71 Comments

A Safari & Giveaway

June 28, 2011, 08:20 am  Posted by Beth Sweet
 

We’re quickly nearing the close of our Bird Love Blogiversary month, but it just didn’t seem right to wrap up the month of June without a bit of adventure and one last giveaway (details at the end of the post). So button up your khaki shirt, pull on your wide-brimmed canvas hat, and keep those binoculars handy. We’re going on a SAFARI, and you never know what we may find.

…………………………………………………………………

Now, very quietly, look through those bushes.

No—those bushes over there.

Do you see that?! (Shh! Whisper!) It’s a creature very rare in this geographical area.

A shy animal, usually content to travel alone. Prefers leafy shade.

You’d think his blue coloring would make him stand out, but it’s actually very reliable camouflage.

Ah, there he is! (Bless his heart, he thinks we can’t see him behind that tree. Stay quiet so he’s not frightened.)

Oh my goodness, what an incredible sighting! He’s coming over here! Keep your hands inside the jeep, everyone. They’re gentle creatures, but you still need to be careful.

Note the patterning in his ears and underbelly. This aids in his symbiotic relationship with birds.

Now, watch closely: I believe he’s returning to his den.

Well my stars. It’s really happening! We may be the first people to see the elusive blue rhinoceros engaging in what until now was thought to be a scientific myth!

It’s a blue rhino READING!

I’d heard of this mystery, but I wouldn’t have believed it possible. And look at his reading choice: Kirigami Menagerie’s project instructions for the Ostrich. Even our blue friend understands the importance of Lark’s Bird Love Blogiversary.

Why, look at that. He’s reading about birds in every one of those books!

You, too, can read the books our friend is reading AND you could become the happy owner of this darling rhino, handmade by Leah Wickett of ElJay Plushie on Etsy. To learn more about Leah, please visit her shop and her Facebook page.

We’re inviting you on the safari with a giveaway of this too-cute handmade rhino AND seven Lark titles that celebrate Lark’s Bird Love Blogiversary! (These seven books are: 500 Animals in Clay; Homemade Living Keeping Chickens; Craft Hope; Fantastic Recycled Plastic; 101 Snappy Fashions; Kirigami Menagerie; and 45 Quilt Blocks: Animals.)

To enter for a chance to win, please leave a comment on this post by 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday, July 5th. Any comment is fine—though we’d love to hear what birds you find on a safari through your house. One winner will be selected at random from among all eligible entries and notified by Friday, July 8. Click here for the official rules.

The giveaway is now closed–thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winner, beachbrights!

Well folks, I think it’s time to bid our friend adieu. What a magnificent thing: a blue rhino who reads. So long, crafty critter. And thanks, Leah, for sharing your creativity with us! We hope whomever wins this bundle of books and friendly rhino loves him as much as we do.

 
 
 
Beth Sweet

About the Author

Since 2007 I’ve had the pleasure of working on Lark books ranging across wide horizons: ...

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  • Anonymous

    This post is AWESOME!!!!!!!!! Wish I could win the elusive blue rhino who likes to read about birds.

  • Kathleen

    I love him!

  • http://pincupottery.com/ Elise

    Birds, birds, everywhere!  A Cornbread guinea, Mica Sherrill bird painting, look – yellow finches outside on the day lilies!, a carved wooden bird purchased in Costa Rica from some guy on the side of the road with the last of our cash (there is a story to that bird….), a beautiful raku bird by local potter Connie Franks, a small bird perched on a clay candle holder in the form of a tree, numerous bird identification books and more!  I LOVE BIRDS!

  • Terri Thompson

    Awesome giveaway! You could find a lot of books by wandering through my house… I seem to have a thing for bird art!

  • http://marissamakes.blogspot.com marissamakes

    Oh my! What a darling little rhino! On safari through my house, one would see feathered fellows big + small, my favorite of which is Tex {our Catalina macaw}.

    Happy Bird Love Blogiversary! ♥

  • Catherine

    A glass chickadee on this side of the window….a huge bluejay on the other side of the glass, swaying on the feeder…little green birds on a strip of corduroy on my sewing table…and my two little birds reading a book about ducks!
    :)

  • Amy S.

    Right now I have no birdies in sight because the cats might eat them! But my neighbors tree does lean over our back porch and my kittehs love to watch them. :) I definitely need more birdies in my life.

  • Janet

    Dear little blue rhino, your endearing personality & narrator are every bit as adorable as your little blue self! What a sweet & imaginative post!!

