Apr 16, 2010 | Wildlife |
First I’m excited to tell you I found another bird nest today! So this is a bird update and I’ll post a stamping project in a little while. I had a fun class this morning and after it was over Greg wanted me to walk out front so he could tell me what he plans to do with the yard – first he said he plans to cut back the bushes in the front of the house – I said wait I need to check if there are any nests in there. Well guess what – sure enough there is a nest and mama bird was sitting on it! So no cutting of the bushes is allowed!
Do you know who that is? It is a female Cardinal. She must have eggs in there but I’ll have to wait for her to leave to see them. She hunkered down when we first found her – I took this picture later and her head was up a little bit more. The male cardinal is the bright red bird that we see all the time – the female has the bright red beak but her body is more brown with just a red tinge.
And then I decided to walk around to the other side and see if anyone was visiting the nest in the tree – and yes it is a Robin’s nest. She was standing on the edge for a very long time and then finally hopped in the nest – maybe she was laying an egg. Last year the Robin’s raised two babies – I think there may have been 3 eggs to begin with and one didn’t make it. So maybe 2 or 3 babies this time. The nest is too high to see so I’ll have to wait until they are born and grow a bit so I can see them. Here is the mom – one picture is from my driveway and then the other is from the opposite side up on the hill in my backyard.
Very pretty with the pink flowers blooming in the tree.
So Wow – 5 nests this year – I’m so excited about it! Bluebird, Tufted Titmouse, Chick-a-Dee, Robin and the Cardinal! And out of the three nests I could see there are already 14 eggs. I’ll check them again tomorrow or later this afternoon.
Have a great spring day!
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Join me for the Royal Blog Tour:- April 30 – May 3rd.
Apr 15, 2010 | Cards, class, Thank You, Wildlife |
Cheep Talk is the stamp set I used to make this card:
The base of the card is Taken with Teal and will be one of the colors that will retire at the end of June – it is one of the colors I’ll miss the most. I love to use the Teal with Old Olive. We will be making this card in my card class tomorrow. I also decorated the inside – take a peek:
I hope you like it.
The more eggs – are more bird eggs that I found this morning. The chickadee has 4 eggs in her nest – they must have been a little hidden where I couldn’t see them – I actually thought there were only two but when I put the camera in to take the picture (she was away) the picture shows 4 eggs! They normally lay 5 – 7 eggs so maybe there will be another one tomorrow.
I’m so excited to have so many nests/eggs again this year!
Thanks for stopping by!
Early Bird pricing for Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition is going on now – $19.95 – don’t miss out!
Join me for the Royal Blog Tour:- April 30 – May 3rd.
Apr 14, 2010 | Wildlife |
This is a bird update – I’ll post a stamping project a little later.
Yesterday afternoon I found another nest in the backyard – it was in my pink puff-ball tree (ok – that isn’t really the name of the tree – it is a Kanzan Cherry tree). I think it is probably a Robin’s nest. It is too high for me to see inside it and unfortunately faces away from our house so even from the upstairs windows I can’t see into it.
Last year the robin built a nest on our gutter downspout and they raised two babies. I’ll have to wait and see later after these eggs hatch.
This morning I checked on the houses – mama bluebird is sitting on her eggs now.
House #2 is a Tufted Titmouse and this morning I wasn’t expecting to find her inside – but she was and after she flew out I was able to get a photo – it looks like she has about 6 eggs. She must bury them when she leaves the house since yesterday I couldn’t see any eggs. The picture isn’t very good since the house is high – I just held up the camera without being able to see where it is aiming.
The house opens from the top and side – that is how I’m able to peek inside. The mom returned after she grabbed some seed from the feeder nearby.
I’m excited to have 4 nests again this year! I hope they all successfully raise their babies.
Eastern Bluebird = 4 eggs
Tufted Titmouse = 6 eggs
Chickadee = ? eggs
maybe a Robin = ? eggs
Have a wonderful spring day! I washed down our porch and desk yesterday to get rid of some of the pollen. We are living in a yellow cloud right now.
Apr 9, 2010 | Big Shot, Designer Series Paper, family, Occasion Mini 2010, Wildlife |
Here is another card from my Birds & Butterflies class last month. This is a gorgeous bird house card designed by my friend and fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrator Michelle Sclippei – she is so creative.
The card base is So Saffron card stock with a piece of Sweet Pea Designer Series paper on the front – a hole punched for the bird which has been sponged with Chocolate Chip ink.
The roof top is Old Olive which was run through the Big Shot with the new Dots Embossing Folder – and then sponged around the edges. The roof trim is the new Scallop Trim Border punch.
The front is decorated with leaves from the two-step bird punch and butterflies from the Beautiful Wings embosslit. A very creative card!
Speaking of birds – I took a picture of the bluebird nest the other day with 4 eggs – 
I’m not sure if she was done. Bluebirds normally lay 4 or 5 eggs. When I get back home I’ll check.
