Homemade Owl Costume

Emily made this owl costume for her son who loves owls just as much his mom. The first words out of his mouth were "owwwwl." Emily was thrilled to know that her son wanted to be an owl for Halloween and decided to make one herself when she couldn't find any owl costume. She created this one with old sweater, felt, burlap, net and using the hooded towel as pattern for the overall body and hood dimensions. That's just so cool!!

Lisa Jones Studio

Adorable new bone china mugs by Lisa Jones. The mugs are available in four cute creatures graphics at Lisa Jones Studio online store. I love them all!! How do you choose which one is the cutest?

Owl Baby Sweater Pattern Giveaway

Kathrin is an artist based out of Cologne, Germany who loves to collect patterned paper, beautiful things and owls. She recently knitted this adorable short sleeved owl sweater, its pattern is available on her store on Etsy for only $3.50. But she is so generous to giveaway the pattern to 5 lucky winners from My Owl Barn readers.

1. To enter, you must be a follower of My Owl Barn (click here to follow My Owl Barn)
2. Like My Owl Barn on Facebook, and
3. Share this giveaway on Facebook

Make sure you leave a comment here letting me know that you are a follower and have liked and shared.

Winners will be announced sometime on November 1st and the receive the file in email.
Our winners are DeBie Hive, Sewfast, Elvira M., Crazypatch and SactoSylvia. Congratulations!

Leontine May Greenberg

I adore these watercolor paintings by artist Leontine May Greenberg. The artist was born in Tucson, grew up in the desert and the great cities of Europe, and currently living in Jackson Heights New York. Her work is inspired by "other people’s flickr streams, city rooftops, the coming environmental apocalypse, and the children’s book section of the Strand Bookstore," and has been shown at galleries around the country. More of her work can be viewed here.

Vintage Halloween Party

I love this Halloween-themed birthday party! Lynlee created these most adorable cupcakes for Kyle's first birthday. How adorable is that ghost with a pink head bow and the orange owl!

Paperchase Owls

Paperchase newest fun and colorful collection Pop Owls. These are a few of my favorite things.

1. Notebook, 2. Overnight bag, 3. Coin purse, 4. Stainless steel flask, 5. Key ring, 6. Laptop bag and 7. Letter set.

Thomas Paul: Luddite Collection

Thomas Paul's charming Owl & Bike pillow from Luddite collection takes you back in the past. The word Luddite refers to a social movement in the early 19th century of British textile artisans who protested the changes brought to their industry by the Industrial Revolution. And ever since, the word has come to mean someone who is against technology and prefers to do things the old fashioned way. Love the origin of the word that perfectly defines the range.The entire collection is available at Burke Decor.

Have You Met Miss Jones?

I love everything by Sydney based designer Have You Met Miss Jones, originally specializing in bone china but now expanding to include clay pottery, capiz shell, metal and woodwork. I am swooning over both their products and beautiful styling. Make sure to stop by their store for a huge range of ceramic owls and more sweet ware for your home.

Collection: Tag

1. Hoot! owl coir doormat, 2. Pitcher, 3. Embroidered dishtowel, 4. Plates,5. Napkin Rings & placecard holders, and Dishtowel.

Little Dear

Adorable hand-sewn and embroidered owl plushies by Aimee of Little Dear.

Thanks Becky Lay.

Martha Stewart: Night Owl Pumpkin

I recently learnt about carve-by-colors, which is an incredible creative pumpkin carving technique similar to paint-by-number kits and uses color coded technique. The template shows how much and where to cut, shave, or scrape your pumpkin to create a jack-'o-lantern that looks fun, cool and richly textured.

Martha Stewart's site has step-by-step instructions on how it's done, tips and tricks and template to download so anyone can do this nice trick. It'll make a great addition to your Halloween decorations or can be used as a centerpiece to spice up the traditional display.

Interview: Things With Wings

Tell us a bit about yourself, location, present job, personal stuff. 

My name is Laura McCarragher. I live in Iowa City, Iowa. I'm a stay at home Mom/artist. This is my first year having all three children (14, 9, and 5)  in school every day. So, I'm beginning to feel a new found freedom! Hopefully, it will give me more time to commit to my artwork. But, my commitment is to my family and my children first! I've been married to a wonderful man for 13 years. He is my better half and is my complete opposite in almost every way!

What inspired you to become an artist and how old were you then? 

I grew up in a very artistic family. My Mom is an artist and my father who passed away 13 years ago was a professional photographer. I always 'felt' creative on the inside but didn't really tap into it until the last 5 years. My mother, Connie and my sister, Jill, are the three artists that make up the group Things With Wings. We create together, separately, and collaborate. We do shows together and have a LOT of fun!

Please describe your materials and medium you use in your pieces.

We like to recycle and reuse things. We thrift for old frames, wood pieces, and paint on recycled wood. Our greatest pleasure is taking something really ugly and making it beautiful! We use lots of paper and acrylic paint in our pieces and have created our own unique style and finishing touch.

Who are your favorite artists? Why?

Right now, my favorite artist is my daughter, Lily. She is 5 and she goes through LOTS of paper! Right now her favorite thing to paint is unicorns and rainbows. Her use of color is amazing and limitless!

What’s been your favourite project so far?

I love the projects that the three of us girls can work on together. It's so much fun. I also like to do custom orders. It's so cool to hear stories of why someone wants this or that and what it means to them and why. I realize what an honor it is to be asked to do something that means so much to someone else.

What is a constant challenge for you and most rewarding part of having a creative profession?

My number one challenge is balancing being a mother first and foremost and keeping things is perspective. I can easily think of times I've isolated myself in my own little artworld, but God always gives me the grace I need to step back and try again.

What do you do when you are not working?

I love to read, I love to listen to music. I love to shop.

How do you use your blog for your art? 

We post a lot of our art on our blog.Just random thoughts, funny stories. It's more of a journal than everything else. It's another way to stay connected to the other members of Things With Wings (even though we only live 20 minutes apart from each other!) It's also a good way to keep people updated on where we'll be show-wise, etc. We've also been know to do a random giveaway here and there!

I noticed that the many of your pieces have owls in it and was wanting to ask you about that. 

I love making owls. They're just cool. I feel like they represent wisdom, knowledge, unique-ness. All good qualities to have and work on!

Describe your work on which you are currently working?

We've got a few shows coming up, so we are ramping up our art making. I'm making lots of things with messages of family, faith, unique-ness, integrity, true character, and courage to just name a few! And yes, there are lots of owls and birds in there as well!

What are your future plans and dreams?

I feel like artwise, everything that has happened already has been beyond my wildest dreams. In January of 2011,  we have a new line of art coming out being manufactured by DEMDACO. We are SUPER excited about this!!! The line will be called, "This Thing Called Family" and we hope and pray that it will encourage and lift up anyone that comes across it.

Blog: http://thingswithwingsartjournal.blogspot.com/

Store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/greengirldesign

The Celebration Shoppe: Candy Corn

Kim of The Celebration Shoppe is well known for her fabulous party ideas and adorable printables one could need to plan a party. This fun "Candy Corn" printable collection featuring owl, ghost, candy corn patterns and orange and black stripes will go perfectly with your theme for your Halloween celebration. Check out all of their goodies from the collection that is 50% off through Halloween!