Halloween Owl

We had an odd day yesterday (by odd I mean the kids were driving me batty on their day home from school- Columbus Day) so the Halloween decor was actually brought out this morning. The kids made me promise to wait for them so I don't have many pictures to show you until then. However, I did want to do a small feature on this owl before/after in case Halloween comes and goes as quickly as it did last year so here he is.

Before:


Can you tell I craft on that old TV tray often? lol
I found this guy at Trade and Treasures (I hope I got that name right, local thrift shop) for less than a dollar. I believe it's ceramic. It's really heavy and a pretty good size. They had a whole flock of them in varying sizes. Did you know a "flock" of owls is actually called a pack? Makes them more creepy don't ya think?


After:


Isn't he sparklingly spooktacular? I just painted him with black paint, slopped on some glue with a paint brush and then sprinkled on the glitter. I had this big glitter container thinking it was going to take a ton. I used about 1/100 of the glitter. Seriously. That stuff goes far! I did it over a paper plate and then moved it to a clean plate and reused the loose glitter. I did it in sections: head, back, and front. It wasn't as messy as I thought it was going to be. The glitter I used was sort of heavy like sand. It was about a dollar at Hobby Lobby. Btw, during Halloween, you might want to get your black or orange glitter ahead of time because I got the last black glitter in the entire store. That's why I ended up with the fine sand type rather than the regular stuff but it was a good thing because I now prefer it. It doesnt blow around and you know how I feel about glitter! I wish it would have photographed a bit better. You can really see all the little details of the owl and I worried that it would get lost after the glitz was added but instead, it highlighted and brought the detail out.

Like I said earlier, I'm waiting for the kids to do most of the decorating, so I don't have much to show right now. I did this last night though, on the chalkboard in the kitchen...



I thought the kids would really love it, but they both had a few not-so-appreciative words to say about it. The Scientist said the bats were supposed to be black and that the Jolly Roger never appears on tombstones. I told him it was the sign for poison. He told me that is never used on tombstones either. Ms. Thang agreed and asked me what was up with the fat faced ghost. Um ghosts are floating free forms! They aren't supposed to be uniform. Gaw!
The kids decided this board will change daily or weekly with each of us taking turns, obviously thinking they can do better. I did like their idea for the week leading up to Halloween though. One will start by drawing something spooky and each day one of us will add to it. Sounds fun, but this doesn't mean that I agree with their views on my art. Everybody's a critic...


**I'm playing around with the header and background of my blog so there will probably be changes often until I find something I like best.

Checkers

Well Katie was right! The checkerboard was painted on my living room coffee table.



I taped it off and painted it with straight acrylic, knowing it would come right off if I hated it and thinking I would seal it to make it permanent if I liked it. After it was finished, it was too perfect and I ended up sanding it up a bit and liked that look much better for my room..I think. I also free-handed a thin border around it because I thought the blank squares looked too unfinished without the defining lines. There is no finish to the wood table except stain and now I worry that putting a sealant will add a sheen that I don't know if I want. So I'm leaving it for now and thinking I might just go over it in a more permanent paint. But then I may not be able to sand it as much so I'm still undecided.

What I DO love is that it will be a really fun table for family, sitting by the fire during the holidays. I can picture it now and I am SO ready! Now I just have to come up with checker pieces other than nickels and pennies that the kids have been using. I'm thinking I may just make some out of wooden disks and paint. I've been needing Xs and Os for this tic-tac-toe set also and I just need to get the pieces and do them all together.

Anyway, here is the table with a little context from the rest of the room.

I like that it's giving a layered look without the clutter.

Tomorrow we dig all the Halloween decor out of the garage. I'll show you what we come up with. :)

Living

Cutecumber had a birthday...







It needs a post of it's own, but I'm still reeling in the "It's finally over and I can relax" phase.
I also need to show you guys the checkerboard and owl I did. Yeah, not in the mood for that right now either, but I hope to at least have it posted before Halloween. :)

In the mean time, let me tell you about my late afternoons. Everyday The Scientist and I try to come up with exciting things to do while we wait for Ms. Thang to get out of school. It's a good 20-30 minutes. Lately I've been giving him a pink puppy poop bag (I have a bazillion cause my dog refuses to poop anywhere other than our own back yard..well, there and the laundry room *sigh*) so the Scientist uses them for a litter scavenger hunt. Ex: Find something red; Find something round etc.. and he's even made a friend or two that join in, including the crossing guard whom I absolutely love. I adore both of my kid's crossing guards. The one at my son's school goes out of her way to say hello and smile at my kids every morning and every afternoon. As a matter of fact, today she let both Cutecumber and The Scientist hold her stop sign for a moment before crossing. Made their day! The crossing guard at Ms. Thang's school is always fun. Just this week, she's sported pink star sunshades, pink hair, and even a pink cape. I've seen her hand out water on hot days to her crossing kids and she even brought a frisbee for the Scientist and his friends to play with the other day.

Lately this has been the scene outside my passenger side window for the past couple of days


and sadly it's because there is an epidemic of speeders/texters/cellphone users in the school zones. Just the other day, the crossing guard was hit by a car that failed to stop. :( She was very fortunate and was not hit very hard, but it really made me stop and think about how lucky we are that the crossing guards are there. If they don't step out first and enter the walk before the children, think of how much danger our kids would be in. So I have 2 favors to ask of my readers today.
1. Please please please save those phone conversations until you are out of the car.
2. Thank your crossing guards! <3
And now that you've had your saftey tips for the day, let me leave you with one last warning. If you spend half an hour trapped in the van with your children, they may rub off on you!