Pretty Things

My mother and aunt are fantastically creative. When I was little, they made my Halloween costumes. My mom decorated our home and even some other people’s homes. She has style. My aunt is probably the queen of DIY craft and has made some awesome stuff for around the house. When it came time for my wedding, I asked them to help out with the flowers, because they could be florists (my aunt actually has been a couple of times in her life).

These amazing flower arrangements decorated twenty tables at Mike and I’s wedding. My bouquet was so beautiful and the bridesmaids’ were as well. They even made the boutonnieres for the guys.

My sister and her new husband are a bit nontraditional. They had a small ceremony a few weeks ago in my parents’ backyard and then last weekend had a low key wedding reception in their town. It was quite different from our wedding, but they also asked for my mom and aunt to help out with the flowers.

Here they are at the wedding reception, having a little too much fun:

And here is one of the beautiful arrangements they did for my sister’s wedding:

Which brings me back to the point: our living room. We bought the two chairs from Ikea last month and got them set up in the living room right away, but I never took any pictures because it was boring. Our living room still needs some work. But, I stole was given two of the lovely arrangements from sister’s wedding and stuck one in the living room. It definitely livens things up!

Pretty, no? My sister went with a succulent theme and my aunt added the flowers the day of to add a little somethin’ somethin’.

Obviously our living room is a bit lacking. I’m waiting to do anything with the walls until I get the curtains done (someday, I promise!), thinking that they will probably be a focal point in the room.

This is the second centerpiece that we took home. I'm not really sure where this one is going. Outside? Upstairs? Right where it is in the family room?

So those are the newest additions to our home. I’m a cheapskate frugal, so getting something for free is always preferred. I’m hoping not to kill them right away!

House Progress: The Upstairs

 It’s been awhile since I've shared with you all some pictures of the house. I gave a tour of the house before we moved in, but haven't quite finished with the current tour of our house. Please stay with me, I have plans to get the rest of it out soon!



Coming up the stairs and to the left is my craft room. Above is how it was before we moved in, staged and uncluttered. Now it’s a mess and needs organizing. Last year, I picked up my childhood things from my bedroom at my parents’ house. It all rests in the craft room. The sad thing is that there still boxes and boxes of stuff in my parents’ attic that I need to bring back. It would be nice to paint this room (and the hallway), but I am not confident that this will get done while we live here. White is pretty inoffensive and is kind of nice to have for an open, airy space.



When we moved in, there was great debate where everything should go. We had two rooms to put a craft area and office into. One of us could take the spare bedroom, but would have to share it with the second guest bed. The other person would use the loft area, which only has three walls. Michael chose the spare bedroom and it was a good decision at first because it could contain noise a little better than the loft. You see, he occasionally plays games on his computer and at night if I’m trying to sleep, it can be noisy.



The spare room was originally how it is above. Bright blue walls, a neon floral wallpaper, and circus colored curtains (you can kind of see them on the left). I removed the wallpaper and curtains and painted it a light gray.



Then we decided to move the office downstairs because there was plenty of room down there and eventually we would need to move it anyway (assuming a baby enters our lives at some point). That turned out to be a great decision for the downstairs but it left the bedroom upstairs kind of empty. Now that the chicks have left the room, we need to do some work on it. Some things I would like are: a dresser, some art for the walls, a new light fixture or a redo on the ceiling fan?





Down the hall a little bit is the bathroom. It’s the only full bathroom in the house. When we moved in it was sponge painted with blue and white stripes and had a wallpaper border. There was a whole lot of pattern going on in there. I really wanted a green bathroom. I’m not so sure why. I ended up going with something that matched the tile and linoleum flooring better.



It’s Olympic’s Tattered Sail and it’s a really nice creamy color that complements all of the white in the bathroom perfectly. We installed a shower head and a new medicine cabinet and light fixtures, replaced all of the hardware, and painted the vanity. It’s definitely more relaxing in there now. And I'm thrilled I don’t have to go down to the basement to shower.



The master bedroom at the end of the hall needed a little sprucing up, what with the outdated stenciled border and the super old curtains.



I painted the walls the same gray as the spare room and it looks completely different in this room. It’s definitely more blue than I thought it would be. I made the shams and curtains at our last house and simply moved them with us to this house. We upgraded to matching lamps from Ikea which was definitely needed in this house. I'll go into more detail later, but our bedroom doesn't have a light attached to the ceiling fan. There is just a single bulb that sticks out from the wall.

