the last of the spring showers?

We spent most of the day inside making treats for the fairies and watching the dark, dark clouds dance a little dance overhead.  Somehow Summer preparations in 60° weather don't feel quite right.   We did make some sweet and tasty cookies and cakes though and, this time around, Naiya even delighted in fashioning that dough into a few fruity pies!

She set them out in the garden just so.

And with so many to offer, placed a few in their covered gazebo.

She made a couple of Ojo de Dios as a gift for the Queen.

And cried when Pippin sampled her beautiful display. 

I told her I thought the fairies would likely not mind sharing with all the good living things who venture into our back yard so we went inside to tidy...

And then the sky opened up and the rain began to fall.

Such is Mother Nature with her own sort of magic.
We covered the treats tables with "skylight umbrellas" and all was well.  We shall see what tomorrow brings...

midsummer's eve preparations

There's a lot of Solstice preparation going on over here today.  We woke and made the dough for mini cookies and cakes that we'll bake and decorate later to offer to the fairies who live in our back yard.  We did this last year and they seemed to really love it. 

(this is last year's offering)

 Of course Naiya loved it too. 

The recipe is very simple and for frosting I think we just used powdered sugar and food coloring:

Simple Sugar Cookies

     1 1/2 cups butter

     2 cups sugar

     4 eggs

     1 tsp vanilla

     5 cups flour

     2 tsp baking powder

     1 tsp salt

Cream the butter and sugar then add the eggs one at a time and mix.  Stir in the vanilla.  Combine the dry ingredients then add them to the sugar mixture.  Mix until well blended.  Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour (or overnight).  Roll the dough out quite thinly (perhaps 1/4").  Cut by hand or with these nifty mini cookie cutters.  Depending on thickness, bake at 400° for 5 - 8 minutes.  Decorate, stack, fill and nibble as you please...

We've also just finished our newest fairie house.  This one is actually for a letterboxing gathering we're attending but leaving out treats and gifts for local fairies is a fun way to celebrate the change of season with children I think.  This house is a temporary letterboxing "box" (that will only be up for the day) and the stamp will sit inside.  We didn't originally plan it this way, but when the logbook wouldn't fit in the tiny door, we made the book the welcome mat!  (This tiny wooden house was purchased at Joann Crafts and with a glue gun, watercolor and natural goodness found in our backyard, we transformed it into its fancier camouflaged state in no time at all.)

Finally, since Green Man was such a hit at last year's Summer Solstice celebration, we're hoping for a visit from him again this year.  It's amazing what one can do with silk leaves and a glue gun...

Man, I love me a good glue gun. 

We're still running around frantic with sausages to pick up, camping supplies to sort through and some secret mama work to do...  It seems that Green Man could use some assistance in fashioning ivy crowns for the wee ones for tomorrow afternoon.

I hope all of your seasonal festivities are bringing joy and wonder for you and your wee'ns.  We're hoping Father Sun will actually make an appearance to help us celebrate the first glorious day of Summer.  Perhaps you can dance us a little dance or sing a little song to help us encourage him to visit...

may day

They're back!  Just as in years past, the fairies have chosen today to return in full force and our back yard Queen left Naiya a beautiful bouquet and a sweet gift on the step.

Let us take our baskets early
   To the meadows green,
While the wild-flowers still are pearly
   With the dewdrops' sheen. 
Fill them full of blossoms rosy,
   Violets sweet and gay
Cowslips, every pretty posy
   Welcoming the May. 
Then our lovely loads we'll carry
   Down the village street,
On each door, with laughter merry,
   Hang a basket sweet. 
Hey-a-day-day! It is spring now,
   Lazy folks, awake!
See the pretty things we bring now
   For the May-day's sake!

                                                                                                                    -Evaleen Stein 

A most merry May Day to all!

a christmas package from the fairie queen

On Christmas morning, the resident queen of the fairies in our garden didn't forget her favorite little girl.   Of course she doesn't have access to wrapping paper, but she still managed to leave a little surprise.

