New Desk

On Sunday I put together my new desk area upstairs. Like most of my projects I wanted to build a desk using items we already had and wanted to build it for free. I looked on pinterest for some ideas and found an idea on diycozyhome.com. They had taken two book shelves and made a desk with them.

Desk from diycozyhome.com

I had two shelves I had purchased for 15$ each from Walmart a few years ago that I wasn't using. I also had some plywood from an old project. First thing I did was put the book shelves in the exact spot I wanted them. I then cut the plywood to fit on top. I used two pieces of wood underneath to secure them. I didn't nail the top to the shelves and it still feels very sturdy.

Next I painted the wood white. Once it dried I set up all my things. I had extra mason jars from canning this summer. I used them to hold simple things (buttons, paper clips etc.). I also has a few drawer organizers that were not being used. 

I love my new work space! What I love even more about it is that I found all the materials and storage items around my house.

~Chelsea

Our First Silkie Egg!

Last night I was checking on the chickens and was surprised to find my Silkie hen was hanging out in the corner of the coop. She usually is starting to put herself to bed by now and I was worried something was wrong.When I went over to see her she stood up and there was a TINY egg underneath her!

Silkie egg next to Light Brahma egg

I was very surprised since my other chickens haven't started to lay yet and she is 3 weeks younger than they are. The egg was muddy since she didn't lay it in the boxes but it was still a wonderful surprise.

 ~Chelsea

Galvanized Bucket Hose Holder

In my front yard I had a garden hose that was usually tangled and laying around. I had tripped over it countless times. During a recent shopping trip I found a galvanized bucket for 14$. I have been using it for a few weeks now and feel that it is a perfect solution for our garden house.

I want to buy another one for the back. My only change with that one will be to drill a hole on the side to slip the hose through.

~Chelsea

New Floors

Our beautiful new floor!

When we moved into our house we put carpet upstairs. I was worried about the noise level upstairs and thought carpet would be a great choice. After about a year I realized how much easier the hardwood floor downstairs was to keep clean compared to the carpet and ever since I have wanted to take the carpet out.

Last Sunday we finally did it! We took out the carpet and installed new floors. We started early in the morning cutting up the carpet and carpet pad. The tricky part was pulling all of the staples out of the floor. After a few hours we were able to start. We wanted to keep most of the furniture upstairs so that we didn't have to move it up and down the stairs. We moved it to one side of the room and started the floor on the other side.

The floor went together very quick and by 2:00 we were done. Installing the floor wasn't too difficult. The flooring looks great and I am so happy with it. I plan on moving my office/craft room upstairs this weekend now that the floor is completed.

Chelsea

A Quick Trip

Last week we headed up to Klamath Falls for the night. We stayed at The Running Y outside of Klamath Falls. We had a blast and I only wish we could have stayed longer. The place we stayed at was near the lake and had great hiking trails. We saw lot of wildlife and enjoyed getting out of the heat.

Chelsea

Yummy Cheesecake Bites

Last week I made some strawberry jam. I ended up with a little extra and not enough jars. I decided to use the remaining jam as a topping on cheesecake. I love making cheesecake but only had a little time before dinner. Cheesecake bites seemed like a great solution.

Here is my recipe:

Supplies

• 1 muffin tin
• 12 cupcake liners
• 1 package graham crackers
• 1 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 container of cool whip
• 1 brick of cream cheese

1. Crush one package of graham crackers. I put them in my blender and let it do the crushing. Add one stick of melted butter to the mixture. Turn oven on to 400. Place 12 cupcake liners in muffin tins. Spoon graham cracker and butter mixture into muffin tins. Bake for 8 minutes.
   
2. Once the base is done baking pull it out to cool. Now mix one package of cream cheese with sugar in a bowl. Then add cool whip. Make sure the cool whip is thawed before you mix it in. Now spoon the mixture into the tins. Place it in the fridge to cool and harden.
   
3. When you are ready to serve take them out of the fridge. Take the cupcake liner off and top with strawberry jam.
   

Enjoy!

Chelsea

Sunflowers

There is something about sunflowers that makes me so happy. Every year I find a spot to grow a few. When I was younger I would randomly place the seeds around our yard so that "surprise" sunflowers would grow.

Nice outfit! Guessing I was around six here. I remember thinking this sunflower was like a giant.

This year I planted a few sunflowers in my garden and a few in front of the chicken pen. The first sunflower bloomed in front of the chicken pen today. Sunflowers are so easy to grow and they love the heat.

~Chelsea

Backyard Porch!

We had a fun and exciting 4th of July. We were a bit exhausted after the project we had embarked on the two days before. When we bought our house it had a silly set up in the backyard. The previous owner had used various pieces of concrete to form a concrete slab.

We have discussed redoing the back porch for awhile but couldn't decided on how to do it. In the beginning of the summer we had a few contractors stop by. Each time we felt the bid was too expensive and would go back to the drawing board. Last Tuesday we decided enough was enough and we ripped out the concrete. We had zero concrete experience and after a little online research we were ready for the challenge. We leveled out the ground and built the forms. Early Wednesday morning we went and rented a concrete mixer and started our porch.

I actually enjoyed the concrete work. One of my goals was to see how inexpensive we could keep the project. Our big expense was the concrete (of course). We bought two yards and rented a mixer for a total of 260$. Once the concrete was set we took the forms off and then we started the landscaping. I went and picked up a truckload of bark and 18 quartz tiles. They are beautiful and have a great shine to them. We spent 100$ at the landscaping store. That included the bark, tiles and a few small plants.

The final part of the project was to build a shade structure. We wanted something to give us shade and to finish of the look. Originally we were going to build a pergola. But earlier in the week I found a metal pergola on sale and had purchased it. It took an hour for the two of us to put it together and it was already painted. 

I love our new porch!

~Chelsea