Spring Cleaning

I've been doing a little Spring cleaning in my work area & have decided to part ways with a few of my stamp sets. A new section for destash has been added to my shop {spring cleaning extras} and I'll have the listings up within the next day or so. I'll post here again with a link once it's all ready. Several of the stamp sets are from Stampin Up; others are individual stamps. Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement!

Have you been doing any spring cleaning & parting ways with some of your crafting/art supplies? It's not easy to do, however I need to make room for new goodies!

Thinking of Mother's Day?

Need a few ideas for Mother's Day gifts?
Here are a few suggestions from my shop:


Mini Floral Print Cards

Botanical Greeting Card

Botanical Note Card Set

Newly Listed Products

As promised, bright & early this morning, I re-opened my
Etsy Shop. The first items listed were Bakers Twine
{sets & individual spools}.

Today I'll be adding sweet little tags that are perfect for tying on gifts, party favors, wedding favors, used as price tags at retail shops & art/craft shows, etc.

Take another look here.

This weekend I'll be listing some cards. Enjoy!

NEWS FLASH: Etsy Shop Re-Opening

I'm so excited to announce that I'm re-opening my Bird Haven Etsy Shop Friday, March 19th!
The first items to be listed will be my sets of Bakers Twine wrapped on vintage wooden spools. These sets include 60 yards of twine: 15 each of red, blue, brown & green packaged in a cute little muslin bag with stamped bird image.

March Project #2.....Birthday Cards

Three birthday cards I've made this month for family birthdays

**News Alert** I'm planning to open the ol' Etsy Shop this week. YAY!!

March Project #1.... My Wine Cork Board

As promised, I'm sharing my March craft projects with you. I won't necessarily be posting these in order of completion since some of them are birthday cards & I don't want the recipients to see the posted pics before they actually receive their card. So here is my 1st project:

My wine cork board that I began a year ago...... Yep, a year ago. I was going along pretty well with it when I ran out of corks with grapes on them. I had decided to place 2 of those corks in each row and I needed 18 more! So, that meant one thing......I needed to drink 18 bottles of wine. Little did I know that some of the bottles I'd be buying didn't have the grapes on them. Nope, they only had numbers printed on the sides. So, that of course meant I'd need to buy & drink more than 18 bottles of wine. Once my husband & I finally finished off 20 something bottles, we were in the midst of our move & my little project took a backseat. Last Friday night, however, I decided to finish it up at my neighbors house. We've been trying to scrapbook on Friday nights, but I decided I'd work on something else instead. It didn't take very long to complete it & it was quite easy to cut through the corks (easier than I remembered it being last year).

My incomplete cork board I began a year ago

Close-up of completed cork board

My cork board in the dining room. Not really sure where to put it. I actually wish I'd begun laying the corks with the frame horizontal, but in the old kitchen, I had a narrow spot of wall where it would hang perfectly like this. If it were horizontal now, I'd hang it above the wine glasses. So for now it sits & leans.

Where Has The Time Gone?

Time sure has slipped passed me. I can't believe it's been 7 months since my family & I moved from Connecticut to Hawaii (& since I've posted to my blog). The move out here went as smoothly as it could with a move of that distance. We love it here....the weather is just wonderful (besides the amount of rain we get where we're located), the views of the mountains & ocean are beautiful too. It's much different than New England & I have to say I'm glad we left before all of the winter snow storms that hit the east coast and the rest of the mainland.

Since I haven't posted in such a long time, my mind is oozing with things to chat about so bare with me while I ramble on........

The main reason my Etsy shop hasn't re-opened yet is because I haven't had much time to commit to it. I do however have several new goodies up my sleeve so stay tuned because I'll share them here first.

If you haven't noticed, (how could you not LOL) my blog has a new look as of yesterday. How do you like it? I love it! Although, I'd like the brown color of my text to be a very dark brown, but Blogger isn't giving me that option. If anyone out there is blogger savvy & can help a girl out, I'd appreciate it.
I'd like to create a new banner for my Etsy shop with this same style as my blog so be on the look-out for that.

In addition to ideas for my Etsy shop, I've been working on some projects for myself, family & friends. It's so fitting too because recently I found out that March is National Craft Month. I had no idea & had already planned to use this month to begin & actually finish (*gasp*) some projects. I'll be sharing pics of those projects here so keep your eyes peeled.

