Into Each Dove's Life, A Little Owl Must Fall

I have recently been occupied with The Great Dove Poop Battle of the century.

There's an oak tree that shades our driveway, and I park my car under this tree.

And these two sweet little white wing doves that roost in this tree rain down a rather alarming quantity of poop onto my car all night long every night.

I believe there might be some kind of dove poop parties where they invite thousands of other doves to their roost to poop on my car, because despite the fact that I believe it's the same mated pair that has been here for years, the sheer quantity and coverage area of the dove poop leads me to believe there are co-conspirators. Or that my doves need to change their diets.

I may or may not have heard quiet little dove giggles from time to time when I come out in the morning to be greeted by my poop covered car. It felt like they were mocking me, while I was cursing under my breath and trying to find a tiny clean spot on my door handle so that I could get in for my daily trip to the car wash.

It was out of control. I had to do something, and it's generally frowned up, even in dove season, to blast the little buggers out of the trees in your front yard in a quiet suburban neighborhood.

Besides - I really like them and the sweet little sounds they make, even though I realize those sounds are probably elaborate poop-mapping conversations that would rival the planning that took place in Churchill's war room.

Enter Hootie.

Hootie is a life sized Great Horned Owl, with marble-like reflective eyes.

Doves are not all that bright, after all, and they scare easily.

So up Hootie goes onto a branch near the roosting branch and SHAZAM! Not one more poop has been directed at my poor car since Hootie has been on the job.

 Hootie - the avian patron saint of white car owners, I thank you for your service!

So - to my neighbors who may now be the proud owners of two homeless poopy doves - #sorrynotsorry.

Victory is sweet.

You know what else is sweet?

The Embellished Ornament Bundle.

I was working on my newest online class with this bundle (the class is available now, by the way - click here for deets) and I sat down and cut out all the shapes from the dies just to brainstorm with. I cut them out of various types of papers, and then I saw some scraps on my desk that looked enticing.


One was a Brusho experiment piece I did while practicing for the upcoming Watercolor For Cardmakers class from Online Card Classes. The first one was AMAZING and I'm really excited to be a guest in the next one.

I was playing around with Brusho, and trying to get different intensities and textures, so I burned through a lot of watercolor paper, and one piece in the pile looked like it would make a pretty ornament. It had sort of a marbled look and mostly cool colors I thought would be fun on a holiday card.

So into the Big Shot it went. And out came....

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Isn't that fun? I just love the crispy cleanness of it all.

Clean like my car.

I have to say - those Christmas Greetings Thinlits cut like a dream and pop right the heck out of those dies. I love them so much.

I love them almost as much as I love Hootie.

But not nearly as much as I love all of you.

I hope you're having a good weekend - craft it up!

OH - PS - if you are coming to the On Stage Live event in Dallas in November - plan to be there that Friday before - we will be having a one day mini-retreat with fun classes, prizes, goodie bags, swaps - tons of fun! Registration for that will open next week.

Loveyameanitbye.