I am joining Chrisy at Living A Good North Coast Life for her "Reconnecting With Nature" series. As we bloggers sit around connected to our computers, it is a great way to force us to step outside and maybe notice something new in the natural world or just appreciate something that we see every day. Read more about the Reconnect with Nature - one photograph at a time idea here.
For Christmas, we received a trio of gingerbread man shaped bird seed ornaments to hang outside for the birds and squirrels to eat. I posted a picture of my little babe watching the squirrels here. She enjoyed it so much that I thought I would make my own bird seed ornaments to hang outside. I remembered WAY back in my childhood making pinecones rolled in peanut butter and then bird seed. I thought that would be the most frugal and natural way to do it. Since we are vegetarians, making suet cakes is a no-go. It was really simple to do, a little messy, and it brought nature to our viewing window within 2 hours! Here are some tips for doing it yourself.
1. Spread out newspaper - peanut butter and bird seed are messy!
2. Put as much peanut butter as you think you are going to use in a separate container so that you are not dipping your dirty knife into your clean pb jar.
3. Tie the string on first!
Here are some pictures of the first crafting session with my little babe. It took about 20 minutes and that was perfect timing.
(Gather all of your supplies before you begin.)
(If possible, use pinecones that have the scales open - more nooks to cram the peanut butter.)
(Smear the peanut butter into the cracks, but don't get too serious about it.)
(Ta-dah! Sticky, seedy, and sure to attract a squirrel!)
(Hung in the trees and then we waited.)
(Can you see it?! My little babe does!)
(So does Chickpea the cat!)
(There is the squirrel!)
(The cardinals, blue jays, and chickadees found it also! It was very noisy outside my window today!)
It was definitely a good experience reconnecting with nature.
*Sorry for the poor quality indoor pictures - a rainy morning in a dark kitchen - and the blurry pictures through my horribly dirty windows. When I started blogging, I didn't realize I was going to have to keep the entire house clean all the time!