Celebrate {Fairy Garden Housewarming}

We've been working on our Fairy Garden all Spring, so this weekend we gave the fairies a proper housewarming! We invited a couple friends over to frolic around our back yard, go on a Fairy Rock Hunt, bowl for some Gnomes, and decorate Nature Wands. It was an absolutely enchanting way to spend some time in the sunshine immersed in a magical land of gnomes and fairies. We've included a printable "Party Pack" for you to host your own fairy gathering this summer!

{Decorations}
A little red felt with white polka dots can go a long way! I made the tablecloth for the food table out of a giant piece of red felt with white felt polka dots for a "mushroom" effect. I also used a couple of our tree stumps to make toadstools for the backyard. These were really cute, and very easy to make! I just simply cut a circle of felt and secured it to the stump by tying ribbon around it. I then glued some more white felt polka dots to the red felt.

I used some of Chuck's coffee filter butterflies to decorate the trees! The clothespins can be clipped just about anywhere, and were really useful when trying to hang the garlands from the trees.

{Food}
Our fairies should feel more than welcomed to the neighborhood after the spread we set out for them! Thinking of magical munchies is way too much fun!

To drink, we had "Morning Dew", otherwise known as water with berry ice cubes! Fairies and Gnomes are known to have a massive sweet tooth, so we decided to indulge them with these gorgeous flower and toadstool cupcakes from Delicate Designs. To munch on we had "Chipmunk Chips" (banana chips), "Twigs" (pretzel sticks), and "Pixie Dust" (popcorn).

{Activities } 
Nature Wands 
We collected some sticks from the backyard, and stuck a paper flower on top. Voila! You have a nature wand! I had some baskets with ribbon, flowers, butterflies, and lots and lots of glitter to add some extra sparkle! There is plenty of room for creativity with this activity

Fairy Rock Hunt 
Chuck absolutely loves hunting for rocks. Lucky for her, our backyard is filled with them!
I took a couple from her collection and added a little fairy dust (aka, silver paint and glitter ). Each rock was monogrammed with our guests initial (we know how much Lucas loves "L is for Lucas") While the kids were decorating their nature wands, I placed the rocks in the backyard.

For how easy this activity was to pull off, the kids had a great time hunting for their Fairy Rocks!

Gnome Bowling 
I found an inexpensive bowling set at Party City ( I saw a similar one at Michael's and Toys 'R Us), but I am pretty sure 10 water bottles would work just as well! Use our Gnome Clipart to create your own set of Gnome Bowling Pins!

I truly enjoy planning these little celebrations for my daughter and her friends. There are times, however, when I feel like I may have gone over the metaphorical edge (hypothetically speaking, say when its 11:30 on a Friday night, and you're standing in the kitchen cursing out the glue gun because you can't get it to turn on after trying it out in several outlets in various rooms throughout your house.) With that said, the look on Chuck's face when my husband brought her down to the backyard was absolutely priceless. Watching her little friends parade around the backyard with their nature wands firm in hand was pure magic. I am pretty sure, that the best part of the party was when all five guests experienced the joy of rolling down the hill to my backyard. That was 100% pure childhood magic at its best!

{Printables}
Click below to download a PDF with all our clip art from the party.

Vendor Credits
Cupcakes: Delicate Designs
Chuck's Pixie Tutu: Alexander & Sophia
Chuck's Wings: Fairy Flower Dreams
Lucas's Essential Cardigan: Alexander & Sophia

Celebrate {Mother's Day}

Each year, I send my mother flowers for Mother’s Day.  Yes, flowers are beautiful. Yes, I know she appreciates them.  Yes, I know she knows I love her. Yes, we’re lucky if the flowers last for a week.  So, when our lovely neighbor, Michele, told me that she wanted to throw a Spring Garden Party, and let the kids plant their own flower boxes and herbs, I got super excited!  I love the idea of giving potted plants as gifts because its something that is sustainable and can be enjoyed longer than a week.

Michele loves to garden!  Almost every day, Chuck and I can walk by her house and find Michele sitting outside digging up and rearranging her garden.  Her three-year-old daughter is usually by her side, happily digging along with her (sometimes romping around with Chuck and Lucas.) Over the last couple of years, Michele has become my go-to-guru of all things that bloom.  She’ll walk around my perennial gardens and tell me what everything is, what needs to be divided up, what can be moved, and when to move it.   Michele is happiest when there is dirt under at least one of her fingernails.  

When we arrived at Michele’s house, she had a children’s table set up with recycled clementine crates and metal tins filled with a variety of flats of flowers and herbs.  Hidden under a table, she had buckets filled with dirt and kids garden tools.

