Project Updates!

1. Table Project


This project is still not complete! I had to stop working on it last weekend because we were having people over for Mother's Day and I needed the paint to dry and harden a bit before being sat on and scuffed up. So here is the state of the table:

I applied polycrylic to the legs of the chairs and base of the table to protect against foot abuse, but still have work to do on the seats and backs. Appealed to fashion and convinced the hubby that the seats need to be green as well, but haven't had time to go back and apply primer, paint and polycrylic. The backs need to be touched up due to scratches from people sitting on them. I'm getting excited because the project is actually turning out pretty well despite the loooooong time it's taking.

2. Baby Girl Quilt

I mentioned a quilt I was starting in this post some time back. I've since finished it and given it to the beautiful girl in question! Here it is finished:

You can't see too many details in this pic, but I can sure tell that my stitching was a bit crooked on top. I fixed it after the pic was taken.

3. Baby Boy Quilt


Here's a peek at what I've been working on this week. This project will be done in short order because the baby shower is on Sunday! I hope my cousin is as happy with this symphony of beachy blues and greens as I am! This is just the quilt top, still need to make the quilt sandwich and sew it down.

4. Garden Project


Our pitiful progress on the garden is laughable. But at least we finally borrowed a truck and got it mostly filled with dirt!

I think plants are in the garden's future this weekend, but this is still a tricky prospect because we don't have a truck. I drive a Mustang which can barely fit people in the back seat. We really need a truck. This problems slows down so many of our projects.

Neverending Table Project

Lately I've been reading lots of decorating blogs and scouring Pinterest for frugal decorating ideas...and getting unbearably inspired to do some projects of my own. Thursday I decided to tackle my kitchen table which had been bothering me because the table top is made of a very light wood which doesn't really go with the paneling in our kitchen. I began the project with spirit and vigor...it was great fun. I figured that I could do the whole project in an afternoon and then put the kitchen back to normal. Ah, naievte...

Project this evening after priming and two coats of paint.

Let me first mention that the table cost $150 brand new out of the box in 2006, which should clue you in to its quality. I was reminded of this as I was taking the spindles off the chairs so I could sand the seats and noticed that a lot of them were cracked near the bottom. I mostly noticed this because of the splintering sound as the bastards came apart! I attempted for fix the breaks with wood glue and sighs of frustration which may or may not have included some words that shouldn't be part of a lady's vocabulary. After sanding and putting the chairs back together because I was afraid of breaking any more spindles, I started the painting. The above results were achieved only with THREE coats of paint. Yes. I would call that number EXCESSIVE. That is, one coat of primer and two coats of paint. It was painstakingly tedious and long. Took several hours. I even painted over the brokenness.

Recall that the plan with this table was to paint the legs green and then stain the top and seats a darker shade of brown. I had taken the chairs apart and fought with broken spindles for the sake of sanding down the seats. Today I applied the stain to disastrously hideous results.

Seems like I didn't sand off enough (couldn't tell whether I was down to bare wood or not). The stain seeped into all the tiny cracks and beautifully highlighted all of the beatings the seat's endured over the years. And now I definitely can't take off the spindles to sand some more because the wimps will break. My options are to a) paint the seats green and then apply polyurethane over them or b) apply the polyurethane and just to-hell-with-it preserve the current color which was the reason for this project all along.

The table top may still be able to be stained, but we'll have to bust out the power sander. But if I do that, then the seats of the chairs will not match the table top, but the table top will match the room. The hubs really doesn't want the chairs painted completely green, but I think it's going to be the best looking option. Personally, I quite enjoy the green chairs dancing around my head!

I just want this project to be over!

Survivors & Newbies

The big girls were surprised yesterday when I opened their coop and inserted a dog crate containing three new sisters. These two gals were definitely not the higher-ups on the pecking order with my deceased ladies, and Ginger and Nutmeg kept seeming kind of jumpy and nervous the last few days, although they appear to have enjoyed being able to sleep on the windowsill of the coop together. Yesterday Ollie and I visited a local poultry and rabbit operation and bought three 8 week old chicks: a black sex-link, a red sex-link and a gray Ameraucana that looks like a pigeon.

My other girls are probably 9-10 weeks old, so these babies need to catch a growth spurt. I let the birds integrate during the evening of day one, and witnessed four little bird bodies sleeping on the windowsill of the coop together that night. The next day I noticed that big Nutmeg was chasing after the little girls and trying to peck them...so they are now separated again. I may let them be out together tonight again and see how that goes since the dog crate is not big enough to accommodate three growing chicks for long.

A dog is not a person...

And neither is a chicken.

Yesterday my boss told us about a story she read in Dear Abby. A father had written in to complain that his son, a sports fan who would get very angry when his favorite teams lost, would take out his frustration by beating the family's dog. The father wanted to know how he could convince his wife to get rid of the dog.

