Archive for » 2010 «

One Blog – One Tree

Awesome, you came back!! Thanks for visiting!

I came across this post, by Jojoebi, just a little while ago. And it was something that definitely caught my attention.

carbon neutral offers and shopping with kaufDA.de

A German company, called Kaufda, is promising to plant one tree in cooperation with The Arbor Day Foundation for every blog that participates in their “My blog is carbon neutral” campaign.

According to Kaufda:

For every single one of the participating blogs, “Make it Green” and “Arbor Day Foundation” are planting a tree in Plumas National Forest. With your support, we are helping reforest Plumas National Forest with as much trees as possible. In the spring of 2010, Douglas-fir, red and white firs, and incense cedars will be planted alongside ponderosa pine and sugar pine trees. These new trees will help prevent soot and soil runoff into Plumas’ precious water supplies. Now, we are reforesting it with your help!

We plant trees, both in Germany (in the upper Harz region) and in Northern California. Why are we doing this? Because the reduction of carbon emissions by planting trees has the same effect, regardless of where in the world the trees are planted. It involves all of us to give something back to our environment.

If you’d like to participate, please click the button above or to the right.

Want: Urban Chickens

536392298 b9be19e88c Want: Urban Chickens

Little chicken by hddod

Awhile back I may have mentioned that I was thinking of getting some chickens to keep in the backyard. Then we got Fable, the Great Dane pup,  and I let it slide. Who really needs to worry about a giant puppy and chicks at the same time?

Now that we’ve moved, Fable’s trained and we have more room, I’ve been thinking about it again. Especially when I fry up some over-easy eggs and the yolks are light yellow. At Best. Sadly, we got a newsletter from our HOA with a friendly little reminder that all livestock – cows, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, etc – are against county zoning and the HOA CC&Rs. With a little bit of research I learned that the county does not ban any pets. They only ban livestock in certain areas, which is any animal that you use for a profit, such as selling meat, milk, eggs, and other products. So now it’s all on the HOA. I’ve heard one other little lonely voice in the HOA forums saying they’d like chickens, so it’s us against them. Ha!

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Dancing Chicken by joyrex

There are so many reasons to keep your own chickens:

  • Insect control – What do chickens do all day? They hunt, peck and scratch for bugs. I’ve seen a pack of hens decimate a scorpion in seconds flat, as well.
  • Snake control – Same as with a scorpion. While they may not eat a snake, they sure make him sorry for coming around.
  • Fertilizer – Chicken manure fertilizer is one of the highest in nutrients of all the animal fertilizers.
  • Eggs, of course – According to Robin Ripley, “In contrast to factory farm eggs, eggs from backyard chickens have 25 percent more vitamin E, a third more vitamin A and 75 percent more beta carotene [hence why homegrown egg yolks are bright orange and so tasty]. They also have significantly more omega-3 fatty acids than factory farmed eggs.”
  • Local Food – What better way to know where your food comes from? You know what your chickens are eating, so you know what’s in your eggs and meat as well.
  • Responsibility and Life Cycles – Teaching children where food comes from and how to care for pets is vital. Caring for chickens is easier than a dog or cat.
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Red Hen by jamesmorton

A few concerns I’ve heard are that chickens are noisy, attract bugs and predators, and spread avian flu. Roosters can certainly be annoying, but many urban chicken keepers choose not to keep roosters. Roosters are not required for hens to produce eggs and many people wont keep them out of respect for their neighbors. An unkempt chicken coop can certainly attract flies, but like any pet maintenance is important to the wellbeing of  your flock. Backyard chickens are unlikely to contract avian flu in the first place. They do not “socialize” with sick fowl and are kept in better conditions so the likelihood of catching any disease is low.

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Hens & Chicks at Sprouting Horn by ehoyer

Useful links for Urban Chickens:

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Hens by Amanda Rudkin

News articles on Urban Chickens:

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King of the coop by ninjaclutz

Books on Chicken Keeping:

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Chicks in a Box by samdogs

So there’s some information for you. I’ll keep you updated on how things go with the HOA. :D

Would you keep Urban Chickens? Why or Why not?

Tutorial: St. Patrick’s Day Wreath

Today we’re going to make this:

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Well, you don’t have to but I’m going to pretend that you’re dying for me to teach you how to make this simple wreath. Ready?

Gather your materials: St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

A wreath form- I used a 12″ pressboard form, mainly because I had no final idea of what I was making and because they’re so much cheaper than styrofoam.

2 – 3 yds of wire-edged ribbon.

3 – 4 St Patrick’s day decorative thingys. I think they call them floral picks?

A Glue Gun and glue sticks – low temp is probably best if you have one.

Scissors

Whatever doodads you want to add. Here I used mini “beer bottles” and some fake gold coins. Because what better sums up St Pats like beer and bling?