It's hard to see with all the holly in the photo above but the present was wrapped in a big aralia leaf.

Inside was a darling little carved wooden fairy candle for Naiya's nightstand.  I almost loved the packaging more than the gift.  Naiya was just pleased that the fairies remembered this special day so soon after the Solstice had just passed.

winter solstice gift from the fairie queen

This morning the Fairie Queen left a little Solstice gift for Naiya on the back step.  The fey are gone in Winter but the Queen visits occasionally on full moons and holidays to leave a little something reminding us she's still around and will return to live in the garden sometime in Spring.

We forgot she was coming so the little box she and Naiya often exchange presents in was sitting on the kitchen counter.  Instead of using the box then, our pixie friend put the little snowman in a woolie bowl that Naiya has decided will be the perfect rabbit hole on our Winter Nature Table.

one down, nineteen to go

That little guy had been wigglin' for a while.   We went camping over the weekend and after an ear of corn-on-the-cob it was barely clinging to its familiar home.  (Should you have a wiggler that needs moving along, might I recommend corn-on-the-cob?)  As we drove home the next day Naiya casually spoke up from the back seat, "Mommy, I think my tooth just fell out."

She says this is what makes her "big girl".  She tucked her special mini box under her pillow and fell asleep dreaming of fairies.  She didn't even want her usual nighttime snuggle.

In the morning she found the fairies had left a sprinkling of dust on the nightstand as well as a special stone bead and coin in exchange for her tiny tooth.

we're winners!

I have to admit that, despite being a blogger myself, I'm not an entrenched member of any blogging community.  I often forget to visit some of my favorite sites and just don't have the time to search out the many, many fabulously witty and creative folks who, all around the world, share some of their most intimate thoughts and lives.

That said, one of the places I do regularly visit (and often share with at Friday's Nature Table) is The Magic Onions.  Every year the creative, warm and friendly Donni hosts a Fairy Garden Contest there.  This year she had over 150 beautiful gardens entered and (unbelievably) she chose our little backyard village as one of her winners!

We feel so honored (and somewhat falsely deserving since it is the fairies themselves who did most of the work under the trees in our little  garden corner).

Our garden changes throughout the Summer with Naiya and I sometimes making offerings to the Queen and her entourage but mostly with the fey folk themselves leaving evidence of their nighttime festivities.  Our daughter is endlessly delighted to discover what new bit of magical something or other those tricksy pixies leave behind.

solstice offerings

fairie firepit

additions to the village

fairieland festooned

Might I suggest you check out the many super creative folk who have likewise welcomed magical creatures with amazing creativity into their own tiny spaces?   Donni lists this year's winners here.

Perhaps you or your children will feel inspired to create a mini garden of your own?

midsummer fairy celebration

The fairies came and must indeed have danced all night and held quite a festival!  

When we woke in the morning we found not only a precious gift from the Queen but some pretty festive new decor in their garden.

We think these must be some kind of magical lamp (although they look interestingly like dried poppy pods).  We also discovered some sweet fairie-sized paper party hats.  All the cakes and cookies we had made the evening prior must have been gratefully gobbled up in the night.  Not a crumb remained.

More on our regular sized Solstice festivities to come...

midsummer's eve

Midsummer's Eve and its related holidays are celebrated at various times by different groups of people around the world.  Each year it falls somewhere between June 20th and 25th as do the festivals of Summer Solstice and St. John's Tide or the feast of St. John the Baptist.  This time of year is one of breathing out, of inner and outer expansiveness.  The structure of school is set aside and the crops (large scale or small) have mostly been planted.  It is a time to relax and let go.

Traditionally midsummer bonfires are lit wherein the "sun substance" in tree wood is released to become fire again.  On the day of the Solstice, we gather with friends, build a great fire, eat, dance, sing, create and play in the glorious sun.  

