Bluegrass Saturday...Baby Chicks!

What would be awesome? 

Raising chickens in your own backyard. 

I hope to do so someday, but until then I will vicariously live through those I know who have their own chickens. I think it's wonderful that more and more people are getting backyard flocks, especially in the city. My mom got 6 egg laying chickens this year and 3 meat chickens. In addition, a couple of my coworkers got chicks this week! 

Today Megan had a Baby (Chick) Shower for her little ones. We held the babes, dyed some eggs and ate some yummy food.

This morning I hard boiled a bunch of eggs to bring...while listening to Bluegrass Saturday Morning of course.

Shortly after the eggs were done, Sebastian woke up for the day. We have been offering him solids at least daily and he is doing better all the time. We are trying new foods every 3 days or so. We tried oatmeal for the first time this morning and he liked it! Surprising because it is a little chunkier then most other things he has tried. I decided to make a list of things that he can currently eat because I keep forgetting what we have tried!

When he was done eating, I made some banana bread to bring along to the party. 

Good tip for storing ripe bananas for baking? 

You can just throw the entire banana in the freezer when it gets really ripe. Then when you need to use them, just let them sit on the counter and thaw for a bit, then gently squeeze and out pops the smooshed, ripe banana.

I used eggs from my moms chickens to make the bread. 
Bread made with local chicken eggs to go meet more local chickens!

It's not easy to ignore the 6 eyes watching my every move as I work in the kitchen. 

Off to Megan's to meet the chicks! 

Megan and some little balls of fluff.

Meet Flour...

...Crocodile...

 ...and Alder.

We also dyed a bunch of eggs. We used a couple methods. 

Marbleized eggs and silk-dyed eggs. 

The silk-dyed eggs are very easy and so neat when done. 

Sebastian came along to check out the chicks too. He is no longer such a little chicken himself. He is a lap-full of soft, chubby rolls.
Just as he should be.

Check out Megan's blog here. You can learn more about having your own chickens in the city on this post.

 Hope you have a good holiday weekend!

Bluegrass Saturday Mornings

What's awesome? 

That 88.5 FM plays bluegrass music on Saturday mornings and I love it. 

What else is awesome? 

When I am heading up the stairs and I see this...

It takes a few things to create this moment. 

A white curtain, a sleepy cat, just the right sunlight. 

When it happens, I love it.

 Because of this, you may get some fuzz on your bum if you ever use our restroom. 

Sorry about that...totally worth it.

Who will you find behind the curtain? Charlotte de Berry.

Of course Filibuster has to watch me take photos...which in turn creates more photos.

While the cats hang out in the bathroom...Mr. Magnus lounges on the stairs.

And Penelope snuggles in our bed.

Where's Sebastian? 

Napping.

And I stare.

Then he wakes.

Recently, his legs and feet have become quite interesting.

As you can see, Saturday mornings around here are pretty lazy...and I love it. 

Fluffy Feathers and Red Fur

Being a city girl at heart means I will never have the little hobby farm I once thought I might have someday. As much as I would love acres to raise animals on, I would prefer to stay right here in my city slice and just have some backyard chickens at some point. 


My mom's boyfriend lives on a few acres just 15 minutes from the city. Today I went and hung out with my mom and his spring chickens and piglets...and I loved it. I am thankful to have this little spot of farm animals to visit so close to home and look forward to visiting them often this summer.

They just got these three piglets yesterday. They are still a bit skeptical of being pet, but I got a few pats in.

I love the curly ears.

Eat, eat, eat...all day long.

Next we visited the chickens! They got these dozen or so little ladies a few weeks ago and they have already grown a lot. Their fluffy little fuzz is quickly turning into colorful feathers.

This little nugget is my mom's favorite...obviously. She has not grown as much as the others and is still only a small handful of fuzz.

Although my mom too has always been a city girl...as you can see here, there is a little more farm girl in her then city and this is where she looks right at home.

Mr. Magnus Joins Us

Well, it appears that I have not blogged in quite some time...lets fix that. 

I will start by introducing you to our newest family member...Mr. Magnus!!! We got him in December and he is fitting in well!

