Some random LOL's

So as I mentioned the other day I have been sick :( some silly head cold thing in the middle of summer!! Last night as I'm lying in bed I realize I realllllly wand a drink of water, but I don't want to get out of bed since I'm all snuggly and warm. So I send a text to my boyfriend who was at work (on the railroad all the live long day) Here are the texts and hilarity that ensued:

Turtle is my build-a-bear that James made me, he wears an Army uniform and James' dog tags. The picture on the right is what I sent James... excuse my messy room, being sick= not caring about mess lol

OH what's this?!? It appears that turtle bear has returned with a bottle of water!! YAY!

So there is a random glimpse into the sillyness that takes over when I'm sick. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, it made me feel so much better! New project Monday tomorrow :D Can't wait!!
<3 Megan & Turtle & James too!!

Harriet goes to a friends house!

Hey everyone, sorry for the late post, I'm not feeling 100% today and didn't make it to the computer until now. So I promised a new installment of Harriet the hamster. Today she visits a special young friend of mine (she's the one who I made the mini-quilt for) and well... lets see what happens:

Harriet is all ready to go!

Harriet meeting a new friend "Hammy" the guinea pig.

Harriet getting to take part in an American Girl fashion show!!

Posing with the models ;)

Getting ready for the sporty category!

Harriet decided to get involved with the festivities, here she is modeling the "beach/island bum" look, loving the grass hula skirt!

Harriet loves to play Star Wars on the Kinect, here she is saving the Wookies as a Jedi Padawan :)

Harriet also loves the "Vader and Son" books, this is one of her favorite parts!

The trip wrapped up with a camp out in a new tent!! Harriet had SO much fun and can't wait to visit all her new friends again!!

Later this week, see what happens when Hank and Harriet go shopping for a new home! Also, what happens when the power goes out? Harriet and I get creative!! All this and more coming up soon! Make sure to follow the blog to be kept up to date :D

~Megan~

*=^-^=* and Harriet

RTT: Butterflies

So as you can probably tell I have a very strong love of butterflies. I always have! My grandmother used to love butterflies and I remember going to her house and watching the butterflies fly around all the flowers she planted. Her favorite were Monarch butterflies, me I don't have a favorite per say, I find all butterflies to be beautiful.
Anyway the other day we went to the local community college to see a production of Bye Bye Birdie. On our way in a family friend pointed out a butterfly that she had seen fall from a tree, it was sitting on the ground by the parking lot. Without a second thought I went over and placed my finger near it, sure enough it climbed onto my hand and hung out for about 20 minutes! I always have a camera (whether on my phone, or my SLR so I hand my phone to my boyfriend so he could snap a few pics! I figured I would share those, and some of my other favorite butterfly pictures with you today for my random thought thursday :)

Here he is chilling in a dangerous place!

Aww so tiny!! I love the pale yellow color and little spots!

Bringing him to a safe place far away from stomping feet!

This was a butterfly who was in our yard the other day, just relaxing in the grass, he posed for quite a few pictures before taking off again!

I love the pattern on this one!

A lot of the things I do involve butterflies somehow, this blog, my etsy shop, even my YouTube username (flutteralways) It's a small way to remember the wonderful woman who inspired my love of butterflies :)

Hope you enjoyed my pictures!

I have a few other pictures from butterfly gardens and disney's butterfly exhibit but my iPhoto is sooooo cluttered right now and I have no idea where they are! I'll find them in a bit and upload them when I can!

