Hoot owls--new colors

Here's my latest batch...I've been working on my owl pins and pendants in dark reds, browns, purples, and grays. I especially love the brown and gray ones.

Ok so it has been pointed out that I am a bit obsessive about the owls--I keep cutting more and more of them. I think I've made at least a hundred at this point, in various colors. I think I just want to try every possible color combination, and keep working on them while I'm on a roll. They're fairly quick and easy as far as projects go. I do  have a craft fair coming up in two weeks though and I should get to work on other items soon...

NYC weekend...a bit of inspiration

This weekend, I went up to NYC to visit my friend Francine and also attend my cousin's post-wedding celebration. What an awesome weekend!

This somewhat fuzzy picture is from my bus ride home...I love it! While there, we went to see a new play called The Language Archive, ate waffles and crepes with gelato, and went shopping in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn. We discovered some awesome stores, including my new favorite, Catbird, where I bought these fantastic pussywillow earrings!

Catbird was full of tiny treasures, nautical ornaments, and amazing, unique jewelry. We also found some cool stuff at Pema, which had a great jewelry selection as well.

I had so much fun, I think more NY weekends are in my future!

More exciting news--now at VisArts Too!

As of last week, my crafty items will now be sold at VisArts Too! in Rockville Town Square. The VisArts space is really cool, I explored a little bit while I was dropping off my artwork. It's a brand-new space filled with lots of light and fabulous art! VisArts Too! is the retail store on the round floor. Upstairs, they have great studios, and you can walk around, explore, and ask the resident artists questions.

The shared studio of a group of 8 fiber artists upstairs was particularly interesting...they had great woven, dyed, and printed fabric pieces of all kinds. Definitely inspired me to go to December's meeting of the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild. My friend Krista went last month and had great things to say. I've been meaning to go for some time, and at the December meeting they're having their annual sale/auction/brunch so it should be fun!

This all came about because I went to Strathmore's Museum Shop Around this year and fell in love with pretty much everything at the VisArts booth! I bought a few things, including a gorgeous floral ceramic tray for my parents, made by Wandering Trail Ceramics.

Anyway, some of the items I have at the VisArts Too! shop are my handwoven chenille scarves, owl pins, felt tags, leaf coasters, flower barrettes, and felt purses. So if you're in the Rockville area, go check it out!

HOG (Hoot Owl Giveaway) winner!

Yay! The winner of the giveaway for a free Hoot Owl pin is....

bldrnrpdx

Congratulations!

Thank you all so much for entering, and a big welcome to the new folks reading my blog for the first time! Please stay posted...I will do another giveaway in December! :)

My first blog giveaway!

I've been thinking of doing a giveaway on my blog for some time, and here it is! Hoot Owl Giveaway (HOG?)!

That's right, you can get yourself a FREE owl pin! (Or pendant, if you so choose.) It's super easy...just leave a comment on this post below including your email address and what color owl you'd like if you win.

Keep the free hoot owl for yourself, give it as a holiday gift, or just wear it to make people jealous :)

You can leave your email address in this format if you like: pickychickybird AT gmail DOT com, just to avoid spam.

The lucky HOG winner will be chosen at random on Thursday, November 18th...I'll announce the winner here on my blog, so stay posted!

Octopus purse in progress!

I'm working on another custom piece, an octopus purse for Gleb's other niece, and came up with a few template options. I'm still trying to decide what to put on the back, along with her name. Ideas?

Gleb and I both liked the tie-dye one best...although the orange is more striking. The blue one was my first try, and I think it would look super-cute with some green tentacles!

I'm also thinking of doing a orange-yellow version, that would be striking as well on the purple background, and could have orange tentacles. The tie-dye one is probably a bit busy for tentacles.

I cut these out freehand, which was way harder than I was expecting. I am now the friggin octopus MASTER. The first one I cut out of light blue felt ended up being 2 inches too big in each direction to fit on the bag! However, it's super cute so I'm saving it for a wall piece or something. Gleb said, "I may have other uses for a large felt octopus. It is just the kind of life I lead." I think perhaps it would be a good piece to keep my felt Whaley company.

This also made me think of Doctopus:

I don't remember how we found him, but is he not fantastic???! In the good ol' days at Kaplan, we printed him out, colored him with crayons and hung him on the wall. Ah I miss that sort of ridiculousness!

Owls and updates...

I've moved on to purple owls now...just posted a few of them to my etsy shop. Take a peek:

Dark Purple Hoot Owl barrette ('n friends)

Purple Hoot Owl barrette

Dark Blue Hoot Owl pin

Helen suggested I use more photos of the backs of the pins, so I'm trying to do that consistently again in my etsy shop. I guess I got lazy about it somewhere there...

I have two new requests for pieces, one is an octopus purse for Gleb's other niece and the other is a piggy collage (or several small piggy artworks?) for my friend Emily for a baby girl's room :) Exciting!!

More hoot owls--now in blue!

Ok so I've been working on these owls for like 3 days now, and surprisingly, I'm not tired of them yet. Today I worked mostly on blue owls, making both pins and pendants.

Next on my list to do:

1) Finish sewing princess purse.
2) Make felt cupcake pins & pendants. I couldn't find any I liked on etsy, which is shocking. Clearly this is a void I must fill.
3) Something holiday or winter-themed for the Washington Post Holiday Crafts Contest. I'm thinking something featuring images of either snowflakes or candles. I'm not really much of a snowman person though...can you see me carrying or wearing anything with a dang snowman on it?

Coffee-themed treasury feature

This morning my Brown Leaf Coasters were featured in a beautiful mocha-themed treasury by stampgirl45 on etsy.

Go check it out!

Little hoot owls!

So after my first few attempts at owls, I have come up with a template I love, and also managed to fix the problem with the eyes being overly googly. I just cut pieces for about 20 more owls in various colors and I finished 8 of them while watching Frontier House (one of my favorite PBS series) last night...they came out so adorable!

Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!