I wanted to share some of my owls that I've collected over the years. Most of them are from thrift stores, but some are gifts from friends & family. I'm not crazy about buying EVERY SINGLE owl thing I find, because our apartment is small & I don't like clutter. But I'm tempted sometimes!
This is my newest find. It was only $1.99 at Goodwill & it's a vase! Can't wait for Spring, so I can fill it with flowers!
This enamel number is a gift from Mom. It's really beautiful when the sun shines on it. Sparkly!
I get made fun of for this quirky wood-cut, but whatevs. It has the cutest, fluffiest little baby owl blob on it!
Here's another one from Mom. It's so cute & I love it's little, flowery eyes. :)
Japan makes the cutest owl stuff. These are two mugs from Goodwill.
This one is very delicate, so I have to be careful not to break it.
The left one is an essential oil diffuser, that I always fill with pine tree oil. The second is a cool metal planter that we put a cactus in.
Up close planter...
This is a beautiful owl ornament from my baker friend, Laura. It's hanging on my grapefruit tree!
This trio is composed of two owls from Laura (left & right), & a blue one that's buds with my garden gnomes outside. 
This one on the left is a planter that I found at Goodwill. I love the cute little faces on the owls. They're so round! The one on the right is a fierce owl that I put in my mystery plant.
The last owl is a watchful bird that spies on me when I'm in my room. Whooo...
FINALLY!!! This project has haunted me, because I just couldn't get motivated to finish it. I even dragged its components through several moves! The table was found outside a dumpster, back when I lived on Belmont & walked to Movie Madness one night. My brother, Ethan & I took turns lugging it back up the hill to 60th because I saw its hidden potential.
Before:
It actually looked worse, because the shards of varnish were peeling off unevenly. This is about halfway through the sanding process.
And after!:
After sanding off the 70s varnish, I hand-blended a few colors of acrylic paint to get just the right shade of blue, then sealed it with a couple coats of Krylon UV-Resistant Clear Acrylic Coating.
The Mario part was made from bits & pieces of this awesome chart from Sprite Stitch, & unfortunately, I stumbled upon this cleverly badass method, AFTER ironing of the sections individually. D'oh! There are some visible spaces between some of the sections, but I'm not sure I'd be into investing that much moolah on zillions of Perler pegboards to avoid that flaw.
Oh well, if it were perfect, I'd be afraid to use it, right?! I kind of improvised the top section because I was running low on certain colors of Perler beads at that point, & came up with the Nintendo emblem on my own, since the original was too large. The ironed Perler pieces were glued on with Beacon's Mosaic Glue (& weighted down for 24-36 hours, a few at a time), that I found at JOANN's. It says it's suitable for ceramic, glass & plastic, so we'll see how it holds up. So far, so good!
Here's the top tier:
And here's the bottom level:
I LOVE IT!
I've also been working on this owl cowl, which is so cute! The two-handed fair isle method isn't too hard, once you practice a bit. Much quicker than one-handed, in my opinion. I'm using smaller needles than the pattern recommends, because many people on Ravelry thought it came out too big.
Even more craftiness! My sister came over a while back & we were carving stamps & making Halloween cards. I really like this one that I made for a friend's b-day.
Ooh, for my meditation class, we get to do an assignment where we tune out technology for 3 consecutive days! I'm super excited, because I'm way too dependent upon the internetz for entertainment & need to get back into reading. How can I live without watching Hoarders, Hell's Kitchen, & Fringe?! We're allowed to use computers for work or school, but nothing else; no personal e-mails. And phones are to be used as land-lines---no texting, only talking to people when you're actually at home. No radio, no podcasts, no MP3 players, no DVDs, no nothin'!
I can't wait to challenge myself this way & hope it inspires permanent change within me. My professor warned us that we may experience severe discomfort at first, but to be mindful of how we feel. Not to trivialize actual addiction, but there are definitely some similarities between our excessive use of gadgets & other addictions. They can often distract us from the present moment & cloud our awareness & emotions! I'm telling myself that this Friday, Saturday & Sunday will be best, since I can get a lot of homework done & I'll actually be home most of the time. Plus Ethan will be home too, so I won't feel as lonely & depressed, ha ha. :)
I'm lucky to have my Gran's old Singer, & have only just now completed my first garment...this cute owl apron! I think I'm going to give it to my friend Sage, since she loves to cook & her birthday is coming up soon. Excuse the poor lighting, please. I planned on taking better pictures today, but our apartment is all dark (closed blinds to keep out the 95*F sun), since we're trying to keep the interior cool for our dog, Ruben. It works, but looks a bit dreary.
I got the owl fabric from Joann's, & the gingham was from a free pile---there's a ton more of it too!
It took me two days to sew, because I ran out of ric rac & had to make another little run to Joann's, which ended up being an hours-long adventure, when Ethan wanted to come along. We then had to go to his bank, the library, Movie Madness, the library again (since they'd left some DVDs out of the cases!), Trader Joe's, Joann's, Goodwill, then Joann's again (he found a cool calligraphy book & wanted some pens). Whew! That must be why it wasn't finished till 10:00 last night, ha ha. It probably needs to be ironed again, but that can wait.Said ric rac:
Cute, ribbon-y pocket:
This garland was my first little warm-up project. The idea is from The Purl Bee (they have the cutest free project ideas/patterns!!!), but I didn't use invisible thread (because I didn't have it, or care enough to buy it). I haven't figured out where I'm going to hang it, which is why it's just in a pile on the desk. I didn't place the colors randomly, like they suggested, because I am obsessed with rainbows & it can be a pride garland too!
Now I've got to get sewing on a poppy dress that I actually started last summer. The pieces are all cut out, but are jammed in a drawer of fabric. I was too intimidated to start sewing...until now!
