Birdhouse Creations

Before my family leave, we had to have a creative day painting birdhouses.  As I've mentioned before on this blog, we ask anyone who stays with us to paint/decorate a birdhouse during their stay, which we then hang in the garden.  It is lovely to wander around the garden and remember all our family and friends - and the birdhouses all turn out so differently.

So we got going on the painting!  The birdhouses were all different shapes from cars, planes, castles to more traditional houses.  But I'm afraid I let the side down a little as I couldn't find the red paint.  Turned out that EVERYONE wanted red paint!!!!!  - just because I didn't have it!

But when you are creating, you have to be able to stretch and go wtih the flow - so pinks and greens were selected instead of red (I have about 5 shades of green paint!!!).

Matthew and Peter even found time between swimming to paint theirs!

Phew - hard work by the looks of it - need a good cup of tea afterwards!!

I'll show you the finished pieces when they are dry.

Break out of your shell!

It's time to break out of your shell!

I've mentioned before that we have lots of birdhouses on our property but my favorite is the bluebird nesting box that has a little camera installed in it, linked through to a small television.  Through the camera we can watch the whole nest building, egg laying, hatching, feeding etc processes of bluebirds - day and night - and hear them too.  It's fascinating to see all the different stages - but also a little sad on some occasions.

I highly recommend getting one of these birdhouse cameras.  You'll love it. But from all the birds we've watched, one always sticks in my head.  One year I was watching this newly hatched bluebird and he just had this bit of egg shell on his head and it wouldn't seem to come off. It was just like the cartoons and he looked so sweet.  Sorry the photo below showing him isn't very clear.  He wriggled around but his little shell "hat" just stuck on him.  I think eventually he got it off when mummy came back to the nesting box.

In honor of this special little bird, I made some "break out of your shell" earrings.  Suitable for shy people who want to break out of their shell, Easter egg lovers, bird lovers and more!  Yes, little feet sticking out of egg shells!

Hope they make you smile like my little birdie did in the nest box!

 

These are #17 in my month of earrings challenge.  Time to create more ear threads instead of just dangly ear wires!

National Nest Box week

It's National Nest Box week this week!  (In England - not the US, but should be worldwide). What a nice idea!  And perfect to coincide with Valentine's day.......little love birds building their nests...

Bluebirds

I should go and count how many we have....We have a lot.  So I thought I'd dig out some photos to show you them - all hand painted by our visitors.

Whenever someone comes to stay with us, we ask them to paint a birdhouse and then put it up in the garden.  When we walk by it, it's a lovely reminder of that person.

And here are some silver ones that I've made over the years:

And here are some in use by the birdies.

Well - the great blue heron is merely using it as a perch!

 

A little blue bird wanting to stretch his wings

At peace - more bluebirds

So get out there this National Nest Box week - wherever you live - and build or buy a nesting box.  It will bring you so much joy!  And now is the perfect time to get them up in place.  There is information on building them and positioning them on the National Nest Box website. 

The best part is that you can get little cameras to go inside so you can watch what happens, and listen to all the little chirps.  Give it a try, you'll love it!

Birdhouses

As I've mentioned in previous posts, when people come to stay with us, we ask them to paint a little bird house for us which we then hang in the garden. They don't last forever, and if one disintegrates, it is repaired twice but then........ This way, repeat visitors get to paint another one when they return!

Yesterday saw John hanging our three new 2009 birdhouses - two were repeat artists and the third was their first birdhouse! It's lovely to wander around the garden and remember all our visitors by their birdhouses. Everyone has their own individual style too, which comes through so clearly.

This one was painted by my mum:

and hangs in the jasmine on our arbor. She wanted brown paint for the roof and asked why I didn't have any. I reminded her that I hate brown and therefore don't want brown birdhouses and so don't supply brown paint!!!!

This one was my dad's and hangs in an oak tree:

The the third was painted by my cousin Caroline (and also attributed to Jamie although I don't think he held a brush - but I'm sure he was very encouraging!!!). This one is hanging in the lovely red maple tree:
Don't they look great! Wonder how many more we will get this year from visitors...... You can see how I get inspired to create birdhouse jewelry!!!

Birdhouses

As I've mentioned before, when people come and stay with us at our home, we like to get them to paint a birdhouse and then they can choose where to hang it in the vineyard or garden.

We've had a few just disintegrate recently. I think it means those visitors haven't been here for a while and need to come back to make another. We just buy the birdhouses from Michaels and its great to see all the different ways our guests paint them. John does a little renovation work when they start to fall apart.....but Mick and Mal's had a serious falling apart this week - maybe irreparable......so they need to come back I think!!

These little earrings will last longer than the wooden ones out in the rain! I made them for my recent show and sold them then too. This little birdie looks like he was quite interested in them!