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Glass Beads & Jewelry
Handmade with Gusto! |
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Wednesday ~ July 1st, 2009
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Photo courtesy of Dark Light Writes
Happy Canada Day! Hope you have a wonderful time celebrating today & tonight. |
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Monday ~ June 29th
My neighbor next door has a giant Manitoba Maple that has grown almost horizontally into our yard. Sure it provides some shade & the squirrels like to run up & down it, but it really truly is the worst tree on the planet! Perhaps out in the country, it makes for a great windbreak, but in a yard in the city, it is entirely obnoxious. The branches are brittle & break off frequently, the leaves turn yellow early & drop throughout the season & when there's a wind gust, the entire yard is crapped all over with twigs & leaves. And then there are the seeds, oh boy, the seeds! They fall year round & manage to find their way into every nook & cranny, sprouting horrible little seedlings that grow by the foot & grow even faster when you're not looking! I spend countless hours a week plucking them out of my garden.
But that's not all... About a month ago, I was hacking away at the big ol' brut & discovered that it was totally infested with aphids. Every leaf on it was covered with the little green bugs. Not only were they starting to spread onto my shrubs, shriveling up the leaves as they ate, they were also secreting a sticky substance (called honeydew) that was covering our deck, ew!
I knew we had a problem but because I encourage bees, butterflies & birds into our yard, I am bound & determined not to use pesticides. So what was the solution? Ladybugs ~ they love snacking on aphids & can get an aphid problem under control in no time at all. I went online & ordered some. In fact, I ordered 4500 of them. So you can only imagine how excited I was when the box containing the ladybugs arrived last Thursday:
Good ol' Canada post got it here in one piece (barely).
Here's what I saw when I opened the box ~ a ivory sack with some instructions tied to it...
It's not that heavy but it's definitely full (& there's the website incase you want to order some too).
Wowzers! That's a lot of hungry ladybugs!
A few escapees, time to get these little girls to an infected shrub!
Let's start off at the Ninebark...
O.k. ladies, get to work, chop, chop! Err... I mean, munch, munch!
Eek, you're going the wrong way!
Tamye to the rescue. She helped me wrangle them onto the trees ~ thanks Tam!
But there's still so many. Anybody need a couple thousand ladybugs?
And just so you know, if you ever see this in your yard:
Don't kill it, it's ladybug larvae & it also is a lean, mean aphid eating machine. Check out this website to find out all the stages of a ladybug ~ fascinating stuff!
Ella & Sunshine showing off their jars of ladybugs
An added bonus to purchasing ladybugs for your yard, kids love them! |
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Wednesday ~ June 24th
7:15 p.m. ~
I've had several emails regarding the sale this morning. Some people are kind of frustrated that the beads were sold before they had a chance to purchase a set. Firstly, I was having internet issues so some of you got your notice late & I'm sorry about that. Secondly, I know that I don't sell very often on here, which I should work harder at rectifying.
I regret not having more available & because of that, I am willing to make some sets for those individuals that are still interested in purchasing. If you happen to be one of those people, please email me at carrie@beadtree.net. I can't make anything exactly the same, but I can definitely make some beads with the same sort of "feel" & if you mention the particular set(s) you were eyeballing, I'll keep that in mind. When I'm done, I'll notify you for "first dibs". Thanks!
11:45 a.m. ~ All the bead sets are now spoken for. I do have 2 beads at the bottom of the page (click on photo to view) that are still up for grabs if you're interested. Otherwise, thank you so much!
I have beads up for grabs, click on the photo to see the beads! |
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