New life for an old bag

No, I am not taking about my mother.

Most of you know I make bags, and apparently have mother issues ;-)

Awhile back, I made myself a new chicken bag,

but what do I do with the old one that I still love?

I tucked in the handle and crammed a pillow form inside, then I snapped it closed.

It's cute and I can still use it as a purse at a moments notice.

It was so easy that I "made" another one for the couch.

A whole lotta random stuff.

The lovely Angie from Children in the Corn gave me this award.

"This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day."

So kind of her but my question is... Are you reading the same blog as me? The blog that almost never sticks to just one topic, the blog that during the time my spell check was out for months only posted words as difficult as cat, hat, mat, sat?

Knowing I am my own worst critic, I will just say "Thank You" and trust her judgement.

So in my typical writing "style", I'll show you what has been going on around here.

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I have been in a bit of a slump in the art/craft department. This is the time of year when I should be cranking out the inventory for the summer and fall art/craft show craziness, but the winter grays have put my creativity into hibernation. Since i get the twitches if I go a week without touching my sewing machine, I did sew something.

See this chair?

No I didn't pick it out, it was a freebie. I pays to know a designer whose clients change their minds. Retail, a $900.00 chair, I got 2 of them!

I made a slipcover. Don't inspect it to close, I didn't have a pattern

(I wouldn't recommend doing it this way).

One down one to go.

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We've been doing some spring cleaning. I know it isn't spring but we are trying our best to hurry it along.

Yes, the man likes to work in his jammies too.

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T-bone barked furiously to let me know the car was parked in a different location. The funny thing is that we (T-bone and I) had just gotten home from grocery shopping, and he hopped out of the car from that spot. I wanted to park it in the sun to help melt the snow I couldn't reach under the wiper blades.

Speaking of grocery shopping, this weeks total was $33.25. I did spend $16.94 in scratch grain for the chickens ( I count it in the food budget). So my $50.19 total at least averages my $90 something from last week down to a more respectable number.

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I got some free movies. Not to keep but to borrow.

Nothing was on tv, and I hadn't checked out any movies at the library for our Friday night game/movie night, so I boxed up a pile of our movies, had my brother do the same, and we had a movie exchange. As my brother was looking through our box, he kept repeating what a great idea it was. We'll trade back in a few weeks, but it is nice to have some different movies to choose from and no cash is leaving our pockets.

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Uno and i have been practicing our falconry techniques.

What do you think?

It's been a week?

I don't remember not blogging for a whole week before, unless I had a good excuse. This is supposed to be my slow time work wise. Maybe that is my problem, I start doing the mundane around here and worry about it boring everyone. I didn't used to worry about that, if you read back on some of my early posts, zzzzzzzzzzzz. Knowing I have at least a handful of you reading my posts, frequently about chicken poop puts a little pressure on this gal.

One of those readers is the lovely Joanna who gave me The tree of happiness award.

I love her, she has been one of my nicest blog friends, she is a relatively new goat mama, and is the caregiver of the famous Franklin, who has had his picture in Backyard Poultry Magazine.

Then there is Erica ,who was kind enough to give me this award. She is a homeschooling hands on mom with adorable kids. Talk about being creative. Thank you for putting me in the same Kreativ category as you.

So with the tree of happiness, I need to put 6 things that make me happy. So easy, I have tons of things that make me happy, the tricky part is narrowing them down.

1. My little family of four. My hubby who is my best friend and partner in taking on the world, and my two wonderful kids who own my heart.

2. My home and land. I love being home and cant imagine a better place to live than where I am right now, and having land to grow things is the icing on the cake.

3. My chickens and gathering their eggs. Makes me just enough of a farm gal to make me happy.

4. Sewing and fabric, does that count as 2 things? You all know that I'd sell myself for fabric and having the ability to make things from said fabric that people actually want to buy is really a dream come true.

5. Hot baths. What more needs to be said?

6. Bloggers and the friends I've made through them. Having you guys to share and laugh with has made me feel truly thankful and happy.

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On the creative front, i do need to show a couple things we have been working on around here.

The boy took apart his last pinball game, added more things and has a new and improved version. When he has it finished and filmed, I'll share it with you. It's really cool.

I have been working on sock pups for the shop, so my girl took a pair of her old holey socks and made a hippo and named it Shamrock. Once again no help from mom, and so clever.

We had warmer temps this weekend and got more finished on our floating dock. Now this is set on the ice in our pond and with the temps near 50*, we were walking in a couple inches of water. Tomorrow is supposed to get near 60*, I think we need to hurry.

Last but not least, here I am in real clothing (not jammies). I had a 8:30 meeting this morning for a potential sale of 10 bags. I don't want to talk too much and jinx it, but it will be a great opportunity and may lead to future sales.

It's late,

kids are tucked in, hubby is at school, the house it warm and quiet. I should do something, brain doesn't want to. Brain wins. I'm tired from the Superbowl and The Office last night, even after my hour and a half nap after dinner, maybe thats why I'm in a fog.

I'm looking at my yummy yarn I got from frolic 'n fibers.

