Cliched New Year post

Okay, I know. Everyone does a post about what they want to achieve for the next year. I'm no different.

I've had a very busy year this year, so many changes!! So 2013, for me, is all going to be about leaving my teens behind officially and finding out who I am as a person, with my art (whatever the art of the moment is!), and trying to balance all the crazy, stressful things life can through at me. 

2012 was a good year. But 2013 will be an amazing year. 

Here is my list of things that I am going to do to ensure that 2013 will be amazing. 

Resolution numbers 1,2, and 3: My photography,art and music. 

This is a huge one for me. I know putting 3 into one was risky, but we can do it!

I just bought a Canon EOS 1000D from my sister-in-law, when she upgraded. I am in love with it, despite not being much of a photographer. Where she does portrait photography, I take photos to reference later for art.  So not much of a need for a camera, but that doesnt stop my excitement for this one!!! I have 6 photo albums i would like to fill (Im an old-fashioned girl, i love photo albums, record players and hand writing.) This new camera should make it easy!

The typical new camera first photos photo :P

I have several art projects going on. As always. I have mentioned the DIY Roller Blind Painting here, but its back again. Nothing more done on it. Still just over my window. 

That unfortunately is my main goal, and when it is finished, its going to be amazing! 

I play a lot of instruments, which i love. Pretty much keeping working on them is my goal for 2013. Actually making time for them is a priority. 

Goal #1: 365 photos. I want to take a photo every day of 2013. With my new camera, i shouldnt have a problem!! 

Goal #2: Finish painting the blind. To be able to have it completed will be amazing!

Goal #3: Learn 2 new songs on each of my instruments. Starting nice and simple for the first goal :) 

Resolutions number 4 and 5: Family and Friends

Being busy has its toll on not just you, put the people around you. I need to remember to focus on the people around me to make sure they feel valued as people in my life. For me, this also means not being lazy and actually going to things that are planned. Oops!  

Goal #4: Limit my 'Saying No' option. I constantly say no to things, just because i feel like just sitting at home and doing nothing. (Unfortunately, my boyfriend is the same, leading to neither of us not doing things!) 

Goal #5: Make the people in my life feel special, remembering details about them and what they've been up to. 

Resolution number 6: Stressing less!

I had a doctors appointment late December, and I was told I had high stress. She gave me a few ideas on how to have less stress, but my problem is really just time management. If I can do that, my stress levels should go down and I can go back to feeling normal again!! 

Does anyone have any specific time management or stress-free ideas? Any will be welcome!

Goal #6: Get more organized with time and start some reduce stress techniques.

Resolutions number 7 and 8: Healthy eating and fitness

I know that everyone adds these two biggies to their resolution list, but I reckon its one of the important ones for my life. I need to eat healthy to gain the weight that I have lost. I only have 4 kilos to go till im back in the healthy range. So many people complain to me that I'm too skinny, without thinking that I'm trying to gain it! I dont mean to! I promise! 

Making sure healthy eating ties in correctly with my fitness level is a hard one. I do a lot of exercise, with little time to eat, so time to balance those out!

Goal #7: Start cooking my own meals, instead of takeout, so I know whats in it. Make sure I keep treats as a treat, and not an everyday item.

Goal #8: Gain those extra few kilos, while doing a correct amount of exercise. 

Resolutions number 9 and 10: This blog, and my other interests

Getting this blog up to scratch is something I would really love to do. Over the last six months, I have been compiling lots of ideas for blog posts and layout, and seeing what others have done so I can different.

I'm really excited to start properly, and hopefully 2013 is the year! Still need a lot to get it started and to get my motivation to keep at it, but as I said, this is my year. I can do it! 

My other interests that I want to work on:

-Finishing my huge pile of 'must read' books. Seriously, the pile is almost bigger than me. 

-Working on sewing some new clothes. I have so much material, ideas and equipment, just not the time! 

-Study. I dont go to university and im not in school, but I love learning. I love to buy old textbooks, or find something interesting online. I think if I went to uni, i would never leave. 

Goal #9: Get this blog looking great! Pretty self-explanatory :P 

Goal #10: See above. :)

WELL, there we go!! Pretty extensive for just 10 things. But I am excited, and I hope you are too! 

What are some things you want to do for a resolution? 

I will be posting my 365 photos on here, as well as my Flickr account (MissOwlB), I'll do it by week here, but by day (hopefully) on there. :) 

I hope you enjoyed the read! I would love to hear your comments or ideas!

Have a great new year!

-Miss Aimee Owl. xx

Facebook!

Hello and welcome, if you are coming here from my new facebook page!
(if you're not, www.facebook.com/MissOwlB)

I have a few new projects to upload on here, so as soon as I have some time, i will add some photos and tutorials :)

Love from,
Miss Owl B

DIY Roller Blind Revamp

So, about a year ago, I completely renovated my room, I had cupboards added, new carpet, new furniture, all the good stuff, but there was one big eyesore, and that was the roller blind covering my window. Now, my window is large and long (178cm x 152cm) and the blind covering it stands out as the main attraction. The blind was originally a white/grey color and broken (very broken, it had been broken since my family moved into this house), so I figured if I was going to put up with it being broken, i needed to re-vamp it a bit!
Seeing as I only get about 1 day a week to work on it, I will have to post updates on it, as it is quite a big project.
I will have to post photos of it tomorrow, when I can sort it all out!

