owls, owls...

...this year there were quite a few costume possibilities floating around our house - nemo, minnie mouse, and various animals, including an owl. one of our favorite bedtime reads for quite some time has been owl babies by martin waddel. being a bit partial to owls myself, i was glad to settle on this costume idea for ben. of course there didn't seem to be any owl costume patterns available, so after some google image searching, i found some inspiration from this adorable costume...












some fabric, a pattern for the sleeves, a sketch-turned-template for the wings, much felt, and a whole lotta fabric glue later, this was the result...










i knew a hood or a mask was out of the question, so a hat was in order. lots of photos of cute owl hats were found, and after one try which looked more like a ram, an owl face with small horns was made.










ben prompty took to calling himself Percy, one of the owls in the story...












with owls on our minds, we did a quick craft project that i'd found in a recent issue of Wondertime that used some felt, feathers, glue and pinecones










i'm loving them on our nature table (which is in serious need of some leaf organization!). i also really love each issue of Wondertime - it's by far my favorite parenting magazine around (though Brain, Child is a close second). lots of other simple, fun crafty ideas are available on their website.