Birdsong III

This weekend was Birdsong III at Karla's. Once again, it exceeded expectations and I had a great time visiting and creating with friends.  

Part of the fun of these events is participating in the swaps.  I made two different tags for the tag swap which was hosted by Stephanie Oyler.  We had to make a total of seven tags and they were randomly put into books which Stephanie created a cover for  assembled to give back to us the second day of Birdsong.  I received seven absolutely beautiful tags which I will photograph and post on another day.  

Here are the tags I made:

Barb Buxton hosted a card swap, and again, we were to make seven cards and we received seven cards in return.  This was the card I created.

Gail and Marj hosted the always fun Matchbox swap. We were assigned a specific person to create a matchbox for and I was assigned to make one for Mercedes.  She loves flowers and all things feminine, so I made these flowers to attach to the paper and lace covered matchbox.  I just love the sweet little bird I perched in the corner of the box.  I hope she liked it!

I'll post on another day about the projects we made and the swaps I received in return.  We had a fabulous time once again and I have to get acclimated back to real life.

Birdsong Two Swaps

So, everyone knows that when you attend an event, the one thing you don't want to miss out on is the swaps.  As a rookie event attender, I missed out because 1.  I didn't know what to expect and 2. I didn't feel like my creations would be good enough when compared to the others.  Let me tell you this - if you miss out once, you will *not* let that happen to you again!

So, last year when I attended Birdsong, I signed up for the Frilly Paper Bird swap. Click on the link if you want to check it out.  At first, I had creative block but once I made a decision on how I wanted my birds to look, I was thrilled with how they came out.  However, in the interest of time, I didn't participate in Beth's Journal Page swap nor the Matchbox swap and when I saw those amazing creations going around, I almost couldn't believe my eyes.  I vowed that this year, I wasn't about to miss those swaps!

For the matchbox swap, I created a sweet lace covered box with a little, handmade bluebird on the top. We drew numbers to determine which box we would go home with.  Each and every matchbox was absolutely beautiful but I was lucky to receive this adorable box from Rhonda - another Oklahoman - who attended Birdsong last year too!

 When I opened this little treasure, it was packed full of amazing goodies.  Wanna see?

 Can you believe all this was neatly packed inside?  If you click on the picture, you can see a larger image.  Stamps, tiny colored pencils, ribbon, charms, buttons, bird related images, lace, a key, a jar of beads, and a few little handmade pieces too.  I hit the jackpot! Thank you Rhonda!!

 Next, I signed up for Beth's journal.  I created a page for Karla's journal last year but I didn't participate in the overall swap.  Since I didn't have a journal from last year, Beth was sweet enough to create a cover for me.  Cute, isn't it!?!

 I don't know who this first page was created by but I love the colors and the key charm the bird is holding in its beak.

 Below is a precious page from Tami of Vintage Connections.  The pinks and blues are so eye catching and that precious nest that has an egg!

 Marj Sell was a first time attendee to Birdsong Two but she didn't let that stop her from joining in on the fun.  Marj is a scrapbooker so I bet making a page was a breeze for her.  I love the simplicity of her page.

 Grace was one of the girls that came from Iowa this year. You probably can't tell from this picture but that numbered diagram of the bird is on vellum which is layered on top of a piece of nature inspired paper.  The fern is real and along with the burlap, this page has great texture.

 The next page is from my sweet friend Nora.  That beautiful piece of lace is so her!

 On the left is the back of the first page and on the right is a second page that I swapped with her.  I probably broke the rules but I got back one of my own pages in my journal and she wanted it so we just swapped again.  I ended up with two of her pages which I love!  I can always make myself a page, right?

 Sweet Laurie from Indulge Your Shelf hosted a "SING" banner.  Do you recognize my "i"?  The
"S" was made by Barbara from Iowa. She also hosted the Matchbox swap.  The "N" was created by Nora - recognize her style? The "G" was created by Rhonda from Oklahoma! It's funny how these things work out.  I can't wait to get my banner strung and hung (hahaha!)

