Bees in our Backyard: Part II / Bienen in unserem Garten: Teil 2

Thanks to Lucky Pebble, I just remembered that I never told you what became of our bee project. Remeber the bees, my husband and I received as a birthday gift in April? Well, I am proud to say that they did not abandon the hive! They decided they liked it here and worked as hard as only bees can work. Sometimes I wonder if humans could solve the global warming problem if people worked on this project as hard as bees work on their projects...

We think the bee population in our top bar hive grew from around 10,000 bees to over 50,000.

Pretty cool , eh?

Along the way we did encounter some problems. For some reason the bees did not build their combs straight down from the top bars. On some bars they built multiple "sheets" of comb at a slanted angle. You can see that in the closeup picture below. There really should just be one comb per bar. This sort of messed things up because we were not able pull the bars straight up and out. The crooked "sheets" of comb needed to be cut because they were stuck together in places. In the process we had some loss of life and honey. Very frustrating.

Why are the bees building crooked comb? Any beekeepers out there? Could it be because the hive itself is not sitting straight on the ground - but slightly angled? My husband rested the hive on a couple of benches from an old picknick table.

In the other closeup you can see some unfinished honeycomb. The cells are not closed or capped off. Apparently the bees decide when the honey is at it's best and put a lid on. We opened the hive twice over the last five months. I only have pictures from the first event.

The uncapped honey was not very sweet and as tasty as the final product. The last time we opened the hive we got a few beautiful chunks of the most delicious honey comb. We did not take a lot. We want our pets to be able to survive the winter and continue their happy life in our backyard. We got ONE precious jar we will savor down to the last drop over the next few weeks.

Plus, I got some wonderful beeswas to seal the wood buttons for my doll clothes. I love our new pets. They stung only twice. Luckily the kids and I got off scott free...

New Doll Dress Design / Neues Design fuer Puppenkleid

The childhood memories of a dear customer (remembering Holly Hobbie Dolls) inspired me to make a new dress and change up my dress design a bit. I made the sleeves and pocket of the dress of a solid matching fabric. Thanks to my secret fabric fairie -I was able to create this dress from an absolutely adorable Japanese quilt fabric. It is a cheater quilt fabric in beautiful shades of purple, pink, and green.



Die Kindheitserinnerungen (die Erinnerung an Holly Hobbie Puppen) einer lieben Kundin inspirierten mich zu kleinen Veraenderungen bei meinem Puppenkleid Design. Die Aermel und Tasche fuer das Pueppkleid sind aus einem einfarbigen Material, passend zum Stoff, genaeht. Dank meiner geheimen Stoff-fee - konnte ich dieses huebsche Kleid aus einem total suessen Japanischem Stoff kreieren. Der gefaelschte Patchworkstoff ist in den Farben lila, rosa, und gruen gehalten.


And check out the cute little boots I made to match this dress! They have a darling butterfly design needlefelted to match one of patterns from the dress. For an even more realistic look the butterfly's feeler are sticking out from the dress.

Und schau mal an welch suesse kleine Stiefel - von mir passend zum Kleid gefertigt! Sie haben ein Schmetterlingsdesign, welches durch nadelfilzen entstanden ist. Die Fuehler der Schmetterling sind aufgestickt und wirken sehr realistisch.

Wood Buttons / Holzknoepfe

One would think that adding a closure to a doll dress was a snap. Well it used to be. Then along came the CPSIA laws. New consumer protections laws mandate that all children's items containing small metal parts will have to be tested for lead come February 2010. As a small business owner I cannot afford to have expensive tests done and my items destroyed in the process. So I decided to change my product.

When I make a doll dress my customers have two options to choose from: velcro or a wood button type closure. I recommend velcro for young children who still need to work on their eye-hand coordination. Also, if kids still chew on their toys, a 1/2 inch wood button might not be the right idea for them.

If you are not a great fan of velcro, like myself, you may prefer the wood buttons. I found some really attractive wood buttons on etsy. One kind of button I discovered are called tree branch buttons. They are more rustic looking. They come with a rougher outer rim of real wood bark or smooth . Tree branch buttons are thicker than your regular sort of button. They are available at the http://www.thebuttonshop.etsy.com/

Of course, if your are the crafty type, you can attempt to make buttons yourself. I drove my husband sheer crazy when I asked him to drill holes in some tiny dried up branches I collected from the oak trees in front of our house. Can you please slice and dice them up for me? What? But the patient crafter will eventually persist. After hours of hard labor I had a handfull of sweet buttons. Now that explains hight price for such things...Sigh.

It was much easier to buy another set of pretty buttons from http://www.LessMagnets.etsy.com/

They are not as cool as the tree branch kind, but almost as handsome. After I added a natural finish to them I was really pleased with myself. It was fun to add a coat of mineral oil and a layer of all natural bees wax made by our pet bees.

You can find instructions for natural wood finishes on this cool site:

www.make-baby-stuff.com

Now what kind do you prefer?

I am kind of tired. Maybe the translation of this post will follow tomorrow...

Ich bin muede. Vielleicht kommt die Uebersetzung dieses Eintrags morgen noch...

Visiting the Rockies...Bilingual / Ein Besuch in den Rockies ...Zweisprachig!

My sister came to visit this summer. We had a great time together visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park. It is about an hour's drive to the mountains from our house. Still, we hardly ever go there. Why? I don't understand. It is so beautiful in the mountains. I took some pictures to share.

