Spring is Here

My chicks got to go outside for the first time. Here they are enjoying the sun.

Here's my Nephew "helping" me feed the chickens. He squatted down and then said "I'm a chicken" and then giggled. Cutie Patootie!

We finally got our tomatoes planted. I'm still waiting for some seeds to arrive in the mail so I can finish planting my garden. 

So far, I haven't put a single stitch into anything since part 7 of Around the World in 80 Stitches. I am hoping to remedy that this weekend. 

My Little Chickies

I took some updated photos of my chicks. They are already getting too big for the box but it's been too cool for them to go outside just yet. They look a little awkward right now but they will be fully feathered and beautiful in no time!

Aha! Thanks Jo!

Thanks to Jo who can't think of a clever nickname, I have been able to add my photos. 

Here are my new little chickies who are probably about 1 week old. I didn't order them or hatch them myself otherwise I would know the exact day of their hatch. I got them from our feed store. 

Ameraucanas and Black Australorps.

Oh, and here is my finish! I think it was called Hummingbird (I can't find the cover sheet of the kit right now) by Mill Hill Buttons and Beads kit. I had intended to finish this for a Christmas present for my Mom but it will  do just as nicely for a Mother's Day present. I even got the red frame that they show in the cover photo to go with it.

Hee hee! Here's my "little" green man attempting an escape.

I'm Back!

I may be back, but for some reason I can't upload any of my photos to Blogger. I have trying for 4 days now with no luck. Hopefully I can get it straightened out soon.

Anyway, Here's what I've been up to. I finally got to sit down and stitch on something! Yay! And I even finished it! Yay! Yay! It had been 2 months since I even touched a needle. It felt good to get back into it again. I think my last post mentioned that I had to move all of my stitching stuff out and back in again. While it was good to be able to re-organize my stash, I did temporarily misplace some of it for a short while.

Also, I have been battling the phone company on and off for the past 2 months. We had lost the use of our phone line (and of course the internet as well) for about 2 weeks. Even when it was working, it wasn't very good service. I am hoping though that everything has been fixed now and we won't have any problems for a good long while.

And of course, it's that time of year again! We got some more chicks! Sixteen to be exact. We got Ameraucanas (they lay the blue/green eggs) and Black Australorps. We had hatched out some chicks around October in hopes that we could keep up with the egg production. I didn't realize how popular our eggs were going to be. Anyway, out of 12 chicks, 6 of them were hens. We then lost about 6 of our older hens to hawks, dogs, ect. so now we are back to where we started. It gave us an excuse to buy more chicks though.

My Sis is expecting another baby (her third) so as soon as I find out the gender, I will be working on a baby sampler. She's hoping for a girl since her first baby was a girl but sadly passed away. We all miss little Lucy.

Ok. So had planned a couple of photos to go with all of this but like I said, not working. I will get those photos posted as soon as I can though.  

Fred the Frog

Ok, I had decided that the best way for me to focus on Frog Pile was to stitch one whole frog before moving on to the next. To make it fun, I gave each frog a name. Meet Fred the blue frog and the beginnings of Fonzie the teal frog.

 

It is TW October so I am trying to work on TW's Noah's Ark Sampler. I am working on the over-1 animals and it is really kicking my rear end. I was ok until I got to the back stitching. To keep myself from going completely batty, I am stitching as much as I can stand on the over-1 and then I switch back to Frog Pile and back again. I am determined that I will get at least 2 animal squares completed this month.   

 

 

 

And this is my poor rooster, Craig. Due to being attacked by a dog and getting his remaining feathers pulled out but the curious hens, he is totally tail-less. He doesn't let it bother him though. He still walks around with pride. There's a lesson in that I'm sure. I will be putting him in a pen by himself for a while to give his tail a chance to grow back so he should be back to his old self soon.

Here's What I've Been Up To

This is my latest progress on HaED's Fairy Frog Mother. I was stitching on her and then left the room. When I came back, I thought, "Hey! She has eyes!" Ha ha ha! I have trouble staying focased when there is alot of confetti stitching but I am loving these colors so it hasn't been too bad. 

 

 

Here is Joan Elliott's Crescent Moon Dragon. I really should post "before" photos with these but I'm feeling lazy right now. I love the colors in this one too. I am finding the fabric to be a little "slippery" in the q-snaps so I am having to constantly re-tighten while I'm stitching. I think it's lugana or jobelan, not sure which. I might have to put it on scroll rods.

 

I am now working on Frog Pile. I have decided that the only way for me to get any good progress on it is to "make" myself complete one frog at a time instead of skipping around. So to make it fun I have assigned names to each frog. Hee hee! i am currently working on Fred. 

