While shopping in Bar Harbor last week I hit up my favorite store, Window Panes. If you are going to bar harbor and like small stores with kitchen gadgets and unique housewares, this place can not be missed. One thing that really caught my eye was a wooden birdhouse with an old skeleton key as a perch. They had a few other birdhouses on display and each was a little different and made of upcycled materials. The owner of the store informed me they were made by a group of men with unique challenges that were part of the Browns Foster Home. Recycled Reflections – the birdhouse project was started in 1997 as a creative outlet and a way to reflect on some walks in the Maine woods. It was how all creative endeavors should start, for fun! Each house is created from upcycled materials, old keys, golf clubs, drawer pulls, and each roof is thatched with pine cone shingles. Today it has blossomed into something bigger than ever expected. Thousands of birdhouses have been made and sold. It has nothing to do with the money, It’s about the love of creating something new, something maybe we all need to remember sometimes.