How We Play // Fairy Houses

Hello my dears!
Now that we have had a little break from this series (I am so glad you all liked the How We Eat video!) we can come back to the world of creativity and imagination, by studying how we three used to play. In the last How We Play post I gave you all a little hint about the fact that we were tired of not finding the right kind of toys at the store, and how much we wanted to invent our very own. Well, this post marks the beginning history of the many years we devoted our time in the pursuit of creativity and satisfaction. We set out first on this journey building… fairy houses!


Welcome to a little fairy bathhouse! Here, the little people begin their day with a quick splash on the face before whizzing off to the nearby berry bushes for a light breakfast–they don’t much care to submerge themselves as it takes forever to dry off their dainty wings. Have you ever seen a newly hatched dragon fly airing its dewy wings before? I’ll have you know it takes hours upon hours, and the fairies don’t have the luxury to be seen by humane eyes. They are the fleetest of all winged creatures, and must keep up their invisible reputation, you know!


I spent about a couple of hours amongst our iris clumps one fine afternoon, painstakingly sorting through the wood chips and grass blades to gather up the right materials for the little bathhouse. I did use up a good half hour making the woven floor mat, and also the woven walls. I make it a rule now, whenever I construct a house to be like a fairy, and use only the materials found nearby so that the structure blends in perfectly. There are broken pieces of pottery scattered all throughout our flower beds, and thus the thin slab of terra-cotta was fit right into this invisible rule, despite it’s bright hue.

Now the fun part! This bubble/ballon flower is a real flower! We have the plant growing in our flower garden to prove it. These periwinkle blooms start out as little green buds which over the course of a few days, grow bluer and… fill with air until… pop! They burst open–a radiant sight to behold! I plucked one of these fine specimens and fitted the stem between the grasses of the mat, and carefully filled the little “bath” with water.

Did we believe in little mythical creatures who had the ability to glide through the air like little butterflies? Could it be possible for young Christian girls to put an ounce of faith in such imaginings? Well, let me ask you this: is it possible for Christian parents to allow their children to believe in Saint Nicholas when they are small with wondering, round eyes? Yes! In fact we know a family who does this. Now just like the belief in Saint Nick fades as a child grows and learns the truthful facts of life, so did our belief in the fairy world we created. I believe that so long as a little one knows not to set imaginary friends, Saint Nick, or even fairies above God, they are quite safe from becoming spoiled in their minds. And again, just like we were given ground rules by our parents for playing with our store bought dolls, we were given ground rules of a different type when imagining up our fairy world.

So how did it happen? Tinkerbell? No! I actually don’t really know for sure, but I think the Flower Fairy illustrations had something to do with it. I remember looking at a website chock full of precious little paintings of children dressed up in flowers of all kinds, with the extra appendages of wings. Those were the inspirations. And then one day, Brigi and I decided to build a little house right at the base of a great big pine, very much like the reconstruction you see down below.

If you are having a difficult time discerning what you are looking at, then good! Our fairy houses were always made with the “invisible affect”. Ok, ok, so what are you looking at? You, my dears, have the rare opportunity of viewing a little fairy shanty to the right, complete with a mini food-storage kwanzaa hut. Lets take a little tour, shall we?


What are those tiny, etherial-looking white stalks? Ha ha! They are in fact the skeletons of what were once joyful little blue hyacinth flowers, now dried into bone white sticks with seed pods. I thought they made a most elegant entrance to the humble abode. Walk on up!

Once I had collected, arranged and fitted all of the bark pieces into sturdy walls, I realized I had made the same mistake I used to when very little–I can’t really fit my hands through the opening! If I had done this twice over, I would have put the inside things together first, and then enclose it with the walls and roof. But oh well! I managed.  (Actually, dollhouses are very much like fairy houses in that it is so hard to put everything in order when your hands are too large to move around with ease! You usually nock over more than you straighten out!)

The Strawberries have been finicky this year, producing only the tiniest of berries, but this was perfect for the little dinner I had in mind! And yes, the little vase is indeed a hollow stem with a sprig of herb flowers. The table is a chunk of bark, and the cushion is the center of a shasta daisy with all of it’s petals torn off.

To the very back I have laid out a bed/cradle made from a perfectly curved piece of pine bark, and the bedding is made from the clippings of dog fur, covered over by a skeleton leaf. The pillows are not really thistles, they are actually feathery spined seed pods from a wildflower that I cannot name. The little shelf is supported by two y shaped sticks, and holds two granite pebbles, and a broken bit of  skeleton pod.



Within the mini kwanzaa hut lies a number of foodstuffs for the fairies’ Summer meals. They don’t much like gathering their food like little birds all the time, they would much prefer to play in the treetops. Thus, they spend one evening a week gathering up what they want, and shove it all in the back spaces of their dry little “pantry”. They seem to take after acorn buds, wild blackberries, strawberries borrowed from our garden, grass heads, and unripe rose hips. I can’t imagine how their little stomachs can handle the bitter acorns and rose hips, but they could use them in recipes I have not heard of?

Ha ha! Now you can see that it was not only painful making the little structure, but it worse trying to  capture it all in a photograph! Charlotte and I had the most horrid muscle cramps afterward! So I think that means this will be all that you will see of our fairy houses… 😉

In each house we have lived in, aside from the home we were born in, we three have made fairy houses. Well, maybe not Charlotte all the time–she preferred her nice and tidy (not dirty) dollhouse–but if you came calling five years ago, you could be sure to see Brigi and I tromping through our woods looking for amenities to help accommodate out tiny homes. In all truth, I think I have gotten settled in my urgings to create a house for a long while. Even with Brigi’s help, it took a couple afternoons to do all three, but then again, it took us every afternoon in the week to set up, rebuild, re-patch, and repair our handiwork when we were little. All the while we were building, we would imagine what fairy would visit our house in the late evening. Would she stay over night and eat up our feast? How long would she rest? Until the first light? We imagined so.

Our longings to expand this one little house did eventually culminate into the actions of setting up a whole Fairy Town behind our shed outback. We used all manner of items to construct the little dwellings, and all the while we envisioned little parties that would take place while we were away, and myriads of tiny boys and girls dancing and frolicking through the air in a dance that only the fairy folk knew. Our hearts would fill with excitement, and waves of pleasure would produce the sweetest smiles on each others’ faces. But behind every little feeling, we knew, that there was only One Being who possessed the true joy and delight of our hearts. He alone was our ultimate Omnipotent, and even though we did not know very much about Jesus, we knew He was the greatest invisible Person of all. He was behind every thought and action. He was the author of our play.

Before I sign off, I must tell you all about our new favorite Advertiser! If you haven’t noticed, we have a lovely new button on the sidebar that will take you to the most adorable Etsy Shop, A Pocket of Whimsey! We found Alexis’s shop through this blogging friend of ours, when she reviewed the cutest little necklace you ever saw, and now Alexis has agreed to advertise which us while I post about the fairy houses and dolls that we made! So PLEASE! Go take a peek at her incredibly whimsical jewelry, and buy a gift for a friend while you’re at it! We will be reviewing a few of her products soon, so stay tuned!