Category Archives: Consignment

Valentine’s Day Pop-up Shop

Metro South sanctuaries, Moose Hill (Sharon), Blue Hills Trailside Museum (Milton), and Stony Brook (Norfolk) have come together with a safe and easy curbside pop-up shop with all of your Valentine’s needs. We have something for everyone from a variety of local artists and our very own maple trees! We are delighted to offer this limited online shop to be picked up curbside on Friday, February 5 or February 12 at either Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary or Blue Hills Trailside Museum!

All items are available by pre-order only using this form. Purchases will be pre-packaged and ready on the date and time you select when submitting your order. We will call within 48 hours of you placing your order – between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday-Friday – to confirm your order and answer any questions at that time. Forms will be processed in the order in which they are received and orders will be fulfilled while inventory lasts.

Orders must be placed by end of day on Wednesdays for pickup on the Friday in that same week. We will finalize your pickup day and location when we call to confirm your order and take payment. We can accept credit, cash, checks, or Mass Audubon Gift Cards. If you would like to pay with a check, please make it out to Mass Audubon.

Thank you for choosing to shop local and for supporting all of the wonderful and important work that we do to protect the nature and wildlife of Massachusetts. We truly wouldn’t be able to do it all without the generous support of our members and contributors like you.

Curbside Holiday Shopping!

Looking to support your favorite local Wildlife Sanctuaries this gift giving season? We miss seeing you all in our shops but we are excited to now offer a limited online shop to be picked up curbside on Fridays at Moose Hill in Sharon or Saturdays at Blue Hills Trailside Museum in Milton! The first week will only have items from Moose Hill but Blue Hills items will be added in the last two weeks. As inventory sells out, we may add in new items so keep checking back with us throughout the month!

All items are available by pre-order only using this form. Purchases will be pre-packaged and ready for payment on the date and time you select when submitting your order. We will call within 48 hours of you placing your order – between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday-Friday – to confirm your order and answer any questions at that time. Forms will be processed in the order in which they are received and orders will be fulfilled while inventory lasts.

Orders must be placed by 5pm on Thursdays in order to be prepared for that weekend’s pick-ups. Any orders that are not picked up at their designated times will be added back into the shop and available for sale the next week. We will not hold any orders.

If you prefer to have a contact-less pick-up and wish to pay in advance please let us know when we call to confirm your order. We can accept credit, cash, checks, or Mass Audubon Gift Cards. If you are paying with a gift card, you will need to pay when we call to confirm your order. If you would like to pay with a check, please make it out to Mass Audubon.

Thank you for choosing to shop local and for supporting all of the wonderful and important work that we do to protect the nature and wildlife of Massachusetts. We truly wouldn’t be able to do it all without the generous support of our members and contributors like you.

How to Shop Safe and Local

While the Nature Center, Gift Shop, and trails remain closed during this time, the farm will be open and we hope that you will continue to support the local vendors that we partner with to fill our gift shop shelves. Though you can’t shop through us right now, you can still easily shop directly with many of our vendors for all of your upcoming gifts, gardening, or grocery needs – it will be easy to see why we have been so proud to partner with them at Moose Hill.

The two current best ways to directly support Moose Hill are by joining us as a member, taking advantage of the new member special for just $32, and by joining our Organic CSA, where you can get 18 weeks of fresh vegetables worth $27-$32 a week. Guaranteed fresh vegetables without needing to remember to place an order each week – what a great deal! We will be starting our CSA program on time in late May. Arrangements will be made for a safe pick-up process for shareholders and farmers if the COVID-19 situation continues into the CSA season. By purchasing a CSA share now, you’re giving valuable support to our farmers as they continue to work to provide fresh, sustainable food for our community.

While we can’t physically sell the great products from our local partners in our shop right now, we want to help you reach them virtually, or contact free, and continue to show them some love. Visit the list below to check out what your neighbors and community members have available.

