Graveyard Orbs

Happy Halloween!
This little graveyard is a few houses down from my house, and I often wander through it.  The tombstones date from the 1800's and early 1900's; most of them are so faded and worn it's hard to read them.
In honor of Halloween, here are a few pictures:

There are orbs in this photo.  The dogs pulled me here.

Black Bear in a Jar

Here's my little bear, coming out of his cave in the morning.  I think he wants to do some fishing ;-0.

Another view, showing jar.  

Side view.

I couldn't resist putting the moose jar behind him so it looks like there's a moose around the corner.

I put my "Bridge over Bubbled Water" jar behind, to add colour.

Other side view, with Bridge over Bubbled Water jar in background.

I had fun with this jar.  So far, this shape jar seems to hold the moisture in the best.  I had to take the lid off to air it out. 

Sculpting a Miniature Black Bear

Well, the title says "black bear", but it's currently an off-white bear.  I made it because one of the moss jars (made yesterday) has a little cave area, perfect for a bear, I thought.

I am not a sculptor.  The last time I tried to sculpt, I made a mini baby doll that resembled an alien corpse.  I was into bread dough the year I was 21 and made several Christmas decorations, and other items, but that's it.

Polymer clay bear...my first try.

I took the above photo, and then realized it doesn't show scale, so I added a penny.

A penny to show scale...it's a tiny bear.

After I bake it, I want to paint it black.  Here he is in the oven:

Baking bear.

He looks lonely in there, and sort of polar bearish...on dirty snow, lol.
Hopefully I won't burn him.  Wish me luck.

Later that same day ;-0

Black bear, wet paint.

Here he is; yay!  I'm so glad that I didn't burn him.  I mixed blue and brown to get a nice blue-black colour, so he won't be flat black (I hope). 

I don't know how other bloggers manage to have such pretty photos of their works in progress.  I'm so messy, lol.  They have their ingredients in little woven baskets; they have pretty table cloths and everything is perfect.  I have bits of ripped paper towel sitting on the crumpled brown paper that came in my last parcel...I knew it would come in handy one day, lol.  I used a Becel lid to mix the paint.

While I wait for the paint to dry, I snapped some photos of the Bear's habitat (along with other moss jars).

Bear habitat.

I'm hoping he'll fit nicely on the "shore", with part of him in the "cave".  I had fun making this moss jar; it's my favorite one so far.

Spiders phobia and Forest in a Jar

For weeks, I've been collecting bits of moss and lichen while out on my jaunts.  I wanted to try a moss terrarium, similar to the ones that are on Etsy. 
Yesterday I haunted the aisles of the Dollar Store and came home with more glass jars than I'll ever need.  Today I decided to spread everything out on my kitchen table, so I could start.

I chose a round jar, and was just about finished when a huge black spider climbed out of the moss container next to me.  I don't have a photo of the spider (I was too busy leaping up and screaming to snap a shot), but here's a picture of the moss container (taken BEFORE the spider emerged!):

 After I calmed down enough (which means I was still terrified but able to think...a little), I trapped the spider in a big coffee can and tossed the can outside.  Here's a photo of the can outside. The spider is hiding under the paper towel:

Here's my first moss jar, which I'm torn between calling "Forest in a Jar", or "Moose in a Jar".

Today's Walk at Hiawatha Park

Look at the weird circles on this photo; they don't show up on any of the ones I took before or after this one.

I love the foliage.

Ben leading the way back to the main path.

Back on the main path.

It was getting dark by the time we got off the trails.

The dogs and I went for another nice walk at Hiawatha park today.  Unfortunately, the main gate was closed, so we couldn't go down to the lake and falls.  We went to the 4 km trail instead.  I left the main path in search of moss and lichen, and had to rely on little Ben to guide me back tot he main path.  I wasn't sure if he could or not, because he's never done it before.  Usually that was Annie's job.  Ben didn't let me down, though.  I said, "Ben, where's the truck," and he headed off  through the woods and I followed him until we came back to the main path.  Mac could probably do it too, but he has to be on leash because he goes ballistic when he sees other dogs, and he just follows my lead when he's on leash.

Weird orb like circles appear on one of these photos, and I don't know why.  The don't appear on any of the other photos, which were taken seconds before and after.

I found some nice moss and lichen, as well as some pine cones.  I'm going to make some mini moss terrariums.  I don't know why, but I LOVE moss.  I'd carpet my entire yard in moss if I could.  Heck, I'd carpet my house in moss if I could, lol.