** NEW - Official Fairy Postal Service Stationary Set **

Hope everyone had a SpOoKtAcUlAr Halloween ;), our Fairy Seemed to go all out for Halloween this year the Saturday before Halloween look at all the decorations that appeared outside our Fairy's door!

The kids were convinced they heard music coming from behind the little door that Saturday night! Fairy Adorable..... :)

We are so excited we've just launched a new product today! 

Official Fairy Postal Service Stationary Set, each set comes with all you need to keep in touch with your Fairy Friend.

Fairy's are a little shy shall we say, So you'll rarely see them in the light of the day. Fairy's love to hear all the news of the day and all about our kingdom. The best way to communicate with your Fairy Friend is via Fairy Mail.

Use this magic Fairy stationary to write to your Fairy Friend. Once written, sealed and sprinkled with Fairy dust, Pop your 'Fairy Mail' in to the 'Fairy Mailbox'.

Come midnight the 'Fairy Postal Service' will collect and deliver your magic mail to your Fairy Friend. You never know your Fairy might just write back!

Each 'Stationary Set' comes with the following:

- 8 x Miniature Envelopes

- 8 x Sheets of Miniature writing paper

- 8 x Envelope Sealing Stickers

- 1 x Shaker of Fairy Dust

- 1 x 3D Paper Mailbox

You can pick up your 'Fairy Stationary Set' from our website:

http://www.mudpiesandrainbows.com/catalog3.html

Wishing you a magical day,

Sparkle Bright,

The Fairies,

xXx

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com

Oiche Shamhna (All Hallows Eve)

Only a few weeks now till Halloween, The kids are already deciding what to wear trick or treating, although its changing by the day, it's so adorable! 

Fleur our Fairy finally put her own halloween decorations up last week! The kids loved them ;),

In last weeks fairy mail to the kids 'Fleur' wrote that she had to move her door to a safer location as our dog was eating her fairy mail aswell as chasing her every time she opened the door. She didn't want to scare away any trick or treaters on all hallows eve and though it best to relocate. LOL ;),

As everyone knows Ireland has always been steeped in magic. For centuries Ireland has been the home of the fairies aswell as the Leprechauns! to name but a few of the magical beings that call this emerald isle home.

Halloween in our native Irish language is called 'Oiche Shamhna' the night itself is also steeped in fairy magic! 

Many of the magic and traditions of an Irish Halloween are now iconic. One of which being the 'Jack o Lantern' which dates back centuries linked to an old Irish legend about an Irishman tricking the devil and when he died the devil wouldn't allow him into hell for his trickery and god wouldn't allow him into heaven for his dealings with the devil 'Jack' was given a candle and forced to roam Ireland for eternity. Originally carved turnips were used to represent Jack and his lantern now we use pumpkins.

I wanted to share with you all two more  Traditions, 'Fairy traditions' that go back centuries. That only ever happen on Halloween night.

The first being dinner, on Halloween night everyone has bacon with a side of Creamy dreamy mashed potato.  Chopped and mixed through the potato are sauteed onions and kale. How the fairies work their magic I'll never know ;), but every mound of mash contains money! So you have to chew carefully and cautiously! 

Coins wrapped in shiny tinfoil magically placed in the mashed potato's By the fairy's ;), I can still remember my mum telling me as a kid 'Be careful I think I caught the tooth fairy putting money in the potato pot. There might be money in your mash chew carefully' ;),

The fairy's also work their magic on our traditional Halloween cake, a yummy fruit cake called a 'Brack' it's so nice toasted and smothered in melted butter.  Oh the fights that used to happen in our house over the ring, I remember trying to keep watch for the slice that might contain the magic ring. The lucky finder of the ring is said to be the next to get married! 

Yummy!

So I guess I'm getting married this year! Yikes... LOL ;),

Even shop bought 'Brack' cakes contain rings it's always been one of my favorite parts of Halloween.

I wanted to share these fairy traditions with you all so you can prepare in advance and bring a little Irish Fairy Magic into your Halloween Celebrations this year.

Sparkle Bright,

The Fairies

xXx

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com

Ailbhe Murray

Fairy Sized 'Jack o' Lanterns' & Fairy sized HaLlOwEen Door Mobile

So excited for HaLlOwEen yet autumn seems to have disappeared here since last Thursday and Summer has returned. I'm absolutely not complaining its just extremely odd to be searching for and collecting conkers Wearing flip flops and summer clothes in 26c heat! Only in Ireland right....

As promised here are two more adorable and fun ways to decorate your 'Fairy Door' for HaLloWeEn. Fairy's are quite resourceful folk, making essential items like cups and bowls out of acorn tops, seashells and the likes. We figured to really impress our fairy we'd be fairy thrifty with fashioning the Halloween decorations out of conkers and what ever we could find hanging about the house.

Here's how we got on, fairly fantastic I think you'll agree!

Here are the conkers we collected on our walk through our local park, 

We used these to make fairy sized pumpkins, so adorable!

Carefully we shelled our conkers and found one big and one teenie conker inside.

