frost over night, but the house is a garden!

here are some of the african violet flowers, but i have all the deck flowers on the floor in the studio right now ........so the studio is all in bloom. i so need a greenhouse. - i had covered the bean bed with plastic the other night, good thing i did. AND THERE IS A sprouted bean out there!!! yeah for mother nature doing her thing. yesterday i cleaned a bit..... cooked a roast for bernie for supper (leftovers tonight) and painted some small birdhouses. they are the decorative ones that you can get at the craft store for like 1.00 each. i have a few kicking around......so i based coated one with pink and one with yellow (that was way too bright so i dry brushed over the yellow with cream)  i'll paint flowers on them as i ususally do and then stick them in the window. ONE of these days i plan on putting fabric on some as well... i have a few abiding loves in my life. (i mean besides bernie and all the animals etc) i love bird houses, bird nests, fancy bird cages, plants, goldfish, fish bowls and tanks. ** you all already know about the weakness for good china and glass- three peices of pink depression glass are on their way, next up..yellow***              now here are very blurry shots of the tiny birdhouses in the window.... the green from the leaves outside tinged the photos....these are actually in chalky pastel colors. these are another thing i do while goofing off. (maybe this should be titled 'how an artist wastes time')

so i suppose i am feeling very springish.  i keep wanting to feather my nest and rearrange my space. i reminded bernie last night that he hasn't had a day off since january 11...not a sick day or vacation or personal day. i would like him to take a few fridays off........payday fridays. i want to get some painting done on the walls in the house, i want to get some odds and ends done and i want to go to a gallery in bethlehem. maybe a few day trips. do you all think he'll go for it? i think i would like to go to the camden aquarium again, this time with my camera, and indoor glasses.   in poking around here and there on the net, i have discovered 'primative cupboards' which i see are super easy to make.....so i think i may........i could use a few narrow but long ones for walls that i don't really have..i can't afford to buy them but make them......yes i surely can i don't have a table saw but i can clap a guide on the wood and work that way (although a table saw is now on my list) i used to work with wood when i was in highschool and art school....maybe it's time again?    just think..... every sliver of wall space that doesn't work can have a small floor to ceiling cupboard with books etc behind the doors......

ok in cat news, they have GOT to stop bring live mice up to the bedroom to play with ....... all in the middle of the night...did you know how LOUD mice squeek? trust me......LOUD

wakes me right up

oye

the baby budgies and the easter budgies are starting to talk to each other a bit...... the easter budgies are both girls btw, i am a bit disappointed that the light blueish/lavender one is a girl but that is what she appears to be.... the yellow one is a pip..... oh man does she have personality......the little blue one is very quiet and laid back.... i think that one is much younger then we thought.

so i have to get two boys next........ no doubt a blue one with white or gray wings and i would imagine either a violet factor or an all gray. as we have enough green with mrs fezziwig.

in chicken news......there is nothing to tell at the moment....... the uphill (way uphill) chicken neighbor lost a bird yesterday to what we think is a north american fisher.

in duck news.......mmmmmm i didn't put the girls out in the back pen.... not since mark's chicken was killed....i figure that this fisher may be becoming a bit desperate what with the steady stream of jackass neighbors kittens and rabbits unavailable to prey on.
we are cutting the forest further back from the duck pen out back and maybe will be finishing the upper pen sooner then we think

although this weekend in another bed in the garden and a cold frame
maybe we can also do a cover roll of welded wire and wood strips to hold it in and do the doors.....at least then i can use it as a day pen

now i had a slight coffee accident this morning.....my coffee pot is one that doesn't drip if you remove the carife ............. ahem...i didn't have the carife totally in the pot and the coffee (which sucks this morning btw) spilled over the TOP
lovely
it pissed me off first thing ( even more then the mouse squeeks and i wasn't real thrilled with them either)
oye
that's about it for today i think....
i hope to plant cuc and pole bean seeds today...in the back bed. and zukes, squashes etc in cups to go out in like three weeks into a new bed on the side.
oye
next up is trellises for the garden EVERYTHING that i can put on the trellises will go on the trellises.......
i have spoken

oye again

oh and garilynn, i am going to use that milk paint recipe of your dh...... thank him for me for answering my question too ok?
i think we are going to do the walls in the studio with milk paint! cream no doubt
i don't quite get when exactly to add the pigment and if the pigment is to be slaked first but i'm pretty sure it's not a biggie