Ugly Duckling Syndrome

Our girls are growing so quickly!
They will be three weeks old on thursday and as you can see they are definitely much larger than those little fluff balls that fit perfectly into small hands only days before :)

The kids thought they looked a little bit like ugly ducklings today *grin*. Their fluffy down is being replaced by feathers and the transition is so interesting to watch :) This little girl must have felt small today as she kept stretching as tall as she could!

We brought a couple of them into the house today and set a towel down on the living room floor so that they could roam around a bit. They really seemed to love my daughter and gravitated straight for her...

She's like the chick whisperer *grin*, and the boys were just a tad jealous of all the attention she was getting LOL.

It's a little bittersweet to see them maturing so quickly but then again I am really looking forward to all of those fresh eggs!

Hugs,
Rosina

Weekending & Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone!!
The kids surprised me this morning with little pencil drawn cards chock full of xoxo's and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Oh it smells and looks just wonderful and it was such a treat :)

I can't believe it has been a week since I was last here! Hubby was home most of the week so we did a lot of work around the yard but it also gave me a chance to take a special trip down island with just my mom. An early mother's day outing you could say :)

We ended up in Coombs which is such a fun place to visit. Every spring they open up their little garden nursery full of super healthy looking veg starters, herbs and perennials...

and there is all of the great fresh fruits and vegetables in the market along with dishes, textiles and more. We had lunch at the restaurant and then slowly made our way back up north. I can't remember the last time we had a mother daughter day without the children, just the two of us :) It was really nice.

Back on the home front our house has been getting some attention. I finally got a new storm/screen door. Yay :)

The old one had an unfortunate incident with a mad one horned goat on a rampage and by the time he was done head butting it only the frame of the door was left. Yes it's true... not a stitch of screen or glass left *grin*. I can look back on it now and have a good laugh but in the heat of the moment you can be sure I was not impressed *grin*.

We have a great re-use store located in the next town that is operated by Habitat for Humanity and people donate all sorts of used building supplies that the sell to raise funds for building new homes for those in need and that is where I finally found my new to me screen door :) Can you believe that I got it for only $20!! All it needs is the screen repaired which is super easy and all of the glass and paint is pretty much like new!

The old railing around our sundeck came down this weekend to. It was in really rough shape. Most of it was rotten and the giant juniper hedge growing around it had wound itself through many of the spaces in the boards so hubby had to bring out the big tools to rip it down. Why use a hammer when you can use a chainsaw :)

So with the deck down this is going to be the future spot of my new greenhouse :) Hubby's been working on plans, figuring out measurements for fitting in the windows and how to make it all work when it's only going to be 8 x 11 feet.

And to top it all off my dad surprised us with a whole bunch of rough cut cedar that he hand cut on his mill :) This is such a blessing! It will save us so much money and I love the skookum size of the big 2 x 6's. I'm crossing my fingers that it will be done and ready to use by the beginning of next month :)

Camping season is inching ever closer as well and every summer we have strict campfire bans here on the island which is no fun. So this year we purchased one of the new propane fire pits that have a low flame, throw off a nice bit of heat, don't spark like a normal campfire and they are allowed during the fire bans :)

Hubby wanted to try it out so we had it set up on the front porch and it really will be nice to use it this summer because sitting around an empty fire pit in the evenings while camping is just not fun!

Hope you all had a great weekend :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Weekending

I thought I'd share a few snapshots from our weekend :)
It has been a beautiful couple of sunny days which was a lovely change from the rain and weird hail storms we've been having although as I type this I think we are heading back to stormy days by the look of the gray clouds that are sweeping across the blue sky!

The children have been enjoying the first dandelions of the season and making necklaces, bracelets and earrings with them. I can't think of a better way to use them up :)

Under a big oak tree in the backyard we have an old tractor that we use for parts and it is the perfect refuge during a flash rain storm or when it's to hot out :) It makes a pretty good play place to as the steering wheel gets a good workout and all of the knobs and levers are cranked back and forth *grin*.

Of course with three bums and only one rusty old tractor seat it just doesn't accommodate everyone so naturally someone has to ride shotgun on the giant tire *grin*.

Lately my oldest has been using it as a bit of a learning tool as he takes apart bits of the engine at a time to see how things work together. This weekend he freed up the gear box which has been sticking and he was rather pleased that it can now be shifted into first, second and third gears *grin*. It will never run again as it is missing to many parts and seized but how wonderful it is that he can tear it apart and rebuild to his hearts content :)

It wasn't hot enough to dry up all of the puddles but what is a puddle without someone splashing in it :)

Sending warm thoughts to all of you this Sunday afternoon.

Hugs,
Rosina

Transplanting

It was a perfect day to sit outside and do some much needed re-potting of my tomato plants :)

I can't believe how fast they have grown! This will be the last time I re-pot them until they make their final trip out to the greenhouse which I hope is very soon. I'm so excited because hubby and I found some great big pieces of glass for the new greenhouse he is building me and I'm hoping that when he comes home he will be here long enough to maybe nearly finish it *grin*.

So with all of my tomato babies packed outside I got busy pinching off all of the leaves that were going to be buried underneath the soil in the larger one gallon pots...

and then filled each pot up with potting soil and a really healthy dose of cow manure. I think I must have filled each pot more than half full with manure *grin*. Mama wants some BIG tomatoes LOL.

