Wrapping Up the Year with Family

Today was the best way to wrap up 2010 - spending it with family. I hope you also got to spend some time with those you love as we wind down this year and welcome 2011. We got an awesome visit with our Mark's uncle and cousin and his wife. We don't to see them very often and it had been too long. Granpa, as we affectionately call our uncle, started keeping bees with my honey bee about thirty years ago. I have loved listening to all their crazy, fun adventures and they never fail to make me wish I had been there for the entire ride.

Granpa is getting up there in age so we appreciate any time that we get with him. To see him out in his element with the bees was a truly amazing gift for which I cannot even begin to express my gratitude. It's moments like today that make life worth living. I hope you have many of those in 2011 and I hope we will also.

Thank you stopping by here and checking out my photos and my talk. I met some of you this year and it really always made me wish I had more time to devote to roaming the city and countryside in search of things to share with you here. And just when I think I should hang it up since I'm neglecting this too much for my taste, one of you tells me how much you enjoy the blog, even now that it's sporadic in posts...and then how can I bring myself to stop? It really means a lot to me and I just wanted to thank you for all your kind words this year. Happy new year, my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GBR at My Favorite Gift Shop

If you are a fan of Gift & Gourmet (best gift shop in town, hands down), then check out our Gretchen Bee Ranch honey and bee skep candles! They are now available at the store. I'm tickled pink to have our stuff there since it's my favorite shop for gifts. I also am a lucky gal because my honey bee knows I love pretty much anything from that shop so I got a little something for Christmas from there that will come in handy when I hop over to Virginia in a few weeks. :-)

In the picture above, the shop owner has packaged the honey and candle together in cellophane and it is there in the center of the picture, middle of the middle shelf.

A Very Merry Christmas

I hope you have enjoyed your Christmas weekend with those dear to you! It's been a fabulously restful weekend for us and I am thankful we have plenty of time to rest on top of enjoying time together - not just working but also having actual downtime. Nice, very nice.

Here's to a good and quiet week ahead as a lot of people are still celebrating the holiday break. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead as we prepare to ring in a new year!

Rusty Rooster

Last night we finally tried out Rusty Rooster, the newest little restaurant in Seguin. Love the name and the decor there! I was tickled pink by all the hens they had on display in one form or another. The fried chicken was awesome - moist and tasty, as were the biscuits and okra. It is always nice to have another new eating option in our little town. And I am such a HUGE fried chicken fan, I'm thrilled they opened.

Hope you are all doing well and that you're enjoying the Christmas week. I love this time of year despite this year flying by and dragging me along. :-)

Countdown to Christmas

We are busy, busy, busy - making candles, wrapping gifts, prepping our honey house for Open House on Saturday, watching the Spurs, washing jars for more honey, etc., etc., etc. I bet you're busy, too! :)

Here's a shot of my favorite gift shop in Seguin - Gift & Gourmet. Went there this week to show the owner some of our honey and candle products. If you haven't checked out this shop, you should. It's a wonderful little gem in our community and I'm so glad they are here!

Vote!

Don't forget to get out and vote in our special election today! We received this reminder in the mail from one of the candidates and we thought it very clever. It was cute, funny and informative - loved that they provided the voting location for us as well. Nice! We've also received daily calls from candidates and various organizations reminding us to vote. It's awesome! And a gorgeous day for voting. :-)

Fall Colors

On beautiful days like those that we've had lately, we had to get out and enjoy it this weekend. I accompanied Mark out to a couple of bee yards so I could see what was happening in the countryside; it's been a while since I did that. I loved the cool air and the clear skies. Though we don't have the gorgeous fall colors I'm used to from growing up in North Carolina, there is still beauty to be seen and enjoyed. We do have Lost Maples Park a few hours north of here but we were too busy to make it out there so perhaps next year. Meanwhile, here are a couple of shots from this past weekend.