  • Quilter

    What a delightful safari! I’m so pleased to have spotted such an elusive creature – and I’d love to have one for my own! :)

    Linda

  • Suze

    Perhaps he is related somehow, or lives in the same area as William the Blue Hippo, known to hang out at the Met Museum in NY. What a treat!

  • Kelly massman

    I have a brown and pink felt owl, a clock and a lamp full of Marjolean Bastin birds..outside we have woodpeckers and all sorts of birds! I’d love to win the rhino and books! Thanks so much for the chance! kmassmanATgmailDOTcom

  • Eva

    That is the most incredibly adorable rino! :)

  • Sue D

    Very cute rhino!  We happen to have chickens around here!

  • http://corvidarium.blogspot.com/ wendy

    Oh. my. goodness. What a sweet rhino!!
    My house is home to a small collection of ceramic birdies, as well as several of the painted variety. No live ones, sadly. I would love to have chickens, but our town is not progressive enough to allow them.

  • Melissa

    The little blue rhino is so cute!

    We have plenty of birds in our backyard, though I have absolutely no idea what kind they are. I guess I need a NC bird book. :) I do recognize the cardinals and blue jays.

  • Kaya H

    Our Safari would include hawks and owls. We are predator bird fanatics, and owls delight throughout our house. This is a great collection! Just in time for summer activities!

  • Teri C

    mmm yes we have the owls also and the chickens. Love the chickens!
    What a wonderful set of books!

  • Mglendening

    We have a pair of cardinals that we see quite frequently in our small backyard..recently we had a suicidal bird that kept trying to fly into our house but kept crashing into the window.  Not sure what he was up to, maybe trying to attack the Spider-man and Batman figures lying on the other side. :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/crystal.trebilcock Crystal W.

    So cute!  We have a nasty crow that hangs out in the early mornings in our backyard and caws at us devilishly!  We had a bird theme at our wedding last year so we have two little scuplted birds in a nest on our mantle and I painted a picture of two little birds on a wire together that we hang over our bed. 

  • Barbara

    Oh my, lions and tigers and a blue rhino! I think it’s just adorable! I also just love all of the books that you’re giving away. We have lots of birds around our house and have homes out for them and feeders. I love to watch them. We did have a cockatiel named Hector who passed at the age of 24. He was so sweet and could whistle the theme song to the Andy Griffith show. :) I would just love to win your wonderful giveaway.

  • suzee neal

    I love it!!! he would look so cute setting above my sewing machine looking out at the birds in my yard = ) I would love to win that book of chickens! My grand daughter is 18months and she is OBSESSED!! with chickens!! she does a mean rooster call as well! haha! thank you for this great giveaway!

  • http://profiles.google.com/averypottery Blaine Avery

    i have a wooden hand carved egret bird, Flea-market find, a chicken made by Charles Moore who worked a Jugtown Pottery in Seagrove N.C. Its hand built made out of local red earthenware clay- wood fired and glazed in a lead glaze, Charles only make a few of these before he died several years ago. And I can not forget my Peter Rose guinea hen I love her so! I think I have a think for the birds!!!

  • http://profiles.google.com/averypottery Blaine Avery

    i have a wooden hand carved egret bird, Flea-market find, a chicken made by Charles Moore who worked a Jugtown Pottery in Seagrove N.C. Its hand built made out of local red earthenware clay- wood fired and glazed in a lead glaze, Charles only make a few of these before he died several years ago. And I can not forget my Peter Rose guinea hen I love her so! I think I have a think for the birds!!!

  • Dorte

    In my house there is only one bird – a tiny model of a budgerigar, I’ve bought to give to the woman who is going to teach me screen printing this summer…
    thnaks for giving all these great books away!

  • Christy B.

    Oh my goodness isn’t he the cutest!!! The only birds I see here @my house are morning doves, and red cardinals that swoop down almost every morning to drink from our water pail we have outside, my kids just love watching them.

  • Pam

    This has to be one of your best posts yet!  What a wonderfully creative journey you took us on today. LOVE it! I laughed, smiled, cooed and ooed.  Thank you for a super terrific bright spot in an otherwise harried-full-of-crazy-technology-issues kind of day.  A good reminder that handmade can be such a beautiful escape.  :-)  Ahhhh, I am invigorated and inspired, despite all that other electronic craziness happening here.  

  • Regina

    I finally figured out the secret to get the hummingbirds to come to my house. Now there are three of them out there all of the time fighting over the feeder. It is neat to see them sit still on the feeder and drink the homemade sugar water. Yay!

