On a scale of 1-10 how obsessed with Harry Potter are you? 9 3/4

Being a Sirius Harry Potter fan/nerd takes up quite a lot of my brain and thinking power on most days. 
My friends and boyfriend are getting a bit fed up with my constant prattling about how Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world, how Voldemort is actually meant to be pronounced Voldemor, and beating them hands down at almost any Harry Potter quiz out there, etc. etc. etc.

I have started this blog in order to talk about all my Harry Potter loves, hates, theories and favourites.

I hosted my first Harry Potter party on Friday with a few friends, and I have to say it was charmant! 

I spent quite a few weeks coming up with ideas for decorations, food and games to play, this was a challenge seeing as most Harry Potter related merchandise is so pricey! So despite learning how it must feel to be Weasley in a world of Magical merch that I can't afford, I managed to come up with lots of home made answers to food and decorations.

I made my own Hogwarts house banners - you can download a lot of the Harry Potter fonts for free online.  I printed them off in a range of colours and spent hours cutting them out with the help of scissors and a scalpel.  I bought coloured paper to stick them to.  I used string to hand the banners and fairy lights to make them look a little more magical.

I bought a selection of battery operated candles (you can get these quite cheaply - often in £ shops!) and I hung them off the shelves in my lounge with fishing line in order to create the illusion of them floating!

I made a couple of signs for the house too "Wizards Welcome, Muggles Tolerated" which I hung on the front door and a sign above the toilet "Ministry of Magic this way!"

I also hung my Gryffindor scarf above the lounge door,

Now on to the food.

I managed to find a lot of sweets etc. that I could use, but I also made some things from scratch.  I made pumpkin pasties - however you cannot find pumpkins in British supermarkets in May - so I cheated and used Butternut squash instead! Recipe to follow. 
I also made some Cheesy Wands, which looked amazing and tasted great with Troll Bogeys (Guacamole) and Bubotuber Puss (Hummus)!

- Fizzing Whizzbees - Flying Saucers
- Acid pops - Sour lolly pops
- Bertie Bots Every Flavour Beans - Jelly beans (Lidl have great jelly beans that look just like Bertie's at a fraction of the price!)
- Golden snitches - I used Forrero Rocher - I took the brown paper cups off, cut out some wings and used the Forrero Rocher stickers to attach them to the foil.
- Jelly Slugs - I used some simple Jelly Snakes from Asda - 5 bags for £1
- Liquorice wands - these were Strawberry Twizzlers, an American sweet which you can buy online or in B&M bargains!
- Troll Bogeys - Guacamole
- Bubotuber Puss - Hummus
- Phoenix Flames - Carrot Sticks
- Bowtruckle Legs - Celery/cucumber sticks
- Hufflepuffs - Wotsits/cheese puffs
- Boomslang Skin - Smoked Salmon
- Deep fried elf-ears - Doritos/Totilla chips
- Chocolate frogs - Cadbury Fredo faces / Fredos
- Gurdyroot chips - Beetroot crisps
- Owl nuts - crispy coated peanuts
- Peppermint toads - Peppermint creams (in a frog mold).
- Cockroach cluster - peanut brittle.

Labels - I made my own labels using this template 

Drinks

- Polyjuice potion - Homemade Lemonade with green food colouring.
- Amortentia - Raspberry, Mint, Lime and Ginger (recipe to follow).
(obviously you can add any spirits to the above soft drinks)
- Fire Whiskey - Cinnamon Vodka
I chose not to make a version on Butterbeer as I am not a huge fan of butterscotch, but there are plenty of recipes out there.  - I just used real beer!
- Infusion of Gurdy Roots - Dandelion and Burdock
- Veritaserum - Lemonade/cream soda/water - anything colourless.

Games

- being a huge Harry Potter fan I already had Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit to hand
- one of my guests brought me an excellent Lego Harry Potter board game!
We didn't play anymore games - but I have more ideas for games - which I will post at a later date.

We watched a couple of HP movies, and Fantastic Beasts - we are all kind of in love with Newt /  Eddie Redmayne. 

There was talk of drinking games at one point, which I will post at a later date.

Take care all - 

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."