Willows Charity Owls

[willows]

Well this must be my year for using the old brain to raise money for my children's hospice, as I've come up with this money making idea which should net me a cool ?300 before October to add to the event funds.

I was looking for an owl to go into this emporium that I run on the stage , so when my husband found one he went wild and suddenly 'popping up' from nowhere owl over his head shouting 'owl ami, owl' at the top of his voice like it was a gold bar he's been digging for not a badly painted big brown plastic owl .

This certainly worried all the Oaps who's come for a quiet lunch at the garden centre , who looked startled , then to have me dancing about hugging the plastic thing must have got them thinking we were both either completely mad or on something !

And so Topaz was born , now painted white with her base a wonderful array of gold and diamonds ( instead of browm mud) she's about 1/2 way finished .

Her breast feathers are now in place , but body feathers and wings are on there way having talked a Cornish feather supplier into helping me on the understanding that they had one named after them , and so 'Jaffe' is to be born soon all painted and done up to the 9's ..................so I'm thinking fast now and wondering if 'others' would pay to have a owl in an 'owlery' like the one in the Harry Potter 4 film but without the owl poo and the cold ( very bad for my Raynard's that ) and by heck they will !!!!!!

Yesterday I sold one on Valentines day to a man who's a photographer called Valentine so his owl is going to be called ............................yes! 'Valentine' dont know what colour yet but I've now ordered 10 owls in all OMG what have I let myself in for the paint, the glue , the feathers ...........the fun.

So here below is a look at the 1/2 finished Topaz my owl ...................and for your great amusement a 'mother and son' moment .........just couldnt resist this one .

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban.../miscellaneous/

Stop laughing ........................AMI. ( who just cant help it )

[willows]

Came home from a much needed few days away in Cornwall only to find a large heavy box waiting at my neighbours for me , having been on the net a few days before asking companys for all sorts of things for the October event this box could contain anything from more feathers to a crystal ball or costumes ...............mmmmmm very heavy indeed ?????

OMG inside was the sweetest, cutest most adorable baby owls I've seen in a long time and all beautifully painted by hand in the most wonderful-est details................you could have knocked me down with a feather ( and I have a few of them here ) they are between 12-13 inches tall and the faces are just adorable.

I've decided I'm going to make them a special nursery nest in a bread delivery tray , cover this inside and out with brown fabric , make 3 nests out of sticks and twigs with added feathers ( I will bind them together with fishing line so that you cant see how they are held in lace ) then add these to the box , then add more twigs, feathers and leaves around them.

As the owls come on little bases I will cover these when they sit in there nests with further twigs and feathers ............'Hey presto' baby owls sitting in thier nursery nests! ...........I suppose being an ancient magician ( cannot call myself witch /wizard or sorceress until the actual event ) I should have said 'abracadabra '

I've also come home with a super witches dress in black lace /net with long sleeves and a v insert of purple silk fabric at the front with black lace -up detail and embroidery . A minute dragon ( like one of the ones drawn out of the bag at the dragon tournament in Harry Potter 4 film ) this I will repaint as the artwork is appalling to say the least , I will have him in a small bag hung from my waist and bring him out to show the children .............thats after I've made out he's nipped me on the leg and wants to say hello to them ...........some dragons cant take them anywhere.

I also picked up a blue glass ball about 5-6 inches round .............well....... I thought if I spoke to someone who does metal work they could make me a 5 foot long pole ( in black) with a Small 2 inch plate on the top to sit the ball , add around this long thin pieces of metal that twist into a point over the top of the ball ( a bit like one of those Mr. Whippy ice-cream cones that come out of an ice cream machine ) decorate this with metal star's and small round balls ( that I will paint up) and 'once again ' Hey presto' I will have a rather nice 'wizards staff'

I tell you being down in Cornwall has made my mind do overtime and I'm having to write things down all the time or I will forget my ideas .

