Bee's Buzzings

Where is Tivo for Life??? LOL

I almost started this post by saying, 'it was another busy day' - but realized everyone is busy these days, and also that I'm tired of sounding like a broken record.  :)

Kristi (almost 15 - not that she lets me forget it!) flew back home after a glorious week with my sister and her family.  She was pampered at every turn and I can only say that it will be a rude awakening coming back home to Mom, who hasn't done as much with her in a year as Aunt Meri did with her in just a week! One saving grace is that while she was gone, I finally ordered her new bedding from Delia's.  Looks like I'll be repainting her room once she gets it clean!  Anyway, the plane was about 80 minutes late taking off, which had me just a bit unnerved.  But she arrived just fine, explained that there was bad weather to content with, and was glad to see me.

We did have to rush home since the washing machine repair man was coming back for a second visit.  As you might recall, they were out last Thursday to fix it, and I had managed an entire 5 loads of laundry before the spin cycle stopped working once again.    It stinks that this happened during my so called vacation - but I'm also thankful that we only had 3 people generating dirty clothing instead of the usual 6. 

As the washer was being fixed, I was packing up some orders.  I'm embarrassed to admit that for the second time in 10 days I shipped items without postage.  Jim took them to the regional post office for me, and within minutes of him dropping them in the box, I'd called to ask if it was too late.  Where is Tivo when I need it??  LOL  Seriously though, I have to learn to take things one step at a time instead of trying to do 5 things at once!!  (and note to Kim - your package was one of the two packages without stamps affixed - which means I'll get it back by Friday and will have to re-ship.  I'm SO sorry!!!) :(

Tomorrow I'm off to Notorious Nellie's again, with another armful of pendants and other goodies for their shop.  When I talked to Corey today I was surprised to hear that they already knew about my speckled Fish Pendants!  A customer had mentioned seeing them (here or in my shop?) so word gets around quickly.  That was a highlight of my day!

Kristi wanted to spend some time with her dad tonight, so Jim and I decided to go out to dinner at the Dock Cafe.  It was a wonderful meal, and we sat outside and relaxed watching the boats along the St. Croix River.  I had a chicken Caesar salad, and he had a chicken sandwich and we shared an appetizer of bruschetta.  Yum!

Hope you had a great day - and would love to hear how the Fitness Group is doing - I'm down a couple of pounds this past week, and also logged 12 miles of walking :)

have a great night!!  ~ Bee

One Fish . . . Two Fish

. . .

Red Fish


Blue Fish


I'm loving these new additions to the BeeDazzles pendant line!!  They're all hand painted, one of a kind, and will be 'swimming' into the the shop in the next day or so.  Will be supplying Notorious Nellie's Handcrafted Goodness with a handful of these, as well.

 

The whimsical designs made me so happy, I decided to turn out some more bird pendants with the same sweet (almost festive!) feel.



Aren't these just the sweetest??   Even my oldest daughter loves them to pieces :)

After spending the better part of the weekend pendant-making, Jim and I decided to head into the gorgeous town of Stillwater for a picnic dinner at Pioneer Park.   I made "Chipotle-style" steak and bean wraps, and we shared a romaine salad with feta cheese and pico de gallo.  Delicious!!  And the overlook onto the river was just magnificent, as always.  One of our favorite spots :)

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend & have a wonderful week ahead!

Pssst - Note Fitness Group :)

Hope everyone is doing well & enjoying the summer!!  Just a quick note to remind you to post your Fitness Results here:

1.  Results since June 15
Current phase is June 15 - August 15.  Rewards are a $10 shop credit for 3-4 pounds and $20 credit for 5 pounds or more.

2.  If I still owe you items from the May 15-June 15 phase
Just put an order through the shop (it's easier for me to track this way).  I think it was $10 for 1-2 pounds and $20 for 3 or more pounds.  Mention your credit in Message to Seller at checkout and I'll send you a revised invoice (or mark the order PAID if it's less than your credit).

Have a great weekend!!!

Latest Winner Announced!!

Congratulations to Barbara!!   

The Random Number Generator selected Barbara's July 6th entry for the last contest period winner (out of 57 eligible entries)! 

The latest contest began July 15th and will run until July 30th.  And remember - the first 3 people to comment on THIS post get an additional 5 entries. Barbara was one of the first to comment after the last winner was announced, and one of her 5 bonus entries was the winning number! 

Contests end on the 30/31st and 15th of each month, with one winner selected randomly from all entries (aka post comments) during the two week period.  You may comment once on each blog post during that time and receive an entry for each comment.  And comments on ANY posts during the contest period count - even if they posted several days ago :)

* Note to Barbara - please select any $18 or under pendant and email your selection, or receive an $18 credit towards any purchase at BeeDazzlesGifts shop or BeeDazzles art shop (wait for a revised invoice if the total amount is greater than $18.)

My thanks to all of you for reading Bee's Buzzings and posting comments :)

hugs!
Bee

Lazy Days of Summer . . . ??

This is a week I'd been anticipating for quite a while.  Danielle and Josh are with their mom in Florida, Kristi is spending a week in Virginia with my sister, and Katie is with her dad until Friday. 

