Happy Wednesday

Just posting a print image that I have hanging in my home.  It is by an artist named Arthur Singer who created a series of these in the 1950's for a sewing magazine.  The prints themselves came in the magazine itself and the reader was meant to collect them all.  It was an early ad campaign and judging by the number of these prints that are out there still intact, I'd say it was at least a moderate success.

The birds pictured in the image above are a pair of Northern Cardinals, a type of finch.  They sport a specialized heavy seed cracking beak which allows them to break open seeds that other birds can't quite manage. Sunflower seeds still in their shells are one of their favorite items at the backyard birdfeeder because so many of the birds can't manage them.  The males sing a lovely song each spring, seeking to serenade the females.  They are found throughout much of the United States and even up into the colder, snowy regions of the Eastern part of the US but seem to avoid the colder regions of the West.

I found mine at various antique shops and at least one was purchased on Ebay for very low prices.  They had been quite yellowed and carried the stains of time.  I scanned each on in and spent hours and hours cleaning them up in Photoshop to get the final result that you see here.  I then printed on sturdy white photo stock and framed them in simple black frames with white matts.  Every day, I get a smile out of the grouping.  Today, I thought I'd share one with you in the hopes it will put a smile on your face too!