Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A Blue Bird Baked in a Pie- A Vintage Style Gift

 We hosted a wedding 'kitchen' shower here yesterday.  Everyone was to bring a favorite recipe and a kitchen gift.   It was this small little blue bird at Sur La Table that inspired my gift. 
I love putting gifts together.  I remembered an article from Country Living magazine a while back about the history of these little birds.  I was inspired to give some baking supplies and a recipe for blackberry cobbler.  The little bird allows the steam to vent, so the fruit filling won't spill over-brilliant and cute.  A French tapered rolling pin, ceramic pie dish, dish towel and a vintage style timer complete the gift!  Don't you just love memories and things of old?
blackbird pie birds in pies

"Pie birds evoke warm feelings of gathering around a table for fresh-from-the-oven desserts," says Texas collector Jeannie Kolger, whose cabinets bulge with more than 1,000 of these tools, designed to prevent pie fillings from boiling over by creating a steam vent. Though English bakers started using workmanlike ceramic funnels for this purpose in the early 1800s, the utensils didn't take on fanciful bird forms until migrating to the States in the 1930s. The inspiration? The nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence": Four and 20 blackbirds, baked in a pie. Today, fans of the figurals drop anywhere from $10 to $3,000 for avian as well as other, rarer shapes.


Grab you a little bird and enjoy making your next pie in style or wrap one up as a gift!

Need other gift ideas? 
Here is another one I shared last summer!

Thanks for stopping by!


Links:
Savvy Southern Style {Primp}


16 comments:

  1. This is adorable! You are so thoughtful. I'm sure your friend loved it.

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  2. I LOVE all your gift ideas! So inspiring...

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  3. I love pie birds and would love to start collecting them but I already have so many colllections I hate to start another one. You gift is very special!

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  4. Oh! So cute! Wonderful ideas and photos! As a vintage children's dishes and storybooks collector I love your comment about Six a Song of Sixpence, I have some nice old plates and cups with images of that nursery rhyme.
    Besos from Argentina! Silvina

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  5. I would love to get a gift basket as special as the ones you created!

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  6. so so cute.. I lOVE it... wishing someone who loves me would see this and gift the love to me :)

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  7. Where was this gift when I was having bridal showers?! I would have SO preferred an adorable, thoughtful, and unique gift like this over crockpots and salad spinners. Such a great idea!

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  8. Christi, this is a darling gift. I love to pull together a group of things for a thoughtful gift. The little blue pie birdie is too cute. ;-)
    My goddaughter's maiden name is Blackbird. Some years before she married, I began to buy vintage black pie birds in anticipation that one day when she did marry they would make a cute themed gift. As it turned out, I hosted her bride's maid luncheon. I used all the little pie birds as a table decoration with a little poem.
    These little pie birds are so cute.

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  9. Christie these are really nice gift ideas. The bird is so cute.

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  10. Christie...I LOVE your gifts!! They are so fun and the mix of pratical and pretty with a touch of vintage is so lovely! You should have a gift basket business! Have a lovely weekend! Angie xo

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  11. What a lovely idea! I am hosting a Giveaway to win a 50 dollar gift card to the store HomeGoods. It would be great if you stopped by and entered. Thanks Anu

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  12. I like your nice post. I love your comment about Six a Song of Sixpence.

    - Herman Swan

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  13. Sooo cute! I would love to receive a vintage style gift like these! I adore vintage kitchen items. The kitchen is the heart of the home and adding vintage style to it makes it so cozy!

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