What I have been doing? Forest Finds, Gardening, Dried Flowers, etc.

What in the world have I been up too lately!  The forest  is so enchanting now with the leaves falling rapidly. I got a bag of fallen pears yesterday from a couple to put out for the deer, they love them! They have been closer to the cabin lately, I can see them across in the forest by the edge of the road and sometimes even walking up it. I can hear them when the leaves rustle in the woods and look to see a doe and two babies, but we have more sometimes. Also the turkeys and I hope the bear will stay in hibernation so I can put my bird feeders back out as it tears them up.

I found while out one day what I suppose you really call "Pole Beans".   I loved this garden! 

Bamboo Poles 

And this is the "Poison Sumac"  in bloom, you do NOT want to get near it, it is worse than Poison Ivy! 

I also have been collecting forest finds and filling Etsy orders from them. I love the "Natural Organic real thing" over purchasing a man-made item in a store look- alike. They never get it quite right.

                                     Pussy Willow Real Thing 

                                                    

                                       

                                            Shelf Mushrooms

Other fungi , the Pink is Indian Pipe and it can also be White

 Teeny Tiny Acorns are falling everywhere, they collect also in the Moss in my Bee Balm Garden.  I can just rake my fingers thru the crevices and out they come!   I also planted moss there to keep the falling flowers from getting in the dirt or mulch.  The one small cone I got from another place as we have none on our property. This is a coffee can lid they are displayed inside of.

I found the Golden Wooly Worms, I wonder why they are not black or if they will be? 

 

The sassafras leaves are the cabin are turning colors and are so beautiful! I call our cabin " Sassafrass Cabin" because we have so many of these trees in our yard and nearby forest.

I have real Pussy Willow over the Silk Artificial ones  I brought up here. It dried beautifully and is in use in my potpourri and floral displays. I also dry so many of my flower heads and collect seeds for later in another place.  I have gardened here more than ever in my life! 

                         Flowers I Dry for Potpourri with Essential Oils  

And some Potpourri I have made, Pink Roses 

I also recently fell off the side of our porch and I sat there saying, " I did NOT break my ankle" over and over again before I got up. Praise the Lord is was not broken but badly sprained so I had to get some wider shoes to accommodate the wrap the DR. put around and I found some really cute ones. I love them, they are a size to big but OK, they will lace tighter after my ankle heals.I did have to return the brown leather slip-on because my heel slipped to bad in it. I thought the ties around them would be fine but, not enough to keep them on. 

Thanks for looking at my post today, please leave a comment; I love knowing you were here! Blessings, Cyndi

Hummingbirds, Gardening, On-Line Selling,

Our Hummingbird Feeder 

My hanger for the hummingbirds I made from a  Mountain Laurel Branch

Re-posted ~ I wrote this to a friend:

Terror in my heart this AM  

I walked outside to drink my coffee this morning and I had just sat down when our hummers started buzzing their feeder hanging from our cabin eve overhanging from the roof when one of the hummingbirds fell and was hanging by its' beak caught in a spider string web. It was helpless and my heart went to my stomach.  I am still shaking but I took my wood incense burner stick and twirled it in the spider web and then freed the tiny bird just hanging upside down from it. Those webs are so strong, I broke it and freed the bird and it flew away.  Oh, Thank Goodness I was there!  What was seconds seemed like a lifetime!

SO, watch your hummingbird feeders, I could not see this web hanging down until the hummer was attached to it, so I took my incense stick and went all around the feeder  to rid any more webs that might be close. And, I will check out any webs on our porch  later when it gets more daylight.  Fate had me go outside when I did, my good deed saved the day, clap on chest!

 Sunday - August 2, 2015 

What have I been doing?

Still gardening, this has proved to be a much bigger project than planned time for. I am finding so many new invasive plants  that I have no idea what they are and pulling them.  One great way to ID them is to ask at "Hometalk"! ( links on sidebar) I always get great replies there and lots of new ideas!  I know I do not want to keep them and maybe I will put down some sheeting this fall when the good things are the only ones left.  I do NOT want them again next year. 

All the trees we cut down earlier in the spring are coming back too. Behind my rose trellis is a wooded area I plant moss and I thought the trees were giving my roses too much shade so we got out our reciprocating saw and down many of them came only to have sprouts coming back and some have stickers which I really hate.  Then we burned them in our fire pit.  It was a big job, if it was not a Sassafras tree it came down.  I love them and we  have many in our yard and forest surrounding us.

I dug up roots the first year we were here to make tea and it was wonderful. They spread roots and as I was first making my garden, they came up when digging near them.   Heck, I am still collecting leaves from them  being the horrid squirrel I am, saving everything.

