Happy spring, friends! Welcome to another Pinterest Challenge hosted by my good friend Cindy of County Road 407, who even though we haven’t seen each other in over a year (drat that Covid!), actually only lives about 15 minutes away (her city house, that is, not the country one!). Thank you, Cindy, for another wonderful blog hop!!! Our springtime theme this month is to create a pretty birdhouse vignette…
If you are just coming over from Kim from Shiplap and Shells and are here for the first time, welcome! I am so glad you’ve come!! Please consider subscribing if you enjoy your visit today, thank you!!
Our inspiration
Cindy found today’s Pinterest Challenge piece over at Doreen‘s blog, Hymn’s and Verses… I love the soft blue colors and all the natural elements of grasses, flowers and the bird theme! Doreen has a nice easy-going eclectic style which I like a lot! where she brilliantly puts together antiques, mid-century and even very modern furniture pieces in a fun farmhouse style. I think you will like her blog! 🙂
My takeaways from Doreen’s birdhouse vignette
- repeated colors
- natural woven grasses and caning
- bird theme
- flowers
- a fun birdhouse
- small tin painted bucket
- a small plate with a bird representation for her “bird”
I had just used forced branches in last month’s spring mantel and they are faded away, so I thought I’d use some pink flame geraniums in my spring birdhouse vignette for my blooms! To the right are some soft pink freesia (just out of the picture) behind the small birdhouse I made in 2007 for myself and the ladies in my last tea group.
To make this birdhouse:
- a pre-made birdhouse
- pieces of broken china
- sanded grout mix
- small wooden ormulu to glue on the front
- a small knob for a perch
- paint of your choice
- small utensils/ wooden sticks for grouting
- clear sealer in spray or liquid form (do outdoors as it can really stink!)
Begin by painting your birdhouse all over its outside and let dry. Smash up broken bits of china plates, teacups and so on by placing them into a heavy Ziplock-type bag with a hammer. Trial these pieces on the birdhouse roof beforehand to create a pleasing look.
Using an old butter knife or paint stick, “butter on” sanded grout mix along the roofline of the birdhouse. Put it on fairly thickly (as thick as your thickest pieces of china). Squish in the broken china pieces. Fill in any areas that need more grout as needed with small toothpicks, wooden skewers. Spray on clear sealer to seal the grout to give your roof a good look!
That’s it!!!
Going pink!
I don’t really have much vintage china in soft blues but I do have lots of pink, so I went with deeper pinks and greens in my vignette (plus a few other soft colors)!
I started with a natural woven basket and a small Longaberger basket as my “tin pail.” My smaller basket holds all the seed packets I have save these past few years. I love the handles on both the inspiration piece and on mine!
I added in a small blue and white vase plus a small cement capital as a lift for the little birdhouse. The addition of the plants and some gardening gloves and Corona clippers are just part and parcel around here in the garden!
And of course a sweet pink birdie came to the party!…
As you can see this potting bench is really getting used! The two covers which helped save a bunch of plants from the week-long arctic freeze and subsequent ice storms of last month are stuffed down below, waiting for me to lay them out and fold them properly.
Thank you for stopping by today as you visit all of my friends on today’s Pinterest Challenge tour! Next up is Niky from The House on Silverado and I know you will love her birdhouse vignette!!
Enjoy your spring gardens, friends,
Barb 🙂