The Days of the Pocket Money

Earlier this year I had the unfortunate luck of becoming unemployed. Now, understand that this was the first time in 25 years that I wasn’t either studying or working, (the first few years counts as studying and working to me, I’m learning to be a person thank you very much!). So anyway, as you can imagine, I thought yay, for the first time in 25 years I will get to relax, no stress, no pressure or deadlines, just chill. Wake up at whatever hour I wished, stay up until the sun glorifies the sky again, do all the things I wanted to but couldn’t, due to lack of time. It turns out that sleeping in and staying up late can get pretty boring after a week or so and all the things ‘I wanted to do’ well, there really wasn’t much after all.

Soon enough, I grew incredibly bored of being unemployed, and began to look for things to do to keep me busy and somewhat entertained. Now, while unemployment has all the negative consequences, like being incredibly broke and having to resort to your teenage days of asking your parents for pocket money (and no, the dole isn't for me), it does have certain perks that may surprise you.

So with my new-found free-time, I dabbled with arts and crafts only to rediscover skills that I once thought I no longer possessed. Before I continue, let me roll back a few years (actually almost a decade). Year 11 results day and I was a confident little thing tearing open the brown envelope. The first three I scanned the page for: English, Maths and Science and a sigh of relief because the rest I thought were ‘in the bag’. Well apparently not! Grade boundaries were pushed higher for whatever reason they had cooked up that year. So, my safe A/B grade for Art came down to a crushing C. All confidence of being 'pretty good' at art was crumpled up and tossed in the bin.

The pottering began with the approach of World Book Day at school, so the kids (not mine obviously, my sister’s) needed costumes. Now as I had no other commitments I got to spend a lot more time with the little buggers and was determined they’d have the best costume in the school and so began my little rediscovery quest. For those of you who’ve read my previous blog, you could probably have a good guess as to which book(s) I’d use as my inspiration for the costumes. Yup, you got it! It could only ever have been Harry Potter. I was going to create my own Harry and Hermione. Now that I had my mind set on this, I got to work right away.

The overall costume for both characters were purchased from various places and it was certain props to the costumes where my activity came into play. 

Hermione was to go dressed in the traditional Gryffindor uniform: black skirt; white shirt; Gryffindor ti; Gryffindor robe (tailored by the second of my seven sisters); knee-high white socks; black shoes and the time turner worn in the third book (purchased at Warner Bros Studio). The props that I had made for this costume were the pile of books Hermione is known to be always carrying (in this case two books due to the size of the user) and a wand. From cutting out the cereal box to sticking, gluing and painting the covers and the whole teabag staining effect, these are the final results of the books: Hogwarts: A History by Garius Tomkink and Advanced Potion-Making by Liberatus Borage.

Harry was also to go in the Gryffindor uniform, black trousers; white shirt; Gryffindor tie; Gryffindor robe; Harry’s round glasses (purchased from Warner Bros Studio); Harry’s wand (purchased off Ebay) and of course the Nimbus 2000 which was made by yours truly.

I’ve got to say it was a glorious day when the two Gryffindors strode into the playground in their original outfits in comparison to the store-bought superhero/princess costumes and all eyes were on them, turning many heads - officially announced to have the best costumes.

To my amazement, I had received many congratulatory comments regarding my ‘talent’. I was delighted, was this really a talent? But I’d only got a C though, I couldn't possibly be talented with only a C. Well, once again it was time to shun the rule book, because only I can reflect what I’m capable better than any school grade. Thus, my once-lost confidence restored, I dared out to fiddle around with a few more things. Here’s what I’ve been up to since my free-time commenced in March.

These are various shaped favour boxes, which I personally crafted, from drawing out the measurements, to cutting out the template, carving the butterfly designs to personalising the tags with individual stamps. This I've got to say kept me pretty busy and fortunately for me there were a few upcoming weddings in the family, which meant hell of a lot of parties (if you're Asian you'll probably know what I mean) and that was good for me because I had the pleasure of being able to promote these bad boys. Astonishingly, they were taken very well. 

To wrap up this rather lengthy post (sorry I didn't mean to waffle on for so long but I hope the pictures helped), I guess I wanted to say that don't let anything put you down, there's always something good that comes out of a hard time. 

And just... have faith!