HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I almost forgot to blog "HAPPY NEW YEAR" to all of you in cyberland. I cannot believe it is already New Years Eve. I'm not one for cocktails or clubbing, the hubby and I don't care for alcohol and big crowds, so we are hunkered down at home for the night with the kids. Possibly sitting up til midnight to watch that ball thingy come down in New York City (not sure exactly why we do that).

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SUICIDE AND BEE POOP

I had the luxury today of witnessing some bee suicide or maybe it was bee eviction and a little bit of bee poop. Is that a luxury?? Oh well, for a beekeeper it is. 

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DON'T BANG ON THE BEE BOX

Just in case you are wondering, I don't call it a hive anymore, it is the "bee box" and today I learned that banging on it isn't the wisest thing to do. (Yes, I was thinking maybe some very loud humming not organized military attack).

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I hope everyone out in cyberland has a beautiful Christmas and a joy filled new year!

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THE GRAVEYARD

Our little patch of dead bees has come to be known as the graveyard, which is what it feels like I am seeing everytime I visit the hive lately. At present my hive is half covered in snow which I need to deal with. These cold snowy days are serious cause for concern since long winters tend not to be any survival

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CAN YOU SEE THE DEER

In my neighbors yard

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SOAPMAKING JOURNAL

A couple years ago I posted a page from my soap making journal for others in case anyone keeps track of their recipes and experience. I thought I'd resurrect that post in case others are interested in keeping track of their recipes and experiences with soapmaking without the hassle of drawing up your own journal.

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UNDER THE WILLOW GIFTS

My dear friend Carrie over at Under the Willow Gifts makes the most awesome products that each year or throughout I always need to get my hands on some. I can't blog about what I purchased too much right now as I've ordered these for Christmas gifts and the recipients read this blog but I couldn't contain my excitement so I wanted to say at least this... 

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BEE DRAMA ON A COLD WINTERS DAY

Last night we ended up with several inches of newly fallen snow and although I could see the white piling up around my hive, it would do no good to get out in the middle of the night to uncover it, so this morning I put on my knee high boots and trudged out to the hive. 

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TROUBLESHOOTING SOAP DISASTER

I have been making soap for several years now and I thought I'd seen or heard of everything in the soap world but yesterday I uncovered a batch of soap and was surprised at what I saw. The soap had pulled away from the edges of the mold and turned almost rock solid. It reminds me of chocolate bark, the kind with the almonds in it. The soap isnt caustic, I can wash with it and it feels soft on my skin but it is hard hard hard. It can't be cut. I attempted to cut with my circle cutter and the soap split and the edges crumbled. Anyone know what happened?

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DON'T LEAVE HOME NOW!

One of my girls left the hive but didn't make it back. I'm assuming it was recent because she isn't covered in snow. My daughter found her in the driveway, quite far from her hive, so I don't think she left her home to die but maybe came out when the sun was shining but got too cold??? Whatever the reason, it is always sad to see them like this but it's natural nonetheless.

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ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

Actually, it is soap. I love this iridescent glitter from brambleberry and I am looking forward to buying some of the newbies she is selling. Have you seen the little stars? I have posted the before and after photo in hopes you can see the glitter better. It was added on the second pic. 

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BEES DON'T FREEZE, THEY STARVE!

Although I took 16 hrs of "Beekeeping in Northern Climates" course back in March I find that I've forgotten most things about honeybees. Like remembering the fact that they don't freeze but instead starve to death in the winter. Why the black cardboard box to warm them up on sunny days then? Well, because, the warmer they are the less honey they consume. Ooooooh, yeah... Oh yeah?? Ok, now I'm lost.

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WINTER IS HERE

And it is beautiful!

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CUPCAKE BATH FIZZIE HOLDER TUTORIAL

Can you tell I'm feeling paper crafty lately?

I have my phases and this months phase is paper. I was trying to find a small box pattern when I came across a blog with this box holding a a washcloth cupcake (very cute). 

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LIPBALM HOLDER TUTORIAL

I was walking through the MOA this afternoon when I saw this cute itty bitty bag holding a lip balm tin. I thought the bag was uber cute so I bought it, took it home and disassembled the bag so I could make the template. I'm not a big fan of lipbalm in tins but I do make natural perfume oils that I put into flat tins and therefore, I'm turning these into stocking stuffer gifts.

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LATE POST: HONEY EXTRACTION TIME

Wow! Is this post going to be out of order. I should be blogging about my bees getting ready for winter but I finally found the charger to my camera so I'm able to talk about the honey extraction I was invited to observe this fall.

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UNDERSTANDING TERMS ON A LABEL ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH ANYMORE

Organic
All Natural

Those terms on a label seem pretty clear, right? Don't be too sure.

Over the years, struggling to understand ingredient lists, reading what I can on how things are processed, whether or not something starts natural and remains so after processing, how products earn their "organic" labels, so on and so forth, I've learned that just being able to read a label and know what the ingredients are isn't good enough anymore.