Love to all!
Miss Owl B

Oops!

Sorry for the lack of posts! I am going to start writing a few in advance and scheduling them to post when I'm at my busiest! I have started a new job, and I have been working a LOT recently, but it was all worth it once I got the lovely first paycheck! I haven't really managed to get crafts done this week, except for one major project that I started and will post an update in just a minute.
I'm still getting stuck into working out the design of this site, and soon it will be up and running as usual!
Looking forward to having it finished!
Love, hugs, and jellybugs!
Miss Owl B
xx

This Saturday...(catch up!)

Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen!! Welcome to my first feature! Technically, this one was for last Saturday, and I will be doing one again in a few days, but I took the photos and had already typed out this blog, so I wanted to post it!! 

Ok, so last Saturday's weather was crazy. It was cloudy all morning and by midday it started pouring with rain. Now, I love the rain. I love winter, the cold and water! Unfortunately, Adelaide doesnt get very cold winters, but I'm fine for now :D. 

So, what my craft for Saturday was knitting! I currently have 2 knitting projects going at the moment; a scarfe for me, and a pair of slipper socks for my boyfriend. 

I only just started the scarfe, but here is how far i am up to:

(You can see my honey playing playstation in the background! We were quite happy just doing our own thing that day!)

So that was what I spent my Saturday afternoon/night doing. Not the typical 19 year old, I know! (I get that a lot!) 

Just a quick sidenote, I got to eat these biscuits while working today:

They are indeed heaven in a biscuit!! 

Looking forward to the weekend!! only 1 more day to go, then no more work until Monday! Going on a little 'getaway' with my boyfriend, best plan ever!

Love to all!

Miss Owl B.

xx

A Day with my Love

Hello Hello Hello!! So I thought seeing as I am still in the 'renovation' part of my blog, it's still readable! As I have been dying to share some of these posts and new features, I thought I might as well start somewhere!

Today marks the date of 6 months for me and my boyfriend! The time has gone incredibly quickly, and I'm looking forward to the rest of my life with him! (For those who don't know, we were best friends for a year and then started dating!) But I was struggling to come up with ideas of what to do for it. I knew exactly where I wanted to eat food, I had wanted to go there for quite a while, so was happy when this idea came up!
Than, my honey recommended going into the Adelaide Botanical Gardens and walking around, being a bit of a nature lover, i thought that was the best idea ever!
We planned to do it today, but that got interrupted when we found out my first shift of my new job was this afternoon, so we decided to celebrate yesterday.

I am a pretty keen painter/artist (though not very good!) so I decided that i was going to take my art stuff to the Gardens and maybe paint a bit.
So here is what i took!

1. Video Camera! I am in the process of making a video all about my hometown for my best friend who lives overseas! Who could resist the urge to take it to the Botanical Gardens anyway!

2. Digital Camera. My digital camera has been sort of neglected since my video camera found its way into my house. I was determined to use it again!

3. Umbrella! The weather has been very unpredictable in Adelaide recently, hot and sunny one minute, cold and rainy the next. The forecast said cloudy, i wasnt going to risk it.

4. My series of art books. I bought my landscape sketchpad, my smaller art book, my notebook, and (its not in the picture) but a very small sketch pad. 

5. My watercolor paint set. This was part of my Valentine's Day present from my darling, and i love it so much! Cant get enough of it, easy to carry and easy to use! It also comes with a sketch pad inside.

6. General stationary, which for me is: a sharpener (Disney princess one, ftw!), 2 HP lead pencils, a ruler, an eraser, my charcoal pencil (amazing), a black pen, and a blue pen. 

What do you take when you go out for the day??

So after that, I was all set. 

Since I was driving, I picked Tom and up and we headed out for our adventure!

We went to Boho Bar and Lounge for lunch. It was just as amazing as I remembered. Seeing as I didnt take any photos in the restaurant, here are a few from the internet. 

Tom loved it as he was able to sit on comfortable chairs and eat at the same time! The atmosphere and decoration in it is amazing. Definitely my style! Food came out quickly, it was half price menu between certain times, which meant we could afford it! We had a quiet corner and we ate and talked and had a lot of fun. At night, there is a section upstairs that turns into a night club, which also looks amazing! We both have been quite stressed recently, Tom waiting to hear about a job he may have, and me getting my new job, all stuff that makes us quite tense!

After struggling with traffic and idiot drivers, we managed to get the Botanical Gardens. Such a beautiful place!

Anyway, I did get some sketching done, which was what i was hoping for! They didnt really turn out well, but i've got photos to help me :P

Anyway, off now!
Miss Owl B.
xx

Features!