 Laurie made these precious bags for us to use to swap. It was a great idea to keep things organized.  We each had a bag with our name on it and on the back of our tag was the names of our swap partners. Then we had a safe place to store our letters after the swap.

 The final swap was a charm swap that was hosted by Gail Sell.  We had to make 16 charms and send them to Gail to put on a necklace.  As usually happens with a swap, some charms were late, some didn't get mailed to her previously, and to top it all off, it's a LOT of work to attach all those charms to a chain! She attached the ones she could and gave us the others to attach for ourselves.  My charm is the little glass bottle. You really need to click on that picture and look at all the artistry and love put into creating all those charms.

So now you see why I didn't want to miss out! I totally overextended myself and drove myself a little insane by signing up for all four swaps, but in the end, I'm so thrilled that I did.
Next post I'll share all the wonderful gifts from the Birdsong peeps as well as the sponsors.  Were we ever spoiled!

Birdsong Two Projects

I'm sorry I  made you wait so long for this post but here it finally is.  I love to attend art retreats but the problem with me is, if I don't finish the project during the allotted time for class, the project comes home and never gets finished.  I'm determined to remedy this problem however and I'm thrilled to report that this morning I put the finishing touches on all my Birdsong Two projects and now they are done!

Lisa McIlvain from Tarnished and Tattered taught this adorable Faerie Theatre.  

Everyones projects came out so different but so sweet.  Some people were prepared enough to bring their own photos to personalize the project.  Plus, as with all the other projects we worked on this weekend, we not only got kits for our projects but there was an entire table filled with additional "stuff" to use if we wanted to. 

 Karla taught this sweet fairy vignette.  We constructed the mushroom out of screen and covered it in vintage paper and pretty mica flakes.  As with Lisa's project, there was tons of stuff we could add.  I waited until I got home and added the rosy looking flowers.  Also if you look close enough under the mushroom, you can see the sweet little bird I added too.

 Beth Leintz from Gathering Dust from taught us to make this fun collage.  She taught us how to create dimension in our work - something I need to make use of.  She also taught us how to do contact paper transfers.  I didn't end up using one on this but I can't wait to try it out.  I love how my collage turned out!

 Finally, Karla taught how to make this beautiful vintage watch necklace.  She collected all vintage beads that were just perfect!  I actually finished this *before* I left Birdsong.  I absolutely love it!

I still need to blog about all the sweet gifts and of course what swaps I received.  Better get on that.  :)

Birdsong Two

This weekend I traveled to Kansas to attend Birdsong Two at Karla's Cottage. Looking at the outside of this adorable home, don't you want to step inside?

I was here last year for the first ever Birdsong, but still - when I stepped inside I just am amazed by everything I see.  Inspiration everywhere! I was so thrilled to be able to attend again this year.

Here are the girls hard at work - and this is only half the room.  There were a bunch of girls on the other side too.  There were 25 students and 3 teachers.  All that creativity in one beautiful space.

 Of course, I've teased you with the swaps I've been working on.  A few days back I posted a sneak peek at the "SING" banner swap in which I was given the letter "i".  My sweet friend Laurie from Colorado hosted this swap.  There were four groups and each group ended up with different banners.  I'll show the group photos in another post but for now,  here are my completed panels. When I put my SING banner together, I'll take a picture to show it with the additional letters I received.

 Next up was a Nature Journal Swap.  I didn't have a chance to participate last year and I was so disappointed when I saw all the beautiful journals that everyone swapped.  There was no way I was missing out on the journal swap this year.  The theme was nature, and of course I had to include birds for Birdsong, right?

Last year I also missed out on the matchbox swap and watching those beautiful creations get swapped last year I decided no matter how busy I was, I was participating.  I had ideas of what I wanted to do but I just couldn't bring them to be.  So, at the absolute *last* minute I thought about making this sweet little bird. I just love it. In fact, I wasn't sure I wanted to give it away.  ;)

The last swap I signed up for was the charm swap.  Again, I went around and around trying to decide what I wanted to do.  Originally I wanted to make a wire nest but I thought everyone would think of that.  As I was going through my jewelry I came across a beautiful charm necklace that I made in a class at Creative Connection a few years back taught by the fabulous ladies of A Gilded Life -Shea and Debbie.  I scaled the charm down a bit and made a less decorated version but I thought it looked "just right". Hope everyone liked it!

