Each year, I use Earth Day to renew my stewardship for the planet. Last year, I set a few green goals.  I wanted to expand my garden, buy a rain barrel, and replace all my nonstick cookware.  Well, with my husband’s help I added approx. 30 SF of space to my raised bed gardens. I did buy a rain barrel but it is not hooked up. And I only replaced half of my nonstick cookware.  Anything that was scratched was replaced with stainless steel, but I still have some saving to do before I can replace everything.

This year’s goal… is that our shop continues to increase our recycling and upcycling efforts. We are collecting more wood, wine corks, and hardware than ever before. I hope to find time to explore greener shipping & promotional materials. I also hope to find ways to use more natural methods to color our wood and corks.  And yes finally hook up that rain barrel.

Earth911 More ideas, Less Waste. is a great place to find info on greener living.

So to celebrate this earthy holiday we’re hosting a THREE item giveaway, (which means THREE winners)!

#1
First item up for grabs… a denim blue wine cork message strip. This mini cork board is perfect for wall space by a phone, door, or computer. Great for leaving notes, displaying special occasion invites, baby announcements and more! Includes thumb tacks.

#2
What’s a giveaway without a gift certificate?! My favorite prize, a $15 gift certificate to our online shop. You get to pick your prize! Gift certificate can be applied to your entire order, including shipping, and is good through June 30th, 2013.

#3
Win a colorful bag of wine cork keychains! Win 10 multi-colored wine cork keychains to use as party favors, give them to your friends, decorate a bottle of wine… there are so many little uses for these fun keychains!

The SALE!

Enter coupon code EARTHDAY at check out for 15% off your entire order, ends Thursday, April 25th, 2013!

Ok, Good Luck! Three winners will be randomly selected and announced on Friday, April 26th, 2013.  Remember to get started you need to leave a blog comment and let us know what your Earth Day goals are this year!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks, Bee

Beekeeping in the Shop

In March, a local spa & salon started carrying our wine cork keychains. They have been very popular as wedding favors online this month and I have been a busy bee coloring corks!

We made the keychain display holder from an old stair spindle. Howto blog post coming next week!

Our salvage efforts continue to grow. Above is some very rare pieces of wood we saved last week!!! We are running out of room and are having to think about a future expansion!

Beekeeping in the Community

We were honored to host a Crohn’s and Colitis Bunco Fundraiser this month. We gave away 25 wine cork keychains and 7 cute little cork message strips (see below).  I used 12″ piece of  reclaimed wood with colored oak corks and added thumbtacks. They are perfect for small wall spaces by the phone, computer, etc.  (Psst – we’ve giving the blue one away)!

I am excited to be back online and just in time for Earth Day!  We’re hosting a three item giveaway that starts TOMORROW, and we’re offering a special Earth Day Sale that starts TODAY!  Enter coupon code EARTHDAY at checkout for 15% off your entire order. Sale & Giveaway end Thursday April 25th, 2013 at midnight.  Winners will be announced on Friday, April 26th, 2013.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s earthy giveaway!

Thanks, Bee

Earth Day Kitchen Ideas – Oprah.com

Our three Earth Day Giveaways offered up some inspiring comments and new followers!  We are looking forward to celebrating Earth Day every day through our sustainable shop’s efforts!  Thank you all that entered! Here’s the lucky winners, selected by Random.org:

Winner of our Wine Cork Magnet Set…

Beth M. From Beths

Winner of our Reusable Chalkboard Gift Tag…

Tori K.

and the Winner of our $15 Gift Certificate is…

Gari Anne Bead Lovers Korner

Congratulations! I will be contacting everyone directly. Happy Earth Day!

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
―    Rachel Carson

For second Earth Day giveaway this week, we are going to give away one of our beaded chalkboard gift tags, made from reclaimed and natural materials!

FIVE ways to enter, for multiple entries per giveaway! Be sure to leave an individual comment for EACH entry.

1. Follow our Facebook page, and comment that you did below.

2. Follow our blog (on the top right of this page) and comment that you signed up for email notifications.

3. Follow us on Twitter, and comment that you did below.

4. Follow all our boards on Pinterest, and comment that you did below.

5. Favorite our shop on Etsy, and comment that you did below.

If you entered our first giveaway, then all you have to do is leave your comments again, to be entered to win AGAIN! Random.org will select all winners on Earth Day, Sunday April 22nd, 2012 at 10:00pm, by numbered comments. The more you leave, the more chance you have to win.  Winner will be contacted through their comments, so be sure to include a form of contact.

Wait, what about some bonus entries? I know you really want to win these adorable gift tags!

Recommend our Earth Day Giveaway to your friends & followers and tell them to leave your name in their comments for extra entries.  You can also look for extra entry opportunities on our Facebook page throughout the week!

You are welcome to enter all three of our Earth Day Giveaways this week! Missed the first one? You can still enter here! Check back tomorrow for your chance to win a gift certificate!

Thank you for helping me celebrate our planet by supporting our ecofriendly business.

Good Luck!

Bee

The first part of this year has been spent celebrating wine corks and all the colors and crafts they can be.  For this giveaway we took our latest tutorial, making wine cork magnets, one more step, and we turned our colored wine corks in magnets!  And you can WIN this earthy set of cork magnets!

