A Mini Tree For Moaning Myrtle

John and I have been working on a Harry Potter Christmas party for months now, and it's all happening this weekend. 

AAAAA!!!

[patting down hair] Ahem.

So while I try to get a million things done before Saturday without spontaneously combusting in a fit of squealy nerves, allow me to show you... our bathroom door. [eyebrow waggle]

 I kid, I kid. I mean, that IS our bathroom door, but I'm gonna show you so much more.

Only not in a creepy, open-the-door-on-your-half-dressed-relative kind of way. Promise.

Let's just skip ahead.

BEHOLD!

Part of our bathroom.

And BEHOLD!

 My Moaning Myrtle mini-tree!
 

The idea came to me when John and I spotted this spigot ornament at JoAnn's:

 

It's blown glass, so incredibly light, and thanks to coupons and sales we got it for less than $5. It's attached to the wall with the adhesive strip from a Command Hook.

I thought it would be funny if Myrtle decorated her own tree using things she had on hand in the bathroom. So John found a pearl strand in the bridal aisle that's perfect for tiny soap bubbles, then later I found a dozen iridescent glass ornaments at Michaels for $3 (Score!) for big bubbles. The rest of the decorations I made with toilet paper, floss, and Q-tips:


 
 TP bows, tied with dental floss.

 And Q-tip stars, secured with hot glue, then tied with more floss. 

Instead of a tree skirt I covered a small box in sheets of the Daily Prophet (found with Google & printed out), and tied it all up with a bow.

 

 I filled the gaps in the box with sparkly polyfill, which also looks a bit soapy.

 But wait, there's more!

I added a strand of mini lights from the Dollar Tree, which are so blindingly white they're actually a bit blue, and look appropriately ghostly on the tree:

 


 

All that's missing is Myrtle's name, but I can't for the life of me figure out a good way to add it. A gift tag, maybe? Or a tiny gift? Special ornament? HALP.

And finally,  the piece de resistance, which I'm so excited about I really AM going to bust, you guys.

Here it is: We've wired the bathroom for sound (by hiding a blue tooth speaker in the bathtub), and for the party we'll be playing a custom audio mix John put together on Ambient Mixer, including actual snippets of Myrtle speaking. AND IT IS SO COOL. Mildly terrifying, but cool.

For copyright reasons I can't let you hear the mix with Myrtle in it, but here's the same mix without her, and then here's Myrtle's dialogue from Youtube, which John added in. He didn't use much; just the ones of her squealing/moaning, a splash, and asking "Who's there?" These bits are set to play randomly, so you never know when to expect them, and even knowing they were coming scared the bejeepers out of me when we tested it out in our echo-y bathroom. Bahaha!

I freely admit this is mildly - MILDLY - evil to do at a Christmas party, since we of course don't plan to tell anyone Moaning Myrtle is in the bathroom. I've also asked everyone coming not to read this post, so let's see how many cheat, and how many run screaming from the bathroom Saturday night. :D

Oh wait, one more thing! I swapped out some of the art for this pretty Fawkes print:

The 5X7 print was a free give-away card from Barnes-and-Noble last month; it's an ad for Fantastic Beasts, I think. Gorgeous, right? And the foil edge makes it look like a Christmas card. Lurrrve it.

Speaking of art, let's end by announcing some Art Round Up winners!

So, this month's randomly selected Wild Card winner is LacyJ.

And the winner of Wedge on the Ledge is D. L. White!

Congrats, you two, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!

Everyone else, stay tuned for lots more party crafts and photos; I have a feeling it's going to take me all month to show you everything we've been up to! And I can't wait.