Spent the last month working on this chicken coop. We built most of it in my grandpa's garage. Over a month, spent about 24 hours, getting it all fixed up.

After the first couple days, we had this:



After most of the woodwork was done and we had painted it, we hauled it to my house and my husband, friend, and I put on the wire and metal roof.

There is also a wire 'apron' under all the mulch to discourage critters from digging in. Here's the back side



And the end that's the best place to sit to watch 'chicken tv'.



The inside of the coop has a couple roosts, access to the nest boxes, and currently a heat lamp as they are still acclimating to being outside and it's been in the 40's at night this week.



The nest box roof hinges up to reveal three compartments, one of which is a toolbox area.



All in all it's an upgrade from their brooder in my spare room.



Oh the dust.... avoid having chickens in your house....

This project was pretty affordable as ALL the wood was 'leftovers' from my grandpa. THANK YOU GRANDPA! That saved a bundle. I had to buy the wire, roof, paint, hinges. Less than $200. The 'poulet chalet' is home to 3 Americaunas, 1 Rhode Island Red, and 1 California White.



This is Queso. She's the HBIC.

I took all my coop inspiration from backyardchickens.co m. I learned so much from their forum. I knew nothing about chickens when I started this two months ago and there hasn't been a single question I've had that they hadn't already answered.

I'm going to trim it in some white paint and decorate the doors in some way. Then I just have to sit and wait for a few months for the eggs to start arriving.

that turned out beautifully! i just looked at the pattern and it's too hard for me 
but you did a perfect job --good color too!

The repeating pattern is too hard? Or the whole shebang? If it's the repeating pattern, try a swatch, it's not too bad. Thank you for the praise! I chose the same yarn and color as recommended by the pattern.

I recently finished the Que Sera from Knitty. It took a while because it was a little repetitive and even though the pattern isn't too complex, I couldn't commit it to memory and so I was always working from the instructions. It took a while, but I'm happy I stuck with it. This is one of my first knit (non-hat, non-scarf) garments I'm excited to wear. It fits. It looks good.

Any pattern I do, ends up with changes, usually unintentional. See where the sleeve joins the body and it's a little full on top?



That's ok, a little...ruffling is all that is. No bigs. I'm not sure what happened. I cropped the sleeves because they would be pushed up 98% of the time anyway. Also, I left out the button holes and attached no buttons. I don't need no stinkin' buttons.



Here's a closer look at the pattern.



Now, I'm working on an Ivywild in smurf turquoise that's been going much, much faster. Coming soon.

Happy Knitting!

I had been wanting a fountain near my patio for a long time, so after shopping around and reading about several others who DIY'd, I decided I could do it myself too.

Here's the finished product:



The whole project cost $60. Here's what I used:
Big base planter from wal-mart $25.
Three topper planters from Gordmans $22.
Water pump $7
2' vinyl hose $1
Plumber's putty $5
I also used but already had a cinder block and drill.



I drilled a hole in the bottom of the base planter to run the water pump power cord out. Otherwise, you have to run it up and over the top. I sealed the hole around the cord with plumber's putty.

The cinder block is up on it's end and the pump sits in the first "shelf" of the block. The pump was small enough, that if it sat on the very bottom, as pictured, it couldn't pump the water to the top. When shopping for a pump, check out the "lift", that's how much distance it can push the water up. Up off the bottom, it's also less likely to get clogged up with leaves or dirt.

I drilled through the top of the cinder block and ran the vinyl hose from the pump, through the block, through all three top planters. I used the plumber's putty again in each of these planters to force the water over the edge of each one and keep it from going back down the center.



I'm going to add aquarium/river rocks to the very top planter 1. to hide the hose end and 2. to make it gurgle over more evenly. I think I will also put aquatic plants to the base planter. It makes a nice splish-splashy noise. Thanks for checking it out 

These are very cute. That's two of them, isn't it? This is going on my list. Thanks for posting them, had you not, my life would be less whole.

Those are both impressive. Great job. I love the cables and that's one of the first stole's I've ever seen that I think I would actually wear.

Looks great. You've made me feel jealous and a little lazy....

Oh man. I love these. I agree with the above poster that you should make an 'alot'. You should send the artist the link, she'll love 'em.

I made these roman shades myself from some fabric and some $6 mini blinds using this tutorial http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2009/02/make-shades-out-of-mini-blinds.html



It was very easy and took about 2 1/2 hours with a friend to get two done. That is, the curtain you see and another one just like it down the hall. There was no sewing, just scissors and glue. The only thing I would do different, would be to consider lining the fabric so you can't see the blind slats so much during the day. But I probably wouldn't do it. That sounds like to much work.

This was a very satisfying and simple project I'd recommend to anyone. With the leftover fabric, I made a little ruffle-y cafe curtain above the sink window, and a little square for the center of the table. I wanted to make a table cloth but thought it would have been to matchy-matchy.

Thank you for looking. Don't be intimidated to try it yourself!

I really love this idea. I'm throwing a shower in a few months and will defiantly be using this. Thank you for posting this.