I made this owl as a gift for my sister, I found the pattern on this website... their owl looks a bit less messy than mine. And as I can't be bothered to write out all the instruction on how I made it I guess you will have to go there to see how if you want to know. 

I also have probably forgotten lots of important bits too, as I made this way before Christmas. I couldn't blog on it then, because it was a gift and the photos were doing their best to hide from my sister, and then I forgot. The photos managed to hide from me too but I found them, eventually. So here are a few of the making and more of my finished owl. Well not mine anymore, but I liked this one so much that I went and made another for myself, which also had to hide away until after Christmas, but failed to take photos of.

 You can download the instructions I used here... at least hopefully you can. And this is the finished product.

 Do you like owl things?

If so what kind of owl things do you have?

I have done a lot of crafty posts lately(this shall probably be the last for a while), but the next post I do shall be special. The next post will be my 500th blog post! And to celebrate there shall be a giveaway! And two of the thing/things, trinket notsayingwhatitisyet in the giveaway are owl like... But I want to know, would you rather have three chances of winning just one thing or one chance of winning all three (similar) things? And should it be a choose your favourite one out of, say five options, like last time?

Me wearing the shirt/tunic I made

Day 15 Sunday: Need I say?

Day 16 Monday: Well I put on one very full load and I shall do the other tomorrow.


Day 17 Tuesday: I put on another very full load. And I decided the other day; to hand wash my sister’s band shirt and also my hand made shirt. I have made two shirts and I have noticed how the one that has been through the wash a lot of times is not looking so happy in some places so I think I shall attempt hand washing them. The first time we washed Jane’s band shirt a few other clothes got rather damaged…. We didn’t realize it was brand new and of course it is red…. So one of my favourite brown and white skirts is now… well not so white, along with a few other clothes. So today I washed that offending red shirt by hand and turned the water in the bucket into a brownish pink colour. Disaster averted!

Day 18 Wednesday: The only problem with hand washing things is they take a lot longer to dry. So Jane’s band shirt is still a bit damp. I put on another load today with towels in it to fill it up, it is quite cloudy but hopefully it shall dry.

Day 19 Thursday: Didn’t do washing because I managed to forget about it for… well most of the day….somehow

Day 20 Friday: I did two loads….. wonder why???  The problem was that one of my sisters was mowing the lawn so I obviously couldn’t hang it out until she had finished, so I put one load on… and pulled it out into the basket then put another on and I hung out the first as it said there were about 6 minutes left for the second load to be finished. 

By that time the sun had shone on the ground for some hours and heat came not only down from the sun but up from the dry grass. The ants were also nicely active, just tiny black ones….. but if you stand on their trail for long enough, or not very long at all, most of the ants in the vicinity will climb onto your feet and nibble them…. Apparently between my toes is the tastiest place. 
When I had hung out the first load I went back in and got the second to hang out and pegged that all up too. 

Day 21 Saturday: I pulled a few gumnuts out of the door seal of the washing machine today…

You will need denim and some other material of your choice, thread, two buttons, a needle, pins, a sewing machine and some time. A pattern would also be useful I suppose... or something to copy the shape of the top off. The three shapes for the top can each be cut out of a bit of denim the size of an A4 piece of paper.. (scissors would also be useful to cut the fabric)

I made the top first. It is three piece of denim with a few small strips for the edges. for each edge I used strips of denim 3-4 cm wide and however long they needed to be to either go around the arm holes or go all they way along the top of the dress. I sewed the three main pieces together and over-locked the edges of the denim. Then I sewed the 3cm strip to each arm hole as if it were to be a really short sleeve. Then  I folded that in and folded the raw edge under and sewed it in place (I used pins here too) 

The arm holes were probably the most tricky part but they worked. 

I did the hem (can you call it a hem if done this way?) of the top the same too, it is just one long strip of denim. So then the top is done and I had got to the skirt. The checked material was a square 37cm X 159cm, quite big really! I got a thread that was just longer then the length of the top of the dress and when in and out and in and out and..... got all the pleats into the skirt part of the dress. The I just spread out the pleats evenly leaving a little length at tech end pleat free and pinned them together. The sewed the denim to the checks and pulled out the thread I had used to make the pleats.

Then I over-locked those two raw edges together, using up so much thread that I almost used an entire spool of it by the time the dress was finished. Then I decided how long I wanted the bit of denim at the bottom to be and cut pieces accordingly. I wanted the gain of the denim to be going the same way so it meant I had to join about five pieces together (over-locking the raw edges) then I sewed it on and over-locked and hemmed (normally). Then I over-locked the side edges of the wrap dress and folded them in and sewed them so they would stay in. I sewed two buttons on. Then I cut two holes in the beautiful dress! Button holes and sewed around them and pushed the buttons through! and now I have a beautiful dress for Ann when she is a little bigger. The buttons are on the back/sides of the dress.

This post is done by request, so I am not sure where this is going to go. I always find starting the post is the hardest bit. So I shall get to the point,  I do not want to waste my life. That is the point.

