Honey bees and beekeeping

Braving all the oak pollen this weekend my dad and I took a class about honey bees and beginner beekeeping. I'd really wanted to learn about it ever since I read a book when I was much younger called The Moorchild. Then I read The Secret Life of Bees. Plus honey bees have been dying and desperately need help. I love Burt's Bees lip-gloss and chewing on the beeswax in the honey bottles. All that made me realize that it would be so awesome to at least look into keeping bees but I honestly never thought I'd get the opportunity to do that.

Look at that honeycomb!

When I saw the class I jumped at the opportunity. We learned about:

• good online sources to read about beekeeping (such as the American Bee Journal)
• all the things we need to house honey bees
• how to light and fuel the smoker
• how to protect ourselves from stings when opening the hives
• when & how to harvest the honey and beeswax

The hive, smoker, and veil (bottom right).

They did a few drawings and I won a milkweek plant! Here's some info (from http://www.butterflyencounters.com/milkweed/index.html):

Milkweed is a great plant for the garden and provides habitat for many creatures. In addition to being a host plant to the monarch butterfly, milkweed offers many other benefits:

• Milkweed flowers produce nectar that all butterfly species benefit from.
• Honey bee's take nectar from milkweed flowers. With the decline of honey bee populations in the US, planting milkweed in your garden can help to provide feeding stations as they fly between crop fields and orchards.
• Hummingbirds often use the floss from milkweed seed pods to line their nests.

My milkweed's new leaves :)

Sold! faceted aqua blue quartz pendant necklace

Sold this necklace today, to an elegant woman who is already planning her summer wardrobe! She already has an outfit in mind, too: a fabulous turquoise and white outfit...plus she already bought her shoes so I know she means business! Matching earrings are coming soon, by request. 

The faceted gems catch the light so beautifully on this one, plus I used the coolest, most ornate chain of all time so that in itself makes a statement. The necklace is 25.5 inches-long and has a front closure with a lobster clasp. The pendant is composed of seven sparkling aqua blue faceted quartz stones are located in a silver setting. The swirls in the bail and setting mimic the chain which is always a bonus!

 Look at that sexy chain!

I love the light/shadow interplay in the stones here!

Indigo Turtle: storefront selling experience

In August 2011 my mom, sister, and I found out that a family friend and her daughter had opened a  fair trade, American-/local-made store called Indigo Turtle (unfortunately it's no longer open).

They offered to let us hawk our wares as the featured artists on the night of the monthly "art walk" so we jumped at the chance! We did a ~female family members~ art showing:

• My mom brought some of her beautiful watercolor paintings. Over the years she has worked with lots of different mediums on paper, but this is her latest phase :)
• My sister brought a small sampling of her a*m*a*z*i*n*g crocheted, knitted, and origami work.
• I brought a dozen or so necklaces, of all different stone materials, metal types, and lengths.

 Love stores like this! I can't help ducking into them even if I am pressed for time.

Our table spread: watercolors; knitted,crocheted, and origami items; and jewelry.

We took turns manning the table and reconvened over some freshly made pizza later in the evening. It was really great catching up on old and new times while strolling around and looking at all the other shops and local-made items. It was also nice being able to talk with people who came into the shop; a personal experience that's different from selling online.

At the end of the night our hosts kindly let us leave our things in the shop and, to my surprise, all my items sold over the next month or so! Talk about motivational! Some really unique stuff was there: memory wire necklaces, foiled-glass hearts, floral beads, turquoise, fire crab agate, goldstone....ummm I don't even know any more! I know I have close-up pictures of some of them but I think they're on a different computer. I'll try to hunt them up and post here.

Cutest thank you note EVER

A woman at my work asked me if I could fix her young son's necklace; it had broken the day before and he was so sad. Of course I had to help!!

It was a very rugged hook-shaped pendant on a braided cord and one end of the cord had pulled out of the clasp. 

I fixed it and returned it: end of transaction, right? Wrong!

I got the cutest thank you card back and have posted some images below. It's my first rel-life thank you card for anything jewelry-related so it's very special to me.

 Me, handing back the fixed necklace :)

"Thank you for fixing my neckeles."