Saturday, September 12, 2015

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.


https://www.amazon.com/Gardeneer-Dalen-Natural-Scarecrow-Horned/dp/B00002N8HZ/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=21212215-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=TO4UFYM4FFWJH7HO&creativeASIN=B00002N8HZ
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....

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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.


11 comments:

  1. We had a hootie, his head turned and bobbed in the breeze..... Clearly he was all talk as the bunnies and birds ate my garden!

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  2. This is beautiful!! I just love the ornament and the peace together. Clean, Crips, and Perfect!!! The colors on the ornament are pretty amazing :>

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  3. Love this card, all the white with a bit of silver glitter and that wonderful multi coloured bauble. Beautiful. I wonder if the owl will work on bats. We have bats that just love to poop on my car and of course it needs to be washed very shortly thereafter as their poop is rather acidic and strips the glossy coat from the car.

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  4. Now that is beautiful. Saw a peek on IG last night and squealed a bit. Sorry about losing your doves. NOT! Too bad you can't have ones that don't poop. I'd say Hootie is a hero even without the Blowfish.

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  5. Amazing ornament. I think we need a hootie but I wouldn't want him to scare the other birds. We have found where there are two doves the generally turn into forty.

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  6. Too funny about Hootie. I remember my dad would "scare" armadillos with a motion light in our backyard. Dillon don't like light. Wonderful card.

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  7. Honestly ... that Hootie friend of yours has a great reputation for his on-the-job skills! Glad you've found success. But that awesome ornament is going to cause some Christmas stamping here for sure!!

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  8. I love die-cutting things from water color UFOs. This ornament is stunning. You could make this your Christmas card. Of course, you'd need to color whole humongous sheets of water color paper, but I think it would be worth it. You might want to get started now. Or yesterday.

    Several stores near me in MD had cee-ment owls on their roofs (rooves?) to keep the birds away. And now you have one in your tree! I hope it doesn't fall on your clean car.

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  9. Great job with the owl. I used to have a couple of geese that would sit on top of my Honda Odyssey at work everyday. All day long people would come up to me and tell me they scared the geese away. But they always returned. So I went out a few times and shot off a bunch of firecrackers next to the car and they found a new roosting place!

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  10. You're a hoot! [pun intended] Maybe the doves had a nest of babies that were contributing to the poop pile. Glad Hootie is working out for you. Though I feel a little sorry for the homeless doves. Last summer, I lost my mated pair of mourning doves when I chopped down the bushes they liked to roost under. We had two of these horrible barberry bushes. They are beautiful to look at, but absolute HELL to trim. The basis of the name barberry is BARB! They are the thorniest bushes I've ever encountered and tore me to pieces every time I trimmed them, regardless of how many layers of gloves, jeans and long sleeves I wore for armor. They had to go! But then the doves moved on and found a new home elsewhere. I miss them a little, but I certainly don't miss trimming those blankity-blank bushes!!!

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  11. Awww! Check it out! An organic way to get rid of the poopers, no blasting necessary! So do you get to still hear their pretty conversation from a neighbor's tree? LOVE your ornament! Maybe that's how I can rescue a beautiful piece that won't work for a background! Love the added sparkle with ornament top and sentiment!

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