I think that covers most of what's been on my mind lately. I'll be posting again (before 7 months passes) and share my Etsy shop news as well as my projects I'm working on.
While you're here, leave a comment to say hi & let me know what you've all been up to. Have a wonderful weekend!

Just a Friendly Reminder

Thought I'd just post a reminder for anyone who may have missed my shop announcement. I'll be closing up my shop this Friday night (perhaps Saturday morning when I wake up) so that I can finish packing up my supplies, tools, inventory, etc.
Our movers will be here in less than 3 weeks to pack up everything, load it up and ship it off to Hawaii. It's hard to believe that in just a few short weeks we'll be on a tropical island!

I'm not listing anything new in my shop this week, but if you need more bakers twine than what you see listed, I'll be happy to list more for you. I'll try to keep at least one spool of each color listed at all times until I close up.
If all goes as planned, I'll mail out all orders by noon Saturday. Any remaining orders will be mailed Monday.

I'll re-open the shop sometime in September once we get settled in a little and will hopefully be able to start custom orders sometime in October. It'll all depend on how quickly I unpack and get organized!

Sunday Obsessions ~ Wooden Bobbins

I've returned for another installment of my "Sunday Obsessions". I've been very busy lately and neglecting the blog. Ooops!

This obsession began the same way as the tool box obsession. When I purchased the green tool box for my dad, I wanted to send something to my mom as well. I perused some wonderful Etsy shops and happened upon EmmyLucy. I found a set of four vintage sewing bobbins. Knowing what a talented seamstress my mom is and how much she loves antiques and vintage collectibles, I thought she'd like the bobbins to display in her sewing room. I purchased the set and when they arrived, I wanted to keep them. However, I knew better so I sent them off to my mom. Then I set off to find some of my own..........

I found these at LOVEABUG

There are actually 14 of them!

After I made that purchase, I kept searching for more
and found these lovelies at ReginasStudio

I'm definitely not finished buying these old wooden spindles/bobbins, but I've had to put all shopping on hold until after our big move to Hawaii. Once we get there, I'll begin purchasing more. What am I planning to do with these? Oh, I have plans.....the ideas are flowing so quickly, I need to start jotting them down and sketching out the projects. Don't worry, I'll share the projects as they're completed.

"Vintage Fun & Games" Treasury

Check out my latest treasury! It's a little bolder than what I usually curate, but I love it.
Click here to leave a comment before it expires Tuesday afternoon. While you're there, check out the shops featured. :-)

"My new favorite color...Aqua" Treasury

Here is my latest treasury! Lately I've been drawn to the beautiful shades of aqua. I'm not sure why since I'm a very "warm" color person, but I do find this to be a very calming color for me. It could be due to the fact that I'm anticipating our huge move from Connecticut to Hawaii next month. I could be thinking of spending the days relaxing on the beach. But, maybe somewhere subconsciously I know that I need to be surrounded by calming colors to ease the pressure of all the move-related stresses. Whatever the reason for me being drawn to this color, I wanted to share these aqua beauties with you all. Click here to view the treasury before it expires Saturday morning. While you're there check out the shops I've featured!

"Just some of my favorites" Treasury

Check out my latest treasury! I love the colors here (and the items). Click here to check out the treasury, leave a comment and visit the shops featured before it expires Wednesday night.

Made It To The Front Page!!

Thanks Etsy Admin for curating this front page treasury and including my mini faux bois cards.

It was up at 1am this morning, so I missed it. I haven't been able to find a screen shot of the actual front page at that time, however Craft Cult is an awesome website and has The Vault feature where we can see past front pages. I was at least able to get a screen shot from there.

Finally found the actual screen shot on the Fickr group page!

Sunday Obsessions ~ Gray Hair

I'm a day late in posting this since yesterday was extremely busy. I couldn't skip this week, however because I think that this is the most appropriate time to share this particular obsession.

