Bluebird of Happiness

What a delight it was to see this sweet little bluebird sitting in my cherry tree this afternoon! 

 

After such a long, cold winter, it is so nice to see all of the birds returning.  There are many now, and to hear their birdsong when stepping outside is wonderful.  We saw our first robin just this past week.  Spring really is on its way.  Do you want another delight?  Follow this link and watch a sweet hummingbird and her nest of three eggs. 

http://www.ustream.tv/hummingbirdnestcam

The live camera keeps an eye on this little family and their nest attached to a rose bush is in Orange County, California.  We have this cam link up on our computer during the day and keep our eye on this little lady and her eggs.  I can't wait until my hummers return--but not for another month or so. 

Despite the Snow...

....Spring is definitely on my mind.  We received several inches of snow this week.  Ugh!  I guess we won't have to worry about getting what is needed for precipitation this spring.  The nice thing about these springtime storms is that the snow doesn't stay around too long.  It melts off the roads much faster than snow that comes in, say, January.  I SO don't like to drive on slippery roads.  The sun has finally come out today and with that a guarantee that we do not have to go out and shovel! 

With spring at the forefront of my mind, I have been making little bird houses out of felt...adding a touch of embroidery greenery...and stitching on some pretty glass beads and flowers. 

I wish I had thought of making these sooner in the year, but I didn't. 

I've made two pairs of earrings and one pendant.  I may finish a blue pair...just because they are already started.  My felt pretties certainly aren't great sellers, but I love making things out of felt.  Of course, working with those pretty glass beads and doing embroidery brings all the fun together in one project.  They are listed in my Etsy shop.  Enjoy!

Ready for Flowers

Added a few things to my shop today--a vintage jewelry embellished ornament and a perfume bottle.  They both are full of flowers and birds.  Enjoy!

Organizing

This has been a busy month.  I've been working on my taxes which is always a fun time. However, when I've needed a break from doing those, I've been creating a little and organizing a lot.  There were things to be made...and, alas, it was taking me awhile to create because I couldn't find anything!  Imagine that!  So, I decided to organize my box of tiny old jewelry bits...into smaller boxes of organized bits.  I just love little tiny bits of things--always have.  AND, I love to move them about and work with them with a long-handled, pointy-ended tweezers.  Perhaps I'm a frustrated brain surgeon!  We can all be thankful, though, that I'm only working with tiny flowers and glass bunnies.
Now I keep my tiny flower pieces--things I've collected to create with for years and am still collecting--in an old Sucrets tin. 

I have my little creatures--little birds, bugs, and bunnies--in a pretty white container.

My bigger flowers and creatures for perfume bottles are in a different section of my vintage jewelry organizers.  I made a few collage pieces last night, and it's amazing how well I can find things now that I'm more organized.  Now to organize the rest of my craft room!
Thank you to those who wrote with tips on helping me around Blogger!  Thankfully my blog list has reappeared, and pictures can now be downloaded.  Whew!  Happy day to you all.

Vintage Petite Jar Spring Swap--From Me

In the Something Special Vintage Petite Jar Spring Swap here is what I sent to my partner, Karen, of Karen's Monday Musings.  I took the glass jar and decoupaged music paper on it then some vintage bird papers. 

I had some tiles so spelled out "Bird" and "Song" on the sides as well.  On the bottom I put a label from an old crochet yarn ball. 

I made a "nest" on the top with coordinating silk flowers, buds,  and colored yarn to the vintage bird papers and included a little bird sitting in the nest.  She wasn't quite "pink" enough, so I added a little blush to her belly to pink her up.

I tied lace and color coodinating yarn to around the jar and, of course, had to add a little pin for bling.

Inside I just put in as many vintage bits that could fit and hope that the glass things didn't break in transit. 

This was fun to create and assemble.  I hope you like it!

Vintage Petite Jar Spring Swap Pictures from Partner

I joined the Something Special Vintage Petite Jar Spring Swap.  We were to take a small glass canning jar, embellish it, and fill it with fun bits.  My partner was Karen of Karen's Monday Musings.  She was a fabulous swap partner.  How nice it is to have someone who communicates well and who you know will follow through!  This swap was sort of a challenge for me.  I had to think outside of my comfort zone and work with paper and glue...which is what I usually don't do.  Here is what Karen sent to me:

Well, the jar Karen embellished is adorable. 

I love the little birdhouse and the "M" scrabble piece on the back.  

Inside were all sorts of adorable vintage and inspiration pieces for future creative projects. 

I love the rooster, little birds, vintage papers, little book, that pretty hand-painted button...well, everything!

Everything was wrapped so sweetly.  Thank you so much, Karen, and thank you Michele for hostessing this.

New Bottles Listed

It has been a busy week for us, but in between things I was able to finish and list a few new bottles. This green one was sort of an experiment. It is not a perfume bottle but rather just a craft bottle turned into a decorative boudoir-type bottle. The green is pretty, and green is a difficult color to get as a perfume bottle. The pretty guilloche plate looks perfect on it, and the porcelain roses and little bird with a nest full of faux pearls made for a pretty, spring-like piece. This "blushing rose" bottle has a sweet, ever-so-light pink rose flanked by two white flowers. I think it looks soft and pretty. This tea roses one is one someone asked me to do. She saw the one I had done with similar pieces on Flickr and asked if I could do one for her. Thankfully (and rarely) I did have some pieces left to embellish this.

Mother-of-Pearl

I was captivated by Victoria magazine's January/February 2011 section entitled "Treasure from the Sea." All of the mother-of-pearl in the article (it's on the cover as well) was just gorgeous. I have always liked the warm iridescence of mother-of-pearl, and I like it's "oldness". By oldness I mean that mother-of-pearl has been a beautiful embellishment or material that has been used for centuries. There isn't a shell button that I can't resist. My mother had a mother-of-pearl inlaid compact mirror that I remember admiring as a child. What a pleasing article it was to read!

Well, fresh on the heals of reading that article, I put together this perfume bottle with a little mother-of-pearl bird on it. The sweet bird was a recent antique store find that I immediately liked and knew I could use somewhere. It has an aurora borealis eye that goes perfectly with the pinks of the apple blossom vintage jewelry piece that I used to embellish this pink stopper-topped bottle. Enjoy!

Colorful Little Birds Treasury

I had the greatest fun creating this Etsy Treasury featuring colorful little birds....in fact, that's the name of it if you'd like to click the link to check it out for yourself>>Colorful Little Birds.