An Owl in the Woods

Owl Lunch Bag and Owly finds

2011-06-27T09:51:00.000-05:00

I found a great tutorial on using a plastic bag as a template/pattern to create your own reusable bag.

I used Robert Kaufman's Urban Zoologie Owls in blue.

While I was out and about one evening killing some time and wandered around one of the local malls. Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe had a ton of Owl jewelry. I was beginning to believe owls were losing some love, but they are everywhere still!

And these, I couldn't resist.

Owl Necklace

Owl rings.

Foto Friday

2011-06-17T07:24:00.001-05:00

Fathers Day Cards and Owly Goodies

2011-06-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

I put together some Father's Day cards (hopefully dad doesn't read the blog like mom does!)

I used the Diamond shape on George and Basic Shapes cartridge. The letters on the first card are from the same cartridge and the other card are sticker embellishments. I used Cuttlebug's Argyle embossing folder for to add some detail to the diamond on the second card and added twine for some more detail.

I thought I'd share some owly finds since I haven't done that in a while.

I really LOVE this platter I saw when I was working at Macy's this week! It would be great as decor or for serving.

And how pretty is this owl rug from Urban Outfitters?

I almost always have success finding something Owly at Forever21 so I try not to go in there too often because it's so tempting!

Like this Owl tank.

And these Owl pj's (because I can never have to many pj pants)

And this Owl necklace. (because I can never have to many owl necklaces)

And I know its WAYYYYY early to be thinking about, but I really want to make a cute Christmas Tree skirt with any of these fabrics. They are so cute!

Alexander Henry's Holiday Hoot in Natural

Michael Miller's Ho Ho Hoot in Multi

Michael Miller's Season to Hoot in Santa

Sewing and Gardening

2011-05-31T07:00:00.001-05:00

I found a great tutorial for turning old Tshirts into reusable bags and since I cleaned out my closet and had a few owly shirts that I couldn't throw away but have shrunk and miscellaneous stains.

I have managed to plant a few things. 2 mixed species hanging baskets. And they're doing much better than the ones last year. Those ended up being just one plant It looks like this years are all hanging in there (harharhar).

I also planted some tomatoes, strawberries and various herbs. I still really want to plant a raised bed but we need to build it first.

Foto Friday

2011-05-27T07:08:00.001-05:00

Red-eared Slider kicking back on a rock in the Jacksonville Zoo.

FF (on Saturday)

2011-05-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

And because I'm late, I present 2 photos!

I have named her Lady Turtleton. The hubs found her while mowing the backyard. Luckily the mower didn't hurt her at all.

She's living happily somewhere in the lush greenery (ie. overgrown weeds, vines, privit) that makes up our backyard boundaries. I hope she eats lots of bugs back there.....

Mum's Day Cards and a Baby Shower Card

2011-05-10T05:28:00.005-05:00

I don't have that much for you this week, its been another busy set of weeks. Lots of work and a very short trip to Jacksonville for my friends baby shower.

First up some Mom's Day cards I made.

This was the one I made for my mom. The letters and squares are from Mini Monograms and the flower is from Cindy Loo.

This was for my mother-in-law. I just cut leaf shapes out of fabric and sewed them to a plain white card and stamped.

I'm terribly excited that my friends are having their first child, a girl. I was stoked to be able to fly down to Florida to visit with them and attend her shower. I made a couple of burp cloths and pacifier clip (sorry no pic) and made cupcakes out of onsies and socks.

I wanted to incorperate the bedding she picked out into the gift. I have to say the nursery is just the cutest! They chose Tropical Punch for the crib bedding.

So I made the card to match. Create a Critter was the perfect cart to use. And I used Zots to make the animals stand out.

Foto Friday

2011-04-29T07:11:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post this week. With preparing to go to FL for a friends baby shower and the recent natural disasters here in the state, I haven't been able to post stuff. I'll share my baby shower gifts and mom's birthday card next week.

What a difference a week makes! The baby Finches are growing so fast! The parents are making fewer trips to the nest, at least I've been seeing them less and less there. Can't wait to see them begging for food from their parents at our bird feeders.

Foto Friday

2011-04-22T08:38:00.002-05:00

Our House Finch nest has 4 little ones!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011-04-15T05:14:00.002-05:00

Love you!

Foto Friday

2011-04-15T05:09:00.001-05:00

A House Finch has built a nest on our front porch! Momma is laying on about 5 or 6 eggs. Can't wait to watch those babies grow! The cats just love watching her through the windows.

Anniversary card and Owly stuff!

2011-04-12T17:07:00.000-05:00

Wanted to share the Anniversary card I made for Sam.

I haven't shown any of my owly finds in a while, but I've noticed a lot out there lately.

I couldn't resist these two...luckily I still had some money left on a gift card from Christmas.

I have my eye on these planters. They'd look great on the front proch. And I am in love with the bird planters too.

These cute little guys were at Michaels. A bag-o-owls!

I found some cute shirts at the Lee store in the outlet mall.

It was a little weird looking, but I liked its oddness. Sam made me chose between the 2 shirts and I chose this one.

And this cute fabric was at Joann's. It was really hard not to get it. But I already had some that I needed to use. Its a Joann fabric called Forestbabies.

Crap, now that I posted that pic..I wanna go back and get it...

I don't remember where this fabric came from. I wanna say it was Joann, but it may have been at Hobby Lobby.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-04-12T10:33:00.000-05:00

3 years ago today I married the love of my life. We had a beautiful ceremony outside among the dogwoods and a great party afterwards.

Thanks to all our friends and family for surrounding us with love on our special day!

Baby Shower Gifts

2011-03-30T08:03:00.002-05:00

A quick post for you. As always, its been a busy week!

I needed to make a baby shower gift for a coworker, so I thought I'd try my hand at making applique onesies. I think they turned out pretty good for my first time. Just some heat and bond and a run thru the sewing machine.

I'm not sure where I got the patterns but owl and bird silhouettes are easily found in the interwebs. I had a really cute squirrel, but it was a bit to big for the onesie.

I found a cute bird bag in the dollar bins at Michael's and used my sewn Owl card.

For Him, For Her, For House

2011-03-15T18:38:00.002-05:00

I must admit, Monday was an incredibly lazy day. I just looked at lots of fabulous crafty blogs, getting ideas and just enjoying the blog eyecandy. But Tuesday, I got crackin'. For Him: I finally made my husbands birthday present (it was almost a month ago). I used this great tutorial from Smashed Peas and Carrots.

He didn't want anything obvious or flashy. I had a hard time picking out fabric because the ones I thought were good were to "loud" for him. So we went with a plain 'ol blue. Don't get me wrong. I like blue. My house "theme" colors are blue and green. But it was so plain. So I put some polka dots in the lining and as the handle.

For Her: I decided to finally make myself a coffee cozy.

I used a tutorial from House on Hill Road.

The fabric is Owl Little Owls by Alice Kennedy for Timeless Treasures (I got it from fabric.com).

And For the House, I made a Springtime Wreath.

I used a round styrofoam form and hot glued moss all the way around it. I couldn't find a natural looking nest with eggs, but I found a cute little basket nest with eggs in it, cut the handles off and hot glued it to the wreath. I found a pretty bouquet from Michael's for cheap and cut the flowers off the stems and hot glued those around the nest and a few near the top. I love my Birdy wreath hanger that I found at Pier 1, so no ribbon was necessary!

I'm linkin' for the first time.

Food and Crafts and Owls...Oh, my!

2011-03-09T16:23:00.000-06:00

First off, I have to share these absolutely A. MAZ. ING. cupcakes. I looovvveee me some banana pudding. I love cupcakes. This recipe is HEAVEN! I think I found this from someone's pin on pinterest....or maybe it was Oneprettything. I can't remember. Wherever I found it, Heather is a genious. Here's her recipe for Banana Pudding Cupcakes.

Mine aren't as pretty as hers. But who cares what they look like when they taste so fantastic? The Nilla Waffer crumbles on top are the perfect finishing touch. (and so what if I reused a birthday cake box from Publix to store them? Reduse, reuse, recycle!)

I decided to make another card and I'm thinking it may be a Mother's Day card. I sorta wanted to stray from the traditional soft muted colors and go with something a bit brighter.

I used Provocrafts Celebrations paper (it came in a kit with some other stuff) and used Mother's Day Bouquet to cut the flowers. I found the ribbon at Big Lots for super cheap and stamped a bird on the bottom. If I use it as a Mom's Day card, I'll probably get a stamp for the front.

And I wanted to have a place to store the cards I make that I don't necessarily give immediately so I took an empty Kleenex box, cut the top off and glued some paper to the outside. It'll do for now.

I decided to go to the annual spring craft fair after work this weekend. Most of the stuff was geared for children and lots of stuff was either not my style or stuff that I could make myself. A few booths were just amazing. I got this great Owl necklace from a vintage jewelry booth.

There was another booth Collegiate Stop selling collegiate ornaments and figurines. I was sooooo happy to find lots and lots of Georgia stuff! Turns out they are based in Georgia and the ornaments are made from Georgia marble. I figured I already had a UGA ornament so I got Sam a Georgia State Ornament.

And one of my favorite booths was a bit too pricey for me, but they had the most amazing creations. They made branches out of copper, added flowers and a handcrafted resin bird.

Picture from Songbirdlady.com.

Go to their site and check it out. Simply beautiful! Feel free to drop some $$ on this Nuthatch for me...

Foto Friday

2011-03-04T05:30:00.001-06:00

When we were on our mini-honeymoon in Charleston, we visited the South Carolina Aquarium and decided to take a special tour of the Sea Turtle rehabilitation facility there. This is a of the photo of one of the patients in care.

