The unPlugged version of Art-at-home

Without even realizing or trying to, I realized that I have recently been spending more of my time "unplugged" than ever before. I have put down and away my phone and other electronic devices more than ever and I have spent less time trolling the web. This has allowed for more time to paint, invest myself in creative processing (of all sorts), and spending time with my husband and almost 5 yo daughter. One of the highlights of all of this happened this past weekend when I got the notion to finally put together a fairy garden for my daughter...

My daughter's hand helps to show the charming scale of things in the garden

In the midst of all of the fairy garden dreaming and creating, my husband and I (both pretty much kids-at-heart ourselves) got very VERY carried away and ended up getting so many items for making the garden that we ended up with enough stuff to make TWO very beautiful gardens. We have a really great garden and landscaping store in our area and it was just too difficult to say no to ourselves and all of the incredibly delightful miniature flora!

This is our first one! The previous picture was of our second much larger one. 

While our endeavor into fairy garden making was a bit of an impulse, it worked out OK because we used the funds that we otherwise would have used for piles of easily played with and then forgotten about birthday gifts for my daughter's upcoming birthday. Certainly we could have plunked down the money to get her a pretty hefty handful of the items on her wish list but honestly? My husband and I (both teachers) are always looking for things for my daughter to have for play that promotes more sensory engagement, inquisitive learning and investigation, and promotion of heavy use of the imagination.

We were able to put both gardens together reasonably quickly and my daughter wasted no time pulling her camp chair right up to them to play with them just the way they begged to be played with. They are pretty much living dollhouse type set-ups and she has hardly been able to get enough of either one of them.

The terra cotta planter is the largest we were able to find and the other vessel is a huge half barrel planter.

Another big thing that my husband and I really appreciate about the fairy garden is we feel like they will really teach, promote, and support my daughter learning about creation care and more thoughtful stewardship of our natural environment. We live on the outskirts of the nation's Capitol and are pretty much typical "city people" as things have gone. We are doing our best to be more aware of our impact on the environment though in order to promote greater for it. While I really want to be good at gardening, I have a horrible grey thumb (vs. green thumb) but these fairy gardens being nothing more than container gardens are going to be pretty simple for even me to take care of since the plant life and overall set up with just about no fail. We just have to remember to keep it all very well watered which is something that I know my daughter will be happy to do and not come close to overdoing.

Aerial view of my daughter (the gardener) hard at work and play with the fairies and both gardens

I know that both of these gardens are going to provide endless amounts of play, amusement, and delight for not only my daughter but also my husband and I. From the little bit of research I did about fairy gardening, there are all sorts of ways to keep at it that extend far just taking care of the plants. We will be able to create all sorts of things for it - little trellis structures, bridges, houses, posted signs, etc. - and I am really looking forward to doing that with my whole family this summer.

Taken first thing in the morning.  My daughter woke up and wanted to play in the gardens right away!