This picture doesn't do it justice. You can go to her etsy shop and see her yarn under good lighting. Now I'm torn between making something from it or just letting it sit and be admired. I never had real homespun yarn from real animals before. It's so beautiful.

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We had a warm, upper 30's weekend, well just Sunday actually but it was a welcome change to the teens and the constant snow fall.

Dad called from Florida and after I told him about our day, he mentioned the fact that he is enjoying weather in the 70's. It didn't make me feel less about my day, I love winter days like these.

The Great Barrel Reef.

Hubby started a new project. I love the fact that he gets itchin for projects and wont let winter stop his plans. Floating dock for the pond, working on the ice means no need to move it when spring comes.

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Remember my little chick Uno?

She has this habit of flying onto me when I walk in the coop. I tuck my hair up under my hat. I call it my sh*ty hat. She isn't polite enough to always have clean feet. Makes me worried if I will have constant sh*t in my hair this summer.

Being loved makes sh*t in your hair worth while.

I should go clean lunchboxes so I wont have to do it in the morning.

Goodnight.

Another trashy project.

This time of year I start nesting. The holidays are past, we are still months away from spring planting and my art/craft shows. I may as well take advantage of being cooped up.

Do any of you remember my project from last year to help me be organized in shipping out etsy orders? It worked great, but wasn't perfect. I had too much stuff left on the top that was getting in my way.

Well, do you remember this project? The part where I hung an old dresser on the wall for the girls to nest in (works great btw). I lack the skill of tossing things that may someday be turned into some thing useful. I also lack the skills to stick to one topic without going off on a tangent and rambling it seems.

So I saved the drawers from that project, I did toss the one that fell apart.

I painted one, hung it on the wall and filled it with the practical things for shipping and treasures too.

The den is a mix of practicality and our art.

There are still some blank spaces waiting to be filled.

I can"t explain how happy this one little change makes me.

Building is hard work!

I had a girl home sick from school Friday, she kept her fever all the way through Monday.

Sunday my kitchen sink clogged up. Broke a plunger, went through 2 bottles of draino. No luck, still clogged. This evening Hubby will get out THE SNAKE.

Needless to say my clean kitchen is no longer clean, I can't use the dishwasher and I am amassing a very large fruit fly collection.

In spite of all that,

I did my weekend homework.

I kept my cell phone on me so the girl could call from the couch.

I nailed down the roof.

Hubbie nailed on the drip edge and put on the ice guard.

I did the majority of the shingles.

I just need to finish the cap.




On Monday, my dad installed the windows and door.
Fancy and free!
Display windows get pitched, the guy I sleep with is there to clean up.
Not a bad trade, nookie for free building products.



I put foam in the walls.
Yes my chickens will have insulated walls!

My dad nailed up the interior boards on 2 walls. Leftovers from another project.

I'm thinking of painting them. Does anyone know what color chickens like?

My dad is traveling the rest of the week, my homework is to finish the interior boards on the other two walls. I may have to work around the rain.

My muscles ache, I'm getting carpal tunnel hands while I sleep, and i think I may need a hip replacement.

I couldn't be happier!

Show off Friday #5

How many Fridays has it been since I sewed anything? I do have a good excuse.

My Dad told me a couple of months back that he wanted to help me build a proper coop if I gave him some eggs when he needed them. A real builder helping me build a coop, sounds good to me!

He also wanted to clean out some of the scraps in his barn. Umm, free materials, sounds even better!

Tuesday

It started off with a pencil sketch on the floor of his barn.

10' X 12' Coop, what will the chickens do with all that space?

My uncle replaced his deck this summer, free flooring for me.

Me likey the nail gun.

We took a lunch break and Dad showed me what he's been working on.

A farmer gave him an old plastic water tank.

He painted it and added a door and windows.

Added legs.

Tossed in a swivel chair, and you have a high and dry deer hunting blind.

15 feet high.

My dad comes up with clever scrounging ideas.

Lunch breaks over back to work.

Our first wall.

Quitting time.

A good days work.

Wednesday

It was raining, good thing we were working in my dads barn.

I needed to make a plywood run. I sleep with a guy who gives me his employee discount. Thirteen sheets for under $70, not bad.

Peek-a-boo!

I like how the sawdust showed up in the picture.

Four walls done.

Thursday

Roof joists are a pain to hammer on, but critical for support.

For Moving!

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Time to go to my yard.

My dad makes moving a giant box look easy.

Down the driveway.

Past my sisters house.

Over the ridiculously huge bridge on our little country road.

To my driveway.

T-Bone greets me and says "What the hell is THAT?"

"I'd better check it out."

Hammy doesn't know what to think, but he does know its quitting time.

Friday

We set it in place, got it level, and started the rafters.

Then the decking.

It looks nice inside...

... and out.

We gave Hammy something to crow about!

Little Mama is so EGGcited she had to lay in a pot!

(Someone is staring at her)

I get to finish nailing the decking down and put the shingles on over the weekend.

My wrist is about to fall off from all the hammer swinging, I have bilsters on my blisters, but couldn't be happier.

I love my dad.

Have a great weekend!