Times, they are a- changing!

Well, then.
I guess some of you (if there are any yous left to talk to, if not I'll just talk to those little voices nobody else seems to hear. Strange, that.) might have guessed that the changes that happened in this little life of mine have throw me into a bit of a rut.
Bleh.
Depression, more like. Let's keep it real, dudes and dudettes, I was utterly depressed. The full monty, days on end spent in bed without as much as getting up for a sneaky cigarette (kicked that habit recently, just so you know. Good view from this high horse!), increased consumption of auxiliary glasses of wine, decreased performance at work and little or no achievements on the home front, all of which led to a big, dark strain on the relationship with the Mister.
I could not be bothered doing anything that used to make me smile. Camera- dust catcher. Crafty equipment- clutter. Blog- dead pixels. The house I disliked to begin with turned into a despised trap, best to be avoided or ignored. Because we all know that ignoring stuff makes it go away, right?
Well, that might be true for drunk admirers in the pub (they tend to fall over at some point, literally disappearing from view) and spiders (either the cats eat them or the lil' buggers raise a brood of avengers behind the bed, either way you won't see them for a considerable amount of time and when you do you'll have forgotten they were there to start with) but it doesn't work well for ugly houses. Even though the cats made a fair attempt at eating it. Erm.
After going batty for Hallowe'en, I did do jack. Or maybe less, I'm not sure. All I wanted was to get out, get away, get over and done with it, and the poor Mister, well knowing our financial situation would not allow for it, could do little to improve my mood. Gosh, I took it out on him left, right and center. How he put up with it I really don't know- I keep checking if he's hiding a halo and a pair of wings somewhere but I just can't find any incriminating evidence for his angelic origin. Weird.
Let me cut short what could be a very long story.
About two weeks ago I came home from yet another soul- crushing shift at work and the house was dark. I let myself in and found nothing but an empty can of Lager in the living- room. A bad sign, I thought- in my head, he'd run off to the pub to drown all the grief I'd given him in a pint or ten, leaving me to brood over my ... broodiness without even as much as the comfort of a human punching ball. So upstairs I stomped to relieve myself of my work uniform. Just to find... this:

The bedroom wall. Owl. Individually cut leaves. More owls. Fresh sheets. All the clutter- gone. I could show you more crappy mobile pictures, but just take this one and believe me that I walked into an owl- y wonderland. All my owls were there (not that many, but all there!), candles lit, smell of pinecones in the air, I could not believe it was the same room I'd left some 14 hours earlier in a mood bad enough to make the pole caps melt. When he finally emerged from his hiding place (he was actually relaxing in the bath, bless him), the Mister informed me that he was sick of my complaints about not having any trees anywhere near (very urban, our new area), so he brought one into the house.
I nearly wept with joy.
Turns out that according to his estimate, he hadn't seen me that happy and smiley in best part of a year. I reckon he might have a point.
So, that sort of kickstarted me back into reality- the reality we make for ourselves, not the one that makes us. I finally gave up on the whole depression thing, the blame game and one- way trip to crazytown. The Mister dragged me back from that black, black hole and finally made me realize that the only thing that stood in my way of happiness was yours truly. There might have been a little help from a certain Sunny as well, but that's a story for another post, one that will show you (or those little voices in my head) why pansies can live in a bookcase and how a bed base turns into a japanese temple. Oh, and how you can be skint 3 days after pay day and not give a flying fiddlers' fart because everything is going to be just a little bit better than yesterday, but not quite as cool as tomorrow.
Not to forget the fox in the fireplace, rainbow dudes and other oddities that you won't find anywhere but in our... 2 bed terraced.
Ready for a new start? I am. For real this time!

Let there be darkness!

... so I can sneak out and deliver a little parcel to an unsuspecting neighbour!

You are looking into the surprisingly beautiful eyes of a jumping spider, would you have guessed? Inside, there's a plastic flower pot spiked with dahlia seeds; the leftover seeds are attached to where the spider ear would be if spiders had ears, together with a little note thanking the "gardener" for brightening my day, signed "a smiling neighbour".
Well, the recipient will either happy or call the coppers because he or she thinks they're being stalked by a freak!

My second card for Aunt Peaches'  challenge is done; another acrylic paint- job with a little felt owl keyring attached.

I'll show you the third and last tomorrow, hopefully together with the story of another RAK- do you have any ideas for me?

Love y'all, happy St Val's!

OWL tell you a tale!

Not too long ago, my wonderful blog friend Mich held one of her competitions- guess the mystery thing.
She makes a quirky piece of jewellery out of a totally unexpected thing of everyday... things totally taken out of context and makes you guess what the heck it is. Q- tips, automotive vacuum hoses and aquarium plants, to name but a few.
In her endless generosity, she awards a prize not only to the first correct guess, but also to the most crackpoteative guess.
I was lucky enough to be a creative crackpot and win her automotive vacuum hose competition.
Since we had been burgled not too long before that, she promised she'd throw in a little something on top of my prize to put a smile on my face... brace yourselves, peeps, this is what I found in the mail the other day:

Please take some time and look up those pieces on her blog, you will not believe what they are made from!
If you hop over, please leave her some love and let her know if you'd be interested in a tutorial for the beautiful little bracelet she made for my bff Abigail (which I will save for a Nikolaus treat for her, but that's for another post) I, for one, am all for it, because then I can make one my size!!

