Making a friend a home

About 3 weeks ago, Pooka came to me and said "I have an imaginary friend. Her name is Green Thumb and she lives in the garden with 10 friends". I shook my head and wondered where this idea came from. The best I can come up with is that someone told Pooka that she must have a Green Thumb from the way her garden grows.  Well, not understanding this, she decided it was a fairy that lived in the garden and helped it grow. 

About a day or so later, I was surfing the interwebs and came across this tutorial on Tiny Fairy Villages. Apparently the blogger turned wooden bird houses into a fairy house. So I asked Pooka if Green Thumb needed a house. She said yes and then told me about all 10 of Green thumbs friends, some of which were babies. 

Doors have been added

We realized that one house wouldn't be enough so we bought a couple. These were original birdhouses that I took a utility knife or a small saw for the big one and cut straight down to the floor on either side of the bird entrance. Pooka also asked if the big house could have some windows (a quick bit of drilling accomplished this). One other thing I did differently from the original post was I took the "stick" that the birds sit on and glued it in the holes the where the ropes were to hang it. I then sanded it level on 2 of the houses and left it on the 3rd as a chimney. 

Ready to paint

I then gave them a quick coat of white spray paint and (yes there is a 4th house now).  Instead of painting these myself, I wanted Pooka to make the houses. She had some shaped stamps from another project and a ton of brushes. It took over an hour, but she loved the results.

Waiting on Varnish

 These are the finished houses. They are very Pooka covered in color. I gave them 3 coats of varnish to protect against the elements. Sadly the varnish did give it more of a yellow color, but at least I know they will stand up to being watered or whatever.

All that was left now was to put the houses out and then Pooka put Green thumb and her friends in their houses. She said they all loved them and that now they can help the garden grow even bigger. It might be a good thing Daddy didn't hear that part. He is still threatening a blow torch if he hears anything say "Feed me". 

2 little houses in the container garden

Pooka decided the 2 little houses fit in her containers quite well. Her beloved cilantro got a house and she said that since my Stargazer was new, it might need a bit of help to grow bigger.

Green thumb house

Green Thumb's house is now living next to her Green bean plant and the Cherry tomatoes. That space was kinda empty since everything we had put there died, so I thought it was a great idea.

The Ruby Strawberry house

This little red house is in the middle of the pepper plants. Pooka hopes that putting it here we will finally have a peppers. we have flowers but right no fruit yet. Hopefully later this weekend we will see something



Pooka had to walk each of the fairies to their house and show them the door. It was so cute watching her place fairies in there. It should also help Pooka telling me Green Thumb is lost in the yard and she has to go find her. I have a feeling Green Thumb may still get in a bit of trouble.


This was alot of fun to do with Pooka and it helped her keep a bit more interest in it. Total time was about a week, but there was alot of work, glue it, leave it, come back and paint, leave it, ect. As it is, Pooka also painted a little Castle for Green Thumb to live in her room on nights it is too cold for Green Thumb to stay outside. Pooka while she loves science has a bit more of a creative side, so we encourage it where we can. This is just one more way we use Art and Science together to make a Pooka smile.