A tiny terrarium

Why, hello!  Today I wanted to tell you about a quick but lovely little project I worked on the other day.  It needs a bit of back story, though, so hang tight for the crafty action!  Last month the kids and I went up to Michigan to visit my parents for a week, and tons of fun was had by all.  Lily climbed on the rocks:

 While James tried to lift them:

Look how red his little face got from trying to push that 2 ton boulder!  What a boy :)  They even watched some driveway fireworks together:

I think my dad had just lit a firecracker, hence Lily's face.  Anyway, I digress.  While we were there I went to my favorite secondhand shop and found some seriously great treasures.  When I got back and showed my mom my haul she casually said something like, "Oh, I have this box of old skeleton keys that your grandmother saved throughout her life.  Would you like some of them?  I just keep them in this box."  Um, what?!  Gorgeous old skeleton keys with a real family history?  Yes please, I'll take the lot.  I would have, too, but Mom said I had to leave some for my pesky little sister.  Drat. 

When I got home with my babies and all my antique treasures, I started thinking of ways I could combine some of my finds.  I've been really loving terrariums lately, so I thought I'd try to throw one together.  While the woods behind our house are blessed with lots of beautiful varieties of moss, I'm not overly fond of crawling through the thick, mosquito-y Florida undergrowth to collect it, so I decided to raid my stash of the dried stuff.  Here's what I came up with:

That gorgeous glass cloche and stand came from the secondhand shop.  Isn't it perfect?  To make the little hill for the moss, I just molded some aluminum foil into a ball and then flattened it on one side.  The mushroom, which I got in Tennessee, is made from some carved wood and a nut from the walnut family (I can't remember what type exactly).  Lily loves the little key from my grandmother's stash.  She says it's the key to a secret castle in the forest. 

I love how this little beauty turned out!  It only took about 15 minutes to put together, and I'll never have to mist it to keep the moss alive.  Win. Win.