Fairies For Tea

FAIRYLAND
A Fairy's house stands in a wood, Midst fairy trees and flowers,
Where daisies sing like little birds
Between the sun and showers, And grasses whisper tiny things
About this world of ours.
Such flowers are there beside the way, Lilies and hollyhocks:
Blow off their stalks to tell the time
Tall dandelion clocks; While harebells ring an hourly chime
Like a wound music-box.
Some day shall we two try to find
This strange enchanted place?
Go hand in hand through flower-lit woods
Where living trees embrace--And suddenly, as in a dream, Behold a fairy's face!
~~Author Unknown.~~

We have been deeply immersed in fairyland over here. 

 We were inspired by The Magic Onions Fairy Garden Contest and decided to bring our own fairy garden to life! 

It has been wonderful. I love how easily I can lose myself in creating miniatures for our fairy friends (yes that is my hand pouring tea for the fairies ; ).

I laugh to myself when I catch myself more immersed than the girls ~ mama's time to play!

Here's one of our wee creations for our fairy garden...

 and a quick how to.

Gather

Acorns

Birch bark

Pine cone 

Small twig

Glue gun

Cut your twig for the spout.

Glue it on.

Cut a thin strip of birchbark and glue on for a handle.

(It helps to fold the handle a bit a both ends for the glueing)

Glue on your acorn cap lid.

Brew up some fairy tea!

For your itty bitty tea cups ~ cut out a small circle of birchbark.

Glue on an acorn cap.

Cut and glue on a birch bark strip handle.

After creating our tea set, we realized these fairies would surely appreciate a fairy flower snack.

So we created this little plate out of pine cone scales and an acorn cap.

We filled it with fresh flowers and invited the fairies to tea!

In Fairy Love

~ Shanti ~

All Spunk No Junk...Guest Tutorial and Link Up!!!!!

Beautiful Readers...

Please help us welcome Jennifer from Dark Blue Dragon.

Jennifer also runs a business called Mariposa Forest 

that is definately worth checking out!

First off, thank you to Shanti and Maureen for having me over on their fabulous site. You have been missed and I am so glad to see you back again.

Here in our house we like bees. I dream of one day having bees and my littles know how important the bees are to help the flowers and vegetables grow, so I thought a bee themed craft would be appropriate.
So here you have it, a Bee and Hive Mobile.

To make this you will need:

one small terra cotta pot (think seedling sized)

some wool roving in golden, yellow, black, and white

small pine cones, or any small oval shaped nut or seed that has a bit of texture to it

two sturdy sticks

small piece of a twig or stick

twine

glue gun or craft glue

invisible thread or fishing line

First up, we need to make the hive. To do this, take some of the golden colored roving and rub it with slightly dampened hands as if you were making a snake (remember those playdough days?). My coil was about 45 inches long, but you can do smaller ones and just attach them on the pot.

After you have your coils made, we need to glue them to the pot. I use a glue gun for this because it is faster than craft glue, but use what you have. Starting at the bigger side (so the pot will be upside down) apply some glue and start coiling the roving around the pot, take care to keep the rows close together so no bits of the pot show through.

Keep going all the way around until you get to the top of the pot. Now, coil around the top of the pot, stacking it a bit to shape the top of the hive.

Using a blunt needle, thread some twine up through the hole on the inside of the pot and tie a small piece of stick or twig or even a bead to the end keep it from pulling through.

Now that we have a hive, we need some bees.

Using the pine cones or nuts or whatever you have, take a small bit of the wool roving and pull it slightly to make it wispy. It doesn’t take much here, just a pinch.

Wrap this wispy bit around the pine cone and roll it slightly in your hand to adhere it to itself. Now taking a very tiny amount of black roll it between your fingers and then wrap it around the yellow to make the stripes.

I found it easier to attach the string to hang these little guys before putting on the wings. If you like to live on the edge, go ahead and put the wings on first then tie the invisible thread on to hang them. If you are a rule follower, put the thread on now, just wrap it around the belly and tie, and then proceed to granting them their wings. To make the wings, simply take a small little pinch of the white roving and using your fingers, shape them into wings.

I like to make a little rectangle, then pinch and roll the middle bit. Once you are happy with them, glue them on using hot glue.

All that is left is to make something to hang them from. Taking the two sticks, tie them together to form a cross. Then attach some twine to the top of it to hang when you are all finished. Now simply attach the hive to the middle, and the bees flying happily around it. I put a drop of hot glue on the top of the sticks where I tied the bees just to keep them from flying away.

There you have it. It is perfect hanging above a Nature Table or Seasonal Display or above your dining table like we have it. The best part? These bees won’t sting!

Thank you SO much Jennifer for sharing your creativity with our readers!! 
Now it's your turn...link up your beautiful crafts and recipes below in our weekly

With LOVE

xo maureen & shanti

Summer Solstice Sun Child!!

Happy Summer Solstice!!!!

