Tips and Tricks Thursday!

Getting little treasures from the fairy that lives behind your door is one of the best things about owning a door. Whether it be an end of the school year gift, a birthday treat or just something that lets the owner of the door feel special, there are so many things the Fairies can leave. A pretty shell, a pine cone or even a little fairy dust all make great gifts.

We stumbled across these adorable little jars of  "Fairy Candy"and thought they would be a perfect fairy gift. The jar is 4 inches tall and filled with candied violet or rose flower bits. You can find them at http://www.petaliteas.com/.

We took off the manufacturers tag and added our own sparkly tag and are ready to go. Just imagine how happy your special someone will feel when they find this sweet treat!

Fairy Candy

Now that our fairy garden is in full swing we harvested a few of our herbs and edible flowers and decided to make some tasty "fairy candy". These sweet little treats look great on top of ice cream, garnishing iced tea or lemonade or just in a pretty dish. The best part is - they taste great too!!

Here's what you need:

fresh herbs - mint, lemon balm scented geraniums, etc

edible flowers - rose petals, pansies, lavender flowers, etc

egg whites

fine sugar

**ALWAYS check to be sure your chosen flowers/herbs are actually edible, here's a great resource:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

 Wash your flowers/herbs and let them dry well. Place 2 egg whites in a dish and lightly beat them. Dip each petal/leaf in one a time, using your fingers to make sure they are completely coated. Then dip into the sugar and place on wax paper to dry. Drying will take around 12 hours - you may need to flip your petal/leaf once during drying.

If you want to make a garnish for your favorite beverage lay dip the petal/leaf as described above but place around the rim of a glass to dry.

How Cute Is This?

Have you been following our twitter...we have some guest twits tweeting for us....Pirates! So, in honor of their hard work, we are dedicating this week's how cute is this to them!!!

Really do I have to say it?

How cute is this?

Get it here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/46666293/large-pirate-cupcake-organic-cotton?ref=sr_gallery_28&ga_search_query=pirate+cupcake&ga_search_type=all&ga_page=3&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Local Show This Weekend!

If you live in the Annapolis, MD area, we will be exhibiting at the Cape Saint Claire Strawberry Festival this Saturday from 10-7pm.  It will be a fun, sunny day and we would love for you to stop by say Hi and check out all the cool new items. 

The festival features food vendors, live music, crafters and a bay front activity area.  We have done this festival many years and everyone seems to be having a great time!  Our favorite part is the non-stop parade of dogs joining in the fun...

So bring your fuzzy friend and come down for a visit!  See ya Saturday!

Mini Clay Mushrooms

These little cuties can be made in any size/color/thickness you can dream up. They can be used for scrapbooks,tags, journals, little magnets, brads, Valentine's.... anything you can think of! We like to leave them as gifts to our fairies.

They're quick and easy to make. Start by grabbing your favorite clay - Fimo, Sculpey, etc.

Next make all of your mushroom "parts' - be sure to wash your hands after using the red or the red residue will turn your white into pink!

Assemble the mushroom carefully.

Cut your mushroom down the middle. I bought this clay cutter at the craft store. It was right next to all of the clay and it works beautifully.  You can also use a very sharp knife.

You can add little holes to make buttons if you wish. Finally, bake according to the directions on your clay packaging.

Tips and Tricks Thursday!

Hi All! A quick tips and tricks today, the evil trolls have been reeking havoc on us today so we wanted to sneak this one in really quick while everything is working!

Tonight...move your door to a completely different place and leave a note from your fairy, pirate, gnome or pixie saying that they want to play a game! Tell them if they want to play along just to leave them a note saying so.  Then each night for a week or so (or until they tire of it) move the door to a different spot and leave an other note. 

You could leave clues each day to a special prize or clues to where the door might go next!!

Just have some fun with it!!!

Fairies In the Garden

These are a Fairy Garden favorite of ours so we had to share. These cute little fairy shadows are so subtle they have most everyone doing a double take. They stick right into the ground or a flower pot. They are called The Toadstool Fairies of Bluebell Woods. Their website is almost as cute as they are and worth checking out:

http://www.oldevictoriangardenshadows.com/toadstoolfairies.html

How Cute Is This??

