October 29, 2020 Newsletter

The inspiration for this week’s newsletter comes from honeybees. Those wonderfully productive insects that are friends to gardeners everywhere (unless you have an allergy of course).

I hope you enjoy all the bee-inspired goodness I found this week. I’d love to hear what you think.

Queen Bee Pottery

Artists help us look at the world and find amazement in the everyday things we miss on our own. Nature has long been the muse for the artist and you instantly recognize an artist that finds joy in nature. Karrita is one of those amazing artists.

Karrita’s work is incredible! Her inspiration comes from nature. She uses flowers, leaves, and vines from her garden to create her pottery. She also creates clay rollers, stamps, and molds that can be used to decorate clay projects.

Honestly, I love everything on Karrita’s website, but my favorite pieces are those featuring honeybees. I learned about Karrita’s work from two of my favorite Instagram accounts, @whatmjloves and @gardensandchickens.

They both featured stories showing Karrita’s work. I sure am glad I clicked through. You’re definitely going to fall in love with Queen Bee Pottery.

What Really Goes On Inside a Beehive?

I’ve always enjoyed behind-the-scenes videos. I found a couple of great videos about honeybees when I was researching for this week’s newsletter

Frederick Dunn created a video that shows what goes on inside a beehive. This fascinating video films a transparent hive and goes through a detailed description of the roles of bees.

NATURE produced a video as part of a PBS series called Silence of the Bees that also shows scenes inside a beehive. This video has some incredible close-up footage showing worker bees and drones and explains how honeybees communicate.

Wool Felted Beehive Bee Bag

How cute is this little wool felted cosmetics bag? This bag is handcrafted and features a cute design with a beehive, flower, and tiny honeybee. This is the perfect gift for a bee-lover in your life. Even if that happens to be you.

I ordered one of these cute little bags for myself. They have three different designs to choose from.

How to Make Your Own Crayons

Beeswax can be used to make a lot of cool things including crayons. If you add carnauba wax to beeswax, you make the crayons harder and more durable. Just add pigment to get the colors you want. Best of all, beeswax crayons are non-toxic.

Check out this cool tutorial showing how to make non-toxic crayons using beeswax.

If you’d rather skip the DIY, check out A Childhood Store on Etsy and buy your own crayons.

Cocktails Anyone?

I love these bee-inspired glass tumblers from Williams Sonoma. Perfect for holiday cocktails. One design features a beautiful gold-embossed honeybee with a fluted gold edge. The other has an embossed bee and is crafted in France by La Rochere.

You can find the gold fluted tumbler here.

You can find the embossed bee tumbler here.

Long Burning Beeswax Candles

These handmade beeswax votive candles are the perfect addition to your dinner table. They have a 2-hour burn time which is incredible. A perfect way to add romance and joy to your table.

You can find the beeswax votives here.

You can find the beeswax church tapers here.

You can find the beeswax columns here.

That’s it for this week. I’d love to hear what you thought of this week’s “Bee Inspired” newsletter. Just leave a comment below to share your feedback, including suggestions for topics that interest you most.

Until next week, happy gardening!