Birds and Baths...

We have a ton of birds in our yard, and I love birds! I suspect they love the fruit trees that surround our back yard for several reasons. 

1 they are great nesting sites, 

2 fruit trees have bugs that love to eat fruit, 

3 some of them prefer the fruit to the bugs, 

4 they like to entertain us. 

We have humming birds, finches, sparrows, robins, starlings, and  morning doves, just to name the most common visitors. You know it is spring when you wake up to the sound of lots of birds chirping at 4 in the morning. I always try to accommodate my birdy friends. We used to put out food before we moved to this house. Now there is no need to put out the food. The only food I provide is for the hummers. However I love to treat the birds to a bath.  Yesterday when I was standing outside watching the birds. A starling landed on a storage tote with water on the lid. Before it even started bathing a robin came down and landed on the same tote and was waiting it's turn. Meanwhile a finch flew down and decided it wanted a turn as well. It was amazing to me to see that all though they were different types of birds they were all in need of a bath and they all waited politely for their turn. 

Well as you know bird baths can be fairly pricey, and bulky and heavy. Granted there is every kind of birdbath out there that you can imagine. (even an old storage tote with water on the lid)

Anyhow as I was blog hopping a few weeks ago I came across a very clever way to make a bird bath while recycling or reusing what you might be wanting to get rid of . Or you can do as I did and rescue a few items from your local thrift store. I have no Idea what blog I found it on, but I am so glad I did. I wish I could give credit for the idea to the person who blogged about it. 

Below is a tutorial for making your own bird bath. It is a super easy project. The hardest part is selecting what you want to use!

You will need at least:

 1 vase 

 1 plate or dish

 epoxy

 dowel or pvc pipe 

(Note: I only spent $6 dollars on my materials minus the epoxy.) 

First choose a plate or bowl or some sort of serving dish or platter.  Then get a vase. One of those  that are abundant in your basement or the thrift store or yard sales!

This is what I chose.

Wash and dry thoroughly.

Next you want to get out your epoxy or gorilla glue, basically use whatever you can rely on for a good strong bond. I used a 5 minute cure epoxy from our locally owned hobby shop. It is the greatest stuff I have ever used. I used up so much of my husbands supply that he got me my own! 

Mix equal amounts of epoxy and hardener. I tend to use a small drop more of the hardener. 

Mix together very well and spread onto the bottom of the vase.

Next position the bottom of the vase onto the bottom of your dish.  And leave it be for at least 5 minutes if you are using a 5 minute cure epoxy. 

These are some of the finished pieces. 

Now you want to get your dowel or PVC pipe to fit into your vase fairly snug, you don't want it tight or too loose. Too loose and it won't stand up straight, it will wobble and too tight you won't be able to take it off  if you needed to. 

Next position your dowel where you want it and put it in the ground so it is sturdy.

Slide on your vase and you now have a bird bath!

Fill it up with water and enjoy the peep show!

These are going to end up in my garden. But for now they are in the lawn so I don't have to work around them while I get my plants in the ground. 

This last picture was from up on my deck so they look smaller than they are. I used a generous sized dinner plate , 2 salad plates and a bowl. I loved the colors of lime and turquoise mixed with the chili pepper red and the egg plant. I think they are going to look gorgeous in my veggie garden this summer. 

I won!

Earth Day was April 22. I am so glad that people are finally starting to get a grip on taking care of the earth.  I am not a tree hugger or an activist. But I firmly believe that we need to "be good stewards" and take care of the planet God provided for us to live on.  I think it doesn't hurt any one to recycle and I am really glad we finally moved to a neighborhood that does have recycling.  I think it is a good thing to get people thinking about saving energy and reducing waste.

 Alright moving along.... I follow a lot of blogs and it is a really good thing that they don't all post something new everyday! I am very selective in the blogs that I do follow and I am loyal at that. Mostly they are crafty, or cooking related or they are friends and family. I think they are a breath of fresh air and they give me tons of inspiration. I am constantly amazed by the plethora of wonderful ideas that these ladies come up with. And I am thoroughly enjoying the Craft Quality time with my kids while crafting or cooking.

Back to Earth Day and how that ties in with this blog post. On April 22, the Cottage indutrialist blog that I follow had a blog hop post about Earth Day and Organic Cotton fabric give-aways.  This was a blog hop where you entered to win from 12 different designers' blogs. The give away was different depending on the designer, but the prizes were all organic cotton fabric.  

I entered to win from all 12 blogs, and would you believe it ? I WON!!! I won the give away from Harmony Arts. The prize was 4 yards of organic cotton fabric of my choice from her website.

 I just received my fabric last night and I am so thrilled and feel so incredibly blessed. These fabrics are even more beautiful that the pictures or the website convey. The colors are rich and the feel of the fabric is so awesome. I just can't wait to see what I am going to create with the beautiful fabrics. I do have a plan for some of it. It will be gifted to my mom for Mother's day. By the way she loved them!!! Other pieces will become a dress for my girl or a bandanna for when I ride the bike but ultimately I am hoping that I will have a scrap left for that.

 Harmony from Harmony Arts designed these fabrics and is such a generous person THANKS HARMONY! I love her fabrics and  how natural they look.  So you all need to go over to her site and peruse her designs. You won't be sorry you did.  www.harmonyart.com

April Photos of the Month

I almost forgot my April photos of the month post. 

Ok the first one is of Ashton. He broke his tooth on Resurrection Sunday while horse playing 

We took him to the dentist the next day and he had it fixed. It looks just fine! Now we are just careful not to let him bite into an apple. 

 This Photo is of the brand new babies our good friends Christa and Jesse just had. They are the sweetest things ever! Justin is ever so glad that we are not able to have any more kids ourselves because these too sweet things have made me sooooo baby hungry!

 These are our t- shirts for our church softball team. I love the color. It makes it so easy to see our team coming out to play. We have not been a very sports oriented family in the past but we are really enjoying being on this team. the fellowship is really great!

Hear is another one of my buddies! This is Vahn. He is such a cutie I can't help taking pictures of him when he is around and I have my camera out. This photo was not great due to the lighting. But I decided to experiment with the editing.  I like the results. His daddy is a professional photographer and he does phenomenal work. Mostly weddings and engagement shoots but he is now doing babies as well. I really don't want him to see this photo but it is one of my faves so it goes into the April photos of the month!

I like this one! It proves that I can weld and that I had a great time doing it. Ashton took this photo. 

This pic is after our first game and we lost horribly!!! But we were having a great time afterward. There are a few of us I could not fit in this photo and a few who did not come out with us.

I hope you enjoy these photos. 

Thanks for stopping by!