Our Little Bird's Houses

In a previous post I mentioned my love of all things with birds and how it all began with Ava's nursery. Our house has extremely high, exposed beams which give it a bit of a rustic feel. Love it, but the black and white striped walls with pink accents that I had always envisioned for my daughter just wasn't going to work. So the search began.

Seeing as we live in South Africa the whole jungle animal theme is a bit cliché. Farm animals too boyish, I think. Fairies and princesses too girly for me. Even though my sisters would disagree and say I am very girly. I say, I'm not. Anyway. It's not that you have to have a theme, I just need something to work off of.

About the time we started planning, one of the only words my niece Della Mae could say was bird. Actually, the Afrikaan word voëls. Yes, she speaks Afrikaans and English. And so will Ava. So cute and cool! Well Della Mae's love for birds got me thinking. I always loved old antique bird cages but they will take up too much space. The wood ceilings made me think of a tree and then I got the idea of the bird houses. I just couldn't quite picture what I wanted, until the day I stumbled upon this amazing bedroom at Design*Sponge.

Best of Kids Rooms on Design*Sponge

This was exactly what I had in mind but needed this photo to make me see it clearly. One day Ava's room will look this funky, but until then it's just a little girly girl's nursery. Ava can be girly. We had a woman come and paint the tree and have been searching the globe for bird house's to go in Ava's room. Skip and I are having so much fun looking for them and each one has it's own story. Here is what we have so far.

I found her first bird house in Banner Elk, North Carolina on my BFF Stacy's bacherlorette party. Banner Elk is also the place where the Skipper proposed in 2008, so it's quite special to us.

We found number two in Cullinan, South Africa while celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary. Cullinan is known for it's diamond mining. Wikipedia says, the Cullinan diamond is the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carats (621.35 g). 3,106.75 carats?! I told the Skipper I want one of those for our next anniversary.  Guess his response.

This one was given to us by one of my mother in law's oldest friends, Donsie. She had been meaning to make it into a mail box but decided Ava should have it instead. We thought so too.

This beauty was given to Ava by my dear friend Mia while I was in the hospital. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the flower arrangement she made with the bird house sitting on top. It was absolutely stunning. This girl has many, many talents.  Jealous.

This little gem was found while we were on our first family vacation. Natalie's gift shop in Margate has been open for 61 years. It's the cutest little shop right off Marine Drive. We searched the entire South Coast looking for a bird house and stumbled across this on our last day. Nice spotting Skippy. 

And here they all are. To the right you can see where the wall ends. The plan, we are still in the renovation process, is to build a ladder and make the loft look like a little house for our little bird.

If you ever come across a bird house that you think would fit in Ava's room, please feel free to send it to us. We would love to add it to her collection. So keep a look out!