Spring is in the Air!

Spring is in the Air!

April, Spring, warmer weather, tree's blooming, green color is returning, all of these things make me want to get even busier in my yard and gardens.

I even went to the flower shop yesterday where they are stocking up on garden and yard plants! I even got some Victoria Rhubarb to grow for the first time ever! Actually it is my first time for many gardening ideas as I have never really had them before, maybe just a plant of two that grows very easily like my mint that spread everywhere in Alabama. I adore it when the dogs tennis ball had to be retrieved form it because it released the smell and I also used it in making mojoto's, fresh mint make them so pretty and tasty, I also had chocolate mint that smell wonderful. It should be coming back up soon, I hope! I did get our black cat Blak some more Catmint again yesterday. He loves it so much. Lily the tabby is not much into it yet and she would even rather chase her tail than play with toys.

I did take branches from my corkscrew willow that was replanted at many of my previous homes. My

 in- laws gave it to me when we bought our first home and we stayed there 17 years but when we outgrew it and moved, we took cut branches with us for new trees. My Mother -in- law even took cuttings when they moved from an apartment to a home so it did travel to many new sites.

I planted several cut branches in several places in our yard here in North Carolina and it seems to be doing very well! Of course, my moss gardens here are my biggest thing as it is free to gather in the woods where the deer have kicked it up and I have discovered a whole new world with my fairy gardens along with  the lichen and tree algae I find here, I have so many plans for all of them this summer to add to my small Lilliputian worlds and making terrariums. I have been collecting tiny miniatures to put in them.

Yesterday I went to the thrift store and got a large bag of wooden items. I figure I can learn to paint them to be terrariums accessories. I also got some small winter Christmas houses I plan to de-winterize and make them fairy and gnome houses with the moss and lichen added.

I also plan on making mobiles and wind chimes with all my junk metals I find along with my stash of bead s and jewelry accessories. I also collect kitchen items for mobiles and anything that would make noise in the wind.  

I have thought of using my junk crowns   or terrarium lamp

fixture holders ( I call them) for using in wind chimes, they can be a base for hanging items I have found. Also tree branches and stones, etc.  I am lucky ( or unlucky) I have so many flea markets available to be here and so many animal help thrift shops. Or unlucky because I spend to much money at them.

  My collections are getting overwhelming and I need to use and make instead of just collect.

I  also have a large collection of picture frames I need to de-stash! I  have been collecting them since Alabama and have several boxes of them. They were purchased for vintage prints I have and for making nature inspired mixed media like my sassafras leaves in my Etsy shop! I also take So many photographs here in the country, I want to share them as I am working on a way to get them printed and shipped.  It amazes me of the quirky road sign names here, I guess anyone can name their own road and some are very cute names and very unusual! Yes, I take photos of them also and wishing wells, tire swings, even clotheslines; things we did not see when we lived  in the city.

I have many vintage jars and it pains me we cannot recycle glass here, so I dread putting them in the trash.

I found alongside the road one day several white plastic bags dumped at a site I pass every day. I finally got tired of looking at the plastic bags someone had dumped and I took a big trash bag to collect them and put in our trash. I had no idea what was in them at the time but it turned out they were old "Wild Irish Rose Bottles "someone had dumped. Now, I want to decorate them and maybe learn to cut them for wind chimes, 

My husband purchased  at a craft show we attended a three cut off bottoms bottle wind chime but it had no hanger in it , it was just to clink in the wind. It did not work out very well, so he added a wood bead inside and a tin can lid to the hanger, now it looks and sounds wonderful!