Owly Cards

2011-03-03T17:21:00.000-06:00

Its been a crazy busy past few weeks. I finally had 2 days off in a row! I had all kinds of plans to get my craft on and wanted to spend both days catching up on all the stuff I've been wanting to make. But alas, I was LAYYYY-Z. An endless suply of crafting blogs, facebook and pinterest held more of my attention than my sewing machine and cricut. But I did manage to whip up 2 cards for no particular purpose.

For this one I wanted to play around with one of my new cartridges. Storybook has so much to offer, I know I'm gonna enjoy it quite a bit.

I've really been interested in melding my love of sewing and my new love of cardmaking and wanted to give it a try. I've seen cards with hearts and butterflies sewn in layers onto cards. Hearts and butterflies are nice and all...but owls are where its at.

I just used a Martha Stewert Owl craft punch to punch coordinating papers and sew 3 layers onto a plain white card. I taped the back to keep the seems from unraveling and covered it with a matching paper on the inside.

Foto Friday

2011-02-25T06:58:00.002-06:00

Mother and baby Impala

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Its in the bag

2011-02-23T11:29:00.000-06:00

Ever since I got my Cricut for Christmas, my sewing machine has been feeling neglected. So I decided to FINALLY make myself a new bag. Its about the easiest bag to make and the pattern is FREE! Its the Made by Rae Buttercup Bag.

For the exterier, I used "It's a Hoot" by MoMo for Moda. The interier is just red cotton fabric from Hobby Lobby. I found a great video tutorial for making this bag at Couturier Mommy. The video doesn't include the snap or pocket. I haven't put in a snap before, so I found this great tutorial at Little Birdie Secrets.

Overall, I love the way it turned out. A few future improvements would include

-straighter pockets (on my part, they're crooced lol)

-reinforce the strap (maybe w/ fusible interfacing)

-make a bigger version (she does have a larger pattern for sale)

I think I'll make a simple fabric envelope or pouch to match to keep receipts in.

Owl be your Valentine

2011-02-16T06:00:00.001-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful love filled Valentin's Day! I wanted to share a few crafts I did for Valentine's. I made these for my coworkers at the Zoo:

I used Owl candy molds that I got at Bake It Pretty. Found a small spool of ribbon at Joann that has polkadots and hearts. I used my favoritest cartridge Hoot N Holler for the Owl cutouts.

I used Make the Cut software to cut out the heart as well as "write" the type using Amy Chomas' Gel Pen holder.

I made this card for my husband.

Again, I used Hoot N Holler for the owl (he has legs, but the picture isn't very detailed and they kinda blend in). Make the Cut and Chomas gel pen holder for the heart and "Owl always luv u". And an edge punch for some detail.

Here's the card with the envelope. I cut the heart with basic shapes cartridge.

My husband was just super sweet! There was a bag on the counter when I got up to head in to work early on Valentine's day. In the bag was a Coffee Bean grinder (I've sorta been wanting one for a while now) and Thin Mints!

And when I got home from work, he had baked and decorated cookies for me!

See the one on the bottom left? He made an Owl so it would say "Owl be yours."

Hope you have a great week!

Foto Friday

2011-02-11T06:00:00.002-06:00

Spring! How I long for thee...

Another Card...but where's the owl?

2011-02-09T15:13:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd share my latest card with you. I'm actually almost done with a Valentines card, but its for my husband, and he might peak (although he has seen some of it). I made this one for a friend just to let her know I'm thinking about her (she's going thru some stuff right now) and sort of a thank you for helping me with job stuff in the past. I used the Cindy Loo cartridge Doily1 and shadow at 3 1/2. The patterened papers are from DCWV Latte matstack.

And just so it wasn't void of any cute animals, I stamped a bird on the inside.

I also wanted to share the wrapped up gift and card from the last crafty post. I got that paper a year or so ago from Target and its come in real handy! I almost forgot about it for a while (you know, since I have Owly wrapping paper and all...) But I thought it went well w/ the card I made.

Foto Friday

2011-02-04T17:26:00.001-06:00

Foto Friday

2011-01-28T07:00:00.001-06:00

I was lucky enough (ok, lucky not so much for the Gulf Coast Wildlife) to be able to take a side trip to Dauphin Island after working all day at the Oiled Bird Center in Mobile the day these little ones hatched. Turtle watchers were collecting the Loggerheads as they surfaced in order to relocate them so they wouldn't succumb to the oil in the Gulf. My second experience with hatchling Sea Turtles! In 2004 while interning on Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in the Outter Banks, we had one Green Sea Turtle nest on the Island and we helped them reach the Atlantic Ocean.

Hedgey Birthday!

2011-01-26T07:00:00.002-06:00

Just a quick post to show my latest card. Its for a coworker's birthday. She's not really into the birds, and really likes mammals so I decided to make a Hedgehog card.

Hedgehog: Give a Hoot cart

Lettering: Cindy Loo cart

I had originally wanted to put the "Hedgey Birthday" on the front of the card, but realized I cut the Hedgehog a bit too large and didn't want to cut it all out again. She mentioned she wanted a new coffee travel mug and I got this one from Cafe Press (w/ a 15% off coupon!).

We have 2 Groundhogs/Woodchucks/Whistle Pigs that we use for programs and this was perfect. I wanted to get a picture on the other side, but I couldn't do it. Oh, well, the phrase is enough on its own. A play on "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck..."

Foto Friday

2011-01-21T06:05:00.004-06:00

Sam took this picture in a graveyard on our mini-honeymoon in Charleston, SC. I added Sepia to the image in PSE.

2011-01-19T17:25:00.000-06:00

Not much to post about today. But I wanted to share some thrifty finds I aquired to help us finally organize and fix up our office/craft room.

I got this awesome Drafting Table at America's Thrift Store for $40! Its about waist height and has a few drawers and an outlet strip.

I'm thinking I'll paint it (at least the gray, metal legs) but I haven't settled on what colors I want to go with in the room. I really like the teal/red combo, but I don't think Sam would go with that. There's always my standby of blue/green. I'd like some bright colors to make the room a bit brighter since it only has one small window.

I also found this shelf unit for $28.

Its homemade and so much more sturdy than those particle board bookshelves you'd get at the "Box Stores." I suppose Sam could make me one for that price (or less) but who knows when that would get done! I'm thinking paint possibley a deep brown or white.

I still need to paint the peg board we bought early last year. Again, I must settle on colors! There are too many choices and too many color combos.

Foto Friday

2011-01-14T06:00:00.002-06:00

Ice! Sunday and Monday, the south was hit with freezing rain and snow. While we didn't get the snow, we did get lots of ice. There was about an inch of ice on most surfaces outside. I couldn't pick just one picture, so here are 2.

Cricut Cutting for the First Time

2011-01-11T06:25:00.003-06:00

Well, I've finally gotten the courage to cut my first paper with my new Cricut! Of course it had to be an owl. (sorry for the blurry pic, my camera batteries were dieing/dead and this was the only pic I could get). I used the Hoot 'n' Holler Cartridge.

I have a Birthday and Baby Shower on Saturday so I figured I'd make some cards. These aren't completely together yet (haven't glued them together).

I used Give a Hoot Cartridge and DCWV Cafe Mediterranean paper for the Birthday Card.

I used the Cindy Loo Cartridge for the Deer and "congrats". Give a Hoot was used for the grass. I used Glitz & Glitter's Posh Petals for the glittery flowers. I'll probably add something else to the left part of the card, just not sure what yet.

I can see where this Cricut thing can be addictive. There are just so many posibilities! So many color combos, papers, images, layouts. Luckily there are lots of birthdays and holidays and just becauses to make them for!

I also did one experamental card to see how my Sizzix Texture Boutique worked. So simple! And of course its an owl! Its actually a Cuttlebug folder called Owl Flourish.

Foto Friday

2011-01-07T20:44:00.001-06:00

I decided to create a new "segment" for my blog. I'll post a picture (ie: foto) on Fridays. I figure I have lots of pictures to share and it gives me an excuse to play with Adobe Photoshop Elements that I got for Christmas!

In Arusha, Tanzania, they don't have Starbucks. They have Stiggbucks Coffee.

A new year, a new outlook

2011-01-06T07:00:00.005-06:00

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Thought I'd share some Christmas stuff. I don't have any New Year fun for you...I was in bed by about 10pm. I had to be at work at 7am the next morning! I'm such an oldfart now.

Here are some of the items I made for gifts:

I made a no-sew fleece blanket for my mom.

Originally I made this camera strap cover for my sister-in-law, but opted not to give it to her because I thought it was too thick and stiff and I didn't like the way it turned out in the end.

I used the tutorial from Cluck.Cluck.Sew.

I made these Burp Cloths for my friends in Florida. They just found out they were expecting back in November and i just couldn't wait to do something for them! I just measured out even amounts of cute fabric and terry cloth and sewed them right sides together leaving an opening for turning. Turned them inside out then top stitched to finish and close the opening. I just love the pink animal fabric on the left!

I also ordered some cute fabric on sale from fabric.com

(except the fleece is from joann)

And here is the aftermath of Christmas in the office/craft room.

I have to be honest. I've been avoiding this room as much as possible becasue of the mess. This is the excuse I need to really get some more organization type furniture and have my space be more inspirational. I'd also be nice to have a TV/DVD in there too.

I especially need to get more space to accomidate my new toy...

Mom got me this Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter. I've been spending lots of time researching blogs for inspiration and using my Christmas money and gift cards to get lots of accessories to go with it.

Its all owls, all the time!

I've also ordered an ATG gun

I also found Give a Hoot and Cindy Loo cartridges for super duper cheap ($15!)

I also downloaded Make the Cut software which allows you to download any font or image and use your Cricut to cut it!

I ordered these Gel Pen/Sharpie holders to use in place of the blade from Chomas Creations.

(Images are from her site)

I really want this Engraving tip, but I'll have to wait and save up some money for it. I'm at my limit for this month already!

