Easter Makings!

What have I been doing lately? I suppose a little of everything. I cannot keep my thoughts and sensations on one thing, I am scattered, sometimes I feel like the fractures trees I see around me in the forest.  The winds blows them and down they come or the fragile branches and limbs break off.

Then they grow the algae I find and love to collect. I collect everything!

My needs have changed from city life and scrapbook papers and fabrics for mixed media to the real nature forest finds.I love a lit candle and gardening without gloves. Feeling Mother Nature is in my soul.

 I love having it around me, I live in the forest but I still have it close to me when I collect it.  I guess I thought it would go away when I went to find an acorn one day and that year and also this we have had very few acorns, due to a wet spring.  Bad excuse, I know!

Yesterday it was not my plan but I walked a forest road and found the nature curly glass I love and I thought why not use it in Easter Baskets? It is so much more beautiful than the store bought plastic stuff I see. Myself and the birds use it for nesting materials. The striated colors are not to be beat. Just awesome! Look closely around you at your Lilliputian world and see what you can find.

Make something out of the non-everyday, think outside the box and color outside the lines!

Here is what I did yesterday when I put my thoughts to the table setting.

I started making the Easter Baskets and then as I was adding details I thought of the nests I had been making only in miniature for pussy willow catkins or even marbles. So, yes, I made one. then two, etc.

That is the way it goes! 

My cat "Lily" is even watching me in this photo, she is one the banister! Play I spy! 

Have a wonderful week and PLAY! 

Smiles, Cyndi

A Forest Saturday Morning Rain, New Plantings, Bluebirds and Nests, and still Bears!

A Forest Saturday Morning Rain 

I am delayed in writing my blog but the thoughts have been in my head. So many new happenings in the mountains this past week.  I wake up and go to bed with a Whip Or 'Will singing and it is just fabulous to listen to. It just repeats over and over, sometimes we can hear another one reply to it.

Also,  the dogwoods and  wisteria trees are blooming. I saw my first humming bird yesterday so time to get out the feeders for them. Even the carpenter bees are around already.  Everything is turning green!

I have seen pink and white  trillium ( all parts of this plant above ground is in three's;  Petals, Cells, sepals, stamens,  ovaries and ribs) in our yard, their pretty flower heads hanging down ,  tiny purple violets, wild ginger with its heart shape leaves, barely above ground, the beautiful quince trees and Forsythia bushes have bloomed.  A lot is happening that I am still learning. Green things are coming up in my gardens and I have no idea what they are. Are they flower seeds that fell from last year when my garden did so well, or what others call weeds?  I did have to pull a few that were just so  overcrowding the garden beds and they are in the yard also , so I just re-planted them in the clay I took from the new holes  I dug to plant newly purchased plants.

Dogwood

New fiddle heads on the ferns

Wild Ginger Leaves and tiny violets

Trillium

New Yellow Tulip 

Quince

Forsythia

My Neighbor made his a double heart shape

My Yellow Tulip I bought at the grocery store, a " Winky Doubly Dark Blue Columbine" flower, catnip for Blak and Lily, a pretty pink calla Lily, a tomato plant, Mazus, some "Wine and Roses" color Gladiolus  and Ranunculus colored mixture bulbs, A "Stargazer" Lily, Pink Heather, Periwinkle, Delphinium, a Chocolate Veil Heuchera, and from seeds; some Lavender and Moonflowers.  My husband also bought me the most beautiful Lavender plant from Home Depot. IT has a very special place on my porch in a pot and I plan to plant more Lavender seeds. I really want it to do well this year so I am going to watch it much better than last year when I was doing so much. I saw an idea about marking your plants so you know where you have planted and it uses an old blind. I marked the names last fall but it has come off even with a permanent marker.  I just cut them into three short lengths and sit them down when I am planting something new and the old makers remind where I should not dig. 

I have never been much of a seed grower but with the cost of plants, I am going to try them more.

I also have started re-planting my elephant ears from the storage bin for over wintering in sphagnum moss, the ones I left out are starting to have shoots come up so I think I will just leave them all this year in the ground.

We are still dealing with the bears and got photos of two in our back yard after they had spilled the bird seed out and were eating off the ground. The bear we had last year just tore them off the poles and destroyed them. But, they have taken all the suet feeders to the woods to eat and several I cannot find. The birds are very disappointed they are not there.

Click on the photo to see it better

I need this sign 

I watch a pair of Bluebirds building a nest in one of our birdhouses and it was enchanting to see.  They were one inside building and one outside watching.  I am so glad I got a photo of them as that afternoon I found the nest on the ground. I put it back in with a sterile glove on my hand and closed the door like it should have been in the first place but they have never returned. Sigh!  After a week or so we removed the nail to see if any bird eggs were inside. Not! So we removed the nest and her is what it looks like.

It is made from the ornamental grasses we have all over up here and of course( like I always do)  I have collected some for my nature jars and etc, I make.  I adore the organic colors in them, they ombre in color from light to dark. So, I have started making some nests for my "ByLightOfMoon Etsyshop  in the "Nature/Terrariums/Nests Section" and the markets I go to here. I had some ceramic eggs I purchased wholesale I am putting in them while they last.  aster that I plan to make polymer eggs for them. I have been meaning to learn to use polymer clay for many things in my head, just doing them is another story of my life, never getting around to it.

Meanwhile I package them with and without eggs and with other forest items if you want a nature display around the nest in a shadowbox or tabletop setting. Also a terrarium or glass vase would be perfect.  I have several around my house as I just keep adding forest findings to them. Pine cones, feathers, dried mushrooms, Sourwood tree dried florets, acorns, walnut faces the squirrels have cracked open and also pine cone rosettes they made also.  I love bring in the forest and I am a collector! 

Sourwood Tree dried Flowers

I am linking this blog post to the Etsy Cottage Style Blog Craft Party! '

Well, it has stopped raining, I have more seeds to plant today!

Thanks for your visit and I appreciate your comments! 

Smiles, Cyndi