On The Road Again!

Oscar and I are dreamers. When we first started dating, we were fueled by a mutual interest to travel and see the world, develop and explore our artistic passions, and live a life outside of any box or shape there had ever been. Finding out we were pregnant so soon after our relationship began really put us in a situation where we could either decide that our dreams were over, or that they were just beginning. We chose to dive full-force into believing they were just beginning, and have taken many leaps of faith into the unknown for the sake of following those dreams. It has been a wild ride, but I am so thankful for all of the experiences and growth along the way. Paving our own path for pregnancy and birth, starting our family business, moving out of the city, and developing a beautiful integration where we've turned our passions into our living; all of it has been so rewarding, but our hearts are calling for more!

Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about the direction our family is headed in with living here in Alpine, and what things we really want to build our life around. The more we've been talking, the more we have developed this total sense and understanding of everything working together so perfectly, and we're excited to share all of the details we have in place so far! I'm so excited I really am having a hard time even knowing how to explain all of this but to put it in one sentence- We are moving to my parent's house in order to save money, record an EP for our new family band, sell our belongings, buy a trailer and hit the road, where we plan to travel the country mining for crystals, exploring national forests, playing music in living rooms and backyards (hopefully yours!), and getting a taste of the life and land across the states. We want to meet you and your children, to share stories and music around the fire, and to cook meals together with food from your favorite markets and farms. We've had this dream for so long but have always thought we needed to wait until we had more money, or until Luna was older, or etc. But we just feel such a sense and a calling that now is the time, and we are excited to move forward with this adventure!

All of the details for our trip will be worked out and shared over the next few months, as we plan and map and save and continue to connect with all of you. We have already started recording our EP for The Cove, which will be a guitar/vocal collaboration between Oscar and myself. There will be songs in English and Spanish and this first EP is taking on such a unique theme, it's really going to be such a fun project and we can't wait to share! Our goal is to have it released by the beginning of summer, with our tour kicking off around the beginning of fall. It's going to be a lot of work to get done in a short period of time, but like I said, we are dreamers and we dream BIG! A huge part of the reason we are able to pursue these dreams is because of the support we receive through our blog, Instagram, and Etsy shop, and we just can't say enough how great that has been and how grateful we are. This online family of ours has become so much bigger of a thing than we ever could have imagined and we feel thrilled to become even more connected with you through real life visits and conversations. It's also going to be such a privilege to continue our crystal healing business on the road while being able to provide stones that we will be collecting from all over the country.

We hope that through spreading our dreams and passions in this way, we will fuel others on to go for it and do the same, and together we will create a new way for our children!

With lots of live and light from our hive to yours,

Ashley, Oscar, Luna & Francois

*Photo by CJeanPhotography

The Sling Diaries, Vol. IV // Everything Shines: Confidence

Good morning and happy Thursday! This is a really exciting post for us. For our third entry in the Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries, we decided to document our ceremony of burying Luna's placenta, something we have been planning to do since before she was born. We wanted to bury it somewhere she would always be able to visit, so a national park seemed like the best idea, since the land is so well preserved and protected. When we moved to Alpine three months ago, we were thrilled to find out that it was actually in a national forest! The same national forest I lived in for years as a kid. Needless to say, we felt it was perfect and ended up holding the ceremony only a few miles from where I grew up. It just seemed so fitting to be paired with this theme of confidence and we are excited to be sharing such a special part of our lives with you all today.

There are many sources from which to gather this magnificent quality of confidence, many wellsprings to drink from that will build us up and give us the resolve to move forward with heads held high in whatever direction we take. There is confidence that comes from things we learn or read about in books and confidence that comes out of popular opinion or kind words and affirmation from others. All throughout life we encounter opportunities for the building up and breaking down of confidence through these different influences, and it can be an emotional ride, always needing an outside source of energy to supply us with this gift of confidence. As a child I knew, and now as an adult I am remembering, of another source of confidence. One that can not be learned or taught, but only known in the deepest part of our inner soul. It is not contained in the mind or held within the body, it is a confidence accessed through the heart's intuition, strengthened and nurtured only by using it, by listening to it, and following its lead wherever it may take you.

When we started sharing the news that we would be leaving Luna attached to her placenta until she naturally detached from it, people were so interested to know where our confidence came from to make this decision. For many, it was difficult to accept that this desire we had for a lotus birth came from a place of intuition and that there was no "hard evidence" supporting it being beneficial for our child. But we felt confident; and it came from the same source where we gained our confidence to birth her at home and by ourselves, and the same source we've relied on for making all the decisions we have since she was born. Not from books or forums we've read, statistics or doctors we've heard about, but from an inner place of trust and faith in the knowing that we were gifted with this intuition, and it is a gift that is ours to use and grow.

This is the confidence we wish to nurture in ourselves and in Luna. Popular opinions may change, what doctors prescribe may vary, and the affirmation from family and friends may come and go, but we are forever and consistently gifted with this ability of our inner knowing. When we gain our confidence from this source, we are sure not to falter or fail. We were born with all we need. The answers are locked deep inside, buried in ourselves and in the earth, and love is the only key. May we always hold within ourselves a deep reverence and respect for this intuition, building our confidence around it day by day, never doubting the truth we know from before we come out of the womb.

Love and blessings from our family to yours, and thank you to Sakura Bloom for this beautiful platform to reflect, and as always to the incredibly talented and amazing CJeanPhotography for documenting this ceremony. We are so wonderfully supported and blessed.

Thank you for following along! I am wearing a Sakura Bloom Simple Silk sling in Sandstone.

