Creating Fairy Gardens

Creating fairy gardens is my new favorite thing! We have made them in the past, just using natural materials we found around the yard. Every spring my girl and i collect moss., bark and acorn caps, and put together some fairy gardens outside.

A few weeks ago, when it was still too cold to play outside, i stumbled upon a bunch of adorable fairy garden accessories at the local Dollar Tree.  They had little fairy and gnome houses, bridges, benches and little accessory packs that had 3 items per package.  i think i spend a whopping $10 and had enough supplies to make numerous fairy gardens.

The first one we made i just used an old pot i already had. It's actually a recycled fairy garden, that we created last year. We collected new moss and woodland plants for it. Then added our cute accessories.  i had the intention of adding some succulents and other plants once the garden centers are stocked, but haven't yet. We did add a few crystals and pretty rocks too.

i bought this pot specifically to repot my Aloe which had outgrown it's pot. However, the cats kept digging in the soil since it was so exposed, so we ended up building a fairy garden around it. The hen and chick succulents came from my garden, and the other plants and moss came from the woods. i loved how this one turned out so much that i bought another of the same pot to make another fairy garden.

i was playing around in the glass shop a few weeks ago and made this super cute gnome, who took up residence in this fairy garden. A couple days ago i decided to try making a mushroom to go with him. It didn't turn out great (the white boiled), but it was fun and i'm definitely going to try making some more!

The same day i bought this pot, i stopped at the garden center and found all these succulents on sale. So i picked up a few and created another fairy garden, this time with gnomes. :)  The moss is very to care for, it just needs to be misted every day so it stays moist. 

Last year all of my fairy gardens were created in these glass globes.  So i added one of the fairies to this one. 

Over the weekend, my daughter and i started putting together this huge fairy garden!  Right now it has a lot of moss and woodland plants that we collected from the woods, but i plan to add more flowers and low/ground cover types of plants. 

i'm super thrilled with how this one is turning out, i just need to figure out a way to keep the chickens out of it! They insist on pulling out the moss. We added a bunch of rocks, so hopefully that will deter them a little bit. We also added some dried seed pods and acorns. We are constantly adding to them.

i ended up with some neat woodland plants that were attached to some of the moss we collected. i think they look great!

If you visit Pintrest, you'll find a million different ways to create fairy gardens. There is so much neat inspiration and clever ideas. Fairy garden accessories are popping up everywhere! i've seen them at Michael's craft store, Dollar tree, Family dollar, JoAnn Fabrics and even Biglots. You can purchase your accessories of make your own. The possibilities are endless!

My Fairy Garden Magical Cottage by Play Monster

My Fairy Garden toys by Play Monster are the first of its kind: a toy that’s also a real, live garden! 

We recently received a My Fairy Garden Magical Cottage to review.  i'm not sure who was more excited, Sage or myself. :) This is definitely the coolest toy we've seen in a long time!!

My daughter (10 years old) was able to put it all together by herself by following the direction that came with the kit. i actually wanted to help, and she wouldn't let me. :) 

The set comes with everything you need for your fairy garden. It includes dehydrated soil disks. We put them in a large bowl and added the suggested amount of water, then waited around 20 min. for the disks to absorb the water and soften up. The magic seed mix that is included contains all organic edible plants, so you don't have to worry about your child nibbling on the flowers/plants once they begin to grow. i love that there is a paper that explains how plants grow and use the sun for food. My Fairy Garden is a great STEM product, teaching children about plants and growth!

When the soil was ready,  my daughter used the mini gardening tools to break up the soil disks and fill the fairy garden.  Then she planted the seeds by following the directions, and finished setting up the fairy garden.

Once the seeds were planted my daughter watered them. There are three different fairy garden sets, and each one is interactive. With the cottage garden you can pour water into the mushroom on top and the water rains down onto the soil.  You can also add water to the edge of the upper pot and it rains down on the lower level.

The fairy is attached to a wire (she's removable) so you can make her fly about the garden. My daughter set up all the accessories inside the fairy house, but it came with a little table and chairs and a bunny figure. You can purchase extra fairies and accessory sets, so you can customize your fairy cottage.

My daughter checks her garden every day to water it and see how much the plants have grown.  

My Fairy Garden sets are very affordable, ranging in price from approx. $10.99- $24.99. There are three different kits and eight accessory packs!  My daughter now has all of these on her holiday wish list. :) 

The sets are available on Amazon , Walmart and ToysRus . 

You can also connect with Play Monster Toys (formally Patch) on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter .

i received the Fairy Garden free of charge in return for my honest review.  We absolutely love it and highly recommend it!  

What we did on our Summer Vacation.

