The Drama In Our Backyard

May 4, 2015May 4, 201524 Comments

We have been having quite a bit of drama in our backyard lately! We have been busy getting ready for my daughters graduation party, which will be outside. So there is this going on…

But I will tell you all about the party as it gets closer.

Here is the other story! I was walking through my front garden area when some mockingbirds starting calling and swooping around my cat. They had been at this for awhile, but I finally really took a look around. There is a smallish pomegranate tree right by my kitchen window, and sure enough, there was a nest! I stood and listened for a bit, but didn’t hear anything, so I thought there were just eggs. I pulled a chair closer, climbed up and suddenly there were little beaks poking up!

Daddy is watching!

Babies!

I was so surprised and excited! I was even able to get these great pictures! The momma and daddy kept chirping, but they let me snap away. It was just when the cat came by, that they got very upset, even pecking at her! I waited about a week and then took these pictures. They now have fuzzy heads and their eyes are open.

One week later

I told my husband we needed to get some temporary fencing to try and protect the babies from the cat. I had read online, they leave the nest after about 12 days, but then they are on the ground for another week or two. This was going to be quite an interesting couple of weeks once they were out of the nest! So we added some fencing on Friday night.

I woke up on Saturday morning, took a look out the window, and saw this!

That wasn’t one of the babies was it! No way! I waited a bit, then saw another one on the ground-on the other side of the fence!! That wasn’t supposed to happen! This was only 2 days after taking the ‘week later’ picture and a day after the fence was put up!

Franklin

Haley and I tried to decide the best way to get the one baby back inside the fence. We knew it would never survive in the yard with our ‘wild’ animals. But we didn’t want to be attacked by momma and daddy either!

Wrong side of the fence!

Our solution was quite hysterical! I held up a big patio umbrella over our heads so we wouldn’t get divebombed and then Haley, with gloves on, picked up the baby and put it back in the fence. Whew! We did it!

Trying to look big!

So far, we have only seen two, but the other might be in the pomegranate tree. They are pretty hard to find in there.

Look at that face!

Well, after awhile we couldn’t find the babies at all, but we still heard them. There is another tree overlapping the pomegranate tree, so we figured they were in that one. It has been another week, I still hear one of them chirping, but they are too high for me to find. I am just thankful we were able to protect them when they were on the ground. Now that they have flown the coop, we can get on to that graduation party!!

How To Make Pull Tab Bracelets

April 30, 201516 Comments

Did you ever do this when you were younger? Pull the tab off of a soda can for no good reason. Honestly, the only reason these tabs exist is because they open the soda cans. Well…maybe they exist for other reasons as well. If you drink soda or energy drinks or really anything that comes in a can, you know that they have a tab that helps to open the drink. If you drink Monster energy drinks, and take the tabs off, you can send them in and get Monster gear in return. But for me, I like to craft things! Some of you may have seen celebrities wearing these bracelets or maybe even seen these in stores like Michaels. And I tried making them…and had issues. My biggest issue was the elastic used to hook the tabs together. I couldn’t get it to stay tied or the hot glue wouldn’t stick. So…I tried something new. I bought paracord to use on the bracelets. Because it is stronger than the elastic, I thought that would be better for the bracelets. The only problem with this was the the paracord stretched out, causing the bracelets to be stretched and not look good. So…I thought that I would try something else. That’s when I bought 5 millimeter buckles to put on the ends. And, now I am going to tell you how to make these bracelets. 1. Measure your wrist and determine how much cord you will need. I have an eight inch wrist and I cut my string 24 inches. I laid the cord out to twelve inches then doubled it, so that I have some extra cord to work with. 2. Make a slip knot on one end of the buckle. It doesn’t really matter which end of the buckle, you just need to have one end secured. 3. Next, you take the first tab and put one string in the top hole and one in the bottom. So the strings will be going down from the top of the tab. See the picture to understand. 4. Take another tab and put the back of the tabs together. You will now take the string and put it through the holes of both tabs. This will keep the tabs attached and not fall apart. You will repeat this process until you make a bracelet long enough to fit your wrist. 5. When your bracelet is long enough, you will be able to attach the other end of the buckle. All I do is thread the string through the buckle and tie a knot under the buckle. If you want to hot glue the knot to make sure that it doesn’t come undone, feel free to. And then the bracelet ends up like this!

