Chicken Run

The chicken's have a new home, yay! Well, not really a new home, more like a new location in the backyard. Gotta love the "Chicken Tractor".

The coop had been placed over our garden area during the winter. You know, chicken manure has the best nitrogen for gardens! Since it was getting to be that time of year where we have to start planning our garden, the thought of where the coop would go had started to sink in. Ugh. Well, that and the fact that the darn chickens kept escaping and poop, was everywhere. 

We came up with the idea to build a run for them.

The thought of less poop on the back steps, seemed to outweigh a shrinking backyard. 

I'm happy everyone has a new little home. Now maybe I can add more chickens to the flock :) This project was two fold because we added a large 6X6 post to hang a new clothes line. Yay! The old one had rotted and fallen down.

See that large black box??

I'm going to plant herbs there. Can't have enough fresh herbs in the summertime!I was also thinking of planting sunflowers along the inside of the run for the chickens to eat. I think they'd enjoy that, yes?

  My guess is this: If I keep the chickens happy, we'll continue to get plenty of eggs :)

And of course sweet Rango. Don't worry buddy, I've got a few more hens lined up for ya.

So glad spring is finally arriving, I can't believe we have daffodils blooming already...

Looking forward to another warm week of spring cleaning and good running weather.

XOXO

April

Living Room Facelift

As most of you probably know by now, we were hit pretty hard by the 5.8 earthquake in August. So bad, in fact that we had to replace our chimney, and numerous walls in the house. 

Over the Christmas break, we finally tackled the living room. I'd gotten sick of looking at large holes/cracks and decided it was time to get down to business!

I didn't take any before pictures. Mainly because it was just too hideous to look at. But if you've been here before, you'd know we had 'puke' green walls. And the damage only made it look ten times worse in there. I was so happy to give the living room a fresh look. So here goes the finished product....hope you like it as much as I do!

We added the wainscoting and chair rail to give the room a larger feel. It's such a small area, that painting the entire room one color can really make it seem small. Now, with the chair rail installed, I feel like the room is so much bigger!

That's all I've got for today. So thanks to an earthquake, (which we are still having aftershocks from), our teeny tiny living room got a teeny tiny facelift. 

XOXO

April

Camera Strap

I decided earlier today that it was the perfect day to complete a very small, but necessary sewing project: 

A homemade camera strap for the 5100

This is something small I've had on my sewing to-do list for quite some time. I'm totally happy with how it came out and actually can't wait to make more!

Here I snapped one of those cute/silly "in the mirror" photos to try and catch a better glimpse of it...

I guess you can see my handiwork :) The hardest part was turning it inside out, then threading it. But who cares, it was all worth the effort. Love my new strap!

XOXO

April

Snow

Well, winter finally arrived today, and clearly not a minute sooner, it's almost March! 

I usually "boo-hoo" the snow, being a warm weather gal myself, but I'll take it for now. I kinda dig the beauty.

Enjoy the white stuff folks!

XOXO

April

Landscape Seminar

Good morning! Not too much going on around here. Just another lazy Saturday morning here in Mineral, Va. Peyton has a basket ball game this afternoon, and we're all still recovering from the tummy bug, along with a very hectic week. And I am happy to say, that I am GLAD it is almost over!! Usually I have a long "honey-do" list going of all the things that need taken care of when the hubby is home, but not this weekend. He's laying sick in bed, poor thing. 
I wanted to stick with the photo challenge, so I've picked just one out of 400 photos I took from my first free-lance volunteer photography job on Thursday. The event was all indoors and no flash was allowed. So, to a person who prefers "natural light" this was quite the challenge!! Thank goodness for manual, it saved my behind....Here is just one of my faves. I think it pretty much sums up the day. 

Unfortunately there were two rain spots on the lens in this photo that I didn't notice until last night. Oh well, I still like the picture.
It was hard choosing just one, but I really need to go through and send the rest to the board for review. 
Hope everyone has a great weekend. We're supposed to get snow, yuck. I think that darn groundhog might have been right.  
XOXO
April

Photo Challenge

I'm trying something new today. It's a photo challenge where you pick just one photo, whatever speaks to you at that time. I got the idea from my good friend Sarah, and she is an awesome photographer. 

Well, here's what I chose. I don't have a whole lot of pictures to choose from, everything is still on the old computer. I actually came across this one in my cell phone (as if you couldn't tell). And it kinda sums up how I feel about winter. It was cold that day, but the sky looked warm.

I think when I snapped this,  I was bored, riding in the car, and wishing I was somewhere tropical.....ahhh, daydreaming. But who can tell. It certainly has a "toe-sty" feeling to it though eh?

Anyhoo, here's the link to the photo challenge.

Enjoy!

XOXO

April

Father/Daughter dance and other things

Is there anything as sweet as a Father taking his sweet little girl out on the town for a date?

Steven had the chance to do that with Eleanor last week. They went to a Father/Daughter dance. 

And has anyone noticed how handsome Steven looks lately?? He had laser eye surgery over the winter break, which means no more glasses! He couldn't be happier.

I'm a little excited about this weeks activities. Steven took over my position as Vice-President at The Piedmont Landscape Association 3 years ago. Every year they plan an annual landscape seminar (it's grueling work, trust me, I know). But this year with my interest in photography, he asked me to be the official photographer. Yay!

On another note, Steven and I completed a couples race yesterday. It was awesome to run with him and I think he's been bitten by the running bug now too. 

Check us out.

I think we make a pretty cute couple, don't you?? :)

The race was held in Charlottesville at Old Trail Golf Course. And I use the term "trail" loosely. That last mile was bru-tal!! All up hill. But we finished. Oh and I signed up for the Suntrust Richmond half marathon in November, yikes!! I really must be cray-cray for doing this. But oh well, there's no turning back now....
Well, that's it for today. I promise I do have some crafty things to share with y'all. I haven't completely given up being crafty for running. We have more than a few weddings to attend this year. With that being said I have a small check list of stuff I'm helping each bride with. Guess I better start checking off that list!

Until then, I'll catch up with you peeps later.

XOXO

April