Today I was @....

.....Bellwether Landscape Architects.

After a really great day at Bellwether with Missy and Todd, what could be better than ending the day with Chicken Happy Hour.  Fortunately for me, and probably unfortunately for you, I have discovered Instagram.  One of the really lovely ladies I follow on Pinterest, Mrs. French, peaked my interest with her Instagram photos and now I am hooked.

Take a look at some of my photos from my relaxing evening with my husband, my dog and, of course, my chickens.

I would be selfish if I didn't share that!

Make sure to read my posts for San Marco, some great photos!  sanmarcousa.wordpress.com.  Most importantly, don't forget to come to happy hour tomorrow evening at Ormsby's, 6-8.  I hope it will be a great crowd like last time!

This weekend I was @.......

......my house.

What a fabulous weekend it has been.  Duncan and I had a wonderful dinner with friends to celebrate a birthday, not mine, on Friday night.  We went to Cucina Asellina and everything was great.  I had Pistachio Garganelli which had hand made sausage and wild mushrooms, delish!!  The great thing about it is they didn't bring you a heaping bowl of food so we didn't leave feeling stuffed.  I say go check it out yourselves.

The most exciting part of the weekend was that our chicks have started hatching!!!!!  The cutest and coolest thing ever.  We have 5 chicks at the moment and 5 more eggs to go, Runt (named so bc she was the runt of the litter and has ended up being the healthiest of them all) is such a great mom too!  Our adorable nephew came for a sleepover which made it that much more fun.

Charlie, our nephew, loving some pop corn.

Video of the first chick being born, now we have 5.

She has been keeping them tucked underneath her, and they are quite adventurous, so they keep popping out, exploring the brood box.

And my peonies are blooming, my favorite time of spring.  And these aren't even my pretty ones so stay tuned!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

This week I was @......

......  I can't believe I haven't posted anything in so long.  Our new chicks should be hatching any day now so stay tuned.  I have been working hard on my new website and hope to have it up and running May 1, not far away. 

Don't forget next week's happy hour at Ormsby's, Thursday night 6-8, bring a friend!

Here are some new jewelry pieces I have been working on for Spring.

Have a great Thursday!

Saturday I was @..........

...........our backyard bee party.

Saturday was a big hit!!!  Duncan and I started early with a trip to Athens, GA to pick up the 2 new nucleus hives.  Two of our hives made it through the winter with no problem but one did not so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of bees in order to cultivate a lot of honey this summer.  This will be our fifth year keeping bees, low maintenance and very educational.

Here is the bee farm where we picked up our new hives.  The weather could not have been better, it felt like we were in the mountains with all of the surrounding forrest and crisp, cool air.

This is the property of Jennifer A. Berry, who is the Apicultural Research Coordinator and Lab Manager at the University of Georgia, and this is only a fraction of her hives.  You might not be able to tell from the picture but the hives were all painted pastel colors, so appropriate for Easter weekend and I am definitely going to steel that idea.

And here we have two new hives of angry bees, close the trunk and don't stop until you get home!

We were joined by Ozzie Sabina, one of Duncan's friend and fellow bee keepers, and a friend and co-worker of Duncan's who might be interested in this hobby.  Here they are inspecting the existing hives.

A close up of their findings.

Some of our guests observing.

Some of my dearest friends who just came for the wine.  Just kidding.

I am sure they are discussing colony collapse syndrome.

Brad and Emma Jayne.

Duncan post hive inspection.  Those outfits get warm!

The integration of hives did not go off without a hitch.  We had a swarm right out of the gate, I couldn't get a picture of the bees clumped in the trees because they were so high up.  Luckily, for our party, they decided to go back to their hives instead of finding a new home elsewhere. 

Once the new frames were integrated into our existing hives, and the Queen Bee was situated in her new home, the rest followed, literally making a "bee line" into the new hive.

The bees weren't the only entertainment, 

The Twins thought this was a party for them.

Jackson found one of the eggs hidden by one of the hens after being laid, so I can honestly say we had an easter egg hunt.  Clearly the other kids were envious, even big sis in the background.

Last but not least, 

a tired Shorty.  I am pretty sure she has never been this exhausted.

Thanks to our fabulous friends for making Bee Saturday the highlight of our Easter weekend.

Today I am @.........

....my computer for the most part.  I am meeting with a new client over lunch so that is exciting.  My website is shaping up so I can't wait to get it out there so everyone can really see what I have been up to over the past year or so.

I am attaching an invite from Renaissance Tile and Bath, www.renaissancetileandbath.com. They are launching a new product and Monica Murphy-Perez, of Renaissance Tile and Bath, asked me to get the word out.

Save the date!

I am also trying to decide on a location for our next networking happy hour.  I would love some feedback.  The May event is going to take place at San Marco and my goal is to find interesting places to meet so we can learn something as we share cocktails.  Please throw me some suggestions.

My husband the Beekeeper picks up his new Nucleus hive tomorrow so we will be adding to our existing hives.  I will have lots of footage as there are some soon to be bee keepers coming to observe.

Stay tuned and have a fabulous Friday!

This morning I was @....

.....my computer.

I was so excited to see this update on my Facebook page.  Alan Clark, an architect I worked with at Summerour, had attached this great article about the renovation he did to his parents log cabin in Talking Rock, Georgia.  I would love to have a place like this for a retreat, please read the article.  Alan Clark and his business partner, Frances Zook, make up Clark and Zook Architects, www.clarkzookarchitects.com and they do great work. 

This weekend I was @.........

.........Home.

What a fabulous weekend!  Duncan and I stayed in both nights and made incredible meals, rack of lamb crusted with pistachios and a red currant sauce on Saturday night.  Yummy.  I suppose the highlight of the weekend was giving one of our hens an early easter present.  Runt, named so because she was the runt of the group, that is no longer the case,

has gone broody on us.  That just means she has turned motherly and wants to hatch her own eggs.  Sometimes hens snap out of it and sometimes they don't and she hasn't, so we bought her 10 fertilized eggs to hatch naturally.

They arrived on Saturday via US Mail....

From The Garry Farm.

Mostly Easter Eggers, there is one Americauna egg, and 

a few Copper Marans, can you believe that color?

So we arranged them in the box...

And there she goes.  She is proving to be a good mother, she turns the eggs regularly and is able to cover all of them with her body so hopefully in 17 days we will have some chicks.   I will keep you posted.

This is going to be a busy week, Architect Caroline Rolader has hired me organize her portfolio of work, I will start by lining up some photo shoots, can't wait to see the projects in person.  Caroline made a comment at our initial meeting that while "some of these projects aren't the biggest, they have changed the lives of the people living in the house."  I couldn't help but write this down because it reminded me that all architecture, renovations and interior design are important when you transform a room or an entire home for an individual or a family.

I hope to have my new website up and running soon so you can see the different examples of work I have been doing lately.

If you or anyone you know need help with photography, putting together a portfolio, or creating a website to get your work in front of the public eye, call or email me:

404-213-6606

kristinmayfieldmeredith@gmail.com

Have a great week!