STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Kathleen Phelan Britt and Jim Britt’s yard certainly wasn’t lacking for color, thanks to the orange day lilies and the classical music being served up by members of the Wood River Orchestra during the Sawtooth Botanical Garden’s annual Garden Tour.

But there under the shade trees was Cherie Kessler’s latest artistic venture: A table full of hand decorated birdhouses.

The birdhouses were hand painted, and many also featured three-dimensional objects, as well, including tiny clay birds and tiny wooden spatulas.

One, labeled “How Birds Eat When People Aren’t Around,” featured two birds that Kessler built out of clay sitting inside the house. One, wearing an apron, is feeding her husband a bowl of bird seed for breakfast. The bespectacled husband is seated at the table reading a newspaper.

The rooftop, meanwhile, is decorated with miniature boxes of gelatin, oats and other foods—all part of a myriad of things Kesser has collected over the years.

Another birdhouse boasts a painted dragon, its roof covered with fabric Kessler bought from a Chinese lady in Chinatown. A miniature Samurai sword and a broken antique figurine of a Chinese man add a three-dimensional quality to the piece.

Still another features a more natural look with pinecones “growing” on a painted pine bough as a painted sun sets into night on the A-frame roof.

Kessler didn’t create the birdhouses as a business or even to sell at local arts and crafts fairs. But, with their numbers mounting, she decided to display them at the Garden Tour. She sold four within the first two hours.

Kessler said she was inspired by seeing a birdhouse featuring Mexican folklore motifs.

“It was covered in jewels, and I thought, ‘What a great idea!’ ”

Kessler, a longtime board member at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, said decorating birdhouses has been a great hobby and pastime.

“I hope others might be inspired to try something like this, as well,” she added.