My Chicks salute the Arrival of Their First Spring

our unkept lawn on which the chicks free-range New England Red flowers sprouting Americana Buff Orpington my deck-lookout where I have to lookout for hungry chicken hawks who want to kill my chicks while they free range... frolicking in the yard... EGGS!!!!!!

Some of My NEW Favorite Things

I had a restful and great Sunday this past weekend, which is slightly rare. My best weekender experiences usually fall on a Saturday, the day of the week that I would normally call one of my favorite things, but not this time. So I declare that Sunday is making the also-one-of-my-fave-things list.

So this Sunday I woke up early enough to do some morning reading. I'm currently taking a reprieve from my usual cerebral, booky, mystery fiction and I'm reading something that reads rather quickly due to my pressed time schedule this month. Since I am determined to be an author/illustrator combo some day, I'm now reading a fun young-adult graphic novel WONDLA illustrated and written by the author of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi. Best of all, this book has a phenomenal interactive website and it was one of my surprise b'day gifts from my hub!

Then I got to brew a whole tea pot of some of my newest addiction TEAVANA Rooibos Cocoa Praline Tart tea The ultimate zero calorie, caffeine free sweet tooth satisfaction! Try Haute Chocolate tea too- ooh la la is all I gotta say! Teavana Cocoa Praline Tart Rooibos Tea And thanks to that husband of mine I got to enjoy that tea in another awesome Bday gift- check out my new porcelain tea thermos from TEAVANAMy new procelain thermos

This Sunday Morning we also had a delicious omelette, a gift from my ladies and my hub:

our eggs my handmade ipad case by me

I made major progress (though I'm still not finished) with a daunting sewing project that I wanted to tackle now for a while, a handmade case for my iPad. I wish I could have done a tutorial for you all, but I seriously had no idea what I was doing! I just made it all up along the way and struggled to boot, which is something I usually don't do as an autodidact, but hey I can't always be sunshine and roses!

span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable">latch open openPropped up for viewing

Lastly this is going to be a GREAT thanksgiving week because my ART children are coming home from college and I get to see those fresh eyed babes who hold such a special place in my heart!

- Ciao Amarettogirl

My First EGG!!

Portrait of My First Chicken Egg hatched myteriously by one of my ladies on Hallloween Portrait 2 of my first egg Portrait of My first Egg born on Halloween 2010

So YES! My first egg came on HALLOWEEN :)) My only sadness is that I don't know which of my 12 ladies gave me the gift of this beautiful egg. I wish I did, just so I could thank her, maybe with a strawberry (they are WILD about strawberries). Fertilized or not, I think giving away your eggs can't be completely easy. I love my girls so and I'm learning so much from them. But, I'm scared to eat the egg- I read somewhere that the first few eggs wouldn't be worth much-that they would be small, shaped awkward and possibly even wonky looking...but this looks like perfection. If there are any chicken raisers out there that can give me more tips I would LOVE THEM!!!

which of these lovely ladies laid the first egg, If I only knew??

Life with the Ladies in the Chicken Coop

Time for a long awaited chicken coop update!

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Coming Home to Chick Coop Dreams

While I was away my amazing husband printed out my coop design plans and got to work making the fairytale-cottage-coop dream, a reality.

Obviously, we're still not done, but all my hub did on his own is absolutely stunning :))

I'm in awe of it every morning when I look out my bedroom window to my yard.

Since I've been home we got the run built and added a roosting pole into both the coop n run, the quirky 20-something yr. ol' (7-8wk old) chicks love it! and So do my babies Chulo and Chica!

What's left to do:
Well I already ordered the small operable window and that should be arriving later this week.
We're going to place it on the front rightside of the coop.
Then I'm going to make shutters & a window flower box.
Siding n lots of paint.
Inside- we're adding 2 more roosting poles and insulating the inside walls in Sept.
A few nesting boxes still need doors and the run/coop door needs a pulley system...
then I think we can call it done. Hooray!