Lamp Post Bird Feeder

This gas lamp was in our front yard when we bought this house almost 2 years ago. We have always hated it because it was in a weird place and we just think they are kinda dumb. But that's just us. Anyway - we finally took it out (we did it ourselves after finding out it was going to cost at least $85 to have it removed and that wasn't counting capping off the gas going to it) and I turned it into a bird feeder for the back yard. Dad helped a little (like digging the post hole!).

This is where it was:

I built a little platform out of dowel rods and screwed them together. Because I am cheap thrifty I used a variety of things that I could find around my house. Two perches are made from a Lowe's paint stirrer that I ripped in half and sanded. The other two are made from a plastic clothes hanger. The bowl that holds the feed is the bottom part of a Rubbermaid storage container. I just cut the top off. It fit perfectly. The top of the lamp had a big hole in it and to keep the feed from getting wet when it rains I cut the bottom out of a plastic fiber container and turned it upside down and closed the opening with it (You can't see it.). It fit so perfectly that I didn't even have to glue it. Then I primed everything with spray primer and then spray painted it black.



I love it!!! Can't wait to see what birdies are enjoying it when I wake up in the morning. :) What do you think?

It has begun.

Curious George Silas found the toilet paper today.

There's no sign of remorse. :)

REPOST of Our House:Before and After

This was originally published in October of 2008 but because several people have emailed recently asking about my cabinets I thought I would link up to Kimber's DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Get your Craft on at Today's Creative Blog and Tip Junkie. Hope you enjoy it!
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OK peeps, here's what you've all been waiting for - HOUSE PICTURES! Because I am lazy and blogger is acting weird right now, I'm just putting them all on here in no particular order. The "Before's" are first. Also, I didn't edit anything. Again, because I am lazy and it already took me 2 days to get this post ready.

Back of the house

Kitchen looking towards Master Bath

Kitchen looking towards dining room and garage

Kitchen - notice the weird counter top piece hiding the back of the stove

Kitchen

Kitchen

Water heater in Garage




Back of house

Wallpaper in Master Bath

That's all the "before" pictures we have. We started working on the house before it occurred to me that I might want "before" pictures of everything. Oh well.

Here's what it looks like now:

Dining Room

Stone plates from Hobby Lobby

Kitchen - We removed the cabinets from above the stove and replaced the weird counter top piece hiding the stove with a larger piece of wood and shelving

The little shelving unit is from IKEA

New flooring and lighting in the kitchen and dining room

We painted the kitchen cabinets a dark brown. The actual color is Sarasparilla by Olympic. The finish is Gloss. The turtle in the window is from Senegal, West Africa. Zach thought he needed to look out the window and that is where he's staying. :)

New French Door refrigerator. The wall color in the kitchen is Vanilla Brandy.

Living Room - wall color is Martha Stewart Brick Hearth

There will eventually be more things on the walls.

I love our fireplace. The mantle was natural cedar when we bought it - we painted it dark brown.

The window on the mantle is from my paternal grandparents house - the house my dad grew up in. They still live there, but they replaced the windows a while back and DD let me have them.

The djembe (drum) is from Senegal, West Africa too.

Master Bath - I made the curtain. That fabric was $46 a yard at JoAnns and I found it for $5.99 a yard at OHCO in Covington. That was a good day.

We painted the vanity the same color as the kitchen cabinets and bought a new counter top, new sinks, and new faucets. We got new lighting too from Lithonia Lighting.

Justin installed a shower door.

And he did a little landscaping in the backyard.

He and Daddy built a cover for the water heater.

Justin added shelves to the side for shoe storage. Since living in Korea, both of us are in the habit of removing our shoes when we get home.

These are the cabinets that we took out of the kitchen. Now we have excellent storage in the garage.

Well that's it for now folks. We haven't done anything at all to the upstairs yet, and our Master Bedroom is next on the project list.

I want to know what you think so PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE leave me some comments!

woohoo!

SO....for those of you who don't know me in real life...I recently became an Independent Distributor with Premier Designs, a Direct Sales jewelry company. I love my job! I get to wear awesome, quality jewelry, meet and hang out with lots of great ladies, and make money doing it. At this time in my life it is a great fit because I get to work as much or as little as I want - there's no quota to meet and no pressure at all, which is always a plus. ;)

Anyway - back to the WOOHOO. I'm gonna brag on two of my hostesses in February, Shirley Quick and Jennie Oglesby (mom and daughter). They had one of the Top 20 highest retailing Home Shows in the Southeast!

This is a BIG DEAL and I am so excited! I got to give them a ridiculous amount of FREE jewelry (nearly $900!) and we had a blast at their show.

Thank you ladies for all the fun and for making me some SA-WEET moolah. :) Y'all are the best!

I'm filling up my calendar for April and May. Want to hang out with your girlfriends and get some free jewelry? Let's talk! There is a fantastic promotion going on for April. :) Have a Home Show (or catalog show)...it's easy! My email is moon0821(at)gmail(dot)com. (that's a number zero, not a capital O)

Silas (8 months)

Silas turned 8 months old this past Thursday! He is growing and changing everyday and he is so cute that I just can't hardly stand it!

{Just a heads up - there are lots of pictures with this post.}

He is:

*pulling up on everything. Sometimes he is a little ambitious and ends up bumping his noggin, but he is getting really good at catching himself too. He stands in the bathtub now (which has resulted in the discovery that water doesn't feel good when it goes up your nose). He is a brave little toot and even after he gets hurt he will just try again. I LOVE this about him. I love his adventurous spirit.

*talking up a storm. He has added a few consonant sounds to his speech and now we hear d's and b's and y's. He talks to himself in the mirror (especially when he's in the car) and he loves talking to his Daddy.

*down to 4 bottles a day and 3 food meals.

*getting his 4th tooth. Any day now the top left tooth is going to poke through. :)

*"voicing" his opinion. He communicates quite well these days either by screaming or reaching for things or refusing to make eye contact or even pushing things away.

*His favorite things to do:
~climb on the hearth
~play with his car seat and push it around the kitchen (he spends great amounts of time doing this)
~play with his diaper/wipe caddy. He is OBSESSED with this. He takes the diapers out and throws them everywhere. He pulls it over on himself. He chews on it. Really - it's kinda strange how much he loves the caddy...sometimes we have to just put it away.
~go outside. We are soooo ready for spring! Last week we had a couple of warm sunny days in a row so we spent a good bit of time outside. I can't wait til we can play outdoors everyday!
~jumpy jump in his Johnny Jumper
~be naked. But is this really a surprise?

climbing and exploring

sweet toothy grin

so happy with his friend Mr. Carseat

about to make a mess with Mama's clean clothes

He climbed over there by himself. I just held his feet to make sure he didn't go head first in the gap.

This one is kinda blurry, but I love it because this is how I found him one day. He had rolled off of the hearth into his empty toy basket and was stuck.

Oh you know, just getting some fiber (tree bark). And are those shades not the cutest?!

Again, he did this all by himself.

Such a big boy!!

My friend Lindsay came over last week on one of the pretty days and we took Silas to the Monastery to crawl around and take some pictures. These are the doors to the sanctuary.