how to survive a birthday

Eastertree1So, Saturday was my birthday, and I decided that I would just do whatever I felt like the entire weekend. So there were spurts of fun and busy-ness and spurts of lazing around. A friend gave me some little wooden egg ornaments, so I made an Easter Tree. I picked up some branches from the yard and gave them a little coat of Spring green paint, and glued silk blossoms all over. I added a few other Easter-y things that I had and I think it’s a pretty little tree. I may try to add a few more ornaments. I just love that little feather chick.

I got my geek on for a few hours, playing on the computer with the husband. Then we went and got the best sandwiches at the deli and had ourselves a little picnic at one of my favorite places.

I spent a couple peaceful hours on the porch, watching a favorite movie on my laptop while eating an ice cream sandwich. I really need to get a daybed to put out there, for the ultimate in laziness. Eastertree2

We paid a visit to the feed store, where the husband looked at goslings and contemplated putting in an order for three. I’m not too sure about this addition to the farm, but he really wants some. Oh dear.

We also had a delicious dinner of seared ahi tuna with wasabi cream sauce and a tiramisu cake for dessert.

I made a little more headway on my list, and cleared up the last of the scrap wood pile. There is still the fallen down fence to contend with, but I’ll just have to tackle that a little bit at a time. We moved some railroad ties over to where the wood pile was, to create an edging for a little planting bed on the edge of the future patio.Eastertree3_2 The chickens hung out with me while I gardened, which was great, at first, as they scratched and pecked and turned the dirt and grow mulch for me, so I didn’t have to do it. I rewarded them with all the worms I found as I dug holes to plant a dozen creeping rosemary plants. It wasn’t so great later, after I finished planting and laid down some wood chip mulch, when they went back and scratched it all up looking for more worms, and nibbling on the rosemary.

Speaking of chickens, one of the Ruby’s has gone broody. For the non-chicken people out there, that means she wants to hatch some eggs, and has planted herself in a nesting box, hoping for some baby chicks. Ifirst noticed that she was sleeping in the box one night last week when I closed the coop. I thought it was odd, but figured she just wanted to get away from everyone else on the roost. But she planted herself in there all weekend and wouldn’t budge. I kept taking her out and carrying her to different places, giving her little treats to eat, but she keeps going back. I’m starting to get a little worried. I collect all the eggs, every day, and even moved the golf balls (we put them in the nesting boxes so the girls will know to go in there and lay rather than outside the coop. Eastertree4They just think they’re other eggs.) out of that particular box. She’s still sitting in there, even though she’s not actually sitting on any thing. I think the next thing I try is to put an ice cube underneath her. It doesn’t sound too nice, but if she doesn’t stop, she could get really weak and sick. Broody hens only leave their nest once a day to eat and drink and poop. Silly girl! I must have taken her out of the box about a dozen times this weekend. She’s in the favorite box, too, so the other hens put up a fuss when they go in to lay. Any chicken experts out there have any suggestions?

We finished off birthday weekend last night with ribs and corn on the cob for dinner while watching a recorded episode of Battlestar Galactica, followed by a couple Advil for the aching muscles from the woodpile clearing, and a good night’s sleep :o)

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enjoyable busy-ness

I was watching Nigella last night. She is just the queen of adjectives, isn’t she? Anyway, while she was busily creating a quadruple chocolate cake (quadruple! not double or triple, she goes all out and does quadruple, which is really how much chocolate any good chocolate cake should have, now that I think about it), she said something about how she loved this sort of enjoyable busy-ness. I love that phrase. That’s how I spent my weekend, involved in all sorts of enjoyable busy-ness.

First of all, I wanted to try my hand at needle felting, so I made this little snowman:
Snowman
I forgot to measure, but I think he’s about 5 inches high from the tip of his hat to the base of the flower pot he’s sitting in. He’ll be going into my etsy shop when it’s back up. They’ve been down all weekend, doing an upgrade.

Then I finished up the sock monkey that I’ve been working on for around 4 years. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I have been doing a little bit here and a little bit there for a very long time. I finally got some decent pictures this time:
Monkeystand Monkeyfoot
Monkeydetail2 Monkey5
She will also be in the shop. Do you love her shoes? Because I really love her shoes. I don’t know that anyone will buy her, I put a lot of work into her, so she’s a bit expensive, but well worth it, if I do say so myself.

