As a child I was always encouraged to read (although I don’t know that they meant to read quite so much, so quickly lol) and my grandmother left some books at our house for me. In with the encyclopedias and natural history books was this tiny book that seemed made for my small hands. I opened it and fell in love with poetry way back then. Fairies of the Flowers & Trees, by Cicely Mary Barker, was an old book when I first discovered it. The “Fairies” series started in 1923 and I believe that the version Grandma had is the one from the ’50s, but as a kid I never looked at that page, so it’s only by looking at lots of old book covers that I found the one I had treasured.
The fairies frolicked in the plants and simple, yet enchanting, poems were usually on the opposite page. The book cover was worn and the pages had gone yellow with age, but they still had the power to transform the rest of my life.
The concept that a book could be about magical creations from the mind, the style of writing that conveys so much with so few words, and the idea that we should never stop looking for the magic in the world; in the minutiae of every day life, absolutely blew my mind. I couldn’t wait to get done with schoolwork (I would have been in very early elementary school at that time), because I wanted to lose myself in the world of beautiful creatures and poetry.
It is part of why poetry is still so special to me and why I even had the guts to compete in national competitions. To this day I still love most things related to fairies (except fanfic or some of overly cutesy stuff); as a moving away gift my childhood best friend gave me a fairy figurine that graces the shelf in our living room and makes me smile every time I dust her little upturned tip of the nose. After joining Pinterest I discovered amazing fairy artwork that people hoarded on their boards and it’s no surprise that Pinterest recommended a board about fairy gardens to me when they started to become so popular.
I fought it. I really tried. I don’t garden, I don’t do outdoors (apparently my blood is ambrosia to mosquitoes), and I seldom have ever done anything “trending”. I’m the type of girl that’s rolling her eyes over the hype or a year late to the party. This time something trending hit one of my weak spots and I jumped on the fairy garden wagon. L was really sweet about it, despite finding it really weird that I suddenly wanted to do something that involves something I hate (gardening/outdoors), and we got a cut saucer style pot, soil, some tiny perennials, and a sweet fairy figurine I found on sale on Amazon. Then I found a gazebo…another fairy to keep the first from seeming so lonely…a dragon…decorative glass rocks for paths or to fill in the spots where the perennials weren’t growing…and on. Within a month or two even L realized this wasn’t going to be one of my “projects” that I try for awhile and then lose interest once I’ve learned everything about it.
We ended up getting a plastic stacking strawberry pot that is three levels high, has batting inside each level for the base with model train grass and aquarium gravel over that. Fake seasonal plants and flowers fill at least most of the bottom level, so the mosquitoes have less opportunities to give me massive welts. One of my best friends gave me a little fairy doorway at Christmas, just before the garden wagon started rolling. It started out as an entrance into some of my hardbacks that I can’t bring myself to part with. It quickly took up residence in one of the strawberry plant “nooks” as an entrance to the magical center that is enchanted, so humans just see normal stuff there. (Yep, I know I sound bonkers, but it IS a post about fairies, so what did you really expect?) The dragon took up residence in another nook on the middle level, then she soon started guarding these cute little eggs, and some metal “ribbon” (seriously?! How is metal even in that class?) caged Mama Dragon and the eggs in, with a beware sign that I really need to add some burn marks to soon…Anyway…At Christmas I got L a fire hydrant socket cover in honor of his being a fire fighter (and I need to figure out something to honor his EMT certification; I’m so proud of his EMS work!). Me being me didn’t even notice that the hydrant cover has the holes in the wrong places for any of our sockets, so it became the second doorway (although it had fallen down and I didn’t realize it until I was uploading the pictures for this post, so it’s the slab that laying across things in one of the nooks in a picture. *laugh* The top is for the girls and the gazebo, plus rocks L brought back from the Scouts’ trip to Mount Rushmore, and a few little wood slices that I experimented on that became name plates instead.
So that’s the basics. For most holidays the girls get a renovation with seasonal decorations. During Fall they had red and burnt orange leaves (fake), acorns, tiny pumpkins, and dark flowers with fake spiders crawling about. At Christmas they had felt snow, a battery operated fire, a snowman, etc. For St. Patrick’s (since that’s a favorite holiday for me due to loving my Celtic heritage), glitter edged green carnations, fake gold coins, and such decorated their home. Now that Easter has passed it’s time to take the glittery eggs out of the scene and change things up. I’m stumped though. I think because my mind is constantly going back to thoughts about our adoption paperwork and such, I have no inspiration. I found some miniature ducks on my old desk (a few being the ones I used for the “Splish Splash” duck soaps I made a few years back, for the long time readers), so I thought I might start a little section with them. I’m just meh right now though, so I’m bringing it to you readers. If you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate them! I have to be budget conscious, otherwise this wouldn’t be an issue because they’d have an incredible tree house *grin*, and as you can tell once you look at the pictures, the planter is big, but there’s actually little space to decorate in. I’ll probably take out half of the flowers to open up some additional space, but do you have any ideas for some spring decorating for the ladies? The odd combo of St. Patrick’s and Easter really needs to go. *lauhg* I’ve used my product photo shoot props a few times, but I’m not into the idea of army men scaling the planter or strings of beads being draped across things, which leaves my creativity vault empty. So I’m begging you to look at the following pictures and drop a comment or two on any ideas you have on how to decorate this season (note: names and pictures in the background have been blurred, so that’s why some spots look weird). I tried to get several sides and a few angles, but it pretty much just came out looking like a weird hodge podge of pictures. *grin* The fairies, and I, appreciate your help and look forward to making a new enchanting scene that makes visitors smile when they see it as they enter the living room. 🙂
Georgia's Pampering 