Santa's Workshop is Now Open

It's official Santa's little elves are hard at work at the Hutchings home. Jayna loves little play kitchens and since she does not have one of her own to play with at home we decided that is what we would get her for Christmas this year. Shhhh!


Of course you know me I couldn't just go out and buy one...So this is post one of the home-made play kitchen we are making Jayna for Christmas.

Straight From the Factory

Don't you just love this nightstand I bought for Jayna's big girl room I am working on? The color is great and the finish is factory perfect. You know you can make and refinish furniture, but the finish and quality of already made store bought furniture is way superior.

NOT!!!

That is just a $10 yard sale find that I painted.

This post is going to rock your painting world...

My Achy Breaky Heart

Now I know it is not Valentines Day or even close to it, but hearts have been on my mind as of late. I feel like I have fallen off of the Blogging World these last couple of months. There have been lots off life things going on that have been occupying the part of my brain that used to be dedicated to blogging. On-top of all that I have had some unexpected health issues. I have 5 million issues as is that I am working on, but the other week by heart started acting up and was racing and skipping beats. So after an EKG and emergency cardiologist appointment. I ended up on a heart monitor for 24 hours and had an uncomfortable tiring week to say the least. 

Thanks to my wonderful husband and brother-in-law I made it through and feel like I am slowly recovering and coming back to life. My husband even witnessed that I am life force of the house when he saw that as soon as "Mom" went down the garden started to die, the fresh cut flowers on the dinning room table wilted, and everything else went to pot. I told him it was kinda like Avatar. 


So to top off this post I thought it would be appropriate to include a tutorial I found for a cute little heart pin you can easily make with craft scraps. So here is to Hearts and all that they do for us. I know I am more grateful for mine now.

Lemonade Anyone?

The Lemonade stand went well last week with the girls. The weather cleared up just long enough for us to get a good hour of selling in. Only two out of thirteen girls showed up, but I am sure it was because a lot of them probably thought it was cancelled due to the weather. When life gives you Lemons you just make Lemonade though right? Or in this case Rosemary Lemonade and Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!

Crab Boil!

While my parents were in-town in July I decided to do a crab boil just for fun. It was a big hit and a blast to do. In-fact since then we have already done it again with some friends of ours.

June Giveaway: Frog Tape

 Giveaway!

The winner of the Giveaway will receive a Frog Tape gift bag that includes two rolls of Frog Tape, and a Frog Tape T-shirt and Tote.

 FrogTape® is the only painter’s tape treated with PaintBlock® Technology. PaintBlock is a super-absorbent polymer which reacts with latex paint and instantly gels to form a micro-barrier that seals the edges of the tape, preventing paint bleed.

To enter Giveaway click "Read More" for further details.

Daddy O Ideas: Video Flip Book Tutorial

Fathers Day is coming up soon so I wanted to share some fun gift ideas I found via Martha. I added my own little twist to some of them and a tutorial so 
"Read On".

Pantry Makeover & Cansolidator Giveaway!

Cansolidator Giveaway!
Giveaway is now Closed

The winner of this Giveaway will receive a Shelf Reliance Cansolidator of their choice.

Featuring SmarTrac technology, the Cansolidators are a front-loading system that automatically rotate up to 60 cans. The adjustable, expandable, stackable system takes the hassle out of can rotation and allows you to organize cans the way YOU want. The Cansolidators are easy to assemble and guarantee a more organized pantry in minutes. Sturdy, compact, and reliable, the Cansolidators are the perfect stand-alone solution for any pantry.

To enter this Giveaway and see my pantry makeover and experience with Shelf Reliances Cansolidator System click the Read more button below.

Signage 101: "A" Frame Wood Chalkboard Sign Tutorial

 Sometimes I come up with some crazy, but perfect last minute ideas and this was no exception.

 Last Saturday we were trying to figure out what kind of signs we were going to put out on the street corners for the Bake Sale, and after calling a couple of print places we decided we did not want to pay $7.00 each for a blown-up versions of the flier. Left with no other ideas I told Ryan that I would just rather make signs. He was not too in-favor of the idea, but I assured him it would be do-able and that I would be-able to use the signs again. Some elbow grease and $50.00 (so long to $7.00 each) later I had my signs and they are just how I envisioned. 

I LOVE THEM!

Bread Bowls

Last week while the weather was cold I decided to make chili since it seemed like winter here. Can you believe it, chili in April! 

I found a great recipe on a childhood friends blog for homemade bread bowls and decided to try my hand at it. The bowls turned out great and tasted sooooo good. They were easy to make, and added that little extra something to our meal. 

Semiprecious Candies

I am gearing up for next weekends Bake Sale and have one more item to sell checked off my list. 

I made these cute bags of candy jewels with custom labels to match my Bake Sale flyers. 

A Little Urban Is On It's Way!

Spring left us her in Utah on Tuesday and hopefully will be back by Saturday. Until it returns I feel like just watching movies with the Jayna Berry (who has a stuffy nose) and shopping online instead of going out. 


Click the Read More button to see what I found!

And the Winner is... / April Giveaway

Jessica Hills from A Few of My Favorite Things !

Jessica is a fellow Salt Lake City mommy-blogger and a part-time photographer. 

Utah Shopping "Flight" Map

With all the new changes to my blog I was not sure if you all noticed the new button I have added

This Utah Shopping Map includes all my favorite shopping destinations and secrets. I will continue adding to it and will update each location with photos and possibly even some video as I go visit them again. I tried to make the location descriptions as informative and interesting as possible so I encourage you to read them. 

