Feeding the Birds.. A Winter's Delight

Hello..

I'm so glad you're here and I hope that you

enjoy your visit.

I'd like to share with you one of  my greatest delights.

Feeding the birds. 

I must confess that I enjoy their sweet company so much,

that a few years ago, I began feeding

(and watering) them all year long. 

They are my little friends.

Guess who's coming for breakfast..

dinner.. a mid-day snack

and a sip of refreshing, cool water.

Pine Siskins

Mountain Bluebirds

Pinon Jays

Purple Finches

Sparrows

Juncos

Robins

Grosbeaks

Cedar Waxwings

Flickers

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers

The Tufted Titmouse

and sometimes others...

We go through A LOT of birdseed!

Depending on the temps,

I sometimes feed them as many as 4 times a day.

At times, there are between 50-100 birds at one time.

The surrounding yard and sidewalk are thick with

sweet, hungry creatures. 

I enjoy hearing their chirping and chattering

and sometimes scolding each other.

They are such a joy and I get 

great pleasure out of knowing that I'm helping them

fulfill their basic needs of gathering food. 

And in this dry, harsh country, it's not easy

for them to find water.

A few weeks ago, during a very cold snap, I

ran out of seed!

I was not going to let my friends go hungry

and so I did a little online research

to come up with some alternatives to seed.

It was interesting and enjoyable to 

put together a healthy assortment of 

food for them.

  Here you see:

 peanut butter and jelly

chopped pecans and walnuts

chopped banana

cornmeal mixed with quick oats

And since the cornmeal and oats are so dry,

I drizzled a bit of coconut oil over the mix.

  Chopped banana is one their favorite foods!

Sometimes, I take a frozen one out of the freezer,

thaw it, split the peel open and just set it on the

sidewalk. They eat it up! I'm sure the natural sugar

is a treat and gives them a little extra energy to burn in 

that cold weather.

 The next round was popcorn...cat food and chopped

up sunflower seeds.

 ~On a winter's morn, joy flies in on the wings of birds~

I'm sure if you feed birds on a regular basis,

when you come out, your little friends are waiting for their

food. Some folks may use feeders, I tried that but I find them 

too small for all the bird friends and families to 

gather around. And it's so convenient to 

just walk out my back door, and scoop and toss. 

"Come feed the little birds, show them you care

And you'll be glad if you do.

Their young ones are hungry, their nests are so bare

All it takes is tuppence from you"

  Mary Poppins

 

It's a simple gift

to be still and watch these gentle, little

creatures find their way to my back doorstep.

And to have them stop and take a rest from their flight, wherever

they're going.  The water flies from the bird bath and

the pan as they dip and splash and spread their

little wings to shake off the water.

I just LOVE to watch them bathe. 

It's so sweet and serene and they look SO happy.

Then they hop out and make room for

the next one!

Well friends. 

I hope that life is being good to you

and that you're finding your own

delights on this winter's day.

I'd love to hear! Please, do tell.

Thank you so much for coming by and may the rest

of your week be filled with good things.

Tamara xo 

Festive, Valentine Candy Jars

Hello everyone..

I hope you're having a wonderful week.

 With Valentine's Day drawing near, I wanted to do something

fun and festive. 

Aren't the candy colors and wrappers

just so inspiring?

I am so captivated by all that color and the 

combinations are so fun!

You know how it is when you begin with an idea

and it just grows? That's what happened

here and I had SO much fun 

creating and decorating!  And I was able

to be adventurous and work with some of my

trims and colors that I don't usually use. 

I have tried to keep my color pallets to a 

certain style for most things... neutrals and pinks mostly. 

But I find my ideas sometimes want to go beyond

these lovely shades! 

And so here, I have gone kind of

 CrAzY with color!

And I loved doing it.

 I hope that you enjoy following along

in my adventure. 

Warning.. there are lots of photos.

Some are just for fun!

I used Mason jars but

I don't recommend using these

because the lids turn separately from the bands.

And so I had to make sure that my embellishments

weren't attached to the band AND the lid or

 they wouldn't turn smoothly.

Most of my "saved" jars had labels on them and I

wasn't willing to take the time to remove them at that moment.

Materials used:

jars

streamers

gesso

paint

hot glue

Uhu adhesive

E6000 adhesive

tulle 

buttons

trims

pom poms

thrifted glasses and candleholders

Stickles glitter, red

A lovely tangle of streamers! 

Most of the bands from the mason jar lids

got a coat of gesso before I painted them.

It works so well for priming. I wasn't sure

how my acrylic paints would adhere.

Gathering the streamer and gluing..

CUTIE! It's so fun looking through

the sayings to find just the right one!

Here's the history of the conversation heart

if you'd like to read it. It's interesting and nostalgic.

This lid is gessoed.
And because I didn't have the red paint that

matched, I just took a Real Red stamp pad from

Stampin' Up and rubbed it over the rim.

The center is piece of white card stock

that is spritzed with SmoochSpritz from

Stampin' Up. I'm sorry. The color isn't

labeled. And I think it's discontinued.

Crepe paper streamers! Paper of any kind is just

such fun. And those colors :)

Doesn't that look fun? 

This color pink says to me

"Let's Celebrate!"

And those little sparkles are so pretty.

This is Extreme Glitter paint by FolkArt

It's Jellybean Pink.

The band below is covered with two coats of this.

I didn't prime it and I love how the silver shows through.

Do you like it combined with the pink, frosty look?