(Image from Chomas Creations)

I found a Sizzix Textures Boutique for super cheap at Michaels and got a few embossing folders for 40% off!

I have a lot of inspirational pictures and lots of ideas. I just need to jump in and play around with the Cricut and figure it out. There are lots of helpful tutorials and videos out there.

We (Sam did most of the wrapping) managed to wrap ALL our Christmas presents in Owl wrapping paper!

I found this at a variety store near work.

I found this paper at Target. I wish I had bought a bunch more. I went after Christmas and it was all gone. Bummer.

And I found this pack of Christmas cards at World Market!

December was definately an interesting month for me. I worked a lot. Made Christmas gifts. Barely saw my husband. Life just wasn't where I wanted it to be. A week before Christmas, I got sick with the flu and bronchitis and was out for about 8 days, including Christmas. From Sunday to about Thursday I couldn't get off the couch. I couldn't stand for more than 2 minutes. Good times. Since Sam was able to have Christmas off (in addition to his sick days and vacation days) we ventured to Georgia to spend with our families. Christmas Eve was spent with his family, but I was at about 40%. I really didn't get to fully enjoy spending the time with family because I couldn't do much but sit and stay still.

We spent Christmas day with my parents and then my mom's side of the family. About mid-morning, SNOW started falling. On Christmas. In Georgia! And it stuck! I can remember a few Christmases that had flurries, but never did it stick. I'm more excited about that now than I was at the time...I wasn't doin' to well that day either. It snowed heavily throughout the day and we decided to cut our visit short because we both had to get back to Alabama for work on Sunday. It was an interesting and somewhat scary driving back. The roads had a bit of ice, you couldn't see far at all, there was a rain/snow mix and it was beginning to get dark. When we got through the Talladega National Forest, it cleared up nicely. We were a bit disappointed that there was nothing on the ground when we got home.

But through the night it flurried enough to make the roads slick and had accumulation in some areas. I managed to slowly make it to work only to stay for about an hour and go home because they were closing roads to put salt on/plow and they were going to close the Zoo and send everyone home anyway. By the afternoon, everything cleared up and were able to spend that evening with Sam's side of the family. I was feeling MUCH better that evening and was able to enjoy that time with the family.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the pretty snow, but Sam did. Those pix are currently in AZ with him as he is covering the BCS championship game for his newstation. I'll add those later.

(Crazy Owl Lasers)

I really had a down time around Christmas. I don't know if it was being sick and not being able to work so I had lots of "thinking" time. I felt really depressed and hurt over losing my job in September. A job I dearly loved and was unjustly fired from. Hurt over losing a friend and basically being stabbed in the back by her. Angry and wanting to get all my emotions out to the people that betrayed me. Sad and hurt at the friends I still have that continue to work (even be hired) by my former employer. Ashamed that I'm not pulling my weight financially around here and worried that we may not make it. I feel a lot better now mentaly. I'm seriously considering finding a counseler, but I don't think its in the budget right now. I feel much better when I go to work at the zoo because I really enjoy taking care of animals and I enjoy working with my coworkers. I feel like I learn things everyday.

(Cobb, Corn Snake)

2010-12-07T12:57:00.000-06:00

Yet another busy few weeks. I finally have 2 days off in a row! WAHOO! I have been working hard on Christmas gifts. We've come to the conclusion that I can't make everyone gifts so we've gotten most of the shopping done all in the span of 4 1/2 hours. Suweeet!

While I can't share EVERYTHING I've been working on (since the receivers may be watching...), I'll share a few with you.

I made this flat iron cozy:

This is the first time I've attempted bias tape and I made my own using this tutorial. Definitely not perfect, but I think it turned out great. I used this tutorial from Crap I've Made. I'm sorta thinking I may want to get a bias tape maker. I think if the tape was straighter, it may have been a bit easier to work with and attach.

I made this ornament

(I kinda just made up the pattern for the ornament and used felt. I blanket stitched around the outside and did a running stitch to attach the white. French knots for the eyes and a single stitch for the beak.)

...and necklaces for an Elfster gift for a friend.

I made this pomander ornament for another Elfster gift exchange using Betz White's tutorial.

I'll be making these (or something similar for family gifts). I'm making the Hubs help me...so that will be his contribution to the handmade gifts.

That's it for this week. I've gotta get crackin' on some more gifts. I have 2 whole days off to work on them!

Blogiversary

2010-11-25T13:09:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving! Just wanted to pop in and say hi and acknowledge my Blogiversary (2 days late). Yeah, so much for weekly updating as stated in the first post. I don't know where I thought I'd fit in daily posts! HA!

I'll be back Monday with a new post including some Christmas crafts I've been working on and a few Owly finds.

Owly Monday

2010-11-15T07:04:00.001-06:00

Its been super busy these past few weeks. I've been working 7 days a week and just haven't been up to making much. I do have a list a mile long. I did get some things accomplished.
I made a few glass tile pendants. I have several more to make for different people.

I created this felt Penguin ornament. I just drew out the pattern and pieced it together. Again, I have a few more ornaments to make in different animal shapes. (An owl MIGHT be one of them....)

I had some really good finds at Macy's. I went to a different store than the one I work at and found the Owl shirt I've been drooling over but my store didn't have my size. I also got the owl necklace that I've been wanting for a while. A few more things w/ a 10% off coupon all were on sale AND my discount. Since we're on a tight budget, this is probably the only stuff I'll get.

When I was leaving, I decided to check out the Christmas section (since I haven't gotten a chance to do it at my store). Jackpot owl ornaments! And sorry for the blurry pix. I haven't mastered the IPhone picture.

This one is my favorite. White with silver trimming. So pretty!

I'll post pictures of my new shirt and necklace next week.

Have a great week! Its gonna be a super busy one for me!

Owly Monday: The return

2010-11-01T06:33:00.005-05:00

Its been nonstop since I've last posted. I haven't had a day off since I began working again! Granted, I do get home from my shifts at Macy's around 12 or 3 so there is some down time, but this waking up at 5 am is getting to me! I know, it's a good thing I don't have kids or an hour commute. I really am enjoying my work at the zoo and feeling more and more comfortable around all the new people. We'll see how it goes when show season starts and when we start doing more programs for audiances. I've done a few animal handling events (Children's Hospital, a small nursery Halloween event and the grand opening of the new Outlet Mall). I really hope a fulltime position comes up soon because I don't know if I can take this 2 job thing after Christmas.

I finally got to enjoy a day of on Friday! I did absolutely nothing.

Ok, I did make some yummy food.

Pumpkin Pancakes

and Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Bars

We apparently used half the bag of white chocolate chips so I had to substitute a half bag of regular chocolate chips. These are soooooooo tastey. I don't remember where I got the recipe, but here it is:

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Bars

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 package (12 ounces) white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut into squares.

My Zoo boss gave me the recipe for the pancakes from a magazine:

Pumpkin Pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups dry pancake mix
3tbsp dark-brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin-pie spice
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp vegetable oil

In a large bowl, combine the pancake mix, brown sugar and pumpkin-pie spice.
In another bowl, mix the milk, pumpkin, egg, vanilla extract and oil.
Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or pan on medium high. Pour the batter onto the griddle/pan and cook until bubbles appear in the batter and edges brown. Flip and cook until other side is browned.
Makes about 20 pancakes.

I attempted to try to make bottlecap necklaces a while back. They didn't turn out how I'd envisioned. I did manage to salvege them and turn them into refridgerator magnets.

I also made a scrabble tile necklace as you can see in the lower right of the pic. (ok...its not fully complete in the pic and obviously not a bottlecap). I think I like this better than the necklace idea. I also thought about making a cuff bracelet for a friend...but I'm beginning to think it won't work.

Sam and I have been watching a lot of horror movies in honor of Halloween. I have yet to find one that scares me. They all make me laugh with their rediculous gore and crappy acting. I don't think Sam wants to watch anymore with me because I laugh and sort of ruin it for him. Some of the recent BAD ones were:

Daughters of Satan (1970's) - I couldn't thru the first 30 minutes.

An American Haunting

The Haunting of Molly Hartely

Hard Candy (not really horror but close enough)

Terror Train (1980 w/ Jamie Lee Curtis)

Drag Me to Hell

Candyman (sorry Sam)

Horror movies I love:

Zombieland

Hellraiser

the classics/standards (Exocist, Poltergeist, Psycho, The Birds)

Halloween

Return to Horror High (its bad I know, but its badness makes it good)

Evil Dead (same as Horror High)

Rocky Horror Picture Show

I really do love Halloween. But I never get to enjoy it anymore. We're both always working and don't get to go to any parties so dressing up would be pointless. I'd love to decorate more, but we're never home to enjoy it. One day we will.

Now onto some Owly finds. I took these pics on my Iphone a while back at Target. They have lots of good stuff there!

Umbrella

Messenger bag.

Wallet

Inside of wallet

Cellphone holder.

My mom actually got this for my birthday. I use it as a keychain.

I stopped into Claire's to look for part of a gift and found some really cute Owly things.

Bracelet.

Scarf.

Hat.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! And its time to start thinking about the holidays! I've got so much on my to make list. I hope 2 months is enough!

Owly Whatever day it is... :)

2010-10-05T07:28:00.004-05:00

Its a completely new week in the Woods. Not only am I working at Macy's, but I'm also a Birmingham Zoo employee! I'm super excited and soooooo glad to be working again. I've already started at Macy's and will start at the Zoo on Thursday!

I haven't done much in the way of crafting this week. I made a fall wreath for the door. I just got a grapevine wreath and Owl at Joann's and some VERY on sale fall picks and ribbon at Michaels . The Owl is still a little wobbely since I just hot glued it; I'll probably thread some floral wire through it and attach it to the wreath.