Let me know what you think of the map and if it was helpful for you. I love feed-back so I can make my blog better for YOU. 

Hope you enjoy the new blog feature, and hopefully I will see you around town!

Blog Makeover

the Bird and the Berry will be getting a blog makeover soon. I am excited about the changes, but nervous. I hope you all like the new design. I do everything myself and am by no means a pro, but really love dabbling and playing with it. I am hoping to change everything over by the end of this week. That is if the stars align and I find enough time to do it. 

Here is a little sneak peek of what some of the blog elements will look like. 

Let me know what you think?

Cowgirl Cookie Mix

I am busy working on making these wonderful cowgirl cookie mixes from Bakerella for my Bake Sale coming up next month. I am trying to make it easy on myself since I will be the only on baking for it. I thought these would make a great Mother Day treat too, since the Bake Sale will be right before Mothers Day. Now I just need to print her labels out and slap them on the jars and I am done. So fun and easy! See you tomorrow!

Bakerella has full instructions on how to assemble and make this cookie mix if you are interested in making them yourself.

Our First Giveaway!

I am so excited to be announcing that the Bird and the Berry will be having its first giveaway next month! Brought to you by my sponsor

I will be giving away a half gallon bottle of citristrip gel.

Which is a powerful, industrial-strength remover. It is easy to use because it stays wet and active for up to 24 hours, allowing stripping of multiple layers in one step. It contains no methylene chloride, is non-caustic and is safe for indoor use. This special orange stripper has a pleasant citrus scent and is also biodegradable. I have used it for many of my projects and have talked about it on the blog before. I am so excited for one lucky reader to be able to try it out! Citristrip products are available for purchase at both The Home Depot and Lowe's and can be purchased online at The Home Depot.

The giveaway will start on April 12th and end on April 17th at midnight. You can secure one entry for this giveaway RIGHT NOW by becoming a follower of this blog (button located in the side bar).

More information on rules and how to gain other entries for this giveaway will be provided in the official contest post on April 12th.

Bake Sale Baby!

I keep forgetting to share this on the blog. Awhile back the Husband and I decided that we wanted to take a trip to Southern California this summer. We had even more incentive since Disney was doing their day of service campaign, where if you signed up to do a day of service with a registered organization you could get free tickets to one of their theme parks. So I got online and signed up for a day of service that sounded right up my alley. A Bake Sale! It is a bake sale with Bake for Hope, which benefits Susan G Komen for the Cure. Anyone can be apart of it and you can make it as big or little a deal as you would like. We are going to be holding ours for our neighborhood and are just going to set-up in the front yard.

I plan on passing these flyers out door to door a couple days before the bake sale and then baking my little heart out and hoping for the best.

I really want the husband to make this for me for the bake sale (I found it online, but can't remember where, sorry). Out-look not so good though. When I told him what my ideas were he just looked at me and said "I might as-well just buy our Disney Land tickets". Which would probably be true if I did everything I wanted to. I just have big visions. Hopefully I can scale back a bit, but still have the cutest Bake Sale the neighborhood has ever seen. Mark my words though one day I will build that. Jayna would love it, and so would I.

Side Note: You have to know how many projects my husband helps with and does. He makes all my visions and dreams come true. We are always teasing each other and anything I say about him is all in good fun. Just wanted you to get the tone I was saying that in.

I plan on mostly making cupcakes.

Then having fun side things like chocolate dipped pretzels with sprinkles, bags of candied jewels, maybe some cake pops, jars of pre-made cookie mix, etc.

I just hope people come. So come if you would like.

*For information on where and when the bake sale will be, or files for the flyer shown in this post click here.

I Am Ready To Feature Your Projects!

I am finally ready to feature your projects! I am super excite to see what you have to share, and what you have been up-to.

To have your projects featured on the Bird and the Berry simply click on the logo that looks like this on the top portion of the side bar...
Fill out the quick and easy form and your project will be submitted for review to be featured on the Bird and the Berry.

Who knows maybe one day soon I will have one of those link parties.

Knock Off Wood

If you have not heard of the Blog Knock Off Wood you need to get with it. In my opinion it is the biggest thing to hit the DIY Blogging world in a long time.

Ana of Knock Off Wood an Alaskan mommy and wife to a carpenter handy-man took things into her own hands one day when her husband wasn't getting around to fixing some porch steps, and just fixed them herself. Ana has been doing woodworking ever since and now her passion for knocking off high end furniture lines (hmm hmm Pottery Barn hmm hmm) has spilled over into the blog world and is inspiring everyone. Ana has full how to plans for beds, dressers, dining-room tables, office systems and more available on her blog, for get this... FREE!

My list of things to build off her site is a mile long. Starting with all the furniture for my soon to be craft-room of my dreams. However I did see this cute little kids picnic bench on her site and had to build it for Jayna.

It was a great starter project to get my feet wet, and went fairly well. I only needed the Husbands help to cute four pieces, and am sure that what I learned while doing this project will just make me better on the next. It is all about not underestimating yourself or your abilities, and that could be the single reason why Ana's blog is so popular.

I have already ordered my Milk Paint and Exterior Top-Coat in Buttermilk Yellow for the picnic bench, and with the help of Jayna have already distressed it a little. I didn't know a two year old could do such damage banging an old hinge on wood. Oh-well.

I encourage you to check out her blog, but only if you are ready to triple your to do list.