The Owl & the Elephant ❤'s Pinterest

Where else would we find such inspiring images as these?

Things to do with the kids like these:

Light hearted laughter:

Clever ideas like these :

FREE printables:

and all round crafty goodness like this:

What has been your favourite Pinterest find? Have you actually made anything yet? Mrs Elephant did! 

SEE HERE

And NOW you can actually follow The Owl & the Elephant on Pinterest! We know...we are getting all geeky-fied on you now. Check us out.

Thought of the moment:

Sometimes people are just plain lovely | Little Brown Owl

Sometimes its so easy to get caught up in our own little worlds and focus on the negatives. Who can blame us? Turn the news on at night and count the "happy" stories (and no I dont mean the one token oh look a cat got caught in a drain pipe lets finish the news on a high kinda story!)


But sometimes,there are moments which just make you smile, and sometimes people are just plain lovely...


Here is one of those stories.


A week or so ago I posted a link on our Facebook page to a tutorial to make a coffee cup cosy with of course another moustache on (yes, we ❤ moustaches at The Owl & the Elephant and aren't afraid to admit it!! See here for more moustache lovin'). Now I would have LOVED to have added it to my projects list and found the time to make it, but let's face it...I am having a BABY in 6 weeks!! Prioritise!!


Anyhoo, a number of our lovely likers commented on it and one of them was Lori from Little Brown Owl. This gorgeous lady offered to MAKE ME ONE!! YES!! I was so blown away with such a gesture. Now Josie has been known to refer to me as the Ice Queen, in the most affectionate way possible and I fully acknowledge I am not one to show my emotions and aren't the 'huggy type'...but this offer actually made me get a little misty-eyed! I was totally blaming the pregnancy then thought, nup...you know what? That was a REALLY nice thing for a stranger to do! So without further ado...I hereby present my lovely gift that arrived in today's mail...

So thank you Lori!! I love it!!!!!!!

Thought of the moment: 

Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers

who'd have thunk it?

Today was just the darndest day. One of those who would have thunk it days when random strange things happen. It all began with a distinct lack of caffeine.

Yesterday my coffee machine ran out of coffee - I KNOW!!! I can hear you gasp from here. To top it all off? I was stuck at home!!! I honestly wondered if the world was going to end. How was I to get through the day!!!!

Fast forward to today. Standing in the kitchen still hrumphing because I had been silly enough ( probably in my caffeine free cloud) to forget to send hubby for coffee on his way home! When little Miss 4 walks into the kitchen, bag of coffee beans in hand "here you go mum"and walks off.

What the?

On further questioning all I could get was a "they where just here"out of her and an "It wasnt me" from Mr owl. Random or what? whoever you are mystery coffee bean provider - I love you in ways I cannot explain!!

Having enjoyed not one but two delicious freshly ground coffees ( I know I know but i had to make up for yesterday!!) I loaded all 4 children into the car to take them to my brilliant sister in law for their haircuts ( Dani at Tryst for all those playing at home in Perth in need of an awesomely awesome hair stylist!!) When Master 2 who has been slightly backwards in coming forwards when it comes to the spoken word pipes up from the backseat "Scuse me my mum, my have my haircut today to"  I almost crashed the car!!! WHere did that come from?? I KNEW he had it in him!!! little sneaky talker!! and at such a random moment!!


Then to top off my day of weird random events comes my final little quirky story. I have been an avid "pinner" for a while now over at Pinterest ( thankyou for introducing me Mrs Elephant!!) and have to date "pinned" 398 pins on 16 boards. Every so often I get a little email notification - "joe blog has repinned your pin" or "mary whosit has liked your pin" - It excites me a little. I feel a moment of fame - someone liked my pin!!!! yes, I admit - someone ELSE pinned it first but still. THIS IS MY MOMENT!!! it doesnt happen all that often so you can imagine my surprise this afternoon when I logged into my email and had FIVE PAGES of notifications - 162 people ( and counting)  have repinned my pin!!! what the??? What on earth could I possibly have pinned that 162 other people would pin as well?

wanna see?