When I started packing them all back inside I had just enough room on the bay windowsill to fit all of the pots. I guess it's the next best thing to having a finished greenhouse :) Maybe it will be good incentive for hubby as he really doesn't like it when I turn the dining room into an indoor jungle *grin*.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Hugs,
Rosina

Painting with Wool ~ Wet Felting

My little girl and I had fun today playing with some of our felt rovings and creating felt scenes :)

I know that many of you felt quite regularly but I thought I would take some photos of our progress today and share them just in case some of you are unfamiliar with how to wet felt wool :)

It's a really fun craft and you only need a few different colors of wool rovings to get started. We used corriedale rovings that I purchased here and you want to start by taking small chunks of your roving and pulling it apart evenly so that it is all fluffy and lay them down on a sushi mat or sheet of bubble wrap. Lay down one complete layer going horizontally and then repeat the process laying down your wool vertically and again the opposite way so you have three layers of wool.

Now you can get really creative and start adding the details to your picture :)

It's like painting with wool *grin*.

L wanted lots of flowers so we tried something new and cut out flower shapes from a sheet of the pre-felted craft felt and then placed a few loose strands from our wool rovings over them to hold them down as I wasn't quite sure how they would felt :)

When she had all of the final touches added we placed the wool covered mat on a cookie sheet, covered her picture with a piece of mesh and started to slowly dribble water all over it until all of the wool was wet. The cookie sheet will keep all of the water nicely confined so that you don't end up with a giant water puddle on your table :)

Drizzle a little bit of liquid dish soap over the top of your mesh and start to slowly and gently rub the surface of your mesh. You will start to notice that the wool begins to work together and doesn't move around as much under the netting. Make sure you lift the netting off of the wool every couple of minutes though as the wool fibers will start to work their way through the holes in the mesh and you don't want your picture to get stuck to the netting :) Keep doing this until all of your wool looks like it has bonded together well enough that you can lift it gently and it won't all fall apart.

Now that you have one solid sheet of felt, albeit a delicate one, you can roll your mat or sheet of bubble wrap up tightly with your felt and netting inside and roll it back and forth. This will squeeze out some of the excess water and continue to agitate your wool and help it work together even tighter.

Continue rolling for a couple of minutes, then stop and unroll it, pull up the netting to keep it from sticking to your felt and then turn the entire piece of felt 90 degrees so that when you roll it up again it will agitate the wool in a different direction from the last time. We kept rolling and unrolling for about 10 minutes and then I took the whole thing over to the sink and plunged it into hot water and then cold water a few times to really shock the wool so it tightened right up.

Now that you are all finished with the water you can unroll it, remove the netting and roll it up in a tea towel to suck out the excess water :)

And here is her finished picture. I think she must have had an Easter theme in mind with the little bunny in the flowers :) I just love how it turned out for her and tomorrow when it is completely dry we're going to hang it up on the wall.

Have fun felting!

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. Looking for more crafty ideas or inspiration? Pop over to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday and see what others are up to :)

Chick Love ~ Fuzzy Baby Overload

We brought in some of the babies so that we could cuddle and love them and somehow it turned into a bit of a photo shoot. I just couldn't help myself!

In my defense though I did warn you that I might go a little chick crazy... but could you resist such an adorable little ball of fluff?!

I thought not *grin*.

Such sweet little girls :) They were so content to just hang out in the little dishes we put them in so we could ooh and ahh over them *grin*. After a while they got a little more adventurous and started hopping in and out and checking out the flowers. They didn't stray far though and they are so incredibly docile to. We can pick them up and cuddle them and they don't squirm or try to fly out like past chicks we've had.

Of course it was inevitable that there would be a little 'incident'. At least they kept it on the paper that I had put down for just that exact reason *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Easter

Wow, it has been one crazy weekend and then some! Today is the first day since last Wednesday that I have been home all day and haven't had to travel into the city and it feels SO GOOD. Between swimming lessons, science group, picking up chicks, easter celebrations and an impromptu trip to Costco it's been go go go here :)

We had a lovely Easter though. On Saturday we had dinner with my sister and her husband and then my mom and I had a sleep over at their house so that we could go to the movies and catch a little retail therapy *grin* and today the kids and I went to my parent's house for an Easter lunch.

After the great success I had making ice cream cone cake pops last summer I thought I'd try making some Easter themed ones so last night I whipped up a cake for making the balls. Hubby thought I was nuts *grin*. Out came the fresh cake from the oven and I proceeded to smash it up making a gooey mess with icing LOL.

I love playing with these although rolling the balls in the chocolate was a little trickier as they had a habit of spinning on the sticks. Nothing a little stint in the freezer couldn't cure though and they were good to go *grin*.

We had all sorts of yummy finger sandwiches, vegetables and desserts...

my mom had plenty of treats for the kids...

and I think they ate enough cake pops and pez to induce a sugar overdose LOL. Thank goodness it's all over and tomorrow it's back to normal we go :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Easter Babies

Our little chicky babies arrived today and just in time for Easter :) It couldn't have been better timing!

Everyone was so excited to peek into the box we brought them home in and help move them under the heat lamp :) Of course we had to have the 'you have to be really gentle' talk with the little man but he truly wanted to be as careful as possible with them and he is going to love them so much *grin*.

They are so stinkin' cute!!! I'm going to apologize now because I think there might be quite a few baby chick pictures in the coming days LOL.

Hugs,
Rosina