Pleasing Principal Perrien (Maybe)

Probably nobody cares about my chickens and eggs as much as I do, but I thought it would be fun to incorporate some farm fresh facts into one of my projects.  I was also thinking my son, Nate - the Middle School Principal - would be proud of me for creating something educational for a change.  It only took a few minutes on the internet to learn the proper name of our Rhode Island Reds (thank you Wikipedia), a picture and a little information.

 

I printed the educational stuff on a piece of gold parchment paper:  Rhode Island Reds are the State bird of Rhode Island (imagine that!); they are hearty creatures that can lay eggs in cold temperatures (yep) and they are friendly chickens with a good nature.  I found a nice picture, straight out of the chicken coop, and an egg basket graphic I liked. I decided to make the photo a little more realistic, so I reprinted it on photo paper and cut it out .

While Cole fried himself some fresh Gallus Gallus Domesticus eggs, I made a little nest out of raffia.

In the basement was hanging this old Paul Whitney Hunter print that I didn't particularly care for.  But I did like the handsome old-school-distressed frame housing it.

So I tore the old print apart, cut out a few more eggy things I'd printed and slapped it all together and I didn't like it.  Blech.  It hung on the wall for a week looking like this.  I could barely handle it.

What it needed was chicken wire!  Fortunately we have a nice stash of it out here.  I went for the rusty stuff instead of the shiny pristine new.

Grandma!  What BIG hands you have!  Okay, I asked for Glen's advice on how to cut the chicken wire and he just kinda took over that part of the project.  I think I could've done it, but he really is a helpful fella.

 

Once the chicken wire was cut to size, I punched holes in a piece of cardboard cut to the same size as the chicken print so I could wire it to the chicken wire. 

I wired my little nest and a piece of ribbon onto it and I was much happier with the end result.

And yes, Mr. Perrien, the next time you are here for your favorite meal, Farmer's Breakfast, there will be a test covering Rhode Island Reds.