What I have been up to!!!! (other than going crazy!) ;)

 Wow! Life has been crazy busy! Now that the husband is on summer vacation and I have room to take a breath, I will be happy to bring you some more photos, personal DIY projects, and recipes on a more regular basis! First, a hello from Argos our puppy!

Two weeks ago I ~finally~ finished two out of three raised cedar beds for my own garden:

 



 What is blooming in my garden now:

 

 

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My new sewing machine has so many beautiful stitches and many, many other AWESOME features. I spent hours researching and decided the Singer Quantum Stylus 9960 (from SewingMachinesPlus.com- super deal, excellent customer service!!!!) Here are the first things I have sewn, samples of stitches:

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Coming up next, I will show you the after photos for two fabulous dressers, although I only have before shots of this one. =)

 

Ciao for now friends!

Raised Cedar Beds

Expanding my skills for Grandma!

Thank you to Ana White, for posting free woodworking plans! If you haven't checked out her site, you should! I'm addicted. I planned to make raised garden beds from Ana's website for my front yard, and so naturally when my grandma mentioned she would like to have a veggie garden I offered to build her some first. Here is a cool photo from Ana's website for these Raised Cedar Beds:

Here are the sides and ends I made before assembly

Here is a close up of the ends

Drum roll please.... the finished beds for Grandma!

I bought some new tools for this job (and all the jobs I have on my to do list), the Ryobi One Plus drill and driver set, and the corner cat sander.

All three use the same batteries, so I simply switch them around. I have to say, I love them!
Should I be promoting all this stuff for free? ;)







 On an end note, because it makes me happy, let's look at

What's Blooming Now!

 Iceland poppy

 Ranunculus

 Nasturtium

 Did you know you can eat Nasturtium flowers? Throw some in a salad, they are peppery

 Japanese maple, foliage is as beautiful as blooms =)

 These remind me of my childhood and Alice in Wonderland

Foxglove, I associate these with fairies. If you were tiny, wouldn't you want to snuggle into one of those bells for a nap?

I've had a request for a post on making preserves* and canning, so I will work on that!

*My grandma said I need to call my jam "preserves" because it is so full of yummy pieces of fruit and is better than regular old jam. I am not one to disobey my Grandma, so we're calling it preserves people!
I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend! Thanks for stopping by =)
*Connie*

(Backyard?) Chickens part II

My ladies

Left to Right: Buffy the Worm Slayer (a Buff Orpington), Leya (Golden Cuckoo Marans), Henrietta (Partridge Plymouth Rock), Z.E.E. ( stands for Zombie Egg Eater and she is a Barred Plymouth Rock), Lady Luna (Buff Orpington), and down front Attila the Hen (Partridge Plymouth Rock). Here they were about 2 months old and the coop/ run walls were just framed. The blond Buff's were at the time ranked  the number 1 most popular bird on www.backyardchickens.com, and the Rocks are iconic American chickens. The partridge (brown) coloring is not as common as the Barred (black and white) and such a pretty auburn variegated/checked pattern. Then there is Leya, the golden cuckoo. What a beautiful bird! She is named after my best friend (who thought I was crazy for getting chickens, but brought her toddler over often to enjoy them). She has brown, tan, grey, and black, and a beautiful golden neck. If she hadn't been named Leya, I would have named her Goldie Hen. haha. I know, it's ridiculous, but I really do think I am funny with all the word play. I do not however expect all of you to think it is funny ;) Bare with me. Truly, I love all the breeds I have, and have no idea how I could part with these breeds to try different chickens in the future, but a girl can dream. There are so many cool chickens out there!
 I read about horror stories of "the pecking order" yet have not witnessed any outrageous cans of whoop-butt being opened by my girls. I like to think it is my excellent planning and good decisions making skills buying day old chicks so they were all same age, and for all they know think they are related, but it could be beginner's luck. Or maybe California sun just makes everyone happy and want to get along =)

Here are more recent shots of the chickens

All of these varieties are said to be friendly, good layers, handle smaller spaces/yards. As I said before I live in town, and do not have a huge sprawling property for them to roam. Also, we have children. I had in mind a "teach our children where our food comes from, how to care for animals, feed them the healthiest eggs from the happiest birds" kind of journey, not a scene from a horror film where my children run from mean, pecking birds. This happens folks. I am happy to say that my girls are all pleasant and happy.

This is an image from The Garden Coop's website. I do not have much building/ design experience so I bought plans for $19.95.  Our cost was a little higher than the plan estimated, but lumber prices vary depending on where you live. I really like the light wood color, but we used the same stain we used for our picket fence in the front so ours is darker. If I'd known I would have to buy another gallon anyway, I may have stained the coop lighter, but I'm still proud of it! Next week some friends are coming over to help my daughters and I finish decorating the coop. I plan to paint some big cartoon-y flowers; tulips, daisies, etc.

Here is the area of yard before construction began

My poor husband had to move hundreds of pounds of rock, again! The huge pile behind wheel barrel used to border the whole length of the house, but I wanted to plant flowers so my wonderful man moved them for me. I can only imagine what he was thinking when I told him, "well honey, we need to clear those rocks for the chickens" I sold some rock on Craig's List, but the leftovers got moved to front yard where they held up landscaping projects until very recently! (I'll share front yard progress in a future post.)

Here is a photo of our coop as it stands today. There will be a nice border of flowers and a path someday, perhaps this summer.

 And this is what has been keeping me so busy that I have been slow to finish my chicken post part II

 A new puppy named Argos! He's a seven week old Cockapoo Retriever. (mom cockapoo and dad black Labrador)

 Hangin' with my youngest, Arabella. They keep Mommy busy and on her toes!

They make quite the dastardly duo! Phew! Take care ya'all!