A Bird Sanctuary

On our small five acre property I have hung, built, and been given many different bird houses.  Now that it has been a few years, we have so many varieties of birds living on our property.  From, Regular little everyday birds to cardinals, turkey, mallards, wood ducks and blue birds.  Its so fun to watch them build their nests and see all their sticks and string hanging from the bird house holes.

Adding finishing touches to attach to a tree.

Hung about 7 feet above the ground near our pond.

One of the duck houses we built about 4 years ago.  No nesting inside but a male wood duck sits on top of it almost every morning.

One of the chicken wire duck nesters I made this spring.  No ducks yet, but it can take a couple seasons.

This is another duck house built 4 years ago and their is a wood duck hen that sits in there.  

Little momma wood duck, no eggs yet, but hoping to have some soon.

I have even made some not so normal bird houses.  This was an empty peanut butter container, I cut a whole, painted it gold and screwed the lid to a tree.  I put this up last year, and this year there is a nest in it!  

This is an old bird house I built years ago.  It is full of straw and sticks, but I've never seen anything nest in it.  It overlooks the pond in some trees.

A Christmas gift birdhouse, and some cute little blue birds house in it.

This is a regular nest outside of my laundry room window.  I was able to watch a mother cardinal raise her single baby.  The day I wanted to take a picture was the day her baby left the nest, so now it sits empty.  Hopefully she will nest in it again.

I am so happy to know that my property is comfortable and that the birds and wildlife feel safe enough to raise their families here.  I love to see them in the yard and in the woods.  I have had a couple turkeys nest on my land, unfortunately one was killed by a fox, but the other had a healthy family and we would see her walk out yard with all her babies.
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Girls, Guns & Rods Magazine

I was so lucky to be asked to be in the magazine called Girls, Guns And Rods Magazine.  I have been doing all kinds of crafts and projects all my life and to be noticed and recognized has been a real honor. I love making things with my hands whether its the Antler rings, refinishing old "junky" furniture into something new, or out in the barn building a new deer blind or Duck house, I just love to be doing something and creating something thats all a style of my own.

This is the May-June 2015 Issue

Thanks for taking the time that you do to check out my blog, follow my blog, and leave feed back.  

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Chicken Wire Duck Nester

Today I have made 2 duck nesting homes out of chicken wire and hay.

Finished product.  Step by step and supplies are listed below.

The supplies I used for this project are chicken wire, rope, small zip ties, a pair of scissors, and hay.

To begin I used chicken wire that is 24 inches long, and cut a length of approx. 40 inches.  I created a circle with it, over lapped the ends about two inches and zip tied it secure in multiple sections.  You could twist the ends of the chicken wire to secure your circle if you dont want to use zip ties. When you are done with this step you will want the zip tied end at the bottom so birds do not get poked.

Once you move to this step you will pinch the lower part of the circle together (about 2 inches up), and zip tie that together tightly.  This will create a cradle effect for the bedding to stay in the house.

Here you can see how I have the bottom section pinched closed and secured.  You will do this to both ends.

You can see this is the bare bones of the house.

Now you can stuff the cradle area with hay.  Pack it in nicely so when the birds walk inside they will feel secure and they wont be in danger of stepping through to the chicken wire.

For a photo of what the nest would look like I added a few small balls in there.

This is one of the nests secured in a tree.  I put both of these nests in the crotch branches of a tree that are leaning over the water of my pond.  

Here is the other that I have secured in the branches over water.  I used rope to tie it to a few different places on branches to keep it level and safe.

These are the houses finished.  After I got them tied up good, I took a bit more hay and added it on top.  Now the ducks have a safe place to nest.  I sure hope the wood ducks that have been frequenting my pond will take up occupancy in these.  I also built a couple wooden duck houses a few years ago but the only thing that lives in those is dang squirrels.

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Coat Rack Straight From The Beach!

This project was done by Another Crafty woman named Sarah Sergent.  It looks so beautiful hanging in her home and besides her more expensive taste in coat hooks, this is a very affordable if not free project that can be done.

This could nearly be a free project.  This is a piece of driftwood from Lake Huron on the Tawas Bay.

This is Sarah picking up and carrying the large piece of driftwood from the beach near a shipwreck that occurred in the late 1800's

She chose to buy the coat hooks from Home Depot.  She paid $4.00 for each hook.  It looks beautiful.  (if you wanted to go cheaper or free, you could use large nails or screws just as well)  So her investment in this project is approximately $25.00


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Decorative Rustic Wall Rack

This project was a birthday gift for my sister from her son.  I really had him do as much as he could, and he was very proud of his work.