Before that day of frolicking though, our family enjoys a quiet afternoon and evening preparing and offering gratitude for the goodness we enjoy year round.  Midsummer for us is a time to honor the elemental spirits of the earth.  In our home we talk about them as fairies and gnomes and traditionally this is a night of great festivities in their world.  To offer them thanks for all that they do to help the processes that sustain our lives, we mark this occasion by baking them special little sweets for their all-night celebrations.

This year we found these tiny cookie cutters and baked and decorated mini cookies and cakes to leave for them in their garden.

We made so many we had to add an extra buffet table.

 Naiya also wanted to leave a bowl of slightly more nutritious raisins to sustain them through the night.

 Usually the Fairy Queen will leave a little something beautiful from the natural world for our daughter in return.  We shall see what Solstice morning brings...

a twig throne for the fairie queen

On one of our recent Nature Walks, we brought home a giant basketful of twigs.  We had it in mind to make a little something for the fairies living in our garden.

 Perhaps a chair?

Naiya broke the twigs up into shorter pieces and I brought out my trusty glue gun and placed little dabs here and there.  That's all it takes really...a little dab of hot glue and a few seconds of pressure.  We attached our twigs together in a basic chair frame shape.  (I later snipped off the excess height of the frame.)

Onto the frame we attached more twigery (yes, I totally just made up that word) along the back of our chair and then laid slats across to form the seat.

Naiya decided it was a grand throne for our Fairy Queen and we placed it in her garden.  I think she will be ever so pleased.

a visit from the fairie queen

During most of the year, the Fairie Queen only visits on the full moon, but (as some of you may already know) she returns in earnest on May Day and in late Spring/early Summer, she and her friends randomly stop by for a day or two and hold festive little soirees in our back yard.  She always leaves a gift for Naiya in the box they exchange back and forth, and sometimes we can see evidence of fay activity in their little corner of the yard.  Last night they added a swing to their tree house!

They also had some kind of feast and brought (or grew?) a fresh crop of toadstools.

They refreshed the Maypole with new flowers.  (Naiya had been thinking that bouquet up there didn't look so nice.)

And my dear daughter was ever so pleased with today's present from her beloved back yard monarch.

little clay houses

Now that Spring has fully sprung, the Fairie Queen has begun to occasionally leave small gifts for Naiya on the back doorstep.  Last year she crafted a couple of tiny houses and this season she has added two more to Naiya's growing collection.  Naiya thought the big round one looked like a yurt.  "Do fairies live in yurts?" she asked.  "I think the Fairie Queen makes little houses that look like the houses she lives in with her family," she explained to me.

Of course, only the Queen knows for sure, but my guess is these were made from Super Sculpey and painted with watercolors.  Very simple to create and also relatively quick.  I think they'd make a great last minute gift for a child's birthday or the perfect addition to a seasonally changing Nature Table.

the fairies return on may day

As you may know, the fairies moved out of our garden over the winter.  Like last year, we expected them to return on May Day and we were not disappointed.  Our sweet garden friends did, in fact, move back into our yard...

The Fairy Queen left Naiya a sweet gift on the back step, and, this time around, she and her friends seem to have expanded their little corner territory.

 There are a couple of very colorful new houses (oh so Portland I think).

 And, just as we suspected, they celebrated May Day by raising a festive Fairie Maypole.  As evidenced by the excessive fairie dust we found remaining, surely a delightful celebration was had in the early hours of the first day of May.

Welcome back dear fairie friends.

fairie fare

In preparation for the long anticipated arrival of the fairies in our garden on May Day, Naiya and I have been creating some tiny fairie nibbles.  While last year we used an old store of Super Sculpey to make dishes and serving ware, this year we're using Sculpey III, which is a colored version of the same oven-fire compound, to fill those platters with healthy goodness.  It's a fun and quick craft for kids who are able to roll balls and eggs and carrots without much help and, because the clay is already colored, there's no fussing with paint and all the surface protecting and clean-up that entails.