New Hank and Harriet tomorrow :D

Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/ButterflyAttic

NPM: Harry Potter Knitted Sweater

So it's Monday and that means its time for a new project! I have been working on this Harry Potter American Girl sweater project for a LONG time. It's something I started a while ago and put down, I picked it back up last week and FINALLY finished it!! The pattern is from Liberty Jane, and while I love their items (affordable, easy to read patterns, who wouldn't!), this one was a bit of a disappointment for me! I followed the pattern exactly, but was upset that everything ended up being way to big :( The worst part is that I didn't even add in the extra stitches like they suggest to make the sleeves "wider". Not to mention that they want you to add in extra colors on the neckline after you have cast off... not an easy task for any knitter! I ended up crocheting mine because it looked more even and professional. As such I have decided to write my own pattern for a snugger fitting sweater based off of what I learned with this sweater. If you would like I can share that pattern here once it has been written (it may take a while, I'm slow with my patterns sometimes!!) I am also working on a matching crochet Harry Potter style skirt like the ladies wear in the Harry Potter movies! I will post that when it's done as well :D


Anyway, here is my very first ever sweater :D

This is my lovely "Mia" doll who I got on craigslist... she is a bit of a mess, but I love her anyway :P Someone cut her braid, so I have been working on fixing her "bangs" to look flat and cute, so far it looks a million times better... thinking of posting befores and afters tomorrow!

Mia is a Gryffindor as you can tell by the red and gold details in her sweater!

Mia's wand is handmade by me, if you would like your own doll size wand (or a full size wand for yourself!) you can find them on my etsy shop here

Hope you liked the pictures :) as usual comments are welcomed!!
Until tomorrow!
~Megan~

Harriet the Hamster

So last Friday I introduced you all to Hank the Traveling Hamster, well it was such a hit, and James and I had so much fun thinking of places to take Hank that I decided to make my own hamster to bring around when I'm not with James and Hank. I introduced Harriet the other day on the blog, but today she wants to tell you a little about herself!!!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my home! It's small but perfect for me, plus it's purple, one of my most favorite colors!!

Here is Megan and James' fish Cheese (named after the Fosters home for Imaginary Friends character) sometimes I get to feed him, he used to be yellow, but with lots of love and good food he changed color and turned blue!! Here he is watching me watch him :P

I love to take pictures, I am a bit of a photography nerd, I get that from Megan, she takes a TON of pictures all the time, I'm taking some of the rain here!

I love horses!! Hey look it's the tiny horse from Megan's earlier blog! She is so pretty, look at that wonderful mane! Maybe I should grow my hair out....

*sniff sniff* what is this thing!?!

I like watching DIY Network and HGTV, it gives me ideas on how to improve my little home!

Yay I just got my letter to Hogwarts! :D

Om nom nom, cinnamon poptarts

Here I am posing with my friend Cooper, he likes my turquoise bow!

So now that you know a little about Harriet, I'll be posting some of her stories soon! She and Hank have a lot planned! Thanks for reading :D

~Megan and Harriet~

RTT: Music

Everyone has a favorite song, and it's likely to change as you get older but certain songs speak to you more so than others. I for instance love songs that have a story to them, growing up my dad used to have a lot of MeatLoaf playing in the house, and I could sing all of "I would do anything for love; but I won't do that" as well as ALL of his other songs. Harry Chaplin is another one of those story telling artists, "Cats in the Cradle", even "30,000 pounds of Bananas".
My mom taught me to love good music behind the lyrics. My mom is a dance teacher, and she has been my teacher for over 20 years, and with her I learned to love rhythm and a solid beat.

Stick with me, here's the point to my rambling:
So when the two come together (that is amazing lyrics and a great beat) I tend to love the song and play it on repeat until everyone is annoyed to hear the song. As such I tend to analyze the lyrics. I figured for my random thought thursday I would share some of the lyrics that I still stop and think about whenever I hear them because they can mean SO many things:

Ok I have to put this one on here. As it is one of my favorite songs, but has a few strange lines:

Give me a second I 
I need to get my story straight 
My friends are in the bathroom 
Getting higher than the Empire State 
My lover she's waiting for me 
Just across the bar 
My seats been taken by some sunglasses 
Asking 'bout a scar 

