Birds of the Night at Calico Craft Parts Blog

Hello and Welcome to Magpieheaven. Today I am over at Calico Craft Parts blog with 3 little stacking boxes, which I have wood-burned with owls. If you would like to see more, please hop across here. 

 I hope you're  enjoying the Autumn, which is possibly my favourite season! I'm a great fan of Autumn colours; the scent of wood smoke and long walks through crisp leaves. The other evening when walking home from my mother's flat I heard the plaintive cry of an owl in the twilight. It provided the perfect soundtrack to the fallen leaves and skeleton trees around me and inspired a doodle that I thought would be fun to re-create as a wood-burned design.

Halloween parties when our children were small, with dressing up, traditional games and spooky surprises are some of my best Autumn memories. We live in a quiet little street of Victorian cottages and every October 31st we're visited by new troupes of tiny ghouls, witches, cats, vampires and - inexplicably - a fair smattering of Disney princesses - all excited to be out after dark, with parents keeping an eye out in the shadows! There are more treats than tricks, and peels of excited laughter as our visitors wait on the doorstep!

I've turned my hand to spooky projects since I started creating a few years back, but - much as I've enjoyed making them - I've never felt they were that scary! The Mexican Day of the Dead has always fascinated me too because it seems to be far more about life and laughter and remembering those who lived and loved life to the full than about grim and menacing visitations.

  Owls are more beautiful than creepy to me... and there's always the temptation to giggle rather than scream when the lights go down! 

Maybe that is - after all - what Halloween is all about. As the days shorten and the dark nights draw in, let's dance among the shadows and chase fear away!