  • Tammy

    How adorable. Would love to win this give away!

  • Betsy Nurre

    I am in love with this rhino…… It could not be cuter

  • http://twitter.com/BeachBrights Beachbrights

    So cute!!

    Mockingbirds are all over my yard. I love their aggressiveness and some of my best laughs come from the birds dive bombing my cat ;)

    XOXO
    beachbrights@gmail:disqus .com

  • Anonymous

    Inside the house we have lots of birds–little red garden statues, some hens on quilts, watercolors of doves.  Outside these days we are all about crows–our neighbor has taken to feeding them bread every day, so they are loving life.  Meanwhile, our dogs want to to chase them 24 hours a day.

    Thanks for the fantastic giveaway.

    wordygirl at earthlink dot net

  • jeanneleigh

    I have a painting of a very fancy chicken wearing pearls and a handmade painted “Luli-bird” sculpture in my den and a very cute polymer clay bird with feather wings hanging in the kitchen.  Not to mention the numerous cardinals, bluebirds, and wrens outside in the yard!  I’d love to win the rhino and books!

  • Gayle

    That’s soooo cute! We have lots of little crocheted birds in our house. I found a pattern awhile back that I love, and all of my kids had to have one. I also happen to be sewing some baby gifts today, including two little birdy rattles. I have one other little bird in my house that’s a favorite. It’s hand carved out of wood with bark left on the back for feathers. It hangs in my kitchen.

  • http://cheapereadersblog.com/nook-on-sale/nook-on-sale Nook on Sale

    The rhino is adorable!

  • Meme

    The blue Rhino could be a story waiting to happen, how cute! Birds that I love are Magpies, why? I don’t know, just do!

  • http://www.tlarsendesign.com Teri

    We get Blue Jays every now and then…but, rabbits seem to think our yard is the very best…and also enjoy my vegetable garden very much!  :)

  • Kim R.

    I’d love a chance to enter!!
    Thanks :)

  • Beth

    thank YOU, Pam! Your comment completely brightened my morning!

  • http://twitter.com/carlincakes Carlin

    What a great collection of books! I spy with my little eyes the robins eating from the feeder in the peach tree in my garden. 

  • C Pullman

    Love the rhino and the great collection of books. My son and I love to watch the cardinals and mourning doves in our yard.

  • Melissa

    Cute rhino!  My children love to watch all the different kinds of birds who visit our yard and feeders.  I think they like the big pileated woodpeckers hammering away in the woods.  My favorite is the cuckoo we can hear but have never seen – also called the rain crow.

  • Ksukeena

    (I just want to hug that rhino.) I see wrens because I’ve built homes for them, and the occasional cardinal and blue jay. All welcome.

  • Olivia

    The fabric with the bird patterns is possibly the most adorable thing i’ve seen!

  • http://twitter.com/ZombieCupcake90 Catlyn Lawson

    Such an adorable rhino and a great collection of books! :)

  • http://twitter.com/ZombieCupcake90 Catlyn Lawson

    Such an adorable rhino and a great collection of books! :)

  • jacque

    What a clever way to tell the rhino story…Grandchildren would love

  • Hannah Pertalion

    So cute! And so many fabulous books! My living room is currently decorated with vinyl bird wall stickers and paper birch trees that I painted. The real birds outside have also recently found the bird feeders that I hung up so my cats could watch them out the big bay window (everyone in my house is a huge fan of birds)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000163674932 Gabi Barragan

    What an adorable giveaway! Such a sweet rhino, and so many useful books. As for the birds that you’d find in a safari through my house, we have some beautiful crystal doves that belonged to my great-grandmother. We also have various bird plushies scattered around for the cats to play with (although they would much rather watch the real birds who hang out on our back patio). 

  • Alinissensctc

    Cute Giveaway I love books and the rhino is super cute!

  • Anonymous

    What a perfect combination – Books AND a cute little plush too? 

    Birds you can find in my house – I have some gorgeous china floral white doves which reside next to my white photo frame bearing a photo of my new baby nephew (who I think would adore this cute little rhino!) I have owls scattered throughout my house, along with on my body in tattoo form, as I think they are some of the worlds most glorious and beautiful creatures around. Along with various bird themed jewelry, more bird themed tattoos – swallows and to come, budgies in remembrance of my grandfather, an antique display bird cage and little hand crafted peacocks!

    Birds are beautiful – Oh what I would give to take flight like our beautiful creatures of the sky! 