But, I am really going to De-Stash now! I have too, I just have too much Stuff! Forest Nature Collections of about anything I find, things I brought from my consignment shops  when we moved here and an attic and warehouse full of vintage items.  I need to start ironing them.   I am going to close my consignment shop here as this area is just too depressed with the economy, once the vacationers leave , no sales to speak of and I think I will do better with y on-line sites, Etsy,  Ebay,  Threadflip and a rare Bonanza listing. I have really let that shop lax as no time to promote it , I mainly sell on Etsy but items to NEW for there will be on Ebay as " frstyfrolk" my Vintage Etsy shop name where I first started.   I started selling on Ebay to pay my medical bills when I found some of my Mother-In-Law's Vintage eyeglasses and jewelry. She wore those cat's eye glasses and they got me hooked that I could sell them.  I still have lots of her jewelry and vanity trinkets.  I also have lots of them myself.   Mine are so sentimental to me I have just boxed them but no see, no think and I also do not wear jewelry here in the mountains like I did with city living. Plus I turn "65" this year and more money for Medicare will be deducted  from  my SS paycheck which was small enough to begin with. But, I will have health insurance, But,  I doubt I will use it enough to be worthwhile.  It starts this month making me take drastic measures to be able to just get by!

I hate always talking about hard times but we just never saw this coming!

So, watch for my listings, email me if you are looking for something.

Has anyone had good luck selling on Facebook?

 I uploaded some photographs there as I take so many ? 

 Etsy shops
Supplies and Handmade ~ http://www.etsy.com/shop/bylightofmoon 
Vintage ~ http://www.etsy.com/shop/frstyfrolk

My everyday blog and sites:
With my dogs and everyday life, my art and lovely finds
http://bylightofmoon.blogspot.com/

http://pinterest.com/bylightofmoon/
http://pinterest.com/frstyfrolk

https://www.facebook.com/frstyfrolk
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frstyfrolks-DragonflyzDreams/264901646869858

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Twitter
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ByLightOfMoon Google page
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Linkin
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cyndi-bylightofmoon/50/374/b2/

Hometalk- two profiles

http://www.hometalk.com/cyndineumann

http://www.hometalk.com/cyndi

Tumbler 

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Help Animals Daily and Purple Paw Print Love, Storage ,Garden, and Everyday Life!

The Animal Rescue Site is one I go to daily to help fund food for animals! Many days they have one day sales for free gifts with just ship payment of $4.95. I love receiving these items now and then, they are always wonderful quality and serve a good purpose.

My recent orders were a paw print, tote bag which unfolds into a larger bag, car mirror hanger and pawprint dash pad,  kitchen towels of owls and pawprints, and more;   I love the paw print  items.  I have ordered many items over the  years and they are still great quality and knowing I helping animals in some way is a GOOD feeling!

I get an email daily to reminding me and that is the first thing I do when checking my email.
Easy Peasy to do! You should sign up also!
 Here is todays item, just fabulous! Oh, I also LOVE Purple! 

FREE SHIPPING ON YOUR ENTIRE ORDER WHEN YOU DONATE $15!

I also WON another items from a Shop Local  Event I attended, WOw winning two items lately is so unusual for me. I hope I am on a streak, and here is a photo of the Picnic Basket I won from Mountain Like Realty Co.

I ate and drank  my way through the event with awesome goodies offerent. I also brought home a free bag filled with literature and information that will be very helpful to me.  I met a couple of ladies in f Essential Oil Booths that used them in products they offer.Also, mineral make up used that looked fabulous. I don;t wear much make-up anymore just around the house and forest.  I had hair spray on after they took my photo for  three local newspapers for the picnic basket and I was swarmed later that day while watering my garden from knatsy bugs!  I was telling them to go away and leave me alone, my husband said to me, " Do you think they understand?"


I am late in starting my garden seeds and saved seeds from last years blooms.That is ONE thing I need to make a priority to do Today!

I have also been cutting rose blooms for my potpourri makings I am working on. I plan to offer them in  my Etsy shop as I have bins of them in craft room.

 I also discovered the zipper large plastic bags in a local shops for $1.00 for 4 so I almost bought them out. I did return for more and finally that had sold out of them.... They sure are nice to store things in and I can see what is in them easily. Even winter clothes to my warehouse and from my warehouse many materials for crafting.  I do have way to many fabrics saved from vintage cut up clothing and great material buys here and there.  I should also start sharing these in my Etsy shop as I can never use them all but I have a lot of great selections of all kinds of styles.

I found this beautiful pink/white/ and yellow moth with a broken wing on my porch so I put it in a jar with some flowers for nectar and moss for moisture but it did not make it.  I tried!

More garden plants for potpourri
'Wild Roses are absolutely everwhere

And this teacup I will re-make and put up for sale in my BLOM Etsy shop with different mss and lichen in it, it also has a saucer but right now it has a violet and a twig from a tree I found with beautiful teeny tiny flowers on it, the Mountain Laurel is also now blooming along with my Carolina Crimson Allspice but they do not dry well.
Violet already bloomed.

Tiny tree branch, wish I knew the name

Mountain Laurel ready to bloom

Carolina Crimson Allspice

Trillium, but I do not disturb it, it is all over my yard

In my garden, wish I knew name too! Beautiful Purple Blooms

And of course,  Rhododendron

Wishing you a Blessed Sunday
Smiles, Cyndi