Owls, Hats, and Wool

I have been so frustrated by Google lately.  I had exceeded my storage limit for my blog photos and needed to buy more storage space but the "checkout" button did not work in my browser.  Days of trying to contact google, then getting a response saying we need your order number which I didn't have because I couldn't order!!!  And tons of links bringing me back to the same spot.  but then this awesome guy

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 computer guru genius found me a solution.  I made the purchase using Google Chrome instead of IE and ta-da!  I am back to blogging.  Yay! Oh and I now have 25gb of storage.  I will start resizing my pics though :)
 Well, staring tomorrow!

     

This is a beautiful Northern Hawk Owl who has been hanging out in our yard and enjoying the mole town we seem to have growing along our ditch.  The moles are plentiful and the hawk owl who hunts during the day is eager for a snack!

 Here he is perched on our clothes line.  Sid named him Quiet since his flight is absolutely silent.  You look away for just a moment and he can be gone.

 Here he is on the oak tree watching over Mole Town.

 A couple nice shots of him in flight.  What a beautiful creature.  I hope he winters here!

 Sid has been so eager for snow.  "When is it OFFICIALLY winter mom?"  she asks almost every day.  We had a fun time with the cat tails or hot dog plants as our friend Kohl calls them.  Sid made her own snow storm.

 This long sweater is Sid's favourite. Long dresses and long sweaters make her happiest.  She discovered my gigging hat that I use to wear on stage and it no longer fits me.  The leather has shrunk with time (20 years is a long time!!) so Sid has adopted the hat.  She is a sheriff in training!

 What an actress!!!

 She does make us laugh every day.

 This is another hat of hers.  OMG she loves leopard print.  I am dying....  But anything leopard or cheetah and she is thrilled.  You cannot get the full effect of this hat but she loves it and can make it work.

 Our friend posted on Facebook about a glow in the dark ball for her dog.  Brilliant!!  We got one for Lilly this week and it is awesome.  She has glow in the dark mouth!  This one is actually an LED ball and works great for our property.  Now to teach Lilly that it is for throwing not keep away.

 I completed another felted sculpture this week.  Above is Tyke beside his owners favourite sheep.  Tyke was a working dog on a sheep farm for the last 10 years and he just recently retired.  A friend of Tyke's owner commissioned this work for a Christmas gift.  I hope she likes it!

Oh and I got my first paycheck from Etsy.  Yahoooooo!  Well it is gone, I used it and the money from the above work to buy myself a speedlight (nikon flash) and I love it.  I used it to take the pictures of Tyke and then I used it at an indoor cafe where Sid's choir performed on the weekend.  I still have to process those pictures but will do a separate choir post now that I can blog again!
See you in a couple of days!

Masson-Anger Tournament

Saturday was the first tournament of the 2012/2013 Karate year. This was the first time Sid went to a tourney as a colour belt and she turned seven just five days earlier. Her category for fighting and katas was orange, green and purple belts, 7 - 9 year old girls. For the first time Sid would be competing against kids who also train very hard. The white belt category she competed in last year was great to learn the ropes but there isn't a lot of parody in the skill level but once you start getting into the colour belt categories, you start to see the kids that continue to be passionate about the sport and are good at it. Also they are all SOOOO much bigger than our little one. In height she could still easily pass as 5 and is still only 40 pounds! The ref's asked her a couple of times how old she was at the start of their events just to make sure she was in the right place. Luckily her and Reece were in the same category so they stuck together!

First up was Kata. Sid was going to do kata two but at the last minute Sigung asked her to do kata one. She was looking forward to doing Kata two but he said she was so precise with kata one she should do it and do it well. He was right. Some of the other Kata's the girls did were much more complicated but Sid went up, did her thing and walked away with the top score and 1st place! Admittedly, I am a complete wreck during these events. I keep thinking, "this time I will be fine!" and then when she is on deck waiting to do her Kata, my heart flutters, my stomach clenches and my hands shake. What is she doing?

Grinning.

Then it was time to preform!

This kid LOVES this! She always gets a bit nervous when they are giving them instructions but when it comes to the competition part Sid is in her glory.

 

Waiting for them to announce the winners. 

Reece did Kata 2 and preformed well but just missed a medal. She was still very happy for her friend.

Once the trophies and medals were awarded it was time to quickly get their fighting gear on. Kumite or sparring was next.

Sid was called up to fight in the first match and won.

It was a close call, 5 points to 4 points. Then Reece got to fight and won her match. After a few more matches with some of the other kids Sid was called back up and had to fight two fights in a row. She lost the first fight 5 - 4 and won the last fight 5 - 3 giving her a third place finish!   

 

 Reece made it to the final fight and won first place. It was nice to see Sid so happy for Reece. It is so great to see how these kids support each other!

One ref in Sidney's ring approached her after her kata's and fighting and told her she showed incredible potential. He said her kata's were amazing and she was a great little fighter. "Keep it up! You are awesome to watch!" is what he told her. Later he came and sat at our table to have a bite to eat and he said to Sid, "I saw you last year. I was far away and couldn't really see everything but I noticed you. This time I got to be in your ring to ref you and really enjoyed watching you. I am hosting a tournament in January and I want you to come ok?" Sid of course said "YES!" and luckily we had already planned on attending that one but it was really, really flattering.

