Landscape in a Jar

Not too long ago, I mentioned on a friend's blog that I was envious of where she lived.  That friend is Alex Keller, and she lives in the desert.  I've traveled to the American Southwest twice before, and these visits inspired many daydreams of an adobe house in the desert (complete with a rock garden and plenty of little brown lizards running around).  A short while after I left the comment, she contacted me asking for my address.  Want to know what she sent me?

The package she sent included a vintage jar full of sand as well as pouches filled with rocks, sticks, and seedpods.  When these magic ingredients are combined, the end result is a little piece of the desert in a jar.

This little jar brings me good memories of past trips through the desert, and it also brightens my day because it serves as a reminder that there are kind, thoughtful people like Alex in the world.  While we're on the topic of little worlds under glass, I was recently commissioned by a dear friend (Heather from Audrey Eclectic) to make a set of garden stakes for a spooky terrarium. 

These are just my photos, you have got to check out this inspiring post on Heather's blog to see the terrarium she created!  I feel like both of these little landscapes capture a certain setting or mood, the desert and Halloween respectively.  If you could capture one feeling in a jar and keep it forever, what would it be?