Owl-themed baby shower!

I haven't blogged a thing in over two months! 

Between a crazy period at work and a computer on the fritz, pulling together crafts and writing about them has taken a back seat for a bit.

But I was working on one big project that I pulled together a few weekends ago: an owl-themed baby shower for dear friends Maureen and Laura. 

It was a lovely day and I'm thrilled to share some of the crafty details here.

It started with the invitation 

(with thanks to my graphic designer hubby, 

who turned my scribbles into something presentable):

I decorated with an orange, yellow 

and green color scheme:

(By the way, these Martha Stewart tissue pom poms 

are super-easy to make!)

These silk flower arrangements were the 

first craft project I pulled together for the big day:

Parties make Sassy a little grumpy. 

Everyone knows I've caught the owl fever that's going around, 

so I was pretty psyched to make these felt owl brooches 

as shower favors for our guests:

We had some special little girl guests at this shower, 

so there were felt owl barrettes for them: 

Guests were invited to note some words of wisdom 

for our expectant moms. 

I think the wisest contribution came 

from one of our little well-wishers: 

"Give the baby chocolate milk each morning."

Words of wisdom were hung on this little tree I fashioned 

from branches from around our yard, a little floral foam, 

some spanish moss and a yellow bucket from A.C. Moore:

We played the baby picture guessing game:

 Here's the growing pile of baby gifts:

 Of course it wouldn't be a baby shower without some yummy cake. 

Our wonderful friend Patti contributed this gorgeous carrot cake:

I didn't get around to snapping my own photos 
of the other things we noshed on, 

but here are the links in case you want 

to sample them for yourselves:

Emeril Lagasse's spinach, mushroom and four-cheese lasagna 

Ina Garten's turkey sausage lasagna 

One pot kale and quinoa pilaf

Martha Stewart's pumpkin chocolate chip bars

Here's our lovely group while presents were opened:

I can hardly wait for June when the guest of honor will arrive!

Dancing crane

In keeping with my practice of embroidering birds (previously blogged here, here, here, and here), I recently decided to stitch up a tribute to the beautiful crane. 

I was inspired to create a piece with a crane on it for my AMAZING acupuncturist, Jackie, who runs Dancing Crane Acupuncture here in Beacon. 


Revered in many cultures, cranes are a symbol of wisdom and longevity in China. Folklore says that they mate for life, and who could blame them with a fabulous mating dance like this? 

And here's the stitched crane, sewn up in a little pocket:

I went with red stitching, as Jackie is an Aries, and that's an Aries color. I can't wait to give this to her next weekend!

Weekend of mulch

I haven't done any embroidery in the last couple of days; this weekend was all about the yard. I'm very pleased with our progress! I'm determined to get things in order out there early this year, so I don't have to spend the whole summer in my gardening gloves.

There I am, toiling behind the big mulch pile:

And here's how the front yard is shaping up:

But my favorite element in our front yard has to be our bird bath, which we put up in the front yard this morning:

This was a housewarming gift from our fabulous friend, Jenn. Isn't it darling? I can't wait to catch some of our cute little birds splashing around in there!

Blue-footed booby!

I've really enjoyed stitching up my little avian tributes (like the red pileated woodpecker, the black capped chickadee, and the little owl). I originally planned to focus my stitching on our local, Hudson Valley birds. But recently I was introduced to the blue-footed booby, and now I've decided to make a little detour to the Galapagos Islands, where the blue-footed booby lives.

After watching this video, I was convinced that the blue-footed booby is highly stitch-worthy:

I made the blue-footed booby as a bookmark; he's a gift for a friend.

Here's a close-up of my booby (come on! you had to know that was coming):

Since the booby is such a serious romantic, I thought it would be fitting to include some love song lyrics on this piece. I chose Louis Armstrong's "We have all the time in the world," because the friend I'm giving this to chose it as his wedding song.

We have all the time in the world

Time enough for life to unfold

All the precious things love has in store

We have all the love in the world

If that's all we have, you will find

We need nothing more

Every step of the way will find us

With the cares of the world far behind us

We have all the time in the world

Just for love

Nothing more, nothing less

Only love

Every step of the way will find us

With the cares of the world far behind us

We have all the time in the world

Just for love

Nothing more, nothing less

Only love

Only love

Isn't the blue-footed booby so much fun? Which little birdy should I turn my attention to next?

Birdy visitor

Steven was playing around with our zoom lens today, and just look at the little cutie he caught checking out the white oak that fell into our yard over the weekend:

Lots of birds came to visit since the tree went down; I think they were just as perplexed as we were about all the changes in our yard. I'm not sure what kind of bird this is, so I decided to see if I could google up an answer. I stumbled on a fabulous bird resource in the "Bird Species" page of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website. I think she resembles the Bicknell's Thrush, but this is really just a wild guess. Any thoughts?

Red pileated woodpecker

Over the weekend, I was happy to spot a red pileated woodpecker up in one of the trees near our house. These guys are especially easy to find in the winter-time, as their pecking can be quite loud, and once you're looking for him, his big red head is pretty hard to miss. I thought he'd be an excellent subject to portray with a little free-hand embroidery. I came up with a design on the train this afternoon, and stitched him together after I got home. Here's the result:

Did you know that Woody Woodpecker was modeled after the red pileated woodpecker? Ha ha ha HA ha!

Owl prowl

The wonderful folks from the Rockland Audubon Society have posted the trip report for the Owl Prowl that we went to last Friday night!

We saw Eastern Screech Owls, and we learned that these owls can have gray coloring (called "gray phase") like this handsome guy:

...or red coloring ("red phase") like this one:

(Photos by Alan Wells)

Have you ever heard the call of the Eastern Screech Owl? It's like a spooky whinny. I'm going to have to figure out how to spell it if I'm going to make an Eastern Screech Owl cross-stitch tribute!

chickadeedee.

Last Spring when we moved to Beacon, we were astonished by all the fantastic bird-watching right in our own back yard. The black-capped chickadee made an immediate impression on us. Sitting on our back deck, we kept hearing a birdsong that, to our ears, sounded just like the "ha ha" laugh of Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons. We thought it was hilarious when we learned that we weren't the first to think of this little guy as "the Nelson bird."

Of course this guy showed up in my stocking on Christmas morning:

So today I decided to pay homage to the black-capped chickadee. Steven helped out with the sketch:

And here he is in his stitchy glory:

I hope I'm sitting on my deck listening to his springtime chirping again soon. HA ha!

whoo.

Steven and I have developed a bit of an owl obsession lately. I think it started when he gave me this darling little guy for Christmas last year.

And tonight, we're heading out to the Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site for an "Owl Prowl," where we'll hopefully get a look at some Great Horned Owls and Eastern Screech Owls. In preparation for this evening, I decided to whip up a little owl cross-stitch. I looked to this owl softie that my dear friend Mike gave me for inspiration.

Here are my sketches.

And here he is!

Did you know that a group of owls is called "a parliament?" This makes me picture a bunch of owls sitting around passing laws. Here's hoping we spot one this evening!