Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover


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Fairy Houses by Autumn

One of the grands loves creating and spending time outside dinking around. This summer she asked permission to make a fairy house and garden in my potted lavender. I like fairy gardens, seeing kids use their imaginations, and watching them be involved outside, plus this is right where we would benefit from some nice garden decor! Yes, please, create away!

This is fairy house location number 1. Sadly, the lavender did not want a fairy house and/or garden in the pot. So, the grand had to relocate to a more fairy house friendly neighborhood.

Below is the artist at work at fairy house and garden location number 2. Sunflowers don’t care. They make excellent tall trees for fairy houses and gardens. And shade for the construction workers. Plus. Big leaves and strong stalks for walls and a roof!

Garden shears in hand, additional permission was granted to gather leaves and thick stems. Add rocks, water, dirt, and shells, and utilize existing cement blocks and nature protection from sunflowers and potted plants. Excellent ideas.

Et voila!

We were instructed to water carefully to avoid damaging the new location. We followed the instructions very well. But the leaves dried up, the wind blew, and the stalks fell over.

Never fear though. Miss Architect visited regularly to repair and rearrange the fairy house and garden.

She even established a bathing pool across the brick patio in the cement bird bath/waterer. I missed grabbing a photo of this when it was otherwise occupied by one of the fairy residents.

Imagination. Nature. Plenty of loose parts. Equals the best childhood!

I’m afraid to say that the fairy house might have to migrate south for the winter to escape snow and ice. But we shall see how mild or tough the winter is. Until then, we might consider charging a tiny bit of rent. ;0


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Haiku Moment: anything

lines, zags, speckles, dots, holes

heart, tower, treasure, or picture

rocks can be anything

anything by Angie Quantrell

rocks from her enormous rock collection


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More Flower Hammering: Mixed Media and Greeting Cards

My pansies and Johnny-jump-ups are fading fast in this heat, so I took a few hours to hammer flowers. I also snuck in a red rose that was nearing the end, to surprising results!

I haven’t figured out how to keep them firmly in place once I start hammering. I think my table is not as sturdy as it should be, so the whole thing bounces. Whoops. But I am not hammering on my oak table! Bouncing it is.

They turned out so well! These are the only colors that are still flowering, despite my deadheading.

I did one page in my mixed media journal, combining a bunch of inks and “stuff.” And I experimented with card-sized cardstock, which turned out well, but it takes MANY flowers to fit on one of those (I did 5 card fronts). Hammering flowers is a workout! My honey was outside and thought someone in the neighborhood had their bass up too loud. LOL.

Just look at the surprising color I got from the red rose! I didn’t finish the page in my journal yet, but I was fascinated by the results.

The leaves did not leave any color at all. Too tough and thick.

I have some zinnias getting ready to bloom. I might experiment, but they are pretty thick flowers. Flower hammering. Experimenting is fun. Creating is FUN!

Until next time.