{Bee Boxin}

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We recently started getting ready for our first bees to arrive in April.

We have 3lbs of workers + an Italian Queen on the way & had to assemble and prepare their Langstroth hive.

Primed “super”; a section of the honeycomb

“The future of beekeeping is not in one beekeeper with 60,000 hives, rather it is 60,000 people with one hive. All of them aproaching the art and craft of being a keeper of bees as a holistic practice.”

Simon Buxton (2004), The Shamanic Way of the Bee

Thankful for so much help from family, and so excited for our bees to arrive in April! 🐝

{Gratitude Lately} 

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Lately I’ve been grateful for walls to climb.

For summertime memories.

For fresh grown basil and the scent of spicy oregano.

And for this baby cat, who throws a veritable tantrum of happiness whenever I come home from barre class all tired & sweaty.

Happy Monday, brave ones! What are you going to do this week that you enjoy? 

{Dear Sister}

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Dear Sister, I cant say “dear little sister” since you have officially surpassed me in height…

It’s your birthday! and I am so proud of you.

You are a strong and brave woman.

You’ve got smarts.

And a kind and generous heart.

You make good decisions.

And you make hearts lighter with your laugh.

You are beautiful and important.

You. Are. LOVED.

Happy birthday, beautiful song! Thanks for letting me be your big sister and your friend. You’re the coolest, and I’m the luckiest that we get to share ~60 of our DNA. Now let’s celebrate and eat something sweet!

{thredUP review & haul} 

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Spring cleaning time is here, you guys! About twice per year I go on a mini organizing rampage, purging items from my closet and house in general. I love the feeling of getting stuff OUT of my house…

My closet clean out process is fairly straightforward. I start in the back of the rack and put on every piece. Number 1 question: “How does this make me look and feel?” If iffy on either front, it’s done. Buhbye. Into the white plastic bag you go!

From there, I have a two step process: 1) allow younger sister to dig through bag of clothing and commandeer what she wants, and 2) take remaining wearable items to The Salvation Army. It’s easy, fast, and gets the stuff out of my house.

Enter ThredUP.com

ThredUP is an online secondhand shop that accepts your items and resells them. You get a percentage of what they determine to be the “resale value” of items you send in as either store credit or a cash payout. The best part? THEY pay the shipping for you to send your items in! Just request a Clean Out Bag in the mail and place your items inside. Drop the bag off at any USPS or FedEx.

Now, I am not going to bother to send a giant bag stuffed with alllll my clean out items to thredUP. Because let’s face it, ain’t nobody wants to buy my worn out Old Navy pajama pants that cost $8. But those bridesmaid shoes I’m never gonna wear again? Heck yeah, you can have them, thredUP!

For my first ThredUP experiment I sent in a pair of heels and three dresses. I chose items out of my “donate” pile that had zero or minimal signs of wear. I did NOT select the option to have my items mailed back to me if rejected (for $13), because I was just going to donate the pieces anyway.

I dropped the bag in the mail and breathed a happy sigh that there was now less stuff in my house. Cue waiting for 3wks.

6:00am on a Tuesday, an email arrives: I got $21.21 for my items! Not bad – not exactly a mind blowing payout when you consider there were 3 dresses in there, but not bad for items I would normally just toss or donate, ya know? Now, two options: shop with the store credit or wait for cash…? Um, shop clearly.

Here’s what I purchased:

thredup

Ann Tayler LOFT yellow silk dress. Price $20.49. Cost of shipping: $5.99. Total cost [after payout applied]: $5.27 

The dress came out of the packaging looking fresh and ready to wear. I’m happy with the fit/ color (even though some people may maintain that blondes shouldn’t wear yellow). I’m stashing this beauty for a certain upcoming April wedding!

ThredUP Tips:

  • Order a Free Clean Out Bag at a time when you are already planning to do a full sweep/re-organization of your closet.
  • Send off a few nice/unfrayed items that you definitely don’t want anymore. Do not send things you are iffy about keeping.
  • Practice healthy expectation management; don’t set yourself up for disappointment by expecting a huge payout for your items.
  • Use your payout to shop! Try searching for favorite brands like J. Crew or Ann Taylor. New customers, use this Referral Link to get store credit for $10!

Happy Spring, friends! What are you in the mood to organize?

{Restoration}

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Rehabilitate:

verb (used with object), rehabilitated, rehabilitating. 1. to restore to a condition of good health,
ability to work,
or the like.

Really loving the end result of this refinished 1950’s mandolin, a restoration project that Scott recently took on during his spare time.

  

When Scott started this process, the hardware was rusted beyond use and all the glue holding this 1950’s ‘Old Kraftsman’ together had disintegrated – which resulted in the neck detaching from the dry-rotting body. Because the body and the neck weren’t stable, the mandolin could not hold appropriate tension to stay in tune. The strings that were in place were doing more damage than good as they slowly pulled the instrument apart.

Scott spent hours restoring the strength and beauty of the piece – starting with dismantling the whole thing and stripping it down to the original wood.

This week, the time finally came to install new strings. The end result is not only beautiful, but musically sound.

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Restoration is a beautiful thing! Happy Friday, friends. What do you feel inspired to restore?