Today being the first day of summer, I thought we'd share a

sweet little SUN child craft!!!

You will need:

wool felt (in yellow and orange)

one wooden bead

paint & brush

roving (for hair and stuffing)

embroidery floss and needle (in contrasting colour)

beads or wool balls

I used a 250ml mason jar as my circle template...tracing around the lid cut one circle out of your yellow felt, and then cut another "sun" shape out of your orange felt.

You will need to cut a small circle where your wooden bead/head will go...start out small, you can always cut it a bit bigger if need be.

Fit in your wooden bead (head), where you want it to go...add some roving hair if you wish and glue gun into place.

Now sew your yellow circle onto your sun shape...before you close it off, stuff with some wool roving, just to give it some "depth".  I'm a big fan of the blanket stitch...makes it look nice and tidy!

Now add some embroidery floss to hang it with...and some glass or wool beads...

Lastly, if you desire you can paint on some eyes and a sweet little mouth...ready to gobble up some summertime fun!!

Now hang it somewhere to bring the sunshine in!!!

Happy Summertime!!!

xoxo maureen

PS...Don't forget to enter our GIVEAWAY to win a copy of the book

"LOVE is the Color of a Rainbow".

Enter by leaving a comment under the post...and look for ways to get extra entries.

The giveaway closes on Saturday at midnight!

(and stay tuned for another fabulous literary giveaway this weekend)!

Queen Summer

With summer solstice arriving this week...

Queen Summer 

joined us to welcome it in!

She is now gracing our summer nature table and would love to come to you too...

To bring her to life you will need to gather

silk flowers 

 felt 

wooden doll pin and stand 

 glue 

pipe cleaner 

roving 

acorn cap 

To begin wrap your pipe cleaner around the body (twisting it once in the back to hold better) and trim your arms to the length you desire.

Cut out a rectangle (double the length of the body) out of your felt and fold in half.

Draw what ever shape you would like for your dress and cut out. Remember to leave the top folded and mostly uncut. 

Cut a small hole for the head.

With your glue gun ~ glue down the sides and the sleeves.

Pull apart your silk flowers. 

 Fold them in half...

and cut the hole in the center just big enough to accommodate the felt covered doll pin.

Slide on your colorful flower petal skirt!

Glue on your roving for hair and then your acorn hat.

(She also asked for a wild strawberry flower for her hat ~ and that she got!)

We had pressed some wild strawberry flowers and wild strawberry leaves a couple of weeks ago and they seemed to just belong on her.

I can't help but smile when I pass her in our home.

To me she speaks of....

sunshine filled beach days

the taste of warm, juicy wild strawberries

the smell of bonfires

late night skinny dips

watermelon juice dripping down chins

feasting on the garden's bounty

sleeping under the stars

sunkissed skin

bold and beautiful flowers

floating on the water

and the glorious abundance that summer brings.

Happy Almost Summer Friends!

~ Shanti ~

Toadstool Acorn PEOPLE!!!!

Oh my goodness...the sweet little acorn toadstools I made in May just sparked my imagination...

I started to think about entire villages of little acorn toadstool people, with acorn toadstools dazzling the laneways...you're going to get pretty sick of acorn toadstool crafts by the time I'm done with you!!!

So...to make these sweet little peeps...you will need:

acorns with caps

small wooden beads

paint, (red, white, black)

brushes

glue gun & glue

First paint your acorn tops red with white spots...let them dry

Get some small beads and paint on little faces...I put my beads on a knitting needle and balanced it on a mason jar for the painting part.  If you want to add hair you can do that too...let them dry thoroughly.

Next, using your glue gun, attach the bead head to the acorn...the pointy side will be pointing up...
if it doesn't stand properly, use a free standing belt sander or sand paper to make the bottom even.

Glue on your acorn cap/toadstool hat...

At this point, if you want add a little felt robe...after all, your little people might get a case of the chills whilst out on an adventure!

Here is the back view of the robe...basically I took a bit of wool felt, cut out a cape shape and glue gunned it to my little acorn people!

These are super sweet...I have little toadstool acorn EVERYTHINGS all over my house...I have to say, put about 10 of these together, and put them on a window ledge and they look positively charming!  I'm also thinking...add a hook eye to the top and you have a sweet little ornament!

Of course...you could also let the children play with them...for a little while ;)

I would NOT recommend you give these to little little folks...they are quite fragile and would definately be a choking hazard! 

With spotty, dotty, toadstool LOVE

xo maureen

Guest Post at the Magic Onions

Beautiful friends...

head on over to the Magic Onions

where I'm the guest poster for the

Discovering Waldorf series...

Today I share some ideas for celebrating summertime and a tutorial

for making a sunny wand!!

Happy Soon to be Summertime to you ALL!!!

xo maureen

PS...don't forget to enter our Mama Nature giveaway.

The giveaway closes this Saturday at midnight...enter by leaving a comment below

the Mama Nature post!