Positive Response to Newer Items

I've been fortunate enough to be featured in a few new Etsy Treasuries. I want to post them here. I hope this is not too obnoxious, but feel free to let me know if it is. I'm still in the phase where every Treasury feature feels like I've won some special award! Be sure to check out the shops of the artists included in these treasuries - You're in for a real treat. Thanks for looking.




The curator of this treasury is Distinctive Decor. You can visit her shop here.



Curated by Shanali Designs



Curated by Carol Annie Poo

The Only Peas I Love

Hi. Here's the latest Etsy Treasury I put together. Take time to check out the shops I've included.

Treasuries

It is a great honor to be included in Etsy treasuries. It means someone has seen my work and liked it enough to include it with 15 other favorites. I'm always happy and pleasantly surprised when someone has taken the time to acknowledge me in this way.

Here are a couple of treasuries I've been included in lately. Please take time to visit the shops that are represented.

Bee Hive Construction Part One

This is my first bee hive.  It looks different than one might think. That's because I have to actually build it.  We worked on building one in "bee class", so apparently that "experience" made me think I was an expert in bee hive building. What I forgot was, I had the assistance of 3 men in my group, 2 instructors for the class and a number of fellow students who were also building the hives. The other thing I forgot is that I didn't actually build an entire hive, just the little inserts where the honey is made.

Oh. And I lost my instructions.

This is the bee hive lid, filled with 40+ pieces of wood.

More pieces to put together.

All of these wood pieces were quite interesting to my "helper" (aka Russell)

In this photo Russell is chewing on a stick from a tree not from the hive. But I had to chase him away several times to keep him from gnawing on all the small pieces of wood. He was kind of obsessed. He did finally get a piece of wood, while my attention was focused elsewhere (like trying to figure out which nails I was supposed to be using and the fact that there seemed to be a lot fewer pieces when we did this in class). Luckily, I caught him before he totally destroyed the wood. I won't know for sure how much damage was done until I put that part of the hive together.

Here's another shot of Russell's "helpfulness". I was starting to feel a little stressed about this project, so I decided for the health and well being of our relationship, he needed to spend a little quiet time in his kennel. He was ok with that, he was more comfortable in the kennel than in this hive box lid anyway!

After a couple of hours, one smashed thumb, (I'm proud to say that I didn't even cuss and I could have. The kids were at school and no one would've heard, but I suffered the pain in silence), several nails and a few ounces of wood glue later, this is what I had finished....

And these are the pieces I have yet to put together:

I was expecting I would be able to accomplish more than I did. Maybe I need to fire my helper and find someone who knows a thing or two about building? Stay tuned for hive building part 2. Hopefully, I'll actually be able to finish it!

We're Home!

We arrived home Sunday night around 8:30. The trip to California was wonderful. Our last night was spent visiting Cline Cellars for a tour and wine tasting. Afterward we went to Vineyard's Inn where we experienced a Basque style, seven course meal that was fabulous and included much, much more wine. It was just a wine-a-thon kind of day/evening.

Here are my photos of the day:

These were floor to ceiling antique barrels that are currently used for wine storage. They were huge and beautiful.

Wine barrels in storage. There were several rows of these barrels - pretty amazing that there could be that much wine in one place.

For some reason I cannot resist photos/paintings or other art showing poppies. I love poppies and these just happened to be at the winery. What's a girl to do? I had to shoot some photos!

A photo of the vineyard at Cline Cellars, with a cover crop in between the rows of grape vines. I think the cover crop is mustard - it's lovely, isn't it?

Another shot of the vineyard with one of the winery buildings in the background. It was a great day and the scenery here was beautiful. Our tour guide Darryl, did a great job showing us around and teaching us how to taste wine. It's a lot different than my college days when I would buy a $1.99 screw top bottle of TJ Swan Easy Nights and think it was good!