I don’t know what compelled me to buy these “moss” pebbles at the dollar store. It might have had something to do with the fact that they cost…a dollar. And I seem to have some sort of fixation with artificial things lately (i.e. fake flowers, fake comments…)

I like moss. We have a pleasing amount of it on our property. I know lots of homeowners try to get rid of it, but I almost prefer it to grass – I’d be happy if our entire yard was taken over by this green velvety carpet. Here’s our little moss hill, covered with all different kinds of it in varying shades and textures:

It’s true that most of the moss here is near our gnome’s property. He does a great job of maintaining it. Like this little crop, clinging artfully to a rock:

Granted, these weird moss pebbles I got only loosely approximate the real thing:

But I kind of like how they look in the the bowl of river rocks we keep by the couch…

Of course, I have a vast amount of respect for the natural world and am concerned by this foray into fakery. The more I think about it though, this isn’t an entirely new phenomenon for me. There are actually lots of other examples of fake things around our house. Like this flouncy fake flower pen my friend Margaret gave me a long time ago:

The beauty of this pen is not just in the fake daisy. Notice the fuzzy feathers underneath. And underneath all that, there is a spring, so the whole contraption bounces spastically with every word you write.  Naturally, we save this pen for signing only the most important documents:

Along similar lines of generosity, my friend Sara gave us this mock mushroom a while back. It is keeping the polka dotted begonia company right now:

She got it at a funky boutique in New Paltz called, Verde. It is so perfectly shriveled, bent, and generally beat-up that it almost appears more real than some of the actual mushrooms that have sprouted up on our property this year:

Should I be concerned by how much I enjoy these fakeries? I fear what is next for me if this trend escalates: A chin implant? A Cubic Zirconia tiara? Will I be adding green food coloring to potato chips to make salad? Help!

Do you have any of your own mock-obsessions (mocksessions?) you’d like to reveal?