We’ve been making pumpkin fairy houses…

…and having a blast!

They are actually made from “Fun-kins“, those carvable foam pumpkins you see around Halloween in craft stores.

I like to use silk flowers because the colors last so much longer than dried-important for pieces that are intended to be use year after year. This piece has some silk Rudbeckia, silk grass and oak leaves.

In case you think I’ve completely sold out to the ‘faux’ flowers don’t worry! There are also some dried everlasting herbs like lambs ears, baby’s breath and statice tucked here and there amid the moss. This pumpkin should last indefinitely since nothing will rot.

Now for the housing specs-

The model in the photo above is a two story home complete with bedroom loft, mini fairy lights, a dining area, and an outdoor fire pit. Spacious and roomy for one or two occupants or a young fairy family.

How do we do it?

Hmmm, well since each one is different the final appearance depends on what materials we have, and the size and shape of the ‘pumpkin’.

Once you saw apart the Fun-kin and attach it to whatever base you are using, you can add all kinds of fun stuff. Here are some photos of the week-long process:

Floor and Loft Support in Place

Next came the loft and stairs. Those stairs took awhile to complete!

Stairs, 2nd Floor and Firepit

At this point mini LED lights were installed inside and the exterior wood, moss, and other little bits added to the outside.

Almost done!

Here I had one brown mouse made. These little guys can be made from paper mache, polymer clay, sewn or even needle felted if you like.I finally decided on two mice…just because they were so cute.

Above you can see the loft bed. It is actually half a walnut shell with a silk leaf /curly ‘vine’ canopy and a Lamb’s Ear leaf for a comforter.

And finally this Pumpkin Fairy house is complete!

Finished Pumpkin Fairy House

The brown mouse is now grey and he has a young companion.

I think they like the place, how about you?

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If you can’t find Fun-kins in your area they are available online here:

Beautiful Fairy House

We spent a wonderful weekend at Lincoln Memorial Garden’s Indian Summer Festival. 

 As part of the Master Naturalist classes we’re taking through the U of I we worked as volunteers at the Fairy House building tent. 

Getting Ready for Fairy Houses

Our supplies were things like bark, sticks, rocks, shells, leaves, flowers and other natural objects. We collected our building materials over a period of several weeks and were ready for business on Saturday morning!

We even had our own fairy on hand.

On most days she is actually daughter # 3 and has smaller ears.

Kid#3 as Woodland Fairy

 Over the weekend there were nearly 350 fairy houses built by some talented architects!

Early Morning Fairy House Builders

Here are a few of the fabulous houses the kids built~

Raffia Wrapped Fairy House

Double A-frame Fairy house

Fairy House Interior

Aren’t they great?

The only ‘ extra special’ thing we did was to cut out the little chairs and lots of wood discs for the kids to use as furniture.  

You can see from these examples that nothing fancy is needed to build your own little fairy structure. It’s such a great activity for the kids and so many of the parents had a blast and planned to do it at home.

We loved that some of the boys rolled their eyes at making a fairy house but were more than happy to build a Fairy Fort.  Most of the little girls were all about building a house for Tinkerbell and they loved using lots of flowers and interior embellishments for their houses.

If you want some more inspiration for building your own fairy house, here are two really great books to give you ideas and get you started:

 Fairy Houses… Everywhere! by Tracy Kane

Fairy Houses of the Maine Coast by Maureen Heffernan.

Happy building!

Jacob's Cattle Bean Plants

July has been beastly hot, but nearly everything is doing really well in the garden!

Flowers are blooming, weeds are prolific, veggies are iffy, medicinal and culinary herbs are thick, and most of the small and tree fruits are either finishing up or nowhere near ready depending on what you’re looking at.

I’m excited, we may actually get to enjoy a few of these peaches this year! Most years they are eaten by Japanese beetles but since they are currently busy destroying roses, nectarines and Marshmallow, we have hope for a fresh, home grown peach.

Young Peaches

Most of the flowers are doing nicely, too. Except for the ones hubby keeps mowing down.

Anyone that knows me know that my flowers have to be tough. I’ll water when needed, but absolutely no floral mollycoddling goes on around here.  Heck, I don’t deadhead most of the time… but I will go out and cut bouquets when I’m feeling girly.

Which leads us to this next photo…

It just sort of happened. It’s what the late TV painter, Bob Ross would have called a “happy accident”.

In a girly fit of flower arranging I set the pitcher on the birdhouse while snipping and filling it with blooms. I stepped back and  LOVED the way it looked sitting there so much that I probably took 56 pictures of it.

Bouquet on Birdhouse

I also killed the rechargeable camera batteries, but it was totally worth it. Don’t you agree?

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Love butterflies? Plant some herbs.

Herbs draw all kinds of butterflies and are host plants (main food source) to several.

Host plant? Dill in this case.

This is a  Swallowtail caterpillar chowing down on the last of the dill in this container.

They are piggish caterpillars and will demolish your umbel family herbs, but they are truly gorgeous butterflies.

I just plant extra herbs. Some for me, some for them. It works out nicely.

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Here are a bunch of little orange skipper butterflies on mint flowers.  I count five in this picture alone, but the peppermint bed is nearly 50 feet long so you can imagine how many of these little guys flit around in there.

Whenever I water they will all fly up in an orange cloud and scatter, then flutter back down until they find a spot to feed again. They’ll take little sips of water from droplets on the peppermint leaves with their incredibly long, curly tongues which makes me wonder where they store those things when they fly.

I also get lots of shiny pollinator flies in the mint, but they are not nearly as pretty and entertaining as the butterflies.  I also suspect my blog readers would wonder why I am photographing flies. I mean for all you know  just be just barn flies…and although I have herds of those, too they don’t hang out on things as sweet smelling as mint.

We really don’t need photos of what they do hang out on. Know what I mean? Let’s just stick to our butterflies and herbs.

This is what I want my Wisteria to look like.

Wisteria Being Gorgeous

Well don’t get all excited yet. It doesn’t.

I have had some planted in several locations for 6 years. Really. It can take a long time for them to bloom.

This year I finally saw what looked like buds forming on two of them.

Wisteria ALMOST Blooming

I had to go out and check on them hourly, and pinch my self to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

I was especially concerned after some big storms rolled though but all was A-OK until….

THIS.

Albus the Monster Dog

Did THIS

Gnawed Wisteria Vine

Causing THIS.

Murdered Wisteria

All I could do was lurch back to the house, grab the camera and take a picture of

THIS:

I'm Sorry...

And no, he wasn’t, not really.

He is just pouting because I took his new stick away.

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