Put a bird on it...

This ring designed by Susan Reynolds features a bird bead by Lori Flanders of LORiOLA glass. Her birds are one of our most popular beads in the store and they are consistently requested by our customers.

This makes me wonder - what is it about birds? Why do we love them SO much?  It's hard to click more than a page or two on etsy without seeing a bird-emblazoned tote or necklace. I have seen the Portlandia video. At least eight years ago I said 'wonder when this bird trend will end?'  out loud.

And still it persists. Ask any art bead maker who makes birds and they will tell you their birds are REALLY popular. Ask any tee-shirt maker and they'll say the same. Heck, ask anyone who is really into their back yard chicken flock* and they will tell you that birds are really cool/hot/awesome.

Why do we really like birds?

If you love this ring you can take the class this week. Get the details here.
If you just love the bead, stop by the store for a great selection or see a limited color range here.

*I don't know anyone who would keep chickens in their back yard.

Did you miss the coop tour? Now you can watch the video!

This is a video my hub shot of the coop tour day (May 15th) in our yard. The tour was from 10-4 but we also had a post-tour party where many of the coop owners stood around and babbled incoherently. After answering questions about our coops for hours in the hot sun, it was the best we could do.

And yes, it has some time-lapse/sped up time magic. Plus great music.

Tour Raleigh Chicken Coops!

Okay, as you probably know, I have some pet hens. Rosey, Honeysuckle and Sleepyhead to be exact. I also live in what could easily be described as an 'urban' neighborhood. You know, small lots, neighbors very close by, no garage, not much of a driveway. We can walk to the library, the grocery, the coffee shop and yes, the chicken coop. Our three hens live a life of chicken-luxury in a backyard garden coop. They are fussed over by our daughters, smiled at by neighbors and way too spoiled I am sure. Don't you want some?

The Henside the Beltline Tour de Coop is a garden coop tour that features 20 urban coops in and around downtown Raleigh. There are coops that would make Martha Stewart jealous and coops that were knocked up using salvaged wood scraps and borrowed hack saws. Our coop is somewhere in between, but we are happy to show it off. Keeping chickens is one of those weird hobbies that enthusiasts just can't help talking about...a lot. Come on the tour and you'll see gardens of all kinds, fancy chickens with pedigrees and mutt-hens who just lay eggs for a living. You'll see one of the best-kept secrets of this fair capital city; chicken coops blocks from the Governor's Mansion, the State House and (gasp!) even very close to North Hills Mall.

This tour is not all fun and games, though. We do it not just for the chicken fame, but to raise funds and groceries for Urban Ministries of Wake County. This very-deserving charity works to provide some of life's basic necessities to those most in need. Founded by a group with diverse faiths, they serve every needy member of the community. Their food pantry distributes over 270 tons of food every year to families, much of it in the summers. The tour maps are available at five sites in Raleigh (Ornamentea is one of them!) and we request that you make a generous donation of non-perishable foods or money when you get your map.

Click here to visit the Coop Tour blog. Don't miss the part about Chicken Keeping 101 classes coming up soon...

Do you love chickens? Join the City Chickens of Raleigh Facebook group!

Learn more about Urban Ministries here.

Sweet Bird On The Nest necklace idea...

Click here for the full how-to and a free, downloadable PDF tutorial.
A great gift for Mother's Day!
Tweet-tweet!

You get to peck the winner!

The fabulous Fifi the hen was overwhelmed at the contest entries at the first (ever!) Chicken Jewelry Contest at Panopolie. She couldn't decide during the contest and had to retire to her coop with a nice glass of chardonnay* to peck a winner.

There are three categories that the entries could win.
Judges Favorite (Fifi already took care of that one!)
True to Theme (a secret panel of professional chicken jewelers decides this one)
Crowd Pleaser (you get to vote for this one right there in the left hand side of the blog!)

So, read up on the entries and vote. Voting closes on July 5th at 10:00 pm. I will announce the winners of all three categories in the store email on the 6th. Entries are listed by title and the artists first-name-only to protect reputations and make sure each artist can still hold down a design job in the future.

Chicken's Favorite features a tiny ear of corn made from Swarovski crystals. Eggstra points for bling! Glass corn beads and singing birds round out this sweet design.
artist: Tracy

Hen's Honey features an image of a fetching rooster with a bail created from chicken wire (eggstra points!) Note the use of organic materials (cherry pits and chicken feed) in this mixed media entry.
artist: Susan

Fit for a Queen is a tiara designed especially for a hen to wear to formal occasions. Eggstra points for the choice of sterling plated wire (more durable) and the ever-useful stand to hold the tiara when the hen is laying an egg.
Artist: Sher

Barnyard Friends features images of several of a hen's closest companions strung with yummy-looking beads. Eggstra points for the mirror (a hen loves to see herself!)
Artist: Nicola

Coop Bling is the most modern of the entries, with a sheer curtain of sparkling beads to accent a hen's best feature, her long neck. Eggstra points for the color, a sheer pink that brings out the color in Fifi's comb.
Artist: Kathy

