Ladder Love

I (Mrs Owl) have an addiction. Ok ok I have MANY addictions, doilies, owls, turkish delight chocolate, that little bit of froth in the bottom of the coffee cup, throw cushions, sarcasm (pretty sure that counts as an addiction) and many more but today... today's addiction is brought to you by the letter AWESOME and is all about these.....

The ever lovely never outdated wooden ladder! Infact I am SO in love we have a Pinterest board dedicated to them!


When I first met Mrs Elephant I told her of my ladder love (hey nothing to be ashamed of - ladder lovers unite!!) and how desperately I wanted one to put in my loungeroom  and she told me about this gorgeous wooden ladder her mum used to have. Her mum gave it to her (so much better than any other form of love!) and get this - when Elephant demolished her house SHE LEFT IT BEHIND!!!!  Like a little abandoned puppy, void of love, out in the cold. Her father-in-law went and got it (love a man with heart) then 6 years later when they moved THEY left it behind at their old house aswell!! What is with these people?? Ladders have feelings too!!  I was GUTTED!

Fast forward to a couple of months ago. The Elephant clan decided to do a drive by of the inlaws old house on the way to school and guess what was out for roadside pick up (hard rubbish, garbage collection whatevs!! Elephant laughs at me when I call it hard rubbish - is that an eastern-stater thing??) MY LADDER!!! Well... their unloved ladder... NOW its MY ladder!!

It was waaaaay too tall to stand up in my loungeroom so needed the bottom chopped off. Mr Owl was away (which is always the best time to raid his power tools) but I could not for the life of me work out how to use the damn power saw. Reverting to the good ol fashion hand saw I got so excited I actually set the ladder on fire. True story. Gave up and called on my hire a hubby (Mr Elephant) to come and finish the job and well... look at it now!!!!

*sigh* Archibald my Owl ladder LOVES his new home. How great does he look? All he needed was a lil love..... don't we all???


Thought of the moment is brought to you by the fact I am one of those weird people who gets songs stuck in their head constantly triggered by a single word!:

All you need is love.... do do do do do

Sweet Dreams | Shabby Chic Bedhead

Ever since buying our new ensemble bed almost a year ago I have been searching high and low for the "perfect" bedhead, one that suited my "style" and was not going to cost me an arm and a leg.
After months of frustration I turned to Pinterest. Why on earth did I not do that sooner? I dont need to hunt down a bedhead - I can make one!! (with a little bit of help from Mr Owl!)
I am so in love with it! Made with repurposed recycled wood, white washed and laquered and shabbied within an inch of its life, I love how rustic it is! Heck i just plain LOVE it!! Everytime I walk past my bedroom with its perfectly arranged throw cushions (an ocd habit I learnt off Mrs Elephant) I cannot help but *sigh* its just so damn lubly..... So tell me - what do you think?

If you love it as much as we do - we would love to make you one! Stay tuned to our website as we will be listing them for sale very soon.

Thought of the moment:

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.

Steve Jobs

What does an Owl make an Elephant for Christmas?

Josie The Owl is one of those 'awesome present givers'...you know, the type that spends ages thinking about the perfect present for someone? No gift vouchers, socks or chocolates from that gal...she takes present giving very seriously!

So what did The Owl make for The Elephant this Christmas? Something she was bursting out of her skin to show me and tell me about days before Christmas...that's what!!

NOW I know why she was asking me what my favourite scripture was...I couldn't pinpoint one so she had to stalk me on Pinterest and see which ones I had been pinning!

Seen here with Earl the Elephant, yet another awesome gift from The Owl, made by the ever so talented Robyn at Focus on Art

We love doilies here at The Owl & the Elephant, and are busy pinning LOADS of projects to captivate their frilly goodness! Have you seen any good doily repurposing?

And if you like the look of this one, be sure to check out Josie's hand-made rustic wooden signs made from repurposed palettes on our website. She custom makes a fantastic We Are Family sign which incorporates all your family names in a scrabble board style format. Or do you have your own favourite inspirational quote you would like? Contact us for a quote.

This is another of our favourites: 

Available on our website

Stay tuned to see what The Elephant made The Owl for Christmas!!

Thought of the moment:

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.
Walter Benjamin

Mama told me there'd be days like this.....

So you know those days, the one's where you peer out the curtains and it LOOKS nice and sunny and happy and then something happens and you realise that the nice sunny happy day has lured you into a false sense of security and BAM - the day may have gone better if you had just stayed in bed.

Well my day was kinda a eeny teeny bit like that. It got better but boy did it start out super special!

Max the youngest owl is one of those kids that wakes up super happy, and stays super happy as long as you feed him ASAP once he is up, as in get him out of cot, run to kitchen, throw food at him until he bursts and then continue on with the day.

So today I got him out of his cot, ran down to the kitchen, put him in his why did I not know about these 8 years ago IKEA highchair and went about getting his breaky. No milk - ok so what? no cereal today he can have toast. No bread - ahhhhh crap!!!  I was totally not intending to put my bra on nor brush my hair for AT LEAST another 3 hours.

Get the four kids dressed, pack them in the car (which I have had back for only a few weeks after the last "incident") get the milk, bread and other various non-essential items (mind you those choc chip muffins rreeeeaaaallly came in handy later on down the track!) pack the kids back in the car, reverse out, head to exit BANG car is on two wheels, moment of panic, what have I done??? Car back on four wheels, park it again thinking I have hit a parked car again but NO!! IT WASN"T MY FAULT!!!! WOHOOOO!!! (I know, I know, not REALLY a cause to celebrate but if you read back a couple of blog posts you will understand) feling very shaken I hope out of the car and inspect the damage. Having felt like it all morning, I have just - quite literally, been hit by a truck. Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse having had to drag four kids out of the house before 8am...IT DID.

At home a strong coffee and a couple *cough* of chocolate muffins later I felt a little better. * sigh* its just a car, we are all ok and its insured. Stuff happens,stressed spelled backwards is desserts and if all else fails... smile!!!

Now to Nat's day..... now lets all be honest here... how many (let alone those of us trying to run an online business) could live without the net nowdays? This is the predicament facing the lovely Mrs Elephant today - no net till Tuesday!!! She was reduced to reading a book!! Looking stuff up the old fashioned way and having to go without Pinterest - cold turkey!!! Its just not right..... It has however made her come up with the newest Owl and the Elephant" clause. We solemly swear, no matter how big we get. We will NEVER send your phonecalls offshore. Ever. So my car may be written off, but no internet? Like none? No Pinterest, no facebook, no online shopping? Nat wins.WHat did we do without the net?

Something that makes our bad days better? The days a little sunnier and our smiles a little bigger? Our new repurposed, shabby chic, bus roll inspired, rustic wooden signs. We hope you love them as much as we do!! head over to our website for full details on owning one of these babies or on requesting a custom design!!

Thought of the moment:

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.  ~Author Unknown