Winter the Owl

For Christmas I got E this owl. It was a microwaveable owl that warmed up. She was so excited! I hesitated purchasing it because she has SO many owls, and she already had a microwaveable elephant, but instead I got it for her and it was her favorite Christmas gift. Fast forward to a few nights later and E wants to warm up her owl before bed. I put it in the microwave for 1 minute and I go sit on the couch. 30 second later I hear her screaming, not play screaming, terrified screaming. She had opened the microwave and her owl had caught on fire! The flames were huge!! I screamed and Jakob ran into the kitchen as I grabbed the owl and threw it in the sink putting out the flames.

E was devastated. I can only imagine how her heart broke as her favorite owl caught fire. It was scary. So after the tears stopped we discussed our options. We determined that we would try to find a new one. (We also determined that the entire owl was not supposed to go into the microwave, just the removable insert that warmed up. Oops!) So the hunt was on. Since the tag melted I had no way of knowing the brand and Google was not helping at all. I found a snowy owl on Amazon, but E didn't like it. So I went to three different stores on a quest for the owl. No luck. E was so sad. I told her this might have been the outcome but she was really disappointed. So I decided to try and fix her.

I went to two stores to get the fabric I needed then I cut away the burnt pieces and trimmed down the burnt "feathers" on the wings. I un-stuffed her and threw her in the wash to get rid of the smoke smell. We re-stuffed her with fresh batting and she came to life again! It was a bit of trial and error but I am really happy with how it came out! 

E came home from school and I told her I had a surprise for her. I gave her her owl and she sat there holding it for a good five minutes. That right there made all of the effort worth it! I am so grateful for the talents I have acquired so that I was able to do this for her. It wasn't complicated, but after talking to a few other Mama's I realized that most of them would have simply thrown the owl away and it would have been a sad story, that may have turned funny down the road. I am grateful that I was able to fix E's owl and make her happy. It's the little things. You are so loved sweet girl!