As promised, here is the first post of my Spring Bucket List series! I wanted to do this because A. Seth is older now than he was last Spring (well, that's obvious. He was only 5 months old this time last year) and can do and participate in tons of fun things now, so I wanted to take advantage of that, PLUS I want to have as much silly and creative fun with him as possible while he's this age and B. I honestly need a break from crying while writing my heart out and all of the deep emotions that accompany the tears. So I've decided to switch gears to this Spring Bucket List for about a month or so and then I promise the deep emotions and tears will be back ;)
While I was thinking of ideas for this Bucket List, I definitely wanted to include things that Seth and I could do together. I've enjoyed creating art in practically any medium from a very young age, and I wanted to incorporate a few such things on my list. I also wanted things that would keep Seth intrigued for more than just a one-time craft, which makes this first post about our little birdhouse a perfect fit!
At first I thought that I could make a bird feeder out of an old milk jug, but then I saw this pre-made wooden birdhouse at the craft store and all of my plans immediately went out the door and to the trash (literally). I started out by priming the wood with standard white acrylic paint. I'm really glad I did this because the wood was very thirsty and would have soaked up the colored paint if I had not primed it, leaving a dull version of the bright colors that I would have wanted.
I had every intention of having my 16 month old, Seth, "help" me with painting this birdhouse, but then I pictured him sticking the painting sponge in his mouth and getting paint all over our brand new carpet, so I decided that it'd be better that I do it myself while he was napping one day. I really love doing crafts, and I especially love painting - there's something so relaxing and fulfilling, even healing, about having time set aside to devote completely to painting an empty canvas, or, in this case, a birdhouse.
I wasn't going to go all out on this birdhouse, but I do have some perfectionist tendencies and kind of went above and beyond for the little birdies. I mean, birds should eat snacks in style, too, right? That was my thinking as I painted the trim a bright orange. I also wanted the birds to see it, so I chose bright colors! Hopefully birds aren't colorblind, or else this is all going down hill really fast.
And voila!
The finished product
Hopefully you can forgive the poor quality of the above picture. I promise I really am a good photographer! I couldn't get the detailed shot that I wanted without turning the flash on ... sigh.
I really did have a lot of fun painting this birdhouse! At the time of writing this post, I've had it hanging outside my front porch for just over 24 hours and have yet to see any birds fly up and eat their free treats. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Hopefully they'll find it soon and tweet to the other birds (see what I did there?) to tell them that there's free food over at the Hoffmans! If I were a bird, I'd fly over as quickly as possible.