Hey Sunny Slide Up Readers!

Shawn here of Shawn Hobbs Designs. Wow!!  I’m glad you all like my birdhouses. I have so much fun creating them.   I hope you get a chance to visit my website and see the many different styles I’ve made throughout the years.  I am happy to announce the winner of the birdhouse giveaway…. JANICE P!!! (Please contact us with your shipping information so we can get you your birdhouse!)

My love of birds started when I was little. I was raised on a small farm outside Fayetteville, NC where we had many varieties of chickens, peacocks, ducks, and guinness. My grandfather, brothers and I would spend a lot of fun time building chicken coops, hatching baby chics, peacocks, and those dirty-teal duck eggs which were the rarest and my favorite to hold and look at. When I was little, my grandfather made birdhouses and placed them on light poles, fence post, and trees all around our 300 acre farm, so its a family tradition too.  My personal birdhouse journey started 20 years later, when in 2009 I made my mom a cool two story birdhouse for Mothers Day. Her friends saw it and wanted one….then their friends saw them ….and well it moved on from there.

I make and design all kinds of artwork, as well as work in personal real estate, home and garden design and am a big lover of Mother Nature……  so it was no surprise to me that in making birdhouses it gives me the best of all those interests rolled into one and keeps me connected to nature which is my biggest inspiration. From a home design standpoint…..I feel like I’m designing a real house each time I make a new birdhouse. Which for a designer and artist the unlimited creativity birdhouses allow for really hits the spot. I’m also a big meanie greenie and environmentalist….and that’s where using recycled materials comes in.  In life, work, and art I try to follow a passionate principle of recycling all things as much as possible.  The journey of finding items, parts and pieces is the real fun though.  I love traveling around to yard sales, thrift shops, and estate sales picking up cool and whimsical finds that speak to me …telling me what they want to become. An old metal flower pot may ask to be a birdhouse top. That’s how creativity works for me….. Im not sure if I think of the idea or if the idea finds me?!

Back to the real stars of my birdhouse story  …which will always be the BIRDS!

Birds are the sound of Spring, a healthy backyard, and of Mother Nature in balance. Birds bring …love, life, colors, and sounds to our lives and yards that is so good for the mind, body, and soul. We’re all affected and connected I always say! Everyone loves sitting on their back porch or deck, listening to the birds sing,  or under a big shade tree, or lying in soft grass looking up at the clouds with birds singing and flying all around. Birds are forever stuck in our minds as images of paradise!…you know that sunset with a palm tree with a bird flying by! Heavenly!  Birds give us music, feelings of  happiness, relaxation, contentment, and joy with their songs…..you instantly think and feel……”life is all good” right now…. It’s springtime after all!

In hiking and country living we have also learned that birds are great alarm clocks, season predictors, and a warning signs of things ahead. The relationship between birds and humans go back to the beginning of time. All great religions, cultures, kingdoms, and tribes use birds as symbols of peace, strength, hope, travel, love, family, and power! They are considered majestic, magical, and the messengers to and from the gods and the spirit world. They are the closest living thing to the heavens, so I believe they hold answers and bring good fortune …and without them ….humans would have little examples of hope and rising above our troubles.

Environmentally…. Birds, frogs, and bees are indicators and predictors of a healthy ecosystem. Scientist and experts agree that all three are in decline now and that humans won’t last long if birds become extinct. Birdhouses are now more important than ever!  Deforestation has destroyed and chopped down 70% of old growth forest globally and are forcing birds to find homes wherever they can. So build or buy a birdhouse today, give another creature a home, and bring some goodness, love, and life to your home and yard. In other words…….give a hoot!

Thanks for having me on Sunny Slide Up!  ~ Shawn