How I Got Started

I started Butterfly gardening many years ago. My yard has been a progression over the years, and has made many transformations. Twenty years ago I experienced Hurricane Andrew. My yard and house were destroyed. We decided not to replace the pool screening and open up the backyard and put in some landscaping. That was the official beginning of my love for gardening in South Florida. I added a beautiful water garden years ago, and have been adding host and larvae plants for pollinators, mostly for the butterfly, for as many years as I can remember. I had my yard certified as a Natural Habitat, through the National Wildlife Foundation. To have a natural habitat you need to provide and meet certain requirements: 1. Provide a food source, 2. Provide a water source, 3. Cover, 4. A place to raise young. I try not to use any pesticides in my yard. I vermicompost and recycle as many of my food scraps as possible. If I had more land I would have a huge compost bin to recycle all my yard cuttings. Basically, I try to lessen my carbon footprint on this earth. In my own little world or backyard I try to provide an ecosystem in my water garden, provide birdbaths, birdfeeders, hummingbird nectar sources, feeders, puddling areas, host plants and nectar plants for butterflies and other pollinators. I am hoping to raise everyone’s awareness of the importance of saving our Butterflies, Blooms & Bees. Without them our world and food source will be in trouble. I hope you all enjoy my journey. I am not a Master Gardener, or Master Beekeeper, an Entomologist, or Journalists. I am simply a Backyard Gardener who is trying to lessen her Carbon Footprint of this Earth.

I hope you enjoy my blogs.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

A Dream Coming True



Well it is official; I opened my Etsy Store and website. I am hoping that when I retire that I might be able to have a small business selling the bounty from my yard. I was so excited this week to see everything come to fruition. I know this is just the beginning but everyone has to start somewhere. For years now my friends have been telling me I should open a business. I have been thinking about this very seriously. Many years ago I really wanted to open something having to do with a doggy boutique. I have watched many doggy boutique businesses come and go. Owning my own business just seemed like something I would be good at and so with each product that I create from my yard the more I thought that an Etsy business connected with Reeny’s Butterflies, Blooms, and Bees might be a great idea. I have totally been consumed recently with the idea of making soap and using my honey and beeswax in many of the products. I am trying to create a niche.

Anyhow, I have a steep learning curve ahead of me, but plenty of time to learn. I think the pressure from my job to always perform has been really getting to me lately. You are only as good as your current performance; forget the fact that I have been a top sales performer throughout the 15 years with my current company. I also just turned 58 years old. Not quite ready to retire for at least 4-6 years. I figure a girl needs to plan for the future. Why not take my talents and biosustainable gardening practices and try to create a business. I have given so much honey, wine, soap and lip balm away it is time to see if I could sell a little of the fruits of my labor.

I had my first sale the very first day!!! I couldn’t believe it, although it was from a lifelong friend! I hope she enjoys the honey! I really appreciate her support and will always remember that she was my first sale. Thanks Trisha!

Sunday I spent the day entering different products to my Etsy site. I tried to stage the products so they looked attractive. Just mailing and packaging the honey was slightly overwhelming, I have never had to figure out shipping etc. Of course, I am a perfectionist and wanted to make sure that I packaged the honey creatively. That is one of the feature of Etsy that I like the most, is that many of the owners are very creative in the delivery of their products.



Sunday I also made two new batches of soap. One is a repeat because I gave away most of it to friends and family. So I made another batch of my Honey & Oatmeal Soap. The honey is from my hives. I scented it with Lavender Essential Oil, and Tea tree Oil. It smells terrific and I love the way it feels in the shower. I hope you agree. This new soap needs to cure for 3-6 weeks. It should be available by the end of October.





I also made a Caffeinated Coffee Soap. I will try to keep many of my products as natural as possible, but I would also like to be able to create a more artisan handmade soap. I will still try to keep it as natural as possible, using herbs etc. from my yard, but may use fragrance oils instead of essential oils. I will be sure to always list the ingredients that I put in any of my products. This soap does have some coffee fragrance oil, along with peppermint essential oil. The combination smells amazing. I also added fresh coffee grounds to the soap. This soap turned out really nice and smells just like a morning cup of coffee. So if you are one of those people that can’t function until you have a cup of coffee (many mornings I am one of those people), then this soap is perfect because you can bathe in your coffee too! This soap will be available sometime the end of October also.



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

New ways to connect with Reeny's Butterflies, Blooms and Bees!

I am proud to announce that you can now connect with Reeny's Butterflies, Blooms and Bees at more places on the net!

Visit my Facebook Page and become a fan to get updates! Click here to visit my Facebook page

Visit my Etsy Shop to order our products! Click here to visit my Etsy Shop

Visit my website to contact me, order products, read reviews and more! Click here to visit my website

Bear with me on the website and Etsty shop as I will be slowly adding products in the near future!!
Visit My Website:
CLICK HERE

Or Visit My Etsy Shop:
CLICK HERE