At this point in the story the phone rang and my boss answered it, so I was left talking to a certain 19 year old security guard. He was saying that if he was the kid's father he would beat his kid and push his kid down the stairs. I'm sure he wasn't serious as he frequently says shocking things just to maintain a certain level of "asshole". So I said, "but then the punishment would be worse than the actual offense." He replied, "no, because the kid had beaten the dog." It occurred to me that the guard regarded his suggested punishment as a fulfillment of some kind of "eye for an eye" justice and was regarding the person and the dog as entities of equal dignity. I said, "a dog is not a person." He said, "to some people a dog is a person." My boss agreed with him.

Okay. Just because someone treats their dog like a person does not mean the dog becomes a person. They were suggesting to me a kind of shifty reality in which someone's mere thought has the power to change fact. Which by default means that there is no such thing as absolute truth. I don't agree. There IS absolute truth, and no matter how wrong animal cruelty may be, the same cruelty to a person will always be worse. And since truth is absolute, I have to let it inform all aspects of my personal life no matter how difficult it may be.

Today two of my chicks died in the mouth of my neighbor's peppy blue healer. My default is to break down and cry, but still, a pea-brained $3 chicken with a fleeting life span is not worth such deep sorrow. I named them people's names, but that doesn't make my dear chicks people.

RIP Hailey the Golden Comet and Judy the Barred Rock.

If I keep chicken farming there are bound to be many more instances like this in my future.

Mockingbirdanjo

As I was laying out in the shade of my pretty chinese tallow tree today, I realized that I play banjo like a mockingbird. Those suckers have some serious ADHD. I too start off playing one song and sometimes it just turns into another song.

Happiness

I am beyond happy today. Here's why:

1. The biggest and most crucial ingredient to this state of mind is that I'm not at work, and I keep remembering that I won't have to report back to that dark place until Monday. Since I suffer from a serious condition called pre-work depression, I can clearly foresee several days of impending happiness. That knowledge in itself just feeds the happiness. Yeah, I need a new job....

2. I have just completed a HUGE landmark in my sewing career which I am currently wearing as I write this. I have taken measurements, drafted a pattern on craft paper, cut out the pieces, and sewn a freakin' shirt! This shirt, the most beautifully simple shirt in existence, FITS. Since all commercial patterns are fitted for a B cup bust, I've never created a shirt that fits exactly right. For this peasant blouse, I sized the front piece about 6 inches wider than the back piece, and then I created a casing for for elastic to fit just underneath the bust and pull things in. I'm pretty sure I will use this pattern again for a sleeveless shirt, and possibly for a peasant dress.

3. I finished a quilt for Baby Reese...and if there are any mistakes to be seen on it, they were all intentional. Yeah, I'm sticking with that story. It's still really cute, despite some uneven stitching.

4. I saved Ginger and Meg, my Buff Orp and Ameraucana from the grip of feral cat fangs this morning. I had all the chicks grouped together in their little yard, and when the chicks saw a cat lurking around, Ginger and Meg panicked and flew outside the walls and went a walkin', hoping that fate would defeat their clawed foe like in Rosie's Walk. I looked outside and saw the danger just in time, chased off the cat and plonked those feather-brained chicks back in their own yard.

5. Chicken pot pie is on the menu tonight. Not Ginger and Meg, some poor cruelly treated factory chicken...but we'll try to forget that fact.

6. I keep reflecting on the fact that I am officially freakin' CATHOLIC as of last Saturday, and it's only a few days until I can receive the body and blood of Jesus again! It just speaks to the mercy of God that someone like me, who was so negative on Christianity for so long, would come to see that joyful day! I just wish I could smell like holy chrism all the time....

7. My sweet husband gave me half of his sheath-making money, so now I have $20 which will be spent on some jersey knit so I can make this comfy looking dress.

Chicky Progress

I picked me up a sweet box of chicky goodness a couple of weeks ago from a feed store. 

Pic taken on March 25

The breeds are: barred rock, buff orpington, gold sex-link (mix between a rhode island red and a rhode island white) and a blurry ameraucana. These little biddies are already a pleasure to watch, partly because the smallest runtiest one appears to be the most bold and bossy. Since I got the chicks from the feed store, I don't know exactly how old they are. I think a couple of them are now 3 weeks old, and the other two are 4 weeks old. The gals are now starting to look like real miniature chickens...

Pic taken today

Today - enjoying sunshine, grass and fresh breeze.

...which means they are quickly outgrowing their little brooder. It's already warm enough here that I have to turn their heat lamp completely off during the day and temps still reach 85 degrees in the barn shop. Luckily my chicky shack is pretty much complete! Soon I will move these girls in there and get them out of their little brooder. Oliver and I used the plans from Building a Chicken Coop for Dummies and made "The Minimal" due to our lack of carpentry skills. "The Minimal" uses only straight cuts. 

3/25/12

Man power!

And here's the finished product, only missing exterior paint.

Ollie's genius idea, used hinges from some old cabinet doors.

Roof is some plastic looking stuff from Lowes. You can actually cut this with scissors.

 

Besides paint, I also need to find a latch for the chicken door/ramp. I'm also not that confident about the security of the chain lock for the human door. The book recommended it, but I might try to find an alternative if I think of anything that will work. The tall side of the coop is really plain and faces the house, so I might paint some happy little poppies or sunflowers on it. Coop mural sounds promising!