  • Javamaven

    That rhino is adorable!  And literate, too!

  • Tanzanite88

    Within my home here, I don’t have birds, but if things with wings count, I have many angels I have cross-stitched.  But because we lived in Tanzania, E. Africa, as missionaries for 33 years, we do have decorated ostrich eggs.  In our travels, there was one stop that we could count on feeding the Superb starlings by hand.  there were also many weaver birds and different finches.  All so fun to watch

  • regina

    I can only imagine all the things this cute and still very well built rhino would encounter in our houses here, at the other end of the ocean (The Netherlands). Mr. Rhino looks so adventurous and undertaking! My house wouldn’t be safari worthy, but my big sis’ house would! She is the mother a week old baby boy (her first!) who would love to be Mr. Rhino’s new friend!

  • http://twitter.com/cocoahottie Kristin

    Aww, dang!  This is a fantastic giveaway!  My favorite birds are my 13 lucky chickens that roam around our yard all day.

  • Lee

    I love the robins and goldfinches we see outside our window! thanks for the lovely giveaway.

  • Flavia Siqueira

    I have little sparrows that used to play around the trees outside my window all the time, until the neighbor’s cats and kittens found my little sparrows and scared them away from me. :(

    And this little elephant and those books are absolutely perfect! My sister is having her first baby soon, and this is my first niece/nephew and I am helping with decorating the room, I would love to have a little gift ready for my niece/nephew to come home to and it be from Titia Flavinha (Aunt Flavia). <3

    But to the lucky winner, may you enjoy every bit of the prize and make someone close to your heart feel so very special! :)

  • DK

    I have a pair of parakeets in my house. I enjoy making toys for them to shred or throw around.

  • http://curlygirlpress.wordpress.com/ Jamie

    In my home you would see a mysterious red bird in a bamboo cage, a glorious watercolor pelican portrait in the bathroom (along with his ceramic owl buddy from Ireland), and some ducks and pheasants upstairs.  Outside we have robins, band-tail pigeons, spotted towhees, dark eyed juncos, varied thrushes, evening grosbeak, crows, doves, sparrows, scrub jays, hummingbirds, red tail hawks, and on rare occasion a bald eagle flying high overhead.  The books and rhino would be a welcome addition to my menagerie!

  • hueisei ong

    Love the Rhino.. so cute..
    Thanks for the chance.. I am glad I found your webpage..

  • Jagels

    I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this special time with birds.  been fun. thanks so much for the ideas and the giveaways.  hope i win. would love to have any or all of those books. 

  • Krista Shufelt

    On my journey through my house, looking for the two cute birds I sewed for my daughter, my (live) cockatiels shrieked for my attention.  Never did find those cloth birds — they are apparently quite shy.  Unlike my live birds, who are quite loud.

  • http://www.jeremynjenprice.blogspot.com Jen

    Love the post!  We used to live in S. Africa.  We would go on a safari often and see lots of bird watchers with their binoculars.  It was so fun to spot beautiful birds!

  • Mary

    In our home, you’d find an owl potholder, a bit of Christopher Robin, and some Pingu videos!  Thanks for the contest!

  • graygirlstudios

    we have red wing black birds, hummingbirds, mockingbirds and sparrows around the neighborhood. we don’t have any birds in the house, only the ones my cats bring in. I try to keep that to a minimum though. poor birds.

  • Chris

    The rhino is just beautiful and I love the bird on it’s back too ! Just lovely :)

  • Kelli

    Cute! We have nesting doves just outside the window. Also lots of hummingbirds and finches.

  • Thepricklypinecone

    Oh my, what a once in a lifetime sight, a rhino around these parts! We have a number of blue jays around and even had a nest close by. Was so nice seeing babies.

  • teresa

    What an adorable blue rhino!  I love watching the chickadees, titmice, house finches, towhees, cardinals and most of all the woodpeckers that visit the feeders just outside the kitchen window.  We have Carolina wrens nesting in a flower pot on the patio (they are there every year). 

  • Chandradawn

    I did a bird theme in my brand-new babies room, so I see birds of all sorts on my safari.  I see a bird mobile that I sewed, bird fabric in a picture frame and vintage bird cards framed on the walls to name just a few species.

  • http://missvintagegirl.blogspot.com Kristin

    Oh my, what an incredible giveaway! :) I love the blue rhino! There aren’t too many birds around my house- mostly owls. I definitely have a thing for owls. :)

  • Jenlcrum

    I LOVE this prize set