Showing posts with label owl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label owl. Show all posts

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

The Owl Girl


*****SOLD*****

The Owl Girl

In day she hides behind the fragile mask of humanity, thick glasses perched on a small nose, dark hair in wild disarray. Eyes on the ground, a quick step and an arm full of books to keep others away.

When the moon rises round and fat, the night creatures sing and Athene sheds the pale mask of humanity and slips from her human skin. Shining feathers burst from pale flesh. She flies screeching into the night, free to hunt and wishing the dawn will never come.

The world turns and night spills across the sky, strings of glittering jewels, necklaces of suns and worlds scattered across unending black.

The sun crests the horizon, golden rays falling on golden eyes and black and white feathers. Athene fights again the change, the slip back into human form. Feathers fly on the wind as her wing shifts to a human arm, bones twisting, breaking.

Fat tears roll down feathery cheeks, but the pain is too much to fight for one small masked owl and she lets her night shape slip away. Bones and feathers and cries of pain and a small dark haired girl is all that remains.

She crawls to the hallow she hid her clothes, dressing quickly in the cool dawn light. Wiping tears from her cold cheeks she slips her glasses on.


Friday, 19 February 2010

owls should not drink iced lattes

bad owl! That's my iced latte!!!

Wednesday, 3 June 2009

Misanthrope Owl

he may be vaguely cute and cuddly but really he hates you. OK so maybe he isn't altogether that cute and cuddly but he is a softie/toy/plushie whatever you may call it...the first I have really attempted to make, and he was started weeks ago, and hidden away in a dark box due to my frustration in not getting him just right. he still isn't perfect but at least he is finished and no longer hidden in a box of jumbled craft supplies.


He is made from some small pieces of fabric I had lying around, the grey is from an old skirt, I used the same material to make H's owl lavender and rice warm bag, the fabric on his back came from the owl swap so it was only fair that it be part of a little owl. The little tag is a bit of ribbon Katy sent and the buttons for his eyes are from Megan's Vintage Haberdashery shop.

He is wonky, which is probably why he is such a misanthrope. Hopefully the next attempt goes better than this one... whenever that is.

p.s. if you haven't already signed up for the Attack of the 50's B-Movie Craft Swap please sign up!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Knitted Java Jacket Pattern

Owlish Java Jacket (the button was made by Sam)
materials

1 paper coffee cup for measurement
needles: US 8 (5.0mm)
yarn: 10 ply (I used Noro Kureyon I hd left over)
1 (owl or other vintage button)
yarn needle
needle and thread


Instructions

Cast on 15 stitches.

1st row: knit

repeat until the piece of knitting wraps around the cup tightly

bind off leaving a tail of yarn 10 in long.

sew the ends together using the tail end of yarn.

Then sew on your button or beads or any other embellishments you wish.

Take it to the coffee shop and slide it on your coffee cup.

Drink copious amounts of coffee/tea.

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Its a quick, simple, and fun project that uses up any oddments of yarn that are hanging around your knitting stash. It can easily led its self to more complicated knitting methods, cables, lace, or even bobbles.

I'm sure there are plenty of other java jacket/coffee cozy patterns out there, crocheted or knit in the round if you have a good search. I'm a leftie and as such I tend to get muddled when reading any sort of pattern, but if I go my own way and make things up for simple items things seem to work out quite well. I do intend to teach myself to crotchet by making various java jackets and simple items.

Java jackets protect your hands from hot or icy drinks, feels pleasing to the touch and is the perfect environmental alternative to cardboard coffee sleeves.The sleeve will stretch to fit most paper coffee cups and is small enough to carry in your purse or pocket. Or can be worn on your wrist to the coffee shop, although M says they should be gold in colour and wear two of them like Wonder Woman. Maybe next time.

* more pictures can be found here from the first time I posted this tutorial/pattern. I started this java jacket awhile ago and kept forgetting about it until the other day when I dug out the owl button that Sam sent to me, its a perfect match I think.

Saturday, 14 March 2009

OMG I never posted my Owl Swap Goodies!

Owl Banner across the hearth

It comes to my attention that I am a complete scatterbrain, I'm sure many of you dear readers will have come to this conclusion all by yourselves. I was comepetely over the moon when I recieved my owl swap parcel from Hope, I took pictures and I carried everything around the house with me, I uploaded pictures to flickr and promptly forgot to actually blog what I got! As Homer Simpson would say..."D'oh".


a close up of the adorable owl banner

Hope made me this adorable owl banner, in lovely brown cream, and natural colours, with little orange beaks, on their tummies are little letters spelling out Apryl. Along with the banner I got all the lovely goodies you see below, an Owl journal, an owl stamp, adorable little owl note cards, stickers, an owl printed in green on a canvas tote, and as my treat (as if all the rest of that wasn't enough) some fabulous squares of fabric. I think they are quilting squares but as I don't quilt and only use small pieces of fabric in the things I sew they shall make for some fantastic crafting.