When my hunt for another dog began, I was looking for a big dog...50+ lbs. But then I saw Magnus and I couldn't pass him up, all 32 lbs. of him. Take a gander at a true mutt. Penelope is quite a mutt herself, but Magnus on the other hand is more of a mystery...the best guess is Basset Hound/Pit Bull, but we really don't know. What we do know is that it's hard to look at his short awkward legs with that big head and not smile. His body parts don't look like they should go together, but somehow it works for him! He was found roaming in Indiana and was picked up by animal control there. His home was never found and that is when he was brought up to MN by Midwest Animal Rescue to be adopted. His history is unknown, the only hint that we have at his past is that he is a little fearful...thankful not aggressively so, he wouldn't hurt a flea. He is a cuddle bug with tons of extra wrinkly skin to squish. He and Penelope love to wrestle, play tug-o-war and chew on each other.

Here they are on christmas day in a sea of wrapping paper.

His main goal in life is to lay on top of Penelope. At first she was a bit skeptical about it (as you can see in her face here). But she quickly got use to it and now she just thinks he is a giant hot water bottle.

She now thoroughly enjoys the cuddling.

I am not always sure how Penelope keeps breathing like this.

 A couple more sleeping dog photos, just because you can't have too many. Right?

First Snow

As I sit here on the couch, the first snow fall of the season is floating past our window. 

I love snow. 

"I am younger each year at the first snow. When I see it, suddenly, in the air, all little and white and moving; then I am in love again and very young and I believe in everything."

-Anne Sexton

Little Penelope is slightly skeptical, 

she has a love hate relationship with the snow.

 After watching Penelope frolic in the snow for a bit, what better then to curl up on the couch with her, magazines and a bowl of chili. Being cozy is the best. 

Our Front Porch

Welcome back to The Slice! I knew when I made my first blog post on Oct. 30th, there was a chance I wouldn't be posting again until after we had our Housewarming Party on Nov. 13th...and I was right. We were just SO busy preparing that I didn't have a chance to get back here until now. The Housewarming Party was a great success with around 100 people stopping by to help warm up our new nest, have a bowl of chili and get a tour! Now that it's behind us, it's time to start sharing our house with you. As I make posts about our home, I will tell you a little bit about the space, what we have done to it so far, what we plan to do in the future and also about whats in it. I tend to find the majority of our furniture and decor pieces at garage sales and thrift stores...creating quite an eclectic bunch. I think I will kick off the "tour" with the front porch...I LOVE our porch.

Our porch stretches the entire span of the front of our home. It is lined with windows along the front and sides and then has a series of three windows looking into our living room. Unfortunately it's not insulated well, so we won't spend much time out there in the winter...but I know we will make up for it in the warm months. During the warmer months, we remove the storm windows that lead into the living room and the cats go in and out, they love spending time on the sunny porch when it's not so cold. Aside from filling the porch with furniture, we haven't really changed anything else since we moved in. Next spring we plan on repainting the wicker furniture, the floor and the walls.

When Nate and I moved into our last place we had a little sunroom. Shortly after moving in, my mom showed up at our door with the wicker rocking chair! I love it and plan on spending lots of time in it during the warmer months reading magazines. The rest of the wicker furniture was a lucky find...free on the curb down the block from our old place! It also lived in the sunroom at our old place. It's really fun to have a real porch to house all of it now.

We currently do not have a mailbox, so a basket under a table inside the door currently serves as one. The wooden table is from a garage sale and the pale blue set of drawers was passed down from a family member. I have no clue what it's original use was, but I love how it's age shows.

This table is just to the left of our main entry door, I got it at a garage sale a number of years ago. The man who sold it to me kept apologizing for the condition it was in. I had to repeatedly tell him that it was PERFECT the way it is before I convinced him I was serious! I love the layers of old paint. Hanging above the table is an art piece that was a wedding gift. It is made from the base of an oil drum, it's one of my favorite things in our home. The candle scones are from Marshalls and the wreath is from "Target Basement" which is located on the lower level of a Salvation Army in Minneapolis. They sell new Target items on the cheap for various reasons...bad packaging, display items etc. I am excited to add things to the wreath for the changing seasons. 

These are three vintage theater seats that are just to the right when you enter the porch doorway. Nate got them from his place of employment years ago. I get a kick out of the names carved in one of the arm rests. I plan to reupholster them at some point (the fabric is not original).

While taking photos of the porch this morning, I couldn't help but capture a few shots of the squirrel that was eating all our fall pumpkins on the front steps. Obviously he was having the time of his life. So much for my fall display lasting through Thanksgiving! Oh well, I think these shots were worth it.

While wrapping up this second blog post, I am realizing that I just might be one of those bloggers that creates really long posts every time...hmm, only time will tell!