Also for the shop, I made some little bags:
Flowerbag Treebag
They’re sort of Japanese craft book-esque, aren’t they? They’re about 10"x12", so just perfect for a sock knitting project or a couple libray books, or maybe to carry your lunch to work.

I even made one thing not for the shop, that yellow pillow behind the sock monkey! Since I’m working on this apartment therapy project in my clubhouse I’m finding all sorts of cute stuff that I forgot I had, including a feather pillow form and two yellow linen placemats. I just stitched them together with turquoise-y floss et voila! A pillow!

Since there is no chicken content today, I will just point you over to the right hand sidebar where you will find links to some of my favorite fellow crazy chicken ladies chicken keepers.

Ooh, and I almost forgot! One of my brother‘s songs will be in an episode of Men in Trees, I believe around Thanksgiving. I’ve never watched that show before, but everyone set your Tivo’s, and I’ll be doing the same!

And, in case you missed any of the links above, my shop is here. :o)

P.S. I have 499 comments on my blog, who wants to be number 500?

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cheeky bugger

The chicks are flying, and they are getting a little cheeky about it:
Cheekybugger
This little chickie flew up to the edge of the box, perched there and looked at me as if to say, ‘do you see me? do you see me? did you see me fly up here? huh, did you?’. The other day Mr. Lucy walked into the laundry room and there were chickens on the dryer, chickens on the floor, and a chicken on the chair. The all stood stock still and went dead silent. Then, as if on cue, they all flew back into the box. Like little kids caught in the cookie jar. They’re so funny. Fuzzy still likes to watch TV with me in the evening.

Do you know that taking pictures of these dogs is even harder than taking pictures of chickens?
Myboys
Do you think they could both look at the camera at the same time? Apparently not.

And because, once upon a time this was a craft blog, I have a few works-in-very-slow-progress to show:
Wip1
We’ll see what I actually get done this weekend, since I absolutely need to build a roost and nesting boxes for the chicken coop and get them moved out there.

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monkey

I am having the darndest time taking a good picture of this sock monkey. Out of about 8 shots, this was the best I could do:

Monkey2

I’m not sure if I’m completely done yet. I have some lavender felt, and I might attempt a pair of shoes. What she needs, more than anything, however, is a name. I can’t think of anything, I need some suggestions. Please share your ideas in the comments!

As I’ve been sewing lately, I’ve been trying to get my clubhouse (aka guesthouse, aka former tack shed) cleaned up a bit. Here’s a tiny corner that is all cleaned up and pretty (except for the hideous paint on the walls, I’ll get to that someday):

Sewingcorner

I like those little Chinese pincushions. They come in such great colors.

I got an e-mail yesterday from someone at Penguin Australia regarding a craft book to be published, and they are interested in including my monster pattern. Did anyone else out there in creative blog-land get a similar e-mail? It looks authentic, I’ll definitely be checking into it further.

Having recovered from the catfish attack, my dad marched in a parade this week.

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palais des poulets

I went and picked up a chicken coop this weekend. And then I ordered 25 day old baby chicks. I’m not quite sure what I’m getting myself into, but I think it should be fun! They won’t be arriving until sometime the week of September 25, which is good, because I still have a lot to do. I cleaned off the coop, so I’ll be able to paint it next weekend. I also need to build some nesting boxes and put in a pole for them to roost. I’m not showing any before pictures until I can show some after pictures too. It’s just too ugly right now.

I packed up Lou, and she’s on her way to Washington:
Wrapping2
Her new owner’s name starts with an ‘M’, so I added a glittery letter.

I wanted to make more monsters this weekend, but I started working on an outfit for my sock monkey, and didn’t have time for anything else:
Monkey
Since she’s still a work in progress I’m not going to worry about the blurry picture, when she’s all done I’ll try a little harder to take some clear pictures. I think I will be adding her to the shop. Aren’t her puffed sleeves cute? And her little handkerchief apron? I didn’t get her little purple-ruffled petticoat in the picture, but it’s cute too.

My dad was attacked by a Chinese catfish. Yikes! He’s okay though.

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