Finally getting time to set up the features part of my blog! I will be adding a whole bunch of new stuff. I have been steadily working on the graphics for the whole thing, and trying to think of awesome new ideas! Im hoping all will be up and running by May! :)

Love,
Miss Owl B

Changes!

I am currently changing all of my blog to get it more professional looking, I'm looking forward to changes, but it means I wont be posting any new posts for a while!

Love to all!
xx

Ahhh!

Hello my pretties!
I have been a bit slack with new craft updates, but they will be on here in about an hour. Nothing new unfortunately, just ongoing projects I STILL haven't finished yet. I keep starting new ones! Grr! but onwards and upwards!
Next thought, I have started working on my Cleaning/Organizing page. Lots of pictures.
Final thought, I suck at job hunting. Pinterest and planning my future wedding is much more exciting.

Love,
Miss Aimee Owl.
xx

Food: Pancakes!

I found this really easy recipe for amazing pancakes, so here it is!

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 cup milk

Method:
Mix them all together and cook! Easy!

C&S: Dress Making!

I am trying my hand at dress making! Im scared, but all is good! This month for me is Make-It-Yourself March. If i can make something, I'm not going to buy it! (It's also Money-Saving March!)
Clothes is first! I'm excited! I'm to buy the material for it tomorrow, but for now here is the picture of the dress pattern packet.

C&S: T-shirt Quilt. My Steps 1 and 2.

Step 1!

Ok, so my step 1, was collect ALL of the shirts that we have and sort through them! (this surprisingly took a long time!) So once i had sorted all the ones that seemed to have the result of what I needed, I put them all in an order (this is not the order I am putting them onto the quilt with!!) just so I can see how big I want it and how many t-shirts I do actually want on the finished product. This took quite a while, as when I was organizing it, my family kept adding shirts to it, until I finally got the above picture! There are 24 shirts in total. 6 down, 4 across. 

Step 2!

Step 2 is pretty easy. Wash them! put all the shirts into the wash (WITHOUT fabric softener) and then put them out to dry. Make sure its not machine dry. :) Unfortunately, when I set to dry them, it was raining, so I did the smart thing: checked the rain radar and worked out the exact times it would not be raining. It worked! I hung them out, went to meet my friend for coffee, came home and they were perfectly dry. 

Crafts: T-Shirt Quilt in progress!

Hello! So I have really been getting into craft/sewing/knitting etc these last few weeks and while slowly organising my cupboards, I noticed that my family have got a whole bunch of old t-shirts from our travelling across America that no one can fit into and have just been stashed in a cupboard somewhere. So I decided I want to make a quilt out of them!

There was a slight problem however. I have never quilted in my life. So I have been using the help of internet sources at the same time as reading books, watching DVD's and getting help from my ever-so-lovely Nana.
So, I am going to put every one of my processes up here, to try and figure out how to do it myself!
I will be posting my step 1 in about 5 minutes. :)

Miss Aimee Owl.
xx

Food: Egg and Bacon Pastries

BREAKFAST-Egg and Bacon Pastries
Sunday, 19th Februaru, 2012


I've made this recipe several times after finding it in a newspaper. I have also changed this one a bit. You can also add cheese and anything else that seems good!

Ingredients
-Egg
-Bacon (or ham)
-puff pastry
-(original: herbs)

Method
1. Spray a muffin tray with oil and preheat oven to 180 C.
2. When puff pastry has thawed enough, cut it into squares (depending on how many you want to make). Make sure the pastry has got 'flaps' over the edge of the muffin try.
3. Fill the created well with a raw egg, bacon (or ham) and herbs if using them.
4. Cook in the preheated oven until egg is cooked.

Food: French Toast

BREAKFAST-French Toast
Friday, 17th February, 2012 


So the original recipe made 12 pieces. I changed the recipe so that it made 4 pieces. I found it would work just as well. I put honey and cream on mine, but you can have fresh fruit, bacon or whatever you feel like!

Ingredients
-4 pieces of bread (original: 12)
-1/4 cup of milk (original: 3/4 skim)
-1 tablespoon brown sugar (original: 3 tblspns)
-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-2 eggs (original: 4)
-ground cinnamon (to serve)

Method:
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, brown sugar and nutmeg, stirring to combine.
2. Soak bread pieces in egg mixture, until saturated on both sides.
3. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan on medium-high heat.
4. Brown slightly on both sides, sprinkle with cinnamon and serve!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Aimee Owl's Creative Inventions. This blog is mainly so that I have stuff to do at home, and I need somewhere to keep everything I find! I thought I might as well share it with the internet :)
Since I am new to the blogging world, I am going to take some time to get used to it, but we'll get there in the end.
I have made pages so everyone can find easy access, but it is on one post. I cant change that Im pretty sure.
I will update everything on here at the same time, just in case no one sees the pages on the side. :)

Well, welcome again! I hope you come back again!
xx Miss Aimee Owl