Live Forest Moss Collecting Terrariums Fairy Gnome Hobbit Sprite Gardens

I love being in the forest and collecting moss that I sell in my ByLightOfMoon Etsy shop which has become a Nature and Supplies Shop more than when I first opened it 6 years ago. I just had my Sixth Anniversary with this shop!  It  has been a good and fun Six years!

I have learned so much since we moved to the forest! We retired and moved here 3 1/2 years ago and before that I lived in the city, I had always lived in a city.

At first I was selling crafting supplies separate from my Vintage Etsy shop "frstyfrolk Dragonfly Dreams" which was my shop for  Vintage in Good Condition " and my vintage supplies that I craft with was in my supplies ByLightOfMoon shop!

I took moss for granted when we lived in the city but now I can walk right out my front door and be in the forest where we used to drive for hours to vacation in the woods and camp, hike,and raft, in fact, our community is a tourist destination and motorcycles come here to ride the two lane curvy roads and folks have second vacation homes here.  We are two hours from any big city!

Here is the moss when I find in in the forest and I collected what the deer have kicked up and also some small amounts from a clump or loose moss I find just lying around. It can dry out but comes right back when watered, it is very resilient.

Here is how it looks after cleaned it as I went in the forest to get the pine needles and leaf collections off of it.

I don;t think my buyers realize how much is involved in collecting moss as I can't just go get it and put it in a bag. It does involve a lot of my time.   Time is what I have and not $$$ so I enjoy it but it helps to buy gas and groceries between paydays.  And, it does take a lot of time to process an order but I try very hard for 24-48 house shipping and always with tracking number sent to my buyers.

Sometimes I collect ferns also as was this order.

Here is was freezing weather last week and I had to bring it inside to work on it.

I have had a lot of fun forcing bulbs with the pussy willow I wrote about in and earlier post.
Not much room and I brought the white table holding the forced blooms downstairs from the attic craft room, this area looks to our back yard where I dream of sitting and reading a good book. On the table, I have pussy willow, hyacinth in  Two Purple's (Light and dark) and had two pinks in bloom that have faded. I will plant them outside. The far pink in Kalanchoe in a beautiful Fushia color.  The book table is holding the bulbs I was given and had pussy willow planted in them but they did not bloom like they do in just fresh water. And, the planter with the water globe is Swedish Ivy that was doing bad upstairs so I brought it down and it revived beautifully. It is cold in the attic but I still have my aloe and succulents, geraniums, and some other plants there, we will see if they survive the winter.

Another neat thing I have found in my area I live in is pink streaked sand. It just fascinated me when I found it as it was under the grey mica sand I collect for my potting soil and terrariums.  It reminds me of sherbet ice cream!

It is just amazing isn't it?  Just lovely! A great find!

I had fun sharing my collections with you.  I am also building my wall with extra and a different kind of moss I find to cover the rock and try to look a little nicer!

We also have the bear return for a visit last week, she got into my finch feeder and took off with her one end of it. It was a green plastic globe at each end with the finch feeder inside, she also took the suet from two suet holders, usually she takes all of it but, we have repaired them from her earlier visits and I suppose they came apart easily and all she took was the suet, thanks goodness! I am so glad she did not bother or nice wood feeders. We got two lighthouses for Christmas and have a log cabin feeder up also. She already has destroyed one, I never found anything but the roof before.

Off to get to my day! I have another moss order., thank goodness!
Smiles, Cyndi