Mrs Birks Blogs

Looking back over this blog, I find it VERY difficult to believe that I have never written about Harry Potter before.  In fact, I did start writing a post last year but looking back it only contained one sentence, so no wonder I didn't post it! Anyway, the daughter and I are HUGE fans of Harry Potter.  I couldn't wait until she was old enough to 'get into' Potter and now she is like a walking encyclopedia.  We have loads of the books - original, illustrated and Kindle in Motion version, plus house colours (Ravenclaw) and an American Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I have a Hogwarts and Slytherin 'goblet' from the original WB store and we were given the original Lego Hogwarts and Hagrid's Hut.  As I write this, I'm in my Hogwarts hoodie and I'm being to see how obsessed we seem... But before this turns into a list of stuff, this post is all about indulging in your Potter addiction by visiting some of the best Potter attractions.  Now h

Everyone knows that I do like a bit of upcycling.  In fact recently, we upcycled our very old and very grotty Ikea table.  I mention that it's an Ikea one so that you all know that I didn't destroy a fantastic, retro piece of furniture with glue and paint.  It was already a grotty looking thing that had started yellowing pretty badly, so we had nothing to lose by upcycling in a slightly experimental way. When we cleared out my in-laws house we kept some of their old maps - I had a vague notion of doing something crafty with them.  What we hadn't noticed when Barbara and Nick were alive was that everytime we had moved house (and we have moved house a lot) they had bought an Ordnance Survey map of that area.  The husband and I were both really touched by this, so the maps felt even more special and we thought we might want some of them 'out' to look at.  Queue perfect marriage of table that needs a tidy up and maps of special places we have been. I painted th