Friday, June 9, 2017

Chicks!! ~ Happy PPF

Hello!
It's pretty much "Chick Central" here at home.  
You may remember from an older post  that our Chookie was sitting on, what we hoped were, 4 fertile eggs.
Happily,  2 were and they hatched this week.  They're a couple of lively little bundles of cuteness.

Here's our first photo of the first chick:
I gently lifted up Chookie to see where the "cheep cheep cheeping" sounds were coming from.
We'd heard of chooks shedding their chest feathers to add to their nest, and she had certainly done that.  


Seeing that sweet little chick with her proud Mum certainly inspired my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday:
"The First Chick"
Watercolour Pencil and inkpen in Journal Page

... and the next day, another cutie appeared, but not without a mini-drama though.

Hubby had gone to check first thing and found the second chick out of the nest - fairly limp and lifeless.  He kept it warm in his hands and we decided there was nothing to lose if we popped it back under Chookie and see what, if anything, happened.
I quickly went to get my "peck-proof " gloves and under it went.

It worked!!  So now, there were two:
Within a day they were running around and eating mash and chick crumbles with hearty appetites.
Update 10th June 2017:  The video**  below wasn't very successful unfortunately.  Can't work out how to do it properly with Blogger, so I've added a couple of photos I took this morning.  Lol, as I said... it's Chook Central in our little world at the moment!! :




Here's a very short (10 sec) video**  I took today of their first outing into the larger outside yard.
They certainly enjoyed a little play in the sun and some exploring in the grass:





 Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday, where the happiest of artists gather... and everyone's welcome! 


Friday, June 2, 2017

A little red table ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!
I hope your week has gone well.
For my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday, I'm showing the story behind the little red table that we use daily for our coffee on the verandah (weather permitting at this time of year :D))


It came about after my dear hubby did some badly needed heavy pruning on the Calistemon (Bottle Brush) tree which is opposite our verandah:


He used some straight pieces of branches to make the legs for a coffee table,  and I decided to paint a design,  that I had found in a magazine, on the table top (*source details at the end of this post)


Here are some progress pics:

Undercoat, then topcoat

Tracing the pattern on to the table top



and then it was a matter of colouring in




Nearly finished.
I added gold acrylic edging at the completion, but it's hard to see in the photos.

Here is the source of the pattern.  A 1997 edition of Handmade Magazine that Mum had found for me in an Op (Charity) shop.  Not sure whether I'm infringeing any copyright here, but I include it to show where the original idea for the pattern came from:





Linking up with Paint Party Friday, where you'll always be made welcome whether you paint, craft or just like to have a look.