 

 

 

Ok, I had to show you this! My dog Pete likes to sleep next to me while I stitch. And yes, more often than not, he sleeps with his tongue sticking out! Lol!

My Photos Are Back!

I finally figured out a way to get my photos uploaded. Yay! So here it goes. I have finished part 1 of Papillon Creation's Around the World in 80 Stitches. The fabric is 28ct Lime Jobelan.

Here is my ort jar for the TUSAL. A little late, yes, but here they are anyway. lol

And here are my chicks at 5 weeks old.

Here A Chick, There A Chick

I forgot to post these earlier. Here are my little cuties at 2 weeks old. They are growing so fast! I have tried to get better photos of them but they are a little frightened of the camera.

ABC Chicks

I stitched this up really quick. It is ABC Retro, a freebie from here. I used Weeks Dye Works "Bethlehem" and trust me, the color looks so much better in real life. I just could not get a photo that captured the color just right. Anyway, this is actually on my WIPocalypse list. It was listed as Unnamed Freebie. I had to search for it to find the name. lol.

My chicks at 1 week old. I love watching them grow. I'm not sure what they will look like when they are adults so it's like a surprise every time I walk in and see another color. I was asked what breed they are. I wanted more Americanas because they lay blueish green eggs and they are the friendliest birds I own. So I mixed my Black Star hens with an Americana rooster. I also bred my Americana hens with a Rhode Island Red Rooster (most likely because he is their favorite) or a Silver Laced Wyandotte Rooster. I got a few Americana eggs from my second cousin as well and there is no way of knowing what they were possibly mixed with. So like I said, I won't know what they will look like until they grow up. Fun huh?

July TUSAL and Chicks

Here is my TUSAL photo. This time it's only a few days late. lol. Here is why I didn't post my orts on Saturday.

I have been giving my fresh yard eggs to friends and family but there is never quite enough for everyone. So I put some eggs in the incubator so I will hoepfully have a few more hens to lay eggs. I put in 16 eggs. I candled them and 4 of them weren't fertilized. I wasn't sure all of the 12 that were left would hatch but they did! I was so excited to see the first one start poking it's way through. Here's some photos....

This is the 12 eggs before hatching.

The brown chick had just hatched and the black chick was drying off.

My little cuties.

TUSAL and Fred

Here are my orts for the TUSAL. I have my jar next to some scrapbooking stuff which is what I've been working on all weekend. My Mom and I pulled out all of our scrapbooking stuff that we have collecting over the years and scrapbooked together. I don't know why but it's just not as fun doing it alone.


Let me introduce "Facebook Fred". We found him on Facebook and he was needing a home. He is so sweet and he seems to like me the best. He follows me everywhere I go. My other male dog, Pete, isn't too happy about it though. They may have to decide who the king of the house is but hopefully they will be friends when it's all over.

Eggs!

I have eggs! Ha ha! Ok, my chickens have eggs. I should have cleaned them before getting a photo of them but I was just so excited. Right now it's just two but there will be lots more where those came from! I knew they could start laying any day but I was still totally surprised.

Another Post About Chickens

Ok, so a couple of months ago I ordered 25 pullet (female) chicks plus 1 mystery chick from a hatchery and got 2 roosters from my second cousin. As you may remember. We lost 1 rooster and a few of the chicks so now I have 22 chickens and 1 rooster. Or so I thought. As it turns out, 3 of the chickens are roosters. That's 4 roosters in total. I did not need quite that many! Ha ha Oh well. The best I can tell, the mystery chick appears to be a Pheonix rooster so we are calling him Arizona.

By now, I would probably be getting some eggs but since it's winter, they may not lay until spring. I guess we will see. I've been checking every day just in case.

My Feathered Children

As promised, here are my chicks! They are growing up so fast. They will be 6 weeks old this Tuesday.





And of course, I had to include a photo of my boys. They almost seem to pose for the camera. Hee hee!

Chatelaine Progress and Chickies

My chicks are growing!




This is my progress on Chatelaine's Egyptian Garden. I so need a stand to put the scroll rods on for this one. I have a cheap one somewhere that I'll pull out and try next time.

Chickies!

My chicks were delivered today! Aren't they just too cute? This is a mixture of Black Star, Rhode Island Reds, Araucanas, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and Single Comb Brown Leghorns.

RRs and Roosters

Here is Blu's RR piece, "Palm", a Dimensions kit, as I received it.



And here it is as I'm sending it home.


This is King George the Rooster!


And his brother who is yet to be named.