moss terrarium for mum

I made this mini moss terrarium for my mum for her birthday.



I used a vintage moss green coloured brandy glass – green is mum’s
favourite colour. It’s stuffed with mosses, lichen and even a tiny
flowering plant – a Kenilworth Ivy or Ivy-leafed toadflax.



Cue gratuitous mini moss-scape close-ups..
To see the full beauty, click the photos to view them larger..









I love making these little miniature gardens, I cultivate mosses and lichens to grow in pots in my yard – moss and lichen are some of my favourite plants. I also love the Kenilworth Ivy plants, they grow all over the walls where we live.

I use collected beach glass as the drainage material in the bottom of a glass terrarium, carefully washed first. Then I add a layer of activated charcoal which is also used for aquarium filters. For these mini terrariums I don’t add a soil/compost layer, just a layer of re-hydrated dried sphagnum moss, which acts as a barrier to stop soil washing down to the cleansing charcoal layer. Then I add the mosses and lichen which have some soil trapped in their roots from my pots outside – they only need a little soil. They like indirect light and regular misting with a water spray.

finger-print flowers mother’s day cards

Oliver and Cyan made these cards for Grandma and Nana for mother’s day this year, they were super easy to make and turned out really pretty.

We punched out two circles for each flower, the scalloped circles were stuck down flat, and the kids cut slits round the edge of the plain circles, which were stuck on top and shaped to give a 3d effect. They drew the stems on and then finger-painted the petals and leaves. The flower centres were printed with a wine cork.

mums for mother’s day

Today was Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day here in the UK. I made a card for
my Mum with some chrysanthemums which I cut out from wallpaper samples..



I also cut the word ‘mum’ out of the front..



.. through this you can see another cut out flower on the inside..



The flowers continue round onto the back of the card..



The kids made a hand-print trees card inspired by this one..



I gave my Mum this necklace pendant set with two carved mother-of-pearl flowers.



The smaller one is a beautifully carved vintage example I bought from Beau Papier on Etsy, I made silver wire wrapped bails for this and the new larger flower and threaded them onto a fine organza ribbon – I know mum has lots of pretty chains and the flowers could be worn on the ribbon or on a chain, either together or separately. I love convertible jewellery!



And of course some real mums! I was so pleased with these large ornamental pale green chrysanthemums I found, and teamed them with some smaller darker green ones and some white carnations (Mum’s favourite).

This is the first crafting I have had time to do in weeks, it was so rewarding and Mum loved her cards, gift and flowers.

links..
Christy’s comment got me wondering about the origins of Mothering Sunday which we celebrate here in England, and the origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated elsewhere in the world..

Check out the Wikipedia links:
Mothering Sunday
Mother’s Day

purple blossom, pale and dark

“Purple blossom, pale and dark,
Spreading with springtime in the park..”

This is a line from Colours a story book in the Shirley Hughes Nursery Collection, some of our favourite books. We love all Shirley Hughes’ books, most are favourites from my own childhood.



Anyway – I was reminded of this line while I was admiring all the beautiful purple flowers in our little backyard .. even though it is early summer now. The gorgeous dark purple clematis flowers are starting to open, and the purple campanula bell flowers which grow all over our walls are also just opening in our backyard – others in the area which get more sun have been open for a week or two already. These are amazing in the early evening light – they literally glow! So beautiful ..