Fun Fancy Chicken Coops and Houses

One of my favorite past blog posts was on Killer Chicken houses.
I had more fun looking at ways people made their chicken coops fanciful, decorative or just plain humorous.

That post was six months ago so I decided a second round was in order. 

This stately chicken house would fit in any smancy neighborhood back yard.

The gentleman that built this one calls it the Taj-Mahal of chicken coops or maybe more aptly named “My Mid-Life Crisis” coop. Click on the photo to go see how he built it, he has conveniently photo journaled it for us

 

This next one is a ‘chicken tractor’ you can roll to different spots of your yard.  They have named it Cluckinham Palace.  They did not chintz on materials, that is real cedar siding!




How about one that reminds me of the 7 dwarves cottage in Snow White.
 
Fancy Cottage Chicken Coop



This little cottage coop is complete with a short picket fence and hand made shutters.  

 

This sleek design has many unique and clever features I want to remember.
 


Completely artistic and check out that succulent garden on top.  chicken pen as garden art



These fabulous chicken abodes make my simple lean to type rather paltry looking.  I think I would like this one in the future or one close to it. 





Now the trick is how to turn this into that above




I used a safety rail from a bunk bed to make the trellis for the Cecile Brunner rose to climb across above the door and window. Though I love the rose climbing up I still am not pleased with the overall look of my chicken house.

This is going to take some major redoing.  Come to think of it the turret effect would not work here, the snow would build up and cause problems.  Rats.  I really liked that. I will have to keep looking and thinking.   

I am working on that post for Learning to Paint daisies.

  Promise.

A New Garden Therapy Sign

I painted yesterday.  My studio was cozy warm so I enjoyed painting on a couple of custom ordered signs as the rain and snow pelted my flowers and trees.  This sign above will go on my website and was painted along side the other two.

A lovely lady ordered this for her soon to be greenhouse.  I just sent off the photos for her approval, I do hope she likes how it turned out.

 

She also ordered this sign. 



So a good day in the studio.  I have photos to share of our snow and what some of my garden looked like with its fresh white coating but that will be for another day.  Back to the studio for me.  More to paint. 

Enjoy this fine rainy day.  A bit chilly too.  Brrr, but we have a cozy fire blazing. 

Want to see more hand painted signs?  Just step on into my studio and take a gander.

Pirate Granny Squares – Crochet for a Boy

Girly crochet patterns are fairly easy to come by but boys are a bit tricky. 

Not anymore.  This has got to be one of the cutest patterns for a boy that I have come across. 

via: Repeat Crafter Me

I think it would make a great scarf.  Just have the last two squares on each end be decorated and the rest be just granny squares.

I quickly became a follower of this blog, she has some of the cutest patterns available.

Now I have to hurry and finish what I have already started so I can try one.

Be sure and check her site out.  You won’t be disappointed.

Learn to Paint Lesson 5 continued

I am sorry, I did promise this post sooner but as you can tell that did not happen.

(for more Learn to Paint posts just click the link in the toolbar above)

I have endured a weird set of circumstances (stiff neck and muscle spasms in my right shoulder)which has proven nearly debilitating.  I am sitting here with a hot rice sock on the offending area as we speak and to top it off I broke a tooth yesterday.  So now that that whine fest is over and you have all become sympathetic to my plight I will finally get the ‘geranium’ flower steps posted for you.

And I have attached a few more videos at the bottom of this post.  

In this lesson I am using a #8 flat brush.  Double load your brush then start on the chisel edge, press,



wiggle your brush up and down as you make a narrow arc



and bring the brush down to the beginning letting the bristles spring back to a chisel point.  It might help to make a dot for the beginning and end spot as a guideline.



Like the other 5 petal flowers you make your little man with the head then 2 arms



and then the two legs.



If you wish to add a secondary color to the center you can at this point by dipping the corner of your brush into the new color (here I used yellow) and brush it in loosely.  To make it more transparent just mix some blending gel into your brush first.



Tap in some dark dots with a liner brush



Then add some smaller lighter dots on top



voila! A geranium blossom.

Watch the video for a few ways to paint 5 petal flowers including the geranium type blossom.

5 petal flower video

This short video shows a similar way but with the petals closer together and overlapping a bit.

more of a good thing

A repeat of how scallop strokes can be used for a flower, repeat info.

So what is next…hmmm, how about a daisy??
 
Okay I will work on getting a daisy post up soon.

Happy painting.  Back to my studio for me, I have painting to do!

q Pamela  r

Learn to Paint–Lesson 5 Five Petal Easy Flowers

This is lesson #5 in the Learn to Paint series.  To easily find the other lessons click the link in the menu bar above. 

I added some blue 5 petal easy flowers to the bench.  The overall design is coming together. 

 I had to shove the bench up under the side porch roof as we were getting some rain and this bench has yet to receive its protective coating of exterior varathane.  It is merely plywood so it is imperative it gets a good few coats before facing wet weather! It won’t fit in the studio at all.



I am going to demonstrate a few different types of 5 petal flowers. 

One easy one is done with a filbert brush, in this demo I used a number 8. You load the brush with paint, press, drag downward and lift twisting the brush to an edge.



I build my little man (more in the video in this post), the first stroke is his head, then the arms on either side…



then his legs.



To make them in clumps, I stack the darker flowers to the back and add some white or a lighter shade of original color and come forward.





You add these little clusters where you think the design calls for some filler.  Don’t forget to add the little dot centers.



This video is 5 minutes long but it shows you several versions of 5 petal flowers.  I shall post photos of a step by step of what I call the geranium flower tomorrow, if I included it today it would make this post way to photo saturated. 

The demo of it is included in this video.

Just skip the ad once it tells you it can.  It is only 15 seconds. 

A few versions of 5 petal flowers

I am still working on speaking at the correct volume and ignore the loud tapping of my brush as I clean it.    It can be annoying, at least it was for me as I reviewed the video.

I have two good rose painting videos I will post soon as well.  I know that is one everyone wants to learn.

Let me know if these help you.  After we do the basics of flowers I want to move on to fruit and veggies.

 
Come visit me in my studio! And see how we built it.