Farm dreams and inspiration...

I have been dreaming of a tiny farm for some time now, and hope to make those dreams come true soon.  But in the meantime, I have been collecting ideas and inspiration and have to share some cool things I have found....

First, I will definitely need one or several of these...

Pic found here

And maybe a few of these....

Found at Cute Animal Pics 

And of course I will have to have more of these....

Image found here

(Those are Lavender Orpingtons!!  I def want a few of those.)

And speaking of chickens, I will have to build a fun new coop for all the ladies....maybe like this one?

Image found here

Or maybe this one - more simple and rustic?

Tuesdays with Dorie

And then of course, I really want both an outdoor kitchen area and an outdoor shower/tub area.  The kitchen could be something simple like this to start....

Home Depot's image

And then maybe turn into something bigger and better, like this....

(Found on Pinterest and unable to link back to original.)

But the kitchen would have to have a little entertaining area....

(Found on Pinterest and unable to link back to original.)

As for outdoor bathing...I kinda love these...

HGTV

Two Men and a Little Tub

And having one of these to go daydream in would be heaven....

(Found on Pinterest and unable to link back to original.)

Yes, there is so much to dream about, as well as the actual farming, of course!  I am super excited for that piece, too.

Now off to go set up my raised beds while the sun it trying to shine in the Pacific Northwest....

Happy dreaming!

Ash

Hair bands and bike seats...

I just love yarn carfting!  I love the fact that I can create something fun and functional from a piece of string.  And I love the fact that that piece of string used to be from an animal or in some cases, an old plastic bottle.  I love the process all the way through.

I recently learned how to cable knit, and love it!  (I think I may have said that verbatim in a previous post! hehe)  I have also been loving headbands as of late, so I decided I needed to make myself a new headband with a cable on it.  Super fast and easy, but also really rewarding!

I had fun playing with design and deciding how 'long' the cables should be.  I will try and share my pattern soon.

I also love to crochet, and I definitely better at it than knitting.  I have been doing it a lot longer, for one thing.  So it is fun for me to get inspiration from something and try and duplicate it.  For example, I found this picture on pinterest of a 'bike seat cover' that someone crocheted.  I could not track down the original poster or creator though.

(Source and creator unknown)

Soo....I decided I'd try something like it.  I used a much larger hook and different yarn, but here is my version....

I was recently given a bunch of colorful acrylic yarn, and I thought that it would hold up pretty well to the occasional (or not so occasional here in Eugene) weather.

I love the way it turned out!  I may have to come up with the pattern for this to share, too.

Happy yarn crafting!

Ash

Visiting the raptors

We recently went to visit our local raptor center for the first time....and man, was it awesome!  I have to share some of the pics we got of the beautiful birds!

Isn't the bald eagle awesome!?

And as you can tell from this and the following pics...I love owls!  Totally going to use these as inspiration for  future crafting.

Aren't these little guys above cute?

Above is a golden eagle...they are HUGE!    Below is my favorite owl...the burrow owl!  Where I lived in Arizona, we had these little guys in the ditches, and are so cute!!

This guy below was getting fed, which was awesome to watch!

And this is a huge owl!  It was seriously like 3ft tall!  

So interesting!  I would suggest that if you have access to a raptor rescue center like this, go check it out!

Ash

Do you Pinterest? How about Ravelry?

I have to say, there is almost too much inspiration out there!  Between Pinterest and Ravelry....it gets a bit crazy.  But I do enjoy both of these and have a profile on each.  How about you? 

If you do hang out on either site, I'd love it if followed!  And comment below with your Pinterest or Ravelry so I can follow you!

Find me at: 

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/23point4degree/

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/people/civicstitchings

(You might notice the differing names for my Pinterest vs. Ravelry...well....that is because soon 23point4degreetilt will be my new biz name!  I am almost ready for the roll out!  Yay!)

Now, to pull myself away from the computer and all the inspiration (so much...too much....) and get to work!

Ash

2012 Manifesto

Recently I came across this post at Creative Clever of a manifesto for her new year, and decided this was definitely for me.  I had to create one of my own. 

First...here is Creative Clever's manifesto....

And here is mine (I made a smaller version)....

Hope your new year is everything you want it to be, and you find a lot of fun stuff to inspire you as this did me!

Ash

I love craftgawker

I am sure that I am slightly behind the times, but this year I have discovered, and then recently rediscovered, craftgawker.  Basically, if you need a heavy duty dose of inspiration, this is the place to go.

Oh, and you are out and about with a few minutes to spare and you have an iPhone?  No problem...there is an iPhone app!

A few of the things I found for inspiration....

I think I will make some of these for gift wrapping for the holidays at abeautifulmess.

And maybe some holiday hair-dos....found at thefirstlime.

Or this crazy cute mug cozy over at Simply Notable.

I hope this helps you find all kinds of crazy inspiration!

Ash