I don't know if anyone's noticed, but there is A LOT of Owl jewelry out there right now. Maybe its because I've been getting out and about and looking for work clothes. I couldn't resist these 2 necklaces from Forever 21 (both are on really long chains).

JCP had quite a bit to offer. I can't belive I forgot to take pictures with my IPhone. These earrings were the only ones I found online (to show you) that I liked. There were quite a few gold plated pieces (but thats not my thing).

And when I was shoe shopping at Kohl's, there were lots of temptaions!

I almost walked out with this set because, well, there are Owls AND birds and silver! I think my ears have become sensitive so I don't wear earrings much anymore.

And these are super cute too.

Hope everyone has a great week!

End of an Era/New Beginning

2010-09-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

I must say it has been a wild and crazy summer. June, July and August were super busy at the Center. There have been a lot of changes there. A lot of personal difficulties. I went on vacation at the end of August/beginning September and came back to work and BAM! They let me go. After everything I'd been through with them. 6 different Executive directors in 3 years. Almost shutting completely down. Removal of the mammal program. 6 baby seasons. I really don't know why. They gave me a vague reason, but they couldn't back it up and wouldn't tell me what I'd done. I have my theories (money and certain people). I lived and breathed that place 24/7 and was passionate about the cause, so it was like they ripped my heart out and turned my world inside out and upside down. I don't stand for a cause anymore. I've been heartbroken this past month and I've sort of lost myself. I haven't been able express my love of all things Owly as much and I can't seem to get excited about birds or enjoy birdwatching anymore.

I just don't know what to do with myself.

I've had a lot of good feedback and support from a few of my former coworkers and a lot of love and support from many of the volunteers. Some of them questioned whether they should continue to spend their time there, but I encouraged them to stay if they enjoyed it and because the birds need the help now more than ever. And I definately couldn't have gotten through this without my families support.

I immediately started applying for jobs. I've had a phone and inperson interview with the Zoo for a part-time position and am waiting to hear anyday now from them (they've called my references this week). I interviewed and accepted a part-time position at Macy's for the season and just to get me by. Hopefully I can get the keeper postition at the Zoo and work up to a full-time position.

On to more positive things....

I am slowly getting back on track. I've decided that it will have to be a homemade Christmas this year and trying to get gift ideas together for the family. I've already made a few things, like these Owl Earrings.

I haven't decided who will get these, but its a start on all fronts. A Christmas start, a get back into crafting start, a get back to myself start. I'll share SOME stuff as I make it, because I know some of the recipients do still read this blog.

I did manage to put up the few fall decorations I have. We can't put too much out because of the ~~demons~~ cats.

I also managed to celebrate a BIG birthday this month. Not the happiest I've had, but I always love birthdays. Of course nothing could top last years birthday which was celebrated in Tanzania, Africa.

I danced with the Maasai.

Thatched a roof.

Spread Manure/Mud on a house.

And enjoyed cake wit our group, guides and staff.

My parents came for a visit and we went out to the J. Clyde for my birthday dinner. Unfortunately, they were out of the Owly Ginger Beer and both Pumpkin Beers AND out of Veggie Burgers! But the replacement Blackbean burger was tastey and had good company.

My parents got me Visa Gift Card, so I've been stocking up on some craft tools/materials to make Christmas gifts. I also managed to find some brown boots that I've been looking 2 years for at an incredible price -Teva's for $30!

I also found this resin Owl at Kirkland's.

They had a few other Owl items, but I didn't have much left on my card. I also used my birthday $5 off $20 coupon.

And since September 23rd was the first day of Autumn I made Some Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Bars. They really turned out to be more like Paula Dean's Gooey Pumpkin Bars and probably could have used a higher temperature, but they are soooooo tastey and rich!

(and yes, thats a Pumpkin candle in the background)

This blog will become my motivation to get back on track and start doing what I love again.

Bad Owl

2010-06-08T08:00:00.005-05:00

I've been such a baaaaad blogger the past few weeks. (sorry mom!) I really don't have any good excuses. Work has been busy and I've just been lazy. Apologies all around!

I do have a wide assortment of things to share: craft finds, spray painting, gardening and news related.

I did manage to finally get around to spraypainting the cute Owl Trivets my mom gave me last year. They were finds at a local thrift store. And I'll just admit, I really don't think things out thoroughly when doing some projects (explination to follow). She gave me 2 small and 1 large trivet. The 2 small were a brassy color and I prefer silver so I bought some metallic spray paint, primed them and sprayed them silver. I was hoping for a more metallic/mirror like coat to match the big owl. So now the big owl is primed and waiting to be silvered. Sometimes things just don't go as you'd hoped they would (especially when doing crafty type stuff). They look/sound good in your mind, but execution is a different monster alltogether.

On the gardening front....

We have tomatoes!! Yayz!

On to some Owly finds:

Modcloth musta hit the motherload on Owl stuff!

Too bad this vintage cuff is sold. Lots-o-owls all in a row.

I LOVELOVE this top! LOVE! So Girly and Owly!

This card case is pretty awesome too. The card case I made is beginning to show some wear and I like that this is a hard case and more durable.

I really like this lamp from Target. We have such an assortment of lamps that don't go together...they all need to be replaced with these! (Sam would just LOVE that!)

On to Newsworthy stuff...

If you're not living under a rock, you've heard about the economic and ecological disaster happening in the Gulf of Mexico. As I type, oil is washing up on the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and getting extremely close to Texas and Florida. As a rehabber, the images shown on the news is devestating and heartbreaking. I want to do something. I have to do something. The Alabama Wildlife Center is currently on hold, waiting for the call for help from the officials at the Theodore Oiled Bird Station near Mobile, Alabama. I'll hopefully be attending an orientation today to visit the facility and get aquanted with it.

Those facilities are paid for by BP, but the paraprofessionals and those with experience who have signed up to help are doing so voluntarily. AWC must somehow find the funds to send its animal care staff and experienced volunteers in order to help. This is especially difficult during the busy time of year when we get at least 5 animals in a day and have hundreds of baby birds and many baby raptors to feed.

So please, donate to your local wildlife rehabilitators who desperately need the funds so that they can send those people who are experienced in dealing with wildlife.

You can search thru the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Associations website to find a local rehabber.

You can designte funding for Oil Spill Relief for AWC on the website.

This is going to be a loooong, hard, heartbreaking road that will have to be traveled for many years to come. I hope that people won't forget about this even after some other national newsmaker hits the airwaves.

She's Crafty

2010-05-11T07:00:00.002-05:00

Its been a busy week on the craft front. My first project was to make Mothers Day gifts for my mom and mother-in-law. I found a really nice tutorial on The How-To Gal.

Wood Blocks from Hobby Lobby

Brown Spray Paint from Home Depot

Hinges from Home Depot

Mod Podge (on hand)

Helpful Hint: I'd recommend using a Laser Printer or have the pictures printed at an office supply store. We printed ours on our Epson and the ink tends to run/smear. But I liked it w/ some faint streaks (and so did the moms). And by some miracle, I was able to get all 3 cats in one picture. They may not all be looking, but they're all there!

The Alabama Wildlife Center held its first Wild Baby Shower this weekend and it was a huge success! We had lots of visitors who gave lots of wonderful things to help us through baby season.

I found some cute Owl candy molds at Bake It Pretty and made some milk and white chocolate lollypops to sell. I used my owl vases w/ floral foam to arrange them.

We created a bean bag toss game and I made the bean bags for 4 different foods that certain birds would eat. I scavenged the scrap bins at Hancock Fabrics and found some for really cheap and freehanded most of the food items. Then used fabric markers to draw on more details.

Fish

Waxworms (I just randomly pleated the fabric to make ridges).

Mice. For the mice I used this tutorial from craftster.org. I used ribbon for the tail and fabric markers for the details.

Sunflower Seeds. I used part of the mouse tutorial and cut out 4 pieces and sewed them together. I painted some nonspecific detailing.

Here are the boards a wonderful volunteer painted! They are just amazing!

Red-tailed Hawk = Mice

Northern Cardinal = Sunflower Seeds

Eastern Bluebird = Waxworms

Great-blue Heron = Fish

The kids really enjoyed it and I'm sure we'll be using this for many events to come!

You can see more pictures from the event on AWC's Facebook page.

So very busy a bit of Owly Tuesday

2010-05-04T07:00:00.004-05:00

First, I wanted to say a little something about the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. The Center is currently on standby to send some of the staff (including me) to the Coast when needed. Its just a horrible ecological and economic disaster. There won't be any healthy fish for the local business and tourism is going to suffer greatly. There won't be any healthy food for the animals to eat and therefore their young will starve.
Its going to take a while for the true effects to present, but I can guarantee its not going to be good at all.
People are so eager to help right now, but most of the help is going to be needed further down the road and I hope their enthusiasm will sustain throughout the devestation.

Now on to a few brighter things. We've been busy on the yard the past few weeks and I've been dying to test out my green thumb. So I've planted a few things.

This is one of 2 hanging baskets on the front porch. Plectranthus (the green leafy stuff), Begonias (pink, white and red flowers) and Ajuga "Mahogany" (purple flowers).

Strawberries!

There's one growing! Although I think someone took a bite out of it....perhaps this guy...

Lazybum Squirrel.

Husky Cherry Red Tomatoes.

Window basket on the front porch has Parsley, Oregano and Basil. I need to make some cute garden stakes instead of using the store tags.

Back porch window basket has Lavender and Sage.

I've planted a few Oakleaf Hydrangeas from some cuttings my coworker gave me. We'll see how they do, if they don't make it, thats ok. They wer free! But I really hope they do b/c I love Oakleafs.

Our wedding tree (Red Maple) we planted June 2008 is doing really well! We thought it wasn't going to make it because of all the highwinds and sitting in the pot for 2+ months.

Here it is at the wedding. It was soooooo windy when we bought it and drove it to the reception area. It looked sad.