Did you know mermaids are considered fairies? How cute would this be to take tot the beach or pool?????

We LOVE it!! You can buy it here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/45458771/beach-and-boater-tote-bag-naturalnavy

Pixie Pebbles

We're always trying to come up with new ways to use Pixies Dust. While beach combing one day the idea of the Pixie Pebble jumped into my head. They are so much fun to make and are a great little treasure to leave as a gift for your fairy or maybe, if you're lucky, your fairy will leave some for you!

Here's what you need:

Pixie Dust (aka glitter)

For a softer, mossier look, you can use flocking powder - see the light pink stone in the bottom of the picture.

Hot Glue Gun -I have tried many glues and hot glue gives the best results hands down.

Start by pouring a generous amount of
Pixie Dust  into a small dish.

Next grab your hot glue gun and make
a little "puddle" of glue in the center of the
 Pixie Dust. Be careful not to touch the
sides of the dish.

Wait about 10 seconds for the hot glue
to smooth out into a pebble shape. Don't worry
if you have some little strings sticking off,
they can be cut off later. Pour Pixie Dust on top of

the smooth glue and give the dish a tiny shake.

Wait about 5 minutes and then uncover your treasure!

Tips and Tricks Thursday!

It's Thursday again! And here is an other quick tip:

Start a fairy door journal!

 You can recored your fairy stories, thoughts and messages and maybe your fairy friends can leave you messages and stories of their own! They may even us is as a guest book and visiting fairies, gnomes and pixies can sign in whenever they coime for a visit!

Here are some really cute fairy door fan photos of their setup and cool journals!

(p.s. these fairy doors both belong to boys!!  Not just for the little ladies, don't forget!!)

We love all the trinkets and

fun stuff used for decoration!

Have a fairy nice day!

Second Hand Gardening Continued

There are so many things that you can find in a thrift store that can be made into treasure. I grabbed a few forks and a baby spoon and set to work.

I took two forks the same size, twisted their tines, wired them together then added some glass bead leaves with the wire to make this fairy tree.

To make the Fairy Throne, I bent the spoon, poured a little glue in the base and sprinkled it with purple flocking powder. I finished it off with twigs (for legs) and a star. Now the Fairy royalty has a place to sit in our garden!

How Cute Is This?

Pirates and Pixies is not just about pixies and gnomes and such. We do love our pirates and they have not been getting the love they deserve!!  So today the How Cute is This? has:

These cuties are available here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/48045460/crochet-pattern-marco-the-pirate

and here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/41750428/mermaid-crochet-pattern

and because no matter how we try we cannot resist:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/36561208/happy-amigurumi-tree

and

http://www.etsy.com/listing/41780852/sammy-the-gnome-crochet-pattern

We all have our weakness, Right?

Nature Walk Mushrooms

Mysterious and inviting the mushroom seems to be a symbolic link between our world and the fairy realm. I love making mushrooms out of various mediums and this idea came to me on a nature walk with the kids. They are very simple. Grab a few fat sticks - no need to cut a tree, there are always plenty on the ground already. I cut mine to size with a hand saw then rubbed the bottoms on sandpaper to make sure they stood up ok. Gather a pile of rocks, shells or whatever you can find and using a good gooey glue assemble your mushroom.

Tips and Tricks Thursday!

Welcome back to Tips and Tricks Thursday!

So your door is up and the kids are having fun discovering it and maybe you are leaving little surprises for them. We hope so. So what else can you do?

How about using your fairy door to get your kids to clean their rooms? 

If your kids are generally neat, (first off...congrats!!) then have the fairies leave them a note that says how much they appreciate them keeping the doorway clear and the floor clean.  Positive reinforcement works wonders!

If your kids are like a little on the messy side, then make your first note about clearing the doorway and perhaps the fairies could suggest that they are weary of the obstacle course and would love some open room for a fairy ball, a gnome homecoming or a troll track meet...whatever you think they would like.  All you need to do is encourage them along and watch the magic happen.

 Don't forget to leave a follow up note from their little friends to thank them for all their hard work! 

Try it!

Second Hand Garden

A quick trip to the local thrift shop provided the makings of these fairy garden extras.

