Tara's Bit of Whimsy: February 2009

Corner shelfs

This is a corner cabinet made out of OLD bi fold doors. I cut triangle pieces of plywood and mounted them in the cabinet using a 1X1 as the bracket to hold them in place. I then painted the whole thing white and added some "cute"ness.

Viola - a corner shelf unit. Not too bad. And, it uses space that was otherwise wasted!

Pink Magnetic Board

This is the pink magnet board I made. I took a 2o"X20" piece of ply wood. I added 4 coats of magnetic paint. Then I hand painted the design. I added the 2 1/2" ribbon with a knot in the middle by stapling it to the back of the board (with several staples).

I must say, this did not turn out fantastic. The magnetic paint is not very strong. I had to use ALL of the can and it was expensive. The hand painting took a while, but was fun. and the ribbon is

not strong enough to hold the board. I had to add brackets mounted to the wall for support. All in all, it probably cost me about $25. I saw one I liked a lot at a local boutique that was $25. I could have bought it and it probably would have worked better. At least my daughter likes the board. I had to remove a ton of items to get a photo.

Passport cover

I made a little cover for my passport. I used scrapbook papers and cut a hole for the word "PASSPORT". Then I covered it in very thin clear vinyl and sewed down the edges. On the back flap, I cut out a hole so the bar code can easily be read (without actually removing the passport from the case).

Chicks - Who gets to be on the top perch?

I had peeked into the Easter egg house to see who had gotten onto a perch and was settled in for the night. We have an upper and lower perch. Sparkle (big black chick) was on the top one with Twinkle (little black chick) and Rose Red (little red chick). I was a little surprised at this line up. Dandaleen (big yellow chick) and Sparkle are inseparable sisters and usually the ones on the top. One of the smaller girls usually have to hurry to get a top spot.
Well, it was about sunset and I heard lots of squawking. Then I heard two thumps. So I looked back into the coop! Sparkle had shoved Twinkle and Rose Red off the top perch and onto the floor! Now, sitting beside her was her beloved Dandaleen and a very cautious Ginger (looks like a hawk) giving a look of "Just try to knock me off, Sister and I will show you a pecking order!" Twinkle and Rose Red had to settle for the bottom row.

Pink Ribbon board

Here is a ribbon board I did for my daughters room.
I took a piece of 20X20 inch plywood and primed it to seal it.
I then cut a piece of pink and white striped fabric and attached it to the plywood. I folded over 4 inch sections to create pockets. I then glued on different decorative ribbons to identify each pocket. I stapled the fabric on the back and pulled it tight to make the front nice and smooth. At the top, I stapled a 2 inch ribbon with a knot tied in the middle to the back for hanging purposes...and to look cute.
It is a great place for my daughter to put her cards, projects, etc... with out putting tape all over my walls.

Something I would do differently is to put better hanging hardware on it, not just a ribbon. As it is, I had to add brackets to the wall to support the weight of the board.

Office Organization Center

I got this great idea to have an organization center over my desk. I actually got inspiration from Pottery Barn. I did not have the $189 to buy the unit, so I made it. I got 2 bi fold doors from a used construction materials place - called Stardust and then built a frame using 1X4's around the doors. I then put bead board panels in the bi fold doors. Inside, I used 1X4 lumber to make the shelves. On one of the doors I put a piece of sheet metal so I could use magnets. I used a staple gun to keep the panels in place and then caulked around the seams. I still need to put a final coat of paint. But, not too bad.

If I had to do it again, I would just give up on the magnetic part. The sheet metal was hard to bend and cut to the right shape. Then adhering it to the bead board panel was a trick. I used liquid nails and held the sheet metal on by putting full gallon sized paint cans on it for weight. I tried magnetic paint on another project, but that was ridiculously expensive for a tiny can and to get it even remotely magnetic, I had to use four coats which used up the whole can. In all I spent about $50, including hardware, on my office organization center. A good savings.

New chicks - in December 2008

I have been trying to get a new chick ever since we lost Dot. I wanted a total of three hens. I had been calling the feed stores for about four weeks to see if new chicks had arrived! The feed stores kept saying that they do not know when their chicks will come in. I wanted to introduce the new chick before the first set got too big, but too late! The other chicks are too big. Today, we got three new baby chicks. The yellow one is going to be a Red hen, the black one is a Black Australorp, and the striped one is an Amaracana. I originally went to a feed store in Phoenix (about 15 miles away) because they had a shipment of chicks come in. But they only had the black one and yellow one. So I got one of each. I could not have just one new baby chick, it would get lonely and be sad. So I got two. Already I had one more chick than I meant to. But I could not have a lonely baby chick. When I got home, I realized I needed something else for the chicks. So I went to the feed store that was only about 3 miles away. What do you suppose they had come in that very day? CHICKS.... I had my daughter with me and she wanted to “just see” the babies. I thought, “What will it hurt?” oops….Then I saw the striped chick. It was the kind I had been looking for, an Amaricana. OOPS! I put down my two dollars at the check stand and walked out of the feed store with another animal. I did not even get what I went to the store to get! How was I going to tell my husband that I got another chick. We were NOT supposed to have more than three. The chicken coop was built for three. Then I come home with two more.......plus one…That is a total of 5 chickens. Oops.... But I got the one I really wanted!

