Owl be downloading you again this year!

Have you got your calendar for 2013 yet? If not you will have to swoop down on this one. I've downloaded these for the last two years and am very happy to be able to do it again this year.
My Owl Barn has compiled, once again, a gorgeous collection of owl illustrations for you to download as a calendar. You get to pick your favourite for each month - so hard to choose!! Here are just a few examples below.

Thank you, thank you, I will treasure it all year long... you can never have too many owls, seriously.

So either click on my link button to the side or go here to get yours!

enjoy the present

I just finished this piece for a friend who is giving it to her husband.
It is a favourite quote of theirs set against an image created from a photo taken at their beach house where they have been taking their family for many years. We blew it up to a big 8 x 12 inch print and my friend framed it in a box frame with the addition of a little heart shaped rock. They have a little collection of heart shaped rocks, found on holidays together and placed in a silver dish.
If I could dive into this picture and be right there, with time standing still, I would.

experimental!

Luke went to his friend's birthday party today. It was a very amazing and fantastic science experiment party. I will have more pics up soon but here is a birthday message I made and rolled up into a test tube in lieu of a birthday card. I got the test tubes from Reverse Garbage about a year ago for no particular reason other than you never know when a specimen tube will come in handy...

How cool are these sweets! Like lego bricks! There are more in the range which I found at
David Jones and by coincidence there were other types featured at the party.
Of course, I couldn't go past the packaging.

Thanks for staying tuned and asking for more, moving was a big undertaking for me and I am still unpacking and also, during all that I was applying for a very exciting new job, a big process as well, more to come on that too!

to the library!

What a great quote, I love it.

Easter Printables

Well, I had some grand plans to make some new fabulous easter printables for you this year but I am completely and utterly not all over it... however, did you know you can still download my Easter tags from last year? They are still just as cute so if you would like and are needing something of the sort, 

hop to it!

They are free, please share the link!

To download click here  ☛ Suburbansider's free Easter Tag download

p.s I keep writing "eater" instead of "Easter"... chocolate on the brain much? terrible

pepper & spice chocolate brownie for valentine's day

I made these by adapting a fantastic recipe that my friend Jamie gave me. 

The original is called "Mother Of The Year Chocolate Brownies".

Unfortunately I'm not sure where the recipe came from but I have added it here with my extras so you can print it out and try it yourself.

It's so quick and easy you can whip up brownies at the drop of a hat. 

Jamie uses this recipe as a base and adds all sorts of ingredients and makes all manner of 

amazing cakes, desserts and cupcakes from it. She's very clever!

I just chose to add black pepper and mixed spice {another idea borrowed from a chocolate spice 

biscuit recipe from a friend!} and made them into cupcakes. 

These will be for the boys for valentines day. Luke did a fantastic job at decorating the top of this 

one with a red candy heart and chopped up musk sticks!

* just to let you know, these brownie cakes taste amazing with the pepper and spice addition!!

here's my adaption...

and look what else...
how cool are these!

I found this free printable project at sweet muffin suite printable valentine's card via creature comforts 
I made these up in about 5 minutes this afternoon using some cute black pencils I found at spotlight.
I think they such a clever idea.

The boys will love them I' sure.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Tuesday Treasures

This is going to be a lengthy post but there where so many brilliant pages to show you from my collection of Walter Foster Art Books.

These I believe, were published during the 1950s and 60s. 

They are a large A3 paperback "how to" series of art books featuring techniques from different artists.

I had most of my books passed down from my Dad who studied art. I also was delighted to find some recently during a trip to the Mt Tamborine markets. 

So much vintage goodness and they have been a valuable resource to me... now my 14 yr old has nabbed them! Strict instructions to look after them, however what I love about them are the splotches of paint from across the years! 

These are very much treasured by us.

               

More Tuesday Treasures at Picklebug! Do go and visit!

two for tuesday

1 quote + 1 picture = two for tuesday

school book labels - free download!

It's that time of the year again... back to school and back to uni which means book covering.
Got to try and make it fun because I do not like covering books!

Did you collect novelty erasers in the 80s?
I did and I still have some.
Me and my boys have been adding to the collection over the years when we find them at
garage sales or markets.

Last year I created some book labels for my kids using erasers from my stash.
You can read about it here
Heaps of people liked them so I have put them up for you to download and print out to use too!

It's really easy.
Go to this link, download, save to your desktop, print them out!

I recommend sticking the downloaded pdf on to a usb {memory stick} and taking it to somewhere
like Officeworks to get it printed on thick card.
That way your labels will be more durable and won't smudge.
*remember to only print out the second page of the document which are the labels themselves.
The ones I did last year lasted great {and with my boys, that's saying something}.

You could print them on to sticker paper or adhere them to your books using sticky tape,
clear contact over the top, put them under those plastic re-usable book covers or,
my favourite - washi tape!
like this...

Last year we printed them out at officeworks then made them into stickers using our xyron machine

this year it's washi tape

use your imagination!

I hope you enjoy these!
Please feel free to share the link to this post with your friends!
Happy wrapping!

Owl Calendar 2012

speaking of owls - My Owl Barn has put together another exceptional calendar for 2012 illustrated beautifully by artists from all over the world! This was an extremely popular project last year and I am so glad it's back. You can choose which illustrations you like and so customise your own calendar and then download it for free! Once again - difficult to choose!

"There's Owl. He hasn't exactly got Brain but he Knows Things"
                                                                                                                                                 A.A. Milne

illustrations by Cally Johnson-Isaacs • Yoon See • Alisa Coburn

I have stuck a link on the side and here's another!

It's the Gif that keeps on giving

When is a picnic not a picnic? When it starts to rain at the last minute and Mummy calls it off.

We had the car all packed up and ready to go to Wynnum beach but the clouds got darker and darker and the wind blew and it started to rain. Luckily our friend had a dry house and hot coffee waiting for us instead but Luke wasn't too impressed as he was looking forward to a swim.

This is my first attempt at an animated gif in recent years and the first time I've stuck one on a blog - easier than I thought! I created it in photoshop by following a tutorial on youtube.

Mine is just a simple two image one but for some that are a little out of the ordinary, my friend at Mulders Drapery did a post a little while back... yes creepy indeed.

packaging, packaging, I love packaging

On sale at Woolworths, I just had to!

here's their website for some more delightful packaging.