Few things are more icon of woodlands and autumn then owls. And, here, lording over his domain, is a whimsical, yet wise owl... much like his creator :) This applique, like most of ours, was designed to fit a 6" x 6" block, but the pattern can be enlarged or reduced to meet your needs. The pattern for our Woodland Owl can be found HERE. Enjoy!

The Woodland Owl Pattern can be found HERE.

The tutorial on How to Enlarge and Reduce can be found HERE.

The tutorial on How to Cut Out Felt can be found HERE.

The Stitching Glossary can be found HERE. 

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PHOTO: 10-18-2010

I've worn bangs for longer than most of our readers have been alive... true story :) Anyway... Tim saw some sassy pics of me in the 70s, with long straight hair and no bangs.

Tim: Oh, how cute. (He had enough sense not to say... you WERE so cute. Gotta love that man :)
Me: Oh, go on. ((demurely twirling a lock of hair))
Tim: You should grow your bangs out.
Me: You do know I won't look 19, right? And even if I do grow out my bangs it's not going to make my boobs perkier.
Tim: I know, I just think you'd look adorable.
Me: ((Heavy sigh)) Okay, but it's like going through hell trying to grown out bangs.
Tim: ((eyes downcast)) If you really don't want to, that's okay.
Me: ((Heavier sigh)) Fine... I'll grow them out.

So, I'm growing out my bangs, and the truth of the matter is, Yes... I am in HELL! I'm at that stage where if I leave them down, they are jabbing me in the eyes ALL DAY LONG! But, in order for them to stay back on their own, I have to slick them back with tons of hairspray.

Michelle: You look like a vampire, and not the hot new vampires. You look like the old fashioned kind with grease back hair. (Ah, my daughter... ever supportive.)

On the good side, I've taken to wearing bandannas. (Trippin' down memory lane.) On the bad side, I've taken to wearing bandannas. Depending on the day and my mood, I can either feel youthful and free or I feel like I look like my great aunt Sophie, who must have been at least 100 years old when I knew her, and wore her hair pulled back in a tight bun, which only accentuated the 7 unruly whiskers she grew on her chin. I think the hairstyle was part of the uniform she wore on the boat she had taken over from Poland and she never changed the look.

Anyway... so, here I am, trying to grow out my bangs with a modicum of dignity, and, at the same time, not drive myself totally crazy. I find I keep falling into this mantra of "I love Tim, I love Tim" over and over to prevent me from "running with scissors" to the closest mirror, and hacking off this hairy bane of my existence!

Which, FINALLY, brings me to the point of this posting... the one silver lining is that those boingy contour barrettes have been a God send. With a couple of properly placed barrettes, I can keep the hair out of my eyes until they can finally reach the point of being tucked behind my ears. The only problem is, the rivets in the front of the barrettes can pull out my hair, so I want to cover them. Which made me look at the pattern we have for felt covered contour barrettes. I don't want to draw attention to my bangs, so I'm going to make a few solid brown ones, but I thought I'd share our link to the ones we made a few years ago in case you've never seen them. The pattern and tutorial can be found HERE.

There you have it. Hopefully, I'll be glad I grew them out. AND, most importantly, hopefully I won't hear...

Tim: You know, you did look better with bangs.

Because, my friends, I would have to kill him. I wouldn't have a choice... it would be a moral imperative!

Photo from Ravelry's Harpa Jónsdóttir

We have dogs... and usually lots of dogs. For that reason alone, we do not have carpeting anywhere in our house. (We have a few area rugs that can be taken outside and hosed down.) Fortunately, I love wood floors, but that's just a bonus. We have no carpets, because no matter how I try, they always smell like "dawg". Same is true with our couches... no cloth upholstery for us! All of our couches and chairs are leather. They are easy to wipe down. Doggie odors be gone.

What we do have in our house is dog fur. If I didn't sweep the floors daily, we'd be knee deep in dog fur in a matter of days. I've come to embrace sweeping (Note: this is an out-and-out lie, but I'm sticking to it) and I have a water based steam floor cleaner which means I can go over my floors, ridding them of paw prints, with no need to use chemicals.

I guess by now you can understand that we are serious dog owners. I love all my pups, and Tim loves them more, so we are willing to go a long way to make living together an harmonious experience. And I don't often complain about the extra work they cause. Who am I kidding... I usually complain daily... but then I get those big sized doggie hugs and kisses, and all is forgiven.

In all this, my biggest complaint is our chair legs. Go figure! Since there is no carpeting under our chairs, we have to do something to protect the wooden floors from the constant movement of dining room chairs. So, we've put those pads on the bottom of the chairs. You know the kind made of felt or carpet that you nail or glue to the bottom of the legs. Those work great... for about a month. THEN they trap little bits of grit in them, and remember ALL that dog fur I mentioned earlier? Well... in a month's time, the bottom of the chairs look like a hairy creature out of "Where the Wild Things Are"! I then have the unsavory task of turning the chairs upside down and plucking dog fur off the bottom. NOT my favorite job. AND if my love of dogs is ever challenged, it's when I'm sheering the bottom of my chairs! My dogs have enough common sense to stay clear of me while I preform this task, and tend to give each other accusatory looks, as if to say to the other dogs, "Hey, Dudes. You have to work on the whole shedding thing. I shed outside, Man, it must be you guys." 

This has been a rather long winded explanation as to why I was so excited when I saw these Feet Covers on Pinterest this morning. BRILLIANT idea! I could knit up a couple of these... (let's see... 12 chairs, 4 legs... crunchin' numbers here... ah, yes, 48) yikes!!! Okay, they are simple, I could knit up 48 of these, then every couple weeks, I could pull them off, and run them through the laundry. What doesn't fall off will felt right into the Feet Covers! If I get really ambitious, I could knit up 2 pair, to change out while the others are in the wash!

Anyway... whether you have a canine infestation or simply want to protect your wooden floors, I love this solution. Also, think of the fun you could have with yarn! I like my socks to reflect my mood (solid brown and black socks for ho-hum days, and funky socks for when I'm feeling sassy :) The Free Pattern for these can be found at The Daily Knitter. I think I will knit up one set and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted :)

Check out Fairy's new bling... and no I don't mean the crazy earrings (although those are new too). Yesterday, Fairy got some serious ortho gear installed... braces and an expander. Ouch! She has a cross bite that needs to be fixed and needs space for some of her new teeth to come in.

She was quite the trooper and thought it was great fun to pick out the colors of her bands. Now her smile is as sparkly as she is. She did pretty well last night but woke up very sore.

Thank you Gammy for bringing over a Mango smoothy for breakfast! She wasn't able to eat anything else when she got up. I think there will be a lot of ice cream this weekend as she adjusts to them.

Bug has the heart of a knight... bound by honor and tradition... well, most of the time :) He is a history buff, fascinated by the Middle Ages. He participates in sports, archery and fencing, that would have prepared him for knightly duties. This year he has also begun "dramatic sword play". His coach has mentored actors requiring sword skills for movie roles. In several years I could easily see Bug getting involved in our local Renaissance Festivals. (Which, BTW, they will be attending soon :)

A couple of weeks ago I shared some BBF Birdie Pendants that I made for Fairy/Pixie and for Little Lady/Sweet Pea. Since everyone was getting one, I wanted to make something for Bug that I thought he'd like to wear. I made him a shield, with a brown cord, and he loved it. Just follow the directions for the BBF Birdie Pendants. The pattern includes a shield. The directions and pattern can be found HERE.

Of course, knights had mottos... a code they lived by... often a family motto passed down through the generations. I included a motto often used by knights of yore. After all, a knight is as a knight does :)