As most of you know, I like my second look each month to reflect our host at Art Journal Journey's (AJJ) theme. That means I needed to find something related to Erika's theme, which is Spring Birds.
For my second look this month, I'm going to share the cardinals in my main floor bath. I confess, they
are not ALL cardinals. The collection started out as birds of any
type, then morphed into cardinals (and a few redbirds). Although I was a
bit leery to show my bath, it seems nothing in my life is off limits.
So please join me in my main floor bath.
We'll begin inside the door and work our way counterclockwise. I never put these things away, whether Christmas or not.
These are some of the original birds I purchased.
On the top left of this vignette is a bird I special ordered from a
craft show back in the late 80s. It is made of eggshells, which gave me
the idea to save eggshells and color them myself. Of course, since I
can't draw, mine will never take any apparent visual shape.
The cardinals came about because I lived in Webb City, MO. before I
moved to Wichita. The town AND high school mascot was the cardinal, and
I assure you, they were far more plentiful there than they are here.
People who visited often gave them to me, especially since I had so many
rocking horses, even back then.
The only "Christmas" addition to this room is the little red tree I
bought on clearance a couple of years ago. Note the cardinal tin with
the cardinal magnet that sits on the side of the tin. I can't seem to
get that cardinal thermometer (on top of the tin) to stick to the
mirror anymore.
More cardinals grace my back splash and vanity. Yes, this is how it ALWAYS looks in here.
I almost forgot. I added the red candle for Christmas, too. It makes
great ambient lighting when I'm entertaining company in the evening and
it has a lovely scent, too. Can you see I'm wearing a blue top in these
photos?
When I moved into this house, there was a tiny medicine cabinet and
mirror in this room. I moved it to the bath in the basement and bought
the larger one specifically for the tri-fold mirror.
This is the vignette I created on top of the medicine cabinet. Note how I
managed to NOT get a good photo of the wreath I made one year that fits
over the shower/tub.
My friend Scott gave me the wood, and I built this really simple shelf
one afternoon. I needed added storage for the many birds I had no room
for. After all, this bathroom was much smaller than the one I had in
Webb City, and I was tired of bringing a few out at a time, then packing
others away.
This may possibly be a better view of the shelf. Yes, I'm that short!
This is really bad lighting.
Maybe a bit of back lighting will help a bit. You can see how most of
the birds gracing the window are either stained glass, leaded glass, or
sun catchers.
As we work our way past the window toward the tub and shower, the lighting once again improves.
One large wooden rocking horse graces all these birds and bird related items.
More birds, some of which are cardinals, some not.
Here's a closer look when I stood on a stool to take this shot.
You don't have to tell me the middle picture above the door leading to
the craft room is crooked. I've tried to straighten it in the past, but
when I open or close the door to the craft room, it moves.
Here's another view of the rocking horse and birds it holds. The chair
can be used for dressing, if someone needs to sit to dress.
Between the chair and laundry basket is a metal tin with several
cardinals on it. The tin holds excess toilet paper, although it is
nearly empty after my company left!! The star topper was something I
won during a OWOH blog hop. It has a white bird among the flowers.
It's supposed to hang, but makes a better tin topper.
These towels sit above the laundry hamper.
Here's a rather bad photo of the vignette above the towel bar.
And now we're back where we started. Did you notice the bit of irony on
the back of the toilet? Yep, I thought this vintage cat shaped creamer
would feel right at home here.
I hope you enjoy
poking around my bath. Please flush and put the lid down when you
leave. And please close the door, too. Bleubeard likes to visit, and I
try to discourage that!
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That is my second look at Decorating For Christmas. I thought I would
also share a few photos I took one afternoon using my much better
camera.
Not much has changed, except I got a bird clock, and without realizing it, I changed the tree's position that year.
I noticed this stained glass piece never showed up in the previous photos.
And finally, a decent photo of the cat that lives among the birds. Note the stained glass bird in the floral arrangement.
Now it's your turn to share a second look. All you have to do is bring back a post that you are especially
proud of, or one you shared before anyone knew your blog existed. Then
link below and Bleubeard and I, along with other Second on the 2nd
friends, will be by to visit.
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These are the five pages I intend to use to create the cruciform. A cruciform is a cross, but we are to make ours a bit wonky.
We were told to add other components to the base components,
so I added a bird on a ball. I am joining Erika and her bird theme at Art Journal Journey.
I was really happy with this entry until I added the long blue strip (a piece of sky) and the two pieces on the other sides (a found tape measure and a green strip), all of which came from the magazine. I had measured so carefully, I didn't need the strips, but Kelly's wasn't as pristine as mine, so she needed something to delineate the four quadrants. The only thing that didn't come from the magazine was the bird I found in my stash.