But its lush and grean and has grown a lot in 2 years.

In other news, I've been working on this project here and there for a few weeks. I got the idea from Simply Modern Mom's tutorial.

I took 2 canvases, painted a tree and Mod Podge the leaves I cut from magazines and owls cut from scrapbook paper. I still have to seal it and then decide where to hang them.

I still have a few more $$ on my Hobby Lobby gift card, so I think a trip down there might be in order tomorrow. You can never have enough Owl Ribbon right?

And I found this little brass guy amoung the clutter of stuff at a local Antique store. He's a nice addition to my little Owly collection.

I'll be working hard on sewing a 3 each of fish, worm, mouse and sunflower seed for this weekends Wild Baby Shower! And a few other things are also up my sleeve. So, till next Tuesday...have a great week!

Owly Tuesday

2010-04-27T09:00:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the first installment of Owly Tuesday! Its been quite the busy week at the Center. We've gotten a lot more baby birds in and with the severe weather and high winds this weekend the baby raptors are definately flood in. We've also been planning our first Wild Baby Shower that will take place May 8th (the day before Mother's Day!). We've got a cute game planned and I've got to work hard on sewing some things for it and possibly baking some Owl Cupcakes as well.

I've got a few crafty things to share.

First the Spring/Summer wreath I made. Nothing fancy, and I'm hoping a bird couple might find it appealing as a bird nest site.

And I've been working on a project that I've been wanting to do for the longest time. Its not fully complete, but I'll give you a sneak peak.

A few Owly finds at JoAnn and SUPER cheap ($1!!)

I bought about 6 of these. I'm thinking 2-3 to keep to organize my crafty stuff and the rest I will save to use in the Craft and Bake sale we have in December. I'm thinking Owly Cookies or Owly Ornaments. And they've got a little label holder.

And I just loved these things when I was a kid. I used to get those Lisa Frank ones all the time. I thought these would be cute for either prizes for the Shower game or even used during our Creatures of the Night event in October.

Have a great week!

Last Owly Monday

2010-04-19T07:00:00.003-05:00

It'll probably be Owly Tuesday from now on. Since my schedule has changed at work, its gonna be easier for me to post on Tuesdays thru the end of summer.

I had a wonderful time with my Hubs at Callaway Gardens celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary. Saw lots of birds and the azaleas were blooming beautifully. No Callaway visit would be complete without a visit to the Butterfly House.

And behold.....

The Owl Butterfly!

Some visitors warned us that there was a snake on one of the trails. Of course we had to see what it was. I wanted to make sure it was off the trail so noone else would find it and hurt it. It was just a simple rat snake sunning itself. Cuteness!

They still had some of their Easter sculptures out. This one was to cute.

2 Birdies!

Just a few items for you. I'm trying not to tempt myself by going out to "window shop." I just know I'll want whatever Owly item I can find! And Sam's already threatening that I need to pick my most favoriet Owl item and the rest will disappear. He would neeeeever. ; )

You must check out Night Owl Paper Goods! They have some amazing cards, totes gifts and more. Lots of eco-friendly products and they are local. I just love all of their artwork.

And who would ever need an owl serving dish?

Uhhhhh....that would be me. I mean, I do TONS of serving. Ok, well, I would if I had it!

How cute is this nursery set from Amazon? (And to those wondering....NO!) I posted this because I thought of my college BFF that I got to visit and finally meet her son and thought of him.

Lurve the lamp!

Have a wonderful week!

2 Years Ago Today

2010-04-12T07:00:00.004-05:00

I married my High School Sweetheart!

I've decided to post a few memories in honor of the beg day...and some of it is, in fact, owly related.

Crazy, right?!

It stormed horribly through our rehersal...luckily the chapel was covered and we stayed not soaked.

On wedding day, it was beautiful! Everyone said it was the perfect temperature, but I was a bit cold, especially since I was in a sleeveless dress. But the excitement of the day helped me ignore the temps. The dogwoods were blooming and the trees were so lush and green. It was exactly how I pictured it.

One of my fav pix.

The Dogwood's were so pretty.

My bouquet. Silver Sparkely Shoes!

And yes I walked thru the woods in my dress. I'm not some priss pot...the best pix came from us in the woods. And I like dancing with leaves and twiggs in my shoes.

I'm probably the only bride who could really care less about a manicure before her wedding.

We had a Memory Table set up at the entrance to the chapel for those loved ones who couldn't make the wedding in the flesh. We felt them present in our hearts.

We lost 3 Grandmothers the year before our wedding. The bottom picture is my Dad's Mom (MawMaw) and the top picture is of my Mom's Mom (Grandmother).

Sam's Granny (his Dad's Mom, bottome picture) passed away a few days after I'd decided to stop by one day and tell her that we were getting married. She was so very excited and told every hospice nurse that came to care for her. His Mom's Dad (Granddaddy, top picture)passed away the December before we started dating, and unfortunately I never got to meet him.

Sam's MawMaw also passed. She took care of him and his sister when they were growing up.

You can't see here, but our minister was wearing sunglasses! Hilarious!

I cut out birds in the colors of the wedding and used them as a "guestbook." We bought a Maple Tree that we would plant in our yard after the wedding and put the signed birds in a scrapbook. The birds haven't made it into the scrapbook, but the tree survived horrid winds and torential rains and 3 months in its pot and drought. Its currently leafing out now in our backyard!

Our Cake, w/ Owly cake toppers.

It was sooo tastey! Strawberry filling with whole strawberries between the layers.

Daddy's little girl.

Yes, Leslie, I gues it was.

My hair...I found some birdy pins on Etsy.

This was a Barred Owl I rehabbed and we were able to release during the reception.

Owly Monday

2010-04-05T07:00:00.005-05:00

Sam and I went home a few weeks ago to spend some time with my family. We ended up visiting a very busy Georgia Aquarium.

Afterwards, we returned to my hometown and needed to kill some time before meeting Sam's parents for dinner, so we hit up the mall. Borders was the place for Owly stuff. There were all kinds of journals,

totes, an umbrella....and wrapping paper!

Oh, how I wish I could buy them out of it! There was tissue paper, but I had to restrain myself. Couldn't justify the umbrella because I just don't use them and my rainjacket is more practical.

If you're near a Border's bookstore, check it out!

I would like to announce that The Alabama Wildlife Center has a new blog up. See some neat pictures and read some amazing stories!

We've had 4 successful Owl reunites so far this year...a total of 10 out of 13 (3 were too injured to return to their parents) baby owls have been reunited with their parents. I hope we can keep this up on into baby Hawk season!

On a slightly different note...I was lucky enough to witness a Barred Owl actively hunting as I was leaving the park this week!

I watched him/her fly to another tree and look down real intently.

It suddenly dove down, grabbed a large clump of leaves and fly to another tree a little further away. Throught the binoculars I could some species of shrew in its beak...still kicking. It then flew across the road and into the woods. It must be time to feed some babies.

Excuses, Excuses

2010-03-29T07:51:00.005-05:00

Once again, I'm a slacker and don't have much for ya this week. We've had 2 successful Great Horned Owl Reunites and this evening will hopefully be a successful Barred Owl reunite. Mom wants her baby back ASAP!

We've been busy at the Center with workshops and events. Audubon Teaches Nature had a wonderful talk on Spring migrants and we released a Broad-winged Hawk that was overwintered because injuries prevented him from making the fall migration to South America.

And we've only just begun with baby season! I hope to at least keep posting once a week...I may not have any new Owly finds, but I'm ALWAYS looking everywhere I go.

Just one little Owly tip and its off to feed the Baby Barred Owl:

Apparently, Zazzle has Keds that you can customize. And they have toooooonnnsss of Owly shoes. Now, where did I leave that extra $73 laying around....oh right I don't have that. Bummer.

WANT!

Officially Baby Season and Owly Monday

2010-03-22T07:00:00.063-05:00

Its official this week. Baby Season! We've had 4 juvenile Great Horned Owls come in. A very small nestling (that I took home and fed at 12pm and 4 am for 3 nights), 2 sibling older nestlings and a single older nestling. The first guy had some serious injuries and we sent to another facility. I helped reunite the siblings with their parents Friday night. After scoping out the area we decided on a HUGE Pine tree with a nice fork to put the artificial nest (whicker basket from Walmart) and plenty of understory and cover. Thats not me climbing the tree....a volunteer arborist helped us get the babies back. (Thanks David!) In the second pic, you can see the basket in the fork of the tree. David is getting the baby out of the bucket to place in the nest basket.

So from now on...weekly posts may be too difficult for me. I'll do my best to keep up, but no promises 'til late August. (yeah, it lasts THAT long!)

So, on to a few Owly tidbits...

(Thanx to Melodye for this one!) This super cute Merrell shirt puts an Owl close to your heart

(ok, sort of...close enough anyway).

I went to Wally-World (Walmart) for some spraypaint and wandered thru the Easter aisle. And oh the Owl joyness I found. I wish the Easter Bunny still visited me!

There were large suckers and other assorted Owly Candy...but alas most of it had gelatin (an avoidance for vegetarians - one package even identified the gelatin as pork) I really wanted the big frosted cookie on a stick. Bummer.

And those who are aching for summer...some Flip Flops at Target

Shoulda crafted an ark!

2010-03-15T08:27:00.002-05:00

We've had soooo much rain recently. Unfortunately we had way to much Wednesday, and my 9 mile commute home from work turned into an 1hr and 1/2 nightmare drive home. And when I got home, I found this:

Our basement had about 6 inches of water in it. It looked like it was a little higher from the waterline. Luckily it all drained out within a few hours. Not too much damage, but we'll definately have to replace our AC units and possibly the downstairs furnace. I had some old notebooks from college and about a dozen books that were destroyed. I think everything else is ok.

