More Than a Sparrow

Today was a snow day. I mean a SNOW day. As in, (you gotta hear this in a movie big voice) SNOWMAGGEDON III: Fear the Frost! Frost Frost Frost...

I crack myself up.

Now, we got nothing like the Midwest did earlier, but for us, this snow storm crippled our area. This is the first time I've been scared for my husband to drive home. I begged him to leave work at 1:45 when I started hearing reports of 5 car pileups and road closings. I wasn't worried about HIS driving...it was all the crazies out there (you know, the ones who have to drop everything and BRING THE BACON!) that I was worried about. A friend of mine said her husband counted no less than 20 cars that had run off the road on his way home from work. A trip that normally takes thirty minutes or less took my husband an hour...which was REALLY good time, considering so many people had hours of driving instead of their normal minutes.

At one point in the afternoon, I had gotten so worked up about him coming home I was almost in panic mode. I had to do something to get my mind off of it, so I trudged outside and fed the birds. I made sure to put some seed on the porch so they would come up to the window where I had been sitting.

Sure enough, minutes after I sat back down at the computer, I could hear the peeping of juncos and white throated sparrows. I looked outside and there were at least three juncos and a sparrow...and I was reminded of the verse that Kiddo was reviewing for Awana this week. I asked him to say it to me, and without hesitation, he quoted,

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Luke 12:6-7

My heart was immediately filled with peace.

Sound Man returned home without a scratch, and I learned my lesson. As children of the Most High God, we are so much more than sparrows...we are not forgotten...we do not have to be afraid! Thank you, Lord!

Photo of white throated sparrow taken by my friend Lisa L...thanks, Lisa!

Bird Nerd, part ad nauseum

I can't help it. Birds make my heart pitter patter. Which, I guess, is why I love bird tassels. It seems to me that y'all do, too, since almost half of my tassel sales have been bird related (either birds, nests, or roosters/chickens). Which is why I'm sharing my two newest tassels listed in my Etsy Shop:I lurve these colors on this brown bird tassel. The bottom fringe looks more brown than burgundy, but it's really brownish-burgundyish. I totally made that word up.

Then there's this fun black and gold little dude. He's just plain cute.

If you needed any more convincing that I'm a bit of a fanatic about birds, let me remind you of my Christmas presents last year...Got Crow Creation's Mini Felted Titmouse. I cannot get over how cute this little dude is. PLEASE go see how wonderfully talented and creative this girl is! She crafts such beautiful little birds, one of which is smaller than a dime, nest and all! I may have to ask for another bird from her this year. They are so reasonable, too, at just $12.

Sadly, I can't find the Etsy shop where my next bird-nerd gift came from...evidently they have closed up shop, which makes me sad, since she did beautiful pendants...I get so many comments when I wear this. "That is SO you, Heathahlee!" Is what I hear most often. That makes me smile.

And of course, my Susie Harris sign.I do love her and her stuff! I'm so grateful to say I can call her a friend in real life.

Okay, enough bird talk. For now. When I give Kat's daughter, Fep, her birthday present, I'm sure I'll add that to the list. Oh, who am I kidding? I can't wait to show it to you...I just hope Fep doesn't see this...It's a horrible pic but it was taken in horrible light with my phone. I wanted Kat's approval and for some reason haven't taken any pics with our regular camera. I hope she loves it. I sure do!

Pretty Framed Bird

I'm so boring. I have lost all creativity. You can tell that in the title of this post. BO-RING! But you know what? That's what this post is about, so...I guess I can get away with not being witty.

Exactly two years ago, I posted about some projects I was doing, one of which was this pretty frame with some sand dollars from Gulf Shores, Alabama.When I first made this, using a clearance frame from Hobby Lobby, I hot glued sand dollars to black felt. It was beautiful. Until it got dusty. Mm-hmm. Did you know that dust sticks to felt like velcro sticks to...well, everything?

So, I took the felt out. I tried to take the sand dollars off, but as gently as I tried, I ended up breaking the back of the first one I took off. I may just cut around the glue and leave it intact. I'd rather have that than broken sand dollars. They're already so fragile.

