Owl Swap

WOW! How fabulous are these goodies? Can you tell I have a very big smile on my face! They arrived in the post today from Naturegirl in USA.
I have to say I'm very chuffed, as are the dd's. As you can see we have two lovely crafted Owl bags, an owl oven glove, A little blue owl, who is hanging up in the kitchen as I type, some lovely green owl fabric for me to craft with, and some funky napkins and owl and heart chocolate lollies, which I have managed to stop the girls all eating in one go.

I'm now hoping my swap was ok, as I'm sure there's more here than I sent to Naturegirl, which is a bit embarrasing, ahem.

OWL Swap

Finally I can blog my little owl!
I stitched and sent this cute little fella across to Nature Girl in Meridians owl swap the other month, but it took slightly longer than the stated 7 days to get to her! She finally received it last Wednesday, phew! so now I can publish the picture for the world to see. Its not too bad for only my 2nd attempt since school! from Nature Girls blog, she seems to like it too, hurrah.
Also included in the swap were chocolate for mum and Nature Girl herself (though I think dad got the choc!) and some wool (or yarn if you prefer to call it that) but silly me I forgot to take a picture of it all together, doh, well it was my 1st swap, can't get it all right eh?
Will post more in the next few days, as have been very busy with dd2's 3rd birthday, but more on that tomorrow.

Birdy Twitterings

So I got my Owl Swap Partner today http://www.lifewithnaturegirl.blogspot.com/ I think her dd and my dd1 would get on great, we have gallons of fairy dust kicking around the house too :-)
The Owl swap can be found on Meridians blog, courtesy of my links page if you want more info, although in its basic form it is what it says on the tin, though not live ones obviously ;-) more of a theme there, just in case you were thinking of calling the RSPCA or the RSPB. Plus a few other goodies, as we all need a bit of cheering up at this time of year eh?
So I guess I'd better get crafting!

Today was a day off 'normal' work at the store as dd2 decided that I was her designated adult to go swimming with her! as its been dh for the past 4 months, I was rather shocked, but my hair needed washing anyway, so we had fun pouring watering cans over each others heads, her swimming has really come on and she transfers to water playgroup in March when she's 3, I have to say I'm sure she'll be swimming without floats very soon, she's so confident :-o, doesn't bat an eyelid at sinking or anything (reminds me of ss when he learnt to swim, drowning with style!) I did the school and ballet runs too, although dd1 only for ballet, dd2 and two older siblings belonging to other families played on my dslite (dd2 has her own, but it wasn't with us) happily instead!

When we got home we made some Bird Feeder cones, courtesy of Meridians ds's Cheerios Cookbook. Here's what you need to do if you want to make them:

1 x Ice Cream cone (we used flat ended ones)
String
Needle
Wild bird seed/peanuts without shells/sunflower seeds
Peanut butter
Knife
Tray

Thread your string through the needle, tie a knot at one end.
Take your Ice Cream cone and make a loop of string through the pointy or flat end (we only pierced the cone once, then made a loop above it, but you can pierce the cone twice if you like?)
You should now be able to hang your cone from a branch or hook.
Get your tray and cover it in bird seed.
Now open the peanut butter and spread the cone with it (I did this for the girls, as dd1 (5) tried it and her spreading lightly skills were not good on a wafer cone)
Now roll the cone in the bird seed and it should all stick to the sides. You can spend time merrily decorating it with peanuts, sunflower seeds etc in patterns and you can even add the cheerieos whose idea this whole thing was if you like!
Voila! Bird Feeder.