Yesterday, June 14th, was my 35th birthday and as time goes on, I seem to find more and more gray hair. I'm extremely obsessed with plucking each one I find. I'll stand in front of the mirror at some point every day with tweezers in hand searching for that silvery sparkle. Isn't that just a terrible thing to be concerned with? LOL

Here are some pictures from yesterday~~~

Edible flowers from my in-laws

My husband's attempt at creating a 35 with candles
on the chocolate ganache cake

The youngest and me blowing out the candles

This is me with the 3 kids.
As you can see, the older 2 are taller than I am. lol

Sunday Obsessions ~ Vintage Tool Boxes

I've been thinking a lot about things I'm obsessed with (or very well could become obsessed with). I thought I'd start a weekly feature and share these obsessions (or near obsessions) with you.

Recently, I came across a vintage green tackle/tool box that I thought would be perfect for my dad to display with his vintage fishing reels or antique carpentry tools. So, I ordered it and when it was delivered, the gears started turning in my head and I thought, "I'd like to have one to help organize and store things in my work room."

My dad's tool box that I ordered from IdaOhio on Etsy

That thought is all it took for me to begin hunting down another one.....only in brown since green is not my color. I searched on Etsy and found the perfect brown vintage toolbox, marked it as a favorite and admired it just thinking how nice it would be to have. Why didn't I purchase it right away? I don't know, but I guess someone else was admiring it too because it was sold when I went back for it. At that point I became determined to find another brown tool box.

I set out on a quest and came across one at TheLovelys on Etsy. I snatched it up right away and defeated all those brown toolbox hunters out there. I was excited to have finally found myself a brown tool box to display and organize in my work room, but I also had a feeling that this wouldn't be my last brown tool box to purchase.

My brown tool box I purchased from TheLovelys on Etsy

Last Friday I sat down at my computer and searched again for yet another brown toolbox. And guess what I found. A beautiful vintage metal file box at yesstreen on Etsy. I immediately made the purchase and am impatiently awaiting its arrival. Yes, impatiently.

Here is a borrowed picture of the box from the listing

I will keep looking for more of these brown boxes and once we move this summer and I begin to settle into a new work room, I'll share more pictures of my collection in use.

Looking for a vintage tool box for yourself? There are several on Etsy. Check out these shops or even do a search of your own under "Vintage":
kewpiesfarmhouse
lisabretrostyle2
modishvintage
VintageEtc

Refreshing Lemonade Treasury

As we head into summer, I've been thinking of cool refreshing lemonade. I've curated a treasury with lemonade essentials and a couple other lemon yellow doo-dads. Click here to take a look and leave a comment before it expires Tuesday morning. While you're there, check out the shops I've featured. You'll find vintage treasures as well as yummy baked goodies and handmade must-haves.

A New Little Feature

I opened a new Etsy account called "Bird Haven Too" where I plan to expand a little and sell collage arts, a little bit of vintage and some vintage up-cycles. In the meantime, I'm using my "favorites" section of that account to create an Etsy Mini to feature some of my favorite items from other Etsy shops. This Etsy Mini will change from time to time (maybe weekly). Just scroll down a little and you'll see it on the right-hand side below my BirdHaven mini.

"June Sky" Treasury by Euphorianchic

Just want to thank euphorianchic for including my tiny dragonfly jewelry tags in this beautiful blue treasury. Feel free to stop by Etsy to view the treasury and leave a comment before it expires early Saturday morning.

Beautiful Bakers Twine from my Bird Haven shop

Because I love Bakers Twine so much and I know you do too, I've set aside a small quantity of these cute little sets to offer for the month of June at a special price (only while supplies last).

Normally, my sets like this are $9 for 60 yards of twine. However, my special this month is 80 yards for $10. You will receive 20 yards each of red, blue, green & brown bakers twine wrapped on vintage wooden thread spools enclosed in a small muslin bag with a cute bird image stamped on the front.

These little sets have been very popular in my Etsy shop. People have been buying them for gifts for friends as well as a little something special for themselves.

I also offer 50 yards of Bakers Twine wrapped on larger wooden thread spools. Stop by the shop and take a look.

Feel free to leave a comment here and share how you like to use bakers twine!

"my brown is blushing" Treasury by laughingchicken

Just sharing this beautiful pink and brown treasury that laughingchicken curated. Thanks for including my pink snail tags. Please stop by Etsy and leave a comment in the treasury before it expires Monday morning.