Remembering Fairy Festival – Katie Jane Interiors

It’s been 6 years since I last had Fairy Festival in my yard. We had successfully hosted the event for the 6 years prior to that. Looking back- it was a sort of golden age of my niece and many of my friend’s kids at that time. They were a young and whimsical age and although the pictures prove they were growing up summer after summer, it felt much more like their innocence was frozen in time.

When we started- 2014:

How we left it- our last Fairy Festival in 2019:

We always had face painting that was on point. Having resources with experience in the advanced world of haunted house make-up, we were fortunate to see some skilled work.

We let the kids make all kinds of requests and most of the time our artists were not easily stumped.

But their haunted house backgrounds definitely came through…

Some of my favorite moments were when the kids were just running around together. We had a lily pad game (similar to red light- green light) and a “dragon egg” hunt.

And as the kids got older- just good old fashion football…

But besides games and face painting and fairy winged costumes, one of the gems of this get together was the innovation and charming ideas my mother would bring to the table, and I mean table- the literal patio table.

There was, of course, her very memorable fairy log!

The stunning way she could make a mirror and a punch bowl into a centerpiece-

Or her easy DIY desserts like “fairy pies” made from crescent roll dough and assorted jams and baked in a small toaster oven.

But perhaps most admirable of all was the way she could recycle an everyday thing like a plastic bottle into such an adorable craft.

One year it was these little “treasure jars” made with silk flowers and some naturally collected items.

Another year it was this “fairy gardening project” with ribbon and twigs and baubles.

She even came up with a way to use all the discarded bottle tops by having the kids fish them out of a plastic pool with a net.

It was so simple, looked cool, and honestly- they loved an excuse to play in water with a net (wouldn’t we all!?! ).

I can’t help but look back at all of these images as my niece, the inspiration for it all, turns 18 this year.

Her joy in coming over to my house for the weekend always made it worthwhile.

We shared six years of fairy magic together and prior to the summer when the whole world was cancelled- I proclaimed how I hoped she would never outgrow Fairy Festival.