Christmas Wish List Part II: Indoor and Outdoor décor

Last week, I wrote about some bird feeding equipment that you might want to add to your Christmas wish list. This week, I am going to follow that up with a dozen things to consider for decorating the inside and outside of your home. Many of these make great gifts too. Again, these are some of my favorites.

1) Decorative door mats. The most popular outdoor décor item in our store is certainly our decorative door mats. They come in a wonderful variety of prints and the scenes are simply splendid. The beauty of these mats not just in their attractiveness, but in their functionality: you buy the tray that holds the mat and then you can change out the insert with the seasons. There are bluebirds, cardinals, winter scenes, spring scenes, holiday scenes, and on and on. The mats are well designed, limited issue, and quite durable. If they get dirty, you can vacuum them or hose them down. For those of you who like to decorate with the same theme throughout, you can also get matching mailbox wraps and garden flags with the same quality in appearance and durability.

2) Decorative drinking mugs. If you love watching the birds over breakfast, then these coffee/tea mugs are just the thing to get you going in the morning. Modern printing methods have allowed nearly perfect images to be transferred to ceramic making these mugs just plain beautiful. There are many images of bird scenes to choose from allowing them to be mixed and matched if desired.

3) Night Lights. One of my favorite home décor items in our store are the night lights. We have some exquisite 3-D designs. Whether you like flowers, birds, or butterflies, we have them all. We also have a small selection of holiday night lights that will be sure to perk up a dreary corner with a nice warm glow. These lights use a standard sized 15 watt bulb to make bulb changing easy.

4) Absorbent Car coasters. We’ve all experienced the mess that comes with sweating cups when placed in car cup holders. These absorbent coasters are right-sized to fit inside cup wells to soak up the condensation left behind. Of course, there are many designs in which to choose, so you should be able to find one (or a few) that appeal to your aesthetic.

5) Hide-a-key Bird House. This little bird house is not a bird house at all. It’s an enclosure to hide a car or house key, keeping it accessible to you, yet hidden. It is sized to look just like a wren house, but there is a little flap covering the entrance to keep unwanted critters out such as wasps. The inside of the house uses a magnetic closure and even has little hooks in it to keep multiple keys organized. So, it’s cute and functional!

6) Singing clocks. Do you love to hear bird sounds year-round? The Audubon singing bird clock will sing a different kind of bird song each hour. And if you think you be awoken at 3 A.M. by a Robin song coming from the clock, think again. The clock has a built-in light sensor to shut off the songs when the room goes dark.

7) Bird-a-Day Calendar. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird-a-Day page calendar is a nice addition to a work or home desk by helping to bring the beauty of wild birds indoors. This particular calendar gives you little fun facts about each pictured bird along with a range map to learn where you can see them. If you have a smart phone, you can also learn more about each bird by snapping a photo of a QR code on each page, too.

8) Sun catchers. You can brighten up any window with a sun catcher that is the shape and color of your favorite backyard bird. There are Bluebirds, Cardinals, Chickadees, and Goldfinches. They come with suction cup hook to allow placement on your window anywhere you wish.

9) Silicone Jar Opener & Trivet. These decorative jar openers and trivets contain images of backyard birds imprinted on fabric, which is then encased in pure silicone. This silicone is non-slip and heat tolerant (up to 600 degrees F) so it makes wonderful trivets and jar openers. The jar openers are specially designed to stick to refrigerators, so they are always at hand when needed. They are also dishwasher safe and handmade here in the U.S.A.

10) Puzzles. The puzzles we carry are not your run-of-the-mill puzzles. While the images of bird scenes are wonderfully imprinted, the backing material is high quality, and the front is printed with a special low glare surface to make finding the pieces much easier on the eyes. If you want to have a little fun this winter, turn off the TV for a bit and sit around the table and chat while working a puzzle. It’s a good old-fashioned way to enjoy a frosty afternoon.

11) Used books. The Bluebird Shed carries a variety of used books about birds and birding for sale. Or rent. If you love to read, but don’t want to clutter your house with a pile of books, this option is the next best thing to going to a library. You can rent a book from us for a couple of bucks. If you decide you want to keep it, you can. We have books by Pete Dunne and Kenn Kaufman as well as many other notable bird authors. So enjoy!

12) Lastly...if you receive any of these items as gifts, sending a "thank you" note can make someone's day. We have a variety of note cards in several sized packs. Of course, there are beautiful birds on the cover including Bluebirds, Warblers, Grosbeaks, Owls, and even butterflies. The cards made by Tree-Free Greetings are especially nice and they come with the knowledge that they are made on 100% recycled paper, which helps our environment and our birds.

Hopefully you enjoy this list. Of course, we carry more than just these items, but this is a good start to give you some ideas.

Happy birding!