CatBird Design – Greeting Cards / Nature Photography / Jewelry and More
Cilla’s Creations – Cement Garden Decorations
Chickadee Seed & Feed – Bird Seed, Feeders, Garden Supplies, Feed, and More
Country Farm Candles – Family Owned Hand Poured Soy Candles
Good Life Creations – Personalized Gifts & Decor
Ink’d – COMMUN-A-TEE T-Shirts and Masks
Jim’s Organic Coffee – Local Coffee Offering 15% Off Your Online Order
Mass Audubon Shop – Limited Version of the Usual Online Shop
Nelumbo Healing Arts – Nature Art, Jewelry, and Hand Crafted Self Care Products.
Our Corner Booth – Handmade Wooden Home Goods & Decor.
The Petal Peddler’s Shop – Unique Handcrafted Paper Flower Bouquets
Ring by Ring Designs – Handmade Jewelry
Simpson Spring – Local Grocery Goods (Including Local Meat), Fresh Spring Water, Gifts, and More
Tea Guys – Local Tea
TreeHouse Farms – Local Eggs, Meat Birds, and More
Ward’s Berry Farm – Local Groceries, Plants, and Moose Hill Maple Syrup
Yellow Ochre Studio – Original Gouache Paintings & Giclee Prints

We hope you are all staying safe and healthy and miss you dearly. Thank you for your continued patronage and shared love of nature.

Supporting Our Local Vendors

With the gift shop closed, we wanted to take a moment to highlight ways you can still support the local businesses that you can’t currently purchase from through us. We know that things are tight for a lot of folks out there right now due to so many jobs being shut down, but if you find yourself needing some of the items that our vendors below offer, we implore you to shop local and support these smaller business that are being greatly affected right now.

Country Farm Candles just launched a Tealight Soy Making Candle Kit, which makes a great at-home craft project. They are also working on a video series of candle experiments that can be done at home with the tealights so be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Cilla’s Creations has been busy working on new cement pieces to brighten up your yards and gardens that will be available for purchase curbside with a portion of the profits still going to support us at Moose Hill. Follow her Facebook to learn more details.

Celebrations have become a little different in this time of quarantine but you can still buy gifts of unique jewelry through Ring by Ring Designs on her website. Our entire Nature Collection is available with some new designs that aren’t even in the gift shop yet.

If you are anything like me and have found yourself drinking a little more coffee than usual to get through these strange days, you may need a restock. Jim’s Organic Coffee is an excellent local company that is currently offering 15% off of their online orders. All of their coffee support independent farmers in their countries of origin and their Mexican Single Origin coffee is certified bird friendly with over 100 bird species and over 200 plant species on the farm. Once you get your hands on some of their coffee, be sure to check out all the different ways it can be brewed to perfection right at home.

I know some of you are missing our maple syrup but I have good news. Ward’s is now selling our bottles of certified kosher maple syrup and they are now offering no contact curbside pick-up and home delivery for some of their groceries, including our syrup.

Simpson Spring, located in Easton, is also doing curbside pickup of their local water, meats, cheese, eggs, and yogurt options. You can call ahead or send them a message on Facebook to place an order.

Our organic CSA will be a great way to get fresh veggies in the coming months. Join our summer CSA and receive 18 weeks of fresh, organic vegetables Pickups in Sharon and Mattapan. With shares equaling just $27 to $32 per week it’s a great way to support Moose Hill and the work we do. Register online today to secure your slot. If you have questions about this program, please feel free to email us at [email protected].

Right now, we’re still planning to start our CSA program on time in late May. Arrangements will be made for a safe pick-up process for shareholders and farmers if the COVID-19 situation continues into the CSA season. By purchasing a CSA share now, you’re giving valuable support to our farmers as they continue to work to provide fresh, sustainable food for our community.

If you are running low on birdseed, you can support our local supplier and pick some up at Chickadee Seed & Feed on route 1 in Walpole. They have some limited hours but they are a smaller shop where you can go safely without much interaction with other people. Check their Facebook for updates on their hours and protocols.

Lastly, Tree House Farms has fresh eggs weekly and is taking orders to raise meat birds monthly. Check out her Facebook or Instagram for updates on how to order and message her on either platform with any questions or requests.

We can’t wait to see you back up on The Hill when we are able to re-open our doors, but we hope you are all staying safe and healthy in the meantime. As always, thank you for your support of Moose Hill and for supporting our partner vendors!

Holiday Shopping at Your Local Gift Shop

If you are looking for unique gifts this Holiday season, be sure to come check out our ever growing and changing gift shop right up at the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Center. We are proud to support a wide range of local artists with items such as handmade jewelry, wood burned art, cement garden art, hand poured soy candles, greeting cards, nature and vegetable prints, wool dryer balls, ornaments, hand knit and crocheted hats, and more! Keep checking back throughout the season as new products, including some of those pictured below, arrive in the shop.

On top of all of the lovely local art items, we also have Moose Hill branded items like shirts, hats, water bottles, and bags – most of which were printed locally at Inkd in Mansfield!

We are also getting restocked with plenty of nature themed items that make excellent stocking stuffers! These will be arriving at the shop towards the end of November – keep an eye out on our social media pages for our announcement of their arrival.

