The Ducks Have Names

While I was away for four days my daughter patiently waited for all your suggestions on what to name her ducks.

She filled their old outdoor cast iron tub, let them swim, and walked them around the yard.  And like any proud duck mom, she took photos of them.

She learned they like dandelions.  So she put that word on her list of possible names.
Dandelion and Delilah were front runners.

I barely got in the door Sunday evening and she said "lets name the ducks".

I said lets not.  Tomorrow, Monday.

So Monday rolled around and I got half ready to go buy plants and took a nap instead.  That is till she plopped down on my bed and said, "it's Monday, lets name the ducks".

I went to my blog and composed a list of all your suggestions for her to look at, which of course provided some laughs as well as last minute off shoot suggestions by me. 

There was a front runner, a name I knew she was going to like.  It sort of rolled off the tongue with the name of her other duck, Clyde, plus had personality.

So with one name down I proceeded to continue my nap as she read me the top 100 Duck names from the web.  I listened with one ear open till she said, "that's it" and sounded firm.

There was Phoebe, Delilah, Honey, and Pearl.  Ethel, Jemima, and about 5 others she really liked.  But in the end there were only two ducks, which meant just two names that she had to choose.

So I would like to introduce you to........

That means Tina from WhatWeKeep will be receiving one of Beth's sparkly hand made cake testers for suggesting the name Clementine. 

Maybe now that the task of duck naming has been completed I can get back to things like completing a dining room..........

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!

Name The Duckens

This post really is for the birds.  

It's all that it's quacked up to be.  All that and a sack of seed.

Nameless new Ducken

One son has chickens and one daughter has duckens.  What is a ducken you might ask?  It is a combination of how a certain 2 year old refers to chickens and ducks; duckens.

And two of them are living at my house.  Two Duckens, not two 2 year olds.

Klous & Clyde as babies

Clyde and Klous arrived last year this time, and this year we have a problem. 

Klous died a couple months ago.

That's not the problem.  Well... actually it is sort of.

That's Klous there on the left in his better days, back when he and Clyde used to plot how to crap on my porch together.



Don't worry I wouldn't really eat them.  There is now a nice duck home and they leave my porch alone.  Well, Klous leaves it alone since he's gone to the big pond in the sky.
 
The problem is that since Klous has been gone, Clyde has been lonely.  So lonely in fact he has become one with my sons chickens.  Clyde spends too much time with the girls in the hen house and now Clyde thinks he is a chicken.  He mimics the chickens, and I fear this is causing psychological issues with his identity. 

So in effect, Clyde really has become a ducken!  I will probably have to use my vacation money to hire the Duck Whisperer to help him.

Like any good mama bird, I took my 22 yr. old duck queen, along with a 5 yr. old and a 2 yr. old and off to the farm store we went where a fresh batch of baby Pekin's was waiting for us.

My daughters friend met us there with her dad and they got four ducks.  Word on the street is that duck eggs make baked goods fluffier.

I wouldn't know about that fluffy thing, Clyde and Klous never produced any eggs, but I'll tell 'ya my son's poultry is being good to us.....

See that?  Those brown ones there, next to my giant bottle of ketchup, started arriving just after I bought a dozen at the store Sunday morning.  Guess fresh eggs was my Mothers Day gift.  I think I need to learn better quiche making skills.

So in honor of all my fine feathered friends, and in memory of Klous, I turned a bird seed bag into a BIRD SEED BAG.  Did you just roll your eyes on that one?  I said at the beginning that this post was all that and a bag of seed.

I wasn't joking.

Because if feeding chickens and ducks wasn't enough I do like to keep the Robins and Bluebirds happy too.

I walked by the plain sack that already held my bird seed - which mostly the squirrels eat - and 5 minutes later with the help of stencils, black craft paint, and broken pottery as a dabbing tray,  I had a bird seed bag.

I also had bird seed all over my dining room table.

Fastest craft ever.  So fast I was inspired to pick up 3 new canvas bags for a quarter each at a garage sale. 

Anyhow, the two new ducks need names.  The 5 yr. old suggested Scratchy and French Fry.  I offered up PteroDUCtyl, (get it - like the flying dino bird?) and Marshmellow since they grow up to be big white birds.  I also mentioned Kirby and Electrolux. They laughed at me.  Brawns ideas were just as bad as mine, I guess we ran out of good names a few kids ago.

All this bird talk will see me flying the coop.  I'm heading out of town and when I get back the family is gonna vote on names for our own little duck dynasty.

So what say you?  My daughter wants two female names or gender neutral ones, so what would you suggest?  I will add your suggestions to the list we will vote on.  If she actually uses your suggestion I'll have a prize for the winner(s).  Like maybe one of the awesome cake testers she makes.......

Sample of Beth's jeweled cake testers

I mean seriously...... you've read our suggestions.  Your odds of thinking up the winning name(s) are good.

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!

I See Benches

You know we own an old building right?  It was once a barber shop with an upstairs apartment where the owners lived.

