terrarium ta-dah

So, finally we put together our terrariums. I never really caught you all up on October, but we had 3 birthdays. Naomi's 5, I'm, & Leviah's 1. Whew. Naomi had a probably-over-the-top party with a bouncer, cotton candy, tie-dying, & playsilks. We were camping for both her & my celebrations, & for Leviah we had friends & family come over for some cupcakes & balloons.

I got chocolate chip pancakes & really cute boots from my mom AND Drew got me something I've wanted for years--a terrarium. I tried to do one years ago, but with few resources had a difficult time & no success. BUT, with age comes wisdom & with trends comes more information. That & my mom gave me a really old terrarium book after my first attempt failed. Between that & a handy nature-craft kids book we put together some really adorable scenes yesterday. For those of you who MIGHT be interested in a similar project I'm going to put together a very basic how-to:

A. LOCATE: Find an appropriate container (we used a pickle jar that formerly had "bunches & bunches" of pickles that I bought months ago specifically for terrarium use, & of course my dedicated beauty--but really any type of jar will work. small jars, big jars, plastic jars, vases, bowls, glasses, cups, mugs, etc.--they don't HAVE to be sealed off).

B. EQUIP: Acquire "ground" materials; here are our layers:

1. Sand
2. Small Pebbles
3. Nylon Screening (to prevent dirt from seeping into & clogging drainage pebbles)
4. Dirt Mixture (all available at Garden Supply places)

• 2 parts Hummos (dirt from garden baked for 3 hours at 200degrees to kill buggies & seeds)
• 1 part Sand
• 2 parts Peat Moss/Sphagnum Moss

C. GATHER: Acquire Plants

• most tropical low-light varieties will work. Even mosses, mushrooms, lichens from the back yard will work.

D. ACCESSORIZE: Acquire small accents to make your terrarium fun

• miniature house, birds, people, doll house stuff
• rocks, sticks, etc.

E. ENSEMBLE: Once all the above has been accomplished--Assemble! It's pretty straight forward. Sand, rocks, screen, dirt mixture, plants, accessories...¡algo adorable! There are a few tools that can be handy for all of the above:

• scissors
• tray
• shovel
• paint brush (for cleaning inside walls, ornaments...)
• long wooden spoon for spreading & even distribution of dirt, rocks, sand.

There are boundless opportunities to make your little dome of delight personal, and it seems a great way to teach kiddos about the way our environment works cyclically. Plus, they're extremely endearing & low maintenance when it comes to watering--just my style.