I thought I would share some photos I’ve take the past few days… enjoy…. 
Both Bluebirds at House #2
A flock of Red-Winged Blackbirds were visiting today
Bluebird on the gutter
Bluebird getting some water
The Chipmunk that sits on my front porch every day
Brownheaded Nuthatch
Aspen - he made himself a bed on the sofa!
On Wednesday I was working in the craft room (which is upstairs) and I kept hearing this tapping sound. So I went to investigate. As it turns out the bluebird was down in my kitchen at the picture window sitting on the fountain and tapping at my window. Maybe he saw his reflection and was trying to chase away what he thought was another bird. Because he was so close I was able to get some great pictures of him.
He came back several times throughout the day to tap on that window. I also saw him and the female spending some time at house #2 – the female even went inside. There was also a Chick-a-Dee looking at the same house and the Bluebirds chased him away. The past couple of years they have tried to build in the same house – so we will see what happens this year.
I hope you like the photos. They are such pretty birds!
It is that time of year when I get to start posting about the birds in the yard. I did this last year and everyone really enjoyed seeing the photos of the birds and hearing about them too. Last year I had four different species of birds that built nests, laid eggs and raised babies in our yard. I’m hoping for some this year too. I have added a third bluebird house so we’ll see what happens. Right now the blue birds still seem to be shopping for houses it was around the middle of March when they were actually building their nests. So I’ll keep you posted. Here are some pictures I took on Valentine’s Day of the Bluebirds checking out all three of the bluebird houses that I have.
House #1
This is the male bluebird sitting on house #1 – it is the oldest house and they have used it multiple years. I have moved it to a different location so we’ll see how they like it. If you do some reading about the bluebirds they prefer their houses to be a certain distance from the ground, facing a particular direction and with a particular size hole to get in and out of the house. The male is such a pretty bird with his bright blue and easier to spot than the female. She is usually nearby but doesn’t have as much blue.
House #2
Here is the male bird on House #2 which is the house that they used last year. It is still in the same location near our driveway – so the fence is nearby and the basketball goal which they seem to perch on a lot so they can keep an eye on the house.
House #3
And here is the male looking in the new house – house #3. This one is made out recycled materials so it is a plastic type house – the other two are wood.
This new house hangs on a hook from a tree branch so it actually swings instead of being stationary on a pole. I don’t know if they’ll like that or not. It is located in the same general area that house #1 used to be in. I think they both went inside that one.
Later I saw them both sitting together in various parts of the yard – maybe discussing their options – new versus old, location, pros and cons….can’t you just hear them. I’m so glad we don’t have to find a new house every spring!
I hope you enjoy my bird stories this year – and if you aren’t interested then just skip these posts.
Have a “Blue-ti-ful” day!
Happy Valentine’s Day! At my house we do Valentine’s Day a little different – I cook a surf & turf dinner for my boys and Greg and then the boys go on a scavenger hunt to find treats around the house. We have been doing this for years probably since Kyle was in first grade or so (he is a senior now). So I set up the scavenger hunt this morning and I’m working on dinner – I bought lobster tails on sale earlier in the week, got steaks and also crab legs. Yum, Yum! We figured it would cost about the same to feed all of us a nice meal at home as it would for Greg and I to go out by ourselves. I have potatoes in the oven – for twice baked potatoes. And I’m decorating the table – I’ll take pictures tonight at dinner and show you later.
Now I was going to share some of our snow pictures – we got 2-1/2″ on Friday – that is a lot for us.
Look how pretty my house looks with snow on it and on all the trees and bushes. 
After a few hours it finally started to stick to the streets. The kids did not get out of school early on Friday it was after the end of school before the roads started getting affected.
The picture with the bird is early Saturday morning – everything was quiet but the birds were very active getting food from the feeders.
And the dogs went out a little later on Saturday when the sun was shining. They played for a long time outside. As much as they don’t like the rain and being wet they didn’t seem to mind the snow. I do wonder what we would do if we lived in Virginia or other places where they had over 2 feet of snow – the dogs would just disappear!
We have another nice sunny day today but that might change tonight. I need to get back to working on my Valentine’s stuff. See you tomorrow!
The time is coming – the birds are back – they are house hunting.
If you were a visitor of my blog last year when I started (I know many of you weren’t) you may remember my birds. Last year I had four different bird species that built nests and had babies around our yard and I took pictures and posted them with updates throughout the spring. Many people enjoyed it and I’m hoping to have some nests and babies this year too.