(the cans are part of my craft room organization...they're primed, and need to be painted, the pillow case was so stiff that it acted as a flotation device for the helpless cans that were stuck to it).

Now, on to happier things!

I finally managed to complete my Jewelry frames and hang them up. I don't really have that much jewelry, but the stuff I have is just laying around unorganized. So I found this Home Sweet Home.

I took the glass out of 2 inexpensive frames and replaced it with wire and scrapbooking paper for a background. Easy peasy.

Next topic: Owl stuff!

I was wishing and dreaming and longing for all the wonderful things at Plow and Hearth and came across this really cute flameless owl votive.

And 2 of my favorite things, Owls and Pumpkins, in this garden statue.

Now if I can just get around to pulling up all the weeds and starting a garden...

I've always loved the tshirts at Wildlife Works. I really love this Owl longsleeve.

The birdnerd in me loves that it has the scientific name printed on it (Bubo africanus) (even tho Africanus is capitalized). Charismatic Megafauna is printed on the back.

(and the technical wildlife nerd in me loves that!)

This Barn Owl shirt from Urban Outfitters looks comfy-cute!

And to top everything off, I bring you this Owl Bangle.

WANT!

I just love Fossil stuff.

1 Week Later

2010-03-08T08:03:00.003-06:00

And its Owly Monday again. Except not too many Owls today. I have decided to share some of our pictures from our "delayed" Honeymoon that we couldn't take right after the wedding because of work. S here are just a small drop for you. Most of these are ones that I've taken with my little Kodack Easyshare Z650 10x zoom (except where noted). So grab your Monday mug of coffee

and take a tour.

This was one of the absolute highlights for me. We were all sitting down to dinner, conversing, enjoying the meal, when all of the sudden this guy flew over our heads!

Its an African Barn Owl!! Holy (enter your favorite expletive here)!

We didn't see ~~him~~ her the following night.

(Sam took this pic w/ his Nikon)

Tanzania Roadblock.

This was our first "game drive" and in Tarangire National Park.

A very large heard of Wildebeest.

On our way back to camp we got an up close and personal view of a small heard of Elephants.

An early morning game drive allowed us to see these guys!

Bat-eared Foxes are primarily nocturnal and sleep in their underground dens through most of the day.

We had a wonderful breakfast with this as our view.

Beautiful scenery in Tarangire.

My birthday was spent with the Masai and traveling to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

Dancing with the Masai.

Everyone at the lodge (including another OAT group that was at the end of their trip, their 3 guides, our 3 guides and all the staff ) came out dancing and singing to celebrate my birthday. It was just about the best birthday EVER! And we got cake!

On a very looooooooooong dusty, bumpy drive to Serengeti National Park we were lucky to catch this guy eating.

A Greater Kestrel! Sam took this shot w/ his camera.

And a little video for you. A Leopard that our little group had all to itself (no other tourists to fight for viewing positions). After watching it silently watch a Reedbok, he finally decided to come down the tree to start his evening prowl. And just for the record, my awesome Nikon binoculars reveled that he was indeed a he.

More pix to come. And if you are interested in experiencing this for yourself, check out

Safari Serengeti: Tanzania Lodge and Tented Safari via

Overseas Adventure Travel.

Monday, Monday

2010-02-28T14:33:00.005-06:00

Sorry I didn't get around to posting last week. Its been a little busy and I was just so worn out from having a TreeTop cleanup Saturday and Sunday. I was just worthless Monday and its amazing I got up and out to celebrate the hub's birthday with some of the family.

Princess approves of the cleanup.

Now on to some Owl goodies. In one of my previous posts I showed you some Owly pajamas (that I got for Christmas!!!). Well, there's a whole line of stuff matching it out there that you can find at Endless and Amazon. I really like this travel set....and the zipper pulls are owls!

And then there are these cute pajama pants.

(I do love pajama pants...its a must when I walk thru the door from a long day at work.)

We were in World Market the other day and they had some really nice Owl pillows. We didn't get them because they would just be ruined by the kittens who think everything is a toy for them to play with. I couldn't find it on the website and my oldschool cell doesn't have a camera on it...so you'll just have to go there to see them. I did however find this plaque in the clearance section AND they had an additional percentage off. I'm just bummed they didn't have more than one.

In searching for a picture of the pillows, I did find this neat Owl statue on their site.

Of course nothing could compare to the carved Owl Statue that I picked up in Tanzania.

Have a great week everyone.

Southern Snow and a few Owl Odds and Ends

2010-02-15T06:00:00.003-06:00

Its rare here in the south to get any accumulation of snow. We usually only get a semi-decent amount once per winter, but this winter has been extraordinary for us. We've had several occasions of snow, but this past weekend we had a good amount, especially in the park. Our house didn't see very much:

Looking out from the upper deck.

But the Park was just beautiful!

At TreeTop Nature Trail

Gazebo between Enclosure 5 & 6

This was taken on 2-13 of what I always call the "paddle boat lake". The sun was out and the temperatures were climbing fast which made the snow melt even faster.

Looking into the woods at the Alabama Wildlife Center.

I was able to get some great shots of the birds at the feeder.

American Goldfinchs

This Eastern Phoebe was hanging out all day gleaning something off of the Sumac pods. I finally got her while she was on a break. One of my favorite baby birds.

Carolina Chickadee

Dark-eyed Junco

Lucky for the above birds, this gal was at TreeTop Nature Trail.

I had just finished feeding the raptors at TreeTop and headed to my car when I spotted this girl fly to a perch in this pine tree. I zoomed in as faaaaaarrr as I could and steadied the camera as much as I could (it was cold and I was a bit shivery). A Cooper's Hawk in adult plumage!

I have a few Owly goodies for ya. I was on a hair accessory hunt to complete my ensamble for Wild About Chocolate and stopped in Forever 21. Oh how many Owl accessories they had!! Most of it was gold, which is not my thang, but they did have a few pieces in silver.

I was going to get this necklace

But I could wear this one more easily (not being in the least fashionable to wear the prior)

and it was a bit cheaper .

Its a good thing the store didn't have this bag, because I woulda gotten it too and I really don't need it.

They didn't have this shirt in my size, thank goodness. I'm really trying to save and pay off some stuff. Gosh its so hard!

There were a few other stores that had Owls in their accessories...Claires, Wet Seal so be on the lookout cause they're everywhere!

A Quick Owly Monday

2010-02-08T08:23:00.001-06:00

Its been a pretty busy week at the Owl house. Enjoyed the evening and EARLY morning in Lake Guntersville State Park for Eagl Weekend. We presented some of our education raptors and had a really great crowd. We got up early for a 6am bird trip that produced 8 Bald Eagles coming off of roost! So amazing! At 9am we headed out to the dam and watched an active Eagle nest. The babies were small so it was difficult to see them, but Mom was on the nest and would occassionaly reach down to them and Dad was flying by and hunting for food. Its just incredible to see them in the wild.

While I was out and about this I found this.

I've been looking for some scrolly/metal type things to hang in the house and Kirklands had it on Clearance! Too bad I didn't find these when they had an additional markdown on clearance. Oh well, they're pretty awesome!

I was finally able to get some pictures of the Barn Owl Babies. They're almost ready for release!

And the barbed wire Barn Owl is ::thisclose:: to being healed. Amazing.

Thats it. I'm working on a few projects to post and working on getting some of our Africa trip pictures together. I might do those in several different posts.

Have a great week everyone!

Andddd...

2010-02-01T06:00:00.003-06:00

Here we are again. Its Owly Monday time (kinda like Howdy Doody, but more modern and Owl-like). I'm feelin a little more crafty today, so thats what I'm gonna share. There are so many cute owl related crafts out there.

Hostess {with the mostess} shared this really cute Anthropology inspired baby shower. I think we could use some of these ideas in creating a WildBaby Shower for the Center. Look at those Owl hand fans!

I just love these stir sticks! And guess what? They are SUPER easy to make. Jesi Haack created this tutorial.

I'm thinkin these would be super cute as cupcake toppers.

And guess who has that Martha Stewert Owl punch.......

Tiffany over at la T da has a cute tutorial on how to make these cute Valentine Owl Moonpies for your sweetheart, friends and family.

I just wish they weren't made with Marshmallows...too bad for this vegetarian.

Very similar to the cute Owl cupcakes I made last year .

Not Just a Mommy! has a really cute Felt Owl tutorial for Valentines Day. You could totally change the color of the felt for any holiday (red/gree/white for Christmas) or make 'em more natural looking by using browns, blacks and tans.

Head over to Happy Owl Glassworks for some pretty amazing Nature inspired artwork created on glass.

How cute is this nightlight?

And guess what I found at Hobby Lobby....

Owl vases for super cheap! Sam keeps askin' what I'm gonna do with them. They're going on the mantle...so maybe put some flowers in 'em? Or just leave them as is, in all their ceramic-owly-vase glory.

A quick update on the Barbed Wire Barn Owl. Alllllllllmost healed. Look how many feathers are coming in! I just can't be more excited about this. S/he's certainly ready to be healed and outside.

I would post a picture of the Baby Barn Owls outside, but they are always in their nest box...and thats probably because I go out there during daylight hours. But I can tell you they are flying great and eating well!

Maybe I can catch a glimpse of them to snap a pic this coming week.

OM

2010-01-25T08:06:00.002-06:00

No, I'm not meditating, but I am excited that its Owly Monday again! Its gonna be a little Owly and a little Crafty today.

Pier 1 has these super cute Ceramic Owls.

And Owl Bookends

If something were perfect for me, it would be Night Owl Pumpkin Ale. Pumpkin.Beer.Owl. SUWEEEET!

And apparently there is a whole line of Japanese Beers that has an owl on all the labels! If I every make it to Whole Foods, I hope to find this Hitachino Beer.

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago. My mom got me this Owl fleece throw for Christmas! I have no idea where she got it, but its super cute and super soft.

