Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Our Giving Tree ~ A Valentine For The Birds!




We have been in a deep freeze in our part of the world lately. It has been dipping down to -40 during the night and our daily goal is just to keep our wood heated house warm!
Brrrr.....
We have a feeder outside our window and enjoy watching the birds come to eat all winter long. With this crazy cold though, we decided to make them a more elaborate and rich gift of food ~ a "giving tree" with a Valentines flare!


We made pine cone feeders by covering pine cones with peanut butter and then rolling them in birdseed.
Be warned ~ this is a crazy messy craft and should (as I learned too late) be done on newspaper with old clothes on!


 We made birdseed hearts.
We created these feeders by cutting hearts out of corrugated cardboard, slathering them in peanut butter and then sprinkling on birdseed. Again oh so messy ~ seems the messier the merrier though ;)


We re-used our Christmas tree in the backyard ~ so much fun to decorate it all over again!
  
All smiles despite the cold. A true Canadian girl!


We  put on baskets of love ~ a grapefruit half filled with cranberries.


Seedalicious hearts


Bread hearts


   Pine cone feasts

There is is...

~ Our Giving Tree ~
         Naming our tree was inspired by the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein ~ one of         my most loved stories growing up and an absolute favorite in our home!



Together we are enjoying the array of friends finding their way to our tree. Luna loves waiting and watching for a closer glimpse of our beautiful friends ~ flying and feasting on our offerings!

Here's to feeding our fine feathered friends

~Shanti~







28 comments:

  1. That is really wonderfull! i'm thinking...maybe ...no i'm sure there is a 'christmas' tree in our backyard!!

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  2. That is gorgeous! What fun for the kids, I've thought about doing something like that on a much smaller scale but that is truly perfection

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  3. How whimsical! I love absolutely everything about it, down to the last seed. What a gorgeous way to help our little feathered friends!

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  4. That's great! We were thinking it was time to re-vamp our bird tree on the deck ( we did the pine cone feeders at Christmastime) but I would not have thought of doing hearts!! Thanks for the idea!

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  5. this is so cute, I am going to have to do this with my oldest this weekend.

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  6. Our Christmas tree is sitting on our front step...now I know what we'll do with it! Thanks for sharing the lovely idea...my wee 'uns will love doing this tomorrow!

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  7. How fun is that! Messy and creative and helping the little forest creatures!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I was one of your kids!
    Terri

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  8. Such a lovely tree with wonderful color too! It reminds me of the book we've been reading a lot, The Snow Tree (Caroline Repchuk).

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  9. I know the colder the days, the more food I need to put out for our birds. What a tasty selection you've provided. We will have to add a little birdie lovin' to our backyard. Thanks for the great heartfelt suggestions!

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  10. i don't know what to say girls.. so beautiful i am speechless-- what a lovely way to give to nature....
    xoxo light and peace

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  11. The birds in our area would love it, but so would the bears. I'll send our birds your way.

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  12. Wow - how beautiful and creative and great energy! I am so happy about this! Such joy to do - and I plan to do it.

    Thank you.
    Nicole

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  13. What a lovely idea! Your tree is gorgeous! We have a little evergreen out front that I think needs some decorating.

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  14. Oh, the magic of it all. The Giving Tree, giving in so many ways.

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  15. Beautiful! Love that you used the fruit too!! Kerri

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  16. what beautiul treats! i love the idea of a giving tree!

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  17. I love this idea...it's always so sad to see the Christmas tree taken down and bare...laying on its side in the backyard. What a creative way to "re-use" it and make the giving season last longer!

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  18. So sweet! I had a similar idea around christmas time that just didn't happen- thanks for reminding me it can still be done! And for the heart idea, so cute!

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  19. You are going to have all the beautiful creatures visiting your home, so filled with love and beauty. What an amazing gesture.

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  20. This is beautiful - I love it!! And so much fun to decorate the tree again.

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  21. Absolutely fantastical! What a stellar idea!

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  22. That is such a wonderful idea. and to teach your children the responsibility of taking care of our friends in nature. Great job!
    ~Jada Roo Can Do

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  23. Thank you so much for sharing this post!!!! I got our hearts cut out this morning and can not wait to do some of these things this afternoon with the kids:)

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  24. I never thought of reusing a Christmas tree by putting it in the backyard and redecorating it. I think it would be cool if there was a Christmas tree that was open to the public and everyone could put some type of decoration that they made on the tree.

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  25. We love watching the birds and do have a couple of feeders. We also have squirrels and deer who visit. I love this idea and am definitely going to add to our feeding stations!

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