Cowkitty.net

Let it be known that I love owls. Not only do I love them, but I’m rather particular as to which owls are deserving of my undying and everlasting love. I generally see two types of them out in the franchised wild: The “SCREEEECH IMMA GONNA EAT YA” owls, and then the fat, happy, & incredibly stupid looking owls. This list is mainly comprised of the later. Here you’ll find 30 owl items from across the vast internets ranging from clothing & accessories to kitchenware, all for the owl lover in your life.

1. Owl With Skull Tee Shirt
Price $25.00

Owls… meets pirates. Two of my favorite things, united at last as a t-shirt.

2. Not So Cute Shirt
Price CAD $18.99

Considering that my “young” right now consists of a shivering, googly-eyed chihuahua… there’s probably a lot of truth to this shirt.

3. White Owl Aboard Brief
Price $8
Nothing sets the mood like slowly taking off your clothes to reveal a peg-legged, hook-wielding dwarf pirate owl beckoning a plundering to your booty. Nothing.

4. St. Paul Obtb
Price $79
Owls on shoes are like racing stripes on cars– It’ll make it seem like you’re going faster.

5. Owl Rain Boot
Price $58

Owl rain boots. Because your obsession should still be clearly visible in the midst of a hurricane.

6. SockGuy Women’s 2in Wise Owl Cycling/Running Socks
Price $8.99
Key feature: Notice the “hoooooooooo” on the bottom of the foot. Now you can let your feet do your hooting.

7. Owl Through the Night Scarf
Price $39.99
Has your neck ever been cold? Do you wish that owls looked more like trilobytes? Then this is the accessory for you.

8. Owl Necklace
Price $20
Yes, that really is an owl.

9. Stamp of Approv-owl Ring
Price $11.99
This is the type of ring that makes me wish we still used wax to seal envelopes. (Or heck, analog paper.)

10. Hoot for Loot Wallet
Price $19.99
Owl wallets are perfect for holding Hello Kitty bank cards.

11. Candy Frame Owl
Price $25
I like to think this is a happy fat owl that has eaten its fill of all of my change.

12. Hooty Owl Shagware Purse
Price

13. Circo Love & Nature Bed in a Bag – Twin
Price $55
This set is actually available in Target, along with a matching line of other bedroom accessories such as drapes, lamps, etc.

14. Circo Love & Nature Owl Pillow
Price
This owl pillow is actually part of the above set, but it was too adorable to not be featured on its own.

15. Circo Love & Nature Owl Bank – Pink
Price $12.34
Another way to save up for more owl kitsch.

16. Owl Hoot Collection
Price various
K-Mart (yes, they’re still open) has an entire owl bathroom set, including bath mats, trash cans, shower curtain (and clips!), liquid soap pump, and more.

17. Owl Serving Dish
Price $11.99
For the elegant dinner party host, an owl serving dish.

18. Tag Turning Leaves Collection Owl Salt and Pepper
Price $12.95
Thanksgiving is coming. You could probably pass these off as turkeys for most of the dinner before anyone catches on.

19. Owl Lotion Pump
Price: $6.49
I’m sure you could fit liquid cheese in this thing too. OWLS ARE VERSATILE.

20. Owling Sake Pot
Price $28
I’ve seen these in Anthropologie stores, along with a white “snow owl” set too. Adorable. Fat. Owls.

21. Owl Serving Pitcher
Price $18
Finally, you can water your plants out of an owl.

22. Enchanted Tree
Price
Sure, it’s not owl wallpaper, but it’s better this way. Trust me.

23. Little Owl Decal
Price Various

An individual owl to place in those hard to reach places. Would look great along with a nice tree decal or two.

24. Breast Cancer Figurine: Give a Hoot for Hope
Price $19.99
I had to include this because the feathers on her head are shaped like hearts.

25. Owl Quirkeys Key Covers
Price $4.99
Try not to imagine that these owls are pooping out your keys– just believe they are clutching them behind their backs.

26. Owl Journal
Price $10
Now you too can feel confident reciting your original written creations at the local poetry slam.

