Happy Birthday, Harry Potter! Part 1

This year has been full of disappointments and a very small light at the end of a very long tunnel. We've found ways to enjoy what we have and what we can do safely, which is not traveling or going to movies (not that they're open anyway) or out to eat. Back in March, when I realized this was going to go on for much longer than most people expected, I started re-planning my annual Harry Potter party to work online. By the time you read this, the party will be in full swing.

In a normal year, we have 20-30 people (once we had more) packed into our backyard, wearing their wizard best. I make foods that have been mentioned in the book and focus around a theme. Last year we did Weasleys Wizard Wheezes and the year before that we did Triwizard Tournament. This is our 7th year, so we have done many other themes: Quidditch World Cup, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade...This year was supposed to be Hogwarts Goes Hawaiian, but with our change in plans, we loosened it up to make it easier for people to do at home and we're simply calling it Quarantine Edition and it will take place in the Great Hall (the only summer party we have had inside). 

There was no way we were going to postpone or even skip our party this year, because I love Harry and my other HP fan friends look forward to this all year (because I start planning and hyping it up as soon as our last party is done). I've cut down the party time from 3 to 2 hours - having to sit on your computer for 3 hours is terrible - and adjusted games for time and what can be played easily individually, but still play for House Points, so there will still be a sense of team. Our trivia will be via interactive slideshow designed for virtual pub quizzes. 

To make things more exciting, we'll still have prizes, including ones for a costume contest. I still want people to look forward to dressing up. I've also taken a lot of photos and videos inside my house - decorated like Hogwarts - so everyone can still enjoy decorations as well. It also gives my friends who don't live near me the ability to attend a party, too.

Since you can't have a party without a feast, I still made a menu. Eric and I will have have a mini feast to celebrate, with accompanying Butterbeer. 

Usually, I gather cool magical items all year and then we sell raffle tickets for things and all the proceeds go to the Harry Potter Alliance, but since that just doesn't make much sense this year, we are just doing a straight up fundraiser for them. 

House Cup winners will either get a prize bag via Owl Post or this little owl will drop them off on their doorstep after they are assembled. Basically, I'll just be waiting to see which house wins in order to make a House Cup memento for them to go with the other prizes I already have lined up.

Everyone gets sorted at my parties, so we have a sorting board this year.

I'll be spending the rest of today going through pics and video, so I can bring you actual party posts, including costumes, food, drinks, and games. The Harry Potter Alliance is doing lots of online celebrating for Harry's birthday: My local chapter, HPA Instagram, HPA YouTube.

Just because we're in a pandemic, doesn't mean everything is cancelled. We just have to find creative ways to make things happen. We can still have fun, safely.

Are you planning any non-traditional celebrations, Harry Potter or otherwise?

Portland Is Still Beautiful

With so much crazy in the world, a lot of the news is being focused on my city of Portland, Oregon, making it look like a war zone and and city on fire. Believe it or not, this simply isn't true. Our people are passionate and willing to fight injustice. While the evenings are focused on protests and police/unwanted feds waging war against them with military-grade weapons, this is a small part of a bigger story. 

The news only shows you two blocks of our entire downtown area. Portland is vast, and these two blocks are small percentage of the area. Not only that, we have volunteers going through picking up trash and police debris to keep our city beautiful. During the day, you will see a complete different view of the city than you will from night time (and even several blocks away at night, you will see a different view). 

The park directly across from the Federal building is home to a place called Riot Ribs. These people are in the park 24/7, running a donation-only, volunteer food operation. They feed the homeless and the protesters, and they also supply homeless with things they need, like medical supplies and clothing. The police and feds have damaged their supplies and grills many times since this started, yet they've returned. One of their volunteers was shot with a rubber bullet and suffered broken ribs, yet they returned. The police went through and took many of their supplies, yet they returned. This is the spirit of the people of Portland. They don't give up in the face of hopelessness over doing what they think is right. 

This is one block away from the photos above.

