Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Favorite Photo Find...

 I thought it would be fun to start a topic called:
where I feature a photo that I've taken in the past and explain why I love the photo and the reason behind the photo and some of the technicalities. 

 Today's find goes back to a a trip we took to Seattle with the kids a few years ago.  We were over on Bainbridge Island.  We had been out on the tide flats and were walking down to the Sand Spit.  Yes, that's the name for this place! And if ya wanna get fancy, Faye Bainbridge State Park. 

 I had been shooting pics of the kids and had run down the battery in the camera. I saw this Yellow Adirondack chair on the beach and loved Mad's Blue Sun dress so I had her stand next to it. I had just enough power left in the battery to hurry and flip the camera on quick and pray the shot worked out!  I thought it went pretty well with only seconds to work with! 
 The visual points in this picture are the Yellow chair, the blue sundress,  the water and the patch of tall weeds off the the right that frame in the photo.  I shot the focus of the picture off to the left side to draw the eye to the bright chair  & sun dress while creating emotion with her looking at the water...

I thought with Summer fast approaching this pic is an inspiration for upcoming  Summer Fun!


Have a great "Sunny" Day!
With Much Love & Gratitude,

Friday, April 20, 2012

Baby Gift Labels!

  I was so excited to try out my new Silhouette Cameo! I needed to take some Baby Gifts to some friends, so I thought what a better opportunity to try out my new machine!  I Love it!  I had so much fun designing these new little labels in Silhouette Studio, printing them on my printer and then sending them to be cut in the cameo!   Here's how they turned out...


For the gift, I made them some fabric owls on the sewing machine and also baked them some cookie pies.  I then wrapped them each in cellophane, tied them with some ribbon and added the labels for a finishing touch!


The Cookie Pie wrapped up and labeled...

The gift all put together...

I had a great time trying out my new Silhouette Cameo and putting together these gifts.  I can't wait to design and work on some other projects with the Cameo.  What an awesome machine!

With Much Love & Gratitude,

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Spring Dresses...

I think this is my favorite shot of the season...
I always try to sew some new dresses for the Girls for Spring & Summer.  I found some great patterns online that I downloaded for the girls so I thought I would share.  I took the girls to some old sheds to take their pictures.  I tried some actions I just downloaded from dbox called Instagram actions  to give the pictures a more vintage look. I think they turned out pretty cool!


Madalyn wanted a skirt with a lot of ruffles.  I bought her pattern from Etsy.  Viola Lee Jessalyn Ruffle Skirt... http://www.violaleepatterns.etsy.com


Aves is a pattern from Tenderfeet Stitches...Etsy <http://www.etsy.com/shop/TenderfeetStitches?ref=si_shop>  Blog <http://tenderfeetstitches.blogspot.com/>


I love the cute apron that goes with this Prairie Dress! Ava is such a nut lately, she is "posing" for me in this picture!




 Ivy's was a jumper dress that I put together by myself.  Thought it was sweet...

This is a different action on my favorite shot of the girls walking

 I thought this shot was cute of her standing by this old window and shed...

It was fun to sew these for the girls.  When Ava put her's on she was singing..
"I am so beautiful!"

With Much Love & Gratitude,

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Let's Go Fly A Kite...

 The weather was beautiful on Saturday.  Once we were done hosting our 13th Annual Easter Egg Hunt in our yard with our neighbors, Ryan took Madi to fly a Kite at the park.  He caught this great shot of her, so I thought I would share...


Nothing better than a Busy Dad taking some time to enjoy life with his Daughter...


With Much Love and Gratitude,

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Chicks & Chicks


When we got our Chicks, I thought it would be fun to do a photo shoot with them and the girls...




Ava was so Brave...




Madi adopted one and named her Oakley.  Oakley was the smallest, most feisty &  lightest color of the bunch so I took some shots of the two of them...








This shot with Ivy is just priceless to me...   They both have a look that seems to say, "Who are you?"




From all of us at Chalkboard Blue...