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NOPE, THOSE AREN'T POTATOS

I've been wanting to make this apple butter for a while now but I tend to avoid things if I sense I may be risking failure, especially when it comes to food :( Well, I went apple picking with the intention of using some of the apples for this very purpose and it had already been over a week since we went apple picking so I figured it was time to give this yummy sounding recipe a try.

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NATURAL COLORANT FOLLOW UP

Now that I'm back to blogging I will also be back to posting about natural colorants in soapmaking. To start off I wanted to do a follow up on the natural colorants I already covered. I didn't think this was very important but recently I discovered that some soapmakers are actually claiming to have used natural

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GIFT BAGS ARE READY... HOLIDAY ORDERS ALREADY COMING!

The soap pixie is now offering handmade burlap gift bags (made by me of course). The bags contain an aromatherapy soy candle with matching scented soap. I finished up a bulk order of 20 gift bags recently and they all went over very well. The holiday orders are pouring in already and I'm very excited. Lots of bags, soap and candles to make.

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A BOOK SUGGESTION FOR THE EMOTIONAL BEEKEEPER

In my opinion, and this will probably rub some beeks the wrong way, I believe there are two kinds of beekeepers; those that have an emotional connection with their honeybees and those that don't. I'm not using this post to judge, I'm just stating what I believe is the obvious.

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I WISH I HAD THE PATIENCE...

OF A CARNIOLAN.

After Gary Reuter from the University told me it was definitely time to remove the honey super that I eagerly waited to be filled with honey (but it wasn't), I headed out to the hive. The bees have been doing their own thing for quite a while now and so I wasn't sure what type of attitude I was going to find them in

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MY HIVE TIPPED OVER!!!

Today we came home and found our hive had tipped over. At first I thought maybe some kids came through the yard and pushed it over but upon closer inspection found that the "landing strip" as I call it had actually broken apart. I noticed that it was coming apart several weeks ago but then promptly forgot about it. Well, now I've learned a valuable lesson, when said hive is looking shabby I must repair said hive or I'm going to be in deep doo doo.

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JUST AN UPDATE

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. I'm busy back at school and honestly, the bees aren't doing much of anything right now. On July 31 I added a honey super to the three hive bodies because the top hive body was filled plum full of honey. Initially I put a queen excluder between the honey super and the top hive

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TAKING A BREAK

Hey bloggers!

I've decided to take a break from this blog for a while. I'm back in school studying aromatherapy (AGAIN)... this time I'm actually getting a degree in the program instead of a certificate and therefore will be able to use it for consulting and writing purposes. Woohoo! I'll actually know what I'm talking about.

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PLEASE HELP: CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THIS?

This plant/herb is taking over my yard, choking out all the flowers and other weeds (that I actually like) but the upside to it is that my honeybees LOVE it. This is the first time I've seen hundreds of honeybees head straight over to something in my yard. They aren't the only insects in love with this plant either, there are bumble bees, wasps, and other things I can't identify. Can anyone identify this crazy plant/weed?

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NATURAL SOAP COLORANT: ALKANET ROOT

Ok, my every Friday natural colorant posts aren't working out like I planned. Life is getting in the way. So, here it is. Natural soap colorant #3... Alkanet Root. I apologize for low picture quality, I took these photographs with my cell phone.

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DOs & DON'Ts on a RESUME

One thing that I learned in college that stuck with me more than interview etiquette is how to put together a resume. You'd almost think my professors beat the "protocol" into me because I've become a very nit picky person about how resumes make a potential employee appear to potential employers. I've put together a list that doesn't include what lots of other sites have covered. These are just the things I think that most people either don't know or are confused about when they put their resume together.

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NAME THE APIARY

I've decided to name my apiary and so I need help from my readers. I am requesting that you share an apiary name in the comment section of my blog and at the end of august I will let my kids choose their favorite name from the list of comments. Whomever gives the name that is chosen will receive a bar of handmade soap and one 4 ounce aromatherapy candle. I will put up a sign with the chosen name in my apiary.

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BEE DRAWINGS BY MAYA VALADEZ

Check out the cute little bee drawings my oldest made for me.

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INTERVIEWING ETIQUETTE

I decided after talking to several people about this that I wanted to share some information on putting a resume together and doing interviews for potential employers. I am surprised how many people are not aware of interview/resume etiquette. At first I thought it was a generational gap but it turns out that many of my peers are in the dark on this. I'm going to do this in 3 separate posts. First: Interviewing etiquette. Two: The do's and don'ts on a resume. Three: The "OH NO YOU DIDN'T" Interviews I've had.

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HONEY

Although honey isn't something people usually reach for when they "think" natural colorant and I hadn't plan on blogging about it as such but I was making milk, oatmeal and honey soap this week and so I decided to include this in the blog posts on natural coloring.

