An unexpected absence!

It's great to be back in the land of blog again:) I upgraded my computer to a new, faster computer and promptly used up my broadband allowence! Doh! For the first few days I felt a little lost but then the down time became creative time so it was a mixed blessing of sorts. I've completed ICE #2 and #3 in the last few nights as well as my offering for Seth's book.I can't show much of that (obviously) but I will post pics of the ICE collages soon. I've also recieved my 12 days of Christmas matchboxes and the Collage box from Lawendula's exchange since my last posting.

My birds are still here and thriving! I think 2 or 3 will be released back into the wild tomorrow which will be a bittersweet moment for us! The black one is still a bit young to go with the others but here's how he looks now...

 Below is how he looked the day we bought him home...

Sorry for the lack of art pics...I'm still getting the new toy sorted:)

Many thanks to those of you who dropped by and left me a comment while I was Awol! I'm aiming to visit you all soon:)

Letters and Symbols

I've been busy these last few days working on a piece for Alicia's Altered Bits Zine. This is another great opportunity to take part in an online project so if you havn't signed up yet make sure you get over to Alicia's blog and check out the themes and guidlines. I chose Letters and Symbols to work with and have had a lot of fun doing so!

Recycled lace, silk fabric, recycled paper,beads, reused button...and that red wire I am loving so much!

A few small peeks...but enough to show the nautical theme I have chosen. I've never worked in this theme before and it took a bit to find myself with it. However, the nautical side is a very important to this story so after a bit if playing around I came up with a combination I like and the story behind it all is below.

V is for Voyage...

A long time ago when only sailors got tattoos the humble sparrow was an important symbol. From what I have read the sparrow was tattooed onto a sailors as a talisman to keep them safe. The only time sailors saw sparrows while they were at sea was when they were close to land. The sight of a sparrow would tell a sailor that they were nearly at their destination and had survived their long and dangerous journey. Sighting a sparrow was a reason to celebrate!. The tattoo of a sparrow became a symbol of a sailors desire for safety, home and well being.  Over time the use of sparrows became interchangeable with other birds such as swallows and bluebird.Another reason sailors chose sparrows was because of the belief that sparrows took the souls of people to safety (based on an ancient Egyptian belief) and that should they not make the voyage then at least the sparrows would take them home. This is thought to be how the tattoo of a small bird, such as a sparrow, carrying banners with a loved ones name originated,  Incidentally, swallows in tattoos were originally used to commemorate the achievement of 5000 nautical miles at sea. If a sailor had 2 swallows it meant he had sailed 10,000 miles. Both swallows and sparrows were used to symbolise love and loyalty as both these birds mate for life.

Bonsai. 

We just watched the new Karate kid movie, hence the name Bonsai for our foster bird! 

As you probably noticed Bonsai is not a sparrow, he is a thrush! (we think!) and he's our latest foster bird. He's a lot older than the previous two as he feeds himself (messily!) and can perch. It's hard not to feel just a little attached so fingers crossed Bonsai will have a happier ending than Ash and Ang!

Ash and Ang

I'm officially a Bird Mama! I recently put my name down to foster baby birds in need of a little TLC until they are released back into the wild again. We finally picked up our first pair of birds yesterday, some thrush fledglings we named Ash and Ang.

Ash (on the left) and Ang (as in the Avatar!)

Unfortunately Ash passed on today after only 24hours with us. I'm not sure why, I guess that is just the way of nature. He had been attacked by a cat before coming to us and had bruising so maybe that was just too much for the little bird. Ang seems strong and eagerly eats the cat food I give him. I say "him" but I'm not sure if Ash and Ang are he's or she's! I hope to have Ang here for another 3 or 4 weeks until he's grown tail feathers and can find his own food. Right now he's being hand fed every 2-2.5 hours and requires a bedding change at each feed. I never knew they pooped so much! lol.

This beautiful red wire was rescued from a 1970's vacuum cleaner by my son. As he likes pulling electrical things apart we asked the second-hand shop if we could have any old electric things that they received that didn't work. They are more than happy to get rid of their 'junk' and my son's happy to salvage what he can! I am of course, very happy to receive gifts such as this! I am not sure if it is technically copper wire, unless there is such thing as red-copper wire but it's beautiful stuff. Very easy to use (watch this space!) and it just winds off the metal like wool. No muscle required!

At the start of the year I set myself an art goal to make plaster of paris bird eggs...and here they are! They are still in the raw stage here, I need to sand the eggs and then decide if I will make whole eggs or half eggs with a flat side for gluing. I'm thinking of collaging them with tissue paper or sewing pattern paper, this is still very much a work in progress!

Last but not least...I received word that Kim's book has reached Debrina's safe and sound! YAY!. It's always a worry when we set such precious things loose in the postal system and I think we all breathe a collective sigh of relief when another book makes it safely to it's destination!

True Bliss is...

I am so happy! Lots of precious bird's nest and nesty things have come into my life this week. I wonder if it is possible to actually be much more content? The first great bird thing to happen this week was the little, sweet nest my wonderful son found for me. I am not sure what sort of bird it is from but it is so delicate and small! I have seen one of these nests before that a teacher had found at the school. I really wanted it! but I was pleased that it would go into a class of young children so that they could learn about nests and hopefully grow to love birds as much as I do. That was about a month ago and everyday when I go past the spot it was found I think of that wonderful nest...so to have my own one?? Wowee! I was playing around with a photographic collage/still life idea and below is one of my attempts. I think this photo or one similar will end up as a collage image for real one of these days. Above: A wonderful nest, magnolia seed shells, Native Kowhai seed pods, small pinecones, moss on a stick. I actually have all these items on a bench near the kitchen so I can admire them:)
The second great bird thing to happen this week was the arrival of a parcel from a friend in Christchurch. She said she would send me some feathers...by some I thought she meant 10 or so...BUT what arrived was around 200!! No kidding! All sorts of duck and chicken feathers in wonderful colours. I photographed them of course and will post them later with the collage I did using a few of them. I was pretty happy by then, 2 great bird things in one week...but then guess what? Today while I was out taking photos of Tui's (and there were wax-eyes yesterday) and feeling really blissful. I found another nest! The Tui's put on the best show singing and chortling and flirting with each other (honestly, those boys sure know how to fluff a girl Tui's feathers....I was almost embarrassed!) and I was feeling super lucky to be allowed to watch. I wandered around for a bit and didn't notice the nest at first, the Tui's had my full attention but then something caught my eye....a thrush nest! And not just any ol nest but a nest with eggs!

My photography isn't wonderful ..but to be fair, not only were my hands shaking with excitement I was also perched (bad pun!) up the tree on skinny branches with my hair tangling in the twigs! I got such a buzz to see the nest. I'm sure that I can tweak them a bit when I get them printed and it will be all ok. I was going to see if I could take the nest home (usually I only collect fallen nests but this one seemed old at first) when I suddenly spotted 3 precious gems inside. Wow! At first I felt really bad.What if the mother bird didn't come back because of me? What if my fascination was going to come at a big cost to those not-yet-hatched birds? As I walked away half excited at my discovery and half filled with worry I said a quick prayer that this nest be blessed. I thought about it all morning but was so relieved to go back this avo and see the mother Thrush sitting in her nest. Wheeew! It was back to the excitement then!

What ever your bliss is, I hope that my happy vibes rub off onto you and your week is also filled with wonderful and inspiring things!