More park fun and fairy fashion

I know, I know. Fairies, nature, blah blah blah. I was just telling a friend the other day. People are always labeling me "hippie" and I honestly in those moments don't understand why. Then sometimes I hear myself say something and I'm just... woah. What a hippie. Anyway I happen to have a lot of little hippie girls (through no coersion of my own, I swear. Kids are born hippies) in my life so we do a lot of fairy-and-nature-related stuffs. Sue us. Class action suit us. faux leather moccasin shoe us. We won't even notice because we're too busy being hippie dippy.

So, today was another girl fest, with ducklings Sunny, Ruby and Nora waddling everywhere in my wake. I was thumbing through some books with them this morning while imbibing my (and the continent of Asia's) morning dose of caffeine when this one inspired me toward today's craft. I mean I am far from a fashion girl but get back Loretta! Fairy couture? Where do I sign? I decided we would head to the girls' favorite neighborhood park and collect some "fairy fabric" for our afternoon craft.

Of course this park is an adventure in itself. There's playground equipment and picnics to eat and a train that passes by complete with a friendly, waving engineer.

Sunny begins construction on a fairy house

we built a bridge so the fairies can get to a little nook high up in a tree

there's an old hedge maze in this park- the girls like to play hide and seek. Here Ruby and Sunny are counting while Nora hides.

oh heero butterfly!

So now we're back home and a nap has been had and our assortment of fairy clothes are spread out and I've riffled through a few magazines to find "fairies" for us to clothe. As previously stated, I'm not much for fashion so head-to-toe girl photos were few and far between in my Real Simple and WV Living mags. I found one in a Marie Claire my mom left here to use for my "sample fairy" (I secretly couldn't wait to do this craft!) so I could show the girls what was intended with the project. Below is the before:

And then after:

ooh I want to dress like a fairy in real life! But as you can see making sleeves was dumb and tedious. Fairies don't wear black polka-dots so it had to be done. Luckily, I found an old Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue for the girls' fairies.

Maybe I should have saved this craft for when the girls were older. Maybe I should consider that fairies would be more free spirited in their attire and who's to say they'd mimic the shape of human clothes anyway? But I blame the results on Jared (the husband) who played Minor Threat loudly while this craft was being carried out, for the results.

Below is Ruby's before picture. A bit provocative perhaps but I pictured her adorned in flower petals and sitting on the edge of a little fairy pond.

I think Ruby was thinking along the same lines anyway. But wait til you see Nora's.

Before:

And after:

I highly suggest you click on the pic to see it bigger. When we collected the sprouted seeds in the park Nora said they'd make great fairy hair and I praised her so profusely on her creativity I think maybe she went a bit overboard in execution. Is this a fairy or chewbacca? I can't even believe there was enough leftover for the nether regions but lo and behold; fairy pubes! omg. Let us not even broach the boots.

Sunny took the opposite extreme. Her "fairy" had a painted elephant at her photo shoot and my daughter insisted the beast be included in her craft, then vowed not to mar the photo with nature bits and declared it done, proudly showing it to her father, who approved of her creative work.

Before and after.


So. A fun project but if you're going to attempt it, I would recommend doing this with 10-year-olds unless you like laughing.