The Eastern Bluebirds have started house hunting – I saw them last week looking at house #1 (that is my oldest bluebird house). Today they are looking at house #3 (that is my new bluebird house). I added a new bluebird house that the boys gave me last year so now I have 3. Last year the bluebirds used house #2 and the chick-a-dees used house #1 (if you go back to my old posts from last year you can read my stories about how they argued over the houses).
Bluebird looking at house #3
Today the pair of bluebirds were looking and going inside house #2 most of the time. One of them did check on house #1 too.
Bluebird at House #1
Then he headed to the bird feeder for some suet and I got a great shot of him flapping his wings as he was landing.
Bluebird at the Suet Feeder
And while I was looking out watching there was a woodpecker that also came to the peanut feeder and grabbed one. I was able to get a good photo of him with the peanut in his beak after he flew up to the tree.
woodpecker with a peanut
I’m crossing my fingers that we get some birds building nests and have babies this year. They are interesting to watch and learn from.
We have had the bluebirds for many years and the chick-a-dees occasionally too. Last year we had a robin and a towhee build nests too.
Thanks for visiting – I hope you enjoy the photos.
If you haven’t noticed I have been trying to participate in various challenges. I figure it keeps me thinking and my creativity flowing – maybe sometimes pushes you to use/do/try something you wouldn’t normally do. A personal challenge is I always try to take what I see and make it with all Stampin’ Up! items. I am on a mailing list from one of the scrapbook magazines and received an email from one the ladies this weekend about a new blog she started and a new challenge – 52 weeks of stress free scrapbooking – now that sounded interesting so I went to check out her blog and she has week 1 scrapbook layout posted. I normally create 2-page layouts but this was a single page and the challenge is to make one a week for 52 weeks – that would certainly fill up a scrapbook for 2010 – so why not – I can do this – yesterday I worked on my week 1 layout – I changed a few things – and used all Stampin’ Up! product, of course.
The background is a 12 x 12 piece of So Saffron. Then I layered a 11-3/4 x 11-3/4 piece of Sahara Sand. I used the Tall Tales Designer Series Paper – two different patterns – the So Saffron dots and the stripes of So Saffron and Old Olive.
The circle is chipboard from On Board Batch of Blooms chipboard. I “painted” it with Old Olive craft ink and a sponge dauber. Then punched holes in it with my Crop-A-Dile. I add Basic Grey Tafetta Ribbon by threading it through the holes and typing a bow at the bottom of the circle. So now I can enter this one in the Late Night Stampers challenge for this week – which was to use ribbon.
I stamped with Basic Grey ink using the new stamp set Garden from the Heart that is in the Occasions Mini Catalog. I colored the images with my Stampin’ Write Markers – So Saffron, Old Olive and Sahara Sand and a White Gel Pen. 
For the hat I added a So Saffron flower button from the Button Latte Designer buttons – in the center I added a silver brad. Under the hat I added just a little bit of Sahara Sand with an Aqua painter to add a shadow.
I also stamped with the splatter image from Itty Bitty backgrounds and Sahara Sand ink around the corners and edges on the layout. The photos are some that I took earlier this year of a flock of Cedar Waxwing’s that came through our yard this spring. I usually see them only once maybe twice as they migrate through our area. They come in a big flock and these pictures show them enjoying the bird bath and fountain in my back yard.
I also stamped the curly label tag image and punched it out. Since I didn’t have a Basic Grey marker and wanted to use the image with out the words I used a masking technique. I covered the words with a piece of tape – then inked the image on my Basic Grey ink pad. Removed the tape and then stamped on my Whisper White card stock. That gave me the label without the words. It was punched with the Curly Label punch and then layered with a die cut using the Movers & Shapers Curly Label die. I added a Basic Grey corduroy button – with some white crochet thread (ok I had one non- Stampin’ up! item).
It is much prettier in person than in these photos. The White Gel pen really pops on the Sahara Sand card stock. I’m done with my week 1 scrapbook page – 51 more weeks to go…..
Thanks for visiting today!
Milton, Georgia
Hi! I am a Stampin’ Up! independent demonstrator in Milton, Georgia. I love being creative and want to share it with you! On my blog I will share creative ideas using Stampin’ Up! products and you’ll also hear about my family and my dogs.
I look forward to helping you get your creative juices flowing!
Lets get crafty,
Monika Davis
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