Two sisters - always together

Sparkle and Dandaleen about a week old.

Good bye Dot

November 9, 2008

Dot did not make it. She passed away last night. We have heavy hearts and wouldn't you know it, it is cloudy today in the land of never ending sunshine. Peace be with you little chick.

Oh, Baby Dot Nov 8-2008

Dot - our little black speckeld chick is sick. I looked it up on line. We think she is suffering from stress.....

Day Old Baby Chicks--Welcome Nov 08

These are our one day old chicks. My Daughter is holding all three. We have named them Sparkle because when she grows up her black feathers will have a green iridescent shine in the sun. She was named by my son. The other black one, kind of gray with a white dot right on the top of her head is a Plymouth Barred Rock (black speckled hen). Her name is Dot. She was also named by my son. The yellow chick looks like a dandelion fluff and my daughter wanted to call her Evangaleen. So she mixed the two and tadah...Dandaleen is her name. Our three baby chicks, Dandaleen, Sparkle and Dot!

Chick-Hens

Bock!

Our big Chicks are growing into Hens...
Chick-hens...
Get It? I'm funny!

In the front is Dandaleen, our Buff Orpington and her sister Sparkle. These two are inseparable. If you take one away, the other runs after you chirping LOUDLY in protest!

Three Chicks

Here are our the new chicks. Ginger, Twinkle, and Rose Red. I guess they are not actually new. They are 7 weeks old. They are in our makeshift chicken pen in the garage, until they are big enouth to handle the cold nights. And as of February 14, these girls spent their first night in the Easter Egg house with the Big chicks.

Dirt Bath?

These are our three little chicks. They love to scratch in the dirt and take a bath. A Dirt BATH!
This is a really bad angle, the chicks are really cute. In front is Ginger an Amaricana chick. The one who has her head burried is our little red hen, Rose Red. The little black one is Twinkle (she is the same breed as Sparkle, a black Australorp). These girls are two months old on Feb 17th.

Sparkle

Sparkle - our black Australorp chick. She is about 4 months old here. She should be laying eggs in the next month or so. At least that is what the books said. I did all of my research at the library. Maybe I should have actually talked to someone who had chickens. -- Toooo Late! But isn't she a pretty bird. She likes me too!

Blackberry bush...gardening?

This is my little blackberry bush. I have been told that these grow really well in the Sonoran Desert. I read this book by the Garden Guy, Gary Owen (I think). He said that when you plant the bush, get one of those black buckets you get trees in, from a nursery. By doing this, the roots do not spread and take over. Well, I did not have a black bucket, but I had a purple bin that had a crack in the bottom. So I broke out the rest of the bottom and used that as my bucket. This served a second purpose. It kept the square shape while I was putting the cinder blocks into the ground! Yeah for me. Two for one! As you can see, we still have to finish setting up the sprinkler line to this box, hence the bricks laid across the back. Also notice the chicken wire. Again, I want to keep my favorite chicks from attacking this bush.

Gardening...at least preparing to garden

Aaaaah...the garden box. Here in the Arizona desert, gardening is, well lets face it TONS of work. You have to designate a spot, water the dirt, add good dirt, water, add top soil, add compost, water, add straw, add nutrients, water, add chicken poop (at least i have that part covered) and water the dirt again, turn the soil, add a sprinkler line and water it again, make a covering for the garden to protect it from the sun.....and then, plant your seeds. Then water, water, water and hope! Out of 500 carrot seeds, you will get three glorious two inch orange sticks. But you grew it your self! Yum! And to top it off, I have to protect my new seedlings from my Chicks. In fact, right after I planted the seeds, I put some chicken wire over the dirt to deter some unwanted pecking and scratching. That same day, I came home and found Sparkle (our black chick) with a bloody beak! What? How? Where? When? As I was inspecting the yard for hazards, I happened to look into the garden box. (there was no cute fencing at that time, but the red bricks were in place.) There in the corner was evidence of scratching and peck marks. Ah ha! The Chicks were trying out my garden. But I have a garden, just the same.

The Egg Box....going UP!

The easter egg house ...complete

Here is our Chicken Coop, complete with picket fence chicken run. Out side you see two of our girls. Dandaleen (yellow) and Sparkle (black chick). They LOVE their house. In fact, getting them to come out of the house or run is a trick!

We have windows that you can see here on the side. The purple door was an old cupboard door. Above that you will see a vent which is also hinged so I can see the Chicks. I just had to be able to see our birds. Silly as this sounds, they are very relaxing to just watch.

Tara's Bit of Whimsy