paper mache bird in cage

i found this birdcage at Michael's and decided it needed a little birdie to live inside of it. the bird is paper mache and she is sitting on a wire nest i wove. the nest is sitting on a kid's wooden block, "B" for bird! her feathers are real feathers found in my very own back yard. i learned how to make the bird while in Hampton, from Jan Harris. my goal is to make them smaller and smaller and eventually have some little ones to use in jewelry.

day #5 Hippity hop swap

today's gift is from Brenda Bliss. it's a darling fabric bird; although i'm not sure of the fabric - muslin quite possibly. the bird is cream colored with with some handpainted brown/gold tones thrown in. it was sewn and stuffed with poly fil. In a black cord wrapped around his tail is a lovely wire nest with some purple egg beads inside. i got an email from Brenda who wanted to make sure that i knew that the nest was also a necklace! how cool is that? i think i shall put him in one of my fiber nests that i've been making. thanks, Brenda!

what a day!

Jeff is down with the flu or stomach virus that tuck had last week - so i'm taking care of him (horrible patient) and then watching tuck too, cuz we don't want him to get it again. so needless to say, I'm quite tired! i am either getting the flu or having what i think might be sleeping pill side affects. i was taking ambien for a few weeks since i never get good sleep. but then i started feeling really queasy during the day (and this started at Artnest), feeling extremely weak and over all tired - which are all side affects. so i stopped taking it 2 days ago (and i was only taking 1/4 to 1/2 a pill since i am very sensitive to medicine. if i could have today,i would have slept all day. could be a combo of stress, the sleeping pills and pms. what fun we ladies have in our lives!!

so today at 4pm, east coast time was registration for Artnsoul, Portland, Oregon in Oct. well i was online at 4pm as instructed and started signing up for my classes, only to have the server crash again. this happened in May and it was very frustrating then. to have it happen today when i was feeling not 100%, kind of got me really frustrated. i signed up for the 2 classes i really wanted, only to go to pay and then get kicked off the site ("oops, this page is not available") and then not be able to get back on. by the time i got back on, my cart was empty and one of the classes said it was now "closed". it was so frustrating. you'd think that they'd be prepared (and they said they were........) maybe they don't realize that every 6 months, that many more people want to attend. i think they should double their estimate from now on and be ready for a gazillion art eager women to be online applying for their classes! so then registration was closed down and changed til tomorrow at 4pm at which time i should be almost arriving at work. i'll have to admit, i wasn't feeling patient and calm. i kept asking myself, why do i put myself through this? it's like ebay, i finally stopped doing ebay, because i don't want to get into any bidding wars - don't have the energy for that anymore! either sell it to me, or i am moving on! lol.

i leave with a few pics i took yesterday. one of my favorite tea pot, a shadow outside of a garden ornament and you can see me in the corner and my easter egg tree that i decorated using a branch i found outside after our wind storm.

here's what i sent to kim

this is the nest and birdie that i sent to kim for our nest swap. isn't she cute? i wonder what kim will call her? she's very protective of her baby egg.