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! 

Moss, Terrariums and Children!

I was lucky enough last week to have been selected by an Etsy buyer to send Moss and a few variety forest items to Arizona where many of the  fifty children had not ever even seen moss! These will be used in a Church Camp for the children to make terrariums. I had so much fun collecting these special items for this project! I went way overboard collection as I usually do, but I wanted to get the perfect specimens for them to use. Of course, I walk the deer trails for what has been kicked up by the deer and use very few items I have to actually dig. Most of it is very dry when I find it but it rained the day I went collecting so it was easy to find, especially the lichen on the rocks was standing out like a neon sign.  I sent all I could get into the box and donated much of my time to this effort as I had fun knowing the end means and also spent two days cleaning it and getting out the pine straw.  There were some ting acorns, ( little yellow ones, only 1/8 inch in size if that big. That is the male cone that reproduces in the forest.

See the photo, I pulled them out of the moss for the photo.

As I over collected I used some of the left over moss to make a few terrariums of my own and listed some very small ones on etsy; well I am in the process of listing them. for those that do not want to do it themselves and I don't have room to keep them. They make a fabulous desk accessory to see some Zen , Fung Shui, and tranquility in the simple things as everyday life can get chaotic. 

It was in the low 70's here yesterday and spring is on the horizon. Last night as we came home from dinner out we heard what seemed like zillion's of frogs chirping near the creek. The minute we opened the car door to get out,  our Golden Retriever rescue dogs ran us down and zoomed away. Well, when they cam home they were black from mud and I suppose they went to find the frogs. Shame on them! Needless to say they got an outside night bath before they could come back inside.  No wonder we have dirt and dust we constantly battle!

Another neat thing that happened was went I went to the library for a special book I wanted to get. I went to a Demo day last weekend at the Valley Arts Guild in Murphy, NC and learned something about the "Underground Railroad". This is always fascinated me as the slaves made their way from the south to the North to freedom and how they did it."Harriet Tubbs" was called "Moses" to many as she led the way for numerous trips to help free over 800 slaves. I previously owned two photographs of the "Underground Railroad" and I painted the frames Black and sold them at the flea market we attended last year. 

As I walked back to my car window shopping and saw these prom dresses,  I suppose are in style now at Sassy's Shop!. I went in to browse another  nice shop in Murphy called , "Rumours" and saw a pair of winter boots on sale for 1/2 price so Yes, I got them. They are a size too big for me but with my insoles in I think they will be OK, also fat socks which I intend to add lace too.   I loved the various yarns and colors! 

Sassy's Store Window 

 Side walk display

famous Espispicol  Church of the Messiah" in Murphy, I have seen pictures of it on Pinterest so wanted to add my own version too! The priest at this church came to do the river ceremony I have spoke of  many times for my dog, "Megan and her daughter "Ally" my Grand-dog,  we came here to pet sit for for many years.  a the Hiawassee River. We later had "Jordan's ceremony at the river  too. Oh, how I miss them all!

The previous week at the Library I had got some books of Mosses and Gardening as spring is in the air. One book on Moss Gardening was very interesting and I wanted to have my own copy so I checked with Amazon for it and was waiting to have the $ to order it.  What did my eyes behold at the Friends Library Bookstore where you can buy books, There was the very same book for $2.00. Wow! I grabbed it saying I cannot believe my eyes! 

I was just outside having my coffee and reading a pamphlet I picked up with an article on Black Bears. They come out of hibernation in late March (close enough) and look for food, including being attracted to lip balm at campsites. So, I guess I better remove that from my porch as I do NOT want another encounter like I had last year when I found one on our back porch in the trash canister. No camera available at the time either. 

I have not feared wandering in the woods too much lately as I know the snakes and bear were in hibernation, also many bugs and spiders but I will have to be more careful from now on. I did look up in the trees when gathering the moss just to be careful earlier this week. I have learned to do that as I am normally looking at the ground.