Yep!!! random or what?? I have pinned so many cool tutprials, crafty things, awesome pictures, inspirational quotes, laughs - you name it! and what do 162 other people choose to pin? How to grow an avocado tree!!

who'd have thunk it?

Thought of the moment: ( a just for fun! )

I actually made something I pinned on Pinterest! | Nursing Cover Tutorial

Here is one of the best (and simplest) nursing cover sewing tutorials we found (and used) on the wonderful world of Pinterest. It comes courtesy of Sew Much Ado who has a gorgeous blog with some wonderful patterns and tutorials.

Now we aren't ones to re-invent the wheel...so for the full instructions and tutorial, click here

I have been feeling the nesting/sewing urge rather strongly as these last few weeks pass by before the next girl-child arrives, and have pinned numerous sewing projects that can (hopefully) be completed in an hour or during Miss Almost 2's naptime! I can honestly say, from start to finish including cutting out and a 'no, naptime is NOT over its only been 40 minutes...back you go!' style interruption, it took 1 hour.

Here is my finished nursing cover.

I used the gorgeous Michael Miller Delovely Damask fabric purchased from the lovely Sandy at Wrapped in Fabric

And if this baby comes a week early, you may even see me wearing it behind our stall at Perth Upmarket!!

What do you think? Now I can say...

See? It's NOT just a time waster to make you feel more creative than you really are ;o)

Thought of the moment:

Breast Feeding should not be attempted by fathers with hairy chests, since they can make the baby sneeze and give it wind.  ~Mike Harding

What does an Elephant make an owl for christmas?

Ok so fairs fair, you got to see what I made Mrs Elephant for Christmas so now it is time to show off what Mrs Elephant made me!!!

Not one......

But TWO gorgeous handcrafted beautifully beautiful owls!

Henry here is created with a repurposed jacket. Check out his wee little eyes and that gorgeous "jacket" pleat on his back:

And Marcel - well he is just too cute for words!!

I just love them!! Isn't she clever?

On a sidenote - don't you just love the little chair? Did you see the one in the newest little unborn elephant's room? The littlest Owl loves to sit on my one at snack time:

Love them just as much as we do? Register your interest below in the comments section or send us an email at sales@theowlandtheelephant.com.au - we think it is time to share the love and get some in stock for all our lovely followers!!!


Thought of the moment:

Winning moments:

Free school holiday fun with small children....and snails!

Before Josie got chickens, this is what we liked to do with our snails....turn them into pets! Beautiful, shiny, sparkly, glittery pets...

A little nail-polish can go a looonnnggg way on a snail! We transformed their shells into moving works of art.
Now I thought about writing a tutorial on this, but figured you would know what to do! Don't worry, they aren't as hard to catch as you might imagine...try the stalk and pounce approach, then when you pick them up dangle them by their shell and then make girly squealing noises when they start "blowing bubbles, Mummy!!!"

Then of course we had to name them all. 

So what does one name a snail?

With a four year old and almost 2 year old this is what we came up with...

Ruby

Snow White

Mandarin

Sparkles

Rosie

Pinky

Violet

Pearl 

What do you think? Better names than the 7 dwarfs right? I know, my girls are VERY creative!!

And the fun didn't stop there. Once we had painted and named them all we had to:

Watch them race (I know, its cruel and should be banned!)

Watch them climb Rapunzel's tower (aka an icecream bucket)

Hide them in the garden and play "where's the snail"

Make snail towers (no snails where harmed in the making of said towers)

And then the next 3 or 4 days, EVERY morning the first thing we had to do was race out to the garden to play 'find the snail'!

The look on her face says it all really, doesn't it? ❤

Now before you go thinking I have become a big softie...this was the last snail-loving activity we ever performed in our garden...as only a week later The Owl household got CHICKENS!! Yes, my snail loving days were over in an instant..we became the Snail Hunters in The Elephant garden and those chickens started getting FAT!

What do you do with the kids to create memories during the holidays?

Thought of the moment:

Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly

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