They were too shiny to paint so we lightly sanded them with some sand paper to remove the shiny surface so that the paint would stick. Then we painted both conkers with orange paint it took two coats to really make them completely orange.

Once they were completely dry we drew the Jack O' Lantern faces onto them using a black sharpie marker.

So cute right! For the stalk on top we were going to use the stalk off a tomato but I had none so we improvised and cut a stalk off a bunch of grapes we were eating and glued it on top. It worked perfectly! We colored the spiky green conker shell black using a black sharpie marker and placed our Fairy sized pumpkins around it! Very SpOoKy looking indeed

We had munched our way through a bunch of grapes and all that was left was the stalk/branch part, which was perfect for making a HaLloWeEn Fairy Door mobile! 

For this we used two pea sized pieces of self adhesive white putty to stick the stalk above the door, a piece on each end. Then I drew three tiny bat shapes on just regular paper and carefully cut them out. I also drew a tiny ghost shape and cut it out also. The kids colored the bat shapes in black marker (don't forget to do both sides) and they drew a face on the little ghost. Using a pin I pierced a hole through the top of each shape, threaded through a little thread and hung them off the Stalk. My gosh it looks so amazing!!! I think Fleur our Fairy is going to be very impressed with our decorating skills ;),

While we were busy making the mobile the dog chewed our blackened conker shell! In case you're wondering where it is in the picture below LOL puppies!

It's looking pretty spooky outside our Fairy Door now, I love making things with the kids for decorating our fairy door its always so much fun. I'm sure Fleur has a few of her own decorations to add to our amazing halloween display wink wink ;),

Hope you all have a go at making and doing your own Halloween fairy door decorations and have so much fun making magical memories together....

Have a magical day,

Sparkle Bright,

The Fairies 

xXx

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com

Fairy Sized 'HaLlOwEen LANTERN'

So much Halloween sweets and costumes in the shops already, I love Halloween all the little trick or treaters, the bonfires, the fireworks displays Love it all!

I decided that from now until Halloween each week myself and the kids are going to help 'Fleur' our fairy decorate outside her Fairy Door for Halloween.  

Last Halloween myself and the kids made Halloween lanterns out of old jars, they were amazing! So we decided this year we'd make a fairy sized version for outside 'Fleurs' fairy door.

To make the big ones last year we used sauce jars. We painted the entire outside of the jar with PVA glue and stuck strips of orange crepe paper to the glue. Then using black card stock paper we drew and cut out Halloween silhouettes. One of a witch and a one of a cat, then we stuck them on top of the orange crepe paper. Placed a battery powered tea light inside and popped it on our window ledge.

It gave off a lovely glowing light and the silhouette really stood out and looked so spooky. Here's how they came out and yes we did reward ourselves with some yummy smores for a job well done ;)

We tried to use the same method to make the fairy sized Halloween lantern but it was too small. So we came up with an even easier equally effective way to make it.

Here's what you will need:

- A Black permanent marker

- Orange paint

- black ribbon

- twine 

- a cotton wool bud

- an empty clean mini jam jar

First using your marker draw your silhouette On to the jar, we decided on a witch, but you could do a bat, a cat or even a jack o lantern!

Then paint around your silhouette using the cotton wool bud and some orange paint.

Make sure you leave no gaps and if you've painted over your witch a little by mistake, go back over her with the marker so she's pitch black.

This parts completely optional but I thought it was a nice touch. Using the twine wrap it around the top of the jar and make a handle.

Then to finish it off tie the black ribbon around the top of the jar like so:

Simply pop a battery powered tea light into your fairy sized Halloween lantern and place outside your fairy door ;)

We just love it, We hope our fairy Fleur does too!

Sparkle Bright,

The Fairies 

xXx

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com

DIY Fairy Wands

So much wonder, awe and excitement last Saturday, When the kids found what appeared to be a fairy wand outside our fairy door.  So tiny Molly and Jay were besotted by it. All morning they were trying to cast spells to no avail of course ;),

(Fleurs teenie tiny fairy wand)

The next evening we had 'Fairy Mail' in her tiny letter 'Fleur' our fairy asked if we could kindly return her fairy wand. As she had dropped it by mistake whilst moving all her belongings back into our house.  She explained to the kids that only fairy magic can make the wand work! She went on to explain to them that the oldest fairy in Ireland fashions all of the wands for the entire fairy kingdom near and far. Using branches that have fallen from an ancient magical tree. Each wand is enchanted with fairy magic and charms and no fairy should ever be seen without there's! Needless to say we returned the wand and within minutes of leaving it outside our little fairy door it had vanished!

We brought the dog for a walk that evening and jay found a stick, he was pretending it was a magic wand.  It gave me an idea, So I asked them would we have a go at making some fairy wands, maybe we could ask 'Fleur' to enchant them and make them magical! They loved the idea so we searched for the perfect branches and as soon as we got home we got started.

Possibly my favourite thing that we've ever done and the kids just loved it!

Here's what we used, get creative use what ever you have. You are making Fairy wands, fairy's collect all kinds of trinkets and treasures. We decided to use old buttons, pearls and some autumn leaves. You could use sea shells, conkers, acorns ribbons anything you find or have hanging around the house.