And then a quick
picture showing the mountain view from our deck. I need to remember to get some sunrise pictures in the morning.
I’m off to check on Greg who is down by the fire-pit – he and the boys built a fire a little while ago. And then we’ll be starting dinner.
Have a nice weekend.
Apr 5, 2010 | Easter, family, Wildlife |
I found some special eggs on Easter morning – two Blue Bird Eggs in the nest – 
She must have laid the first one on Saturday because there weren’t any on Friday. So there should be another today – they normally 1 egg each day – and usually 4 or 5 total. Early this morning there were still only 2.
I got this picture of them to0 – the female was inside the house and the male was fluttering around outside. I’m not quite sure what she was saying to him – maybe “I’m busy right now dear you need to come back later….”
I did see a Tufted Titmouse going into the other house – here is a picture of the nest they are building – 
It has moss, and leaves and a little bit of trash in there – a plastic wrapper of some type. I can’t tell if there are any eggs in it – I wasn’t tall enough to see over the edge of the cup and I couldn’t get the house loose to lower it on the pole.
I thought I would also share some pictures from Easter – I made the big kids hunt eggs too – so Tyler 16 and Kyle 18 hunted along with the younger ones.
This was before they started - bucket heads!
And then I wanted to show you my Hummingbird Cake – I added the Chocolate Bunny decoration to it. The same as the little M&Ms treats I just put this on on a craft stick and stuck it in the center of my cake.
I hope you had a Happy Easter. We sure did and the weather was just perfect. The food was incredible and way more than any of us needed. What a wonderful family to be a part of!
Mar 31, 2010 | Big Shot, Decor Elements, Designer Series Paper, Stamper's Club, Wildlife |
I wanted to share with you the gift that I made for all of my Stamper’s Club members. My club started again last month and our next meeting is on Friday this week. Then Saturday I’ll be getting ready for Easter and Sunday I’ll have over 30 people here for our Easter Lunch and Egg Hunt. I am trying to come up with a fun “Egg Hunt” for the teenagers – which is what most of the kids are now. Only my niece and nephew are little and enjoy the actual egg hunt the rest have grown up so much I think I made them hunt eggs last year. Although they do still like the candy. Sorry – I wandered off topic – back to my project……
I decorated a 12×12 Craft Keeper for everyone. Each one is personalized with their name and I’ll use it to put in all of their supplies for our meeting each month. Here is a picture of the one I made for myself.
To create the names I used a sheet of Chocolate Chip Decor Elements – yes you can buy them in sheets in various colors – and cut the letters on my Big Shot Die Cut Machine. I used the Stampin’ Up! Alphabet Simple Letters dies to cut each name and then applied them to the Craft Keeper with the Decor Elements Applicator.
To decorate around the names I used the For All You Do stamp set and White StazOn Ink. For the top I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch holes along the flap and then ran a piece of Bashful Blue Grosgrain ribbon in and out of the holes.
Next I tried my hand at making fabric flowers. I picked up this fabric – 3 different patterns at the fabric store – it had Chocolate Chip as the base so of course I liked it! I used the Big Shot Die Cut machine to cut the fabric – the die that I used is the Scallop Circle #2 die and I used the smaller flower that is on it. For each flower you need 5 scallop circles. I know many people are making lots of flowers and things with fabric and the Big Shot and I’m not exactly sure how everyone else is making their flowers – but since I didn’t have one of the flower dies I used this scallop circle and this is how I made it look like it had flower petals.
The bottom layer is just the scallop circle – that was my base to sew everything else on to. Then I took each scallop circle and folded it in half (wrong sides together) and then folded it in half again so I ended up with a quarter of the scallop circle and 4 layers. Then I sewed the tip so it would stay together and then sewed that to my scallop circle base. I did that 4 times and then sewed a button in the center to cover up all of my sewing in the middle. I didn’t cut the layers apart but I guess you could and it would give a little bit of a different look. If they aren’t cut the folds give the flower some fluff. I did mix up the prints so not all the petals have the same fabric print on them.
To finish off the craft keeper I used glue dots to add a piece of 12×12 Designer Series Paper inside. Then it is always pretty and whatever is inside will be behind the paper. I hope everyone liked these.
Just a quick bird update – still no bluebird eggs but I do see them around the yard and going into the house every day. I did check my House #1 this morning and someone has started a nest in there – I’m not sure who – I did see a Tufted Titmouse go in there a few days ago but it could also be the Chick-a-Dees – they used that house last year.
Have a nice day – we are having some great Spring Weather and it should be really nice here on Sunday – which is good because I use my screened porch and deck for extra tables and chair on Easter.
Do you know who that is? It is a female Cardinal. She must have eggs in there but I’ll have to wait for her to leave to see them. She hunkered down when we first found her – I took this picture later and her head was up a little bit more. The male cardinal is the bright red bird that we see all the time – the female has the bright red beak but her body is more brown with just a red tinge.
