buzy bees.

Hey everyone!

As usual, life has been too full - so full that there just hasn't been time for blogging. But I'll save you the excuses and jump straight to the part where I introduce you to Sunset Hill's newest 4,000 community members.

(Okay, so these aren't our bees, I found this photo from a google image search.)

So maybe you've heard us talking about about honeybee planz, or maybe this is news to you, but last Saturday, Kevin picked up a hive of honey bees from Morgantown, IN and brought them to their new home in our backyard.

Kevin and I are the designated beekeepers for the community and are kind of in love with honeybees. Kevin has done more research on how to actually keep bees, and I have mainly just added my enthusiasm to the pot. We are both definitely beginners and are relying on books and more experienced friends to helps us along.

Kevin some received some bee boxes for Christmas and last month Kevin and I painted them and made a stand for them. Here are some pics:

What I love most about honeybees is that they are highly social animals. They have organized and specialized roles and are able to communicate in sophisticated ways. I am so fascinated by them and am excited to get to know them more. Also, I looooove me some honey. If I am lucky, I will become as crazy as this dude someday:

Stay tuned for more about the bees, road trips, and other fun community activities!

lovecare.

sleigh bells in april.

hello everyone.

This is a post about Christmas. Yes, I know it's almost May and the Easter Bunny's footprints are still fresh in the mud, but I never got around to blogging about some of my favorite Christmas traditions, so I am going to do it now. Plus, to be fair, the weather outside has been pretty frightful lately....

This past Christmas we continued a few traditions that help make Christmas time special for me.

Tradition #1 Get a live tree!
Tim and I hunted for a live evergreen tree at a tree farm near Bloomington. Each year we take great care in choosing the pagan-symbol-turned-commercial-icon that is our Christmas tree. This year we bought one with a root ball and then planted it in our backyard to commemorate our first Christmas as homeowners.

Tradition #2 Decorate!
Josh, Tim, and I got in our jammies (this is mandatory), and took turns hanging ornaments on the tree.

Notice Josh is wearing is hood because it is soooo cold in our house. You may not be able to tell from this picture, but our tree is adorned with several handmade artisan ornaments crafted by local artists.....

Tradition #3 Make ornaments with friends!

A few years ago, we had a party where we all made ornaments out of construction paper and random craft supplies lying around. This year, I decided to revive the tradition at a community dinner one night. Below is a bradybunchesque display o' ornaments:

Clockwise from the top, left: Josiah made a Christmas tree for the Christmas tree (so meta), Tarabee made a stocking out of yarn, Kevin made an advent pyramid, I made a Sunset Hill silhouette and a rainbow baby Jesus icon, Will made some origami...things, Jose made a tribute to himself, Josh made a wintery-spaceship scene, and Sam created a perfect snowflake replica.

Tradition #4 Make gifts and creative wrappings!

Tim and I try to incorporate at least a few handmade gifts for our family members each Christmas. This year we made peppermint lip balm in mini-Altoid tins. I based the recipe off the recipe found here, but tweaked it with some tips from Bean, who used a different recipe to make yummy lemon lip balm.

Also, every year, I put way too much time and effort into wrapping all our gifts with things lying around the house. This year I used phone books, grocery sacks, an old blue D.A.R.E. t-shirt (just say "no"), some old yarn scraps, and some paint pens. Money spent on wrapping = $0

Tradition #5 Spoon with brother!

Okay, so this tradition only applies to Tim and occurs anytime, not just at Christmas. But I included it because it's real dang cute.

Thanks for letting me take you back a few months, even though I am sure you are all excited that we've left Christmas in the dust and are headed for summertime. More seasonally appropriate posts to come.

lovecare.

September and October

In an effort to catch up on my blogging, here are some highlights from September and October. I know it's old news, but this blog is basically my online scrapbook, so...please join me for a stroll down memory lane.

{{wiggly lines to represent flashback like in 90s TV shows}}

seXRA fest III: September 24 - 25

I could show you a bunch of pictures of dudes playing instruments on stage, but let's be serious, the audience participation is what XRA Fest is all about (HINT: asian girl on left is not me).

Here are some fine lookin' ladiez who managed to keep their shirts on and Kevin lookin' like a nerd (HINT: asian girl on the right is me)

Backyard tunez at the Backyard BBQ (filmed before a live studio audience)

You know it is a successful XRA Fest when most of the audience ends up on stage, shirtless, sweaty, hands outstretched, screaming the lyrics!

 punk'd: October 29

This past autumn season, Sunset Hill hosted a Halloween-themed punkin-carvin party complete with screenings of Beetlejuice and Evil Dead.

Kevin carved a classic bike-sunburst-tree scene, Josh created a likeness of the Indiana state emblem, Tarabee decided to throw out the "Halloween" theme altogether and instead carved a dino-mite "Happy Dino-ween" punkin, and I carved my best rendering of the Twin Peaks sign from the hit television serial drama, Twin Peaks (aka "tweaks").

Halloweenballz: October 31

I was a Care Bear for Halloween. This is me at a Circles Halloween event for work.

This is what a Care Bear looks like in moonface.

And this is me being weirded out by my CUH-RAYZEE friends: little-girl-from-all-dogs-go-to-heaven, purple unicorn, and smallwood slut in moonface

Man that's a lot of memories for one blog post (I have to remind myself that people's attention spans are shrinking everyday). So in an effort to accommodate your overstimulated brain, I will stop there. 

Thanks for hangin' in there. I'll be back soon.

lovecare.

i'm still here, folks.

Hey webbudz!

My last blog post was in October - nearly six months ago. I tell you what, when you've been outta the game that long, it's tempting just to abandon the blogosphere altogether. I know, it's crazy talk, but that's how I've been feeling lately.

But I woke up today with a renewed sense of dedication to the cyberworld. I looked in the mirror and with determination said, "Carrie, don't be a quitter. Quitting is for ding-dongs. Would Rebecca Black let a few boring Fridays keep her from looking forward to the weekend? So why should you let a measly six-months keep ya down?"

So here I am. I just organized my all my sweet pics on my new computer and realized there's lots of good stuff that happened that I am sure you (all 6 of you who read this) are just DYING to hear about.

So...stayed tuned!

Oh, and now I can take cool pics of myself with my new web-cam like the cool bloggers do. Welcome to the big leagues, Care.

peace.