Autumn Harvest hat with Beeatrice, the bee

Hello fellow Honey Bee Helpers!

Here's my entry for our Autumn Challenge that is due tomorrow. I am entering my other unique hat with the bee that is in her fall colors of orange and brown, instead of the traditional yellow and black. Enjoy!

Falling

I am a Western Honey Bee.
I work both day and night,
collecting honey from a tree
and plants to save my hive.

Sometimes my fellow worker bees
get lost, I don’t know why.
When I return to my colony
they are no where in sight.

What is this thing called CCD?
What is a bee to do,
but keep on working busily
making honey for me and you

I heard it in the willow wind.
It whispers to us all:
“we’ve been around millions of years,
don’t let the last bee fall!”

by Doris M. Sturm

Two New Treasuries Today!!

We currently have not one, but TWO treasuries of our wonderful team. Yaaaayyy!!

One in the Treasury- All PINK Items from your shops, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. I realize it's not yet October, but it never hurts to bring awareness to TWO causes, right? CCD and Breast Cancer. So.. Let's BEAT 'EM!

Click the link and give some feedback :)
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=8916


Our Treasury West treasury was created in honor of the August Challenge. Way to go participants! If you created an item for the challenge and it's not here, it's only because I didn't know about it- so convo me on Etsy (samanthasartstudio) and I'll rotate things around so your Challenge Entry gets some love, too!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=25396



Thanks for all your hard work, honeybees, and for sharing the treasuries, and commenting, and all the wonderful things you do for the honeybees.

What should the Fall Challenge be?

Please vote in the poll on the right- Sunday September 14 is the last day for voting. On Monday, we'll know what the new challenge theme will be!
The Challenge entries will be due October 20. That gives us about a little over a month to work on our challenge entry, and also some time to think of a new challenge to start in November. And frees you up for Halloween as well!

Here are the options that have been placed into the poll. If you would like to add another option to the poll, please add a comment to this blog post and I'll add it.

General Fall Challenge- what do you think of when you think of fall? Halloween? Colorful leaves? Thanksgiving? Pumpkins? Harvesting of food? Warm fall colors? Cinnamon and apple pies? Whatever you think of, create an item for your Etsy shop based on any of your loves in the fall.

Fall Leaves- Everyone thinks of colorful leaves when they hear the word "Autumn." Create an item with based on the colors of fall leaves: Typically brown, red, orange, yellow, burgandy, and dark purples are all colors of a beautiful Fall! Or create an item with actual leaves in the design. Or both!

Harvest- Squashes, pumpkins, cornucopias, mums, corn, sunflowers- In almost every picture of a fall harvest, these items are shown. And lots of these items are brought to us by our dear Honeybees (and other bees) pollinating efforts! Pick some autumn foods and do a challenge related to them- add in a bee or two, if you wish!

Yay! The Chicago Botanic Garden!

My husband and I went to visit the Chicago Botanic garden during Labor Day weekend.
It's definitely a place that takes all day to see everything, so we decided to pick out a few gardens that we definitely wanted to see. One was the Fruit and Vegetable garden. It was nice, how the different gardens were all set up- but as we walked through the garden, I sadly didn't see anything about bees. Throughout the botanic garden are little signs that you can read, full of tidbits and interesting information- I thought surely the fruit and vegetable garden would be full of information regarding the importance of bees.

But much to my surprise and delight, as we meandered down the garden path to exit the fruit and vegetable garden, we were led into a breezeway next to a small building... called The Beeline! It was a whole display dedicated to honeybees. They even had a volunteer there answering everyone's 448905483 questions about bees, hives, and bee life. They had a display of different bee products- honeys, propolis, pollen granules. They also had a small hive that people could look into and see- and try to find the queen, of course.

Also during the weekend that we happened to be visiting, the family drop-in activity was all about bees, too! You could be the bee and pollinate a flower. They had a giant enlarged diagram of all the flower parts, and different activities for kids to do and learn more about bees.

Yay for the Chicago Botanic Garden!!- Helping to educate everyone to the importance of bees :)

Bees + Team + Challenge + ♥ + August!!

Lots of our members participated in the August Team Challenge and my oh my, what BEEutiful items our creative team has produced in honor of our very first challenge!! Jewelry was a very common theme.... Bees make LOVELY accessories, don't you think!?

Member NebulaMystic created this awesome set of earrings and a necklace:

She also created a couple of great bee ACEOs!

Member SturmDM created all these bee items (yes, each word is linked to a different bee!!) and had a couple sales, too! Way to go!:

Member SheilaSatin created a sweet Bee Bracelet- how adorable!

LonesomeRoadStudio created a very cool necklace dubbed "The Buzz!"

Honeybeads created a bee-utiful Harvest Bee bracelet:

SamanthasArtStudio created a BEE Kind bracelet:
NightShadesArt created a lovely Leather Cuff Bee Bracelet:


And Treatsoap created a soap called Bee My Honey- with scents of oatmeal, milk, honey, and cinnamon! YUM!!


I know I've seen some pictures of other members' challenge items, but I couldn't find them in your shops- so I didn't list them here as I didn't want to be a tease in case someone wanted to buy it and it's not listed!

If I've forgotten your item, I sincerely apologize and BEE sure to convo me on Etsy ASAP, and I'll add your item to the blog right away!

I tried to keep track of everyone's but these were the ones I saw posted on the Ning, and I was able to find them the fastest :)

If you're working on an item, let me know when it's done- and you can add a blog here about it, too!