So that’s the upstairs! We're pretty happy with the way things are on this floor for now. Especially since there is so much to do on the main floor. Stay tuned for a look at the basement next week.

Chicken Update: 10 Weeks

The chicken updates are slowing down now as they seem to be growing at a slower rate now. They are super sweet and very charming little things. We sent two packing last week but still have Penelope, Lucille, Ruth and Dorothy.



Penelope is the head hen and is always the first to receive a treat. She is the ring leader for getting into trouble!



Lucille is spunky and second in command. Ruth just kind of goes with the flow and doesn't really command much of our attention. Dorothy is shy and a giant scaredy-cat. She frequently gets lost and has to be reunited with the flock to feel safe again. It takes her a lot of time to warm up to people, so she spends a lot of time in the corners of the coop.

Honestly, we have a hard time telling them apart all the time, so I am hoping to get some leg bands for easy identification.



The chickens are free-ranging when weather allows in the mulched garden. They love running around and foraging for snacks. Speaking of snacks, their eating habits are significantly changing since they left their brooder box. They fight over worms and one received a lovely treat of a slug the other day. They love to munch on blades of grass, flowers and whatever else they can get their beaks on. I read once that they will eat mice and birds if they have access to them; as a mostly vegetarian, I am horrified and hope they stick to insects.



That’s about it. The chicks are super easy to care for and I couldn't be happier with them at this point. Another six weeks or so and we’ll hopefully be enjoying some eggs!

We have a gate!

It stopped raining for a whole day so we were able to install the gate that we built a while back.

Looking at this made me squeal with delight.

Nearing the completion of our garden project, we spent Saturday making the area pest proof. We installed the gate, put rocks along the bottom of the fence, and started putting the trim around the lattice.

Gizmo and Leela were around to help.

We created the gate some time ago using a piece of lattice cut to size (it’s something like 3.5 feet wide) and four 2x4’s on each side. The lattice is sandwiched between the eight boards. Then we bought a self-closing gate kit at Lowe’s. It was very easy to install. We first had to decide which way the gate would swing. We hopefully picked the way that is the most functional for anybody who would want to come down here!

Mike was able to do most of the installation himself, so I was able to snap some pictures. Just screw the hinges on, and put the latch on, and you’re done! We also bought a handle, but since the gate is self-closing, it’s really just for show. We haven’t put it on the gate yet.

As you can see, there is still a lot of lumber remaining in our garden! We did get a start on making the pile smaller by framing out the lattice on the fence.

This is going pretty quick, so hopefully it’ll be done soonish.

Mike filled in the gaps in the fence with some large rocks that we dug up while putting up the fence. I spent most of my time weeding and laying down mulch. More of that to come later. It’s really starting to look nice!

Once the mulch is down and the trim and header is put on the fence, we will be able to call this thing done!

The Chicks at Two Months Old

The chicks are looking more and more like chickens! They are nine weeks old now and living outside. The transition to outdoor living happened rather quickly. They were wearing out their welcome in the house so we just decided that there was no perfect time to take them out and went for it last weekend.



We were cautious parents and tried to show them around their new home, which is a palace compared to their makeshift two-box brooder. It took them awhile to find the ramp going into their coop and the location of the food and water, but they seemed pretty content. They finally ended up huddling up in a corner in the coop and we were happy to see them all still alive the next morning!



I've talked a bit about their coop here, but I kind of wanted to tell you about how it is holding up. Mike affectionately refers to the coop as, “A piece of crap.” I wouldn't go that far, but I don’t think too highly of it either. I knew going into this that the pre-fab coop was going to be cheap and not very well insulated. I knew that tweaks would be needed to make it inhabitable for our chicks. But, I also wasn't planning for the water issues that we are already having. The roof on the coop leaks in certain places, so we already have to think about what we need to get it ready for winter. As the chicks get older, we are also going to have to work on the ventilation in the coop. Right now it is functional, but we definitely need to get creative to fix some of the little issues it has. If we had the money to make a sweet coop, I would go that route. In the future, we have our eyes set on a little shed (we’re talking way down the road, folks, like 5-6 years from now) that would rest in a large play yard.



We have the feeder and waterer hanging on a wooden garden stake that we found at Lowe’s for $2.99. It seems to do the trick for now. Since the chicks are constantly growing, this also allows us to adjust the height when necessary.



Our girls like to spend time in groups. I usually find a group huddled in the coop in one of the nesting boxes and another group under the coop in the play yard. It’s good to see that they stick together and keep each other warm. They definitely get friendly when you approach them.