Anyway, The fact I'm posting about something new two years later is totally coincidental. I just happened to go to Michael's this week where I found some beautiful three-dimensional stickers. I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but I couldn't pass them up. Plus, they were on sale. Bonus!

When I got home, I started thinking about that frame that was just sitting there all by its lonesome. So, using some scrapbooking paper I had picked up while at Michael's, I put the frame back into use. I think it's so pretty. It's sitting on my bird shelf, which is actually my piano.

Here it is sitting in my guest room, which is, at the moment, my Mom's room. But it quickly moved to the piano, where the rest of the bird things are.

I will post pictures soon of my bird shelf (piano). I can't believe how quickly I've amassed such a sweet collection! I did it sort of without realizing that's what I was going for. I mean, I knew I loved birds, but didn't realize how well everything was going together.

Isn't he pretty? It makes me smile.

Linking up with Everything Etsy's "I made it!" blog party!

A Giveaway, a Craft Fair, And a Man...Not necessarily in that order

You know in yesterday's post I said that Sound Man was gonna kill me for committing to finishing that step-stool right now? Well, the reason why is that I have a craft fair May 16th that I am busily trying to get ready for, and really don't need any more distractions. He is so wonderful, though, because he is helping me in so many ways, even making one of the things I'm selling at the fair. It's even Kat's favorite. Traitor. He's also making my display, because I know that if I tried to it would not be pretty. For realz.

He is giving me the day off of school, even taking Kiddo to work after lunch so that I have uninterrupted time gathering the things I need to pull this thing off. I am so thankful to have such a supportive husband.

You didn't know you were gonna get a "My Husband Rocks" in this here post, did you? Well, he does, so I had to share.

So, what is all the commotion about? Why am I frantically working my hands to the bone (or burn as it may be)? I am busy as a bee creating not 20, not 50, but 100...

Tassels! Most of you guessed it when I teased you with the giveaway a few days ago. Yep, my plan is to make a hundred of these puppies (and birds, and roosters, and bunnies...). I'm five away from being half-way there. Whew. And my hands have the glue-gun burns to prove it.

So, in honor of my blogday (get it, birthday, blogday...nevermind) that I totally missed on April 14th, I am holding a giveaway! Now, I'm not expecting traffic like Kimba or Nester or Susie Harris gets, but I do hope this gets some of you lurkers (a.k.a. the ones who've told me, "Oh, I read your blog all the time, I just never comment.") out of the woodwork and let me know you're there. How can I show my appreciation for reading if I don't know you're reading?

Sorry, I got off subject, which is not uncommon for me to do, but I need to get back to the subject at hand. I lurve this tassel. If I can find another brown bird like this, I'm so gonna make this same exact one for me. Seriously.

He's brown with brown, bright blue, and the-fringe-that-I-love-so-much fringe. I love him. Oh, and by the way, I realize that he has the same fringe as the tassel that Nester made for the Everything Etsy giveaway, and it is purely coincidental. This was one of the first tassels I made, several weeks ago. Great minds think alike, huh?

Paisley ribbon, a pretty button...he's so much prettier in person.

Sorry the pictures are not that wonderful...it's very overcast today and my house has sporadic natural light anyway (huh?), so I had to take these with just the room lights.

So, if you'd like to win him (or her...she probably is a she with her pretty ribbons and frills), just leave me a comment. Now, for all you lurkers, you have to leave me a comment to win. Even if you don't have a Blogger account. You can click the "Anonymous" and it will let you leave a comment. Just make sure you tell me who you are, or I won't know who to give it to if I pick you. I will leave this open until Tuesday, May 5th, and I'll draw a name randomly on May 6th. I'll leave a reminder up so that you know to come here to comment.

When you leave a comment, let me know what you like about this blog. Tell me if you'd like to see more of something, or less of something. I promise not to get my feelings hurt. Too much. Hee hee.

Now, let the commenting commence!

Sunday morning

Aren't two sparrows sold for only a penny?

But your Father knows when any one of them falls to the ground.

Even the hairs on your head are counted.

So don't be afraid! You are worth much more than many sparrows.

Matthew 10: 29-31

Pray for the Gulf Coast today...

