Let's flock together

It's that time of the year again! Spring. Birds are churping. Flowers are a'bloomin. Bees are buzzing.

More importantly, I am finding many reasons to brighten and freshen up our house. This mug may fill that void in the early morning for me :)

Found at Sur La Table (one of my favorite websites to "window"shop), the mug is very much affordable as it is cute.

If you know me, and know my cabinet, you will be familiar with my fondness of mugs. They are spilling out of our cabinet! So much, that Mr. "accidently" dropped one. I am onto him and his ways!

Ed Hardy designed a Sparrow mug that very much resembles the tattoo I would have liked to get in college....now I feel it isn't me. But perhaps someone I was.

I love this design because I really like the heart on the end of the tail - it for whatever reason reminds me of the Queen of Hearts (by FAR my favorite character in Alice in Wonderland).

Ed Hardy is a concept I don't quite understand - as the brand seems to have taken over the every market, from wines to window stickers. It really is quite amazing. Again, not so much my style - but I do like this drinking cup.

Lastly, my love for mugs and birds have co-mingled and created this website:

http://www.jjcardinal.com/gifts.htm

There are so many items on here, that if I had the walls, I would decorate from top to bottom. My favorite artist on this site is Karen Anderson. I like that she uses nature to create nature/inspiring whimsy items. Karen says, “After sketching a design idea, I head out to my garage-studio, where my power tools reside. I cut and sand the piece (or pieces) I will need from aspen wood. Then it is back to my indoor studio to work on the next steps of the process of drawing the design, wood burning to etch the image, use acrylic paints to color the designs, and finish it off with an acrylic sealer. The whole process, from start to finish, is done by one person--me!”

As soon as I saw this, I thought of my grandmother - who believes in singing loud, even if not singing well. The colors are bright, the picture is adorable -and very much affordable.

Check out the website!