The Mother's Day Apron

For Mother's Day last week, my awesome husband and wonderful children went to my favorite "real" store.  (I say "real" because I love second hand stores, but those are more "fake" than "real".)  :0)  Anyway, the favorite "real" store is Hallmark.  Why do I love Hallmark?  Well, because that is where all of Vera's treasures reside.  That's right - Vera Bradley.  She is my fabric hero!  I love her tote bags, clutch wallets, rolling duffel bags, stationery and more!

While my favorite people were at my favorite store, they bought me my new favorite thing:  a beautiful apron and recipe card box in the new pattern called "make me blush".  It is probably my favorite Vera Bradley pattern of all time with its pretty pinks, mossy greens and hints of yellow and gray.  It's just beautiful!  In fact, I like it so much that I have decided to redecorate my whole kitchen and dining room to match the apron!

So, I will be working on my new kitchen curtains and wall colors this next week or so.  Here are a few pictures of what I'm working on:

The far fabric on the left is my new apron.  The other two fabrics are what I bought at JoAnn Fabrics the other day to coordinate with the apron fabric.  The next picture show you the wall colors I am leaning towards.  They are from the new Martha Stewart paint color collection available only at The Home Depot.  (Another of my favorite "real" stores.  Oh, and Martha Stewart is another one of my heroes.  Like her or not, she knows her crafts!)

I am certain of the bottom color and a bit unsure of the top color.  I have decided to make my curtains first and then decide on the paint colors for sure.  I may mix my own upper color with white paint tinted with some of the green from the lower half of the wall.  Like I said, I'm still undecided, so we'll see after the curtains are made.

I'll post pictures as I finish up my projects.  Keep in mind, we are also building a chicken pen in the back yard as well, so this should be a very busy week!  :0)

The Coop; aka The Chick Inn

You all know that we adopted six baby chicks last month.  We have been raising them for the past five weeks and have also been working on planning & building their coop.  Last week my awesome handy husband, Aaron, put the finishing touches on their new home, now dubbed "The Chick Inn".  I named the coop after a drive-in restaurant in my hometown of Ypsilanti, Michigan - they're the home of the Paul Bunyan burger.  :0)  Anyway, without further ado, here is the coop:

Isn't it cute?!  We converted an old lean-to that was built off of the shed.  (You can see the before picture in my previous post.)  My dad gave us the old window panes which are hinged at the top so the chicks can have ventilation and fresh air on hot summer days.  Aaron built the door using 2 by 4s and we recycled an old picket fence for the bottom of it.


Under the front window is a trap door that we call the "egg drop shop".  When you open it up, you have access to the chick's nesting boxes on the inside.  Here is the view from inside the coop:

(We put golf balls in each of the nests as a clue to tell the biddies where their future eggs will go.  It's an old trick we read about online.)










Aaron made them a roosting bar for inside the coop.  It is a 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch square dowel (cut from a 2 by 4) and then he trimmed the corners to 90 degrees and sanded all the edges.  Chickens in the wild will roost off the ground, usually in lower tree branches, in order to stay safe from predators.  As soon as we put them up on their roost, they settled right in - some even went to sleep!  :0)

 Here is a close up of the end of the roosting bar.

 Next up, we have to build the biddies an outside pen.  They are in the coop during the day time, but we are still bringing them in at night to sleep under the heat lamp.  The past two nights they have not slept directly under the lamp, so I think they are now old enough to sleep in the coop.  I am crazy, but before I let them sleep in the coop at night, I want to get a second-hand baby monitor so that I can keep an "ear" on them.  They are very quiet at night, but will start screaming if a predator comes in their coop.  I think it's pretty safe, but - like I said - I'm crazy and don't want to lose any of them.  :0) 

Well, that is all for now.  We have added some chicken coop art to the Chick Inn and I will post new pictures of that soon.  Stay tuned!

Chick Update

Okay, okay...I'm so sorry!  It's been about three weeks since I lasted posted and I've got folks wondering where in the world I am.  Well, I've been up to my eyeballs in baby chicks - literally!  Last week, during a great photo op, my baby chick, Sunshine, was on my shoulder.  Just as my son, Jake, snapped the photo, she pecked my pupil.  That's right (cringe) my pupil!  O-U-C-H!  (Here is the not-so-flattering photo of the incident, but I just had to share it.)

I was half blinded in my left eye for the rest of the evening; woke up the next morning with my eye crusted over, but - once cleaned - was able to see out of it.  I kept sunglasses on for a good day & a half because I had a lot of pain when my eye tried to dilate.  Anyway, I am now recovered and my eye is much better.  However, we have been SUPER busy trying to get the chick's coop (now dubbed The Chick Inn) built so that they can move into it!

I will have pictures of it up soon, but for now, here is a "before" shot of where we are building the coop:

Just beyond our kitchen garden is a small 8 foot by 8 foot potting shed with a lean-to roughly the same size.  We decided to enclose the lean to for our chicken coop.  Aaron (my husband) is the handsome guy in the photo - he is probably standing there wondering just what in the world he's agreed to.  :0)  I'll post pictures soon of the new Chick Inn, so check back in a day or so! 