The necklace, featured on her blog on August 10th, actually inspired the little piece I showed you in my last post, but please head over to see for yourself.

I wear my new bling with pride and am so proud and glad to have such a wonderful friend in La- La- Land! Let me repeat myself here again, what's a couple of stolen items compared to truckloads of love sent my way?

Today, a frozen postie knocked on the door and brought a parcel full of felt. All the colours of the rainbow and then some. This year, most of the Christmas gifts coming from the Three Bed Semi will be handmade, and I had something in mind I wanted to try.

You might know about my slight obsession with owls? Can't help it, I just love them, and one of my dreams is to see one in real life. A short while ago my Mum was lucky enough to encounter one , and I am sure I will one day. Until then, I will have to make do with what is available.
So I decided to make a little stuffed owl brooch for my Mum to always remind her of her Day Of The Owl.
Since my little camera is pretty crappy, so are the pictures, and this is not a tutorial, but I guess all you savvy crafters out there are way ahead of me anyway and have long since passed the stage of owl crafts.

Here's what I did:

I received the book amongst other things today in a big parcel from Mum, but that, as well, is another post as I will just well up with "I miss my Mum" tears again if I go there now. Gotta chew and digest first. Never mind.
So... take an incredibly cute image for inspiration, draw something entirely different and cut the felt to size. (body twice, wing twice, eyes twice or once if shaped like figure 8)
Stitch on eyes with embroidery floss, realize your talent is non- existent and add two seed- beads as pupils. Laugh at self. Add beak.
Stitch two body shapes together inside out, leave bottom open and reverse.
Use old pillow- stuffing to stuff.

Ignore silly questions like "why are you disembowelling that cushion? I am still using that!" and stitch together the bottom.

Add two remotely wing- resembling shapes on the sides, be proud of yourself and laugh some more. Make onlookers feel compelled to congratulate you to your mad skills by reminding them that otherwise they'd fall out of favor (and this is an important step, ladies, make sure you go the extra mile and make everybody feel really guilty about smirking in the first place!!).

Realize you don't have a brooch back and call it a day. Blog it.

Hey... by my standards, this IS a tutorial! It would be better if a few folks actually knew what the heck I'm trying to say, but that's alright, I let you off.

I shall now enjoy a fine glass of wine, regardless of the fact that my owl kinda looks like an (admittedly sort of cute) potato sack and, as Germans say, let God be a good man.

Have a lovely day, love you all!


Disclaimer: The Man wasn't really that cheeky, but I do think he's getting fed up with Twits and Twoos!

Owlrighty then!

No envelope of doom project this time, just somrthing I've kind of had in my head for quite some time now.

Owls... don't you just love them? I am lucky enough to sometimes at night hear Twit and Twoo somewhere near my garden, and it always puts a huge smile on my face. Whats more, Leeds has owls in its coat of arms and even its own owl trail.

So, of course I had to jump on the huge bandwagon of owls going on in the blogosphere. What I wanted was a shadow box with owls on a twig, and it all started with this:

I can't help it, my owls always look either startled or displeased.

After sketching them, I went on to cut the shapes (bodies, wings, eyes and beaks) and cover them with fabric from two shirts I'd kept in a drawer for far too long.

While that stuff dried, I disassembled the ugliest shadowbox frame thing I've ever seen in my life, so ugly I don't even want to post a picture. Lets just say it combined a green frame with pink paper flowers, 'nuff said.
The frame got a nice, black coat of spray paint, the rest went over the rainbow bridge never to be seen again.

What I needed now was a twig. Trip to the garden, a ninja- like assault on a tree, job done.

The kitchen table work space during assembly:

Boys and girls, I would now like to take the opportunity and remind you that hot glue is called hot glue because it is HOT. Ouch. Don't ask.

After a bit of feeling immensely sorry for myself, trying in vain to get sympathy from The Man without looking too stupid (again: it is called HOT glue for a reason!) and holding on to an ice cube for a while, this is what I had- meet Twit and Twoo!

Clever girl that I am, I dug out some potpourri we bought at ALDI roundabout Christmas time to make the whole thing look a bit less empty. Smells nice, too :)

Here's the final result against the backdrop of my craft box.

A closer look:

For now, it's kept safe from the cats on the living room wall, but I'll find a better place for it. I might even put it away 'til September or so, since the thing looks more like autumn than summer to me. But for now, I have the owl- shadow- box- thing out of my system. Unfortunately, I had another shadow box idea involfing twigs and jewellery storage, but that will be left until my finger has healed from where it was cowardly attacked by hot glue.

Linkin' up: