Sunday Random (or Five on Friday, as that's how long it took me to write this post)

What's up?  Where has Davinie gone?
Pre-Registration for Preschool next fall (I'm the Registrar and my time isn't up until Payton "graduates" from preschool in June).

Work.  I work part time.  In health insurance.  As much as I'd love to blog and pin and craft all day, it just isn't in the current cards.

Assignments.  Holy toledo.  I've actually been crafting more than you've seen.  I've just been unable to share it at this time.  I am truly grateful for every request I've received lately, though.  I just need extra hands and more hours in the day.  Anyone willing to share?  Donate?

Girl Scouts.  In case you live under a rock (or are outside the US), this is the time to buy cookies.  My little Daisy has kept me quite busy.  Yes, I've been that mom sitting at the table outside the grocery story, toothless blond cutie in tow, selling cookies.  Buy some from a Girl Scout.  The money goes back to the troop and allows girls to do a lot of great things.  One things on our agenda is to spend the night at the Zoo.  I hope that one pans out because I WANT TO GO.  :)


With that, here's some Friday random.
1.  This winter I was asked my Fancy Pants Designs to be their first Guest Blogger.  Of course I said yes.  Fancy Pants was one of my original loves in the scrapbook industry.  I was also quite anxious to get my hands on some of their CHAW11 release.  Now. 
I was sent the "It's the Little Things" line, with all it's fun embellies and fresh, new color palette, as well as their new Brag Book.
You can check out my projects here.
A note on the Brag Books:

 




















There's a lot of hype regarding the upcoming Smash Books from EK Success.  I was at CHA.  I handled them.  I am one of those people who thinks you need at least 2, with all the embellies.  ;)  But I also adore the Brag Books from Fancy Pants.

The Smash books are more "alternative".  They are a fun place to jot thoughts or inspiration.  But I wouldn't necessarily use them to document the lives of my little girls the way I plan to do with my Brag Book (and I'm REALLY excited for Payton's birthday so I can get started on hers). 

What I'm saying is that you need both for different reasons.
As for the Smash Books, the word is they are shipping in April and as mentioned before, Studio Calico bought just about everything for the shop (and maybe upcoming kits).  I hear you'll need to be fast though.  It is so hard to determine popularity, and while I know the quantities purchased at CHA seemed to be great at the time, the hype from this books has me wondering how fast things will sell out. 

2.  The calls have been posted for the summer issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today.  If you'd like a chance to have your work posted in this high quality, inspiring magazine, check them out here.  I've mentioned this before, but working with Catherine and the team at SCT has been a dream, so if you haven't worked with them before (and even if you have), take a chance and submit to this call.  It looks like the deadline is April 5. 


3.  Have you seen the latest catalog for Pier 1 Imports?  I think I dog eared every page.  As I've mentioned, we are busy renovating, and I'm now tackling the kitchen/dining/living room area.  I decided to paint some walls in my kitchen blue and just about everything in this catalog compliments that idea.  We are hoping to bust some walls down and create a big kitchen island, so my living room, dining area, and kitchen all need to work together.  I am sooo inspired.

4.  Speaking of renovation and inspiration, I recently subscribed to Country Living.  I wanted to find inspiration for decor with antiques, etc., as well as ideas for our home and changes that we need to make.  Imagine my delight when my first issue arrived on my doorstep, and I didn't have to look past the bonus cover to confirm that the subscription was totally worth it.  Say hello to my future mud room:

I am a huge fan of an apron sink, so loved this right away. The fact that I could tuck this unit into the exact same spot in my single car garage turned mud room is like the skies parting and the sun coming out.  I adore everything about this.  We will need plumbing for a sink, but had plans to get that done anyway (because for pete's sake, a mud room, especially a huge one like ours, NEEDS a sink).  I am so excited to actually visualize something that will actually work in my home.  It's so pretty! 

This will go adjacent to that bench that my mother has actually volunteered to make for me.  How cool is she!  I'm so excited, because it finally feels like I have a direction with regards to my crooked house.  ::sigh::  I am so glad I finally took the plunge on that magazine and am now wanting to check out back issues for other things I may have missed.  It has craft projects in it too!  The girls and I are going to be busy with eggs and nests soon.

5.  Speaking of eggs, for number 5, I wanted to share one more thing we are up to, because my list isn't long enough? 

Meet Crystal, Zena, Sunshine, and the almost elusive Ringpop.  They will soon be joining Betty and Flowerbelle in the coop outside. 

Please let them all be girls.  Please.

Urban chicken farming is becoming more and more popular, and while this early stage is just gross because they are, well, dirty birds, farm fresh, organic, free range, natural eggs are very appealing.  It is also TONS of fun for the kiddos.  I'll probably start popping in to report on the chickadees and their antics, should you be interested.  I actually have several stories from our first set that I need to share too.  Holy fowl.  They certainly keep us entertained.

Since I'm turning into a Martha and have plans to make use of our great big garden, we'll be getting cows after Easter for butchering this fall, and now I have eggs, it looks like all I need to do is perfect the art of making cheese and we may never need to leave the house.  My car is a gas guzzler anyway, and since we live a couple miles from everything and I get probably 12 mpg in town, it's too expensive to go anywhere anyway, lol.

Have a great weekend!  Davinie

My little red hen(ry)

You might remember a couple months back when we went to the feed store and picked up a couple of baby chicks.

Payton picked a little fluffy white chick and immediately named her Flowerbelle. Morgan picked this little black chick and insisted she was Princess. And I went for the chicken looking chick, a little red and gold thing and called her Henny Penny.



Watching them grow has been interesting. They were so cute in the beginning, and then they turned into this:



Oh yes, that would be Princess. Not so princessy, is she? Not that I want to judge, lol.

That photo was taken April 13. It's now more than a month later, so I wanted to share their current faces.

First is that little ball of puff that is Flowerbelle. She's the smallest of the three, and the only one that will really let the kids hold her. She's also the most submissive.



Then there's Henny Penny, the only traditional chicken looking chick of the three. Huge feet. Pretty coloring.


Gah. Do you see that ugly little devil in the background? That's Princess! You can't quite see it in this pic, but princess has this strange looking comb growing up top that has a hole in it. It's like a caribiner, just waiting for a leash or something.


The only redeeming quality about Princess is that when the sun shines on her black feathers, you can see some irridescent blues and purples which is fun. Otherwise... egads!

The cute little chicken coop is still getting some last minute touches, so I'm not ready to share it yet. But what's great about these three is that I go out every morning and open the door, and they just roam the yard, eating bugs. They always stay together, which is another plus, and it's fun to peek out in the yard and see them toodling around together. The only downside is that last week we had a harsh thunderstorm, and Steve ran outside to get them out of the weather. Lightning was flashing and hail was pelting down, so they literally jumped into his arms when he ran out there, and he just tossed them into his shop really quick and shut the door.

Now that he's done that they seem to think they own the place, so it's not uncommon to see Cooper, our yellow lab, sitting outside the door because they've booted him out of his napping spot. Me no likey chicken poop in the shop so we need to find a way to keep them out of there, lol.

I was all satisfied with our motley crew, until the other day, when I heard a suspicious noise, and walked outside to find this:




It turns out my sweet Henny Penny is actually HENRY Penny. dang.

Now we aren't sure what to do. We've heard you shouldn't eat fertilized eggs. We aren't worried about babies because once they start laying we'll be collecting every day, and if we are out of town or something and don't get the egg right away, we won't eat it, so I'm not worried about making scrambled eggs and hatching little chicks. And right now Henry isn't aggressive, so I'm not worried about that either.

Still trying to decide what to do. That said, Steve is still convinced that Princess is actually... Prince, so we are waiting to see if s/he starts crowing soon too. The only downside to that one being it's Morgan's chicken. But seriously. Look at that chicken, lol.


::sigh::

Project 12 March and my dirty birds

Good grief, what a poor example I am. I can't believe how late in the month it is!

Below is my layout for the Project 12 challenge. I used my Jenni Bowlin calendar card and the rest is contents from the April kit at Studio Calico.

In March we went to a Sportsman show and the girls had a blast painting duck decoys. They run around the house with them all the time and have even bathed with them once or twice. That was a lot of fun.

On St Patrick's Day we didn't have any plans, but I had fun with food coloring and we dyed macaroni and cheese, lemonade, and their bath water. We also did an art project and made little rainbows with clouds and dangling shamrocks, and Morgan learned the traditional order of colors of of the rainbow. This is hanging in her room and she's raced in there and referenced it many times when working on other drawings for the fridge.

We also got those silly chicks in March. Oh my goodness, you should see them now:

This pretty one is Henny Penny. She's the one I picked out. I love her coloring. She's the least friendly.


This sweet little lady is Payton's chick, Flowerbelle. She has these fun feathers and even has very featherly legs. A couple of weeks ago when my dad was visiting he walked in on Kael, my almost three year old nephew, holding Flowerbelle and told him he probably shouldn't be holding her. After hearing that, Kael hurled her back in to the tub and there was a moment there when we thought we had lost our girl. That millisecond almost made me want to forego pets forever. I'm not kidding. I thought she wasn't going to make it and the idea of having to share that with my kids ripped my guts out. I don't know what we are going to do when Cooper leaves us. We've only had the chicks for a couple of weeks! Flowerbelle bounced back, though. Phew!


This little bugger is our Princess, lol. An uglier chicken I don't think I've ever seen. But what she lacks in looks she makes up for in her personality and protective nature. I kid you not; when I felt like Flowerbelle was going to be well enough to return her to the other chicks and they bedded down, Princess lifted her wing and scooted right up next to Flowerbelle and covered her with it. Oh, I know it could have been just an accident, and she was just stretching and couldn't quite fold it back under, but it was so sososo sweet to see.

But while they are mighty cute and cuddly at first, after a few weeks, they get all chicken looking and start turning into a trio of dirty birds. Steve is in the process of building their coop right now, but you can't put them outside until they lose all of their downy feathers. I think we have a little more than a week to go. Right now they are in a big Rubbermaid tub in our mud room downstairs under a lightbulb.

Anyway... chickens. They are not for everyone, lol!

Don't forget about the prize this month for participating in the challenge, Basic Grey's Bittersweet and a coordinating stamp set. Be sure to link your layouts to this thread. Everyone is welcome! You have until the 20th! That's Monday! I'll draw a winner on the 21st.




Have a great weekend! Davinie