A $12 Picture Frame

This is the 6 foot by 6 foot wood window that I bought at the Habitat Home Store for $12 a few months ago. You should have seen the look on My Handyman's face the day I brought THIS home!

After I explained to him what I had in mind, he decided it was a great idea. So one day, while I was at work he cleaned it up and put a good coat of primer on it.

The next day he painted it a nice glossy black and hung it on the wall in our new front entry, which is another work in progress. It is really heavy so he screwed in some heavy duty screw in hooks at the top of the wall and into the wall studs and attached the screw eyes into the top of the frame. I was really thrilled when I came home from work and there it was - EXACTLY like I had pictured it (pun intended)!

And here it is hanging above the FREE tripple dresser I got from my Mom - Thanks Mom! It needs some work too, but we'll get to that eventually. At first I thought I'd paint the whole thing black, but we live WAY out in the country and get A LOT of dust, so I'm not sure thats the way to go. Feel free to offer your suggestions.

My Handyman just propped some family pictures in the openings so that you could see how the plan is coming together. Now I need to make a trip to Michael's for some mat board to put in the openings and mount the pictures. I will be able to swing the frame away from the wall to change out the pictures as all the grandbabies grow and change. I think I'll add something about FAMILY using some of those great vinyl letters that you can get from so many sources these days.

What do you think? How have you used old window frames in your crafting?

The Chicks Have Arrived!

These 6 were the first to arrive. They were about 3 days old when we first brought them home. In this picture they are 2-3 wks. old. The lighter colored ones are Buff Orpingtons. The darker ones are Rhode Island Reds. All are supposed to be pullets (female).

This little cutie is one of the Buff Orpingtons. They are said to be good Moms and good egg-layers. They are also supposed to be a friendly breed. We currently have a Buff Orpington mix hen that is NOT friendly at all, she is the head hen of the current flock. Hopefully these 3 new BOs will be much sweeter. They will lay brown eggs as will the Rhode Island Reds.A week later the second 6 arrived. This little girl is a Barred Rock. She is about 1 wk old in this picture. She is currently the most friendly and least flighty of the 12 new babies. We bought 2 of these little ones and I look forward to seeing how they change as they grow and feather out. They will lay brown eggs.We bought 4 of these little ones. She is a Americauna and will lay BLUE eggs. Doesn't she look precious with her little puffy cheeks and the coloring of a chipmunk?! I can't wait for the BLUE eggs to start coming. The grand babies and my coworkers will be really surprised. They are growing and changing so fast it is amazing! I'll take new pictures of them this weekend and post them next week. The 3 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Rhode Island Reds have moved into a fenced off are in the "Big House" (Chicken Coop). The Barred Rocks and Americaunas are still living in my house in a large dog kennel. They will be there for another week or so and will then join the others in the "Big House".

That will make room for the other 12 that are coming in the next few weeks! We should end up with a very colorful flock.

Finished Objects 1, 2 & 3

I promised I'd show you some of the knitting I've been doing the last couple of months, and here is the first of several.

I had to wait to post these until they were off in the mail to the recipient. I sent them by UPS on Friday, so they should have them by now - so I think I'm safe.

My former co-worker, ZD and wife K had a beautiful baby girl a couple of weeks ago. When I first found out that they were expecting I started on these knitted items for her. Then Thanksgiving and Christmas came along, as did the knitting of 15 pr of fingerless gloves, and this project was put aside.

I pulled it out again in January, that was in the dead of winter, with snow all around! And finished them. Now we are into daylight saving time and the weather is getting warmer, so I'm not sure they will get much use, but off they went anyway, with a note promising to send some more summery gifts in the future.

These are made with Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick in one of my favorite colorways - Oatmeal - which their website describes as "natural beige with strands of chocolate and black". I like it because it looks "earthy" to me. And the Thick & Quick made the project move along pretty quickly. I also like it because it comes in worsted weight as well.


First is the precious little cocoon made using this pattern, which I found for free on Ravelry. I'd seen some photos from photographers using these and thought they were adorable. And so practical IMO:

I added the pink ribbon to make it a little more girly, by just weaving the ribbon in and out of the stitches, tying a knot on the end and bringing the other end to the "V" and tying in a bow.

I had enough yarn left over to make the cute hat on the left using this pattern, also found on Ravelry for free. Then I decided it was too big for the new babe, so I found this pattern, and made one out of the worsted weight version of the Oatmeal Wool Ease yarn. My Handy Man thought it was the cutest little hat he had ever seen. Plus I have lots of yarn left to make at least one more tiny hat.

I put all 3 items in a zippered pillow cover and washed them in my washing machine using Woolite and Downey. Then I rolled them up in a bath towel and pressed the excess water out of them and laid them out on some towels until they were dry. They came out really soft and I loved the way they all looked together.

Z & K and big brother B and baby Z should have the gifts by now. I really hope they like them!

If you haven't checked out Ravelry, be sure and do it. There are lots of great free patterns and lots of great patterns that you can download for almost no $$! You do have to sign up to use the site, but it's FREE too!

I still haven't bee able to round up my little models to show you the cute little Spring sweaters I made for them. Soon as I do I'll post those pictures as well.