Make a Fairy Garden

Not long after it started to look like Spring would finally arrive, my oldest daughter was talking about the Cozy Bird Cottage project we did a while back. She wanted to that again.

Then during a recent trip to The Home Depot, the girls begged for a little cactus plant. They'd asked for them before, so this time I let them each purchase a couple of the plants.

We put the cacti (& succulent) plants together with the decorated birdhouses to create a Fairy Garden. I saw this idea somewhere recently, but I can't remember where. I just want to point out that it's not my original idea.

My daughter made a sign for her garden that says
"Caution Cacti Ahead!" and "Fairies Allowed Only!"

I purchased two plastic flower pot saucers, one for each child's garden, and filled them with potting soil, adding the cacti and succulent plants around the edges. The girls painted and decorated their houses and placed them in the back center of the garden and we found small smoothish stones to build a stone pathway through the garden to the house. We took moss from our yard and placed it in the dirt around the pathway and plants to look like grass.

I also found white picket fences at the craft store. They do not reach all the way around the yard, but still add a cozy feel.

Later, as I was potting flowers for our deck, I found the painted stones we made a few years ago ("Write It In Stone" Project), and my daughter added them to her garden.

She is very proud that one of her plants has a very long bloom.

My younger daughter also made a garden.

They enjoyed building their gardens, and I hope they will also enjoy taking care of them. Ha. My younger daughter has already tried to drown hers.







"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." Colossians 3:16 

Easter Wreath

Oh my! Where have I been? We have been having craft withdrawals over here, but the girls and I managed a little time over Spring Break for an Easter craft.

The girls visited their Great-Grandmother recently. She's been doing some cleaning out, and she gave them both a couple Easter decor items. One of them was a bunny hanging thing. My daughter was asking me where we could put it, and I suggested we use it as part of an Easter-themed wreath.

I had an old grape-vine wreath that was not being used, and we had some various sizes of decorated Styrofoam eggs (I have seen these eggs at the Dollar Store and most craft stores). Ours had ribbons to hang them, and we cut those off.

Our materials included a grape-vine wreath, bunny
decoration, Styrofoam eggs, and floral wire.

We cut short lengths of floral wire and pushed it through
the center of each egg. For some of the smaller eggs
that would be placed side by side, we pushed two
eggs through one wire.

We secured the eggs around the wreath with the wire.

I used pieces of wire to attach the bunny in the
center of our wreath.

And here it is on our front door.

The girls loved helping me make this wreath, and my oldest is proud of the way we have displayed her special bunny from MeeMaw. 

It was a simple project, and I have seen similar wreaths at Joann's and Target, just without the bunny.





Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

 

Monogrammed Ball Ornaments

Each Christmas, I like to make a small homemade gift to give to special friends, teachers, co-workers, party hosts, and those family members that we do not buy a gift for. This year I had just about decided I would need to start baking cookies because I just wasn't coming up with an idea of something relatively inexpensive to make, as we would need to give about 30 of them.

Then I came across an idea on Pinterest. The blogger monogrammed her last name's initial onto a ball ornament in gold paint. It was the perfect idea, but it needed something...

GLITTER!

These ornaments will make a nice personal addition to the tree!

For this project, you will need colored ball ornaments.
I found these at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would be best
to get those with a matte finish, or the non-shiny kind.
You will also need paint pens and glitter.

Begin by writing the letter onto the ornament.
This takes a steady hand.

I found a font on my computer and printed the needed letters on paper and used it as a guide, but I did still have to free hand.

While the paint is still wet, sprinkle a generous
amount of glitter. As a rule, we didn't have time
to be neat. Dump the glitter on and knock off
the excess into a container. The paint dries quickly.

When it is completely dry, brush off any extra glitter.
To give it a nice finishing touch, I added a piece
of ribbon to hang it.

I used silver and gold paint and glitter on the darker colored
ornaments. For the white ornaments, we used red, blue, and
green paints and glitters.

While I made all of the above ornaments, my girls did get in on the action and made a few ornaments, too.

My 8-year-old made these ornaments. She made the "G" in
her school colors and plans to give it to her principal. She wrote
"JOY" on her second ornament.

My 5-year-old made these, a cupid's heart and "JOY" with each
letter a different color.

'And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.' Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.' Matthew 1:21-23