Okay, first step. Unroll your ribbon and fold it in a zigzag pattern, kinda like so. Adjust it to make sure it will cover your whole wreath form.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

It should like sorta like this from the front.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Now start to glue it to your wreath form. Tuck the end under for the first fold. You’ll have to adjust here and there to follow the contours. I found it easiest to glue the bottom fold to the wreath and leave the top fold loose. If you look closely, you can see my glue marks here.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Continue around until you’re within one fold from the end.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Now guage how much ribbon you will need to tuck under the first fold and cut it there. Glue the end of the ribbon UNDER the beginning fold and glue in place. Yours should look something like this.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Now flip that sucker over. This is where you pull your floral pick thingies apart. Mine consisted of wired pieces and well, non wired pieces. I cut the wired pieces out of 3 picks and glued it in intervals around the back of the wreath. I chose to do a spiraly type pattern.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Then go back around and add the non-wired pieces.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Not enough bling, Katie. Go around and add more if necessary.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

That’s better. Now flip it back over and add your doodads.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Once all my doodads were on, I used the green stem from my floral pick thing and bent it into a hoop and glued it within an inch of its life to the back of the wreath. Just in case. I want my wreath to withstand hurricanes. Ta Da!

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Now take down your Valentines Wreath that’s still up and put up your blingity-bling-bling St. Pats wreath.

St Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

Now everyone will know what you plan on doing next week. Wearing green underwear, of course. :D

Speaking of the Valentines Wreath you hadn’t taken down, here’s mine. I used Tatertots and Jello’s tutorial.

St Patricks Day Wreath Tutorial by RunawayOctober

So… What are you planning for St. Patricks Day this year? Any good recipes?

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Day late but completely fantastic!

40 days ago my madre had a birthday. This is what was waiting for her when she got home from work.

Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox adaptation by RunawayOctober

I used the Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox Tutorial from Oh, Fransson.

Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox Adaptation by RunawayOctober

While it’s neither vintage nor a pillowcase, I think it’s adorable. So did Mom. Good thing too, because I was finishing up the last step as she walked in the door! :D

Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox Adaptation by RunawayOctober

The tutorial provides good instructions for using Iron-On Vinyl. While you can’t see it in the picture, the whole bag is essentially water/spill resistant. I had a heck of a time finding Iron-On vinyl. The girls at the JoAnn’s cutting counter had no idea what I was talking about. Thankfully someone knew the store though. Turns it they keep it in the Home Dec department by the nailhead trim and curtain rods and such. $10 for a prepackaged roll that should be enough for 2 lunchbags.

Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox Adaptation by RunawayOctober

Also included in the tutorial is this cute little placemat. Which is perfect. We all know how ‘Ick’ lunchrooms can be.

Next time, though, I don’t think I’ll cover the handles in vinyl. Or try to source a thicker vinyl. It already is getting a little ragged from light use. Meaning it’s carried back and forth to the car daily and that’s about it.

If you’re thinking about making one be sure to check out the Flickr Group. There are some cute versions there too.

I’d love to hear what you’ve made lately.

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Confession.

I have a confession. I can be quite a slob.

The evidence: Exhibit A – My craft room, The SMOR (sewing machine operations room), about 24 hours ago.

mosaic1 495x166 Confession.

When we bought this house, we knew one of the rooms would be used for hobbies. Unfortunately, we had been using the dining room table previously so we had no furniture to set up in there. About the time we moved, I was given a very nice cutting table and sewing machine desk. They came from a family friend who had passed away. Sadly, she was a heavy smoker and smoked in her hobby room. The tables just ooze nicotine.

mosaic2 495x166 Confession.

My father in law convinced me that I shouldn’t try to paint them, as they’re covered in melamine. While I’m fairly certain I would be able to repaint them, new furniture would be easiest. Of course I decided this after trying to clean one of the tables with bleach (Bleck!) and ruining a perfectly good skirt.

mosaic3 495x166 Confession.

So I struck a deal with my husband. If I clean the craft room, could we build new furniture for the room? He agreed, poor sap. :D

mosaic4 495x166 Confession.

So this is where it stands currently. Not “clean” per se, but everything has been gone through and sorted and I found all kinds of stuff I had forgotten about! Score. My M.O. was to grab what I needed, take it down stairs to craft, bag/box up whatever was left and toss it in the SMOR when I was done. Bad bad. I had at least 15 empty boxes when I was done, and double that amount of bags to recycle

mosaic51 495x166 Confession.

(I still need to vacuum, obviously.)

This is the table I want we’ll be making, free plans courtesy of Knock Off Wood. It’ll go well with the IKEA Expedit bookcase that’s in there currently.

pottery barn bedford project table cubbies 495x445 Confession.

I know that if I had a vehicle right now, me and the boys would be terrorizing Home Depot and Lowe’s. I’ll keep you posted on our progress. I’m super excited to make my own craft furniture, and for so much less than Pottery Barn too! :D

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