Au naturale

We are SO lucky this year to have a robin nesting in our boxwood. It's a crazy location for a nest, since it's located right on the path that runs along the side of our house to the shade garden. I'm constantly lugging the hose and garden equipment back and forth to the front of the house and now that it's warmer, we're definitely outside more. But Andrew noticed this nest a few weeks ago, and I've been watching the mother tend to it every day. It's just not tall enough for me to peer into from the ground, and so I waited until the mother flew away and quickly got out a ladder and snapped this photo. I have to say that I knew it was a robin's nest and so I knew the eggs would be a beautiful blue, but that still didn't stop me from having my breath taken away when I first got a look at these beautiful eggs. They are so perfect. I think I might be a little gaga over them because robin's egg blue is the color I happen to be into right now (we're currently putting up swatches of the color on our living room wall) but still, for such an everyday, run-of-the-mill bird, those are some sweet lookin' eggs (I'm also into the soundtrack of Urinetown right now and think I just swiped one of the lines: "You've got a sweet-lookin' head, Bobby Strong!") And here was my color creation today. I'm planning on making an embroidery project using some of the Stitchettes from Wee Wonderfuls for Sophie's moving away present. I ordered a white and beige linen, and only the white came. So I tea-stained half of it today. It's a subtle color (the original fabric is towards the rear of the photo) but each strand of the fabric picked up the color differently so when you look close up, it has a nice, rustic feel to it. I remember in 4th grade using natural dyes (beets, red cabbage) and loving the process: there is something very rewarding about using a plant to create color. Well without planning it, I guess that's the theme of today's blog: the colors of Nature. Now if I could only use those eggshells for a project once those robins are done with them...