the brick wall that they run through

Basically just bought a piece of maroon cardboard from the newsagency
Had a bunch of paint leftover from my scrapbooking days - just needed black, white and gold - so i didn't even need to spend money on that
final step was just to print out a picture of the sign from the movies

started out with a faint pencil sketch

then painted from inside to outside
so started with the logo, before moving on to the edges and the lettering

final product:

for the brickwall, i just bought a 2m piece of calico
then painted the bricks with a piece of red and black paint
before splattering the leftover paint (diluted with water) to make some splatters
super fun!

unfortunately, i didn't take a picture of the final product for the brickwall
but it was awesome painting the bricks :P


i didn't allow myself to do anything for a couple of days while i finished my assignment
but yeah, super hard not thinking about it xD

donna.

the weekend before my birthday party, i went all over sydney to buy fabric and decorations
it was hectic
but lovely spending time with mum, who shared my enthusaism for the party <3

 

(no worries people, my actual address isn't on the map xD)

first stop was at lombard paper people

a little dusty party shop on silverwater road

it was hilarious because there were huge cardboard cut-outs of the harry potter characters for $25

and mum was full like, OMGOSH YOU MUST GET DIS!!!!

but i'm like, hell no. 

also love my mum, because she saw rob and was like, hey it's that vampire you like!

hahahah <3

we were there for awhile, fascinated with the halloween decorations

 

got a whole heap of raffia (for use as broomstraw xDDD), a couple of cauldron and pumpkin candy holders, some harry potter glasses (which i didn't end up using at. all.), a wizard's hat and harry's fugly plastic wand. 

then next stop was rhodes shopping centre for good ol' ikea and hot dollar

went to ikea first and got a whole bunch and random jars and candle holders 

and a pillowcase filled with batting that...was supposed to be for spider webs (fail.)

got barred by mum from doing serious damage because she was all like NO TIME!

then stopped by aunty dong's place to grab a whole heap of random stuff

got more jars and party decorations and stuff

most importantly, got the awesome qudditch hulahoop goals

funniest thing was when mum open a short black hair wig (centre-parted) and put it on my head

IT WAS SO HIDEOUS.

after hot dollar, we drove to spotlight

(stopped shortly at bunnings to see if they had any cheap ~broomstick-like wood sticks but no luck)

bought A WHOLE HEAP of fabric at spotlight for my cape, the brick wall and the photobooth background 

had heated discussion over which fabric to get for photobooth background

but we finally settled on the awesome tackiness that was the shiny velvet starry night background xD

final stop was at castle towers

but didn't really buy anything (from memory)

ended up getting all the food at woolies the night before :P

pretty sure i was upposed to be working on my job analysis assignment

but ended up painting for the party instead xD

donna.

yes, i've been lazy
but last week was HECTIC. HECTICCCCCCCC!
(i'm going to backward blog when i have time. hopefully tomorrow)

anyway, yesterday was harry potter party.
so. much. love. <3

highlights

preparations

• janice watching me attempt and fail at making spiderwebs out of pillow stuffing 
• janice asking me what to do with the decorations and me just telling her to make stuff up
• the frustration of the cauldron cake handles 
• testing out the photobooth and taking a bajillion shots because we overcompensated the movements 
• cherry arriving with lucious malfoy and how impressed janice was
• lucious malfoy
• lucious malfoy's hair cape
• mum asking cherry for help (and not me) 
• mum remaking my sandwiches because they're ugly 
• joe and the pumpkin 
• twin arriving as pokemon ash 
• the soybean machine making noise and everyone being confused but thinking it's ok cos mum never mentioned it and then half hour later mum's like, what's that noise?
• me and cherry changing into our costumes and listening out for the arriving guests 

party time

• becoming harry potter
• 90% of everyone had impressive costumes <3 
• everyone being impressed by my mum's general lolsi-ness and cookability 
• baking the meat pies - jenny telling me to check and hy being in charge of quality control 
• the three gay ones in mum's room being really anal about their costumes - twin not being able to make any sort of facial expression at. all.
• how cool the dumbledore and dementor costumes were
• the dementor going into isaac's room and isaac just kicking him away in his boxers
• ~intepreting kevin's open to interpretation costumes 
• that awkward moment where everyone arrives and it's like...what are we doing? because the host hasn't planned anything
• accidentally pushing joe to the ground cos i'm mean  
• isaac waking up and being all WTF, especially when he turned around and saw voldemort
• making everyone watch hp1 
• everyone's general awe at the amount of sugar provided 
• covering michelle whilst she was trying to put her stomach back on - to stop the inappropriateness but it ended up looking really inappropriate 
• voldemort refusing to eat while in costume. and then coming back as ash to eat. 
• anna insisting we play quidditch and everyone making their broomsticks - special note: joe likes bright pink 
• everyone donning gladwrap garbage bags because of the rain 
• everyone braving the rain and the dark and the cold for quiddtich
• everyone getting tired out by the epicness of quidditch 
• watching hp2 up to lucious' entrance
• hp7!
• everyone saying "HEY thats me!" as they watched the movies
• intermission for cake: wynnie's cake, everyone refusing to sing happy birthday and then refusing to hip hip hooray 
• everyone continuing to watch HP7! and realising that it's so much more fun watching HP movies when i'm around 
• joyce asking for board games repeatedly and coming up to me to rally people
• finally playing cranium
• janice not leaving and mum's consistent insistence that she does (in chinese)