My sister complained about how I hardly speak German to the children. I have been living in the US for so long. It is hard when you don't get to speak your mother tongue every day. I find more and more words are slipping from my memory and being replaced with English only. Maybe it is time to actively fight that. I will try and write more German. How about a bilingual blog, I thought. So here it goes.

For all of you who do speak German: Enjoy. And for those who don't just skip the German parts (colored in red). =)

Meine Schwester kam zu Besuch diesen Sommer. Wir hatten viel Spass bei unserem Ausflug in den Rocky Mountain National Park. Es ist ungefaehr eine Autostunde von unserem Haus bis in die Berge. Trotzdem fahren wir selten dorthin. Warum eigentlich? Ich verstehe es nicht. Es ist so schoen in den Bergen. Ich habe ein paar Bilder gemacht, um sie hier mit Euch zu teilen.

Meine Schwester beschwerte sich, weil ich so selten deutsch mit den Kindern rede. Ich lebe schon so lange in den Vereinigten Staaten. Es ist schwierig wenn man nicht jeden Tag seine Muttersprache spricht. Ich merke, dass ich immer mehr Woerter vergesse. Nach und nach werden sie mit dem Englischen allein ersetzt. Vielleicht ist es jetzt zeit diesen Verlust aktiv zu bekaempfen. Also dachte ich mir: Wie waer's mit einem zweisprachigen Blog?

Fuer alle, die hier Deutsch sprechen: Viel Spass. Und fuer diejenigen, die kein Deutsch sprechen: "Lest einfach ueber den deutschen Text (red parts) hinweg!"

How to make your own labels

A few months ago I read in the Etsy forums about the new labeling laws going into effect on August 15th. Immediately I started looking into ways to label my product and searched for label makers on Etsy. In the past I had labels on my dress-up-dolls. I ordered them from a label maker in Australia. They were the old-fashioned looking, really pretty, and high quality woven label. I remember when I first researched the market for labels I was very frustrated by the few options. Since I did not want to put a huge label on my doll, I was very limited in terms of how much information I could put on a label. Therefore my old doll labels only had my business name and my name on them.The new labeling law requires that a business put a lot more information on their product such as: Name of the Business, Address, Place Manufactured, Materials, Care Information

When I started to ask around on Etsy, I found that many label makers did not respond to my questions at all. The small label making businesses were either on vacation (due to exhaustion) or too busy with current label orders. Bigger outfits, located in Hongkong and Overseas did not respond to my questions in a serious manner. When presented with my problem they simply told me it was not possible to put all that information on a such a small label (0.5 inches by 2 inches).

Luckily I found the answer to my problem in discussions with my Etsy team. I love my Etsy team, the naturalkids team! One teammate, beccijo (http://www.theenchantedcupboard.etsy.com/), had found an alternative option. In order to solve the labeling problem for her wooden toys she contacted a stamp maker on Etsy: http://www.robertosand.etsy.com/. When I contacted Robert I found him super helpful and kind. It took about 4 convos to figure out what I needed. He managed to put ALL the information I asked for on my cool new wooden stamp. I had my stamp in hand about a week later. While waiting for my stamp, I ordered two 72 yard rolls of cotton twilltape online. I ordered two different colors: white and natural. I found the ink stood out much better on the white tape.

Next I had to figure out what ink to use. I needed something that was washable and non-toxic that would work on fabric! I found an inktype called VersaCraft. It works on fabric, wood and paper. The only drawback being that it needs to be heat-set. After stamping the twilltape with my new stamp I had to iron the tape. I washed the tape afterwards to make sure the ink did not bleed out. And voila it worked well!

I think my new labels look great. They may not be perfect since sometimes the stamping is not totally even. But why not have cool handmade labels on your cool hand made product? I think this is a great alternative to ordering expensive labels from a label maker. Do you know what they put in those labels? It may not be safe for children.

I compared prices and found that label sellers charged about 35-40 cents on average.

It cost me around $60 to buy my stamp, twill tape, and the ink pad. With these supplies I will be able to make hundreds of labels. If I want to change the information I can order a new stamp from Rob.

I hope this will encourage you to make your own label. I had a lot of fun on my first label making day!

http://www.germandolls.etsy.com/

Tea Party with Adele

Adele is a sweet little thing. She likes to have teaparties with her friends. Do you see her jumping for joy?

I made her dress of yet another irresistable fabric from Japan. I know we are in a recession but I just ordered a bit more of this fabric. It is so darn cute...

Summer Poetry...

Sorry, if I have not been around much this summer! The children and their summer activities are keeping me busy around the clock. There is hardly time to breathe between running to swim lessons, dance lessons, baseball and softball practrices and games, library events. Only in the early morning hours do I get to sit for a minute and think.
At the end of the school year my daughter brought home this painting with a poem attached to it. I have no idea who wrote it. It brought tears to my eyes.

CHILDREN ARE LIKE KITES

You spend years trying to get them off the ground
You run with them until you are both breathless.
They crash...they hit the roof..
you patch, comfort and assure them that someday they will fly

Finally, they are airborne

They need more string, and you keep letting it out.
They tug, and with each twist of the twine,
there is sadness that goes with joy.

The kite becomes more distant,
and you know it won't be long
before that beautiful creature will snap
the lifeline that binds you together
and will soar as meant to soar
...free and alone.

Only then do you know that you have done your job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am enjoying my beautiful kites this summer. Watching them take off every day, soaring higher and higher. Soaking it all in. When school starts again, I will go back to my computer and try to catch up with blogs, flickr, and facebook accounts...