Fast & Simple Fairy Garden

My husband and I recently moved from a house with a largish yard to an apartment with only a balcony for open air space, and much less square footage - this was exactly the change we wanted but even positive change requires a period of adjustment.  Right now, we are deep in the 'everything is disordered and I don't know where to put it' phase.

Throughout this whole process, I've been avoiding anything crafty or hobby related because I want to get through the rest of the unpacking and organizing before I lose steam.  But then I unpacked a box of crafty odds and ends the same day my husband had picked up a pretty vase for the planned balcony herb garden.  And I didn't have anywhere to put these odds and ends, nor any big plan for them, so suddenly it seemed like a good idea to just use them.

This whole project took less than 10 minutes, and now I have a delightful little fairy garden just waiting for the right fairy to show up and claim it.

In addition to the planter, I had a couple bricks of florist's foam, some miscellaneous silk flower stems, and a bag of assorted moss.  I also had a tiny shabby chic bird feeder I'd picked up at a craft store, and a really interesting frog gargoyle that I've had for years - it's a reproduction miniature of one of the gargoyles on the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Because this was an impulsive whim, I used no adhesive of any sort, and I like it that way - everything is simple tucked in and can easily be removed, rearranged or repurposed later.

First, I chopped the brick into smaller cubes of various sizes and filled  the pot with them.

I wanted to be able to be able to build some terrain so that the end result wasn't too flat.

After a bit of experimentation, I decided  the bird feeder needed to be higher than the frog to keep the composition interesting, so I built up the foam in the area where it would be set, covered everything else in moss, and then covering that higher piece of foam.

Next I placed the bird feeder in and nestle the frog down near it, pulling and arranging the moss until it looked good to me.

Lastly, I bent a sprig of silk blossoms to create a sort of arch over  the whole scene, and stuck it down into the foam.

Now obviously, what's missing from this little garden is a fairy to inhabit it - I'll be on the look out for the right one to show up to claim it.

For now, the bird feeder will contain a collection of little stones that have meaning for us and the whole thing will provide us with a small link back to our old home.

I do plan to make one change - I'm going to switch out the white flowers for a spray of cherry blossoms to draw together the DC theme, as well as to bring in a little color.

Unfortunately, the white spray pretty much disappears next to our white walls.

But that's fine, because switching this out will take only a moment!  This whole  thing was so fast and simple I didn't even have time to feel guilty for not unpacking.  In fact, it saved me from having to find a place to store this stuff. Win!