Things To Do with Branches at Christmastime, part 2

I went a little branch crazy at our house, after finding some discarded limbs in the parking lot at the hardware store.  So here's what I did with my haul!

I Can Teach You Embroidery, check out "That Darn Machine"

My buddy Christine Blystone has created a really nifty website for a school project (she's a busy busy student at Portland State University).

The website is called That Darn Machine, and it features a printable guide for hand sewing techniques, a timeline of the history of the sewing machine, and sewing tutorial videos.  One of those videos happens to be me, teaching you how to embroider a simple animal shape onto fabric.

Want to watch me yammerin' on?  Click here!

Things To Do with Branches at Christmastime, part 1

Every year, I find myself unexpectedly swept up in the magic of this season.  I like to fantasize about Scandinavian winters in days of yore, drinking grog and wearing bear furs by the light of the fire, women in white robes with candle wreaths atop their heads.  These are the thoughts that pull me through every year.  Also, the classic Rudolph stop-motion film helps a lot too.

This year, I finally made the Christmas branch I've been imagining for a couple of years now (instead of a Christmas tree).  I love bare winter branches, and I've been collecting bird ornaments for the last ten years or so in hopes of having a holiday bird tree someday.  Ilan and I just moved into a new house (our own place, just the two of us!), and it was the perfect opportunity for me to make my move.

I attached the branches to the wall (it's two branches pushed together to look like one) with wire attached to nails hammered into the wall.

Most of the birds came from either my mom or my friend Erika, both of whom enjoy indulging me by giving me bird ornaments for Christmas every year.  I think I have more ornaments someplace; I'm still going through boxes since moving.  Here are some close-ups of the cast members:

Mexican tin owl

 Santa rides a bird (this one gets the WTF prize)

elegant carved grey owl

mechanical owl (looks like it could have been in Return to Oz)

fuzzy vintage bird

these tiny sailboats came from SCRAP!

cozy earmuff bird

cute & simple handmade glass bird, by my friend Pat Lunstrum

I had a ton of fun going through my box of knick-knacks, and finding these little treasures again.  Some of them were ones that I had forgotten all about!  It reminded me of digging through the box of Christmas decorations with my brother when we were kids, dragging out the old favorites for another go-round on the tree.

Recent Owls in My Life

This is Julio, a great horned owl who came to visit with a handler from the Audobon Society at the after-school program where I work.  She was adopted by a well-meaning human at an early age, and then later turned over to the Audobon Society.  She cannot survive in the wild because she never learned to catch her own prey.  She likes to sit for long periods of time with her head turned backwards.

These are some of my students, wearing great horned owl masks that I taught them to make in preparation for Julio's visit!  This is probably one of the coolest projects I've ever done with kids.

And this is my birthday owl, a barred owl who was sitting on a power line nearby when we were out in Portland's Mississippi neighborhood on the night of my birthday this week (after some cozy craft-making at Liberty Glass).  The owl was just sitting there, looking around.  Maybe it was lost, or perhaps just felt like people-watching.  Either way, it was quite a sight on my birthday!  What could it mean?