At Moose Hill, we strive to support our community and offer as many local items as possible, even down to the soda and bird seed that we sell. So you know that when you shop with us you are not only supporting a local conservation organization, but also a local business or artist. And don’t forget – if you are a member then you get 10% off of most things in the shop, including the bird seed!

We hope you are all having a lovely transition into winter as the sun sets earlier, the nights get colder, and the landscape changes once again. Our 25 miles of trails are beautiful year round with something new to see in every season so be sure to keep us in mind as you plan out your weekends!

Gift Shop – Artist Feature

Our featured artist this week is Cilla Kitay of Cilla’s Creations. You can find her creative cement art in our Gift Shop year round. You will also be able to see an expansive inventory this Saturday at our Nature Center from 9 am-4 pm at our First Annual Artisan Fair!

Cilla Kitay started Cilla’s Creations from a simple desire to to make garden pots for her many plants. Little did she know that quest would lead her to fall in love with the unusual medium of cement. Her adventure in creating cement art and sharing her passion through teaching began in 2016. Cilla creates cement art for gardens, gifts and decor, and holds classes for children and adults in her studio. Having always loved nature, she sees it as a challenge to incorporate elements from the natural world into her art, often using large leaves, buds, and blooms in her creations.

Cilla lives and creates her art in Sharon, MA. For more information, visit Cilla’s Creations on Facebook.

Gift Shop – Artist Feature

Our Featured Artist this week is Rita Stuopis of Catbird Design. You can find her nature themed cards and gifts in our Gift Shop and you can come see her full inventory on June 8th at our First Annual Artisan Fair!

An Interview With Rita

What is Catbird Design’s mission:

To evoke an appreciation for nature and to educate about the beauty of our natural world, through my images of birds, insects, plants and animals;

To bring awareness of the important role that all species have within their ecosystems and how dependent they are on each other and on their habitats;

To inspire people to support conservation efforts.

How did you get started?

Throughout my life, I’ve always needed to express my creativity: through architecture, graphic art, silk screening, gardening, illustration and photography. In 2015, I completed a series of cat and penguin (cat and bird) illustrations, which I combined into a calendar, then started really getting into nature photography – and my small business – CatbirdDesign was born. Although I’ve felt a connection and a respect for nature since childhood, the more time I spent observing, photographing, and researching her creations, the more aware I became of how amazing yet fragile the habitats that support our fellow creatures really are…I soon developed an emotional attachment to my subjects and felt compelled to share their stories, their beauty, and their struggle to survive through my photography and through educational, interesting articles and images on social media.

What are your current products?

Nature themed cards, prints, jewelry, and gifts – all created using my photographic images.

Where people can find you online?

https://www.facebook.com/CatbirdDesign

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CatbirdDesign2015

What upcoming events will you have a booth at?

Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary Artisan Fair – Saturday, June 8th, 9 am-4 pm. 293 Moose Hill Parkway, Sharon, MA

Amazing Things Brick Market – Saturday, June 1, 2019 from 10am-4pm. 160 Hollis Street, Framingham MA 01702. Market takes place in the parking lot behind the Firehouse.

2019 Blue Hills Boosters Holiday Fair – Saturday, December 7th, 2019 10am-3pm. Blue Hills Regional Vocational High School, 800 Randolph St., Canton, MA 02021

Blue Hills Trailside Museum Fall Festival (early October) 1904 Canton Ave, Milton, MA 02186

Amazing Things Holiday Market (Late November) 160 Hollis Street, Framingham MA 01702

Gift Shop Updates and Artisan Fair

If you have been up to visit us recently, you may have noticed that the Gift Shop has undergone some changes. We have been diligently working on adding more Moose Hill branded merchandise along with a large amount of consignment. We love supporting our local artists and are proud to showcase their hard work in our shop. If you are looking for that perfectly unique gift that was made with love, look no further! We have new items coming in all the time so be sure to check out what’s new every time you visit.

With that, I am excited to announce that this year we will be hosting our First Annual Artisan Fair! On Saturday, June 8th, from 9 am-4 pm, we will have vendors set up alongside our Annual Native Plant Sale. So come on down and meet the artists behind the beautiful work in our shop. They will have a larger inventory with them than we typically carry in the store so it is a wonderful chance to learn more about everything they offer and how each item is crafted.

Cilla’s Creations Cement Owl

Throughout the next couple of weeks we will be featuring some of our artists on the blog so stay tuned!