With Much Love & Gratitude,

Friday, April 6, 2012

Chicken Coop/Shed






 Last summer we needed two things in the yard, a Shed to store some yard items and a place for our new little chicks that were fast growing into Chickens. So we decided to build a Shed/Coop combination. The Chicken Coop/Shed was such an adventure.  We started out with just ideas that we sketched out on paper and ended up with a fun habitat for the "ladies" and a shed for more storage!  The back half of it is the coop (the right part of the shed) and the rest is the our shed space. Here are some shots of our journey...


We started with a spot in the yard that our boys tilled up...
 Our yard is on a slope, so we had to build into the hillside. To keep the shed level Ryan had to put in some footings, which are swamped at this point from sprinkler water... ewwww....
Ryan and the boys next put a floor on and some walls...


and some more walls & trusses...




When cutting out the window, nesting boxes and lower doors, the Saws All saved my life!  I just couldn't of done without it.
Next was...
Once it was at this point, my Husband said, we've gotten it to this stage, now it's your turn to make it look good!  So I began putting on the trim...  a lot of trim! We bought large sheets of the trim and ripped them on the table saw to the different sizes I  would need for  the Board and Batten trim and the rest of the areas around the shed and coop...
Here is a shot of

At the same time I was doing trim, I was also building all of the doors for the structure from scratch.  I Grooved all of the lines in the shed door with my skill saw,  (I will do a tutorial on how I grooved them later).
I thought it would be fun to have a split door or Dutch door,  I love split doors, they have been apart of our family for generations on our Island home in Washington... I also built the nesting boxes door and the lower doors.  ( I got my inspiration for the nesting boxes door and the lower doors from Heather Bullard's Coop from Country Living).  Building all of these doors took a while, I had to be very precise with all of the cuts and the trim,  Plus I'm a Perfectionist, so it takes me a little bit longer :)
I also whipped out a Screen to put behind the lower doors, so we can see into the Ladies and of course so they can look out and see us!

Ryan built some Nesting boxes...

Now it was just down to the final trim and paint this last side...

One of my favorite features is  the cute porch light I found at Lowes... Porch light you say?  Yes, we have power to the shed/coop too, complete with switches & outlets so we can also light up the coop at Christmas time!.

Before the cold temperatures hit here I was able to finish some of the inside part of the shed.  I finished the wall of the coop and  built a cabinet to store supplies in... we will finish the rest of the inside this summer, I'll keep ya posted!

The supply cabinets, I made it so the doors had chicken wire too... I know, soo cute!

One of my other favorite features of the shed is the old windows we decided to put in it.  We had some and Ryan said, why not use them!  So we put one in the front side of the shed...


And this little old window on the right side above the Nesting Boxes is one of my Favorites, it  comes from our Island home in Washington that was torn out when the home was remodeled years ago,  I was lucky enough to get one!  I love to look at it because it reminds me of the Island. 



Here are some shots of the inside of the chicken coop! This view is  from the outside of the coop looking through our nesting boxes 
 We have some roosts up high and down low...



This view is from the access door we use from inside the shed to get into the coop...



Well that's it for the tour of our Shed/Coop!  Hope you enjoyed it!



If you would like to read more about how we completed the Outside run for our Chickens, you can do so here. Or click on the photo below:


If you would like to see how I placed the Board and Batten trim on our shed, you can do so here. Or Click on the photo below:

Here are the Dimensions of our shed:


The shed from the Front corner to the back corner is 12 feet 2 inches by 9 feet high.

The outside chicken run is 4 feet wide by 83 in. high at its highest point and 5 ft. high at its lowest point.

Doors:  The Main door is split into two sections:  The upper section is 48 in. wide by 29 3/8 in. tall
                                                                               The lower section is 48 in. wide by 48 3/8 in. tall


Nesting boxes are: 38 1/2 in wide by 20 1/8 in. tall
Lower Doors:  The Main opening across is 40 in. wide by 21 1/2 in tall
                         Each of the lower doors measure 20 in. wide by 21 1/2 tall




The front of the shed is 10 ft. 2 in. across by 11 ft. tall at its highest peak...





If you would like to see how I made the grooves in our big door of the shed, you can do so here. Or Click on the photo below:

Here is a Comprehensive list compiled by Treats for Chickens: 
10 Reasons to Check your Chicken Yard + Checklist  Go check them out!


 

With Much Love & Gratitude,





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