All the first place trophies playing together :)

About 14 kids from the club went to this tournament and again they represented Kajukenbo extremely well. It's amazing to see kids from the club who are all different ages, support and hang out with each other. They are all teammates but most of all friends. It is awesome!  It is our Karate Family!

Ken helps the kids warm up.

Arianne and Sid. 

Megan and Sid

17 Kids represented the club and we brought home fifteen first place trophies and ten 2nd and 3rd place medals.  Well done Kajukenbo Kids!!!! 

SEVEN!

Well, she's no longer a little kid, she is now a medium kid. Still little in stature but big in personality! This past weekend was filled with friends and family as we celebrated 7 wonderful years with our little one.

Sid really wanted a Narnia birthday party so this is the invite I came up with

 And this is the cake!!!!  This was made by my super talented friend Lori from Cakegirl.ca 

 No only was it spectacular to look at, it was delicious.  Chocolate cake filled with cream icing with strawberries and egg and nut free.  Really there are no words to describe this piece of art work properly.

 The guest were are combination of family, homeschool friends and karate friends and it was a nice mix.

 A successful Narnia party and a very happy seven year old. 

The next day was the actual birthday that we kept pretty low key.  Sid understood that the party was the gift from mom and dad with the exception of a few little things.  A book, a small science rocket kit and..... a coat for Robin.

Robin is Sid's Maplea / American Girl doll and while I never understood why they were for children 8 and up, I get it now.  Sid loves her doll and brings her everywhere.  She was concerned that Robin was getting cold because she didn't have a coat so we fixed that with this shearling coat, boots and mittens. 

Sid has started going through her things and is selling older toys in good shape that she no longer plays with so she can save up for a bed, linen and other outfits for Robin.  These things are ridiculously expensive so it has been a good exercise in saving for Sid.  I think Santa is going to do some shopping at the Maplelea dolls shop!

Hanging out at home, the Queen was getting ready for her coronation.  Thanks to Brianne, Sid got a huge cardboard castle play house and was really having fun with it.  No, she doesn't wear glasses, those are a part of the royal costume!

Sid's big day would not be complete without getting the big swing at Karate.  I was caught off guard and didn't get a chance to set the camera up properly so everything is blurry but you get the idea....

and in honour of the seventh.... here is one of our favourite songs from TMBG!

SEVEN

M.I.A. for a Great Reason!

I have missed blogging longer than usual but that is because every spare moment of time has been occupied lately by a VERY exciting and new venture.  Let me tell you about it!

Last post was about the photo shoot that I did for a friend.  Well that has spiraled into such an exciting collaboration.  My friend Jen is the owner of Sewn Natural a wonderfully successful shop found on Etsy.  She also has a blog (listed in my side bar) and a website (sewnnatural.com).  Jen found out about my needle felting and in exchange for doing the product shots for her store, she has offered to list my felted items.  Now what I quickly found out is that this girl is successful for a very good reason.  She is so hard working and knows Etsy like no one I have ever talked to.  She understands the trends, the tagging, wording of listings for search engines and specifically how to get on the front page with the photos.  She is a designer and she is good at it. 

So with my camera in hand we have collaborated on one product photo shoot and she has guided me with ideas for shoots here at home to showcase my works.  I have had to spend many hours taking pictures, processing, emailing and then learning more tricks in photoshop to get desired effects.  It has been AWESOME!  Here are some of the results:

 Here you will recognize the model and the product!

Jen listed 3 separate lots of felted sets.  Fruit, Veg and Desserts
http://www.etsy.com/listing/114125446/eco-friendly-wool-vegetables-food-play
http://www.etsy.com/listing/114104997/eco-friendly-wool-fruit-food-play-set-of?ref=v1_other_2
http://www.etsy.com/listing/114093889/wool-dessert-food-toys-large-eco?ref=v1_other_2

I hope you are sitting down.... all three sets sold within 3 hours of being listed.  Really!!!!  So I have been busy felting three more to have ready for tomorrow so she has them on hand in case they sell.

My dear friend Magda celebrated a birthday at the end of the month and I really wanted to create a Zuni for her.  What is a Zuni?  Well a Zuni is a beautiful, sometimes wacky, brilliant little aussie shepard.

It was so fun making her and even more exciting gifting her to Magda!  Magda posted felted Zuni on her Facebook page and I have received another order for a custom pet portrait.  More felting necessary and this new one is going to be a really fun challenge.  Stay tuned.  Jen also has started carrying the pet portraits in her store.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/114240038/custom-pet-dog-portrait-3d-felted-wool

So it has been good to take a break from felting but now I must get back to it.  This could just be an initial rush or this could seriously snowball.  Either way I am so happy with the way things have turned out.  I get to do photography and felt and we have made some wonderful new homeschooling friends to share our passions with!

Wool is calling.......