Hope you had a good aMonday and that the rest of the week will be a great one for you! I get my wisdom teeth pulled manana so we'll see if I feel like posting this week. You never know...there might be something interesting to share. There is always something interesting going on around us, right? :-)

Sky Watch Friday - Downtown Decoration

Happy Friday everyone - less than 20 days until Christmas. Can you believe it? Can't we slow down time somehow? Isn't it funny that when you are young, you want the time to move along faster. And as you get older, it moves so fast that you have no idea sometimes when you'll get a breather. Someone once told me, when I was young, that time only goes by faster as you get older. REALLY??? Is it because we have so much more we are doing or want to do? Is it because we are distracted by things around us that take our attention away from what's in front of us at the moment? I don't know. The Buddhist way of thinking involves being aware of the moment we are in right now so that we can fully appreciate what we are experiencing. I try to do this but sometimes fail; I guess that's what life is about - trying.

Soooo...on a lighter note, here's a shot of one of the wreaths decorating our square downtown. I really liked the sky that day (couple of Saturdays ago) and snapped this as we were getting in the car. There are some really neat old buildings downtown and sometimes I wish we had the money to convert one of those old buildings into a store front for our bee business on the first floor and a personal living space up top. That'd be so fun!

I hope y'all have a wonderful Friday tomorrow and a glorious weekend ahead. It's suppose to be EIGHTY DEGREES Saturday. Can you believe that??? Then it'll drop back down to a more acceptable 50 or 60-something Sunday and so on. Yay! I love wearing my jackets, and scarves. This morning we had frost all over the windshield. It was nice!

Be sure to check out the Skywatch site if you would like to see some more cool sky shots for this week. :-)

Seguin Donuts Now Open

My upper wisdom teeth need to come out and all I can think about is food so appropriately enough, I have these shots to share about a new bakery that recently opened here in our little town. We stopped by Seguin Donuts one Saturday afternoon as we went from one bee yard to another. I am in love! I love kolaches!!! Much more than any sweets, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong, a sweet, glazed donut now and then is ok but give me a kolache any ole day and you'll see a super happy girl. Look at them. Aren't they lovely?



The service was super as well so be sure you check them out. They're in the shopping center on Highway 123, next to Radio Shack and Little Ceasar's Pizza (around the corner from Beall's). And finally, here's a shot of the usual sweets that most of you like. :) I found the "hand" looking pastry on the bottom right rather interesting!

Yulefest 2010

Looks like the three day sellathon really wore me out - sick today. Going to post this and then head to bed despite sleeping most of today. Gosh, I simply have no energy and just felt yucky.

We had lovely weather in Gonzales Friday and Saturday as we participated in their Winterfest and had a booth at Santa's Workshop. After the evening parade Friday night, we were inundated with parade-goers and business was hopping and fun. Love seeing repeat customer/friends and making new friends also. Then we went to the icebox Sunday - :-( a non-functioning heater meant a cold full day. I was so tempted to light more candles just to warm ourselves a bit. I think the sudden temperature drop and the lack of heat did me in. Anyhow, here are some of my favorite sights from this weekend (sorry we missed the Holiday Stroll since we were prepping for the shows):



My friend's dad made me a similar lighted post like above several years ago and I still have it. I love it. When we don't put our big tree up due to traveling or some other reason, we like to at least have the holiday post up because it nicely illuminates the living room. We'll probably do that this year.



This booth was very interesting with the man theme pillowcases. Reminded me of my buddy who sewed a quilt with a similar fabric for a friend of hers. lol



This booth was next to ours and was one of our top two favorites! This is Nuluv Nubians and they feature goat milk products such as soaps, lotions and lip balm. Oh, and my favorite - body butters. LOVE IT! They smelled awesome thanks to all the samples they had open. It was nice to be placed next to each other since soaps and candles (and honey) seem to go hand-in-hand in peoples' minds. They were a very nice young family from the Kerrville area. Glad we met them.

Water Tower Makeover Part 2

Time for another facelift for our poor, neglected water tower on Kingsbury. I hope they do a good job this time and it looks awesome. There's something so cool about the old fashion, round water towers. I like them.

Hope y'all have a great Friday! Oh, if you're in the Gonzales area, come by the square Friday evening to say hi. We're going to be selling Gretchen Bee Ranch specialty honeys and bees wax candles! We'll be in Gonzales again Saturday and then at Yulefest in Seguin at the Coliseum on Sunday, 10a-5p. Hope to see some of you at the events!