To make the wands we sanded the branches lightly to make a rough surface for the paint to stick. We used acrylic paints because they dry fast.  For some of the wands we scraped the bark off using the sharp side of the scissors, then sanded it to make it smooth. It took us about two hours to make three and it was so much fun.  Some we painted handles on, one we wrapped wool around to make the handle, we added buttons here and there. The kids really put so much creativeness into making these and I think they turned out amazing!

Here's our selection of hand made 'Fairy Wands'

This one we wrapped the wool around the handle and threaded the buttons through the wool. Jay painted half the stick blue and used some white paint and a cotton wool bud to make polka dots, for the sparkly tip Jay covered the tip in glue and shook some red glitter over it then shook off the excess.

For this one we added a button for an on/off switch using some wool ;) painted the tip with different colour paints. Tied some wool around each tip and attached the leaves in the middle so they could swing freely. Then we wrote the words 'Fairy' and 'Magic' in glue then shook some red glitter over the wet glue and shook off the excess to make the 'Magic Words' appear

For this one we removed all of the bark and painted the handle pink and orange stripes. We added the magic words 'Abrakadabra' along with the swirly lines by writing the letters and drawing the lines with glue. Then Molly shook the red glitter over the wet glue and shook off the excess.

We left all three 'Fairy Wands' at our fairy door that night with a letter asking 'Fleur' if she could make them magical.

The next morning all the wands were sprinkled in green sparkling fairy dust ;),

The kids love these so much! and so do I ;), Although the kids haven't quiet figured out how to cast a successful spell just yet ;) So much fun last night, who knew some painted twigs and some sparklers could bring so much fun and excitement. Using their imaginations and make believing, It's what child hood magic is all about I love it.

Thank you fairy's for all the magic you bring into our lives

Sparkle Bright,

X

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com

Sea Shell Fairy Houses

In our last blog post you may remember 'Fleur' our fairy had brought us back some trinkets from her holiday in Atlantis.  We decided yesterday to clean up around our fairy door because it didn't look like 'Fleur' was going to do it any time soon ;)

The kids loved all the shells and we didn't want to just throw them out, Molly came up with a fairy fantastic idea! She wanted to make a shell city. Little houses made out of the shells. Fairy sized shell houses for our garden fairy's. What an adorable idea!!! 

This was such a fun thing to do and it really was so much fun. We used markers to draw windows and doors on the shells, Molly even drew a winding grand stair case in one of the big shells and a 'Home Sweet Home' picture for the wall (Its too cute). To make the glitter roof tops we placed a little PVA glue on top of the shell, then sprinkled the glitter over the glue and shook off the excess. Molly made the floors inside the bigger shells glitter too.

Once she was happy with how they'd turned out she skipped out to the garden to make and arrange her shell city.  When it was a done she brought me outside to see it. 

There it was nestled among the clovers and the long grass 'Shell City' Beyond adorable! 

She was so cute all afternoon she kept saying I think I seen a fairy fly over shell city mum!

Looks like a fairy did come to stay in one of our fairy shell houses last night! One of the shell houses was open held up with a piece of wood, inside was a bed of moss and some fairy dust!!!  WOW..... ;), 

Tis without a doubt the littlest things in life,

Such fun and excitement, imaginations running wild!

We love the magic of the fairy's do you?

xXx

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com

Fairy Vacation.......

I'm thinking I might just have to write a letter to our fairy 'Fleur' asking her to kindly tidy up after herself and not be so messy! She's always dropping fairy dust everywhere and last week we woke up to find the tiniest white unicorn horse hooves trailed across my kitchen floor!

This morning how ever took the biscuit! Apparently 'Fleur' has been away in 'Atlantis' of all places on holidays. She had such a fantastic time she wanted to bring a piece of Atlantis home! 

Really 'Fleur' the entire beach!

The kids were so excited!!! Fairy sized sandcastles, sea glass and tiny seashells.

She brought two 'Shell Phones' back for the kids Its too funny they've been listening to the sounds of the sea and hoping a passing mermaid might answer! Inside a tiny half opened muscle shell we found a pink pearl!

The kids were so intrigued by the tiny fairy foot prints in the sand.

In 'Fleurs' letter she explained to the kids that the mermaids that live in Atlantis collect beautiful sea shells and make the most amazing jewelry from them.  So we decided to have a go at making our own necklaces out of the sea shells 'Fleur' had brought us back from Atlantis.

So easy to do and so much fun!

All you need is some thin bendy wire, some string, some seashells and sea glass, and a glue gun.

Twist a small piece of bendy wire to make a 'P' shape, the circle part of the 'P' is where your string will go through. Apply a little glue to the top back part of the shell, then quickly place the straight part of the bendy wire into the hot glue. Hold it for a minute until the glue cools And dries. So simple and easy to do!

Here's how one of ours turned out..... We added a little green sea glass to our shell necklace.

Such a fun day, next time you're at the beach keep an eye out for some pretty seashells and have a go at making your own unique 'Atlantis Accessories' ;), 

Sparkle Bright,

The Fairies xXx

Www.mudpiesandrainbows.com