DIY Bee Hotel

I've been searching for a great diy tutorial that I could do and share with all my blogging friends. I found one that means a great deal to me. I'm all about saving the Bee's and Butterflies.

 Each year I raise Monarch butterflies. Now I'm going to give a try and help the bee's a little more, besides having lots of flowers for them to love.

 Did you know that the bee's are now are dealing with something called CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder? It's when the worker bee's leave their hive and the queen, to fend for themselves. In the last five years the bee population has been slashed in half. So this means fewer pollinators for fruits and vegetables, which means limited crop yields. In turn, driving up the demand and food prices for all. 

So how about helping out these wonderful insects that help put food on the table for us!

I found this tutorial on another blog at 2Paws Designs

 Here is how I made my Bee House. This is for solitary bee's not honey bee's.

Supplies List

• Brown Wrapping Paper or Paper bag
• utility knife
• scissors
• 8 oz. plastic bottle
• twine
• ruler 
• pencil

Rinse out your drink bottle and dry. Cut the top off with utility knife or scissors.

I had a roll of brown wrapping paper so I used that instead of brown paper bags which I did not have.

I cut stripes of paper that were about 5.5" long. I rolled onto a pencil a couple times around to make a tube.

 

I had a little help from my cat Bonsai! hehe You know how cats love to help!

When I had the bottle filled up, poked a couple holes with scissor point and threaded the twine through. Hung mine in one of my burning bushes. Will see what happens!!

 I finally have all my flowers planted in my yard. Did not plant as many in pots this year as I usually do. Saving a little money this year as we are doing a huge remodel right now on our kitchen and bath. The demo is finished. And the electrical, plumbing and dry wall is up. Just waiting now on cabinets, counters, tub and toilet to come in. 

So here are a couple pretty flowers from my yard!

Can't believe how well my Clematis is doing this year! I never have this much luck with them! Must be the very rainy spring we had.

 

And my fav flower, Gerbera Daisy!

Thinking of new sewing projects! So stay tuned!

Peace and Love to All!

 

Happy Wednesday!

Hello, my blogger friends! We have been having the most gorgeous weather lately! I just love these sunny days!  

Did a bit of yard work this morning. The weeds were taking over my Hosta plants like crazy!

 

 I managed to fill a 5-gallon bucket to the top! 

 Time now for a break and to share with you what I have been working on lately!

I love making this Crow! He is available in my Etsy Shop now! Rock River Stitches 

And this Primitive Folk Art Bird is something new! Also available in my shop along with a pattern to create your own!

I'm so happy that Spring, almost Summer is here now! 

Peace and Love to all!

Sleep

Another sleepless night....Here it is 2:44 a.m. and I've been awake since 1:11. So what do you do when you are laying in bed listening to your cat at the foot of the bed snoring...get up and blog. I've been feeling bad about neglecting my blog. It's been a couple of weeks. Sometimes I feel like nobody cares what I have to say anyway. I'm not very good with words so that is why I post more pictures then words. Now my snoring kitty is sitting in my lap purring as I type. I woke him up.

Bonsai my constant companion. I think he is the most photogenic of all my cats.

Then when I''m laying in bed trying to go to sleep I start thinking about how much I miss my grandchildren who live 12 hours away in N.C. I haven't seen them since March when we met up with them in Chicago.

I love this picture of them that my daughter took. Max loves his big sister Cora. He is enjoying his asparagus here while big sis is putting her shoes on him.

The main reason for not blogging is I've been so busy planting flowers. We've been having some of the most perfect weather and when that happens, I'm outside!! Haven't been feeling much like sewing either. I'm always to tired to sew after all the gardening stuff.

My Clematis were just beautiful this year. They are almost done blooming.

One of my gardening friends 

Sitting in one of my big pots that has weeds growing in it. I'm still looking for red and pink impatiens that I usually plant in them.

He's cleaning up the seeds the birds spill from the bird feeders.

And the hummers have been here for about 3 weeks now. Isn't this little gal just gorgeous! Still trying to capture a shot of the male hummer.

Well it's 3:30 now and I guess I should try to get some sleep. I think I'm going to need a nap this afternoon.

Happy Monday!!!

Fall Color Is Starting

Lately I've gotten addicted to a site called Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.

You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

While looking around there you can find some amazing photos and ideas to decorate your home. I happened upon a photo which had a link to Country Living website on how to make crow silhouettes that you can print out on your printer! Loved the idea, so I thought I would give it a try. Click on this link--->Bird Silhouettes for the tutorial. The directions call for you to use static cling decal sheets that you get at Office Depot, which you can only get if you go to their store. Can't get them online. I tried to find them. So I ended up buying something similar to print the crows out on. I used a product called Clear Decals For Windows by Avery. And the only way I could find this was by ordering it through Amazon.com. These decals are a little different from the static cling ones. They are a little tacky on the back but they can be peeled off and stuck back on. The crow on the bottom left was a little large for this window. I just wanted to show you the three different crows you can print. I was amazed at how well they turned out!!

Just noticed yesterday that the leaves are turning here in NW Illinois. In about 2 or 3 weeks they will be at their peak. I have several mum plants and one is in full bloom right now.

And I harvested my so called "Apple Gourds" What a disappointment they turned out to be. I contacted the farm that I bought the apple gourd from last fall about what happened to them. I sent them photos and they seem to think that the seeds that I planted, from the apple gourd that I dried over this last winter, had been cross pollinated with a snake gourd when it was growing. The lengths of these gourds were 22", 20", 17" and 13". I have no idea what to do with these giants. Let me know if you have any ideas. So I will be trying again next year. Not sure what kind of gourds I will be growing then. I have all winter to think about that.

So that is what I've been up to lately beside orders. I've been trying to keep up. I really need to start saying no to some people. I don't have time to work on new projects! And I will get absolutely nothing done when my daughter comes back home for her 10 year high school class reunion with my 2 grandchildren the end of this week!

Flowers planted!

Yesterday spent over 3 hours planting the rest of the flowers that I bought early this week. Whew...I am always glad when I get everything planted. Here is one gerbera daisy that I planted in a pot. It looks like a mutated flower head. Didn't even notice it was like that until I got it home and Tara noticed it. Later on in the day, I caught a pic of a chipmunk theif on my deck. He likes to get into my new bird feeder and steal the sunflower seeds.