Over the weekend we gave away two of our babies to a friend of a friend. I’m a little said to break up the group, but at the same time, I know they are going to an excellent home where they will be well taken care of. So now we are down to four.



I need to be better at remembering to take pictures. The chicks have been enjoying a diet of chick grower feed with some treats mixed in. They started out loving meal worms, but have lately been bored with them. Things that they have consumed recently are: lettuce leaves, grass shoots from the garden, and some meal worms.



Leela seems to enjoy seeing the chicks. We cautiously keep her on a leash and this picture was taken with Mike carefully holding onto her collar so she couldn't get much closer. After all, she is a dog and her instinct is to chase and kill (although we could never imagine our sweet Leela doing so!) small animals. Gizmo also goes down to the coop from time to time and checks out the chicks. They are about the same size as her now and she seems to play nice.

Overall, we've really enjoyed our chicks outside. It is fun to go out to the garden and visit with the girls. They are good company for when I am gardening, too! It smells so much better in our house and the coop doesn't seem to smell much either (although if we ever get any 90+ degree days, I might change my tune on this one). The chicks have a ton of room to run around in now and I think they are much happier out there, being in the fresh air and living (almost) free range.

This Weekend

Another whirlwind weekend for us that took us across the state of Iowa for a visit with family and a wedding!

Leela spent a lot of time in the car and also got to play with some friends at doggie daycare.

Gizmo got a hair cut.

Well, it’s in progress. Stay tuned for the final look.

Whew! Time to breathe for a couple of weeks and maybe get some house projects finished!

Our Garden 2013

In my desire to plant everything in the world this year, I've run out of room.

My eggplant spilled over into a bed near our patio and I put our herbs into a planter by our outdoor dining table. The strawberries ended up in a pot on the deck.

The herb garden has pineapple sage, cilantro, rosemary, basil, mint, peppermint and a marigold. I'm very happy with how well this pot is doing. I have aspirations to freeze all of the extra herbs this fall so we have some all year round. 

I purchased berries in early spring and waited way too long to plant them. When I finally did plant them, I thought they were goners. A couple weeks later, I went out and purchased new ones and planted them in-between the dead ones. A week later, the dead ones have come back to life! So we now have a ton of bushes that will someday bear lots of fruit (hopefully!) Please ignore the massive amount of weeds.

Blueberries and raspberries. There is also a blackberry bush not pictured. Really excited to see how these turn out.

Also, the rhubarb that we inherited is doing great! I didn't realize it, but we have about six times this amount on the other side of our shed! 

So here is the main attraction, the garden.

In our first bed, we have tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and onion.

First up are roma and grape tomato plants. I am a weird person and prefer romas over any other tomato for most uses. And also, they can well so they are perfect for our garden. The grape tomatoes will be perfect for salads. Sliced in half, they are great on sandwiches too.

These are our peppers. There is a mix of sweet peppers (left), bell peppers (center), hot banana peppers (right) and jalapeno peppers (bottom left). Peppers are something I kind of shy from at the supermarket since they tend to be full of pesticides, so I planted a lot of these. Below the peppers are my onion and potato plants (bottom right). The onion was just a sprouted bulb that I bought and planted in the bed. I have already used it for chives, so it is a little short right now. Fingers crossed the potatoes come up. I planted organic potatoes that had sprouted. Last year my potatoes took a few weeks for the leaves to reach the soil, so I'm hoping that they are doing okay. It would be great to have potatoes this year because organic ones are so expensive.

And then there’s the catnip plant and the basil. I also planted marigolds in random spots around the beds for pest prevention. They also look pretty cute if I do say so myself!

In the next bed, we have carrots, beets, cucumber, spinach, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and eggplant.

Not much to look at yet, but hopefully in a few weeks this bed will be full of action. This is my first year growing Brussels sprouts so that should be fun. Last year, my beets were eaten when they sprouted so I’m hoping to actually get to have some this year. I bought two different kinds of eggplant. The eggplants in the flower bed are Japanese eggplants and the eggplant in this bed are more traditional globe eggplants. I love eggplant! I am hoping to pickle cucumbers this year so we’ll see how that goes.
 

The last garden bed is kind of empty right now. There are strawberries in the middle and a few marigolds around the edge. I planted corn on the left end of the bed and pole beans, snap peas and peas on the right end.

So there you have it! I still have a few more things I want to plant on the hill – pumpkins, squash and watermelon – but we’re getting late in our planting window so I may not see much of a yield there. I’ll update you all in a few weeks to show you how it’s going!