This polka dot creamer was too cute to pass up. I used a ceramic tile drill bit and put a small hole in the bottom and then screwed it into the tree (with a small screw to avoid hurting the tree). These birds have one of the cutest homes in the garden!

                                                                   

A small gold flower pot turned upside down and a cute little saucer make the perfect feeder for the birds and chipmunks.

This fairy/bird bath is made of another little saucer and an old cake stand base. I added a few glass pebbles and some pixie dust to attract the wee folk.

How Cute Is This?

We know it's not really hat season but seriously...How cute is this?

It's the perfect gnome dome cover....Right?

Get it here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47435061/cute-swirly-ice-cream-hat-any-kid-size?ref=sr_list_1&ga_search_query=gnome+hat&ga_search_type=all&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Need we say more?

Mushrooms With A Secret

NEW TO OUR SHOP
We've created this secret mushroom with the Tooth Fairy in mind but we quickly found out it has many uses! Set this little mushroom next to your fairy door and your have your own little mailbox to the fairy world.

The mushroom cap easily lifts off to reveal the hidden compartment in the mushrooms stem. It's the spot to place that lost tooth. The Tooth Fairy can roll up a dollar (or two!) and put them in the mushroom in exchange for the tooth. You can also use this secret compartment to leave little notes or gifts for your fairy. Watch out, your fairy may leave you little gifts too. A few m&m's, some fairy dust or maybe even a few little gems - you never know what you'll find! To make these adorable mushrooms attractive to the Wee Folk we add our own blend of herbs to the mushroom top so they smell wonderful. Our magical herb mix (aka Gnome-Nip) includes rosemary and lavender. We hope you have as much fun with these as we have.

We enlisted the help of some experts when making these cute little mushrooms.

Tiny Bird's Nest

These tiny bird's nests are super cute and easy to make. Here's what you do:

Start with the dough - I made the same salt dough I made in Kindergarten

1 cup salt

1 cup flour

1/2 cup water

Mix all 3 ingredients, knead well, adding small amounts of water if needed.

To make the actualy nest, grab your garlic press and push the dough through. You made need to gently lift the handle to add more dough in there isn't enough squeezed out.

Loosely form the dough into a circle and roll out a few eggs and place in the nest. You can let the dough air dry or bake it in a 200 degree oven checking every 15 minutes or so.

Once the dough is completely dry and cool paint the eggs light blue and then finish off with a clear sealer. These cute little nests can be used as favors, decorations for the garden or if you place the eggs just right - place card/recipe holders! Have fun crafting!

~*~ Fairies in the Garden ~*~

Inspiration for your garden can come from many places...

 

We are fortunate enough to live close to Willow Oak Flower and Herb Farm. From Flower Fairy "Teas" to a winter fairy walk, this place is amazing all year long. Springtime is absolutely magical. They have amazing vintage flowers and every herb you can imagine.

It is a treasure trove for fairy fans - fairy gardens, villages and lore are all around. If you live in the Maryland/DC area you won't want to miss this gem. For more information visit their website : http://www.willowoakherbs.com/

                                                                                   

                                                                                     

How Cute Is This?

Need some decoration for your new fairy terrarium? Or just for general cuteness? Then...

How cute is this?

I can totally picture the tiny little gnome ladies on laundry day!!

Get this one here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/45024835/miniature-gnome-mushroom-clothes-line?ref=sr_list_1&ga_search_query=gnome+laundry&ga_search_type=all&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Or make your own!!

Crafty Friday ~ Garden Stones

Super cute and easy to make, these garden markers are sure to brighten up your garden. Here's what you'll need:

Smooth stones - seashells work great too

Permanent ink stamp pad, Stazon is our favorite (Did you know they make metallic colors now too?!?)

Mini alphabet stamps - these were purchased for $1.00 at A.C. Moore's

Make sure your rock is clean and dry and stamp away, it's that simple.

 You can label your plants, create a meditation/inspiration garden or simply write your name. You don't just have to place these in your garden or terrarium. You can make place markers for a dinner party or make them into "wishing" rocks or good luck charms.  Mother's Day is coming up, wouldn't it be cute to have the kids paint a little picture on a rock them stamp their name under it? Go ahead, get crafting!