All the little birds go tweet, tweet, tweet….

It's springtime! Even with the flurries of snow we are still getting, the birds are out and singing.

I’m cutting some brand new designs from Toni and Sue from Chrestensen Burghout Design. Tweedle Dee on the left has been shaped, while Tweedle Dumb on the right is only partially shaped. Usually when I plan on coloring my items, I use pine for them. But, I thought these two needed something different – I’m going to try a new coloring technique, so I am using Oak wood for these two birds. We will see if the vision in my head comes out in reality!

Staying with the theme, Here are a pair of cascading earrings handcrafted from genuine teardrop garnets and peacock freshwater pearls. They were made by Amy of The Jewelry Shop on Artfire. Amy is from Florida, and makes some beautiful jewelry. You can see more of her wares at: http://www.thejewelryshop.artfire.com/

ART FIRE

Artfire is a fairly new online selling venue. Each person has their own "shop" where they list and sell their hand crafted items from. Every few days I'm going to be featuring different sellers from Artfire!

The first is CaterpillarPeacock ~ http://www.caterpillarpeacock.artfire.com/

Lindsey is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and makes the cutest tiny hats. She first crochets them out of wool yarn, then felts them. In the one shown above, she also added a few swirls. They are only about 4" wide, and clip to your hair with the attached bobby pin.

Check out her shop to see more hats along with the felted calla-lilly jewelry she has listed.

Skeletons!

Nope, it's not Halloween - but I am enthralled by these skeletons we saw at the Museum in GR. I can't imagine what someone had to do to get the fully intact snake and bullfrog skeletons they have on display.

These were in a room fashioned after the displays in the original museum - rows of butterflies and birds, rocks and bones. In later years, the displays began to feature the specimens in their natural habitat.