New Chicken Coop!!!

Yesterday, we had a yard sale. Mom and Dad came over to our neck of the woods and we all set up our "treasures" for other people to sift through. It was a foggy, cloudy, humid morning/day. We didn't do so well.

While this was happening, Z and Dad were working on an summer chicken coop. 

I had a video, but it didn't work, so here are some photos!

Here is a side view. Not quite finished yet, but almost there!

Look at the custom built door! The awesome part is that we didn't have to buy anything!! All supplies came from what we had laying around. 

The other side view. Notice the small solar panel for the inside light=)

The inside. We have set up some roosting trees in the corner. Also, the nesting boxes (whatever those end up being made out of) will go in the back.

An old ladder for roosting. 

Still need to hang these babies so we can hang our waterer and food dispensers. 

I was so excited to watch it some together! We still have a few things left to do, but I'm thinking we will be putting chickens in tonight. 

Today, I have been preserving food....ALL DAY! 

I got up this morning and picked veggies from the garden. Over 15 lbs of food today! 

I harvested potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, and a bit of basil. 

So far, I have made yellow pear tomato preserves (which the hubby says was delish), pasta sauce (which lids are popping as I type), frozen diced carrots, and frozen shredded zucchini. 

Geesh! What a day!!!

Garden Tour

So, I already forgot about the wednesday thing......oh well. I'll do it next week.

For now, I wanted to do an update on my garden! Since my fav all time blog is One Hundred Dollars a Month, and my friend (well, I pretend) Mavis has a beautiful garden that I enjoy reading about, I thought my readers, all two of you, would like to see what has been growing on Brown Acre.

Some of my beautiful flowers! I think I am going to sell some bunches at the marketplace this weekend.

Sideways photo of one of K's snake gourds. We let him pick all the seeds for his raised bed this year and he has been tickled everytime something if ready to pick, or is doing well. I love teaching him about gardening and the beauty of our surroundings.

Hey, Girl, Hey!

Yup, thats a birdhouse gourd. I LOVE these.

Well Hello Sunflower! 

Ok what is this? I can't remember what I planted here. VERY vine-y. Like the birdhouse gourds, but this doesn't look  like a gourd...a cantaloupe? 

Ripening Tomatoes!

....and peppers!

Those stupid mexican bean beetles. I can't ever get a good crop of beans because of them. I squeeze them to death any chance I get.

My hole-y broccoli. It has taken FOREVER this year.

This was my harvest from the other day. Those of you who follow me on FB probably have seen this but I like this pic=). 

I am going to set a reminder RIGHT NOW on my phone to do a 3 things wed. next week. Promise.

Until then, peace out home slices.

Wednesday's three things......

I'm going to try to get back into blogging. I've been terrible at it and it is because I don't keep up with it and then I feel overwhelmed with everything I SHOULD post about.

Sooo...I'm gonna start slow. I'm hoping to remember every wednesday to write a post about three categories with three things in them.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1.) Family time

2.) My garden

3.) Iced Coffee

Three things I will do this weekend:

1.) Dave Matthews Concert!! Woot Woot!

2.) Craft show/Duck Race at the Colfax MarketPlace (Saturday 10-3) 

3.) Mom's Birthday Party!! Happy Birthday Sweet Mama! 

Three of my Fav pictures from my summer so far.

1.) Beautiful View!

2.) My sweet K-boy

3.) I just liked this one=)

Have a fantastic Wednesday!!

Craftsy Update=)

Hello all!!

We finally got our first snow day! Woot Woot! And with all that extra time, I took on a project I've been dying to do (for like THREE WHOLE DAYS!!!). A Photography Light Box!

I have had tons of pictures to take of my PrettyPickle earrings because I made a bunch for craft shows, plus I found several awesome fabric recently I just had to buy for earrings!!

So, here I am with a ba-jillion pairs of earrings, waiting to make it to my etsy page. The difficult thing was lighting. I don't have great windows or areas in my house in which to take pictures. I try to do it outside when I can, or in the 2 hours we get good light by the kitchen window. This was a difficult thing to do!!! Bad weather, never home at the right time, inconsistent photos.....I was getting frustrated!

Here is what my pictures used to look like. Set up on the kitchen table, with a cloth underneath. Nice detail, but a little on the "homemade" side.

So, I made a light box. The photos are A-Mazing!!!!