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I KILLED LOTS OF BROOD TODAY!

The only thing keeping me from throwing in the towel on this beekeeping venture is thinking that the death of all these brood really wasn't my fault. My hubby likes to tease me about it but I just didn't see any other way.

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BEEKEEPING: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

While I was out weeding the backyard tonight I saw one of my bees crawling around on the ground. Odd I thought, considering she was about 4 feet from the hive. I went to pick her up and she tumbled off my glove only to land on her back. She buzzed vigorously and managed to right herself. She started walking about so I let her climb on my glove again, this time with success, all the while begging her not to sting

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HIVE INSPECTION WITH LOTS OF INTERESTING PICTURES

I'm wayyyyyyyyy too emotional to be a beekeeper. I crushed a bee and I really hate that but what makes me feel sick is the fact that things aren't going according to the book. I inspected the hive again today and things are happening that I either forgot what they mean (which is probably the case) or didn't learn (less likely the case). I found drone cells, about 5-10. More frames are FULL of honey, no queen in the third

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NATURAL SOAP COLORANT: Parsley

This week I made soap using Parlsey Powder. Parsley, as you probably already know, is commonly used as a spice in cooking. I always confuse it with cilantro even thought they really look nothing alike. I'm just goofy that way. I'm not a fan of the way parsley tastes but I like to use it when I want to color my soap

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PROPOLIS, BEESWAX, BEE POLLEN, HONEY & ROYAL JELLY

I had someone on facebook ask me about propolis and royal jelly so I thought I'd share a bit about them on my blog, as much as I know anyway. I keep hearing about all the health benefits and have looked into this a bit for myself so I'll share what I know in that area as well. I'm going to give the short version since the long version can be googled or found in several books. I'm just going to post the nitty gritty.

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HODGEPODGE POST

Some of the flowers I planted. This is butterfly weed. I thought it was so pretty growing around the lake, I decided to plant some in the yard.

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BEE YARD MANIA

It is hard to fully appreciate the scale of which my bees have multiplied in just a couple months in this picture. I video taped but the sound effects didn't transfer well. There was a nice humming sound coming from the mass of bees flying about outside the hive. I stood only 4 feet away when I took this picture but as usual because the sun was finally shined and the air was warm the bees were too busy to notice me standing there. 

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THREE STINGS AND NO CAMERA

Of course, the day I decide not to bring out the camera to the bee yard I get stung three times in my hand. Well, I did have gloves on and THANKFULLY the stingers didn't penetrate the goatskin or else I'd be in misery right now.

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THE CHAIN GANG

I just thought this was the cutest thing. The bees connecting to each other to cross frames. And here my primitive brain just figured they walked all the way to the bottom and crawled back up the other side. 

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NATURAL SOAP COLORANT: HIBISCUS

Hibiscus is my favorite natural soap colorant. Not because it creates a vibrant color in my soaps but because hibiscus has so many beneficial uses. I learned about hibiscus as a tea when I was a student living in Mexico during the early 1990's. In the town I lived in the Jamaica Tea (hibiscus) was plentiful, at every

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SOAP SWAP REPORT!

There was a great soap swap on the facebook group we "heart" soap recently, the theme was "all natural" and this is what I received.

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3rd HIVE BODY IN PLACE

June 24 I upgraded to 3 hive bodies. I know I did it prematurely. We had about 7 full frames of honey and brood and I was suppose to wait til there were 8 full frames but I was sensing that they were feeling stuffed in there. Call me crazy but it was a mothers instinct. LOL! I removed the cork from the 2nd hive

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FRIENDS, TRAVEL, CRAFT...

We recently took a small trip to the North Shore of Minnesota. Always a beautiful location to spend time in with the family.

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PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISN'T A QUEEN CELL

Although every beekeeper probably deals with this from time to time and knows exactly what it means and how to handle it, for me it means only one thing... MY BEES ARE GOING TO SWARM!

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IS A BEEKEEPER EVER PREPARED?

Today was not one of my "shining moments" as a beekeeper. Part of it is, I'm on edge. Why? Not too sure but the nice weather and my moods are not coinciding. Maybe it's because it has been 11 days since I checked on the girls I feel like I've lost the touch. Whatever it may be, I sense my girls are losing faith. Lots of buzzing when normally they are grinning ear to ear (if they had them) and quiet as can be.

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BAD DREAMS MAKE FOR BAD FEELINGS

I had a dream last night that I went to check on my bees and all but a few had swarmed. Although I don't think that a swarm would leave me with just 5 bees, it was a disturbing dream. I felt defeated and woke up feeling the same.

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THE BEES ARE IN A TIZZY

Not sure what woke them up but they are very awake this afternoon. I almost forgot that I had bees until today. They've been so quiet, not really showing signs of "business as usual". Coming and goings as normal but no big cluster of bees rushing out to greet the sunshine as I've seen in the past. I didn't worry

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