There's more to share so be sure to check back - you won't want to miss - I promise!

Nature can be so cruel.

I hate the storms in the springtime. My heart is aching for all of the people in Joplin and over in Oklahoma City area that have lost their homes and even more precious, their loved ones. It's so sad - heartbreaking really.

Although it can't compare what the other people are going through, we are saddened over the loss of our birds in the bird nest. We had a beautiful mama bird and four sweet little eggs. A couple of days ago the eggs hatched. We couldn't tell if there were three or four tiny little birds but we kept a close watch over what was happening and would watch the mama come and go. Last night with the storms rolling in, we weren't sure what we could do to protect the nest but Doug piled up bags of mulch to ensure that the tree that the nest was in wouldn't tip over. This morning when we went out to check there was only one little tiny bird in the nest that looked like it had been through the mill. We looked all over trying to see if we could find the other baby birds but there was no sign of them anywhere. We waited a couple of hours to see if the mama would come back but she never came. I don't even want to think about what might have happened.

We called the local vet that takes in injured birds and took the one remaining tiny bird up to them. They will feed it and turn it over to the bird rescue to take care of and eventually let it back into the wild. Nature can be so cruel.

I won the giveaway on Terri's blog!

I met Terri in person last year when I attended Silver Bella. It's always exciting for me to meet other people from Oklahoma at Creative Events. I really believe we need our *own* event and to be able to have people from other states come here and see all that Oklahoma has to offer.
Anyway - Terri was having a giveaway on her blog and I was chosen as the lucky winner! Yay Me!
First, let me say that everything was packaged so beautifully! Terri has a creative gift. I opened the outer box to find all this and I could hardly wait to check it all out:

She included so many treasures and totally spoiled me.

Look at this precious button bracelet that was inside the beautiful floral box seen above.

I love the vintage flowers and embroidered handkerchief, don't you? And I can never have too many buttons.

Terri also included some beautiful vintage trim that I'm going to have to find a special project to use it on, a vintage buckle, cupcake liners, notecards, and Martha Stewart ink pads.
Thank you Terri! What a sweet surprise!

Nest update: Momma bird is sitting on four little eggs. I'll be sure to let you know when they hatch. :)

Four eggs and a new door!

Yesterday we woke up to find that the nest has survived the storms the last couple of days and now there are four eggs! The weather has suddenly turned cold again (in the low 60's) and today the mama is sitting on her eggs. When we go to check she just sits there very still probably hoping we won't hurt her. No mama - we're making sure everything is okay!

So, we are cruising along on our "to-do" list around the house but my question is this, "Why can't anything be easy or go smoothly?" It's always something, isn't it? Nothing major, just little annoyances along the way.

First, the patio. Now, it looks beautiful but we had to go round and round and had to ultimately go with the *most expensive option* due to an error that was made when the house was built three years ago. The patio turned out beautiful and even better than I thought it would and I am enjoying it immensely. I'm still working on the surrounding landscaping and decorating the patio itself but I just love the flagstone.
Next up was the garage project (no pictures just yet). That is actually still a work in progress in that we have to finish organizing. It took WEEKS to have the sheetrock and insulation removed and a huge dusty mess replacing the sheetrock with the bullnose edges. I couldn't wait to get to the painting phase where they would paint it a new, light color and just make the space feel so much better. In the middle of painting the guy went out for lunch and I checked his progress he had painted it the WRONG color! At first I was so upset since I had only told the project manager about 10 times I wanted a *new* color AND had called him the week before with the specific color I wanted. But, I decided to calm down and just tell the painter he would have to repaint the correct color and he did. Whew.