Thanks to my roommate Hannah for being my hand/arm model.

Now, I have also made bracelets with energy drink tabs. These are a little harder because there is only one hole in these tabs. So here are the steps for this bracelet. 1. Repeat steps 1 and 2. 2. Instead of starting like the original bracelet, have the tab upside down and thread the string up. 3. Take your energy drink pull tab, I’m using Monster, and put the back of it to the back of the tab. Put both strings through the single hole on the tab and then back through the two holes in the soda tab. This will secure the tabs together. 4. Repeat the final steps and have yourself a bracelet!

Thanks again Hannah for being my model!

These are cute bracelet that are easy to make. And now, you have something to use your old soda tabs on that you have been collecting. Now if only I could find something for bottle caps…

Old Door Beverage/Candy Station

April 27, 2015April 27, 201525 Comments

So, what does a ruined door and a few pieces of wood make? A Beverage Station! I saw this idea last year on the blog, Finding Home, and knew I wanted to make one!

Upcycled Outdoor Beverage Bar Station-Finding Home

Almost 2 years ago, one of the houses in my neighborhood had a fire. Nobody was in it at the time and it had a lot of damage. Later, it was gutted. I found this door in the alley after the fire. It had some slight burn marks, lots of soot, and some cracks in it from being broken down, but I took it anyways. One mans trash…right?!

Door and Wood

Here you can see the door, sort of. We had to put a couple of braces on the areas where it was cracked and fill in places with spackle, but paint will cover that later. Here’s another view.

Another view

I used old cupboard knobs for feet. I wanted it a little above the grounds so it wouldn’t sit in any water and get rotten. The knobs are attached to the bottom shelf of the station.

Knob feet

I bought the spindles at a craft show last summer, just for this project. It only took a year to get to it! I took a piece of shelving and my husband screwed it into the spindle. We did this for all 4 of them. We also screwed the spindles into the bottom shelf.

Attaching the spindles

Here is the two shelves and the spindles, all attached.

We added another deeper shelf above this one for large containers of drinks. I was going to add one more small shelf on top, but I had this old metal piece from a screen door, so I hung that on instead. I screwed cup hooks in the door and just hung the metal piece. I can always change it later if I so desire!

All together

Now for the fun of painting! I borrowed a neighbor’s paint sprayer and sprayed on primer after covering the spindle legs with paper. The sprayer worked great, but when I went to try it for the paint it wouldn’t work!! Not sure what happened, but I had to brush paint the color on. I used the Barely White from Lauren’s room (trying to use what I already have).

Primered

And here it is! All freshly painted! I added the metal piece back on and I also painted the shelf with chalkboard paint. I figured I could label the drinks or food when I place it on the shelf! I also remembered I had an old doorknob and hardware. I spray painted them black and added them where the old deadbolt had been.

It’s Finished!

I added some old signs and other decorations for now.

Old Signs

More Buckets

Old Door Beverage station-homeonthecorner

Sunflowers

One More View

I can’t wait to be able to use this! We plan on using it as a ‘Candy Bar’ for Haley’s upcoming graduation and drinks for other parties and get-together’s. I’m excited to see how many different ways this can be used!

Starbucks Raspberry Cheesecake Mocha Frappuccino

April 23, 2015April 23, 20155 Comments

There are many times where we go into a Starbucks or Jamba Juice and someone orders a drink you had never heard of. Did you just miss it on the menu? Or did they just come up with something off the top of their head?

Well…a little bit of both.

These are normally secret menu items. Items that the restaurant may know how to make, but at the same time, the restaurant may not know how the drink is made. You can either take a chance on if they know the drink or you can find a recipe online.

Or, I can make it even easier.

Thanks to hackthemenu.com, anyone can see secret items and how they are made. And I have taken a challenge to try all of these drinks from Starbucks and Jamba Juice and write a review of the drink for you.

This should be fun to see what happens, though it may not be so fun on my wallet.

Raspberry Cheesecake Mocha Frappuccino

Doesn’t this sound absolutely delicious? Now, I love cheesecake, and I REALLY love raspberry cheesecake, so this drink sounded absolutely perfect for me.

