Whooo loves spooky season crafts?

(we do!) plus, read on for two amazing Oct-Nov events!

Today we have a fun and easy, slightly spooky Sunday craft, plus two great Triangle-area events to tell you about.

First up, the craft! Inspired by an owl Harriet made in her pre-K classroom (above left), we made a pine cone barn owl out of natural and recycled materials. Harriet’s adorable owl was made by stuffing a small pine cone with cotton balls, and then gluing on googly eyes, a triangle beak, and orange construction paper feet. The natural shape of the pine cone’s scales, which are slightly curved, look like feathers poking out of an owlet’s downy fluff.

Harriet wanted to make a mama owl, and we just happened to have a bunch of cotton Bea picked at a pumpkin farm birthday party last weekend. We also had a large, longleaf pine cone (maybe from the world’s oldest longleaf pine!). Harriet and I stuffed the pine cone with cotton, then had to decide how to make the eyes.

We looked closely at the illustrations of Otis from Little Witch Hazel:

Otis has a round, heart-shaped face, so we cut a similar shape out of smooth cardboard from the recycling bin. Using black marker, we drew her eyes, and we cut a triangle-shaped beak from orange construction paper. We glued all of this onto the owl with hot glue.

Because this owl was larger, we wanted a sturdy base and bigger feet. Our friend Miles helped us find some sticks, and we broke these into six two-inch lengths. We fanned these out on another piece of cardboard to make two sets of talons, and glued them down with hot glue. Then we glued the owl on top, and cut away the cardboard so only the toes are visible.

We love how she turned out!

Do you know your owl calls? The barn owl makes a kind of terrifying shriek. This time of year especially, one of our favorite things is listening to barred owls and great horned owls in our woods at night.

And here are the two great events for Triangle-area readers:

On Thursday, October 27 at 6PM, National Book Award winner Tiya Miles will give a talk about All That She Carried at NC State’s Hunt Library. I’m so excited about this event, which is a collaboration between Art and Design, Interdisciplinary Studies, the Libraries, the African American Cultural Center, the Women’s Center, and the MFA Program—that’s how many different areas of interest this incredibly powerful, beautifully written book touches. We’re so lucky to have Tiya visiting the NC State and meeting with our talented and engaged students.

If you’ve never been to Hunt Library, you could go a little early and walk around—it’s a gorgeous space, and you can see the bookbot. This event is free, parking is also free and convenient, but please register here. Quail Ridge Books will be on hand with copies of Tiya’s book, and there will be a signing after the reading.

And on Sunday, November 6 at 5:00PM, our dear friend Tift Merritt is hosting an outdoors, afternoon concert for reproductive justice. All proceeds go to protecting abortion access in NC—more important than ever, since North Carolina is one of the few states in the Southeast to still have abortion access. Get your tickets here.

Please come! And share these events with all your friends!