Shortly after we moved here, Bunch commented that she wished she had a tree in her room. Our kids dwell below ground level, with only very tiny windows for natural light source in their rooms. They’re rather like rabbits, those two, sleeping underground and coming out in the daylight.
Still, a tree would be a lovely thing to have. But a live one simply wouldn’t thrive downstairs.
Since she was my tiny little angel girl, Bunch has always been enchanted with Fairies. (Or Faeries. I interchange them as the whim strikes me.)
(fairy dress up...age 4)
When we lived in Vermont, Bunch spent the entirety of nearly every recess at school building faerie houses at the bases of every tree on the playground. The trees in our neighborhood often had little faerie abodes gracing them. Moss, sticks, flowers, shells, rocks, leaves, acorns, pinecones etc…all these natural tools of the trade were abundant where we lived.
When she was in first grade, Bunch and I selected one of the trees in our yard and built a rather sturdy faerie dwelling at the base. Bunch started leaving them notes, small treasures, and gifts. She was a TRUE BELIEVER in fairies at this time, and the fairies rewarded her attention by collecting the things she left them during the night, and sometimes leaving her small treasures in return.
This magical exchange was the source of much delight for the enchanted Bunchkin. She’d regularly wake up and run outside to see if they’d visited while she was dreaming. Fairy Houses are a wonderful source of magic and delight for young girls.
Here is a picture of Bunch with the faerie house mentioned above:
So back to the tree.
Reflecting on this, I got a crazy notion to build Bunch her very own Faerie Tree. There had been a severe storm here shortly after we moved in, and a number of trees fell as a result. The vacant house at the end of our street had an SUV-sized pile of branches mounded up in the street. I think the owner was hoping the city would just haul them away (no such luck!) They’d been baking in the desert sun for about 3 months, when I decided to take a little hack saw over one afternoon, and haul some branches home for my project.
Once I had enough wood, there came the task of what to build my tree on. I needed a base of some kind. My wonderful mother-in-law came to my rescue with these two heavy newsprint cores. I have no idea where she rounded them up, but they were PERFECT for my tree.
I took two of them, and bolted them together, one on top of the other. Then I got three L-shaped shelving brackets and secured them at the base to serve as the “feet” of the tree. Then I started in with the wood. Branch-by-branch, I nailed, screwed, bolted and secured the wood to the cardboard tube till it was covered.
I will pause now to mention that this was all 100% manual labor. I didn’t have any fancy power tools, drills, staple guns or whatnot. At one point I did borrow a power saw from my brother, which I didn’t actually know how to use. After nearly cutting my finger off (miraculously, it only tore off the end of my gardening glove. Talk about adrenalin rush!) I gave up on power and reverted back to manual labor for all my sawing needs.
Things were going well, but the tree looked like it was in the dead of winter with no leaves. Thus far I hadn’t spent a dime on it…using only parts and pieces we had lying around already. I checked out the craft store for leafage, but realized it would get spendy in a jiffy to buy enough greenery. So I stopped by a local thrift store, and there I hit the jackpot: full-size fichus tree for only $8.00!
I hauled it home and pulled all the greenery off it. Using floral tape and wire, I secured all the leaves onto my fairy tree. Then I used a bag of Spanish moss and a glue gun to fill in the “chinks” between branches, which added a little more authentic look.
With the tree complete, I decided to build a little whimsical ladder for it. I glued flowers and moss on it for decoration. My goal was to put together the basic tree, and include one new fairy on it which her grandmother had gotten for the occasion, but that Bunchkin would be the one to decorate it.
Twinkle lights came next. Here I made an annoying error in judgment because I used regular twinkle lights…oblivious to how much time they’d be on. Lit up 24/7, they died within four months. ( I ended up taking everything off the tree, unwinding the lights, and replacing them with LEDs. Which unfortunately I could only find in white strings...not green. TIP: if you build your own faerie tree, use green-string'd LEDs if possible!)
Finally, I found a pretty green ribbon to wind around, and added a few sparkly floral-arranging elements. It was done. Whew!
(the finished project in front of the garage door)
I kept the tree in the garage till Birthday Eve. Once Bunch was in bed, I hauled it into our living room and put her birthday gifts under it. Then I left a note on the stairs, with my cell phone next to it, that said “STOP!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUNCHKIN!…DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER. CALL THE HOUSE PHONE AND WAKE ME UP, AND WAIT HERE TILL I TELL YOU ”
Before we went to bed, I woke up Gator. Since siblings often feel bad on birthdays because of the hyper focus on the birthday kid, I wanted him to be in on the surprise. So we brought him upstairs and showed him the tree, to include him on the secret. He was so excited to be part of the magical conspiracy. Good move momma!
By then, I could hardly sleep for all the excitement!
Remember that feeling you’d have as a child waiting for Christmas morning? How you couldn’t WAIT to see if Santa had brought you anything? It was the one day a year when anything was possible…at least till that fateful day in 1st grade when your big brother told you there was no such thing as Santa and killed the magic. You thought it was gone forever, but little did you know that in a mere 30 years, you’d experience that same feeling again, only this time it was because you WERE the magic, for your own precious child. It’s even better.
At 5:00 a.m. the call came. Bunch has always been an early riser, so I kind of expected her to get up even earlier, and she didn't disappoint. I don’t think I was more than half asleep all night, so we quickly jumped out of bed and got the video camera out. I wanted to capture her face when she first saw her tree.
Gator was adorable. He was so cute about guiding her up the stairs, with her eyes shut, till she was placed before her glorious tree.
It was so fun to watch her response as her ten year old eyes opened and beheld the sight. And such a delight to watch her open the gifts from her posse. Bunchkin definitely has a fan base.
For Christmas we went to my inlaw’s house, where the Faerie Magic just continued. Mom had seen someone cutting down a big tree, and asked if they could make her two stumps. She sewed a little cushion to sit on for one, and then found this swan-shaped basket made out of twigs at a thrift store to set on the other.
It just looked like a fairyesque item, and sure enough, it’s become a complete faerie community, housing all sorts of fairies and woodland creatures and wee folk.
I let Bunchkin draw a tree on her closet door with colored pencil and decorate it with fairy stickers. I only helped her with some shading (she’s a fabulous artist...which I'll discuss in another post).
The following Christmas a friend gave us a small fairy table base with a glass top. It's perfect!
Slowly Bunchkin’s downstairs room has transformed into a completely Magical Fairy Realm, as she’s added her special touches to it over time.
A shot of that year's birthday cake. It's a fairy scene on a jelly roll pan, with rice krispy meadow, bundt cake fairy house, three tiny fairies, frosting river and candylandesque treats galore. Biggest Hit EVER with the kids!
Two years have now passed, and The Fairy Tree is still one of Bunchkin’s most treasured possessions.
I don’t know how long the love of faeries will last…I see no reason for it to end, but even if it does, I do know that the tree, with it’s magical creatures, butterflies, lights, flowers and of course fairies, will always be a favorite around here.
♥