But my three days without kids hasn't started out quite the way I'd planned . . . last night Katie called to say she couldn't get her key to turn in her car's ignition (her dad is now dealing with this, but she'll have my car all day tomorrow) and then first thing this morning while doing laundry I suddenly realized that the spin cycle on our 6 month old washing machine had failed to engage.  Pulling our flannel sheets out, they were MUCH heavier.  To the tune of soaking wet and therefore taking several hours to dry separately.  Sigh . . .

Keeping a stiff upper lip and refusing to give in to despair, I lathered on sunscreen and went for my 2 mile walk - both to clear my head and think positive thoughts.  But a half mile from home the sunscreen started getting into one eye, and then the other, so I had to turn around and walk back with my eyes mostly squished shut and burning tears running down my face.  One small consolation was that none of the neighbors were out - that would have required stopping to explain, LOL.  Oh, and thank goodness for sunglasses :)

Needless to say I took the afternoon off.  Well, other than trying to get through all the wet sheets and other clothes.   Sometimes it's actually nice when things are slow at the shop!

Hoping your day went better than mine!!

. . . enjoying a glass of wine, and off to bed in hopes that tomorrow turns out differently :)

p.s. The July 15 Free Pendant winner will be announced tomorrow !!!

Hand Painted Bird Art Pendant Necklaces !!!

It was a wonderful, productive, yet also very relaxing weekend here.  Managed to get about 40 pendants made and caught up on many non-shop issues.  Life is good.

As for the bird pendants - here they are totally finished!  I so love how these sweet little goodies turned out!!  They're about 1 1/2" wide and only 3/4" tall, a perfect size to go with just about anything :)

And the other Available Colors:


And the Necklace Details.

News, and New Things :)

I am very excited!!  BeeDazzles items will now be in THREE retail shops:

At Harpers Fabulous Finds
Spring, Texas

Notorious Nellie's Handcrafted Goodness
Stillwater, Minnesota

Truly
White Bear Lake, Minnesota



And here is a sneak peek at some of my latest work - little 1 1/4" hand painted birdies, which will be made into pendants and will appear in the shop in very limited quantities sometime this weekend!

Happy Friday everyone, and hope you're having a great day!!

~ Bee

Gardening Efforts - better late than never :)

This summer, in an attempt to simplify life, I bypassed adding any new flowers to our gardens.  All the usual containers have been filled (the big flower box outside my laundry room window, the container by the garage doors (left) and the containers on the front porch) and daily weeding is being done, but the result is far neater garden beds since this has freed up a considerable amount of time to keep existing perennials tidy. 

The trade off?  Less color and variety in the beds, but that's something I can live with - especially considering the first Minnesota frost about 10 weeks away, LOL. 

Hope your Wednesday has been a great one!!  ~ Bee  :)    

Summer Storms in Minnesota

. . . are just one of the MANY reasons I love living in Minnesota so much.  In addition the the thousands of lakes, and more golf courses per capita than any other state, the storms out here are just incredible! 


Isn't this photo I took about 10 minutes ago off our back deck just amazing??  Sometimes I think I should have pursued a career in meteorology.

Off to post before our ISP gets knocked off line (it's about to start POURING!)   :)

TWO Winners Announced :)

Congratulations to Nicole and Dianne!!   

The Random Number Generator selected Nicole's June 9th entry and Dianne's June 30th entry for the last two contest period winners! 

The latest contest began July 1st and will run until July 15th.  And remember - the first 3 people to comment on THIS post get an additional 5 entries. Nicole was one of the first to comment after the last winner was announced, and one of her 5 bonus entries was the winning number! 

Contests end on the 30/31st and 15th of each month, with one winner selected randomly from all entries (aka post comments) during the two week period.  You may comment once on each blog post during that time and receive an entry for each comment.  And comments on ANY posts during the contest period count - even if they posted several days ago :)

Note to Nicole and Dianne: Please email me your selection (a pendant or $15 worth of shop merchandise) OR place a shop order in either of the BeeDazzles Etsy shops and receive an $18 credit ($3 extra to cover shipping charges.) If you choose to place an order, here are the links BeeDazzlesGifts and BeeDazzles - and wait for an adjusted invoice before paying.   

Note to Kelly Rowe: Your pendant is finally going out tomorrow!  Sorry for the delay (just starting to get caught up from the crazy June we had around here!!)  I had planned on shipping it before we left for our vacation, and it ended up mixed in with a bunch of papers!!

Note to Diane K: Your recipe sounds delicious (and healthy!!)  The pasta salad recipe I use calls for tri colored pasta, zesty Italian dressing (I use 1/2 fat free and 1/2 regular), cherry tomatoes, finely cubed cheese and finely chopped broccoli.  I add a ton of broccoli since I can get a lot more in since it's cut up so small (use a food chopper) and the kids don't seem to mind.  Also, oregano, garlic, grated parmesan cheese and coarse, ground pepper!  Yum :)

And finally, a Note to BeeMom: Isn't it amazing what memories stand out from our past??  Didn't it take about 3-4 hours to get home that night??  Thanks to both of you for making that effort and giving all us kids such a wonderful experience!!  xoxox