We got these framed 70's Owl prints from my husband's Aunt. I'm planning on spray painting the frames, just don't know where they'll go....probably one of the bathrooms.

Which nicely leads us into the craftyness I've been up to.

I whipped up 3 of these fleece scarfs in about 10 minutes. Soooooo easy. I made a few of these back at Christmas for my mom and my Paw Paw. He got kinda mad at me because I got him a gift, but when I told him I made it he didn't mind so much. He especially loved the "cowboy" fleece scarf.

One Owly Scarf for me and I don't know who gets the other 2.

You can find the tutorial at All Sam's Idea.

I'm really motivated to get the office/craft room together in the hopes that it will inspire me to get even more crafty. I found these at Hobby Lobby (super duper cheap!) and had some $$ on my birthday gift card (yeah it was 4 months ago) and got some spray paint (kry) in jade. They still need another coat, but they're close to done.

I also got a peg board to put some of my crafting supplies on. It needs a coat of paint and if I'm crafty enough, a special super surprise will appear on it!

Barbed Wire Barn Owl Update...it is looking soooooooo good! Its just so impressive!

Here's Day 1 as a reminder of how it looked.

And here is Day 43

Can you believe its the same bird? S/He's getting very anxious and is very ready to be out of the box. It could possibly be next week. And as his/her feathers' grow in and can insulate him/her from the cold, s/he'll go outside.

Monday Owl Fix

2010-01-18T08:23:00.003-06:00

I hope you enjoyed last weeks Birdy Monday. I've got some kickin' Owly stuff this week. And when I type kickin' I'm typing about shooooees! Thats right Owly shoes. I have some wonderful Skecheters that have since been discontinued and I know I'll just cry my heart out when they wear out.

The wonderful people at Delia's has solved my delima (mostly...they're way to expensive for my pocket!)

And this Owly Shirt is pretty cute too. Delia's always has such cute owl stuff.

I lurve these Fossil Owly Rain boots found at Pronto Style. These would come in real handy in the summer when the drain gets all clogged and I have to wade ankle deep in water to clear it out so the birds don't get flooded out in their aviaries.

Seems like wall decals are everywhere and there are sooooo many to choose from on Etsy. Here are just a few.

Seller: Popwall

Seller: designedDESIGNER

Seller: SurfaceFlik

And this cute Owl Shelf from Seller: TheWoodenOwl

That didn't even scratch the surface on Etsy. There is so much and it just shows you how creative the world is.

Now on to some rehab updates. Its been a pretty exciting week at AWC. We're gearing up for Wild About Chocolate. We just had Audubon Teaches Nature which featured our education Raptors as well as some from Camp Cosby and the 4-H Center. But the major event happened suddenly and unexpectedly. We got a call from one of our most fabulous Raptor Transporters and he got a call from a friend in Hale County that they had an Eagle. We rarely get those and usually when people say they have an Eagle its can be anything from a Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, baby Mourning Dove, Brown Thrasher, Northern Mockingbird and others.

This is what arrived an hour after the call:

Its an Immature Bald Eagle! It weighed about 8lbs and stretched from my chin to my knees.

(thats me holding it!) There were a couple of fractures in the wing and some necrotic soft tissue on its lower abdomen and some soft tissue injuries on its feet. We sent it to Auburn the next day and found out that the radiographs showed gunshot in its good wing. GUNSHOT?! Who does that?!

It is currently being investigated.

We also managed to get our Peregrine Falcon in a flight cage after being in treatment for several months. A fractured humerus and a internal/external pin and several weeks of physical therapy kept him inside for 4 months. He's definately glad to be outside.

The Barbed Wire Barn Owl is looking GREAT. The wound is soooooo very close to being healed.

Incredible!

The baby Barn Owls are getting fiestier and fiestier. The youngest is leaping/lunging at me which is great. I know I've done my job not to have him used to people! They are definately going out to a flight cage next week and be on live prey by the end of the month.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Not-quite-Owly Monday

2010-01-11T07:42:00.003-06:00

So I've decided that today will actually be Birdy Monday. In addition to my obsession of all things Owl, I also am very much obsessed with all things Birdy. I submit to you some birdy goodness for this week!

(and also Barn Owl updates to get your owl fix in)

I got these plaques to hang in our kitchen. Theres space above the cabinets and they'll fit perfectly.

This plaque was found a consignment shop nearby.

And I got these at JoAnn's for $3.99!

I'm not so sure what I'm gonna do with this hook but I just couldn't resist when I saw it at our ~~Christmas~~ Holiday Craft and Bake Sale. I think I'll incorporate it into the Office/Craft room.

I just love Charlie Harper's artwork. The humor, whimsy and personal interpretation of birds and wildlife just speaks to me. I got this little book a few years ago and it sits on the living room coffee table for guests to enjoy.

And if you're in the market for a good birding field guide, I highly recommend the Sibley Field Guides. I'm partial to the Eastern guide since, well, thats where I live. The illustrations and variations in plumage are fantastic.

I was checking out Macy's after receiving an email and I found these Sconces. I hope I can talk Mr. Owl into these to replace the broken ones on the front porch.

I really need one of these to hold all my Owl and Bird related jewelry. Its at JCP (as are the next 3 items up for bid...oh wait, this isn't The Price is Right.).

And I saw this Book Holder when I was in the store today. (almost got it too) Sometimes those things come in handy when you have limited counter space and your cookbook keeps closing on you.

And it would be nice to have a 3rd hamper, but I don't think Mr. Owl would go for this. I think its supposed to go with the cute bird baby bedding

As you can see, there are tons and tons of bird stuff out there. Maybe with all the Bird and Owl stuff people will become more wildlife aware. I sure hope so.

Now its time for something completely different.

Well not COMPLETELY, but still.

The Barn Owl babies are doing soooooooo good! They are very angry anytime you pull their leftovers or feed them, which is PERFECT because that means I did my job correctly thus far. They really look like Barn Owls now...almost all of their down is gone. And I'm still going with both of them being males.

This is the youngest...he's doing his "No, no's" (Read Wesley the Owl for a full discription) Typical threatening Barn Owl behavior. They shake there heads back and forth along the ground.

They'll be going outside next week (when the weather is a bit warmer). Soon they'll be flying around the flight cage and we'll be giving them live prey and they'll probably be release early February!

Barbed Wire Barn Owl is getting better and better. The wound seems to be getting smaller and the tissue is coming in nicely. And look at those pin feathers!

As almost everyone knows, its COOOOLLLDD! Like snow in Florida cold. All they hype they were building for the snow we were supposed to get here in Alabama didn't amount to much. This is all we got, and we're at the top of a mountain!

I hear its still pretty icy and snow is still on the ground in my home (and neighboring) state, Georgia

(GO DAWGS!). So all my friends and family...be careful over there!

And hopefully I will get the motivation to start some sewing (with my fancy new bright Otte light!) and some organizing projects in the next few weeks.

Its the First Monday of 2010!

2010-01-04T08:08:00.001-06:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! I was worried I'd be spending the New Year with the flu, but thank goodness I just had some 48 hour bug. Weird. Anywhoooo...I have a few Baby Owl and Barbed Wire Owl updates.
The Babies are really coming along in their feather development. They are starting to get their body coverts in, which are white, so I'm beginning to think they will both be males. I'd be 100% if it weren't for the "dirty" redish look to the feathers around their eyes. We'll see when all of their feathers come in.

The Barbed Wire Barn Owl is doing great, except that he/she keeps pulling her stitches out. I think the vet has finally just said to leave it open and heal itself. We're back to rinsing and putting trypsyme on it daily and its still on antibiotics.

Taken on 12-29-09

This is from the morning of 12-30-09. I went home sick before noon and she/he pulled the stitches out that afternoon and had to go back to the vet.

1-2-10. Its getting smaller and looking pretty good. You can't see it, but the skin is a little awkward on the lower half of its torso. I think that will "fix" itself as the top part of the wound improves. And you can sort of see that the body feathers are coming in around the wound! I'm very glad to see that!

Now on to Owly Monday!

I must have this hoodie from Target!

And oooohhh, how I wish I could knit! I'd make one of these in every color! The pattern can be found here.

This Owl Lamp can be found at Better Living Through Design.

I found these doormats and placemats at Uncommon Goods.

Christmas edition of Owly Monday

2009-12-28T08:11:00.001-06:00

So with the holidays, I haven't had much time to gather owly tidbits for you. I am, however, going to post some owly goodies that I got for Christmas. Some of it isn't owl related, but more bird related. And maybe sometimes Owly Mondays may just turn into Birdy Mondays on my random whims. Who knows?

My boss gave me this SUPER cute change purse made by Fossil! I've been needing a replacement card wallet, but haven't found the right one and haven't gotten around to making one.

The in-laws gives everyone a calendar every year, and I got an owl one!

Mom and Dad got me this Owly Robe! And I also got matching pajamas!

Mom also got me 3 necklaces, 2 with owls and one with a bird (from etsy.com). Here's one of them.

Fabric (some w/ cute birds!) and patterns from mom also.

In-laws got me this bird house and bird carving from a craft fair they went to in Gatlinburg.

I also wanted to share updates on the Barn Owls.

The babies are developing so fast. They're starting to get their flight feathers and their facial discs are almost fully formed. They're starting to look like Barn Owls. Here's a pic from Saturday 12/26.

The barbed wire adult Barn Owl is doing great. He went to the vet on Monday and they did something sorta new and genious. They put 2 washers at the ends of the wound and losely sutured the wound and pulled the suture thru the washer. He put split shot (apparently used for fishing) on top of the washer and attached to the suture. Every few days we tighten the suture and put a new split shot on. The vet wasn't able to suture up the wound because of its size and because the skin is so thin.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday and will have an even better New Year!

