How to find a fairy

I've given that subject a great deal of thought. It's not like fairies are listed in the yellow pages and one doesn't often run into them at the grocery store. Of course, I understand why fairies don't want to be found. Just think of all the hazards that fairies would face in the human world! There are dogs who would slobber on them and clumsy people with big feet who would step on them and rotten little boys who would catch them and pull on their wings! When you think of it that way, it's no wonder that fairies don't make themselves known to humans.

A lot of people misunderstand fairies and get them confused with leprechauns. If they see a fairy, they'll hold it captive and insist on being given a pot of gold. Fairies just don't need that kind of stress in their lives.

I've personally never met a fairy but that doesn't mean that I don't believe in them. I've never met the Queen of England either but I'm pretty sure that she exists and if you think about it, it's pretty much the same principle. So I followed that train of thought awhile and somehow I came to the conclusion that the Queen of England has a pretty nice house so why shouldn't fairies have a nice place to live too.

I gave that a lot of thought and decided that fairies probably don't want to live in a castle. They just don't seem to be the pretentious type to me. I kept that in mind when I set out to create a series of fairy houses and made them sweet little cottages of masonry, wood and stone and made sure that there were lots of flowers and plants around them. The fairies will like that.

But I worry about the fairies being too visible to those slobbery dogs and mean little kids so I wanted to make sure the houses wouldn't be that visible to big people and their pets. Let's face it, most humans aren't that attentive to their surroundings and overlook things that appear to be normal on the surface. That's when it hit me that hiding the fairy houses inside things like planters, baskets, buckets and washtubs was the perfect solution! How many kids are going to willingly pick up a washtub???

So I did it and I like the way they came out. It gives the fairies a safe place for their homes........kinda like a gated community without all the hassle of a homeowner's association. (given a choice between an HOA and a slobbery dog, they'd probably prefer the slobbery dog)

Now that they're tucked away out of sight, these little homes seem to be very happy. I'm looking forward to meeting the fairies after they get settled in. We'll have tea and talk about why the Queen has never invited them to visit.

You can see the hidden fairy houses by going to my website, http://www.debsminis.com/ and clicking on the link there for the 1:48 scale gallery. These will be appearing in my Etsy store soon too. Or if you like the moving pictures better, click on the video clip right under these words.