My husband’s been working hard the past couple of weeks building the new Chicken Palace for our 5 birds who have quickly outgrown the coop we bought locally. Scott designed the entire coop on paper and then on transfering the plan to Google Sketchup for a 3D model. It’s pretty darn cool – and I’ll let him share the plans with you in detail himself – he’s taken step by step photos of the coop – everything from pouring the concrete to the littlest details (I think he’s planning a solar powered door for the coop – eeeek! how cool!).

It’s nearly finished – the hens will move into their palace on Wednesday. I think we should have some kind of housewarming party for them or something! They love squirmy worms, flopping minnows and popcorn. Yum.

This weekend, I hosted a little girly get together ‘n sleepover with The Little Kitchen, Bev Cooks and The Novice Chef – the three of them got me started on Instagram! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to join this little community – and start using my crazy-expensive iPhone more than just to play Angry Birds.

(Oh yes, all the deets on girls weekend are in another post — I wouldn’t leave ya hanging like that)

All of the photos were taken from my iPhone:

The boys! I used Instagram’s filters to create this effect.

Nathan stickin’ his head in the chicken coop door (yes, the floor of the coop is lined with those sticky tiles to make cleanup easier….see, I told you this was a palace!)

Scott took this pic with his iPhone and I edited with Noir app that Diane had recommended for B&W photos.

Went fishing this weekend in our pond and Andrew caught bait an itty bitty fish. This was edited with Instagram or Picture Show app (I don’t remember)

And finally, the collage – created with PicFrame app that Jessica recommended. All done with the iPhone!

Fierce chicken. I think Oreo’s PMS’ing.