A while back I did a post on being bored. One thing people do when they are board is play computer games. Sure there is nothing really wrong with most computer games, but often there are much better thing to be doing. I did play computer games once and they stopped me doing other useful things. Yes they were fun but I gave them a greater priority than I should have. I don't wanna waste my life and I decided computer games were a really good way to waste it so I scrapped them. It was hard deleting everything I'd worked for, destroying the cities I built, the horses I'd bred, but they were fake! Most importantly they were a waste of time. I was not sure if I could stop, but I did and I'm so glad I did stop. I don't wanna waste my life.

There are so many other useful and fun things to do. If you like writing, write. One of the best way to get better is by actually siting down and writing. Imagine if you weren't playing computer games how much free time you would have. Instead of using you time playing computer games do some cooking, sew something, etc. You could bless your family with a meal or treat or make a meal for another family. Go outside and breath the air, feel real life. 

Computer games can make us feel good, like we have achieved something. We can get "Rich" and buy more stuff. fake stuff. Even more so than our possessions of this life which are all going to fade away. If you happen to be really good and get among top players, you feel good. But are computer games a good place to get our identity from? 

Achieving things on computer games can stops us from achieving things in real life. Sitting playing games on the computer, laptop, i-pad, i-pod etc. is not really going to help us in real life. 

There are so many other things you could do, I could write huge lists, but I think if you tried so could you. There are so many good books to read out there. "So much to do, so little time" If that is true we should not waste it!

We do not need to wait until we are older to do some things. If you do not feel like doing anything physical, you could take your bible out into the garden, or up to your room and sit, read, pray, be still. It can be really calming and relaxing. Get to know your heavenly father, the one who gave you your life. The one who will hold you accountable for all your actions. 

Romans 14:12

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

1 Peter 4:5

but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

I challenge you to think about how much time you spend playing computer games. I challenge you to check your priorities. Are they really that important? Do they really deserve that much of your time? Are you serving our LORD Jesus Christ are you honoring him by playing those things? Do you even really want to be playing computer games?

2 Timothy 2:22 

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers [sisters], whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

“It is better to lose your life than to waste it.” 

―John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

“I will not waste my life! I will finish my course and finish it well. I will display the Gospel of the grace of God in all I do. I will run my race to the end.” - Paul” 

― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

We Have Holidays this week! No school work.  So today I did a bit of sewing. (If you think sewing is boring then you have my permission to skip this paragraph, the other ones are more interesting) I tried and succeeded in make a hat, well sort of. It ended up being rather tight on me, and fit Jane better. I used the denim from some old jeans and a strip of brightly coloured material. I cut out an oval, a strip and two semicircles. Somehow I worked out some way to sew them all together, and volla a hat..... I didn’t have any pattern, and the hat didn’t exactly do as it was told, but then hats have no ears.... It looks pretty good though. I also gave advice to Alice on how to make a skirt. It must have been good advice because she took it (I think) and the skirt seems to have come out nicely.


One rather interesting thing that happened in the making was when Jane sat on my container of pins and didn’t even notice... I also lost a needle in my bed, which is why I am not going to bed tonight. (Actually I found the needle a little while after losing it, without even sitting on it! and I am planning on going to bed.) 

I also read some books today. Well I only finished one. Before that I had been getting some photos ready so I can enter them in the Singleton Show.

I wanted some photos of someone reading a book. But I had no models handy, so I had to use the tripod. The main problem is that mummy watched me the whole time and that made me laugh. I had to set up the camera, put the self-timer on run around the lounges, sit down and look like I had been sitting reading for a while. Also I had to not look at the camera out of the corner of my eye, or be giggling too much..... Then I had to get up again, change any settings on the camera, remember to put the self-timer on, press the button and then repeat the process all over again. Some of the photos didn’t work so I kept doing it..... I did eventually get some I liked.

It's really hard to look casual when you have actually been jumping up and down and running across the room every ten seconds.

Recently I have made some cushions out of material I have been given as a present and some I got second hand. 

I realized that sewing zips on is much more difficult than it looks. And when it involves pining well pins and fingers...........

I made two that were identical (sort of), then made another with four strips, groups of three is more pleasing to the eye so I made three. 

The mottled red strips on the third cushion is the same material I used for the backs of the cushions.

 They will match the quilt that I will hopefully finish one day........I don’t really know what I'm meant to do with it next.......the Quilt........ but it looks nice......

Note: The Quilt or at least the top of what will be the quilt was put on my bed for the photo...... sadly it doesn't live there.....not yet anyway.


Totally unrelated to above but I just thought I'd mention, for those who enjoyed reading (or at least got some interest out of it) my blog post on The Smoking Dragon Of The Fire. It happened yet again. Sadly I was not present though. Instead I happened to be engrossed in a book In my room. I was interrupted by mummy who sent us to get some fans to try and blow smoke out of the room. 
For those who read this and do not know what I am talking about you will have to read my other post The Smoking Dragon Of The Fire.