Topaz is on her way to being almost feathered now and she looks so sweet ...........all fluffy ...........me ............all gluey with loads of little cuts on the end of my fingers from using the crafting knives

Well as you will see I've been up again in the night , so stiff , so sore and so tired, but unable to lay flat at this time , so I'm pottering about .

Bye all for now as I'm about to post about Corrina's step-mum and dad and also a little problem I'm having .

Its so nice to be back ...............AMI

[willows]

Well I've finished Topaz and am now about to start on Valentine or Lord V as I think I'll call it now.

I also decided that I'd give each owl something to do , Topaz will be the guardian of all things sparkly , like precious stones , so I've given her a huge fake amethyst to guard between her feet .

Lord V can be the delivery owl for all my mail , and I'm going to make some tiny little parchment scrolls for him to carry in his feet all tied up with red ribbons.

I thought about it and trying as I always do to think as a small child would look at things it adds a bit of interest to the owlery if they appear to be up to something , so now I have to think up something for the other owls to do within the magical place .............any ideas would be appreciated , also if anyone has any good magic /mystic or dragon type names let me know as its getting really hard to come up with them all the time ............and remember to write them down before I forget again

I've a new hot ( yet cold) glue gun to use at this time and I'm now wondering why on earth I didn't get one beofre now , OMG they are so brilliant .

AMi armed and ready with her gun...................OOOH ! I wonder if I could stick hubby's mouth shut at night to stop him snoring ? little bit here , little bit there ..............

[willows]

Well I'm just about to put out an SOS on the local radio for birdcages of a largish size and a small old wooden fireplace .

I want to hang my phoenix in a Cage from the stage ceiling and another couple of owls in cages and the fireplace can have my bubbling cauldron in with all sorts of skulls and magic stuff on , like old dried flowers, books all the sort of stuff a magician might have .

I came up with this grand idea of how to make a Dementor coming out of a chest, this will scare the kids

I have this wonderful old worldly pirates chest with a huge buckle on the front , well if I get 3-4 large helium filled balloons , join them together firmly , then cover these with some old torn lightweight fabric ( maybe chiffon) cut to look like the body of a Dementor ( by the way this is a guard from Azkaban prison out of the Harry Potter books) so then tie the balloons to a long piece of invisible line attach this to the bottom of the chest ..............place the cover over these , making sure its long enough to leave the bottom of the fabric in the chest when opened .

Open the chest and 'hey presto' the Dementor should just fly out to the ceiling ...............me thinks me will try this later this month , if it works I'll let you know , but this should be a great cheap way of scaring the kids/hubby at Halloween ! Not that I would do this to my own of course ( cough , cough)

AMI

[Guest tearose]

willows...have you ever written a book?

I think you should seriously consider writing one!

Between wheelbarrows and owls and your Pots adventures...you always have a story to share!

The last of Harry potter is soon to be released so maybe you can pick up and take over!

cheers! tearose

[willows]

Oh .............Tearose you are a star , I am a comical autobiographical writer for a living.

My first book is just being finished , unfortunatley I've had to set it out in a different format than I had already written it in i.e. I had written it as 12 separate chapters all about the disabled body's ability to........ let us down, fool us , drop us right in it and other wild and comical chapters......there's chapters on my hubby, myself and my children.

But the publisher wanted it as a book telling all how I came to be such a raving lunatic..........Oh , cheek

I'm also 1/4 way through my second book called 'The brotherhood of the wolf' quiet spike has had a read of the first chapter of this to see if its OK.

I'm a werewolf in this book , it starts way back with the very first wolf and how his son was born , then comes through all the ancestors to Sara our hero.

Sara is the very last werewolf of the clan , she is desperately trying to find 'Bacara' the name that was whispered to her from the lips of her dying father.

She will always remember that night , soaked in blood she cradled him in her arms , tears running down her face and mingling with the rain . 'why..............what has he done to deserve this ' she screamed , and a loud sob escaped her scarlet lips , 'please tell me why' but the man in black just walked away , only the sound of a lone wolfs howl could be heard ringing out across the rain drenched sky's.

