I have managed to turn this little pile of bits...
Via this...
And this...
Into this.
With this inside.
The large crystal had to be used somehow and I thought about it for ages. When I rummaged around I found the little purse and knew it would kill two birds with one stone as both a free option addition and a vehicle for the crystal. The purse had a slight dent in the mesh that the crystal sat in perfectly. The purse was brass to start with but I painted it with black enamel. The silver coloured clip in the top photo is from a Christmas cracker several years ago. I knew I'd find a use for it one day. I've secured it onto the back of the mesh purse with wire to act as a belt clip so that was another compulsory part of the brief fulfilled! I then beaded onto Ultrasuede back and front and fixed it through the mesh with stitches and lined it with silk and more beads. I can't say I'm totally thrilled with it but it does the job.
I wanted to also to bring in another colour other than just the black and gold. There were some AB in blue hint on some of the black beads on the needle case so that is where the blue comes from. I may go back and add a few more of the blue to the needle case.
The Big Garden Bird Watch was a couple of weekends ago and we did our usual count. This year all the old familiars like the Sparrows, Chaffinches and Goldfinches, all of which we have plenty, seemed to be having an away day but we did have a couple of new visitors.
It took us a while to work out what these two were as they are so tiny, our smallest bird in fact, and incredibly fast!
And, though the photos are very blurred as we were sat away back from the window and they were in a shrub about 25 feet away you can see they are Goldcrest. So, so exciting!
We also had a return visit from this rather elegant female Blackcap. A pair that we are seeing a little more of though not too regularly.
I think the regular feeding is key in having so many different birds. I know we are very fortunate to have space to have lots of feeders and they are placed in the open but not too far from shrubs and trees. Birds like to see what's around them and have a bolt hole too. We also took a while to find a supplier of good seed and nuts, birds really do respond well to good food!
Well it's a beautiful, sunny day and the Daffodils are coming out to join the Snowdrops and the buds are really fat on the Magnolia so it almost feels like Spring. I hope you have good weather where you are.
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