Swish and Flick✨

Hello, all my fellow witches and wizards out there! (And hello to all the muggles as well!) I hope that you're all having a great day!

If any of you are Harry Potter fans, then you must've had a little bit of Felix Felicis because today, we're going to be making something really special!

I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter! The films and the books are honestly beyond amazing, and completely fantastic! I was so excited when I got sorted last year, (Ravenclaw pride! Are any of you Ravenclaws?) and it was so cool to get my wand! I've been to the Wizarding World of HP twice, and it's completely wonderful! Seriously, It's so surreal to see the magic of the Harry Potter series come to life! Sadly, I didn't have time to look in Olivanders. I was only able to look through the window both times because it was extremely crowded (the perks of peak season :( ). However, after getting my wand on Pottermore; I thought about how much fun it would be to make my own wand, and that is exactly what we'll be doing today; making our very own wands! With the release of the new illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I thought it would be really fun and very fitting! Here's what you'll need:

1: A reference picture of the wand that you're going to make. You can make one of the characters wands or, you can have fun and do whatever design that you'd like! If you have a Pottermore account, you can take the quiz to get your wand so you can do the custom design that they give you! There's also a lot of information on the wand and the exact size of it.

2: The second thing you will need is, chopsticks. (Any kind of long wooden sticks will work if you don't have chopsticks.)

3: Hot glue, and a hot glue gun.

4: Brown acrylic paint (or any color paint that you'd like the wand to be.)

5: A paint brush or a painting sponge.

6: A pencil.

7: A paper plate for mixing the paints.

Step 1 

The very first thing that you want to do, is plug in your hot glue gun so that the glue can start getting warmed up. While you're waiting for it to get hot, get out your reference picture if you've chosen to use one. I was originally planning on making my wand from Pottermore however, my particular wand design has a lot of intricate details that were a bit hard to do with the glue gun, so I deiced to make up a design instead.

Step 2 

Take out your chopsticks and pencil. Start marking and measuring the places where you're going to be adding the hot glue. (I did these marks before I decided to make up a design instead.)You especially want to do this if you're using a reference picture because it will be a lot easier. Of crouse you don't have to do this, but I would highly recommend it because marking where your going to put the glue will give you clear guidelines to follow since you have to move a bit quickly when working with the hot glue because it dries fast. 

*Caution*

Just a reminder, please BE CAREFUL! It sounds a bit funny to say but seriously hot glue does get hot! It can get extremely hot and you can easily burn yourself! (I'm speaking from experience guys!) So please, please be careful! 

Step 3

Now for the fun, yet tricky part. So before we can add our glue; you want to make sure that it isn't too hot because if it is, the glue will start to drip off rather than stick on. When your glue does get really hot: be sure to rotate the chopstick. You want to start carefully putting the hot glue on your wand. If you're using chopsticks, a lot of them tend to have a square-shaped top. Take your glue and make the top rounded and also a lot thicker than the rest of the wand since this will be our handle. Once you've finished your handle you can start adding your design! It's best if you slowly rotate the wand as you do this so you can get an even coat of glue. It also helps to use another pair of chopsticks to even out the glue. Also, if you're not copying a design; don't be afraid to add lots of texture and design because that's what's going to give your wand it's one of a kind look! For my design, I kept twirling the chopstick so that it could have a cool spiral look. 

Step 4
Once the glue has dried, it's time to add the paint! You can use any color that you'd like! I'm using acrylic paint and I mixed a bunch of colors until I got the one that I wanted. It's best if you do one color for the base, and then a thin coat of another color on top, but feel free to use as many colors as you'd like. I used about 5 different colors. Adding more color will give your wand more of an aged look, which in my opinion makes it look a bit more authentic. 

Step 5

Once you're happy with the colors, wait until the paint has dried completely and; you're done! You now have your very on own wand!✨

I hope you all enjoyed this D-I-Y! See you soon! 

Illuminate 💙

Hello, everyone, I hope that you're all having a fantastic day! So I have to ask; is anyone else sitting here wondering how it's already October? Where did September go? Although I love fall, I seriously feel like September and the summer months went by so quickly! 

Thinking back to all the good times I've had this summer, I thought I’d talk about the absolute highlight of my summer, going to see Shawn Mendes on his Illuminate world tour!💙 

So my awesome sister found the early bird tickets for Shawn’s concert back in November (which was eight months before we actually went to the concert). I've been a fan of Shawn’s for a few years now, and when she asked me if I wanted to go; I had of YES with no hesitation! 

It was so amazing because I would have never thought that I would be able to go, but the timing was perfect, and the tickets were such a good price!

As the months passed, I was eagerly waiting for the day to come! Every time I listened to Illuminate or handwritten, It just made me feel even more excited! I kept thinking about how amazing it would be to see Shawn in person, and how cool it was going to be to hear all my favorite songs live, I just couldn't wait! 

After months of impatiently waiting, (and constantly asking my sister for the date on the tickets to make sure I had the right date) the day of the concert had finally arrived! 

Everything went so smooth and perfect! We left the house at a perfect time, there was no traffic, our seats were way closer than I thought, and the arena was completely amazing! 

The concert itself was so beyond incredible! Charlie Puth opened the show, and let me just say that he was amazing, like seriously so amazing! 

When Shawn finally came out on the stage, I couldn't contain my excitement! He was just unbelievably phenomenal! The concert was so interactive and it was so much fun! The lights and graphics were beautiful and whole show was honesty just everything! 

The illuminate tour was one of the greatest experiences that I've had this year! I danced like there was nobody there (yes my jokes are extremely corny). I sang to all the songs, and I may or may not have teared up on a few songs. (*cough* ‘A little too much, *cough*)

Overall, I had the most incredible time! Shawn Mendes is honestly just so amazing and getting to see him in concert literally felt so surreal! I just kept looking at the stage and thinking, oh my goodness that's really him! Oh my goodness, I'm actually here!😱

It was honestly the best day ever, and I'm so extremely happy and grateful that I got to experience such an absolutely amazing concert! 

The only downside, dealing with post-concert depression.😂