Owl Lunch Bag and Owly finds

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.  Sorry for the wrinkles, I didn't have time to iron it flat.

Sewing and Gardening

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.  

For Him, For Her, For House

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.

Its in the bag

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.

She's Crafty

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.

Busy, Busy

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.

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.