Baby Chicks

For years I have thought about having a few backyard chickens and now that we are settled in our home in Wilmington, I convinced my husband that it was a good idea.  :0)  Last week, with my DH's (dear husband's) permission, the kids and I went to the True Value Hardware store up in Castle Hayne - about a 30 minute drive north - to pick out six chickens - one each for the kids, plus one for me.  Since then, we have been busy cleaning up the enormus amounts of poop (recent FB status reads:  "6 chicks = TONS of poop"), socializing our baby birds, teaching them how to drink water and making plans for a chicken coop.

This is my baby bird, Sunshine or Sunny for short.  I didn't name her, the kids did because she kept trying to climb into the heat lamp.  Yes, INTO it!  She really likes the sunshine - whether its the real rays, or the fake heat lamp rays.  :0)

All six of our babies are Ameraucanas, also known as Easter eggers because they lay colored eggs.  Their eggs will probably be a light shade of green or blue, but some can lay light pink or light lavendar eggs!  I picked this breed because everything I read online agreed that they were great birds to have around children.  Apparentlly they are mild tempered, docile, smart and playful.  So far, they are living up to their reputation.  Click HERE for a cool article that shows an Ameraucana from one week to full grown so you can see what my girl will look like when she's older.

Here is Sunshine on her way to the park...

And here she is at the family campfire...

Can you tell I'm having fun with her?  :0)

Here are the kid's babies:

Kip named his chick Fluffy.

Brady named his Color.

Katie named hers Zoey.

Jake named his Victoria.  (I call her Tori.) :0)

Carrie named her Bellatrix.  (I call her Trixie.)  :0)

Many of my friends think I've jumped off the deep one on this one.  I guess they could say I've "flown the coop".  :0)  Hopefully these girls will turn out to be a blessing with farm fresh eggs and friendly company for my "unsocialized homeschoolers".  :0)  According to what I've read we should have eggs near the end of September.  This breed can lay up to one a day!  {Although I'd love to have eggs now and could have purchased "point of lay" or "POL" pullets (birds about 16 weeks old, near to when they would start laying) I have read that when you have children it is better to hand raise babies so they are not afraid of the kids and vice versa.}

No Roosters Allowed!!

The store was *almost* certain that we received all females, however there is a chance that one or even more could be a male/rooster.  We should know within the next month to six weeks.  All of the children understand that if we do have a rooster among us, that he will be given to a friend's farm.  I definitely don't want a rooster around!  Many people don't know that hens can and will lay eggs whether a rooster is around or not.  If there is no rooster, they just won't be fertilized eggs - meaning no baby chicks.  :0)  Pretty cool, hun?  I think so!  God's plan and His creation is just amazing to me!

Be sure to check back for updates on our chicken adventure!  I am hoping to take pictures every week so we can document their growth.  I've heard they grow very fast.  Better get to building that coop!  :0)

My Pink Stamper Color Challenge

I spent most of the day (after church that is) out in the back yard.  I got some gardening tasks completed, watched Aaron tinker with his new boat, and even soaked up a few sun rays.  My back is a bit pink....hopefully it won't hurt too bad tomorrow.  :0)

Robyn, aka My Pink Stamper, posted a challenge yesterday.  The challenge was to create a project using pink, green & black.  Here is my submission.  Those of us posting projects have the opportunity to win a Creat-A-Critter Cricut Cartridge (my new fav!) and also to be featured in Robyn's pink gallery.  Yeah!  Wish me luck!  :0)

My new cartridge!

Recently, Provo Craft launched four new Cricut cartridges.  (You can view them HERE.)  Three of the four cartridges will be available at all major craft stores, online scrapbook stores, and even soon enough on eBay.  One cartridge, however, is exculsive to HSN (Home Shopping Network).  Well, of course, the one cartridge of the four that I absolutely LOVED was the one exclusive to HSN.  I had never ordered anything from HSN, but last week I ordered the "Straight From the Nest" cartridge.  It was an easy purchase and arrived very quickly.  I got it yesterday and made a couple of cards with it.  Here they are....let me know what you think!  :0)

I heart girly things!

I don't know if I've mentioned my love of second hand shopping.  It was inbred in me.  For as long as I can remember, my parents have shopped at thrift stores - Goodwill, Salvation Army, St. Vincent Depaul, Value Village, etc.  At some point in our family history, these second hand stores were given the name "holes".  Yesterday I took my children to the local Goodwill "hole" and here is what I found.  It was 99 cents and super cute & girly.  The second I saw it, I imagined it sitting on my craft table full of ribbon.  Isn't it cute?

It has an Estee Lauder stamp on the bottom inside, so I'm guessing it was a gift with purchase at some point for their makeup or perfume line.  I just love it!  I thought about spray painting it, but I think with all of the pretty ribbon inside, I will leave it just as it is.  :0)