My Trip to Kat's (among other things)

A few weeks ago Kiddo and I ventured south to my best bud, Kat's, house. Why am I just now posting about it? I'll get to that later. I want to talk about our time down there first.

Kat and her family have a really great above ground pool, so one of the highlights of the trip was the all-day swim by Kiddo and Moose, Kat's sweet little boy. Of course, Fep, Kat's beautiful daughter, swam as well, but she got out more than the boys did. They were in it for the long haul.

We had to do some things before the swimming commenced, though. First, I had brought the promised gifts of the birds to Kat and Fep. That was a big to-do. We had to figure out just where to place Kat's bird, and I'm sure it's been moved since we settled on a resting spot.

Then we had to go stalk a little old lady's house. Not really. Kat's hairdresser told her about a lady she knew who was selling her property for a song, so I wanted to go see where it was. We even pulled in her driveway. I hope she didn't see us.

Then, since we were out anyway, I begged asked Kat if we could go into town to the Dollar Tree to find some birds. I bought one just so I could show Kat what color they are originally. I ended up giving it to her. The two birds hit it off really well once we got home. Look, here they are having quite the chat...

Reminds me of us when we're together. Chat, chat, chat. Anyway, we ate burgers that Kat grilled and had ice cream in the shade of the carport...

Then we noticed the dogs. Dixie, her Corgi pup, and Rupert, her Beagle mix, love each other. Love to torment each other, more like it. We watched as it went from this...To this...
To this...

If you look close enough, Dixie's tongue is hanging out like she's drawing her last breath. Don't let her fool you...She can hold her own.

Kiddo and I were just about to wrap up our fun day and head home when Kat told me to have a seat. I wondered what she had up her sleeve. She came back in with something behind her back and told me she couldn't wait for my birthday to give me what she was about to give me...
A Nester Tassel! I couldn't believe it. It's so pretty, and it goes really well on my china cabinet. I gave her a big hug for such a sweet gift. Kat always gives really great gifts. This may sound funny, but one of her best ones was my Iced Tea Pot. That thing is worth its weight in gold.

I have loved both Nester's and Susie Harris's tassels for a while now, admiring from afar, wondering where I'd put one if I had one, and now I'm the owner of TWO tassels, one from each of them! In case you didn't hear, I WON a Susie Harris tassel yesterday! I AM IN TASSEL HEAVEN! I can't wait till my rooster gets here!

Now, why should this be so significant? Why do I bring up gifts and winnings and all that jazz? Why is it fair that I get TWO tassels within a few short weeks of each other? Well, because today is my birthday. There. I said it. Debbie, aren't you proud?

Yes, August 3rd is my birthday. I'll post this week about different birthday memories, one of which was spent in Tasmania.

So there you go. It's the best birthday I've ever had as a blogger. The fact that it's the only birthday I've ever had as a blogger is beside the point. Had I not started blogging I wouldn't have "met" all of my new friends.

That in itself is the best bloggy present I could possibly imagine.

Deja vu

A few years ago my husband got the idea in his head that he wanted a bird. In the house. We had already been down this road with a little cockatiel named Aussie. Windi (our 11 year old Sheltie) hated her guts. So of course, Momma (being me) hated her. No, I didn't hate her. I strongly disliked her, and the feeling was mutual. The little birdie brat would bite my ear, or finger, or whatever appendage she could get a hold of whenever I was trying to be nice to her. Through various circumstances (the main one being me whining that Windi was too traumatized for us to keep the bird), we gave Aussie to some friends at church who took wonderful care of her.

Fast forward a few years. Sweet husband wanted another bird, but one that didn't require as much socialization as cockatiels and other parrot-like birds require. He saw an ad in the paper for a guy selling doves. This was right up his alley, he thought, and I decided I could handle it, too, since the pretty cooing would be nice instead of the annoying squeaks and squawks of the other bird. So, since the guy selling the doves said they really needed to be sold in twos and if we were lucky we might get some baby doves out of the deal, we came home the proud owners of two very pretty doves, whom we named Jonah and Belle. We really couldn't tell the gender of either one of them, but we were hoping. Pretty soon we figured out that we had a matched set when we found eggs in the cage. Oh, the joy! Baby doves!