This project consisted of 6 pallet boards that I cut into different sizes to give it a puzzle look instead of a brick stagger look.  The flat sheet of wood is what we screwed each pallet board onto and attached large hooks on the back.

My nephew made the pattern he was happy with on the flat board and we screwed all the pallet pieces to it.  This is him sanding the edges nice and smooth.

He chose to stain each board a different color to give it a more rustic look.  He also decided the pattern of the stain being applied as well.  The stain colors are Oak, Driftwood, Kona, and clear.  I know staining all the boards would be easier to do when it is taken apart, but this was his project and he felt happy doing it this way.

After the stain was dry he chose a color of paint (a teal green) and decided to paint some arrows on it.  His family is a very active outdoor family so this was something that would go well in their home.

We decided to attach a couple extra Whitetail antlers that I had so items can be hung from them.  This photo is just an idea of how she can decorate it in her home.  Hopefully she will send me a picture of it decorated how she likes and I will post it below.

My nephew was very proud of his work, and did a great job.


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Book Shelf, Storage Shelf

Costs of this project.  The unit itself was picked from the trash and that equals free.  The clark and Kensington paint usually runs $6.00 for the sample cans but in March they were all .99 cents. (I used half the sample can), the stain was $.6.00, and the annie sloan soft wax was given to me so I have no idea how much that would typically cost, but I know annie sloan is expensive and I am a cheap wad, so if I didn't have it on hand I just would not have used it.  

This was a book shelf-storage shelf that I picked out of someones trash and brought it home.  It's been sitting in my barn for a few years waiting for me to do something with it.  It is solid wood, and part of it has a very old dark green paint on it.  Very ugly!

I started by cleaning it up really good, and I stained the wood with a stain color called drift wood.  I added a coat of Clark and Kensington satin enamel called Velvet Curtains.  

This was after the 2nd coat of Velvet Curtains paint.  I decided that I wanted to stain to be darker so I stained over it with a stain color called Kona. I like it darker much better. I used old brushed nickel cupboard handles that I had in a jar in the barn from a previous house we owned.

This is the finished product.  I went over the entire thing, including the Velvet Curtains color paint with a dark soft wax by annie Sloan.  The wax helped to tone down the brightness of the daylight paint.

It now sits in my hunting prep room and holds some of our camo gear and other hunting supplies.  It matched my gun case also.  

Supplies:
                * The project object
                * Clark and Kensington sample can of Velvet curtains color
                * Rust-oleum  wood stain in Kona color
                * Annie Sloan Soft Wax for painted furniture and walls (in dark)
 
            

The Gun Case Redo!

This is the finished product, with my Let A Girl Show You How To Hunt And Fish decal on it!

This is the before of the gun case.  It was an old nasty brown color.  I cleaned it very good with an all purpose cleaner and let it dry.  After it was Dry I sprayed it with a dark teal spray paint.  I sprayed it in many coats because I did not want to take the chance of running paint.  

I feel like it turned out really well.  It's loaded up with my "goods" and moving it around and opening and closing it has not caused any scratches or peeling.

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Antler Jewelry

Alls a person needs is a decent size antler, chop is into small sections, use a dremel to hollow out the center, and change your bits as you go to smooth it out and take the rough edges off.

These are a few of the pieces I have made using Whitetail antlers.

I have made tons of rings, but also have made a few necklaces and beads.

A few of my finished products.  It is a messy, dusty, and very stinky project but its very easy and you will amaze yourself with what you can come up with.

Here you can see pieces of antler in different stages of the dremeling process.

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Baby room shelving and storage

I found this book shelf flipped upside down in a ditch, so I hauled it home.  First thing I did was cut the feet off.  The wood on the feet seemed weak and split, and since this was going into a baby room I needed it to be more sturdy.  I went to Home Depot and bought fat chunky square feet to attach to the bottom.  I lightly sanded the entire thing and started painting with a satin color.  I took the thin backing off before I started the project.  The backing I painted a very shiny silver color along with the feet.  I also used Valspar antiquing glaze and finished it with a coat of clear coat.

I put two coats of paint on this project.

I put all my projects on these plastic stilts to keep everything up off the floor.  You could use blocks or anything, its really helpful.

Using the Valspar I was able to give it an older look.

The finished product turned out great.  It now sits in my sweet nephews bedroom filled with baby supplies!