If you've been following my Instagram, you'll have seen some of these photos already. It's day 60-something now of continuous nightly protests, and Portland isn't letting up. We've grown to include moms, dads, vets, and even grandparents. There were riots the first night, because that is inevitable, so many downtown businesses have plywood covering their windows. If you saw the protests in other cities, you know this is common. The difference here is that local artists saw this as a different opportunity: to create amazing murals that showcased words of hope, awesome city landscapes, beautiful art celebrating Black lives and also those we've lost. 

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It's brunch day 🥞 Yesterday we had our first dine out experience since March. Tables were quite far apart and we wore masks while we weren't eating or drinking. It's important to support our businesses, even if it's just takeout/delivery. We had leftovers for today, too. . . . #brunchgoals #brunchsquad #pdxeats #portlanddining #butfirstcoffee #ilovetravel #tourist #tourism #tblogger #tbloggers #travelblog #travel #travelblogger #travelgirl #travelgram #instatravel #traveler #traveller #budgettravel #budgettraveler #ftblogger #ftb #responsibletravel #pancakes #etonmess #eatonmesspancakes

A post shared by Shereen Travels Cheap (@srayle) on Jul 26, 2020 at 2:31pm PDT

The city is back to business as usual, as much as possible with Covid, with people shopping and dining out, enjoying the sunshine, and exploring all these new pieces of art. Many restaurants are open for carry-on. Some have added outdoor dining. Our food trucks are open. 

We planned to walk around and grab brunch/early lunch at a food truck, but saw how far apart the tables at one of our favorite restaurants were spaced outside on the sidewalk, so we chose to support them. We kept our masks on when not eating or drinking. We sanitized our hands after touching the menu. The experience was awesome, especially with how nice the weather was. 

Many people who live here are complaining about how our city has been ruined. I have several things to say about that:

• Go downtown and see it for yourself before you make these claims.
• Realize that most of these places were shut down due to Covid and some still aren't allowed to reopen. 
• Restaurants aren't going to look the same if you can't eat inside (a lot of our restaurants are very small, so take-out is their only option). 
• Support those shops and restaurants that you love so much instead of complaining how they might have to close forever.
• Realize that not every business is going to make it out of Covid. This is not the fault of protesters, since they don't start protesting until most of these businesses have closed for the night. 
• Please stop trying to scare people away from the downtown area by repeating things you don't have proof of. Many of my friends have gone downtown (or work there) and have a very different experience than what the news is showing. Again, this is just two blocks of the entire area.
• Know that volunteers have asked to remove graffiti (from courthouse and surrounding buildings) and the city has repeatedly told them no. This graffiti you see is not happening night after night, as the news wants you to believe. It is the same graffiti that is being added to and will eventually be painted over.

Black lives still matter. Listening to the people still matters. Police who decide to teargas unarmed people instead of having a dialogue are not good (at the very least). You can watch live feeds from independent reporters on Woke.net. These are the same feeds the police watch. Equality and representation is important. The people have the right to protest. If you want to learn more about the protests and the government, check out this long, but informative article.

I'm sorry if you don't agree with this, but I hope that it gives others some perspective on what our city actually looks like and that it's not dangerous or in ruins or full of roving gangs of looters. We had a lovely day out admiring all this fabulous new artwork, since there are many things we still can't do and all festivals & gatherings have been cancelled until the foreseeable future. If nothing else, it was a very affordable way to see the city and gave us some much needed exercise. 

I hope you will still consider visiting Portland when this is all over and it's safe to travel again. What do you think people are seeing about your city that aren't true?

How To Pack Light For Your Next Getaway

With everything happening in the world right now, people are hoping to still get away, but one has to be safe when they do. Taking a weekend getaway or a short road trip can be fun, safe, affordable, and give you a bit of your sanity back. If you're traveling with family, cut down on things you need to take by packing light (which I do even when traveling alone, because I don't want to keep track of too much and I don't want to carry a heavy bag). 

