Winners of the 2012 Fairy Garden Contest !

Here are the winners of the 2012 Fairy Garden Contest. I know I'm a little late with this announcement but can you imagine how difficult it has been for me to pick just a few? We've had a huge number of gardens enter this year... 121 Fairy Gardens entered on my blog Contest page and another 32 on Facebook and through emails. And each one is remarkable and unique. You have brought my children and me, and all of those who have tuned in daily to see your gardens, so much joy. Thank you for sharing your beautiful creations with us.

Here is a link to the 2012 Fairy Garden Contest Page where you will find links to see all the Fairy Gardens and you can see the Facebook entries under 'photos' on my Facebook Page. 

So, without further ado, here are the winners...

This wonderfully creative garden from Our Broken Road.  You have to visit the blog post to see all of the magical goodies in this garden. What a wonderfully imaginative place!

Prize :: from Living Crafts Magazine  -  a TWO year subscription.

 From Trio Of Sisters, this darling Fairy Garden... we adore all the little nature bits and how pretty everything looks.

Prize :: from Living Crafts Magazine  -  a ONE year subscription.

From TsuruHuis, this magical Fairyland... we totally love seeing these children at play in their pretty garden.

Prize :: from Willodel, a magical wooden Fairy Home.

From Intentional Girl, this still remains one of my most favorite Fairy Garden photos EVER!

 Prize :: from Armadillo Dreams... a set of FIVE wooden handmade fairies.

From Quiet Domesticity, this charmingly colorful Fairy Garden...

Prize :: from MudHollow,  your choice of three of the sweetest little woodland animals.

From Fairy Dust Teaching , we really, really love your magical Fairy Tree... it makes even the little Fairy Gardeners look like fairies...

Prize :: from Mosey Handmade,  a sweet forest playset.

From a Facebook friend, Jamie, this delightful Fairy Garden.

Prize :: From Driaa, this magical Oak Fairy

From Marsha's Garden, this amazing Fairy Village...

 Prize :: from Ziezo Designs, a magical set of silk Butterfly Wings.

From Simple Joyful Living, this delightful woodland Fairy Garden Party...

Prize :: from Woolies,  a hand-knitted Earth Pony of your choice.

From Geek In Glasses, this charming outdoor Fairy Garden nestled around a huge tree trunk...

Prize :: from This Cosy Life, Mama Blossom peg doll.

From  Squinks comes this enchanting jungle Fairy Garden...

Prize :: from The Enchanted Cupboard, a custom set of Fairy Garden furniture.

Passengers On A Spaceship, this beautiful May Day Fairy Garden..

Prize :: from Beneath The Rowan Tree, the Wind Runner.

From Experimenting Mom, this super artistic Fairy Garden...

Prize :: from Mama West Wind, a magical Tulip Fairy

From another Face Book entry, Magical Land, comes this wonderful video footage of an amazingly detailed Fairy Garden...

Prize :: from Nobby Organics, this sweet organic cotton pillow sham.

From A Little Fur in the Paint, this beautifully crafted Fairy Garden complete with a Pine Cone home...

Prize :: from Soft Earth Art, this needle felted Garden Fairy Wreath

From Mom's Crafty Place, this lovely classic Fairy Garden...

Prize, from one of my Magic Sponsors, Super Skivvies, any pair of super cute cloth training pants.

From Wild and Free Mama, this psychedelic garden...

 Prize ::  from Birchleaf Designs, silk trees and rivers, a set of 4 gorgeous woodland silks.

And last but definitely NOT least, from A Cup Of Tea With Me, this pretty little garden...

Prize :: a  Fairy from Alkelda Dolls, similar in style to this little orange fairy.

Congrats, Fairy Gardeners!!!!

Oh my... how difficult it was to choose these few from all of the other beautiful gardens. All of us who made a Fairy Garden this year, are winners!!

Here is a link to the Fairy Garden Page for all the Fairy Garden fun we've had in the past.

We already look forward to next year when the 2013 Fairy Garden season begins :-)

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Morning Glory Nests.

I have a wise old friend who warned me against planting Morning Glory.
'But it's so pretty!' I argued... 'And, it grows so wonderfully fast!' I pleaded. I was wanting to plant a vine that would grow over our fence and make our yard look like a jungle of green. As is usually the case with me, I wanted this curtain of green immediately!
'Donni,' he sighed, 'You will work hard for your impatience.'

And, yes I have! I planted Morning Glory, of course, and soon had a wonderful jungle for a back yard. It is so very pretty... deep green leaves, wonderful purple trumpet flowers that seem to change color every time I look at them and enchanting new tendrils that curl and spiral. But, alas, it is like the fabled vine that grew around Sleeping Beauties castle. It grows thicker and thicker, sends down roots and starts new vines all on it's own. It invades everywhere and covers everything. The one vine I planted has now become countless many. It has choked my roses to death, almost destroyed my passion fruit and is having a good attempt at strangling the banana trees. Every couple of months, we have to be ruthless with it as we free our other plants.

Today was Morning Glory Control Day. Morning Glory Control Day has become synonymous with Nest Making Day as we collect the morning glory clippings to make nests. So, although it's a day of hard work for me, my children whoop enthusiastically as nest making is on of their very favorite Spring activities.

We collect a big bunch of Morning Glory vine and 'de-leaf' each tendril.

To form the base of the nest, we take a few strands of vine and twist them around each other.

And then, we make our nest bigger and bigger by threading pieces of vine through it... around and around, filling in holes as we see them.

It's just like sewing, Kitty exclaimed!









Voila! Our Morning Glory nests are made.

We leave them in an airy place to dry out and play with them for many, many months. We make big ones and small ones, we add a few little robins eggs, some guinea fowl feathers, moss, wool... whatever we have on hand to make them as enchanting as possible.

Here is a link to last years Morning Glory Control Day where we rediscovered our dear printers tray.

Happy Spring,
Blessings and magic to you,
Donni

Let's make a Garden in a Shell.

I'm so excited... we've been wanting to make shell gardens for ages.

If you are like us, you are longing for Spring to arrive. We've had a number of lovely sunny days here in Southern California but then a cold front has visited, the snow has fallen on the mountains and the freezing wind has returned, driving us back indoors. We have been looking forward to gardening... looking forward to planting sweet peas, ranunculus and poppies but the cold has kept us out of the garden. Today was wonderfully sunny and as I was cleaning out our shell shell display that lives in the garden, I remembered a photo I had seen a while back of a little garden planted in a shell. Kitty and Teddy were just as excited as I was to give it a try.


We chose two of the largest shells we could find (yes, that is an earthworm in the shell... it's Teddy's new pet and he was very worried that it might escape while we were 'photoing' the shell)


He was much more comfortable 'photoing' the smaller shell while holding his earthworm in his other hand.


As our shells have no drainage holes in them, we decided to use succulents that don't need to be watered very often. It's easier to prevent the shell from becoming water logged if you plant something that doesn't require frequent watering. I took some cuttings from the succulents we have growing on our deck... cuttings work very well; simply stick the cutting in the soil, give it a little water and roots should sprout on their own.


We put a little carbon in the bottom of the shells. Carbon helps to prevent mold and other unwanted organisms from taking over your shell. It's not absolutely necessary but I had some on hand and so decided to use it.


We covered the carbon with a little soil and packed it down firmly.


Then we planted our succulents.


Our shell gardens really are amazingly beautiful. We've put them on our outside deck cupboard, where they are sheltered from wind and rain and we can watch them grow every day.

You see, you can still garden even when Spring hasn't quite arrived yet :-)

Blessings and magic,
Donni