Forever and ever they lived there.  And nothing changed, they lived very simply.

Their two sons had one small room with a bunk bed.  The bed was stained in a 1950's blonde wood color, old but in pristine condition.

For a brief time the bunk bed went to live at our oldest sons house where he painted it black.  When he was done with it (because he made two new beds for two exceptionally adorable kids) the beds came back to our garage.

There were two head boards, and two foot boards.  When it returned to us I no longer saw old head and foot boards, I saw four benches.

I blame Gail at MyRepurposedLife for what I saw, because seriously she can make a bench out of any headboard ever made.  I take that back, she can make a bench out of anything, period.

The first bench was sized for an open spot on our front porch.  Old wood was used from the junk wood pile, making this redo cost zero.... unless you count the price of the building that came with the bunk bed.

I painted it outside instead of in my entry way, and I was as surprised by this fact as anyone.  Yes I was in my jammies and had one ear tuned to the South in case the UPS man were to drive in.

 

I stained/and/or/painted every slat slightly different shades of whatever we had around, then I did a wash of dark stain, wiped it off and varnished it.  If you look to the right in the above photo you will see two sample pots of chalk paint.

Let me say right now I don't like waiting for varnish to dry.

Until I get to the nursery for some porch flowers there is one outdoor pillow to keep the bench company.  The weatherman says only 38* tonight.   Geeze!

The camera caught an apparition on the right.  See it?  The hazy smokey white shape?  Or are you like me and see benches?

Now the UPS man has a place to set my packages.

Vintage Headboard bench is linking on up at:
It's Party Time @Three Mango Seeds 
Wow Us Wednesdys @Savvy Southern Style 
Budget Decorating Ideas @Creative Cain Cabin 
Time to Sparkle @The Gunny Sack 
Project Inspired @Cupcakes and Crinoline 
Creatively Tuesday @The Rustic Pig 
Show and Share @Southern Lovely 

Proud to have the headboard bench featured at:
The Rustic Pig

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!

Yonder at the Ranch

Red food coloring in water because we sampled the soda all gone b4 pics

Where's Bliss?

Stop over at Kirb Appeal and check out Kirby's new feature, Women Who Blog.  She is interrogating yours truly and I'm just saying she might have asked me some exclusive questions, and you don't want to miss finding out what I really think of bead board.

Then...... after you learn my inner most bead board thoughts, please stop in and say hello to Angie at Knick Of Time.  I have a guest post at her place where I took a cheapo dollar garage sale crate and turned it into something cute to store our beverages. 

Cheapo Garage Sale Crate

There is no snow predicted next week in Minnesota.  That's the best news I've had in a while so I might go outside and paint something.  Or maybe, just maybe I'll finish my dining room chairs.

I said MAYBE!

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!

Console Radio Cabinets

Radios circa 1930 - 1950, Song circa late 70's

OK, so these two beauties go back a bit farther than that song, 

but I'm tired after doing yard work 

and that's the oldest radio song I could think of.

More importantly......

What one should I keep and what color (s) should I paint them?

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!

Upcycled Planter to Dog Feeder

Last summer I took an old planter/tote thingy and turned it into a dog food feeder for my constant companion.... Mo.   

Just look at that chippy finish and forget that I wanted lime green.  I settled for metallic orange - because of the 999 little bottles of craft paint I own, I have no lime green.  998 shades of blue - yes.

I probably should have used blue since it's an appetite suppressant, and based on the amount of scooping Brawn needs to do in the yard, my dog could use some appetite suppressing.  (It was in our wedding vows that I don't do doo).

*DISCLAIMER: There are no plants on my porch, this photo is last summer.  I still have Reindeer on it.

The food caddy started out as some sort of a one sided birdhouse planter at a garage sale.  It had green plastic pots in it but I left those at the sale and only took the terra cotta ones stacked with it.

Off came the houses, and I painted a coat of ASCP in old white.  I was less than impressed picturing dog food drool all over the white.  So I painted on metallic orange, used steel wool to sand it back off, and finished it with a coat of dark wax.

The holes are a perfect fit for the stainless steel dog dishes that Mo eats out of.

But I took his stainless steel dishes out for these photos and inserted our white cereal bowls.

Why did I do that?  There is nothing wrong with stainless steel dog dishes. 

So to recap;
my dog has dog dishes....these are Corell cereal bowls....he does not eat out of these.... we do.

Mo was sort of mad at me, this project didn't turn out at all like I described it to him.  

I told him I had to take his picture because he should be in the post. 

These are his bedroom eyes.  Is it working Amy, is Riley going crazy?

*This post was originally a guest post over with Linda at ItAllStartedWithPaint.  I'm not desperate for new stuff to write about, just desperate for the time it takes to write it!

Linking up too:
Freedom Fridays @MyTurnForUs 
Inspiration Gallery @CraftyScrappyHappy 
Wildly Original Party @IGottaCreate 
Pet Parade @FunkyJunkInteriors

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!