i’ve mentioned before how much my grandmother influenced my love of creative things. she always encouraged me to be creative and crafty and unique…and one of the unique things about my grandmother was her unexplainable love of owls. she had owls everywhere. planters. wind chimes. tiny little trinkets. and, to this day, i have no idea why she loved them.

but i can tell you, that for some reason, i’ve recently taken on an affinity for owls. and my only explanation is that they spark a memory of my mimi. and in a way, i feel like having an owl here and there is a little dedication to this very special woman.

during a recent target trip, i came across an outdoor owl statue they had in their summer outdoors line. of course, i was drawn to it. but i passed on it until the other night when the greatest word ever was attached to the owl: clearance! so i went for it (of course).

here’s where the need to be creative came in: i knew i wanted to put the outside on our back porch. and here in northern illinois, we get some fierce, sometimes wicked winds. (like, huff and puff and seems like blow your house down winds). and mr. owl was a bit top-heavy. so, i needed to help mr. owl get weighed down a bit.

bring in a piece of remnant slate (a material i love), some helpful and very tough landscape block adhesive, and voila! mr. owl was much less likely to topple over in his new home, right off our back patio.

for about $10, we now have this great little tribute to my mimi right in our backyard.

here’s to my mimi,

ashley