So I walked into my local Starbucks and showed the barista my drink order, and it was made for me. Now, I give the barista props for actually knowing that my drink was a secret menu item and asking what the name of the drink is. Thank you for not questioning why I handed you my cell phone saying “I would like to order this”.

This drink not only looked pretty, (because, remember, I’m kind of addicted to pink things) but it tasted good as well. It was sweet, but not too overpowering where I felt like I needed to take a drink of water to clear my pallet. But honestly, it wasn’t anything fantastic.

Now, you may be wondering, “is this drink based off of the Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino? Couldn’t you just substitute raspberry instead of strawberry and add other flavors like vanilla?” Um…no. This drink is actually based off of the White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino. And to be clear, I didn’t know the White Chocolate Mocha Frapp existed before I ordered this drink. But I don’t think that you can just substitute raspberry for strawberry…maybe I should try that next time.

So why wasn’t this drink absolutely fantastic like my drinks in past reviews? I didn’t really get the cheesecake. I mean, come on. It’s in the name. Raspberry Cheesecake Mocha Frappuccino. I got the raspberry, and I got a little bit of mocha, but I never felt like I was actually drinking the equivalent of eating a raspberry cheesecake while drinking a mocha.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I liked the drink. It just was underwhelming. Would I recommend it? Yeah, if you want something sweet. But I wouldn’t order this if you are having a major craving for eating raspberry cheesecake while drinking a mocha. Just saying.

As I always say, do you have a drink that you have tried from a secret menu? If so, let me know in the comments. I would love to try out a secret menu item that I have been recommended. Check out the other secret menu items that I have reviewed and let me know in the comments if you have tried any of the drinks I have reviewed!

The Great Reveal-Ugly April Makeover Challenge

April 20, 201526 Comments

The day has come!! The great Ugly April Makeover Reveal! I’m so excited to show you all how this poor ugly stool turned into something lovely! I think it turned out great! So first of all, the before…

Ugly, ugly, ugly!

So without further ado…Tada!!

Lovely!

What do you think? I actually came up with the idea at about 10:00 pm, while laying in bed trying to go to sleep. This is usually my best thinking time! Go figure!

Neutral tones

Now for the process! We started out by taking off the top of the stool and the wheels.

Ugly April Challenge-homeonthecorner.com

Topless! 🙂

We wanted to take the ugly fabric off the top, but as Lauren was taking out the staples, she realized there was another layer of faux leather, then another fabric after that! Lots of staples to remove!

Staples galore!

More layers!!

We added a piece of wood to the bottom and a little extra on the side to make the recessed part even with the existing sides.

We scrounged through our stockpile of wood and found a couple of white pickets, brown pickets and some pallet wood. We measured how tall they needed to be for the sides and cut 4 pieces of each kind of wood.

Cutting the side pieces.

Okay, this next part got a bit tricky and we had to redo a couple of times. We measured them all and used a straight edge to attach them to the stool, but after we got them all on, they were at a slant. Bummer! We called in our reinforcements…Honey!! Dad!! He was kind enough to redo it for us and make it all nice and pretty!

Closed up the front and back.

Now all we have to do is some painting and find just the right fabric for the top.

Next is paint and fabric.

For the paint, I used what I had sitting around. I freshened up the white pickets by using some of the Simply White paint I had from Lauren’s room. The green is Fernwood Green, from painting our living room about 10 years ago and the turquoise was a mistake batch I picked up awhile ago from OSH for cheap. I dry brushed each of these on to add a little bit of my favorite beach colors. I also added the white to the sides.

Beach colors-my favorite!

Haley and I found the fabric at JoAnne’s on sale and thought the colors were a perfect match!

Pretty!

I almost forgot-we added rope handles to the sides! I love the look of the rope. I also added the little bit of trim on the bottom to help cover up the peeling veneer.

Rope handles

Now our ugly little stool is a cute little storage box! I used the leftover fabric to line the bottom of the box, just to add a little prettiness.

Inside

I can hardly believe this is the same piece of furniture! I spent about a total of $9.00 for the whole thing-$2.00 for the stool, $5.00 for the fabric and $2.00 for the rope. Everything else we already had on hand.

So what do you think? Did we rescue this poor little stool from a miserable life? I absolutely loved how it turned out! It’s not perfect, but I still like it! This really was a fun challenge!