The end to our summer was magical. The weather wasn’t warm and sunny until mid August. I remember turning on our fireplace on the 4th of July because it was so cold. We went on a trip to northern Germany, the baltic sea and Denmark – which were mainly cool days, but then once we returned home, we finally had the summer and sun we waited for since the Winter. The children and I set out to build a fairy village to have fairies come and stay in our yard, so these consistent sunny days were perfect to get started on this project. We are moving the village inside in the coming days thus I though I should finally share our summer memories of it with you all.
I had my son’s 8th birthday in mind when we started it in August. I decided to craft it together from things we could find in our house, our yard, or the forest nearby. I wanted to buy as little as possible. Furthermore, I knew that my son was hoping for a treasure hunt on his 8th birthday. One day the idea to my mind to build this fairy village with them and the his friends and him being led by a special gnome or fairy that live visited our village to the special treasure. Nothing was precisely planned but came together beautifully as you can see in a post in the coming days.
The crafting times, his special birthday, and the stories of fairies and gnomes told this summer was wonderful. I was able to involve each one of my children in crafts according to their age. My daughter is three and my son just turned 8 years old. I created little sparkles of excitement when I changed things up overnight showing them the fairies paid our village a visit. Moreover, I included items I crafted that they didn’t know of, like a little wool felted fire one morning and they believed that it was left by the fairies who had visited again one night.
Now, as the days grow shorter and weather colder I often wish back these magical warm days when we crafted outside in our yard. Having spent three years in Hawaii and being used to warmth and sunshine was very special. Yet we embrace what we have now and will continue some of our crafting, weaved into a sweet little fairy story – yes fairies get cold too and need winter shelter – as we transfer our village inside.
But before. Some impressions for you to be inspired.
I build a little fairy baby swing with my daugther and weaved herbs into a stick in a village.
My son and I poured plaster and built a well with an old yoghurt container as a base, and rocks that we found in our backyard.
We always had visitors in the fairy village. The “Children of the Forest” came by too. I made them a few months ago inspired by the same titled book by Elsa Beskow which my children love. All the little children loved it and wanted to stay!
In the next post I will describe how we incorporated the village and all the little things we crafted in our birthday treasure hunt for my son’s 8th birthday.
****Many of the ideas for the village came from pinterest. I read a few blog posts at night and then crafted from my memory with the kids the next morning. You can visit my pinterest account for ideas.****
xoxo,
Sabine.
About the Author: Sabine Bryant is the designer and creator of Kinderbonnets. She currently resides in Germany with her family of soon to be 5. Aloha Werkstatt Blog shares her inspiration for Kinderbonnets, environmentally friendly life choices, and creative craft projects inspired by the simplicity of nature, and love for gathering amongst women and families of young children – to inspire a sense of self-sufficiency, creativity, and less materialism.