Last week we attended Back to School night and met the new teachers. When Sage's teacher asked her what she did over Summer Vacation, she replied "nothing".

Nothing?!?

Here is a little recap of what we did over summer vacation.




On the very last day of school (half day) we headed to NC to take the kids out to lunch/dinner to celebrate their good grades and behavior over the school year. After our meal we headed to Riverside park and hiked along the Ararat River Greenway.

That very night my boy came down with what we thought was the flu, a couple days later he developed a weird bulls-eye rash on his chest and after a call to the doctor was immediately treated for Lyme's Disease. :(


The kids painted a sign for their garden and finished planting it. They grew potatoes, purple beans, lettuce, carrots, onions, corn, zucchini and cherry tomatoes.


The kids both participated in Summer enrichment programs. These were the first two weeks that we were out of school. My girl took an Adventures with Nature class, and my boy took a class on building Super Structures. They both had a great time!



We went hiking at Mountain lake and Hahn Horticultural Garden. Then had a picnic lunch in downtown Blacksburg.




We made lots of bubbles!! Using our homemade wand and a dish soap water mix.



We went to the North Carolina Zoo . It was a very long day, but we had a great time.



Nana and Pap came to visit for Sage's Birthday and we went to Chuck E Cheese.



The kids spent a lot of the summer hanging out at the tree fort/swingset/kid's area. This little shop window was a bakery, a pizza parlor, a flower shop and a lego store. We added a huge pirate flag to the top of the fort, turning it into a pirate's hideout.



We spent many days playing down at the creek. We swam, caught/released fish and crawdads with a net and bucket, found salamanders under rocks, identified animal tracks and wildflowers, climbed the Rhododendrons and skipped rocks.



We raised tadpoles, then released them in the creek.

We raised a Black Swallowtail Butterfly and watched it fly away, stopping a few times to take a sip of nectar from our flower garden.


And we raised (and are still raising) Monarch caterpillars.



We had several bonfires and camped out in the yard. We watched the Perseid meteor shower, and saw two nice meteors before the cloud took over.



We found two bird nests (Brown Thrasher and Vireo) full of eggs, and peeked in each day to watch them grow.



We built fairy houses and expanded our fairy hotel. My boy build a fairy magic university and library. :)


Nana came to visit again and we hunted Fairy Stones and swam at Fairy Stone State park.



Aunt Tabitha and Uncle James came to visit and we went to Lakeridge RV resort.

Then we went to panther creek and had a pizza picnic next to the water. We hiked up the creek a bit and found a small waterfall.



We made lots of fun signs to hang in our woods. :)



These are just a few of the highlights from our summer. :) My boy also created 5 different LOTR lego scenes and entered them in the lego building contest. He finished reading Half Blood Prince and is 3/4 of the way done with Deathly Hallows. He took a trip to Michigan and flew on a plane for the first time with Daddy. He had a great time hanging out family.
We took advantage of the free kids movies offered by Twin County Cinemas in Galax on the days that were rainy, or too hot/humid to be outside. We attended some of the free Lowes Build and Grow workshops.

We really spent a lot of time just playing outside, working in the garden, dressing up in costumes and using our imaginations, hiking up the road, chasing chicken and butterflies.

Like Miss Sagie said, we did a whole lot of 'nothing'.

i wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Building Fairy houses

We have had a pretty mild winter so far. We've had a few unbearably cold days, and one snow that stuck...but most of our days have been in the 40-50.

The kids have been making fairy houses again. They started this one on Dec. 22. This time, instead of of making our usual simple houses the kids decided to make a Fairy Grand Hotel.

Although the picture may look like nothing more than a pile a wood to the untrained eye (or those without imagination), the kids had a detailed story to go with the creation. The watering can was part of the 'fairy shower' in the bath house. It also had a toilet, hot tub (made from a turtle shell) and steam room. They had a amphitheater with seats made from hickory shells. They even created an all-you-can-eat buffet that had acorns, berries, hickory nuts, various seeds, and a few green leaves.

My girl created this and said it was a Japanese temple. She arranged the peach pits as seats.

On Jan. 1st we hiked through the woods, and Sage gathered moss to bring home to the fairy houses.

This weekend we've had gorgeous weather!! Almost 60 in January?!? We spent the days outside swinging, exploring and working on fairy houses. My girl added lots of moss to the fairy hotel.

She brought out some of her fairy bendy dolls, put them to bed in the soft moss. The kids created the fairy grand hotel without any help at all. i was totally blown away by it, and all the little details they added. It was difficult to capture it in the photos, but it was really a very impressive fairy house!


"Know you what it is to be a child?...It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear, it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its soul." -Francis Thompson