Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

These two rascals eat a lot of food. The feed sacks that hold their food are really sturdy and big.  I didn't want to throw them away so I decided to upcycle them and make shopping bags out of them.  I've just listed my first one in my Etsy shop . I've been using mine for almost a year now, and they've held up really well.  I wanted to make sure they were really sturdy before I made them to sell.  I double stitch all of the seams which gives it a nice squared shape and also makes it stronger.  The baggers at Harris Teeter love them because they stand up by themselves and can be easily filled.  They fold up just like a regular paper bag for easy storage.  Next in the shop - Chicken Feed Sack Grocery Bags

We've welcomed a few new girls into the chicken pen for a few days.  We're chicken sitting for some friends from church until they get their chicken accommodations built.   They've been very good little cluckers.  Scratching and roaming and getting along just fine. I did have to run outside once this morning (in my pajamas and muck boots) to chase off what I thought was a hawk.  Turns out is was a buzzard and won't hurt the chickens.  At least I got some exercise - hope the neighbors weren't watching! That's our own Reba Mae on the right in the picture below.  She's our only chicken left - all of the others were attacked by wild dogs, coyotes, or hawks.  She's also our last "named" chicken.  We've learned to not name our chickens anymore.  We'll just call them "the girls".  She's enjoyed the company of other chickens for the past few days.  She's even layed an egg! In other news, the bee...

I've always loved this little bathroom on the third floor of our house.  It has a cast iron soaking tub and it's walls are clad with tongue and groove paneling.  I never really decorated it when we moved in because it was my teen son's bathroom and he didn't really care what it looked like.  It only held the necessities that you see below -towel, toilet paper, kleenex, and soap. After said son vacated the room and I redecorated it to become a guest room, I decided it need a little bit of fluffing.  I didn't spend any money, but instead shopped around my house to add some special touches.  I tried to add light colored accents in the room to balance the darker tones of the wood - and there is a lot of wood - from floor to ceiling!  I added some colorful accessories to the shelves.  See the little glass goblet on the side of the tub?  It's holding the tub stopper!  All of our old tubs and sinks in the house have rubber stoppers...

After checking out the bed on a budget and the bedding on a budget for our guestroom, now it's time to look at the accessories.  I basically shopped my house for things that would work with the colors in this room.   One thing, in particular, that I bought for this room was the luggage rack that you can see at the foot of the bed.   I actually bought it about 10 years ago in anticipation of having a guest room one day - am I crazy or what?  I've held onto it and now I can finally use it.  I bought the side table (on the left side of the bed) at a thrift store a few years ago for just a few dollars.  It was in rough shape - broken drawer, missing handle,  and a really bad finish.  What it did have going for it was it's size and shape, general sturdiness, and drop sides.  I glued and clamped the drawer back together, replaced the handle with a leftover one from my old kitchen, and sanded and painted the whole ...

The inspiration for the colors of the new guest room were found on a pillow that a friend gave me after my kidney transplant.  She knows I love birds and this sweet pillow has some beautiful colors. After Hubs hauled the new frame and mattress set up the stairs and set it up, I was a little disappointed that the mattress set seemed to swamp the antique bed frame.  Years ago, the mattress and box springs were thinner.  Now they both made deeper, even requiring special sheets.   The headboard that I worked so hard to fix up was almost completely hidden.  To add some  height, I added a body pillow.  I made a pillow case for the body pillow from a curtain valance.  I bought the valance at a yard sale when Hubs and I were driving back from our camping trip last summer.  The lined valance measured 14 1/2  feet by 30 inches.  It had wonderful trim and a cute scalloped border, not to mention the wonderful toile pri...

My goal was to have a welcoming guest room on the third floor of my home since the children had left the nest.  My goal was pretty big and my budget was pretty small so I had to get creative. First, I used an antique bed frame that I bought about 25 years ago for $40.00.  It had been in the master bedroom until we upgraded to a queen size set.  We actually used the queen set on the full size frame for awhile.   Hubs rigged it so it wouldn't fall apart, but it wasn't ideal.  I sanded it down and spray painted it with a satin black paint.   The foot board on the left has been sanded and the headboard on the right has been sanded and sprayed with one coat of paint.  I ended up using three coats and used 2 cans of paint.  Several light coats is better than one heavy coat.  My spraypainting area was quickly set up using a drop cloth over my compost tumbler in the back yard near my potting bench.  Looks like I have some tidy...

I always look forward to the Lenten Roses blooming around this time of year.  These little beauties bloom even when the weather is cold and gloomy.  I think they are just beautiful.

I'm just about done with the guest room redo.  There are a few more details to take care of, but enough is done to share some pictures with you. Here is a before picture.  This room was originally a sun room above the second floor of our home. The previous owner (who built the house himself) turned it into a bedroom when his family got larger.  Your eyes are not tricking you - the ceiling really does slant down toward the windows.  This was our son's bedroom for the past 6 years.  Once his sister got married and moved out, he moved over to her apartment which is over our detached garage.  It's nice for him to be a bit more independent since he turns 21 this month.  Picture this room with a crate furniture bed, bean bags, military posters, and clothes strewn everywhere - that's what the room looked like before it became what you see below - a storage room for extra furniture and accessories.  I was itching to make it something warm and...

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, my focus starts to turn towards hearts.  Not the bright red paper ones, but ones you would find in nature.  I'm always looking for heart shapes whenever I'm walking around our yard or out on a hike somewhere.  I decided to stroll through Pinterest today and find some photos of hearts in nature.  Here are some that I love. . . Source: woman-taken-by-the-wind.tumblr.com via Imaflygirl on Pinterest Source: springhillnursery.com via jay on Pinterest Source: flickr.com via Bev on Pinterest Source: fivesensus.blogspot.com via Bev on Pinterest Source: centsationalgirl.com via Lisa on Pinterest Source: justkeepbreathingandbelieving.tumblr.com via Julia on Pinterest Source: flickr.com via Bev on Pinterest I love how God built little reminders of His love into the world He created for us.