Crystal Energy, Chakras and Auras Explained

Happy Tuesday, friends! We have had a very busy week here in the hive, with the launching of our IG shop (@homeinthehive_shop if you wanna check it out!) and the announcement for our new Inspirational Workshops project, with the first one coming up on Thursday. We are also hosting our first official giveaway through IG this week and would love for you to check it out if you haven't already! (@homeinthehive #hivegiveaway.) Woo hoo! Busy bees, indeed. As always we are overflowing with gratitude for the support and love we have found through this community. Thank you, friends!

Oscar and I have been doing extensive research and lots of hands-on learning lately, with regards to crystal healing and all the amazing interactions that can occur between the elements of nature and our physical bodies. It's amazing how science and technology are now proving what so many have felt and known for centuries, that we are completely and undeniably connected to everything around us, everything contains a frequency of energy that can either uplift or lower our beings. There is so much to digest when it comes to comprehending this type of information, but once you do, it really just all starts to "click". This video portrays a very amazing and easy-to-understand message regarding how crystals, chakras and energy frequencies work. We were SO happy to find it and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

If you are interested in crystal healing, please be sure to check out what we have to offer in our Etsy shop! http://www.etsy.com/shop/homeinthehive

That's all for now, folks. Hope you feel inspired and encouraged to go connect with the land around you! Sending lots of love and high vibes from our hive to yours.

You're Invited To Gather In The Hive!

Hello and happy Friday! We are so excited to be writing this announcement for the newest stage of evolution in our family's plans and visions for Home In The Hive. For the past year we have watched in wonder and amazement as our online community has blossomed and bloomed, providing such wonderful fruits of community and support for all of us to learn from and enjoy. Time and time again we have witnessed the power of this collective coming together to nourish and love one another through our journeys of pregnancy, birth, spiritual growth, raising a home, and all aspects of life. It's been so beautiful to be part of creating such a space of communal inspiration! Lately we've been talking a lot about the importance and necessity of community and our desires to connect with this online realm in deeper and more tangible ways, going beyond the platforms of our blog and Instagram. We wish we could invite each of you into our home to share a meal and a conversation, but since that is not currently a feasible option, we are aiming to get as close as we can with our new intention! 

Each week we are privileged to be in contact with families and individuals from all across the globe and each week we are given the opportunity to pour our love and energy into answering questions and being a resource and support in all the ways we can, but we want to do more! After a few days of deep meditation and receiving inspiration from some very close friends, we are so excited to announce that we are going to start hosting inspirational workshops here in the hive, that all of you will be invited to attend and participate in! In order to streamline information and make more significant connections with you, our online family, we are going to be facilitating conference call inspirational workshops where everyone will have a chance to tune in and hear a message from us, as well as have time for input, feedback, questions and answers. We have seen what the power of this collective community can do and we really believe that so much more is yet to be accomplished through our synchronized energy and intention, and it's for that reason that we will be hosting these gatherings in our hive.

As we continue to sustain our ability to do this type of work, growing the hive, and most importantly, to stay home and raise Luna together, we will be accepting donations for these inspirational workshops, but we absolutely do not want this to prevent anyone from being on the call. All are welcome and any amount of energy sent to the hive is deeply appreciated. Workshops will cover a wide variety of topics, from natural birth and parenting, to astrology and crystal healing, from sustainable living practices and real food eating, to alternative medicine and so much more! Our plan is to gather once a month, with the first gathering taking place on this very special upcoming New Moon! Each month we will post the new topic and some things to be thinking about before the next call takes place. If you feel inspired and have the means to support our work with your financial energy, we will be accepting donations for the gatherings through paypal. If you have questions or comments, or to make a donation, please use the email homeinthehive@gmail.com for all contact. Thank you! 

Here's what you need to know for the first gathering!

When & Where: We will meet on the next New Moon, Thursday, January 30^th at 5:30pm PST. Everyone is invited to dial in at (530) 881-1000 and enter the access code 119076# when prompted by the automated operator. You will then hear an invitation to introduce yourself, at which point you can go ahead and say hello and your name, or you can pass and remain a silent listener, totally up to you. Of course we would LOVE to hear from everyone, but we understand that this type of thing is new to most, and intimidation is a fear we all must face at one point or another along the path! So we welcome all to do what feels comfortable at this time. If you are going to be arriving more than a minute or two late on the call, please refrain from introducing yourself as we may have already started the session and we want to respect everyone's time. Thank you!

Topic: This first inspirational workshop will serve as a sort of meet & greet and getting to know one another on a deeper level. We will start the gathering with a guided meditation and then Oscar and I will both be giving an introduction of ourselves, going deeper into our backgrounds and how we both found the path we are on today. Oscar has a degree in psychology that has led him on a path of deep interconnectedness and understanding of the human race, through many realms of work and intensive study in the metaphysical world, he has developed a strong sense of passion and direction for what we can all be doing to create conscious shifts of love and positivity in our lives and in this current paradigm. I am a licensed cosmetologist and have been submersed in studying the world of natural health and wellness for almost ten years. The opportunity to travel around the world doing missionary work as a child and teenager has greatly shaped my perspective and calling to bring healing and restoration to this earth and her inhabitants. Both Oscar and I will be speaking more deeply on how we got started with the paths we are on now, how we are working towards where we want to be, and ways we believe we all can start to return to the garden and bring new life to this beautiful earth of ours.

We would be so pleased to have you join us for the first gathering in the hive and to spread the word to anyone you know that might be interested in coming along! Thank you for reading this, for being a part of the journey, and we can't wait to connect on the New Moon! Love & Light from our hive to yours.

Ashley, Oscar, Luna & Francois