Yellow and Orange features the favorite colors of chickens everywhere in a playful assortment. Eggstra points for the trendy 'Y' design and for knowing that chickens can see colors (they can!)
Artist: Erica

Pecker is a whimsical and (possibly) naughty design that features a barnyard take on a popular activity of 13-year-olds everywhere. Eggstra points for barnyard humor. Don't get the joke? Click here but be warned, it's a bit risque.
Artist: Erica

Rooster's Tail is a chic take on this season's hot fashion, the statement necklace. The draped beads evoke the tail of a handsome rooster and the rich colors say someone's been preening their feathers a lot! Eggstra points for lavish design.
Artist: Elizabeth
Chateau Polet is a bit of jolie-laide accessorizing that is both timeless and very of-the-moment. Note the mix of materials (shrink plastic, feathers, popcorn and a really nice sterling toggle!) and the use of actual food wins this entry eggstra points.
Artist: April

So, go vote for your favorite in the poll on the left side of this blog. What does the winner get? Well, that's the funny thing. I joked about the winner getting a hen for a week or two, but Fifi's booked up for months so I am still figuring out the prizes. Leave me a comment if you have any good ideas.

You can view contest photos here or scroll down...

*um, no, not a red, everyone knows that chickens are white wine drinkers! Fifi likes hers chilled, with an ice cube on a hot evening. She's a classy gal.

Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day in one of the best ways possible; we played in the garden all day. I weeded and trimmed, and my husband worked all day to make me a new coop for my chickens. Since the old coop is a 80+ year old shed that is past rickety this is such a swanky upgrade for the hens. The tin roof and the wire mesh came off the old coop and aviary, as did the door!

My mother started a tradition when I was in high school of asking her teens to spend all day on Mother's Day working in her garden. For her it was a great way to get big projects done with a minimum of griping and we teenagers loved the fact that it was a 'free' gift. Screened porches got painted, fish ponds cleaned, bushes dug out and replaced, trees trimmed. We had a good time and began looking forward each year to the day and the work we'd do. My own husband joined in the work when he was still only a boyfriend and he worked so hard my mom told me he was a keeper! Now I get to enjoy the same day in the garden, although my own daughters pitch in at their own scale; they make sand cakes, or have wagon races or make fairy houses in the bushes for me. Someday they'll cut down a tree or repaint the lawn furniture, but not yet.

My daughters played so joyfully in the garden all day, friends came and went and all had a good time. The children were giggling and laughing so hard and we periodically brought out new snacks or beverages to keep them going. In the late afternoon my neighbor showed up with paints and paper and we all sat at the picnic table and made paintings. I realized about 20 minutes into the process that some of the paint my youngest was mostly finger painting with was acrylic paint, not fingerpaint. A l-o-o-o-n-g soak in the tub got her squeeky clean and I am not going to think for even one second about what substances are responsible for those intense colors in the paintings she made!

The new chicken coop is almost finished. The perch and feeder need installed, the water can hung at just the right height. Over the summer we'll add a small enclosed room for winter, new perches and maybe even a sliding hen door to the yard. My whole family be at the Henside the Beltline Coop Tour this weekend, checking out all the fancy and regular coops and maybe next year we'll put our new coop on the tour. The girls will be ready with the sand cakes.

The Henside the Beltline Tour de Coop is Saturday, May 16th from 10-4. You can come pick up a map at Ornamentea on Saturday; bring a few cans of food or a cash donation for Urban Ministries food pantry. More information can be found here.

New Contest

Edited to add: The contest will be judged on June 26th at 9:30 SHARP. I can't keep a chicken in the store all day, folks! The rules? make a piece of jewelry that is wearable (by a human) and appeals to a chicken. The chicken will judge. I suggest a bracelet, maybe something shiny. Good luck!

Well, the Breakfast and Beads crowd was at it again this morning. They really want a new jewelry design contest. After much laughing and giggling and quite possibly too much caffeine they decided to have a Chicken Jewelry Contest. Specifically, a contest where entrants make jewelry for a chicken. My hen, Fifi, who has refined sensibilities for a chicken, will choose the winner. We decided to have the contest conclude on a Friday in June after school is out (date TBA) so that Susan can participate and watch the judging.

Conveniently, a chicken neck is about the size of a human wrist, so the designs will be able to serve as bracelets after their hen-pecking. There was much joking about jewelry designs that would be irresistible to a hen; beads made of corn, bugs in resin, etc. I think that bling is the way to go. I don't know if Fifi can resist a bit of sparkly Swarovski.

So you can watch this space for contest details but consider this a head's up...start thinking about Chicken Jewelry. For inspiration, come to the Henside the Beltline Tour de Coup on Saturday, May 16th in downtown Raleigh. There will be lots of hens to look over, plus some great gardens and chicken coops. Ignore the heavily caffeinated ladies that you see trying to get the hens to peck at their jewelry. I don't know those women.

What's IS Breakfast and Beads?
Breakfast and Beads is every Friday at Panopolie. There is a big pot of coffee and some breakfast goodies and we open at 8:30. Obviously, it gets a bit out of hand. I mean, really, chicken jewelry?