Wine corks have been permanently dyed. Magnets are made with 25 Neodymium Rare Earth Magnets. Each little magnet can pull a little over 2 pounds and holds down several sheets of paper.

So get organized in upcycled style and enter our first Earth Day giveaway!

FIVE ways to enter, for multiple entries per giveaway! Be sure to leave an individual comment for EACH entry.

1. Follow our Facebook page, and comment that you did below.

2. Follow our blog (on the top right of this page) and comment that you signed up for email notifications.

3. Follow us on Twitter, and comment that you did below.

4. Follow all our boards on Pinterest, and comment that you did below.

5. Favorite our shop on Etsy, and comment that you did below.

Wait, what about some bonus entries? I know you really want to win these adorable magnets!

Recommend our Earth Day Giveaway to your friends & followers and tell them to leave your name in their comments for extra entries.  You can also look for extra entry opportunities on our Facebook page throughout the week!

Winner will be randomly selected by random.org on Earth Day, Sunday April 22nd, 2012 at 10:00pm.  Winner will be contacted through their comments, so be sure to include a form of contact.  You are welcome to enter all three of our Earth Day Giveaways this week! Check back tomorrow for your chance to win some chalkboard gift tags!

Thank you for helping me celebrate our planet by supporting our ecofriendly business.

Good Luck!

Bee

Recycled Planet Earth notebook by Recycled Fibers

Happy Earth Day!  Ok, so what does that really mean?

Earth Day by definition is a noun meaning, a day’s observance of the need to protect the Earth’s environment, in many countries on April 22.
The first Earth Day was organized in 1970 to promote the ideas of ecology, encourage respect for life on earth, and highlight growing concern over pollution of the soil, air, and water. ~dictionary.com

I’m sure there are many ideas about how to celebrate Earth Day. I am seeing adorable Earth Day party favors and all sorts of green ideas on Pinterest. I know a few of my friends that donate their time every year to different community clean-ups and other environmentally friendly efforts.  I think there is an endless array of ideas and ways we can celebrate and give back to our planet.

Maybe you’ve been wanting to start a small kitchen compost, have been meaning to install a low flow shower head, or need to properly recycle all the empty paint and stain cans in the garage (<– on my to-do list).  Whatever the task, if it’s healthy for the planet maybe Earth Day is the perfect excuse to get it done?!

I wanted to share some of the things our family does this week to celebrate.  We use this day of observance to refresh our children (and ourselves) on why it is important to living sustainably.  I use the holiday to get everyone excited about our recycling, upcycling, and repurposing efforts again.   I won’t bore you with everything we do or want to do, but here are the highlights of our young family’s Earth Day discussions:

What can be recycled in our house?

Plastic Resin Codes 1-7, and all paper goods in our city’s curbside recycling program. Styrofoam at the local zoo, ink cartridges at office supply store

What can be upcycled in our house?

Permanently stained or torn t-shirts are turned into stain and paint rags for our shop.

All yogurt containers are cleaned and saved for paint cups.

All magazines are kept for upcycled art and craft projects.

What have we changed since last Earth Day?

We started using cloth napkins.

Started making some of our own natural household cleaners.

Bought everyone in the family bicycles.

What more can we do before Earth Day 2013?

Add a tankless water heater to our home.

Expand the backyard garden plot and compost system.

Install a rain barrel.

Family Activities Planned for this Week

For a little after school craft, we’re painting world maps made of rice.

While doing this week’s gardening chores, we are also going to discuss different types of soils, its importance, and what is grows well in each type.  I collected soil from various places last week and we are going to examine soil types and then create “soil painting” with them.

We will end on Sunday with an Earth Day Family Movie Party.  Fresh popcorn from our new stove top popper, and all the sea creature stuffed animals are invited to watch Disney’s Oceans with us!

We’re keeping it simple but using the holiday to remind us why we do what we do every day!

The Wooden Bee Activities for this week

AND like last year the shop is having a giveaway! In fact, we are having THREE GIVEAWAYS!

April 19th – Wine Cork Magnet Set

April 20th – Beaded Chalkboard Gift Tag

April 21st – Wine Cork Gift Certificate

Three eco-friendly giveaways… three winners selected on Earth Day!

Through our first two years we have recycled and upcycled thousands of feet of wood molding, hundreds of wood doors, and countless wine corks and hardware pieces. All that waste was saved from taking up landfill space, while beautiful pieces of cherry, maple, mahogany and pine passed through our hands and transformed into ecofriendly home decor and other unique items.  We couldn’t have done it without our customers, and we feel blessed for this amazing opportunity.

So, Happy Earth Day. And whatever you do, I hope you enjoy our Earth even more on this day.

Check back soon to enter our giveaways here on our blog!

In keeping theme with my worldwide success (chuckle, chuckle), I was also featured on a German blog or two, which I thought was fun to see!

http://de.etsy.com/blog/etsy-finds-von-lilli-green ~ http://catherinehug.de/

And finally, to make the month even more complete, we were accepted as a member of Eco Etsy.  An online team of Etsy Sellers dedicated to reducing, reusing & recycling!

So in gratitude for these new opportunities & in honor of my favorite holiday, Earth Day, we are offering 15% off our ENTIRE SHOP! Offer good through Friday, April 22nd. Enter coupon code EARTHDAY at checkout & save! Happy Earth Day!