Finally, our custom front door. The door itself is beautiful and it lets so much light into the front hallway. I can't believe we didn't spring for this when we first moved in. Anyway -we were all excited that it was installed until we realized the company didn't put hinges on the glass panel so I can open it for easy cleaning. We paid extra for an operational glass door and we got one that is welded shut. So a call to the door guy and they have to build us a new panel for the door that will take several weeks. Also, new trim had to be put on the outside of the door so now that has to be painted along with the trim on the inside of the door that had to be removed and reinstalled for the new door.
In the scheme of things, I know these are minor annoyances - NOT major problems. I have to laugh that what seems like a simple project always involves more time and effort than what I originally think it will but the final result when all is said and done makes me wonder why it took me so long in the first place to get these things done.
Tonight we are off to see John Michael Montgomery at the Riverspirit Casino and tomorrow we have a wedding to attend so - a busy weekend for us!

Eggs in the Nest!

In the front of our house we have three evergreen trees in decorative planters. It gets so windy here in Oklahoma that sometimes when we come home, the trees are on their sides and we have to stand them upright again. It gets annoying because Doug is allergic to the sap from the trees and the trees with the planters are too heavy and awkward for me to upright by myself. I was just getting ready to move the plants to an in the ground location in the backyard when I noticed a little nest in one of the trees.
I've been watching the nest and the sweet little bird and one day I came home to one tiny blue speckled egg in the sweet little nest. The next day, there were two:

Doug came in this morning while I was getting ready and informed me that there are now THREE eggs in the nest!

I wonder how many more eggs will appear?
And yes, of course we have secured the planters with a bunch of bricks surrounding the bottom. I'm sure the neighbors think we are total white trash but I can't bear the thought of the tree tipping over and losing the eggs. We are supposed to get hit with a major storm this afternoon and I'm hoping and praying the nest won't get disturbed.

Birdsong Frilly Bird Swap

As promised, here are the pictures from the Frilly Bird Swap I participated in this past weekend at Karla's Birdsong Event.
True to form, I had one idea when I started and my bird came out completely different than what I originally planned on. I was stressing that my bird wasn't going to be "good enough" (why do we do that to ourselves?) but I showed Doug and he said it looked just like me so I decided to leave it just the way it was.

This beautiful bird was made by Laurie. Each of hers were a little different but for some reason this one just spoke to me - not only because of the necklace she has but also the sweet flower on her head.

Cami covered her bird with music and vintage wall paper and place her on a wire holder on top of an embellished spool. Love her bling crown!

This beautiful bird was made by Sharon Penney-Morrison. She is covered in beautiful sparkly fabric and buttons on her wings.

Just look at all the color on this bird by Gail Sell. Can you see her sparkle on her feathers and the beautiful roses around her neck?

Karla put her beautiful bird on a pedestal made from an egg in a nest. I never think of things like that!

Our sweet hostess of this swap, Sherry, made two birds for us: a male and a female -aren't they cute? I just love the sweet little roses for the girlie's feet.

Aren't they all just gorgeous? And so different!

Snow, snow, snow

So we got hit with Tulsa's worst storm ever. For some reason it doesn't seem as bad as the blizzard we had on Christmas Eve 2009 but I guess the roads are much worse. I wouldn't know because I plan on just staying in for the duration.
We have heat, power and food which I am so thankful for and the birds are being taken care of too.

Check out this fat little cardinal that I managed to get a picture of through the window. Actually all my snow pictures are taken through the window because I'm not brave enough or crazy enough to go out in this cold weather!


Sweet Shih Tzu loves it! At first he didn't know what to think about the snow. He would be running around the back yard and encounter these deep drifts that would slow him way down and throw snow in front of him which would make him nervous. Once he finally figured out what was going on he would zoom around and check out what was going on out there. Eventually he would get too cold and come in and warm up for a few minutes.

Here are a couple pictures of the awesome Valentine Tags that I received. I can't seem to find a good spot to take a picture in this house as the lighting never is quite right. I'm going to have to get a photo box or find another solution but for now - enjoy this eye candy!

The tag I made is in the left upper-hand corner with the girl kissing the boy.

Well, I'm going to try to get some stuff done inside this house today. Yesterday I was totally lazy and didn't get much done at all. Here's hoping I have a little more ambition today. Looks like we are going to be inside for a while...