Ok, so... I'm sure you've all heard it, I'm sure you all have your own thoughts, but whenever I hear the highlighted part I always thought it sounded like the guy in the song was coming back from the bathroom to see his girl sitting with some creep who was wearing sunglasses (I always thought he was probably really drunk and the light was bothering him... yeah these are the things I think lol) who was talking to her about some scar he has, you know the whole "see I got this when my motorcycle flipped, but the good news is I was able to save that family of puppies" you know some far fetched made up story. It wasn't until the other day that it came on in the car that my brother said "this is such a horrible song, don't you realize what he's saying" evidently lots of people think the girl is being interviewed by a cop (the sunglasses) and he's asking her about a scar that her boyfriend, the singer, gave to her. I sat there and listened and, horrors, it could be perceived that way as well!! Yet, to me the song is about loosing innocence, the night is young, 'we can burn brighter than the sun'... I don't know about you, but to me it always sounded like the boyfriend was being a douche, and now he doesn't know how to make it up to the girl he loves, the girl he thinks he's going to lose because he can't apologize the right way... Maybe I'm naive in this thought, but I like it better than the other option :P

I love Viva La Vida by Coldplay and I love the discussions people have about the lyrics... The whole thing could be analyzed but here's just a snippit:

It was the wicked and wild windBlew down the doors to let me inShattered windows and the sound of drumsPeople couldn't believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries waitFor my head on a silver plateJust a puppet on a lonely stringOh who would ever want to be king?

This is one of those songs that I love to read about online, people talk about how the song is about the bible, the fact that Jesus rose and gathered followers (whom they claim are talked about in earlier lyrics) only to end up being shunned and killed. Others, think it talks about the conquest of countries, specifically King Henry XVI, who committed treason and was eventually beheaded, (see the lines highlighted above ;D) If you want to read some of the most well written arguments about this song click here. 

This is a new favorite of mine

Alright, everything is alright
Since you came along
And before you
I had nowhere to run to
Nothing to hold on to
I came so close to giving it up.
And I wonder if you know
How it feels to let you go?

You say goodbye in the pouring rain
And I break down as you walk away.
Stay, stay.
'Cause all my life I've felt this way
But I could never find the words to say
Stay, stay.

So change your mind
And say you're mine.
Don't leave tonight
Stay.

this song is simply about love, gained and lost. But the real thing I like about this song and it's lyrics, it doesn't say why the person is walking away, or why the other person can't find the right words to tell them to stay... what if they were best friends, and one secretly loves the other, what if it's two people who were once in love, but something changed between them, yet neither really wants to let go. Or did someone pass away and another someone never told them how they really felt?! *sigh* I love this song lol

The best thing about all of these songs that I mention is that their music videos are all exceptionally vague (or strange....) and don't give you any more of a clue as to what these lyrics mean. They leave it up to you to decide for yourself, and that to me, is the real power of a song.

Thanks for reading!! Have a song that you always analyze leave a comment below and tell me about it! Tomorrow is adventures with Harriet don't miss it!! :D

~Megan~

NPM and Etsy Shop GRAND OPENING!!

So it's Monday which mean's its time to talk about my new project! So James and I were talking and I decided that Hank needed a girl hamster, someone who I could take around and snap some awesome pictures with. Which led me to make Harriet:

Harriet is a multi-colored hamster, who is mostly white, with some brown and black patterns on her back, and I can't forget about her stylish turquoise bow!!

Harriet has a bright pink nose, and stitched black eyes and is ready to take on the world!!

Hank and Harriet's adventures will be posted at least once a week here on the blog, so check back often to see what your favorite little hammies are up to! Also we love to hear ideas from you about where Hank and Harriet should go next! Leave a comment below with ideas, who knows you might just see your idea in a future adventure!!

Also in other BIG news, my etsy shop is open and I am eagerly awaiting orders!! :D I only have one item listed right now, my awesome custom Harry Potter wands:

but am working on the descriptions and pictures for the other things I am selling! check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheButterfliesAttic

I will post new items here whenever they are listed!!

Also I am now on twitter! Follow me there for all the latest random thoughts and new projects coming up: https://twitter.com/ButterflyAttic

Until next time

~Megan~