A Fairy Garden

January 23, 2013

A Fairy Garden

When Everly asked to have a fairy themed birthday party, I took to pinterest to find inspiration for the day. One thing that I kept finding was pictures of fairy gardens. I knew she would love to make one of her own, so on her actual birthday I took time off from work to spend the whole day doing fun Everly-centric things together.

After a day of pedicures (her first!), a special mama/daughter lunch and a visit to the cupcake shop, we came home to assemble her fairy garden. We had collected moss and twigs and branches from the woods while we were visiting my mom in the mountains at Christmas and had already stopped by a local nursery to find some winter-hardy plants for her garden.

I’ve seen all sorts of containers used as the base for the garden, but we went with an inexpensive terracotta pot. I think we will eventually paint it to add to the character.

After arranging our pansies, succulents, moss and ornamental cabbage, we added the sweetest little bistro set and a tiny pot with a glass terrarium dome. I did a lot searching on etsy for teeny fairy-sized furniture and loved the selection at Vintage Vogue Treasures. They offer all sorts of tiny fairy garden additions like mini garden tools, benches, even tiny pots and lanterns!

Everly had so much fun adding patches of moss and rocks and we put in some clusters of dried daylily pods too.

I love the way this activity encouraged imaginative play and every day she likes to check on it, convinced that she can tell if a fairy has stopped in to have tea or has sat down at the tiny table to have a chat with another fairy friend.

This spring, we’ll swap out some of the winter plants for spring favorites and I hope to add a little arbor and some colorful, beaded garland on sticks to add to the whimsy. We hope to make a few more fairy gardens of different sizes and cluster them together and maybe even try our hand at making our own miniature fairy houses and furniture eventually too.

Every time I pass it on our front step, it makes me smile. The perfect activity for my fairy-obsessed little lady!

Love,