☆ Giveaway - Come See ☆

One of my etsy.com teams is having a wonderful giveaway ! Teams are ways for people to come together for fun and promotion of their etsy shops. These items are available for free, including a pair of my coasters.

More details about how to enter are posted on the Create Crochet Team's blog. The bath set is made by PeanutandTommy, the hand spun bamboo yarn is from HandmadeSunshine, and the $10 gift certificate is from JBCrochetDelights. 

Come on over to their blog and enter to win these great items !! 

♪ Patriotic Flowers ♪

Here are the flower magnets I made from the red white and blue crochet cotton  ->

They are about 1.75" wide, and come in two types of flowers. I like how the center colors match the petals. 

They remind me of 1976 (yes, I'm old). I was in high school then, and to celebrate the US bicentennial I made a red white and blue decoration from a clam shell and glossy fingernail polish.  I painted the inside to look like a flag, then put a bunch of clear nail polish over it. I thought it looked cool. 

Stop in to my etsy shop to see these magnets and a couple other styles I have on sale.

✈ 18,000 Bees ✈

It is official - the bees have arrived here at the farm !!

My husband has been building the hives all this past week, in preparation for today's bee package delivery. We explored YouTube last night to watch helpful movies of other people 'installing' their new bees. I was amazed at how little protection people wore while working with the bees - many wore no gloves and even short sleeve shirts !

We were worried that the bees would be stuck in the mountains and miss the planned delivery schedule. Colorado received a bunch of snow and rain these past few days, with major highways getting closed over the mountain passes. The bees were being brought to Northern Colorado from Utah, so weather could have slowed their progress. Luckily, the delivery man arrived where he was supposed to this morning, and we received two full boxes (or packages) of bees.

Each box has about 8000 bees and one queen. She rides in a small box separate from the other bees. Later when they are all in the hive, the bees free the queen from her tiny box by eating out a marshmellow that is stuck in the small portal hole. It looks like all our bees got to us safely !

The hives are pretty complex arrangements. The bottom two boxes (or supers) hold vertically hanging frames. They contain the wax where the bees will make honey combs. The middle box holds a bottle with sugar water. We need to feed the bees for awhile until they make honey to eat. The top 2 boxes hold more frames that we will take honey from. The bees get some, and we get some - perfect !! Here is a picture of one box, with some frames hanging in it:

I'll try to get more pictures of the bees and the queen over time, so check back for more about our first adventure with bees !!

♫ Sprout Update ♫

My sweet potato in the window is actually growing leaves !! Here is how the spud looks today:

It has some roots floating in the water, and a few sprouts of deep colored leaves. I hope they turn light green !! Isn't spring a wonderful and exciting time, with all the plants coming to life ??

Patriotic Colors

Recently a customer asked me if I had patriotic colored flower magnets available. I love it when someone gives me a great idea to try !! 

With just a little searching, I found these spools of crochet cotton thread. I think I'll add a strand of white in the center, then use this multi-color for the petals. Or maybe I will make them all from the red, white and blue. As with most things I make, a bit of experimenting will need to take place before I settle on one design.

Look for these patriotic flower magnets in my etsy shop in a few weeks.