Naiya is at an interesting place in her imagination with this project.  It's seems very important to her to keep reminding me that the foods we make are not real, but she entertains the possibility that the Fairie Queen might magically make them real for herself and her friends before she actually eats them.

birthday treasure hunt & some natural party favor ideas

Included in Naiya's birthday celebration at the farm last weekend was a delightful birthday treasure hunt.  I thought I would post about our search and find game both as a way to record our fun adventure and because I've had several folks in the past ask me for ideas for Waldorf style party favors made from natural materials.  Feel free to share one or all...

We began with a basket full of simple sewn fabric bags which had the name of each child on the drawstring in letter beads. 

In field and farm and all around
Our elemental friends abound
Fairies, gnomes and mermaids too
A dragon even, in one clue!
Take a bag and start your search
Begin where birds and pixies perch...

I got the beads at the craft store, and this was a handy feature that proved useful in helping avoid conflict over which bag belonged to each child after they were all left laying about.









Using the first hint, the children located a tree close by where hung a number of sweet fairie necklaces.  The next clue also dangled from the branches below a fairie cut out that swung overhead. 

Take one fairie flying sweetly
In the branches so discreetly
Seek next for an underground dweller
He’s a jolly little feller...

The necklaces hanging in the branches were made of wooden nickles (purchased at a craft store) which had been drilled with a tiny hole.  The hole had a little wire loop through it and the pendants hung from an assortment of colored ribbons.  I used a regular stamp and stamp pad to mark a different image on each side of the medallion.  I couldn't decide whether to coat them with beeswax polish or not so I did some with and some without.  (The wax seemed to very slightly blur the image but made the whole thing look richer.  The one shown is without the polish.)




Following the fairie's directions, the children next found our beloved garden gnome behind a nearby shrubbery with a basketful of gnome hats. 

One hat is for me and one for you
Choose one and follow your next clue.
Look for the place where mermaids hide
A silky blue beach where they play in the tide...

The hats were super simple to make and could be done from either fleece or wool.  I don't know where I got the pattern but there is one similar in the Fall 2010 issue of Living Crafts Magazine.  They're cut on a fold and require only one sewn seam.  Each hat took less than five minutes to make.







The gnome's clue led the children to a tableau of the sea complete with toy boat and seashells.  Sprinkled on the silky tide were little mermaids for each child to put in her collection bag.

You’ve found us here! Take one mermaid tear home
We’re glad to go wherever you roam
I know of a dragon who hides in her lair
She’s friendly and wants us to find her there...

At our festivals the children often dig for small "dragon tears" in the sandbox.  I'd seen this larger mermaid "tear" idea at several craft fairs and shops including our own school store.  I hope I'm not giving away any trade secrets by revealing how simple it is to make these magical stones.

The clear glass gems are about an inch in diameter and can be found in the floral section of some craft stores.  The images were collected from the internet and sized in my photo program to fit the stones.  (Alternately, pre-rounded 1" images can be purchased cheaply through lots of folks on Etsy for very little money.  Try searching "digital mermaid image" or "digital fairie image" to see or buy the cool collections enterprising folks have created.)  I printed my mermaids on a heavy card stock on my own printer and after cutting the pictures to fit the stones, I painted some Mod Podge (non-toxic, clear drying adhesive) onto the printed side and stuck them face-up onto the flat underside of the glass.  To give them a nice finish I painted the blank backs gold.






Lastly, the mermaids led the treasure hunters to the dragon hidden under the canopy of a low tree.  I made this papier-mâché life sized dragon for no good reason about 20 years ago.  I was just really into papier-mâché I guess.  She's been sitting in the garage and it only occurred to me a few weeks ago that I might put her to good use.  As much as the children seemed to like her, it was her eggs which were their final prize. 

I’m a friendly dragon just relaxing
I know all this searching can be taxing
So glad you made it all the way through
As a final prize, one egg is for you!

The eggs were made using the simple wet felting technique shown here and filled with a couple of dragon stickers I purchased at one of our favorite local toy stores.



The children seemed to enjoy the treasures and the quest and I too had loads of fun putting the whole thing together.