The Birds

I love garage sales. I am just a total thrifter at heart. I even remember my first garage sale. It was down the street from my Aunt Carol's house in Post Texas. I bought a blue crackled vase for a quarter and it sat on my grandmother's dresser until we did not see her anymore. She always smelled like Jungle Gardenia. If I happen to catch that scent anywhere, my mind goes back to that room.

So, I went to a garage sale here in town a few weekends ago. I found these adorable little wooden birds. They were marked a quarter a piece and I wanted them! There was 4 in all. I gathered them up and went up to the lady to pay.

Her: Oh you found the cute little birds!

Me: Yep...they are adorable!

Her: Do you know how they are used?

Me: Not really but my idea is to drill holes through them and to string them on a ribbon and...

Her: ~eyes go wide and she picks the birds up off of the table~

Me: ...and then I am going to re-paint them....maybe a bring blue and a green and then hang them from the ceiling. I wish that there were more.

Her: NO, that is not what they are used for. You need to go to Wal Mart and buy a tiny dowel rod. You see the tiny little hole here at the bottom, you need to put the dowel rod there and then stick the bird gently into a potted plant. They are plant stakes. And the birds are dark red and dark green. That is what color they are.

Me: Oh I bet that is cute but I really want to drill the holes and....

Her: ~now clutching the birds to her chest~ that is not what they are used for.

Me: *blink blink*

Her: You MUST get a dowel rod and put the little birds into a potted plant. That is what you are supposed to do with these little birds. Bright blue and green birds are just silly.

Me: ~beginning to realize that she is not going to sell me those damned birds!~

Me: OOOOoooohhhhhhhhh....I see!! Little bird plant stakes.

Her: *smile begins to come back to her face* YES! Little bird plant stakes.

Me: Oh that will be so sweet!

Her: ~proudly handing the birds over to me~ That will be one dollar!

The birds post garage sale:


I took the birds to Clarendon and my daddy used them to make a pattern and cut me out some new birds. They he too a drill and a tiny little drill bit and.....YOU BET....you drilled little holes all the way through MY little wooden birds.

Birds molting ~snickers~ I decided to paint them brighter colors so that they could HANG in my kitchen. I left the older colors on because I wanted to distress them and that color could come through.

Birds of a feather.......

Close up of distressed bird. *snickers* When I say distressed...I hear a tiny little bird yelling *Help me Help me*

Kitchen shot. They are very happy hanging out in my craft/kitchen.

I have a very naughty desire to take one of the birds and hang it in a tree in the garage sale lady's yard.

I wonder how much we miss of life because we refuse to see other ways of doing things. Believing instead that there is only one right way.