I know Michele loves  “The Secret Language of Flowers”, so I designed some labels for the herb pots with the meaning of each of the herbs.  These would be a great (and easy) Mother’s Day gifts!  These labels are designed to be cut out, decorated, and glued onto a craft stick.  This year, when I give my mom a pot of  “Cilantro for love”, I know she’ll be able to use this in her kitchen throughout the summer.  

Herb Garden Plant Markers 

Click to Print

      

Celebrate {57 Things To Do With a Tree}*

In case you missed it, last Friday was Arbor Day.  Arbor day began in 1972 with a simple mission to "inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees." Sadly, during one of our recent windstorms, an old pine tree next to the house blew down. This has been a common event since we purchased the house about three years ago. We live in the woods surrounded by trees, but it still makes me a bit sad to see a one laying on the ground helpless.  My house is over a hundred years old, but these trees have been around far longer.  As my husband was sawing the tree up into pieces, I wondered "how can we celebrate this tree?"

Of course, this was a perfect task to discuss with my trusty sidekick. The following is a transcript of the Saturday night text conversation between Ally and Karen:
A: We were outside all day today!  It was great!  Brian is going to make stools out of the tree that fell! 
K: Ooooo nice!!! Can he make tree cookies for the fairy garden?
A: I'm hoping to get a lot of things out of this tree.
K: A mobile?
A: Let's keep thinking.  Charley is so cuddly right now.**
K: A blog entry entitled "It was Saturday night so we thought of 57 things to do with a tree"

And, this list was born!  Karen and Ally bring you the beginning of Not Quite {57 Things to Do with a Tree}

1. Stools
2. Fairy Homes
3. Pathway
4. Giant Outdoor Blocks
5. Wind chimes
6. Mobiles
7. Paint the branches and stick them in a vase
8. Branch instruments
9. Gods Eyes
10. Use the teeny tiny twigs as toothpicks for cheese
11. Marshmallow sticks!
12. Build a fort with the branches
13. A Planter
14. Woodchips
15. Bark rubbings
16. Magic Wands
17. ? 

In school, we teach our children not to waste things.  At some point during your child's life, they will learn of the way that Native Americans used each and every part of the buffalo in their culture.  In a way, this tree is our buffalo.  There are many lessons to be learned from nature, and this tree is going to teach Lucas and Chuck the value of imagination and resourcefulness, and that sometimes fun can come from the most unusual circumstances.  Right now, the logs are piled up neatly in our backyard to dry out a bit, just waiting to be celebrated!

*This is still a work in progress.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

** Ok, ok, this has nothing to do with trees.

Valentines + Easy = {Valentineasy}

This year, we decided to challenge ourselves and not use Pinterest for Valentines inspiration.  We are not judging those who sought some Pinsperation, this was more of just a creative challenge for Karen and Ally! Just a little something to get our mid-winter creative juices flowing.

I don't know when "normal" people start planning their Valentine's Day, but if you are anything like me, you went to the store last week and found that your pickings were rather slim.  So, we had get a little craftier than normal given our resources.  After many many text messages, this is what we came up with!  Most of what we made can be created using non-Valentinesy things (pipe cleaners, fruit loops, pasta, crayons), which is perfect for last minute Valentines! 

Recycled Crayon Hearts

About a week ago, Karen was roaming the aisles of {insert big box store} and stumbled across a silicon heart shaped ice cube tray. She texted me to ask if I thought is was worth the $3.97.  We immediately fired off at least a dozen texts back and forth of things one could do with this tool. So, she decided to buy it, and, I'm glad she did! Check out these awesome heart shaped {recycled crayons} that she made! What toddler wouldn't want to get his hands on one of these!  

Bird Feeders of Love

OK, so there's nothing about these feeders that specifically make them "of love", but I just liked the way that sounded.  Chuck loves threading things, so I thought these would be perfect for her!  It's your basic "fruit loops on a pipe cleaner" bird feeder, only because its Valentine's day, I bent them into a heart shape.  Plus, the birds are hungry so this one will make both humans and animals happy. 

Make-Your-Own Macaroni Necklace Kit

I can't think of anything more endearing than a macaroni necklace made by your child.  So, Chuck decided to share this loving feeling by giving our daycare buddies all the ingredients you need to make their own!  We painted some ziti, and cut a little bit of yarn and packaged it up all pretty in a bag.  Since we needed to paint a lot of ziti, I put some paint and pasta in a plastic tub and had her shake it around (Chuck loves to shake!) We even added some glitter for good measure!  

Valentine's Day Downloads 

As cute as these are, we know that a good Valentine needs some kind of tag with a clever pun!  Download our gift tags to share with your loved ones!