Nesting in New England

The last bits of Christmas from the inside of our house have been organized and put away. Everything always looks so empty when the tree is down and all of our Christmas collections are safely back in their homes. I realized my nest needed some new focus.

















My baker’s rack in my kitchen looked so bare without all the Christmas fuss. It is such a long way until Valentine’s Day. Living in New England means lots of snow in January and February so Spring decor is too soon. So I declared it Snowman season. It gave me an excuse to leave up bits of Christmassy twinkle garland until I can come up with a Valentine’s Day twinkle garland. Although I was inspired by Andrea Singarella on her photostream on flickr.

My daughter Ashley made the sweetest snowman ornaments in ceramics class. They were a Christmas gift for me and my husband, so I barely had time to enjoy them.








I was in search of inspiration today, and after looking through the pages of a bushel of books over a nice cup of coffee, I decided to take a car ride to my favorite town Concord. I needed an “Artists date”, the date Julia Cameron taught me from her book The Artist’s Way. I realized with Christmas shopping, cooking, wrapping and family time I hadn’t really been alone to regroup in quite a while.

I set out actually to my favorite place ever called Nestings on Main in search of a Bingo board for a new crafting challenge and some bits and bobs to inspire me to nest. I came home with wonderful collection of quail eggs, a bit of rafia, some tags and some vintage cards. Oh yes, they had the Bingo card and many other incredible finds. Arriving at their shop, you climb up an outdoor staircase above Cafe On Main, which is a lovely cafe and coffee shop. Once you walk into this old doorway you feel that you are on some movie set for Out of Africa. I loved the way the character form that movie decorated her home. Inside Nesting on Main you find Vintage, Vintage, Vintage and the theme of birds, nests, and quail eggs is scattered about.

Vintage papers, treasures, trinkets, journals, letters, jewels, and decorator pieces make you feel that you could stay for a month and still discover things you missed seeing. I have to walk about at least twice in order to feel satisfied that I haven't missed a treasure that I must take home. They told me that they will have a web site soon, and I will be sure to add their link to my sidebar. They are anyone’s mixed-media, collage and decorating resource. The way that they present their wares is breathtaking. I often wish I would remember to take my camera there so that I could share the adventure.


I was inspired by Teresea McFayden who designed Winter-Bella Zine to use my glass jar as a birdhouse. It looked so empty and lonely when I removed all the Christmas balls. So, a bit of artificial flowers, rafia, a few quail eggs and ribbons and tags to finish off the jar suited me just fine. With my cottage painting of Maine back to it's original home above the mantle, and a few bluebird old favorites...the place was beginning to feel cozy again.
















Creating a bird's nest using a bit of artificial flowers, rafia and a few of the quail eggs looks rather nice inside the glass jar.




This Vintage card with bird nests really caught my eye.

So, tonight when everyone is fast asleep I’ll create my craft challenge using my vintage bingo board. I feel inspired and my create spirit is renewed.

The name of the song for this post is The Love Nest.