Gazebo Bird Feeder

I found these tiny gazebos that had fake flowers sticking out of the openings at garage sale a few years back. They were absolutely ugly, yet I had to have them. They sat in my basement for two years. Then I finally got a brilliant idea for them.

Gazebo Bird Feeders

-----------------------

-pole

-metal plate with hole (diameter of the pole)

-mighty putty

-screws

-gazebos

-spray paint

***an easier way to do this is with a threaded pipe and nuts, but I found that they were much more expensive that way, and I'm cheap, and this way works just as well.***

1. Spray paint your gazebo. I did mine in white.

2. Attach your plate to the bottom of the feeder with your screws. I used long screws so that it would stick out a bit. Squirrels aren't as graceful as birds, and it does help ward them off.

3. Put a bunch of mighty putty in the hole, then stick the pole in the hole. Wrap a bunch more of mighty putty around where the pole meets the plate for added security.

4. Let that dry for about an hour.

5. Stick the pole in the ground, fill

with bird seed, and watch the birds!

German Spud Chowder

I made a great German chowder yesterday.

German Spud Chowder

----------------------------

-1 pkg bacon

-1 chopped onion

-3 carrots, chopped. Or half-bag of baby carrots, chopped

-3 stalks of celery, chopped. Or half of a head of cabbage, shredded

-1/4 cup flour

-7 beef bouillon cubes

-3 cups water

-3 cups milk

-6-10 potatoes (depends on the size of each potato) diced

-salt, parsely

1. In a large pot, begin boiling the water, milk, and cubes.

2. Chop up all the bacon into inch-long pieces or smaller. Fry this up really good.

3. Add in your chopped carrots, celery, diced potatoes, and chopped onion

4. Drain the fat from the bacon into a seperate bowl. Add the bacon to the pot.

5. Add the flour to the fat and stir until the flour is dissolved. Add this to the pot.

6. Season with salt and parsely (go nuts on the parsely)

7. Kick the heat down to low and let that cook for about an hour.

Window Trellis

I finally took some pictures today. Sorry about the terrible quality. It was actually raining when I was taking these. Anyways, here's the how-to on my window trellis.


Window Trellis
------------------
-Old window
-stain
-screws
-chisel
-rubber mallet

1. Smash out all the glass with your rubber mallet.
2. Clean up all the edges with your chisel
3. Clean and stain.
4. Screw onto your house.



I added a big wreath I had lying around to it. My trellis used to be screwed onto two boards and stuck in the ground with a bunch of birdhouses on it, but it looked sloppy. I hated it. Now I love it all over again <3

Bird Cage

I just want to show off a cool garage sale find. It's my favorite find from the past few weeks. It has threading on the bottom so that you can attach it to a pole, but I like it hanging out on my patio table.

It's the weekend, Happy Hunting!

(How-to posts will come soon, I just didn't have time to take, edit, and post pictures. I'm working all day =P)

Faux Planter

I'm really stalling my post on the bathroom remodel, mostly because I haven't touched up the paint yet. Hey, cut me some slack, I'm a busy mom. Okay, it's mostly that I don't feel like washing paint brushes lately, but whatever.

Anyways, here's a cute planter project. I got the idea after seeing one sold at an auction for over $40. I laughed because you could tell it was made and the previous owner probably didn't pay a dime for it (just like me).

This is low-cost to no-cost.

Faux Planter

---------------------

-Pot (I spray-painted an old one white)

-Dirt

-Branches

-hot glue gun

-cheap fake flowers (I chose white to stick with a theme)

1. Fill your pot almost to the top with dirt. Sandy dirt (or just sand) works best

2. Cut some thin branches off a tree ***(I chose a lilac bush)

3. Cut the flowers off a bouquet of fake flowers

4. Stick your branches in the pot and arrange

5. Glue your flowers to the branches (little flowers make it look more oriental, many flowers look more cottage.)

***PLEASE, if possible, cut dead branches. Nothing is more stupid than needlessly harming a plant. I have an overgrown lilac bush, and I found dead branches.

I plan on putting more flowers on mine, but I ran out of time that day.

Coming up: Window Trellis how-to, Post-Feeder how-to, and then MAYBE my bathroom remodel :)