Christmas Crafting Part 1

This is THE project, the one that I've been thinking about for a long time, the one that took a lot of effort to make and the one I had the most expectations for (you know, that excited smile on Christmas morning that lets you know you hit the spot). I think this one met all of those expectations. Santa provided the fairies and gnomes and the little wooden things to go with the fairy house, plus a little wooden box to put everything in. Mom provided the house, the furniture and the little extras to imagine with. I put a lot of love into this creation, along with a lot of sweat equity. Here's how I did it: sawed the log in half (by hand), drew out how I wanted the rooms to go and drilled out most of the excess with a wood bit. Then I did the fine carving by hand with some carving tools. A little late in the process I thought of including shelves and the likes for all of those little wooden things that Santa was bringing. I learned a little about wood in the process, like freshly cut wood would have been much easier to work with and would not have split on me (some mending was required with wood glue and a clamp). I finished it all with by rubbing in some beeswax, which gives it that nice golden color. The swing was added for a little fun.

Here is Sophia's first set up, with the help of a cousin. It's amazing what they came up with just using the wool roving, pieces of silk, 'leaves' cut from a felted wool sweater and the things that they got in their boxes.

Here are the sleeping fairies and their collection of berries and a fire.

Here are some of the miniatures that they got in their boxes. And then here is Clara's set up from today.