Fabric And Memories: Tea, anyone? Well, for the birds anyway!

I know I've been "absentee" for a few months now, but life just keeps getting in the way of my fun activities! Plus... I've learned a few new crafts recently and have been spending as much time as I can on one of them..seeing how memories fade fast! Time is of the essence! I have learned about Junk Journals and made a few and love them. Same theory as the Fabric Memory books... just with paper instead of fabric! So much fun and ohm the memories they can keep! Stay tuned for more about those!

But for now.. I just wanted to share something I made that I have been trying to make for some time now. A Tea Cup Bird feeder! I have quite a herd of various birds in my backyard (in the desert) that come every morning, expecting me to be up and food on their table by 7am! Sparrows, blue jays, doves and probably couple kinds I don't know what they are...and of course my hummingbirds. I have feeders, but want to decorate my back yard best I can. Being in the desert, heat is a constant problem and not being able to dig and plant like I want to.. and having sand for soil....I have to find other ways for decorating my yard. Nice large covered patio, but I need COLOR out there. So I try to decorate with "colored things" best I can while not letting it look junky!

Tuula, over at Thrifty Rebel Vintage ( and I love vintage anything!) shared a post while back about these cute little tea cup birdfeeders. Colorful, small, easy to make and just nice to have hanging around and no look junky! Her's is SOOO CUTE I just had to make one! So....after couple weeks of trying to find a tea cup set (I have one thrift store in town and that's it!) I went yesterday and although not a set, I found a painted tea cup and a painted saucer that kind of match, but lot of color... and made one following Tuula's direction.

I love it! I have it hanging in my potted Dwarf Necterine tree, just above some lavender in a pot beside it. Isn't it pretty? Not being a set, the cup and saucer didn't "fit" right like in Tuula's post... I had to wad up some masking tape and make a wedge to make the cup sit up straight so when hanging, the saucer was straight. So to cover that, I glued some silk flowers to the sides and added one to the back, and ....BINGO!!! all looks nice! I also glued a larger flower to the inside bottom of the cup for color since this cup didn't have any painting on the inside like the one Tuula used. I hung it out today and the birds took to it right away!

Here's what it looks like all together! Little birds only seemed to like it, so that works just fine! I intend to continue looking for cups and saucers and make a few more. I have a potted dwarf Peach tree on the other side of this one, that needs a feeder!

The pot right behind the tree...I forget the plant but it blooms small purple flowers. But in the middle of that... I found this handmade clay bowl....and glued it to a plastic sundae fluted glass and have that sitting in there for water! Since I have a larger bird bath that they gather at, I dont' think they'll spend to much time here, but it looks nice anyway! And I can always put seed in it!

Below is what my "corner" looks like. I used this side of the yard as it is all clearly sen from my kitchen window so I can see it all, all day long. I have 2 hummingbird feeders handing at this window to, so I can see the whole gang.. which in addition to all the birds, includes 3 rabbits (2 adult and one baby) 2 squirrels (that climb the poles to eat the bird seed) a family of 4 quails and 3 huge black ravens that I chase way nearly every day! I goofed..and didn't get the dwarf tree with the tea cup in this pic but you as you are looking at this pic.. you are standing just to the right of it!

Well, that's it for now! I am always looking for out door things to decorate my patio area with. As you can see... behind this is nothing but dirt.. unusable sand dirt! I have a nice patio lounge chair and am looking forward to the weather cooling down come fall (we have had upper 90's to triple digits all summer long!) so I can sit out and read a good book, sip from a nice glass of ice tea and watch my "kids" and enjoy my yard!

Thanks for stopping by and...keep on making those memories!