Seedlings Are Up!

They have been for a few days now. And so far they are growing strong. We have 12 tomatoes up and 40+ jalapenos up. Hurrah! Now if only spring would show outside. It is suppose to be in the 50s tomorrow through Saturday. Maybe we can finally till the garden Friday!

We are still planning our garden. I think we are going to go with a variation of a raised square foot garden. We will see and I will be sure to share what we do go with.

In Anticipation Of...

Our new ladies laying this summer and our old (but still young) ladies already laying, I ordered 125 biodegradable egg cartons. Now I am designing a label to put on a stamp to put on the cartons. Eggciting hug? (see what I did there?) We are getting 3 eggs a day from our 3 hens who are old enough to lay. I am expecting the new chicks to start laying in mid to late July, that will make them 22-24 weeks old, which is when our old chicks started laying. I am guessing we will get about 8-10 eggs a day. So around 6 dozen a week. Not to shabby, if I do say so myself. I am going to sell them at the Farmer's Market and possibly at the Neighborhood Co-Op if they have an egg opening.

In other news, it is snowing. Again. It has snowed more in the last week than it has in the last 2 years. I am so ready for spring. We have our sproutlets growing in the bathroom under heat lamp so they stay warm. I am ready to till and garden and be outside with the kids. It is suppose to be 60 this weekend, so we will definitely have to go out then.

The chicks are growing and growing, I hope to let them out this weekend so they can get a taste of the outdoors as well. But I did give them a couple strawberries and a dirt/grass clod. They wouldn't touch it. Crazy things. They must have eventually because they were all gone by the next morning.

What is this poison?

Making An Old Frame Into A Bow Holder

I have been eye balling this frame thing for a while. The previous owners left it when they moved, and it was a dusty, crumpled, mess and not my style at all.

So I thought to myself, hmmm I like the chicken wire and frame itself. but I hate the flowery thing.
And then I though, hmmm, I've been wanting to make Alta a bow holder. Aha! Re-purpose that frame thing.

And then I bought the supplies, the paint, the paint brush and ribbon. And then it sat. While I thought about doing it. Eventually.

Well, I got around to it today. And it wasn't hard at all. It took forever, but that was because of the paint drying time. So I am going to show you, my lucky readers, how I did it. Just in case you want to make one yourself. Although you probably don't have the frame already, you could easily buy a frame and staple some chicken wire to it.

First things first, I had to take off those crumpled up flowers and the scary bird and its nest.

Scary bird is watching you

After scary bird and company were removed, this is what I ended up with. A quick wipe with a baby wipe, and I was ready to lay down news paper and get to painting.

After my first coat of paint, I thought, well, this will be really pretty when it's done! At this point, I was still smiling.

Then I got to my second coat, and it looked the same as my first coat. I quit smiling and thought, this is a waste of time. 

Six coats later, a stomped foot, and a few tears later, (kidding! maybe) I finally got it painted and looking decent.

I then eyeballed and cut my ribbon and hoped for the best, because that's how I roll.

And then realized I couldn't find my glue gun. But no worries, I have 2 million bottles of Elmer's School Glue around here. So I added a drop above every place a ribbon would go.

I put all the ribbons on the dot. Luckily, they all were long enough, but a few were pushing it. I let the glue dry for 20 minutes or so before I started weaving through wire.

I went over and under and over and under, also known as weaving, for all of the ribbons and glued the bottoms on the bottom of the frame.

Weaved and glued

As the ribbons were drying, I thought, well this is a bow holder, shouldn't it have a bow somewhere?

I made the bow, and tied it onto a longer piece of ribbon and glued it to the top corners of the frame. This way it would look like it was being held up by the ribbon and look prettier, however, I still hung it by the brackets that were already on the frame. I didn't think the ribbon and Elmer's could handle the weight.

Ribbon 

Finished!

I let it dry for a bit, then took it up and hung it on Alta's wall, smashing my thumb in the process. But it turned out lovely against her teal walls.

Things I would do different next time: I would have taken the wire off, painted, and stapled it back on, preventing paint getting on the wire.  And I would have made sure I knew where my glue gun was before I started. When I do find it, I will probably go back and reinforce the ribbon.

 My total cost for this project was $0.57 for the paint, $0.97 for the brush, and $2.00 for the ribbon. So $3.54 for the whole project.

Well, there ya have it, folks! Hope you enjoyed reading about it as I did making it.


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The Couch Has Arrived!

Ahhh, sweet comfort. Our new couch has arrived. So much nicer than sitting on the floor when we have company because we didn't have enough seating.

The boys, plus my nephew, are all sitting together because it has vibration on that side. I guess they didn't realize the other seat vibrates as well. There is also a drawer under the couch that pulls out and has a little cooler and storage. There are four recliners and reading lamps as well. It's very nice. I hope we still love it as time goes on.