"MASON JAR" MONDAY PROJECT

Hi all!  Today's project going in the "MASON JAR" is one for the tweeters!!  No, I mean the real tweeters . . .  the birds.  This handmade lovely is entitled "Home Tweet Home" Gourd Birdhouse_01.  I took a look at my current selection and chose a pretty mottled purple one for you today because so many folks just love the color purple.  A little about this item:  I grow the "birdhouse" shape gourds myself each year, but when I don't have enough of them I do buy field grown ones here locally in my area.  The process of crafting with them is a long one.  They must be totally dried out which can take up to a year from the time they are taken off the vine, which here is in December/January.  They are usually green at that point but turn a light brown when completely dried, and you can hear the seeds rattle around inside when they are dried out nicely.  I scrubb off the outside with a scratchy pad (like you would clean your pots and pans with) and some clorox water.  This gives me a nice clean smooth outside surface to work on.  I cut the entry hold with a handmade sawtooth tool my DH made me for this purpose, but one of those pumpkin carving kits with the little toothy saw in it would work just as well probably.  My tool is much more sturdy though.  These gourds are like light-weight wood when dried.  I use fine grit sandpaper to round up my hole, and then use an ice pick tool to make my holes in the top for my hanging wire or cord.  After I've removed all the seeds and fiber from the inside of the gourd using forceps and a scraping tool, I then apply my own "secret" texturing compound to the outside.  That's the part I love doing because each one turns out looking different.  Sometimes while the compound is wet and workable I apply other decorations to it, sometimes not.  This step has to cure out for a few days to dry completely.  At that point, I have fun with painting the surface in different ways, and when all happy with the look I apply a sealer so the finished piece is weather-proof.  Most always, I make a curly coiled wire hanger of some type for the top.  Tah-dah, finished!  These are sturdy, weather-proof, and unbreakable!  They should last you and your fine feathered friends for quite a few years!

This particular one has a wooden twig perch, and the overall dimensions are approximately 8 inches in height by 6 inches wide.  The price is $12.00 + $7.95 shipping.  These non-digital items offered here are on a first-come, first-serve basis because at a given time I may not have multiples of the same item.  If you see it listed here, it's available.  When sold, I will edit this post and remove the item possibly replacing it with something else.  Here's the preview:

ITEM SOLD

NEWS ABOUT MASON:  My extreme preemie grandson, little "Miracle Mason" is now 4-1/2 years old and just this week got accepted to a local preschool, head-start kind of program which is free!  Yeah!  Our family is so tickled pink over this!!!  Application  and testing for this program was in June, and Mason's dad had received a letter later during the summer that stated that Mason did NOT get in.  However, at the last moments as the season begins, they shift things around and end up with certain numbers due to people moving and whatever else happens, and they then call some of the applicants back and take them into the program.  So, that's what came down.  I had been praying over this recently, and I feel my prayers were answered for Mason to be able to attend this program.  His dad is a self-employed handyman and doesn't always have enough work to afford the extras, such as paying for a preschool program for Mason.  I therefore worry over the future for Mason, the things of reality like the cost of college education, medical insurance for now, needs in general.  He is at such a disadvantage not having his mother so young and not having the additional income that a second working parent can provide.  God brought Mason through his extremely premature birth circumstances, and without any disabilities whatsoever.  He is so smart, so lively, and such a really pleasant mannered, intelligent little child who is just a lot smaller than most children of his age.  Maybe he will catch up physically someday when he is a teenager or going into male adulthood, maybe not.  But I feel a need to contribute to my miracle grandson in some way, and being unemployed for the last two years has been a real bummer for both my DH and myself.  The economy here is based around the tourism, and it's been way down for several years and we were both cut from our jobs.  My DH just found a job again this month, so at least one of us is back up on his feet.  Maybe I will be next.  That's why I developed this "MASON JAR" project.  I've always been a crafter since my youth, and I have a lifetime of experience at it.  I do everything imagineable, from oil painting, glass fusing, jewelry designing, to all types of stitching, etc.  I felt a need to turn that creative time into something that Mason will benefit from for perhaps a small contribution from me to his educational fund.  I can't replace his mom in his life, but I can be the best "Mimi" I can be for him.

I added these notes about Mason in hopes that more of my followers here will read up the past posts covering "THE MASON JAR" STORY.  Some just glance at the "buy now" buttons and think I am just another digital store, but not so.  I invite those of you that actually read, to read a little deeper to understand what is going on here.  I am the grandmother of a true miracle child that God must have a purpose for, and I feel a calling to help him in some way since his own mother has been taken.  We don't always understand the whys in life, but what I do know is that while we are here, we must do the best we can do.

And with that, I will stop my ramble and jump off and prepare tomorrow's FREEBIE for you peeps!   Wonder what you would like???  Hummm. . . .Well, guess it will be a surprise!  Nighty-nite!

TOOTLES!