One thing the dove seller didn't mention (or maybe he did and I wasn't listening) is the fact that doves are extremely, um, for lack of a better term, prolific. Pretty soon we realized that we were going to be blessed many times over with babies. They kept "increasing their number" as King James would say. And kept increasing. Until finally there were 17. Yes, I said 17.

Now, before you have visions of doves flying all over my house (and all that comes with that vision...ahem), let me say that they were all in the office where my husband had built a kind of aviary where they all had plenty of room and were contained in that area of the house.

Soon after realizing we were creating a new ecosystem in our office, it came to my attention that having that many birds in one area (which happened to be my Pampered Chef business area) was not doing my allergies any favors. I stayed sick for about 6 months without realizing what was causing it (duh). When the light bulb finally flickered over my head and I realized what was causing it, we quickly took the huge cage outside and my house was mine and my family's again.

Why am I relating this story to you? Why do I feel compelled to share?

Oh, I don't know...

.....aaaahhh-CHOOOO!!!

Excuse me...I need to take a Claritin.

Author's note 7/25/08: To clear any confusion, yes, we had REAL doves that we took out of the house. Hence the beautiful dove in the picture at the top. She was our favorite. I just thought the similarity in the situations was a blog post waiting to happen. : )

Hen Party (or, Kimba, this one's for you!)

Ever since reading this post on Kimba's blog, A Soft Place to Land I have wanted to find a little birdie to fix up and decorate with. I knew she got him at a dollar store but wasn't sure which one. Imagine my glee when I went to Dollar Tree one morning and found a whole shelf full of those tacky little birds!

Since I knew my bestest bud, Kat, would like one, too, I bought two little birds. When I got home I realized that I had grabbed two different styles, one of which was not like the one Kimba had. Since I am such a stalker and she's probably going to be very afraid of me after reading this post, I went back to the store and almost returned the "wrong" style, but thought better of it and just bought another little bird.

Came home, spray painted my heart out, and came up with this cute little hen party.

As cute as this is, this birdie bunch will not be together for long because I've promised my sister the "wrong" bird, and of course I'm taking one of the "right" ones to Kat's when I steal blueberries visit next week.

Don't look too closely, though, or you'll see my imperfectly beautiful fingerprint on Carlyn's bird

Which of course just made you look. Before she gets back from her vacation and picks up her little chicky, I'm sure I'll attempt to prime and paint that spot. Or maybe I won't. Maybe I'll call that my signature. Yeah, that's it.

Anyway, in case you're wondering how I did these, all I did was spray paint white primer on them, let them dry, then spray painted them glossy white. And added my fingerprints here and there. Well, not on purpose. I did really well priming and painting them since I had rubber gloves on (oh, my husband is going to have apoplexy when he reads that since they are NOT made from rubber but from some substance I can never remember but should since I'm married to a safety glove man) and could hold them by sticking my fingers in the hole in the bottom of them. That just sounds wrong, but you know exactly what I mean. But when it came time to set them down, I had to do it as gently as I could, even if that meant fingerprints here or there. I bet if I asked really sweetly my husband would build me a dowel kind of thingie to set them on and that way they could stay there after they were painted and I could go about my business without being stuck with a bird on my finger. That sounds bad, too. Maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead.

Thank you, Kimba, for your inspiration and for your welcoming spirit!

Bird Nerd, Part Dos

Go...

A...

WAY!!!

Learning lessons...

A couple of weeks ago our baby robins decided that it was time to grow up. I had noticed that they were just about spilling over the sides of the nest and wondered when they would take their first tentative flights.

My sweet hubby wanted to take one more "from the nest" picture of the little guys before they flew the coop. Or nest, or...oh, you know what I mean. He headed outside with the camera and noticed one of the braver ones perched on the side of the nest. Thinking it was just stretching its wings (did you see how crowded it was in there?), he crept closer.

And yes, those are my dryer sheets hanging out of the bottom of the nest.

Suddenly, the baby bird took the plunge and jumped out of the nest to the grass beneath. My husband had the horrible thought that he was the one who caused the baby to prematurely jump from the protection of the nest, so he started chasing it to put it back. By this time another of the babies was not about to be left out of the action, so he flopped out of the nest, too. My husband was frantic. He imagined all the horrible things that could happen to these little ones and was desperate to get them back to safety.

