Working on the weekend, fairy gardens,Valentine's Day Wreaths, and a little clutter!

I have been working on the Valentine wreaths outside in the cold weather this weekend. I will have to take it inside to glue the extra pieces in the areas I want to cover the new wired twine my DH found for me. I was using regular old twine but I thought it showed too bad, so I wanted something I could make tighter plus less visible. Here is before and after photos!

The just bittersweet that made itself into two hearts just happened and I am going to leave it alone.

I like the simplicity of it and it will be in my Etsy shop as soon as I figure out how to ship it, the other one also. On another note, here is a photo of leaf like I have in my yard with a penny in the photo. They are everywhere and really cover the groundcover plants where they get no water so I pick them as I can. It is an oak leaf and a huge one. They do come in handy in the woods though as I use them to carry home my tiny finds, I just pick a leaf and add my tiny moss or lichen, fungi to the leaf in my basket and it keeps it separated from the other moss I collected. It is also good to hold the neat mushrooms I find. It is an endless job as we DO live in the forest with the trees all around us.

I left a jar of water outside last week I had some cuttings in and forgot about it. I heard a crack yesterday and the bottle had broken with the frozen water in it. I cleaned up the broken glass and here is the bottle, all ice!

When my son- in-law was here for Christmas he told me I had a cluttered yard. I guess I do have a lot of "yard art " from all my scrounging around the recycle bins and places. Even my porch is full, I sit there all the time and like having wind chimes near to hear so we do have several hanging from the porch ceiling and overhang. Here is a photo of a bicycle chain and I have found several that I laid across my banister and I have hung several little doo dad's from it with our homemade hangers. My husband cuts them up for me from old rusty coat hangers. We started doing this when I had some consignment booths in Alabama before we moved here and they hang things very inexpensive. This piece of bicycle chain I found just looks to me like an angel. It is frozen and I cannot move it, so one wing is a little cock-eyed but that is OK. I don't need perfect!

I adore my Fall Owl too hanging on our porch and I have not taken it down for winter. I love him too much and I did purchase him at a nearby shop I frequent. MY fairy gardens are even left as they were this summer, I have added way to many fairies and fairy garden items to it I had in the yard so they would not get wet and break. By the way, our porch s coved in the front of our cabin. The dish garden fairy terrarium with the gnome sits on a table by my chair and when it rains I just sit it on an outside banister for watering. Then I just turn it to drain, I believe it was a misting bowl that I found at a thrift and makes the perfect drainage with the bottom hole kind of on the side of the bowl. Look for them! They are great or you can use old lamp covers.

We are under a Winter Advisory today, it is 41 now and light rain. I have some Etsy packages to mail and I may take them to the blue PO box if they will fit, just in case I cannot get out in the AM. I usually just take them to the clerk, he knows me well! I appreciate my Etsy sales, they really help our income as we live only on Social Security! It really helps with gas and grocery $ throughout the month. I made some bird cages with moss and hydrangea for a lady, a custom order for her wedding. I made a couple up myself as I had some cages upstairs in my craft room and I was sitting on my porch one day and remembered this antique bird cage hanging from my cluttered porch with nothing in it. Hit My Head! That did not last long!

Here are the other couple I made up for fun.

Only the last one had the top open so I had to slide the moss and hydrangea in the side slits on the large and white birdcage. It worked out OK! While I was out and about last week I also found a Chiniquin Tree I had visited before and I got a wild hare to see if there was any pods from it. Well, they were everywhere. So what does Cyndi do, She collects some, well a lot!

I have them in my Etsy " ByLightOfMoon" Shop as they are great for using with mixed media as I did with the Valentine Wreath or a terrarium, even in a ball bowl that is rustic maybe with pine cones, etc.

I will also add some of these fun acorns, they are so tiny I love them in my shop as soon as I can get them listed. I baked them in the oven when I collected a batch last year and it smelled heavenly! I wanted to be sure of no critters. Well, I have had fun chatting with you this AM, the sun or light is getting clearer outside, not much sun here in several days. We did have a light snow last Thursday that was pretty. After Last year's snow, I though when I shoveled our side porches I should have made a huge snowman with all I shoveled off to the yard! Maybe? Smiles, Cyndi