Well a girls gotta do something with the 2 fingers she has left that work well .

I've been writing since I was 5 years old .................so I can put a few lines here and there by now

Thanks for your clever observations ..............AMi or Willow Brookes ( my pen name )

[willows]

Well , I've now started on numbers 2 and 3 at the same time

Number 2 is' Lord V 'who is jet black with a V of deep purple on his head , he's had the base done + his feet and claws + his eyes and one ear feathered ( poor thing )

Number 3 is 'Jaffe' her base is done + feet and claws and I've painted around her eyes ..............Jaffee is in cream all over and should look rather sweet .

So at this time I've little tiny bits of feather flying about , cor ......sniff one of these up your nose and your sneezing for ever .

Coffee and glue gun now , still a bit 'not with it ' from last nights awake/asleep/ awake/ sleep , but never mind may be I'll come out with black and cream feathers on my head later today .

Hubby has promised to take a picture of Topaz now she's done later today and also my simple gorgeous new costume for the show + velvet full length cape with hood ..............so if your interested in seeing these watch out for this later on .

AMI

[willows]

Right hubby has been photoing my owls and my outfit and here they are as promised.

Topaz ( white owl) is now finished as you can see ( back/front view) Lord V the black one is 1/4 they way there and Jaffee is started .

My dress is wonderful , it has a purple silk insert to the front , I'm going to have this special mystical pendent to wear around the neck . And the cape I picked up for a cool ?30 from a clothes shop that had some seconds in it . So my outfit is almost finished all I need now is a pair of those multi coloured stripped sock's that witches wear

Hope you like the photo's , blimey it is hard sticking all them feathers down.

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban.../miscellaneous/

Ami

[corina]

i love the photo's ami!!!

corina

[willows]

I've got a dragon ..........I've got a dragon .............I've got a dragon

Today I went into town to help my son sort his birthday money , well help him spend it really

And I went into this posh toy shop to look for a wooden flying seagull..........one of those ones with wings that flap up and down , not that I wanted a seagull ............anyhow I found a red parrot..........which I bought instead , but I didn't want a parrot either by now you will think me completely bonkers ........na , just clever

What I'm going to do is get hubby to screw the wings on the parrot and I'm going to make him some legs and wire feet , so he can sit upright on a perch .............get the picture ........parrot on a perch ................well add to this half a ton of bright red and bright orange feathers a new beak and head and what to you have ????

A fire Phoenix sitting on a perch with 2 foot long tail feathers clever or what ????

Anyhow looking about this shop I spied an egg .............OMG a dragons egg , no I'm not pulling your leg I've got the box and all the bits here , so son treats me to this for the show , I'll take photo's of this so you can see what I mean tomorrow .

So still looking about and I spied a small red dragon hanging from the ceiling asking the shop keeper if it was a back pack , he said no , but they did have bigger ones, OMG he took me outside to look in the window and there was a 4foot black /red and gold dragon ................needless to say I carried him lovingly home with me and he's now sitting on my bed watching telly ( he likes westerns best ) he's gorgeous , so I'll take a photo of him tomorrow as well .

As for my owls ..................enter the Lord V ................he's .....well ,wait until you see him ( photo tomorrow ) it took me ages to finish him and he's taken all my black feathers but he's..............wow.

Right I'm off to sit and have a natter with my dragon and watch telly , hubby's snoring away on the settee after another bad day head wise...............so its feet up , telly on and a long conversation with ????? any ideas what to call him greatly received .

AMI

[willows]

Well Lord V is there now in all his black fluffiness...........he's got rather a cute face I think .

but the problem is now ..............just what do you do with 2 - 2feet tall owls covered in feathers ????

Our loft isn't very dry , so thats not a good idea, I haven't got a cupboard big enough , so thats out .............it looks like they will have to sit on the window cill from the dinning room to the conservatory and just stare at anyone who comes in

Sorry haven't been able to sort out my dragon yet as had a rather bad day again , just got up to do this and now having some mother day tea then off to the land of nod again.

