Reuse Roundup: Isobel’s Fairy House
16 Jan
Isobel’s greatest obsession these days is faeries. It’s sort of my fault. When I was a kid I was obsessed with faeries myself and as soon as she showed even the slightest hint of interest I started sharing all of my Cecily Mary Barker books with her. These books were written in the early 1900s and reflect the fashion of the times. I just love them and through this book Isobel has learned quite a bit about different flowers and plants which never fails to impress garden store workers. After each time reading through Flower Fairies we follow it up with reading Fairy Island, a book by a nature crating artist who created five or so different imagined homes for fairies. Add this to repeated viewings of Miyazaki’s Borrower’s-inspired movie The Secret World of Arrietty, and Isobel wants nothing more than to make faerie houses all day every day.
This one is her current favorite because unlike most of them it is contained in a decorated shoebox that once held running shoes belonging to her father. We painted it together (she instructed me where to paint hearts but the rest is all her), and she’s added crayon, stickers, and other ornamentation herself. Grandma and Grandpa, ever sympathetic to her wishes, bought her the little pink metal bench and white chair at a garden store, and the set of dressers used to a picture frame from their living room collection. The rest of the items have been gathered (borrowed, you know, not stolen) from around the house. The gold ornament hanging from the top of the box is supposed to be the sun and the white moon sticker on the dresser is supposed to appease but sun and moon fairies.
One time Anthony put some of her plastic fairy toys in the fairy house but that mistake was swiftly corrected. This house is for real fairies, Dada. Not toys. Real fairies.
Despite our honest answers to the question she remains convinced fairies are real. They are just very small and very fast and know how to hide from adults. Little girls can see them, however, and she can’t wait until a real fairy decides to take up residence in this fully furnished apartment.
Oh that is just gorgeous! And incredibly creative too! I can’t wait until I have a girl of my own to build stuff like this with
Veronica Franco recently posted..Toddler Lookbook: 2014 Edition
Playing with her is so super fun, especially when she wants to do things like this that I loved as a little girl. Unexpectedly Anthony is fantastic and building fairy houses and he loves to play this with her, too.
I want to go home and make fairy houses right now.
It sounds like the best way to spend time and I believe Isobel is right, fairies are real. It’s important for her to believe that magical things can happen. I understand why you tell her the truth but I hope she always believes in magic.
April recently posted..The (Pumpkin) Seedy Secrets Your Paper Towels Won’t Tell You
She is so insistent that they are real that when she asks us we say, “I believe they are real for you. They are real in your heart.” So far she’s satisfied with that.
I just love this. Bringing me joy on a semi-cruddy day: that’s the magic of The Little Big Blog!
Anne recently posted..Time… is not on my side
And this made MY day, Anne! <3