Also lats week while talking to my Mother on the telephone, I saw a deer walk right out of the woods and down the street in front of our house. And, last night we saw a bunny hop into the woods as we came home. Lots of wild life, I also saw a blue bird this week.

Another thing I found recently was a Primitive Pussy Willow tree at the grocery store and then I found a grove of the so I did get my clippers and get a few branches, I sprayed them with preservative and hope the hold up . They will be great for crafting with mixed media! The wild ones and the grocery store kind are different. 

Isn't the above shelf just crying out to be a Curiosity box with my found nature items? 

I have several I need to get busy making.I have boxes of collected items as I collect everything! I even found these wire rusty crusty rings that could be fabulous Junk Queen Crowns.

 Or bases for lamp light base or pottery terrariums

Well, I have chatted your time away, so thanks for dropping by! 

Smiles, Cyndi

Ebay, Fairy Starshine Dust, Camilla Flowers, Moss gardens and Books!

http://myworld.ebay.com/frstyfrolk

I also have some listing in eBay which seems to be selling better for me right now! I used to have an eBay store but I closed it a long time ago. eBay and Etsy are by best selling sites but I also have newer listing on Bonanza under frstyfrolk too.

I make some candles with no wicks yesterday just to see how they would turn out. They are very slender is why no wicks but I will keep at it and see what happens. I used or I should say re-used some Christmas candles I had them both outside and the cold weather was dropping the silver and gold glitter off the edges of them so I collected the glitter and ground it up real fine, then I put it in the molds first and added some candle was from the same candles. I adore the Kewpie molds I found and I had the angel molds from a while back.  The Kewpie's have a front and back side so I guess I should now mold them together.
I used my Tim Holtz melting pan that I had only used once with some beeswax to cover some Sassafras leaves last year.

Our yard is covered in Sassafras trees and I love their leaves which are three different lobes.  I put a few in picture frames with the Sassafras meaning behind the leaves but the ones I framed were not the best leaves I found. I later found fabulous ones and will re-do them also.

I even named our cabin, " Sassafras Cabin" because of the many trees on this property. Maybe I should get some shirts made up saying that! I have read in Log Home Magazines that you should always names your cabin and then make advertising shirts with the name. But, we do not rent our cabins so it would just be for us. There are many rental cabins our area, even in our neighborhood. So many people come here for vacation time, I can;t believe I now live where we used to drive 6 plus hours to come to pet- sit and we fell in love with the area.

Here are the candles I made but they really are just adornments, maybe in something using mixed media that I love. I have in mind to make some curiosity boxes with m forest findings I have so many to share of my collections.

The small "Kewpie s" do not have a back on them and I really prefer them. 

I also saw a fabulous Camilla Bush on the way to the recycle place Friday and I had my husband stop to let me ask the home owner if I could take a picture of it. Well, they would not answer the door so I took them any, and then of course I picked up the fallen flowers from the ground. They are SO Beautiful, one of the prettiest flowers around. 

SO pretty! 

Pretty good for on the ground!

I also started making some fairy dust starshine filled bottles for a jewelry project. 

Isn't is cute to the owl face in the nut shell. The squirrels do that! 

The tiny circle tops are mushrooms I find, green circles and fairy wings, plus Sourwood tree dried flowers (Like lily bells)  I find everywhere.  So many fairies dance in my moss gardens! 

My Moss garden jars and container are doing very well just sitting on the front porch, even in the cold weather. We had a dusting of snow again last night but just that.  These were covered by the porch ceiling, the pine cone is nibbled on my the squirrels also and they look like a rosette I think.

Well, enough for m=now, I have a staircase of books to clean off. I am starting to list my, books, magazines, and patterns as fast as I can also.  I have been collecting crafting books and magazines forever it seems , well, since 2003 when I started replacing all the ones I lost in our household auction. That isone of the things I found I missed the most, so I started scouring Charity and Thrift shops along with  Auction and Estate sales for them. I have loads of Vintage ones to get my findings from and then I will have to start sharing since I am loaded down and need more room very bad. 

Later, 

Smiles, Cyndi

I so so much appreciate all your comments!