Purty Birdie Boutique

Here's what I've been busy creating lately,small wire birds nests.



They are quick and easy and fun to make. I've thought of trying to sell them but of course I need to get better at making them before I even thinking of handing one over to a customer. I always seem to second guess myself when it comes to my creations. I just don't think they would be good enough for others to want them. It's something I'm trying to work on and my friends say I need to start believing in myself.

Gathering of flowers

I decided today to gather some flowers for my kitchen table because it was looking a little bare. And I thought it needed a touch of summer. So I took little walk to the field behind our house.


That grass is as tall as I am and I'm considered a shorty at 5'1".

While picking the flowers I found a nice surprise

Yes those are wild raspberries. I did eat a few. Now that I know they are there I will be gathering some for a nice breakfast treat.


And I spotted this poor lonely ole lily . It's a lovely shade of peach.


One the way back to the house I visited with our cuddly lion Titan.

Poor guy has gone blind in his old age. But his sense of smell and hearing have gotten pretty good.

Back to house we go to put my purty smelling flowers on my table.

Notice I found a use for one of my new jars. Aren't they lovely.

It’s been oh so long.

Hi Y’all, nope not form the south I’m a Yankee born and bred but I liked the sound of it so I went with it. It’s been several months since I’ve posted anything worth reading so I’m not even sure I have any readers left. I guess I moved away from blogging for awhile but that bloggin’ bug is back. I’m trying the simple living aka frugal and country living thing. I’m sure there is a better name for it but I don’t know what it is. I’ve started making my own household cleaners with items I have on hand. No pics right now but soon I hope to have recipes and ideas a plenty to share with everyone. I hope I don’t bore you with all my ramblings but I’m not gonna make you any promises.

Right now I have no tips, tricks or antics to share but I can tell you about my enjoyable date with my hubby late Sunday. It’s not what you would call a typical date but when you’ve been married 18yrs and don’t get to spend a lot of time together due conflicting work schedules you take any time you can get.

Sunday morning we planned to head to the cemetery to remove the Memorial day flowers from my Grandpa’s grave(oh how I dearly miss him) because I reuse them each holiday. I just don’t see the sense in paying lots of money on something and then letting the cemetery throw them away. Since we have to pass by a Bob Evans on the way to get there we made a quick decision to have breakfast because we both neglected to eat it at home. It’s always a treat to eat out with Wayne since it’s not something we get to do very often. After our enjoyable breakfast we headed to the cemetery. Mind you it had rained a lot that morning and I had to walk through a lot of soggy grass to reach Grandpa’s grave. I had very wet shoes and wrinkly toes. Not a very good idea to wear flimsy cloth shoes after a heavy down pour.

After taking care of business there we decided to go to our local Tractor Supply and Lowe’s just to have a look around, yea I know not your most romantic type of date but I enjoy going to those places and looking around so it works for me and I’ll go anywhere that makes the man happy just to spend some quality time with him. Then we drove out to route 4o for some yard sales. It was there annual yard sale weekend along the National Road. We stopped in the small town of Brownsville.We stopped at several yard sales and I ended up with some pretty great treasures.

1. A nice large basket for my yarns.
As you can see I already have some yarn in there. It's for making bird knitted nests. But that's another post for another day.

2. Two Large mason jars- The bigger size I’ve been wanting for awhile now.


3.A wooden chair for my sewing table to replace the cheap metal that broke last fall.


Yea it’s a little ugly but I have plans to purty it up and besides it’s comfy and ya can’t beat $3.

One more little itty bitty item that was bought but I wont bore you anymore buy showing a phone cord and mainly because I didn’t take a picture of it anyway.

After the buying my goodies we headed home but stopped for ice cream on the way and Wayne bought me a blueberry sundae and he had a yucky flavored milkshake made with a certain red berry I refuse to name because I can’t stand the thought of them. All I’m saying is that it was not raspberry. Anyway it was a very nice ending to a lovely day spent with my husband.

Whacha Workin on Wednesday and a wake up call

Wow I haven't done a Whacha Wednesday in a while but I just had to show you my lastest creations.


