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

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

Fall Collecting in the Forest! Nature's Beauties!

 I added a link a the top of my Page for Interweave which I found from a favorite magazine, Cloth, Paper, Scissors!  It features all kinds of Crafting and Art Resources! It is the Interweave Link which will take you to so many fun places, check it out! You will fall in love too! Save 30% Off at Interweave with Offer Code SPOOKY30 I have not blogged much this summer, but it rained the other day  I stayed inside most of the day,  I am sure my husband liked it better on summer days when I was outside many times past his dinner call!  I cleaned and vacuumed and was in his way all day!

I have stayed busy planting and building gardens, moss, flowers, and wildflower (roadside finds) which I said I was not going to do this year BUT, it happened...

I could not drive my car the beginning of summer, in May I wreaked our car and my husband banned me from driving because Our car insurance rate will  be raised yet again due to me. Two accidents in last two years, which really is a bit much for me... But, eventually I wore him down and said I would pay the increased premium if he would let me go back to my wanderings.... ( he got tired of waiting in the car for me while cutting roadside finds and lots of times he would not even stop which led to some bittersweet words from me....

My gardens have kept me busy and fall collecting season has been fabulous! The acorns are falling on  my head in my backyard! A Banner Year for them!

I am finding so many acorn with no tops which is amazing to me, where are the tops? Maybe they are so heavy on the trees they fall and tops stay. I don't know but both are all around me in my backyard especially, The yard is just covered with both and I cannot help but keep picking them up. They find their way into crevices and leaf bunches, our yard slopes and catches many things, fun to look around.

I even have been finding with I cannot resist collecting is these tiny  little eanny meany acorns, I find their little eyes looking at me in the leaves, They would make great table scatter I tell myself. So yes, I pick them up!

Meanwhile, here is what I have been doing! 

I remember a couple of occasions when I went looking for an acorn and another time a pine cone. They were just not to be found, it was too late for the pine cones, they were under pine straw and rotting and wrong time of year acorns. Some years we just have not had many but THIS has been a BANNER Year for them! They are falling all around me outside in my yard and hitting our car even. 

SO, Collect them when you can!

I  have been collecting the acorn tops for awhile now, they started falling in my back yard a while back so I have a fabulous supply! 

 I had some drying when the rains came and the nuts started sprouting so I feed them to the squirrels but they are separating now and I am collecting them separate and putting acorns the street as I don't want them in my gardens sprouting! I sure don't need pine trees in my gardens.

 I started collecting the acorn tops when I thought of the Gnome Hat Factory for my Etsy store.  As you know fairies, gnomes, hobbits, elves, any kind of  forest creatures who love to hide is what I LOVE! I say to myself I find the magical trinkets they leave for me to discover! Also some buyers are using them to felt acorns with and other ideas.

Also, we have had several days of rain and one a humdinger with  high winds and hard rains and now the pine cones are everywhere, so YES! I go get them! All kinds of trees are in the forest and so many types to find. Long, short, little, fat, they are all around me. They are all a lot to clean and remove pine straw debris but I am working on it

I am now finding all sizes of pine cones and I collect them all. I use them for mixed media projects like the new fireplace starters I am working on. even the eany meany ones will be neat table scatter and in my potpourri I am working on.  Some can be barely seen and are not open.

 I have been drying flowers all summer long for my potpourri mixes and I have a beautiful supply of Dried Hydrangea now too, Beautiful colors in blue, pine, brown lace, white lace, and greens. I have dried flower petals of all kinds.

Some of the small pine cones I am using in my New Fireplace Starters I am just starting to make. Of course, they are all different as I use forest findings to make them. They will be nice for campfires and  fireplaces, etc.  I put inside them items I thought would be neat to see or colorful but the wax dried white instead of clear so next time maybe I will add a scent to them for color since you cannot see inside the fireplaces starters. I did decorate the tops with woodland findings and they will be in my Etsy shop too!

With our hard rains down came the leaves too. I was sweeping our porch and moved my concrete bunny that holds a couple of pine cones that never open. I had added a couple that were on the porch just to clear the way and look what I found. Do you see the tiny mushrooms growing inside the pine cone?

I hope you have enjoyed my days in the woods! 

Smiles, Cyndi