yummy goodies

That pink wood grain fabric is my favourite, I think, though I'm not even the biggest pink fan. What did I send Hope in return, well.... erm.... I have one photo of the little Owl Hanger I sent her, but I was in such a hurry to get everything sent off in time I completely forgot to take pictures of the chocolate, few bits of trim, fabric and the bracelet I made and sent her. I know I'm useless.

little owl hanger I made for Hope

Thursday, 12 February 2009

...so I'm addicted to owls

little owl pincushion

I know I have a problem, I can't help it I adore making things with poor little owl. I have been working on this pincushion on and off for a week now, probably more off than on as thats the way things go around here. Or at least the way things swirl around my head. I don't know what to do with tthe pincusion there are a few rough areas but it mostly looks good and smells nice as I put a few drops of rose essential oil on the polyfil as I stuffed the pincusion. Its made from scraps of my favourite cotton linen blend, some laura Ashly blue and cream gingham, vintage lace, and vintage buttons which I thought were black but in certain light are a very dark purple.



the back of the pin cushion

So what should I do with this little pin cushion? list him on etsy? if so how much? keep him? swap him? stick pins in his little owlie heart? give him away?

what to do what to do.....

Saturday, 7 February 2009

Owl Swap Update

By now I hope everyone is finishing off their Owl swaps and sending them flying off to their new roosts. I really hope everyone has had fun with the swap, getting to know new people, and finding new blogs to stalk and crafting little owls. There is a week left to finish off your swaps and get them posted by Valentine's day.

I have started an Owl Swap Group on Flickr so we can all share pictures of our Owls!

http://flickr.com/groups/970960@N24/

I shall be posting out my swap parcel to my partner on Tuesday after we return from out trip to London to sort out H's USA passport renewal, a pain in the bum but hopefully we should have fun with a trip to the museum to see the Dragon (dinosaur) bones and a trip on the London Eye. And if I'm very good and lucky there may be some sort of crafting shop to pass by. oh and I hear tell there are now two Cinnabun stores there now so we will definitely have to zero in on one of them!

Thursday, 22 January 2009

Owlish Love...

owlish love postcard

Don't worry its not for the Owl Swap, just and experiment with mixed media.. and because I have Owl's on the brain well here he is. I think he look really cute, except for some rather wonky stitching. I bought a packet of 20 deckle edge recycled rag cotton postcards about six months ago and it has languished in a craft box ever since. That is until a few days ago when I was messing around with sewing paper hearts and thought I would try to make an owl too.

The owl is made from a vintage book page from Alice through the Looking Glass, if you look closely you can see "Alice" and "Queen" in the writing, his feet and outline are ink pen, and the heart is a scrap of raspberry gingham from my scrap box. I have 19 postcards left so I may have another go later and see what I can come up with. If I'm very brave I might even put one up in my somewhat abandoned, slightly dilapidated (I love that word) etsy shop.. *attempts to brush cobwebs away and hide small dead bodies under carpet*.... if anyone is intrested..

Thursday, 9 October 2008

Scrap Owl


little scrap owl

Please be gentle he is only small and made from scraps of fabric. But he is my little owl, from my little doodles and paintings and I love him. His back is a scrap of my favourite Old Navy jeans, that fought the good fight but died none the less. I acquired the other scraps from Dunelm the other day much to M's disgruntlement at following me around while I looked at kitcheny things and fabrics. I didn't really intend to buy any fabrics just to have a look around, I asked for a few samples though to have a play with but I haven't really got the skills to do a great deal with fabrics and I dare not buy anything nice in fear of ruining it with my less than stellar sewing skills.

The little Owl is only tiny maybe 2 and a half inches tall (can't be bothered to find a measuring tape at the moment. Its really a test run as I really want to make H a wheat/lavender bag for his bed, the one he has now is old and store bought, if I can't make it myself I may have to call upon one of my crafty friends who are far better at sewing than I am.



a closer look... his eyes are made from vintage black buttons (thanks Vintage Violet)

My sewing skills are improving slowly, not enough to be able to get a sewing machine and I don't know what the hell most of the paraphernalia is in fabric shops, but that doesn't normally stop me when I want to figure something out for myself. And I'm lucky enough to have some lovely blogging friends to help me when I get myself into a muddle, again.

owl got back... scrap of my old navy jeans

The decorator is here to paint the living room so it can be a real living room and get our house that bit closer to being a real home. I really should be tackling painting the kitchen and not blogging but I rather not make a fool of myself with my untidy wall painting antics, at least not in front of the decorator anyway. I paint pictures messily enough no one wants to see me tackle walls, and especially not ceilings. Pictures of the house soon I promise when there are a few things to look at and not cringe about.

p.s. I miss Old Navy