Inspo on Polyvore

When you fly to your destination, one of the easiest ways to save – time and money – is by traveling carry-on only. Road trips give you more flexibility, but you still have a finite amount of space. Use that extra space for your cooler and your kids or dog, if you have them. You don’t need much for a few days, which means you can pack quickly. I always have a packing list to help me keep the number of items down and also to make sure I don’t forget any of the essentials. I know when I get to my destination I can probably buy whatever I missed packing, since a weekend getaway isn’t going to take me that far from home, but right now, cutting down your contact with people is essential, so make sure you bring it all with you, including your Coronavirus safety kit. Here’s how to build your packing list:

Instead of even travel-size shampoo/conditioner, these samples can work for a weekend getaway

Normally, I take this 3oz hand cream, but these two sample packs are more than enough for 3 days

Save those samples

I know I’m not the only one that has a bag full of samples and trial-size health and beauty items. Every purchase I make from Sephora or other department store makeup counters comes with mini sizes of beauty products. I also sign up for many freebies online. When I travel, I go through and see what I can use and then pack it in my 3-1-1 or toiletry bag. I’m never going to use a full-size thing on a two-week trip, much less just a few days, so there’s no point bringing a whole container of anything, be it toothpaste, moisturizer or shampoo.

Pare down your beauty routine

Even with all your travel-size items, it's still smart to take less. If you have an extensive morning routine at home, see what you can just get away with. I don’t load up on the makeup normally, so I figure there’s no point in taking a bunch of unnecessary items that I’ll probably not use. I know when I wake up I’m going to do the bare minimum so I can hurry up and get on with my day. Four or five products are all I need: moisturizer, foundation, powder, blush or highlighter and mascara. (optional). See what things you can do without. If you are an eye makeup kinda girl, look for makeup palettes that have everything you need in a neat little package, so you don’t have to pack everything separately. My new favorite is the honey palette from Urban Decay.

Decant, decant, decant

Sometimes you can't find samples of your fave products, but you don't need to waste space by bringing even a large travel-size container. In this case, I say decant. Eric has a fantastic shave cream from Kiehl's, but it takes very little for each use, so I put some in a travel pot and kept the actual container at home. This makes it doubly perfect for traveling.

Pack multipurpose items

I love it when things do more than one thing. Cheek tint that is also a lip stain. Tinted moisturizer with SPF instead of sunscreen, moisturizer and foundation. A maxi skirt that can also be worn as a dress. A tablet for games, books, email and internet. All these things are perfect companions for your carry-on bag, because they take up less space.

Two people's clothing for a week in Vegas that all fit into a weekender bag.

Mix and match

As always, when you coordinate all your clothing, it’s super easy to pack in a carry-on. Two bottoms and three tops can mix and match to make SIX outfits. That’s way more than you’ll need for a long weekend. Don’t forget that what you wear in transit can also be rotated in as needed. And shoes! You should take two pair – max. Make sure they are both comfortable enough to walk in all day. I had a coworker who told me that she had 16 pairs of shoes she wanted to take with her to Mexico on a four day trip. Sixteen! I don’t even think that many shoes would fit in my carry-on and if they did, there would be no room for anything else, except maybe socks and underwear. Her trip was for a wedding, so aside from what she needed for the ceremony, she could have survived with a sun dress, a pair of shorts, her bathing suit and some flip flops. Learning to pack efficiently is important and can save you a ton.

That’s it. Think about what you truly need with you for three or four days and be realistic. Don’t play the “what if” game. Luckily, right now there aren't that many things that you can do spontaneously that you haven't planned for, like going to a club or a fancy dinner.  Sometimes it seems like it might be harder to pack for a short trip than a long one, but with some practice, it can be super simple. Just think, if you don’t bring something that you thought you could live without, by the time you miss it, you’ll probably already be back home.

Yup, that's my actual packing list!

On a normal trip, we take two bottoms, three tops, a pair of sandals/flip flops and a pair of walking shoes (my sandals are walking shoes, so sometimes I take a pair of ballet flats) each and our packable jackets. I throw in a travel dress to wear when I'm feeling lazy. All that and our toiletries fit into our rolling carry-on. 

Don't forget your electronics and their charging cables, plus a travel power strip for your hotel room (if you're staying in one), because they almost never have enough outlets. Then download a good road trip play list and a selection of podcasts and/or audio books and you're good to go!

What are some of your favorite ways to travel light?