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Bringing the birds home to feed in repurposed household items
September 4, 2017
Whether passing on as a fun and unique housewarming gift, or using to add character to your own garden, bird houses are a great way to add back to the environment. With a touch of creativity and your interior design skills put into practice – outdoors, you can enhance the peaceful space of your home with the sounds of bird song and their chitter-chatter.
Bird houses are not only popular for aesthetic reasons, but also provide much needed shelter and protection from inclement weather and predators. They are used as roosting spots for certain birds throughout the year – especially in the colder months and overall add back to the eco-system as bird groups grow and flourish in numbers and help to pollenate our gardens.
Draw some inspiration from these
DIY
bird houses and bird feeders to incorporate into your own garden space:
Upcycle your un-used garden pots
Turn spare garden pots which are standing and collecting dust or rain water into unique bird houses or bird feeders. All you will need to do is seal the top, create a small hole in the centre of the pot and drill a hole through the bottom for your hook and string attachment.
Create a haven out of teapots
For a more quirky addition to your garden, turn to un-used teapots and create a bird-feeding haven to hang from a sturdy branch or even secure upon a wooden pedestal in a strategic spot in your garden.
Recycle your glass
If you have glass jugs or mugs sitting around in your home that are going by un-used, turn them into an elegant bird feeder to add a touch of charm to your garden. All you will need is some sturdy fishing line, a simple wooden stick for the perch and some super glue to create this simple, yet unique bird feeder.
Re-purpose your light bulb covers
Perhaps you’ve upgraded your light bulb covers recently to something a little more modern than the standard white orb covers featured in many homes? No need to throw these out, they can be re-purposed into hanging bird feeders! It’s as simple as sawing off the screw-in attachment, securing them with string to a sturdy branch and adding your bird seed!
Collect your wine corks
Wine lovers, don’t throw out your wine corks! Simply re-use them to build yourself a charmingly rustic bird house to place in your garden. These can either be strategically placed in a tree or suspended from a branch, the choice is yours.
In today’s world it’s important to assess how we can give back to the environment and, in turn, the ecosystem upon which we so heavily rely! Even if it’s with something as simple as re-purposing goods we have lying around the house to create a bird house or bird feeder, every little bit does help!
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Back in March of 2020, Bianca and Jana were dusting off their Fez’s and grabbing the pashminas out of storage in preparation to Rock the Casbah! However, as we all know and vividly remember - with March, came the eventual Covid shutdown, and instead of frolicking down the Moroccan streets, we all shut ourselves inside and watched the days tick by… 3 Years later, and now we can finally say - with conviction - that they’re going to Morocco at the start of September! This blog, filled with excitement and curiosity about all the weird and wonderful curios they might find, and endless sourcing they’ll do, stays as a reminder that sometimes plans change, things go awry and there’s not much you can do about it other than persevere - and that we did! So, here’s Bianca and Jana’s innermost thoughts about the trip, 3 years before it came to fruition, enjoy :) We've got our passports out and Jana has already picked out what she's going to wear each day… Come March [September] we'll be heading north with Air France to the Kingdom of Morocco, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we make our base in the ancient city of Marrakesh (also known as Marrakech to the French, but we're not French, so we'll go with the English version until all that fuss about Brexit is sorted out) - This turned into a year long negotiations trade, and now us outsiders would pay nearly double what we used to if we visit the UK - thankfully our flight is direct!! We'll be looking for inspiration and will be investigating what's there that we could possibly bring back to The Hoed. We can't wait to experience the atmosphere and afro-arabic influences of this amazing place as we visit the celebrated souks and off-the-beaten track artists and craftsmen that make Marrakesh so special. We're desperate to see the beautifully hand-crafted furniture, textiles, fabrics, rugs, carpets, objets d'art, accessories, lighting… anything that catches our eye and could possibly be brought back south. Berber mats and rugs are definitely on our list, as are the kind of furnishings you might find in a gorgeous Bedouin tent. If you think about it, the Bedouin refined the art of "glamping" into an artform - fabulous carpets on the ground, soft, billowing fabrics hung here and there, plump cushions spread on the ground, intricate leatherwork and carved wood, patinated metal… Total Glamping vibes! We just love all of it and will be tracking as much of it down as we can. We'll also have an eye or three out for wonderful ceramics and glassware and wonderful lamps that give off soft, filtered light. For us it's about workmanship, so we'll hopefully be finding the people who make furniture and ceramics using techniques that have been passed down over countless generations meaning that everything we look at will have its own, and its own special story. Our mission is to share those stories with you and, if it's feasible, bring some of that special workmanship home to the Rainbow Nation. We're most definitely inspired and are sure this is going to be a truly special trip! Counting the sleeps till then! Less than a month to go now - we will be keeping the updates going on our social channels as well as another few blog posts to explain in detail our wild adventures - Stay tuned!
A safari theme never really runs out of viewing time and is particularly popular for interiors at the moment. The warm, earthy tones give a sense of comfort and the accessories offer the anticipation of travel and adventure.
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