 

I found this cute little glass at a thrift store for 50 cents.

I wasn't sure about inverting it and using it for a base.

But I decided to give it a go.

It does fit the jar well.

What do you think? 

Do you like it?

All of the bases were glued on using

the E6000 adhesive. It works

very well but the fumes are extremely toxic.

So, please, use with care. 

(I was reminded of something about my 

photography while looking at these pictures. I tend to angle 

my photos to the right. It's rather annoying! I'll have to 

be mindful of that in the future.)

All done! It was a bit time consuming 

but so very enjoyable.

Isn't this a lovely little crocheted table runner?

I found it at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago

for a small change.

What does Valentine's Day mean to you?

I used to think of it as a day to celebrate

romantic love. But many years ago, I began to see it

as another day to express love to my family and friends

as well. I also think of God's love for us.

For me.. for you.

Love can seem elusive at times.

It can seem to flitter about with the circumstances.

And it has so many faces and meanings.

But there's One's love that never changes.

Always pure

Always sincere 

and

Always present.

~His~

I hope you have a warm-hearted..feeling loved kind of day.

Thank you for being my friends!

And thank you so much for coming by.

Tamara xo

linking up at..

Shabbilicious Friday

Art Inspiration: My Quest .. Insecurities, Commitments and Guarding Your Dreams

Hello friends.

I hope this day finds you inspired and at peace.

Today, I'd like to share some thoughts and

revelations that have been on my heart for some time.

I call this my journey.. my quest.

 I have been blogging/journaling

about it because someday, I may want 

to re-trace my steps or share.

This involves many aspects of my life. 

There are the personal parts that

involve my own discoveries about myself

and how I have lost layer after layer

to get to who I really am.

Finding my heart.

Silencing the noise.

Unloading the clutter.

And it's also about:

CREATING

I hope that you don't mind my sharing.

(I guess that's partly why I title it like I do.

So readers can filter.)

I must say though that I find such inspiration

and feel a real connection when people

share their stories. 

Sometimes, they can be 

gritty and raw.

 I like raw. 

Raw is real.

And real is authentic.

It's where we live and learn. 

**********

This part of my journey has been difficult.

This has been a choice.

And a hard one.

But sometimes often times it's necessary to 

make hard choices to get you where you

want to go and it's wise to count the cost.

I'm not trying to be mysterious.

It's just difficult for me and it pricks my heart 

and brings tears when I think of it.

I have had to begin guarding my time very

carefully in order to 

protect it from being whittled away.

Please don't get me wrong,

I love people and doing what I'm able to 

help ease their burdens. 

And just spending time with people.

(With Quality Time being 

my first Love Language,

cutting my time with others

 has been very difficult!)

However, sometimes it can be 

unhealthy for others and yourself

if expectations and motives are out of balance. 

Recently I have begun to notice that

after hours of phone calls and texting and

visits that there is very little...and I mean

VERY little time to work at what

God has put in my heart to build on and work at.

  IF YOU DON'T 

BUILD YOUR DREAMS,

SOMEONE WILL HIRE YOU

 TO BUILD THEIRS.

Why I do what I do.

And here is the not-so-fun part of sharing. 

~Transparency~

I can be very insecure.

And so sometimes I do things for people 

because it feels safe. Then I will be liked. 

Or it makes me look good or if I am helping someone 

else, surely that makes me a good person.

Or maybe I wouldn't be liked, if I said no.

(And unfortunately, the latter has happened.)

But anyway

It's been very enlightening and freeing

 to work through all of that.

Facing my own insecurities.

The anger and disappointment of others.

The loneliness.

Sometimes it can be very lonely.

But the quiet is what I need to focus and create. 

Some understand and respect the need for

time and space and it's beautiful when that happens.

It's been a matter of serious consideration,

 getting over feelings of extreme guilt and feeling

selfish because I have had to begin to say.. 

I'm sorry.. I can't right now.

(And it's not easy because I really do care.)

 At times, it's not even people asking.

My personality is that of a nurturer

  and so it's been a combination of 

wanting to and feeling obligated.

In order to guard the time that I have to study, learn 

and create, I have had to consider my motives for and

commitments to others very carefully. 

Being very sensitive but paring down. 

Anyone who wants to dedicate time to learning and

creating knows that it takes a lot of time of focusing

and hard work!

THE ARTIST IS NOTHING 

WITHOUT THE GIFT

 BUT THE GIFT IS NOTHING 

WITHOUT THE WORK. 

Emile Zola 

I am happy to say that the most difficult part of this 

journey is past. I have come to a place where I can 

give time to people in a more pure and balanced way. 

My husband and I talk a lot about these kinds of things.

And one of the things that I want desperately for my

children to get is to be wise in their decisions.

If you have dreams, and most people do, be careful

not to create a life that locks you into spending 

most of your time doing what you HAVE to do,

 instead of what you want to do. 

Those have-tos can be created

very easily and it's SO very difficult to 

then carve out time for your...

~DREAMS~ 

Some people spend literally hours every day

working at what they love and pursuing their dreams

and goals. I would have been very grateful as a young adult

to have these nuggets of truth safely tucked away

in my treasure chest of wisdom.

But I know as I have said before, 

~I can TRUST GOD with the 

TIMING of MY LIFE. ~

I do so hope that this has been encouraging to you

today. I hope the rest of your week is filled with peace

and fulfillment.

As always, I'm grateful for your visit here.

Thank you!

Tamara Xo