Yea, I took that picture!!! Isn't it cool! Looks so professional right?!?

I started off with looking up some tutorials on how to make these things. I went to pinterest.com first of course. I found some great ideas!! I ended up going with one that included a translucent white tote.

At first, I just set up the box and used two lights that I already had downstairs in my craft room. The pictures were ok and worked up pretty good with an editing website (my fav is picnik.com). But I knew I could do better.

Before picture edited using picnik.com

I went out today and got some daylight bulbs, 2 clip on lamps ($5 a piece), and a large piece of poster board. As soon as I got home, I started assembling! I cut the poster board down to size and curved the top as I fit it inside the tote to give a seamless look in the background of the photos. I draped some fabric to soften the lighting more. I clipped those lights on, turned them on, and started clicking! I am very impressed with the outcome. I wish there was a little less shadow, but seriously, I'm not complaining=). 

After using picnik.com for minor editing (very little actually!!!!)

Here is my light box in full. Not expensive at all to make, but super profession outcome.

Here is a picture of the craft room. I rearranged some things and added some dressers for storage. 

I would really like to put in some floating shelves lined with jute baskets for organizing my fabric, but thats gonna have to be another day=).

Well, I just wanted to share some of my crafting adventures with you all. Enjoy=)

Fall @ Brown Acre

Hello all!! Keeping with my usual blogging abilities, I purposefully skipped two months to keep you on your toes and checking back frequently=). Right. I will never be one of those bloggers who updates regularly, has a fan base, and gets money from advertisers in the side bars.

But thats not really the point for me.

So to those of you who occasionally continue to check my blog, here is whats been happening!

I started a craft group on FB that will meet once a month at my house to craft something together!! How fun!!!! I can't wait for our first meeting. I made the wreath below as practice, so I could be more of a helper when everyone is here.

Simple and rustic, just how I like it! Kole and I gathered sticks of roughly the same diameter, cut them to size, and glued them to a cardboard ring I had previously covered in twine. Easy Peasy!

 Football was a HUGE part of our lives from Aug-Oct. Here is one of the last games. Kole got a trophy that he was super pumped about. This night, they had a "bomb" fire (koles words) and a DJ. Pizza and Drinks. And crazy football boys ages 5-10 running around=).

Kole was a blocker. I think it is called a guard? Yes, beside the center. He LOVED football.

Can't wait to play tackle next year.

Pushing the other guys on the line. Why this is fun for boys, I may never know. But as a momma, I was the one with the t-shirt that said Koles Mom. I even tried to make a giant foam finger. I was so proud of him for doing his best! It was a blast to watch.

Hopefully this video works. They are playing after the game=)

Nana and Grandaddy!

 I have been working on a sewing unit at school with my students. I wrote 2 grants at the end of the school year last year and I actually got them both!!! I bought 20 sewing machines and a TON of fabric. My students made a pillow project for themselves first. Now we are finishing up the community service projects. Each class chose a community organization that gives back to the community in some special way. We then called them and asked what they could use that we could make and donate. I have one class making rag quilts and pillows for the childrens hospital wing. Another is making PJ pants for a homeless shelter. And another class is making aprons and potholders for the Soup Opera, which feeds people for free daily.

It has been VERY stressful/overwhelming to get it all organized and to kept the students on task, but it is already rewarding in so many ways. The next step is to get the newspaper/station in there to take some pictures and write a story on what the kids are doing. Then we will have guest speakers from each of the organizations come in a give a presentation before we present them with the items the kiddos made.

HALLOWEEN-IE!!!

Anakin Skywalker and his grandfather.

 Realistic light saber. Grandmomi looks frightened!!

How cool does it look without the flash!?!

Love trick or treating in Mannington on Meadow Ave! Kole says he gets WAY more candy there.

Our little Family=)

The loot.

Any almond joys in there???

Its raining candy!!!!!

And this is how the rest of the evening went=). Sick on candy. All three of us!

Oh yea! Our pumpkins!!! I, of course, did something girly. The fleur de lis. Kole wanted scary, so lips and fangs it was. And Zach couldn't decide, so we chose goofy mustache and sunglasses man for him=). Fitting right!?

I have 2 craft shows in the near future that are consuming my free time getting ready for. I will try and post some pictures of them so you all can see what craftiness I have been up to!

Well, hopefully I'll get another post in before christmas!