Curtin Call

Frosty absolutely loves baskets. Always has. We used to have this basket on the bay window at our last house and he loved to curl up in it and sleep:

When we moved, I’d just placed that basket on the floor and put some toys in it. With some recent shuffling of furniture in the house, I moved it in front of the sliding doors. This must have brought back memories for him, as he does not agree that this should be his toy box:

Oh, and he’s not picky about the basket. Really, anything will do…

I mentioned earlier that I decided to populate our yard with bird houses and bird feeders this year. I am having sooooo much fun with this!

Back in the fall, I found a Tomorrow’s Treasures Birdhouse at a local gift shop. These birdhouses are ridiculously expensive but I absolutely fell it love with it!

The tag tells the story of how they’re made from old Texas barn boards and that, because of the shortage of standing hardwood in the Northeast, you are almost guaranteed to have birds living in the house the first year. “Yeah, right!”, I said.

Well, surprise, surprise! I was outside one day and I saw what appeared to be a fur ball or a really big bug flying into the house then back into the greens. Back and forth. Back and forth. Later that day, as I was sitting on the deck, that same fur ball/big bug was flying at eye level at the flowers I have on the deck.

Imagine my surprise!?!?!? Its a hummingbird!

I have hummingbirds building a nest in my birdhouse! (If I sound really excited, its because I am!)

Initially, we named her Juliette. Now, I’m quite certain there are two of them, so we named the other… can you guess???… Yup! Romeo!

When I went to buy more bird food over the weekend, I came across finch socks. Not exactly attractive bird feeders but I figured, “Eh, I’ll give one a try!” So I hung one of these in the yard, too.

Voila! Last night, we had one of these feeding off the finch sock:

Did I mention I was having fun?!?!?!

Disclosure: with the exception of the bird house, these photos came from google. I’m just not that quick with my camera!

Angie from Home Grown tagged me for this pay it forward meme with the following instructions:

“The Honest Scrap” award is not one to hold all to your self but it must be shared!

Second, the recipient has to pass along this prestigious award to 10 more bloggers.

Third, Those 10 bloggers all have to be notified they have been given this award.

Those 10 bloggers that receive this award should link back to the blog that awarded them “The Honest Scrap’ award.

My first challenge? Coming up with 10 things that folks don’t know about me (I’ve been known to be quite chatty) but here goes:

1. I keep a blog
2. I’m petrified of heights
3. I mourned Farrah more than Michael
4. I’m trying to eat healthier
5. I just won 10 bucks on a $2 scratch ticket!
6. I’m turning into a geek (I now own an iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, a GPS unit and would love an Amazon Kindle even though I almost never find time to actually read!)
7. If I never had to answer a phone, I would be perfectly happy
8. I have no patience for ignorant people
9. I love gummy bears
10. I have “friends” I’ve met on the net

My second challenge? I don’t follow 10 blogs (though I easily could, if there were just more hours in the day!) There will be one on this list that I only started following recently so I’ll beg forgiveness now (Mir!)

1. Daisy’s Petals
2. A Rug’s Life
3. A Kitchen in Brabant
4. The Dilettante Debutante
5. Stacy’s plate
6. Walking Cambridge
7. Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Now, here is what I ask of you. Please visit each of these blogs. Please leave a little comment and make sure you tell them Mary from Curtin Call sent you with a link back to me. Please? Thank you.

When we first moved to our new house, I got an idea for a “gardening table” from a magazine. I had been searching high and low for the “table” part. Since it would be outdoors, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it and had been visiting local yard sales in hopes of finding something.

Several weeks ago, while driving with hubby, he spotted the perfect table!

It was just what I was looking for!

We also figured out that its not a “table” at all. Its actually an old kitchen cabinet that someone must have used as a work bench or something.

So, I scraped it down and primed and painted it.

I took an old rose trellis that was tucked in the shed, sanded and painted that and attached it to the back!

Voila! My “gardening table”! I am very, very proud of how this project turned out. I am not a crafty person. At all. And best of all, every bit of that sucker is reused. I did not purchase one thing to make it. Not even the paint!

Last week we had four yards of much delivered. We moved it from the driveway to its rightful areas in the yard. In a wheel barrel. In one day.

I had aches in muscles that I did not even know I had. And I’ve been going to the gym for the past several months. It scares me to think of how I would have felt had I not been.

Today, they are delivering six yards of stone. One yard of stone is roughly the equivalent of one ton. It, too, needs to be moved to its rightful areas in the yard. In a wheel barrel. Though our hopes is to get this done in… TWO days!

Are we crazy, or what?!?!?!?!