First is something Mr. W made for me using an old wooden hanger as the pattern. It once belonged to my great grandmother. Look I didn't have to prim this one since time took care of that for me.

I will have to work on primming the new on though. I plan on having him make me more to use in the shop so we can get rid of those ugly plastic hangers. I like my prim ones much better.

Next up is a dress I made because the hanger was just too bare and it's been on my to-do list since this summer.
Hey better late than never right? I drew up the pattern and then stitched it up. I still have to hem the skirt and add a few buttons and then it's good to go.Some of you may ask why would I want to make a dress that doesn't fit anyone? Well if your a prim lover than you understand completely. And for those of you who aren't prim lovers, it's just part of the prim decor we all love decorating with so much. I am working on an apron to go over top the dress which doesn't look like much right now but I'm saving that for another post another day.


Now on to my wake up call,no it's not a reality wake up call; it's an actual 6:30am wake up call.
Usually at 6:30 in the morning I am up getting the boys ready for their day at school but due to snow school was on a two hour delay so I was thrilled to get a few hours extra sleep but Mr W. calls to say that he thinks transmission just blew in his truck. So much for sleeping in. Off I head to pick him up and bring him back home. It was missed day of work for him because he had to get a friend to help tow the truck home and we are now a one car family.I will hand over my car to him until we can find another vehicle for him to drive. Thank goodness I only work 10 minutes from home so getting a ride for me is not as hard as getting one for him since he works 45 minutes away. And here we were hoping our Bad January Mojo* was going away.

* Bad January Mojo- most of our bad luck for the year always seems to happen in January but at least we get it out of the way early and the rest of the year seems to go smoothly. LOL

One for the birds

Another snow filled day here in my neck of the woods. The kids got a day off from school due to snow. They just return yesterday from Christmas break. The birds really seem to be enjoying my homemade suet.

I do enjoy watching the winter birds in our neighborhood. I thought I'd share the recipe for suet with you.

Suet for the Birds

1 cup of crunchy peanut butter
1 cup of lard(shortening)
2 cups of old fashioned oats
2 cups of cornmeal
1 cup of flour
1/3 cup of sugar

Melt peanut butter and lard together. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into square freezer containers until about 1 1/2 inch thick. Refrgerate until completely cooled. Remove form container and put in suet holder.

The birds will really go after this. We've had red headed wood peckers, downy wood peckers, a tit mouse and lots of starlings and sparrows at our feeders so far.

I am pleased to share this post as part of the following event:
Do It Yourself Day is hosted by A Soft Place to Land.

Mundane Monday

It's been snowing all day today but not really enough to amount to anything. But let me tell you BRR it is cold for sure! But you know I really don't mind the winter as I once did. I suppose it could be as I've gotten older I've been learning to appreciate life and nature a litte more. I've started watching the bird more and have found that I enjoy it. So I decided to make some homemade suet for them. They really go after it and it's the least I can do for the birdies. They don't know that watching them eat something I created for them gives me a sense of joy.

Another thing I did today because I was in a snowday sort of mood was make a snowflake ornament. My ornament is a bit different and a little more prim than this turtorial but the end result is the same.


I think it will look lovely hanging in my window.And more are on the way so I can have a little bit of winter without feeling the cold. BRR.

I can make a turtoial if anyone is interested but can get I posted until Wednesday.

Happy New Year.

Today is the first offical day of the new year so I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
This year I hope to be able to take this blog in a whole new firection with recipes, swaps giveaways and a few other suprises.

One of my new features is Fridays' Feast and since today just happens to be friday I wanted to share this recipe with you.

My youngest son's favorite sugar cookie recipe. We just happen

to whip up a batch today. These cookies are soft and chewy and dissappear quickly at my house. In fact Mr P. ate three of them as soon as they came out of the oven.

Sugar Cookies


3/4 c. sugar

1/2 t. baking soda

1 egg

1t. cream of tarter

2c. flour

2t. vanilla extract

1c. butter

Mix all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Press with sugared bottom of a glass to slightly flatten. Bake at 350* for 8 to 10 minutes. Make 24 cookies.

Hope you enjoy them.