After attempting to put them back in the nest (and having them subsequently jump right back out), he came in the house looking very dejected. He thought it was his fault. He had caused them to leave the protection of their parents. Wanting to make him feel better, I jumped on the 'net to see if I could find anything about Robin fledgelings.

What I discovered made us both feel a little better. Baby Robins leave the nest before they can fly. Several days before. They get out of the nest to explore their surroundings, still being fed by both parents. This gets them used to their territory, meeting other robins and finding out the best places to hide in case of a cat, hawk, or strange man trying to throw a towel over them.

After I found that out, we were still anxious for them, but knew that it was nature's way of teaching them life's lessons. The parents still fed them and every once in a while we'd see some rebellious behavior when one of the babies didn't want to go where Mom or Dad wanted them to follow. Hopefully they won't learn the hard way that sticking close to them will keep them much safer than on their own.

How easy it is to compare these little birds to ourselves. How often do we leave the protection of our Father's "nest," trying to explore on our terms the world and its answers? We have to do it our way, not remembering that He is our provision, protection, our very life. Hmmm...something to, as my friend Donna said yesterday, "have a think on it."

Bird Nerd

I am a self-proclaimed bird nerd. So is my sweet hubby. He regularly fills my feeders when I'm too laz...uh, busy to fill them. Not much makes me more content than to see lots of different kinds of birds at my feeders, and we have eight feeders for them to eat from. My favorite kinds are Tufted Titmice (yes, I know...just be glad it's not a bushtit), Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Carolina Chickadees, and of course Northern Cardinals. I'm sure there are some I've missed, but these are the first that come to mind, and they are the ones that come to my feeders.

Notice I didn't say Robins. Like House Sparrows, Robins are just birds to me. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Robins like I do Grackles and Starlings, but I don't wish them into my yard like I do the Titmice and Chickadees. So when that Momma Robin built her nest on our meter box, I sort of didn't pay attention to it. That is, until my sweet hubby came in and showed me the picture of the lone egg in the nest. It was such a blue, perfect, sweet egg that I instantly fell in love with it. And the three subsequent siblings laid a few days later.

So, when my sweet hubby came in one day and showed me a picture of two freshly hatched babies, I had to "see" them for myself. This is what greeted me. You have to wait till 10 seconds or so before you really can see it in the frame...



You can hear Momma Robin scolding me in the background. Which is why I don't have more than 17 seconds of this...I didn't want to get dive bombed. Remember, I'm doing this blind and don't even know what's up there. For all I know, it's just the two that he showed me earlier. I had no idea this was happening. Isn't it amazing? I know, I know, you're probably saying..."Uh, what are you so excited about? This happens millions of times every year...what's the big deal?" Well, I guess I love it so much because I caught it hatching on my house. Me being the bird nerd and all, it was just really cool beans. And yes, I just said "cool beans."

Robin's egg blue

I've always known that robin's eggs were blue, but until now I never realized what a perfect shade of blue they were. They're perfect! And it's the perfect shade of blue to go with brown, which is, in my opinion, the perfect color combination popular right perfect now. I perfect lurve it. (I just thought I'd add a few more "perfect's" in there for good measure since I didn't use enough in the first part of the paragraph).

As amazing to myself as it is, I took this picture. It's perfect (HA! I totally amuse myself). It is now my desktop wallpaper. The amazing thing to me is that it was completely blind. The robin that built her nest on our electric meter or whatever you call it figured that she was out of sight of picture takin' bird nerds, but she was mistaken. I took the camera and stretched it above the nest and snapped away. It looks like I really tried to get this shot. Well, I did, but only because I was trying not to lose my balance and crash into the brick wall. My sweet hubby took some, too, and between the two of us we've got a gazillion pictures of this nest with anywhere between one to four eggs in it. Poor Momma Robin. She's a good momma, too. I've never been too excited about Robins...they're kind of like sparrows...they are always around and I get used to them. Then this little momma bird built a nest on my house and I just fell in love with her and her babies. I'm such a bird nerd!

I'll post the video of one of the chicks hatching later. That was totally amazing (perfect). Again, totally blind as to what I was getting.