27. USB Owl
Price $19.99
I actually have the pink one. It’s unyielding eyes peer into your very soul.

28. Owsley Owlbert USB Drive
$24.95
I for one welcome our evil robot owl overlords.

29. Hooty Owl Electronics Collection
Price $79
Travel with your laptop in owl style. (I’m obviously running low on wit now.)

30. The Enamored Owl Laptop Skin
Price $29.95
I have this skin on my brown/copper Acer netbook, which I lovingly dub the Owlbook and the Hoot-top. I can’t recommend Gela-skins enough– they also have skins for iPhones, iPods, and other electronics.

Thus concludes this owl holiday shopping guide. If there’s some other adorable, ridiculous owl product out there, please don’t hesitate to share.

I’ve been fiddling with Wordpress for the past few months, generally to less than satisfying results. I’ve tried a ton of free themes, but they never quite worked right or lacked the features and cool factor I was looking for.

Then I found Elegant Themes, and finally made the commitment to actually purchase a premium theme. Not only are the themes gorgeous with multiple color and customizations options, but it was only $20 for a year long membership, i.e. complete access to ALL the themes available on the site.

The install was easy, though it probably would have been less confusing if I actually had content on my fresh install of Wordpress. Soon as I dropped some images in my posts and added the widgets, it looked great.

Did I mention how much I love purple?

I really love purple.

I feel like I’ve won the lottery… in SPACE.

NASA held a very special Twitter-based contest– The first 100 followers of @NASA who registered on their web site would be invited to an official NASA Tweetup. By some fluke of luck, I made it in! My boyfriend Corey was one of the 50 waitlisted, but he shortly made it to the official 100 list too after some participants declined.

What does this tweetup involve? It’s a two day event hosted by NASA at Kennedy Space Center, culminating with the lunch of space shuttle mission STS-126. We’ll tour the facilities as well as have an opportunity to meet with astronauts, engineers, and other NASA staff.

From the official NASA Tweetup site:

“The two-day event will provide NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to take a tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, view the space shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers. The Tweetup will include a “meet and greet” session to allow participants to mingle with fellow Tweeps and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.

Space shuttle Atlantis is targeted to launch at 2:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 16 on its STS-129 mission to the International Space Station. “

As many of you know, NASA has always had a moon-shaped place in my heart: My grandfather (Humberto Martinez) was an engineer for NASA during the space race– in fact, he was the first Cuban to work for NASA. He worked there during the Gemini and Apollo missions, including working on the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 from the earth to the moon. I have a ton of NASA memorabilia and photos from that time in history that I hope to scan and digital archive online soon.

In preparation for the event, Corey and I have been watching the fantastic miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon as well as Apollo 13. FTETHM is probably my absolute favorite miniseries ever, so it’s been great rewatching the series from the beginning again. In less than two weeks– Cape Canaveral or bust.

I used to look longingly at mod style white animal sculptures in stores like Urban Outfitters and Target. They were adorable, but always overpriced for what they were.

A month ago, I had the most brilliant idea: Make my own trendy mod owl sculpture for less than $10.

It’s nothing revolutionary really. Find some discounted owl sculpture. Buy some glossy white spray paint. Magic. You are now the envy of all your mod owl loving friends.

I went to my local Ross and hunted through the home decor section, where I found two owls for roughly $5 each.

I then kept spraying light coats using Krylon’s Indoor/Outdoor Spraypaint in High Gloss White until it looked fancy enough.

Finally, I now have owl decor on the same level of style as my office Ikea furniture. This calls for a Swedish meatball jubilee.

More photos:

[View with PicLens]

O HAI. Welcome to the latest iteration of Cowkitty.net. Some of you oldies might remember the original site (which served as a site portal for all my other domains) from way back in the day. I ended up losing the domain name in a bout of stunning laziness, after which it was picked up by some domain squatting service.

Luckily, it expired again this past month, and I was able to snipe it despite its obvious high low demand and appeal.

(A screenshot of the last version of the site before it went offline)

This site is going to be a bit different from the last site– I’m using this as a personal site where I can post my photos, opinions, reviews, tutorials, and other things that don’t specifically relate to my artwork, which can be seen on my portfolio site.