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!

Commissions - III

Someone on Etsy just asked me to make a couple of pieces for them, similar to ones that I have done before.

The first was some birdhouse earrings. I just finished them today. They turned out larger than the last pair I made. Wish I'd made myself a pair at the same time!


Two different styles of birdhouses - one is a rectangular house with sloping roof and the second one is a round house with shingle roof. Wonder which one the birds would prefer? Each has a little perch by the door to ease your way in.... I've often wondered how birds can fly straight into birdhouses and not just hit their head on the back of the house.....No headaches for my birds - they get to land first, and then go inside :=D


As I was making them, I first made them too large - so I'm also doing necklaces with the large version! Show those soon.

Hope you like the earrings...... Which one would you go in first?

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!!!

Birdhouse earrings

Here is my latest pair of birdhouse earrings. Two three-dimensional little bird houses - one with tiny little shingles on the roof...both with little perches to help the birdies on their way inside.


They hang on diamond shape ear wires. The top part of the wire is hinged so opens to go through the ear, then closes to secure.

Just in time as the birds around here are starting to look for nesting places....

Birdhouses

So here are the little things I was working on yesterday that I mentioned in my blog - three little birdhouses. A round one with a shingled roof-top, a square one, and a rectangular one - each with a little post for alighting on before you pop inside!

My idea is that I will combine them with birds and make a birdie charm bracelet - three birds with three houses. But there again, I might make earrings as I never seem to make earring anymore...or else .........

But there they are unassembled and I'll show you the final piece(s) when I decide on it.

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!