Hope you like this one .................Jaffe next a cream coloured owl .

Then my red/gold Phoenix .............then more owls !

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban.../miscellaneous/

[willows]

Today I finished number 3 an owl called 'Jaffe' sponsored by a local feather company

OMG is she cute or what ............now dont think me cruel , but having had a long talk with her and assuring her it wouldn't hurt ...........much ........... I cut her ears off

Then using both cream and white smooth feathers and cream and white fluffy I've made her into the 'baby's the owlery ( more owls to come yet guys) so she has all this sticky out feathers on her , just like a baby owl when its trying to shed those fluffy down ones ................

I also had this great idea for my sponsors, instead of saying they have sponsored the owl , they can adopt it and be its absent parents ...........I thought this would be nice for a child to do if its parents wanted to do something for the children's Hospice.

So each person who wants an owl will get a full size photo of the bird , they get to name the owl ( within reason mind you ) and get an adoption certificate telling them when it was born ( made) what it like to do and what it like to eat best .

As well as this whenever the show is running they can come and visit the owl they have adopted and ( as a child would ) talk to it , pretend to feed it or brush its feathers . I think this is a much better deal . especially if you are a child .

My best friend in Suffolk wants one now so that's another one to add to my collection , dont quiet know as yet what colour or if male or female , I am having such great fun doing these and hubby's quiet happy sitting here being watched by their eyes everywhere you move in the dinning room or lounge ...........wonder what a burglar would think if he tried it this time .

AMI.

[willows]

If you click on the above link to my photo site you will see Jaffe , hubby put her on this morning .

AMi ...........tired, sore , tired and falling about like I'm drunk at this time , not good , not nice .......sleep..............I need sleep .

[willows]

I'm giving my owls a rest at the minute , I have another 3 ordered but as they are not wanted or needed until October I have loads and loads of time to do all the other things I have for the show as well , so I'm doing a large highly decorated creepy picture instead at this time for a change.

I've been in bed and out again over the past week or so and not feeling anywhere near as good as I have been feeling , pain in the back/legs has been awful so on Friday I'm seeing my doctor again and am asking if I can have my 'legs pulled again' ............no this inst a joke , last time I saw the physiotherapist I had one leg longer than the other by about 2 inches which was why I had so much pain, so may be its happened again.

Anyhow my picture frame is made from sheet of hardboard with some old ceiling coveing stuck on all four sides , I then painted the coveing first with pale gold paint and then just as it became ' tacky' I painted over this with a deep bronze colour paint and swirled it in a design all over the four sides, it now looks old and not like cardboard at all !

Next I got my husband to cut to eye holes in the hardboard , wide enough for you to look out of in comfort.

The inner hardboard area will now be covered with all the stuff I have on Dragons and any pictures I have , but right smack band in the middle will be a large picture of a dragons head , with its two eye's in line with the eye holes my husband cut earlier .

The idea is that I make a special swing cover thats attached to the back of the board which has the dragons eye's stuck to it , so them the swing section is in place from the front it looks like a normal picture , but when the swing section is moved out of the way , you can look from the back of the 'masterpiece' out at anyone and only see their eye's only............

I have spent ages and ages sticking on kids plastic 'jewels' to make the frame look expensive and interesting so that the actually frame is more interesting than the picture , cunning that !

The idea is to hang this when finished on stage in my show , so when the kids come and look at all the interesting stuff I have in the picture .........real eyes suddenly stare back at them , creepy or what !

I'm loving doing it at the minute and in a way I'm able to cope more with this pain than just sitting or laying there letting it take over my body and life, if there's a will there's away and by George I'm not going to let this condition get to me ,even if I'm as tired as a bat doing a ten mile walk on hot coals.

Well its hubby's birthday today and we are going out for lunch together to the garden centre ( wonderful food ) and then we can both go and have a look around at all the stuff we are interested in , hubby's being the plants and equipment and mine being clothes and arts and crafts stuff.

AMI