Beth's Bird Boutique (guest post)

This a guest post I did for Kim over at Snug Harbor Bay. Thank you, Kim and what a privilege to share this hobby I have. It's funny that I even do this at all. My older sister gave me hard time about it when we visited them in November.....I used to say that the artisitic/crafting gene must have skipped a generation with me. I am really not very artistic, but it used to be I wouldn't even try. I was what some would call "anti-crafty". I actually hated doing art/craft work of any kind. I don't know what changed.....I got over the idea that crafts and arts were somehow not me, I guess. I gave it a try and somehow I found it most enjoyable and a way of expression. Of course, artistic creativity can be expressed  in many, many ways, this is just one small example. Wherever yours is expressed at, enjoy it!

This is my first guest post....so forgive me if I don't do this quite right.

The picture above is of a birdhouse my husband's grandfather built. It is 50 plus years old as near as we can figure! Built properly you would be amazed at how long a birdhouse will last and remain functional. I've been noticing the older ones still around in our area. Yes, it is the old handmade ones that are still hanging from fence posts possibly being used by some of our feathered friends! Now, really, I'm not just being prejudiced. I know that we happen to build them as a side business but, do take a look around yourself. You won't see too many mass marketed birdhouses that are very old and built to last. 

This is a picture of a little wooden Wren house that my husband made and I painted. I call it my Mexican style birdhouse. I've always liked the bold and brillant colors that many of the Mexican houses are painted! So, I painted one in that style. Some cactus's on the front finish it off! This series that we built have been fun to just paint. Simple little houses that we can sell more economically. The wood we use is "upcycled". That simply means that we have turned otherwise unusable wood into something useful. Most of our birdhouse are built this way. We've always enjoyed "upcycling" in any way we can. It's a lot of fun to take something old or broken and fix it up new!

I also paint on birdhouse gourds. These are some unfinished gourds my daughter brought from South Carolina for me. I have painted and sold several of these but still have quite a few to go. I am almost always in the process of one. They start like this and need to be cleaned before you can even begin to paint on them. They are hard shelled and can be painted, dyed, woodburned, carved on or simply left natural. The traditional use of gourds goes back for many thousands of years! Native North Americans were the first to use them for birdhouses. 

Here are a few in various stages of cleaning. The white on the outside is mold and needs to be cleaned off. A good soak in sudsy hot water and a plastic scrub brush is what I use. I fill my sink with soapy water and lay the gourd in it turning it, to get all sides wet. I let it soak for 5-10 minutes, again turning it occasionally. Then I begin to scrub the mold off. It usually comes off quite easily. My daughter uses a spray on bleach cleaner. She sets the gourd in the sink and sprays the cleaner on, waits a few minutes and scrubs the loosened mold away with a plastic scrubber of some kind. She rinses the bleach off well and then lets it dry. Either way you need to make sure they dry well before beginning any art work on them.

This gourd I have used leather dye as the base coat. You must wear rubber gloves when using this product. It is a permanent dye! It can be found at most hobby shops in the leather crafting section.

This gourd I have begun a base coat of acrylic paint. Which is a very common medium used in painting gourds. Gourd art is an amazing art form. I am enjoying learning it, but I have so far to go. So many beautiful things can be done with them. 

This is the finished gourd. A hole must be drilled in the size of opening you wish. My husband uses a hole saw to do this. Then the loose seeds and pith must be emptied out. I don't worry about any that can't be loosened as it adds insulation to the house anyway. Also some small holes are drilled in the bottom for drainage. Two holes in the top serve as ventilation and a place to insert leather cording to hang it with.  After a base coat, a design is painted on with a final coating of clear spray on exterior lacquer to help make it weather resistant.  Most of my designs are usually of birds, as I am totally in love with these feathered, graceful and singing creatures! What a gift to mankind! 

Thank you so much Kim, for the invite to write this guest post! Be sure and take a peak at her blog at Snug Harbor Bay. You can see more of my birdhouses and feeders at Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/BethsBirdBoutique 

Winter where I live

I've had this post going for a while and thought I'd better get it finished as spring seems in a hurry this year!

Winter here is a bit different than where we came from. It has taken some getting used to. At first, I found it a bit depressing. Most of the trees lose their leaves and stand stark and naked in the cold damp air. Add some fog as in the above picture and you have the perfect scene for a Hollywood movie of the frightening and mysterious sort.
 Or....you could choose to see the beauty in it. Which is what I have intentionally chosen to do this winter. I took this picture because I did find it beautiful. When I look at it now, I see the dense moisture thick in the air. I feel the chill of the morning, I hear the birds somewhere in the distance. I take a closer look and see the lichens growing on a tree turning it a slight hew of green even in this cold and seemingly lifeless season.

This view of the forest is much different than it is in the summer. I had written in my journal on 1-22-12....
"Deciduous forests are so beautiful in winter. Leafless tree all standing in beds of fallen leaves. You can finally see deep into the forest. In summer the thickness of the green growing vegetation limits your sight and hides the view. I'm finding the Appalachians beautiful in all seasons."
It is true.In the summer these same trees will be full of green leaves. Vines such as Virginia Creeper will have grown up along with many other forest plants and filled these now empty places full to the brim. It might even be hard to walk in this area. So it makes this view something different and unique.

It makes places like this so much easier to access. I do love the forests here. They are so different than the Pine forests I grew up around. These, somehow seem older, wiser and a bit more friendly. The Pine forests of the northwest feel wild and dangerous, stretching out endlessly. A place that you can never quite conquer or let your guard down.  (That is not to be taken as an insult, please.) Just one of my silly poetic observations. This is the way the Appalachians have always felt to me... friendly, like I'd come home, after being away a long time.

We have had a very mild winter and so I have no snow pictures to show you. We usually do and did have a small amount in January. But, my feeling is, that we won't have more this year. Spring seems in a hurry. The daffodils are blooming and the spring peepers are peeping. In case you'd like to hear the sounds of spring....Spring Peepers Soundscape