The Creepy Little Box

It's official: I am a Scrap addict.

Scrap is the creative supply reclaiming warehouse I visit all the time when I go downtown (usually right after picking up my paycheck). Rarely do I leave empty-handed. But what a better thing to be addicted to, short of the actual process of enjoying these things and making artworks? I've gotten everything from spinning fibres, to Sculpey bricks, to pottery tools, beads, candles, and potion bottles there. Scrap is a crafty-witch's paradise.

Today it was this delightfully creepy, dingy golden-olive green vanity box, which looks like it once belonged to some Victorian era Slytherin great-grandmother.

I could never in good conscience clean this box. The grunge is part of its somewhat Gothic appeal, like the tone of a bell just slightly off-key enough to make your neck hairs stand up. However, its hinges are broken, and I do plan to fix them, since that's a functional issue. After visiting Scrap, I also nipped over to Ace Hardware and got an antique bronze hasp for it.

And oh, dear! What is this? I know for a fact Scrap volunteers love to write humorous things on their price tags often, and the store has a "haunted" section for items that may not be haunted at all. Still, I think a good smudging wouldn't be amiss in this situation.

The inside most certainly looks haunted, even without the antique grumpy baby photo someone, probably a volunteer, stuck in there. I think leaving the broken mirror "intact" and adding some of my witchier items for atmospheric safekeeping will honor whatever spirit might live in this box nicely . . . and although I'm no great shakes at spirit communication thus far, being so well-anchored to the Earth plane, I still may attempt to see if anyone is in fact residing here.

The creepy little box wasn't my only score today (yesterday, now, as I work the graveyard*!* shift and posted this post-lunch, which for me is midnight). I also found some beautiful Victorian-style scrap cutouts, a vintage chocolate box, and a couple small "potion kits" with bitters for making cocktails while on an airline flight. The bottles of bitters had leaked, hence them being donated to Scrap. This is one of the problems plaguing those of us who work in potions!

Finally, I got a bunch of these tiny perfume or sample vials. Whether for poison, perfume, or oils for medicine or magick (hoodoo spiritual oils or portable aromatherapy kit, for example), these are just way too useful to pass up. The part of me that shares a soul with Severus is rejoicing!