Owly Monday

2009-12-21T10:40:00.002-06:00

Not too much for Owly Monday this week. With a stressful, busy week at work and preparing for Christmas there hasn't been much time. But I have Baby Barn Owl pix and updates and a Barn Owl wound update. And some Christmas Tree Pix thrown in the mix.

First things first! Here's a neat crafty owl made from a pine cone! I think this would be a great idea for our annual Creatures of the Night kids craft. There are so many pine cones around the Center, especially those big Longleaf Pine pine cones.

How about an Owly tea set? I just love this set. We saw one when we were on our mini Honeymoon in Charleston. It was way overpriced and we couldn't justify it.

And an Owly umbrella stand from Modern Poverty. I would love to have this, but we have nowhere to put it.

Kmart has this wonderful bathroom set. I can't talk Sam into changing our Master Bathroom Leaf set to this. Maybe I can at least talk him into the curtain rings, sine we have one missing....

Thats all I've got this week, now on to the real owls!

Haven't they grown?! They have more than doubled their weights since they arrived and are now staying at the Center and eating whole mice. And because I miss making fun charts in Excel, here's a weight chart for you. I think they're about to bottom out in the weights. With most parn owls, they generally get much heavier than their adult weight and then drop the weight. First time I noticed it, it freaked me out, but I see it happen every year and, well, Birds of North America says it is so.

Caution: graphic pix again!

On to the Barbed Wire Barn Owl. The wound is looking better and better! The dead tissue is sloughing off and the new tissue is granulating in nicely. It still looks gnarly, but if you've seen the daily progression, you'd be impressed. (and thanks Miss Linda, for the wonderful handling job and the advice!)

Now to something a bit more pleasant to look at, our Christmas Tree. We watched Christmas Vacation and decorated the tree. A fun old fashioned Griswold family Christmas!

All lit up. Its hard taking a picture of the tree.

Close up of some ornaments...I love the one w/ Ireland (education Red-tailed Hawk), its in the upper right of the picture. I can't tell you how many Owl ornaments I have...Sam wouldn't let me count. There are a lot of bird ornaments too.

Notice there are no ornaments on the lower half of the tree. All of them were knocked off by the kittens. So as they are knocked off, we just put them on the top of the tree.

No pix of the mantle this year...its not wonderful. I wish we could decorate the house more, but the kittens would tear up/break/knock over any and all decorations withing reach. Maybe they'll be a little more mature next year.

And here they are...The demons watching Family Guy (yup they're definately our kitt-ehs.) Chui (leopard in Swahili) is the calico and Eastwood is the black and white one. We couldn't think of a good Swahili name for her, so we just started calling her Eastwood, the Cat with No Name.

Owly Monday again!

2009-12-14T09:51:00.001-06:00

Oh the cuteness over at Cafepress! There is just so much that its almost unbearable. I could EASILY spend a fortune.

So I'll start off with something I have...

I got this Sigg water bottle as an Elfster gift (thanx Andrea!!!) I've been drinking lots of water lately since I have this owly ecofriendly bottle.

Now something I can relate to.

We have a Great Horned Owl in rehab right now that has this attitude. She doesn't realize she has some pretty bad soft tissue injuries and its quite scary to pick her up to administer meds. I know my volunteers can back me up on this!

And this baby Barn Owl ornament speaks for itself.

And...

If I weren't vegetarian....

Front:

Back:

The nerd in me loves this shirt

And to sum it all up:

Cafepress must be like the Walmart of really neat personalized gifts. They have EVERYTHING for anyone. (ps. I don't work for cafe press....I just really like their ginormous owl selection!)

Busy, Busy

2009-12-11T20:50:00.001-06:00

It seems like this week is flying by! One more day and its the weekend!

We've been getting a lot of Raptors at the Center lately and several species that we don't get too often. We currently have 3, yes THREE, Sharp-shinned Hawks. I think thats the total number we've had in any given year! I'm hoping to release the first one, that we got in the beginning of November, next week. The 2 baby Barn Owls are growing like weeds. They've almost doubled in weight!

An Adult Barn Owl came in yesterday from Winston County with barbed wire still entangled. I wish I had snapped a picture of it. Its so very interesting to see the progression of these injuries from absolutely horrific to perfect. Sometimes these birds are just amazing in their healing abilities. It looked like he/she flew right onto the wire and the skin on its chest got twisted and wrapped around the wire. I cleaned it as best as I could and immediately sent it to the vet. Here's a picture I took of the wound today. Daily cleaning of the wound and putting trypsyme on it to help sluff off the dead tissue and regenerate new tissue. The wound was too large to close, but should heal with daily treatment.

(kinda graphic...you may want to skip if you have a weak stomach)

((and I'll spare you the extracloseup shot))

The brick red part is the dead tissue that will eventually come off and the new tissue will granulate in. The lower part of the dead tissue is where the wire was still wrapped around the barbed wire. I don't think I've seen this kind of injury from barbed wire, they usually have tissue damage to their wings and petagium (wing web). I'm excited to see how this progresses and show it in photographs.

In Crafting news.... I made a box bag, 2 ornaments and 2 catnip toys for a gift exchange.

I got the box bag tutorial from Indie House and it was really easy to make.

The birds from The Purl Bee.

And the catnip mice from Craftster.

And I think I'll be making these for our kitties' stockings. (sssshhhh, don't tell them!)

Miss Kitty on top, Chui (leopard in Swahili) is the little calico and the black-and-white one is temporarily Eastwood - the cat with no name.

Don't let the cuteness fool you...they are holy terrors. Promise.

Owly Monday!

2009-12-07T09:22:00.001-06:00

First off, one of my favorite prints from the late Charley Harper. You can find notecards and other wonderful owly (and birdy!) gifts over at The Fat Finch.

Over at Modcloth they have lots of great Owly finds. There are so many, I'll just post my favs.

I have these Key Caps on my keys! And the shirt has a Barn Owl on it (I sort of have a Barn Owl thing going right now because of my babies).

I love this USB Owl. Plug it in to your USB and he comes to life! And I just love this Owl Bag. I'm not too into the purse/bag craze. I actually think most of the expensive ones out there are god-aweful and why you must pay hundreds of dollars for them. I had grand plans of sewing my own bags, but I just haven't gotten around to it. One day....

Anthropologie has tons of great Owly things for the home (but why oh, why is it so expensive?!).

I don't think the Husband would appreciate these knobs on every cabinet we have in the house. Nor the switchplate.

And you can't have too many Owly tea towels.

I've been a busy Owl this week!

2009-12-06T21:47:00.004-06:00

We had our annual Christmas decorating party and pot luck with the Volunteers at the Center. A little disappointing in the turnout, but we still had a great time decorating and getting together outside of the animal care world.

I made these Pumpkin Sandwiches from this Real Simple recipe. They were so tastey! Anything with pumpkin in it is tastey, right? Right.

I've been working all week sewing some ornaments for the Christmas Holiday Craft and Bake Sale. Here are a few of the ornaments I made.

The bird ornaments are from The Purl Bee. I used ribbon and cotton fabric instead of the felt wool. These took me a while to get the hang of. I just need more practice in turning/making round things.

The patchwork star ornament is from Linaloo.

This is from the Abraham Owl tutorial over at Lollychops. If you haven't checked her blog out you MUST! She's a riot and so super crafty. And there are lots of fun naturey craft projects with excellent how-to's.

The square owl is kinda a modification on 2 tutorials. One from Burdastyle and one from Moonstitches.

I made the tags w/ a punch I got on super sale at JoAnns, some scrapbooking paper and twine.

I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the magnets I made for the Center or the 3 glass tile pendants I made. Bummer.

All set up waiting to be bought!

And to help us out, Mother Nature sent us some snow! Can you believe it? Snow, in Alabama, in December! It wasn't much, but definately helps in getting in the Christmas mood.

The fireplaces were lit, the apple cider warmed.

All the crafts were layed out.

The homade goodies of breads (I bought a Cranberry Pumpkin Loaf! YUM!), cookies, pies, cakes, jams, local honey, cocoa mixes and more were ready for the taking.

It was a huge success! All the proceeds from the sale went directly to the Alabama Wildlife Center.

Thanks to everyone's donationed crafted and baked goods.

A special thanks to all the hard working volunteers who came in to donate their time to pull off this annual event. Your continued support means so much to the wild animals we care for (and to me)!

Now the final reason I've been busy this week.....I'm a MOM!

Well, sort of. I'm currently the mother of 2 baby Barn Owls.

They were kidnapped from their parents from a Shooting stand in rural Alabama, kept for 3 days and fed chicken. Thats your basic Raptor kidnapping story. And people just don't realize how detrimental that is to these guys. Birds of prey grow soooooo fast and a few days of raw chicken and being handfed by a human could mean death to the little one. They MUST have a whole animal diet. (not some raw greasey chicken that was probably injected with all kinds of hormones and such) And if they open their eyes for the first time and see a human constantly feeding it, they will imprinted on humans and not be releasable back to the wild.

And its a Federal offense.
So I've been getting up twice a night for the past week feeding these guys and taking them in to the Center with me and bringing them home with me. The next 2 nights, I'm getting a break because they're at the

Owl-Sitter.

This is all the mother I really ever want to be. I don't see how people survive years of this! This almost killed me last year when I had a hatchling to take care of. These guys will soon be on whole mice (yes, I have to wake up at 12 am and 4am and cut up mice for them. Its nature, and thats what they NEED to survive) and I'll be able to leave them at the Center overnight.

In spite of all the tiredness and cutting up mice in the middle of the night and worry, I'm so glad I have the priviledge to do this as my career. I just can't imagine myself doing anything else. I would be miserable.

I'm so glad to be doing something useful in this world and making a difference for wildlife.

Before seeing Babies first pellet!

Don't forget! Tomorrow is Owly Monday!