quidditch

• choosing the human snitch 
• the feather falling off the pumpkin hat
• being the moving hoop-goal
• jenny telling me not to push her and then falling to the ground 
• jesslau the awesome snitch 
• michelle the fail snitch 
• cherry and michelle acting as decoy snitches and almost getting killed
• the death of about 90% of the broomsticks and everyone's creative ways to avoid ~falling out of the air
• realising that we're a really competitive bunch 
• hearing my dear cousin telling everyone to target me -.-;; 
• joe almost punching wynnie in the face 
• everyone getting wet socks and shoes, and in jenny's case, pants

cranium 

• jumping on the bandwagon - joyce's 4-act play 
• shoe shopping - joyce's insistence that money is important, everyone saying they'd do a better job and then completely failing, joe's politeness at being the puppeteer
• joe's humming and how everyone thought it sounded familiar but couldn't quite get it
• anna's humpback whale - that really humped 
• kevin's school disco - consisting of ymca, macarena and nutbush (as it should be)
• me and anita saying how we can't spell backwards, and then getting that card on the critical round and then both arguing about going first and then getting periodical and anita just shouting P!
• lols

anything else?

donna.

i keep thinking that if i keep pushing my life back until my parents come home
how am i going to handle living independently?
but then i realised i'm not just taking care of myself, so i feel less incompetent.
i wonder how much of a hermit i would be if i were to live with myself...
(approximately 7, perhaps?)

spent the past two days compiling my usa photobook
was aiming at 160 pages but right now it's 200. need to cut. cut. cut. 
hopefully i'll be able to finish it by tomorrow or tuesday night
i'm thinking that i'm going to try out blurb's standard landscape book this time...

what other interesting things have happened?
oh, i had my first meeting with the workcover group on friday
richard's totally BFFs with michelle and it's really cute
they were pretty helpful and enthusiastic and it gave me hope that these four years might be bearable.

lastly, and weirdly enough, i find daniel radcliffe oddly attractive in these photos
tis a strange feeling. 

 

donna.

spoiler movie review post

harry potter & the deathly hallows: part 1

...

ohmygosh.

first, let me preface this with a warning. i love harry potter. 

i'm not like a hardcore hardcore fan, but harry potter is totally a part of my childhood and i really enjoy both the books and movies although they're both flawed in their own way. 

with that said, the movies have always been enjoyable but never quite...good.

the first few were good fun but not fantastic, the last few were pretty but badly acted and cut out/changed too much; leaving me ranting

this one is awesome.

i'm not really sure if it'll be as good for other people as it was for me, since i do lean more towards the fan side of the spectrum; but allow me to spaz...

basically, i had heard that this movie was going to cause a few tears, so i was prepared with tissues and stuff. little did i know, i would start tearing within the first minute. it was worse than up. 

that scene was just so well edited. and the score by alexander desplat was UNF.

i basically teared up throughout the entire movie, and it was pretty much raining on my face in the end. such a loser, but i was in good company (looks at cherry)

when i first heard that the book was going to be split into two films, i automatically thought it was for financial gain. while this may still hold true, at no point in the movie did i feel that it was unnecessarily drawn out. loved the pacing and darkness in this one. so glad they were allowed to make it darker <3

it was so pretty. cinemagraphically, the last film was already quite impressive but this one is even more beautiful. and the effects are...wow. i mean, dobby...GOSH. 

and i have no idea what happened between this movie and the last, but this one was so much better acted. i think that's one of the main reasons why i kept tearing. 

emma watson, GOOD ON YOU!

the torture scene had me by my heart strings. 

and basically any time friendships were tested or shone through, i was like awwwwwwww~

hilarious when i was sniffling, and then cherry was sniffling, and then the person next to cherry was sniffling and then the woman next to me started sniffling. apparently, cherry's neighbour stole her tissue. xD

amongst the tears, there were some great comedic moments as well. 

which is great, because otherwise, i would have been completely traumatised. 

also, some great horror-film-esque moments. it was hilarious when me and cherry both knew something was coming but they still managed to get us to jump out of our seats. 

and creepy things were so creepy. gosh, that woman. *shudders*

they had one animation scene that they used to tell a back story and it was soooooooooo ridiculously well done. it was like something out of pixar. i was just so impressed. 

spazzes: fdjaslkfjsl;afsajfsa

 can't really think of anything else at the moment

but i loved it. 

also, if you were at bondi cinemas today and you heard someone scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO when the movie ended...

that wasn't me.

it wasn't.

ETA: there were three old people who got polyjuiced and they were A PLUS!
also, random kissing was random and awkward dancing was awkward

donna.