Use what you have to make something beautiful!
My mom Mary is a wonderful active 73 years young. She and I share a love of the garden which she gained from her father and grandmother and which we seem to have passed down another generation to my daughter. Love that. While Mom was here in Minnesota visiting the last two weeks, we decided to make a fairy garden with my mother in law Joyce's red-roofed birdhouse.
The story of the birdhouse is bittersweet. My mother in law Joyce was clearing out her home of 52 years in preparation to move into a smaller apartment this summer. Joyce knew that I love birdhouses and have them in my 3 season porch and in the yard. She gifted me three of them that day--- but sadly, later in that very same day, she unexpectedly died of heart failure. Sad yes. But Joyce would love that we used one of her birdhouses in such a cute way here. And she would have loved that this will be a home for one of her granddaughter Jenny's handmade Fimo clay fairy creations. The sweet fairy that comes to live here will be called Joy in honor of Grandma Joyce.Honoring Joyce and making our tiny garden into something beautiful from items that we had was gratifying. It did bring my own mom and I a very fun afternoon together. I appreciate my Mom and was glad to have time with her creating this sweet little project.
We scouted the yard for what we needed! The birdhouse was the main focal point and we had that in hand. Soil from the compost heap--check! The red roofed fairy house rests on a spare brick for it's foundation just to keep it out of the damp soil. (It will last longer that way) I dug moss for the yard of the fairy house from my garden and yard. The nice thing about moss is it comes up in nice flat sheets. We used Creeping Jenny plants, coleus, and apple seedlings from my yard as landscaping greenery. Smooth flat agates from our rock pile under the apple tree gave us the walkway stepping stones. I added a little miniature plastic squirrel from my collection of miniatures to go on the front step. Not everything has to be to scale....I threw caution to the wind and brought in a dog-sized red plastic ladybug into the fairy backyard. Fairies have ladybug pets right? A tiny rusty 1.5 inch wire fence stockpiled earlier from the local nursery was suited to this diorama--as was a mini replica of the red cast iron bike that I used to ride as a girl on the farm. And yes I did say I rode on a bike made of cast iron! Not aluminum. Tough pedaling on a gravel driveway, I tell you. I don't know if fairies ride bikes but heck, it looks cute!
Where is the fairy? Why, she is flying in later this week all the way from Pennsylvania. My daughter Jenny is making me a special teeny molded-clay fairy just for this scrumptious little garden. I am excited to see what our fairy Joy will look like. Her home is ready and waiting! And, it was all created with items we truly had here around the house and yard. We just had to look at things in a different scale and a new light.
What can you make of beauty today with what you have on hand? Being whimsical is fun! Give it a go and you may just love what turns out from your creative efforts!
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And here is the same garden with it's resident fairy! She just flew in from Pennsylvania! :D
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