Final Coop Plans

The Coop designs changed and changed and changed again - thanks to all who gave me feedback! Basically, many of the changes occurred based on further and further education. It may seem obvious, but if you are planning on starting to raise chicks -its not enough to explore chicken coop building texts and plans- I highly encourage reading as much as you can, (NOT just about coop plans but) about chicken behavior, needs and space requirements. Helpful sites were the Manna Pro Webinar, MyPet Chicken.com's free Chick raising guide, and Backyard Chickens Coop Designs.

This final design may seem the most traditional of all, but why mess with a tried and true working design? This little elevated cottage will provide extra shaded run space below the coop (and include a ramp that is not shown here) and will be an attractive little fairytale-like structure for my yard. Since chickens provide such great garden fertilizer the run you see on the right may be duplicated on the left and therefore alternated with extra garden space on alternating years.

final coop design by m. diaz Complete Final Coop design integrated into yard by m. diaz

Starting with Raising Chickens

Opening the Package from MyPetChicken.com Brooder Introduction Beginning to Eat Meet Colina Meet Varaka

Chicken Coop Plans - Dreams

As I research, learn and price materials at Home Depot, I continue to modify, change, throw out and start over with designing my chicken coop.

My goal is to get started building in the next two weeks. But before I do that I have to commit to a style and well - I have commitment issues- As my hub knows I have to REALLY love something to commit - hence he is in the picture!!

Coop Plan Idea number 2 drawn with Google Sketchup by m.diaz Idea number 3 The Classic by m.diaz

So PLEASE TELL ME - WHICH COOP PLAN

#1- The Chicken Adirondack throne Coop,
#2 The Zen Den or
#3 The Classic Garden Duplex Coop
DO YOU LIKE so FAR????

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Ciao Amarettogirl

Water and Weed Wednesday - Strawberries & Coop Dreams

Wednesday's fresh strawberries- whipped cream anyone?? My yard and where the chicken coop is going to go! an original sketch of a shape that is as close a proximity to what is in my head for a coop that I want

Chelsea Gallery Tour Part II

Baby Chick Starter kit by My Pet Chicken

Ok so- the performance that I am in is only 48 hours away! I hope I don't get stage-fright! I'm still on antibiotics, I'm lusting to get some new drawings done AND I ordered the baby chick starter kit! WOO HOO!!!

Soon I will show you the locale for the coop that I'm going to design and build so stay tuned. Tomorrow will be a full dress rehearsal and Thursday and Friday we're on. I play Betty Chumley (Doctor Chumley's wife) in Harvey (yes the same 1950 Harvey film with Jimmy Stewart).

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During the Chelsea tour I just so happened to stop in front of the Claire Oliver Gallery in which I had seen Judith Schaechter's work before and to my surprise there was a new, freshly mounted Judith Schaechter exhibit entitled Beauty and the Beef just mounted!! I hope you like my pics!

Using traditional copper foil and soldering techniques, Schaechter balances tradition and medium that harken back to the middle ages with an unmistakably contemporary style, aligned with those of underground comics and political satirists.

-The Claire Oliver Gallery

Judith Schaechter's You Are Here Stained Glass Lightbox Judith Schaechter's The Cold Genius (detail) Judith Schaechter's Widow Graphite on Paper Judith Schaechter's The Minotaur (detail) Judith Schaechter's Lockdown Stained Glass Lightbox

Chelsea Gallery Tour Part I

THANK YOU all for my get well wishes! I'm anxious to de-throne the bronchitis and get back to my art-full life, so lets get started!

We took a group of our seniors on a Chelsea gallery tour as we do every year. However this trip was an exceptional one for me, some of my favorite artists were on exhibit and some new ones (at least for me) that I am so excited to introduce you all to in the next few posts.

One of my all-time favorite painters for the last five years, Mark Ryden is currently having an exhibit in the Paul Kasmin, Chelsea NY gallery, entitled The Gay 90's: Olde Tyme Art Show.

The gallery is on 293 Tenth Avenue and the show is on exhibit from April 29 to June 5, 2010.

