For the BIRDS

This has probably never happened to any of you, but just recently I took note of something that apparently has been going on at my house for a while now.   I noticed that I had a thing for birds.  Mind you, I KNEW I had a thing for cardinals...........and swans........and peacocks.  But in looking around my house, I noticed a decidely bird-y thing going on in general.   Cardinals and swans and peacocks for sure are in a special class, but one of my favorite cross stitched pieces is of a robin perched on the edge of her nest (see below).   I have several Hallmark collectors plates featuring nature artist Marjolein Bastin's birds.  My Christmas dishes are covered in birds of all sort.  And, I just discovered that I have a pretty good collection of bird ornaments.  So, I did what my BHGTVDD* Kitty Bartholomew would do and pooled those pretty little feathered things together and re-did a tabletop. 

The little tiny framed piece in the front is a Twisted Threads freebie cross stitch "Home of a Stitcher", featuring a silver sparrow charm on a cross-stitched nest.  The framed piece on the wall is "Aim High" by Crossed Wing Collection.  It is, to the best of my memory, one of the first pieces I stitched on linen.  It was no looking back after that!  Not in this picture is my copy of Charley Harper's Birds and Words art book.  If you are a bird lover too, you should check it out.  Some of his prints have been charted for cross stitch too, but you really have to hunt for them.  Brrrrrrd Bath (Harper)

They make me smile.

And I'll leave you with a poem by one of my all time favorites, Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune--without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Here's wishing you a spot of beauty and a reason to smile today!

*BHGTVDD = Best Home and Garden TV Decorating Diva