Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 93 of 661 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

Potting Shed Progress

April 16, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

We’ve been working in the chicken coop and the potting shed simultaneously, since they are under the same roof. We finished up the wall that divides the two and finished laying the vinyl floor the other day. The vinyl floor is from Lowe’s…and was the most inexpensive way to have a durable, nice-looking floor. It ran us about 98 cents a square foot so the entire floor ran us about $80. (see bottom of this post for more floor info)

Brett built these shelves and the potting bench this week using reclaimed wood:

We’ve also been working on the outside. I’m almost finished painting the walls and Boo planted herb gardens in the window boxes yesterday:

We didn’t have washers to hang the boxes so I used old bottle caps that I’d collected:

I can’t wait to show you everything else we’ve done…but right now it’s a total wreck as I’m moving things in and out. We are starting the chicken run this week as well. Just piling on the fun projects. I told Brett the other day that I wanted to put a greenhouse on our list…he might just be on board since our entire living room is being used as one right now:

Just a funny little aside…my nephew posted on his Facebook page the other day:

So my aunt has started raising chickens and one of them has 600 more followers on Instagram than I do. Wat.

True story. Who knew one little chicken could have so much personality?

Flooring info:

Style Selections 6″x36″ Antique Woodland Oak/Dark Brown

I’d cover my entire house in this stuff. It doesn’t even look like vinyl!

Click here to see more posts on the chicken coop and the depot!

Colonial Williamsburg

April 13, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

For spring break this year we spent a few days in the Outerbanks and then were headed up to Washington, DC. I noticed that Colonial Williamsburg was on the way to DC so I thought it would be fun to stay there for a few days. I hadn’t been to Williamsburg since around 1991, the last time my parent’s had taken us there.

My favorite thing about Colonial Williamsburg is how some of the workers never break character. It’s like taking a time machine straight back to colonial times. I think it would be a great experience to work in such a place. Here we are meeting James Madison and his horse Homer.

I have this same photo of me and my siblings…I wish I knew where it was right now!

Learning some new DIY at the silversmith:

Boo loved the wig shop, and that the wigmaker never broke character. When I asked if we could sell Boo’s long braid to her she replied, “Oh no, it’s too damaged from the sun and elements.”

Brett is such a good sport. I volunteered him for the “Order in the Court” mock trial we went too. He grabbed Boo’s hat and played a colonial attorney with gusto:

I loved all the textiles we saw. Two rug designs from the Governor’s Palace:

Wallpaper in George Wythe’s house:

Yarn rainbow at the weaving shop.

Speaking of weaving, I love how these branches were woven together to grow this archway:

In the afternoon when it was hot we ventured over to the Art Museums of Williamsburg. There was a great exhibition on doll houses and as soon as Boo saw this she was yelling at us to come see:

It looks so much like her old dollhouse we found at a thrift store a few years ago:

We stayed for a short play called A Gathering of Hair, a fictional Revolutionary-era story of a freed woman and her two enslaved friends, but loosely based on three actual women they researched and connected with. These three women, Deirdre, Hope & Katrinah, wrote the play back in 2013 and are still performing it today. It was really great. Boo wanted the play to be longer so she didn’t have to leave:

Our last day Boo wanted to visit two places: the blacksmith shop and revisit the wig shop. First thing we found the blacksmith kitchen well underway with lunch. The original farm-to-table:

Boo was ecstatic to see a female apprentice at work in the blacksmith shop, especially since she has been saying she wants to grow up to be a blacksmith these days:

When we got to the wig shop there was a longer wait than expected. Boo quickly made a new friend, Aubrey. Aubrey sat patiently with Sienna and taught her how to write secret messages using Pig Pen Cipher.

When Boo asked what she should write Aubrey gave her a Revolutionary War-era example of “you could write a secret message to the blacksmith shop and have them send more bullets.” So Boo sat there for a very long time and wouldn’t let us leave until she had finished her message, even adding her mailing address in the cipher code. As she was doing it Aubrey said to me, “I think she’s writing a real letter” and I started to worry that Boo was really expecting the blacksmith to “send more bullets” if she wrote out that secret letter. When we said goodbye Aubrey tucked Sienna’s little note into her pocket.

Two weeks later we checked the mail and there was a package addressed to AGENT SIENNA from A FRIEND IN WILLIAMSBURG. Inside was a little brown paper package, hand stitched closed with thread. Inside that package was a secret message written back and a hand embroidered handkerchief wrapped around two musket balls. Needless to say, Sienna was thrilled. She’ll never forget that kind gesture. Neither will I. The world is full of amazingly kind people.

P.S. We stayed at the Williamsburg Woodlands right at Colonial Williamsburg. I picked the Woodlands because it’s located right next to the visitor’s center. It was so convenient to be able to catch the shuttle each day right at our front door. Boo wants to go back soon. My parents spent Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg the year before my dad died. I’d love to spend Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg one year.

P.P.S. I also bought a bunch of seeds for my spring garden from Colonial Williamsburg’s heirloom seed collection. Can’t wait to see how they end up:

Chicken Coop Progress

April 12, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

We are making chicken coop progress!

I started painting the outside of the train depot:

It’s taken longer than I thought because this is what shape the wood was in:

We built a wall to separate the potting shed side of the depot from the chicken coop side:

The finished wall:

Brett building the nesting boxes…there’s a window that will go above:

I kept painting the outside and almost finished it today except for the backside of the depot. I wanted to try and match the historical green but it came out a lot brighter than I planned. I still like it…it just reminds me of Gumby:

We started installing the vinyl floor in the potting shed side this evening:

If you haven’t figured it out yet I tend to go a little overboard on the DIY sometimes. I went to Michaels a few days ago to stock up on wood signs and crates and a few plants and jars. The woman ringing me up asked if I was opening up a new store or something. I told her I was working on a chicken coop. She told me all about her chickens growing up. A woman who overheard the conversation started talking to me about her chicken coop and chickens in the parking lot. I’m finding kindred chicken spirits all over the place. There are dog and cat people….and then there are chicken people.

FoShizzle is so excited about her new home….I’ve told her all about it:

(You can follow FoShizzle on Instagram here.)

A big thanks to Lowe’s for being a part of this project! All our wood supplies, paint and flooring came from Lowe’s Home Improvement.