The central theme of The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show references the idealism of the 1890s while addressing the role of kitsch and nostalgia in our current culture.

Josephine, 2010, graphite on paper with watercolor washes

This will be Ryden's first significant solo show in New York since 2003, as well as his first with the gallery. In his hauntingly beautiful and masterfully executed oil paintings, Ryden creates his own contemporary mythologies whose archetypes include fairy tale creatures, historical figures, and pop cultural icons. Seamlessly juxtaposing macabre motifs like meat grinders and disembodied presidents with eye-pleasing ingénues and seductive landscapes, the artist produces a vision of society in which menace and comfort are inseparably interwoven. These labor-intensive canvasses deftly rework centuries of art history, combining the grandeur of Spanish and Italian religious painting with the decorative richness of Old Master compositions and the lush textures of French Neo-Classicism.

-Paul Kasmin Gallery

The Grinder (#95) study/drawing, 2010The Grinder (#95), 2010 "Virgin and Child" (#93), 2010 oil on canvas drawing study for the Incarnation (#100), 2009 Incarnation (#100), 2009 Incarnation (#100), 2009

-Ciao Amarettogirl

Recovery

Ahh the cost of meds...and breath.

So I broke down today in a non-breathing fit hacking up my lungs and called the doctor's office barely being able to speak and hoped they'd fit me in.

Alas they did and I forced myself up rinsed myself off and went to the doctor. I had to inhale into one of those steamy medicated respirators for five minutes, get a whole lot of prescriptions tossed at me 'the kitchen sink', as my doctor called it, including a mega-antibiotic and a third inhaler. $130 big bucks later, I should be on the road to recovery.

Simply annoyed because I feel that the paper trail I've left of the countless respiratory infections I get in single year should be a red flag to someone to look into what's going on...but its just a band-aid fix always. Remember folks we have to be our own heroes in this life.

hipstamatic - breathe

So you remember when you were young and had a doctor or dentist appointment that hurt and you got a gift afterwards as a treat?? Well My hub and I do that for each-other and so I got some presents today!

my sorry your sick gifts from my hub!

-Ciao Amarettogirl

Feeling a Little Defeated...Influenza Anyone?

sad sick me

I've gotten terribly sick AGAIN with a wicked cold that is taunting my chronic bronchitis. I haven't been able to check on my blogosphere friends- haven't even been able to turn the computer on.

I don't understand how one single 5ft and 1 and 1/2 inch person can produce so much mucus!!

I have so much on my plate right now it is the worst time to get sick!

Well I've been up to many a senior event and courses at school (like the Focus program) that have me stretched pretty thin. Now I have to do last minute practice for the role in dinner theater that I play (Betty Chumley, hey-thats already next week!) and finish the painting prop! I need to start planning the chicken coop locale & design and the August Woman's Art Retreat that I want to host this summer! and so much school work...

one of my Paris '08 pics- from the D'Orsay - This is how I'm feelin'

Yet, the only thing I seem to want to do the most is SLEEP and maybe illustrate a certain poem and if I could get up the energy, perhaps sew. Where did the hours in the day go?

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Ciao Amarettogirl

Monday Morning & My Fav Mags

The Day after Prom

Morning Fog lifting off of Cozy Lake at the onset of my morning commute My Faves Artful Blogger, Where Women Create & Somerset Studio Prom at Capitale in NYC

-Ciao Amarettogirl

Stained Glass Class

Here are a few visual samples of my sculpture class and their up and coming work! Stained Glass is the simplest process to bring to beginning high school students because its cold connection. The next simplest would be warm glass which is fusing and slumping in a kiln.

I hope to bring warm glass to my school in the next few years. I'm afraid teaching any kind of hot glass is still too far in the future since it requires quite a few costly facilities. But this is a great start! In fact, stained glass is often called the gateway drug into working with glass as an art material.

Beginning star light fixture by Jen Beginning of a glass soccer ball-inspired light fixture by Matt Beginning Rocketship light fixture by Rammy Beginning of a boat by Wally

-Ciao Amarettogirl